Fresnobee.com had a recent story on a small demonstration in the city against unfair child support practices. The article mentions the standard inequalities and errors that the child support collection system creates, and it's good to see a local newspaper give attention to the issue.

Aceman writes "This is an ABCnews online chat with Dr. Peter Breggin, author of Talking Back to Ritalin and Reclaiming Our Children: The Healing Solution for a Nation in Crisis." Dr. Breggin is also a medical consultant to plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the company that makes Ritalin for over promoting the drug, so you can be sure that his views aren't positive toward Ritalin. I hope many of the disturbing facts discussed in the transcript will continue the dialogue on this controversial drug and the way it's being (mis)used.

I found this interesting article from the Denver Post. It's about an attorney who is challenging no-fault divorce law, and is trying to bring the case to the Supreme Court. The theory is quite interesting: a marriage is a contract, and only in no-fault divorce can either party break the terms of the contract without a penalty. Therefore the legality of no fault divorce undermines contract law, and also ruins the legal meaning of marriage. These are things I never considered before, and perhaps it should be the case that if a spouse wants to end a marriage when the other doesn't, that he or she should pay a penalty.

NewsMax featured this story on how the military is becoming increasingly hostile toward men, with the hypersensitivty surrounding sexual harassment accusations and the lowering of standards to push women ahead into senior positions. The infamous Claudia Kennedy case is discussed, as well as some examples of serious threats to military effectiveness posed by letting women off with less training. A good variety of information here.

Aceman writes, "Here are some ideas why it's not certain but it makes you think." Thanks for the link Aceman! The article discusses several of the factors of which affect the gender "death gap", and how they change as a person ages. Take a look.

George submitted this link to a CNN men's health article. It's an account of one young man's struggle with testicular cancer, and I hope everyone will read it. Early detection is the most critical thing, and after reading the story, I went looking for some info on how to do a testicular self-examination. Perhaps you'll find this information useful, or pass it along to someone you know?

Here's an article by the Christian Science Monitor that investigates the problems of billing errors in the U.S. child support system. Here are some sobering facts from the article: "In a study released Aug. 8 by the [ACFC], 55 percent of child-support payers say they have experienced billing errors by a child-support agency. Among those who tried to get the agency to fix the error, 61 percent were unsuccessful. In 43 percent of cases, the payer had been subjected to punitive measures as a result of a billing error, such as having cars booted or assets seized."

In Vanier, Canada, Cathy Fordham was convicted of "public mischief" for fabricating an assault accusation made against a member of a community recovery home she directed. There several more alleged examples of false accusations she has made against various men on sexual assault charges, and one man has even finished a prison sentence for rape based on one of her accusations, which a lawyer said had no other evidence but Fordman's testimony. The Ottawa Citizen has the story here. This woman is obviously very manipulative and pathologically apathetic to the consequences of what she has done.

Here's a fun way to get people involved more with Mensactivism.org: post a comment to the message board for this story and ask Warren Farrell a question or two! If you've never posted comments to this site before, I'd highly recommend reading the site tutorial, and then come back here and click on "Read More" at the bottom of this blurb to read what the rules are and how this will work. You can also check out Dr. Farrell's web site if you're not already familiar with his work. Update: I have submitted the interview questions to Dr. Farrell. You can see which ones were selected by clicking here.

Ed Bartlett of Men's Health America released another action item in his Men Deserve to Live campaign. All you need to do this week is take two minutes to write a letter to your Senator in support of the Men's Health Act of 2000. By clicking on Read More, you can view Ed's message and a sample form letter to submit to your Senator's office.

This is a bit old, but I thought very interesting. WBUR featured Christina Hoff-Sommers on The Connection with Christopher Lydon. There is a home page for this program and you can listen to it using Real Audio here. Most of the callers to the program gave some excellent examples anti-male and anti-boy bias, and it was interesting to hear Sommers in action.

USAToday reported here that a New York court has ordered a 7 year-old boy's parents to put their son back on Ritalin, after the parents decided to stop giving it to the boy because of side effects the child was experiencing. The article talks about how it could now be construed as child abuse to refuse to administer drugs like Ritalin to your child. Any parent of a young boy should be very concerned about this. Even though ADD and ADHD do exist, tranquilizers like Ritalin are being prescribed in epidemic proportions. Many psychiatrists and parents believe that what was once "normal" behavior for boys is now being treated as a psychological disorder - the idea of masculinity as toxic taken to the extreme.

Submitted by IHF: A new British law will ban defendants in rape and sex crimes from cross-examining their accusers in court. This will only apply when the accused is defending himself, and will force him to use a lawyer (court appointed or chosen by him) to do the cross-examination. The UK Independent has the story here. It seems every day that we move further away from fairness toward men in court systems around the world.

ABCnews ran this article on youth sports, and what may be the increasing amount of violence and bad sportsmanship among participants (and their parents). Considering the pressure that young men are under today, becoming obsessed with winning in sports is not something that's going to help the way they view themselves. Being active and having a healthy competitiveness in sport is undoubtedly the best lifestyle we should encourage in our young men.

This is a neat story that I thought I'd post here: A father and his wife and three sons went on a flight in a single-engine airplane when suddenly the pilot passed out. Having never flown before, the father took control of the plane, and with assistance from ground control, safely landed the plane at an airport. CNN ran this story of heroism at this link. This was a brave man indeed.