So, you're thinking about attending SAVE's 2013 conference on false allegations, "Celebrating our Progress," but you're just not sure? Did you know that conference attendees can request to join a SAVE team for a day of lobbying?

We'll be lobbying Congress on Friday, June 21. Then we'll head over to McPherson Square for dinner and a Skype call with Erin Pizzey, founder of the abuse shelter movement.

You can request to join a lobbying team, even if you've never lobbied before. There will be a mandatory orientation conference call June 12. And we'll meet Friday morning to go over last minute details.

Visit SAVE for more info: http://www.saveservices.org/dvlp/annual-conference-2013/
Register for the conference: http://celebratingourprogress.eventbrite.com/

Once you've registered, let me know by June 10th that you want to lobby: tstoddard-at-saveservices.org

I'm looking forward to this, are you?

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

I think we all have a sense that the world does a lot of pandering to women, and very little to men. Society, businesses, charities, governments, women, and men all seem to put women up on a pedestal. But just how bad is it? I decided to do an informal survey. For one week I noted all examples of gender promotions, or exclusiveness, or pandering, both to men and women. I counted all examples that I saw referenced, whether or not the actual events occurred during the week.

I counted 125 instances of pandering to women. Most of these were from the news. I wasn't looking at Oxygen or Katie or Ms Magazine. If you think the count for pandering to men was a big gander egg, you'd be wrong. I actually found one instance, although I suppose one could argue that it was more about women than men: 125 to 1. How can women complain about anything when they receive so much more attention than men? How can men feel like anything other than second-class, inferior, or worth less than the afterbirth? (Actually, I did hear a story about placentas during the week, so men and placentas were tied for amount of media attention.)

A report was in the news during this week concerning sexual abuse in the military. Even though the report noted that most of the victims were men, only one of the 22 news segments on this issue mentioned this fact (an interview with Barbara Boxer on MSNBC's The Place for Politics.) There were two references to the victims as men and women on Meet the Press before other remarks focused on the female victims. All other news stories behaved as if women were the only victims. And a CBS Evening News segment actually said incorrectly that all of the victims were women.

Story here. Excerpt:

"LAS VEGAS (AP) — Singer-actress Pia Zadora was arrested at her Las Vegas home over the weekend following a rapidly escalating attempt to impose a bedtime on her teenage son.
...
Zadora's son was hanging out with her husband and his son when she asked him to turn in. When he protested, she sprayed him and his step-brother with a hose, according to her statement to police.

She then began scratching and punching her husband, Michael Jeffries, and his son as they tried to calm her down, according to the 16-year-old's statement to police.

He later called 911, but his mother attempted to wrestle the phone away from him, according to the report, injuring his ear in the process.

When he got through, the 16-year-old told the dispatcher that "his mother was going crazy and her hands were around his neck."

He said all three of his family members ultimately prevented him from going to answer the door when police arrived. This led to an hours-long stakeout of the house.'

From last month, but a good article just saying it like it is, here. Excerpt:

'Far from being an unlucky, isolated example, my friend is one of the growing number of men who find themselves losing everything through divorce.

Meanwhile, women, ever more, seem to be living by the principle of ‘don’t get mad, get everything’.

And often, they go on getting everything for years, long after time has been called on their marriage.

In these days of equal education, opportunities and access to professions, women are still humiliating themselves by expecting (and receiving) huge and continuing settlements when a marriage ends.

I consider myself a feminist, but I don’t see why today’s divorcing women should expect any kind of settlement at all.
...
Yet modern women are still positioning themselves as the weaker vessel having to be kept by a big strong man, whether married or divorced. We have fought for equality, and many battles have been won, but divorcing women are still making out they are pathetic little Fifties housewives unable to fend for themselves, before ruthlessly fleecing the men they once professed to love.

They should be utterly ashamed.

Depressingly, this year’s Rich List, for the first time, included a separate list for divorced women whose only source of vast wealth was that provided by their ex-husbands. The compilers of the list said that if you are an attractive woman, possibly your best guarantee of a huge income is to marry a super-rich man and then divorce him a few years later.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Allison Lear, granddaughter of Learjet inventor William “Bill” Lear, lost her boyfriend in a violent car race crash near Virginia City in 2010.

Rather than mourning Alexander Djordjevic’s death with his family, she is alleged to have forged a marriage certificate listing him as her husband that was dated before the crash, Las Vegas police said.
...
On Saturday, Allison Lear, a Las Vegas Township constable’s deputy, was arrested on outstanding warrants at Hakkasan nightclub in the MGM Grand by Las Vegas police about 4:30 a.m., police booking reports indicate.
...
In court, Lear provided a marriage certificate dated June 21, 2010, stating that she and Djordjevic were wed. Minister Cory Matteucci of Boise, Idaho, supposedly performed the ceremony, and Shawn Miles was listed as a witness.
...
Matteucci never applied for or obtained a Temporary Marriage Service Application in Nevada, meaning that he would not be able to authorize any marriage in the state, police reports said.
...
Not only did Lear delay Djordjevic’s burial, but as his widow, she held on to his property, which included two cars, a 1991 Corvette Z and a 1994 Toyota Supra racing car, a gun collection and several other personal items.

The court documents showed that Djordjevic’s estate was valued between $100,000 and $200,000.'

Article here.

'Even though Jodi Arias has been convicted of first-degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend, are there still people out there that support her?

Psychologist Cheryl Arutt said that type of person is “somebody who is looking for attention by association. There is a personality that wants to kind of piggyback on somebody else for either fame or notoriety.”

But attorney Mark Eiglarsh noted, “Every one of [those types of people] has the ability to serve on any potential jury. When you wonder how come there's no slam dunks in the justice system, it's because everyone is randomly called and can have their own as-crazy-as-they-want thought processes."

Since the jury could not come to a unanimous decision in the sentencing phase, a new penalty phase with a new jury has been scheduled for July 18.'

----

Jodi Arias Facebook support Page with over 2300 likes.

An unethical and outrageous circumcision study has been approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, which is being conducted at Good Samaritan Catholic hospital in Cincinnati on 200+ infant boys, is using these ridiculous criteria to determine which of two circumcision clamps is “better”:

1. the weight of blood soaked gauzes after the procedure;
2. neonatal pain score based on babies’ vital signs;
3. grimaces and facial expressions during the surgery.

Georganne Chapin, Executive Director of Intact America, together with leaders of several other intactivist organizations, have sent a letter opposing the study to the hospital's CEO and legal counsel, as well as the Archbishop of Cincinnati. Intact America is also preparing a petition to the NIH.

Read the study's description here.

Story here. Excerpt:

'ROUTT COUNTY, Colo. — A woman shot and killed her 9-year-old son and then shot herself at a home near Steamboat Springs Wednesday, according to the woman’s husband.

Deputies from the Routt County Sheriff’s Office were called to a home on a report of an attempted suicide with multiple victims at 2:55 a.m.

Investigators say the resident of the home, Michael Kirlan met deputies and told them his son was dead inside the house, and his wife, Lisa Marie Lesyshen, 45, was upstairs with a gun.

They found the boy, 9-year-old Asher and then his mother. She was unconscious with a gunshot wound. Paramedics took her to the Yampa Valley Medical Center for treatment.

The boy was a third-grader at Soda Creek Elementary in Steamboat Springs according to Steamboat Today.'

The US government actually has a web page for it this year! It can found at http://www.foh.hhs.gov/Calendar/june.html. Suppose it'll get nearly as much exposure as women's health months/weeks/years get? Will there be seminars at workplaces and little ribbons and 5K runs to go to? Hmmm... doubt it. Excerpt:

'Men face unique health challenges, and one of the most dangerous is their reluctance to seek health care. In fact, according to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), men are 24 percent less likely than women to have seen a doctor in the past year.
...
Many of the major health risks that men face—such as colon cancer and heart disease—can actually be prevented and treated with earlier diagnosis. Screening tests can often find these diseases early, when they are easier to treat. For these reasons, it is crucial that men go against their tendency of avoiding health care and begin having regular checkups and screenings.
...
Men's Health Month is a chance for both men and women to increase their awareness of the potentially significant health problems that men face, as well as what steps they can take to prevent such problems. Taking care of yourself is part of being the best man you can be. There's nothing manly—or beneficial—about ignoring your health.'

I agree that too many men go too long between check-ups. That's true. But I note the tone of this page seems to be pretty much all about "it's all your own fault, guys". I think that's even more ironic given what government department the web page is associated with: "Federal Occupational Health". Given that men are the vast majority of persons killed and injured in the workplace, one might think this particular department would be calling attention to that fact right there on the front page. But I think that may fall into the category of "an inconvenient truth".

Article here. Excerpt:

'MSNBC has women’s shows and two shows whose hosts are gay and whose central issue is gay marriage, but no show dealing with the issues of American men. I was surprised to learn from Nichole Bowen of The Lady Warrior Project that most of those who are victims of sexual assault in the armed forces are men. Maybe I’ve been watching too much MSNBC, where the impression is created that all of the victims are women. They’re not the only network where the issues of gays and women take priority over those affecting men. During the same Saturday I watched CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield discuss the literacy rate among women living in Nepal.

Women have been very successful in using the media to promote their health and other issues. But men get sick too.'