As more evidence that the public outrcy and acknowledgement of the problem of paternity fraud continues to rise, New Jersey is the newest state to have an anti paternity fraud group form. Their web site can be seen here. Thanks to frank_h for this info. Word is that they've already started on state legislation, and they have two billboards advertising their cause in the Trenton, NJ area.

warble writes "What follows is the exact quote of Senator Kuehl's testimony as given in the Senate on the Paternity Justice Act. In transcribing this from a video, every effort has been made to preserve the actual statements made by her. They are rather incredible to say the least! NCFM, LA is interested in your objective comments and suggestions of how this can be used.
" See the Read More section below for the transcript of the speech.

RPB659 writes in on a recent article found in Massachusetts News. The article reports on the research done by Steve Basile on domestic violence and how the facts don't match up with commonly held beliefs.

Basile found that female defendants were just as abusive as male defendants in terms of both physical and psychological aggression. The results fly in the face of feminist orthodoxy on which the domestic violence industry has been built.

"Domestic violence is time and time again painted exclusively as something male batterers do to their innocent female victims," said Basile. "Our laws, policies and practices unfortunately reflect this myth."

Napnip sent me a follow-up to his workplace fundraising event for charities, which included a battered women's shelter. It seems from the dialogue that the woman could end up being educated about the hidden problem of domestic violence against men. I think the way napnip handled it also shows an effective way of challenging these myths without risking your job or even being overtly confrontational. See the Read More section for his submission.

I just got back from Concord, NH, where the Executive Council voted on the nominations for the NH Commission on the Status of Men (see the room it was held in here). There is lots of good news: the nominations of Scott Hampton and Thomas Kaufhold were soundly rejected by the Executive Council. Stephen Gorin's nomination passed with only a 3-2 vote. The other nominees were pretty much voted in unanimously. I was very concerned when the meeting started, since the Council was approving tons of nominations without any debate. They were really rushing through them. When it came time for the NHCSM nominations, there was no discussion or debate on any of the candidates, it just came down to a quick vote for each nominee. There was no roll call on the votes, so I don't have any permanent record of which councilor voted which way, and I wasn't quick enough to keep track of it myself (sorry). A letter of gratitude to each of the councilors for hearing our concerns is definitely appropriate now. Further, they will have three other nominees to vote on in the future, so we need to keep them listening to us. A thousand thank-yous to everyone who took part in this activism, and supported us. The outcome of this meeting was very much in our favor. We are thwarting the attempted sabotage of the commission! Addendum: Paul Clements had a stinging letter printed in Foster's Daily Democrat criticizing Shaheen for her attempt to sabotage the commission.

shawn writes "The case of Chuck Finley and Tawny Kitaen is discussed once again in
this report from ABC News and the Associated Press. Although the article focuses on Kitaen's 12 million dollar alimony lawsuit against Finley, the article mentions something that is both bizarre and a sign of our times. To recap, Kitaen (a woman) was found guilty of spousal assault against Finley (a man). Her punishment, you ask? In part, she was ordered to pay $500 dollars to a battered-women's shelter - presumably a shelter that excludes men. A woman commits domestic violence against her husband and the people who benefit are women who deny that battered men exist."

Steve writes "I will host this week's MANN chat, Wednesday night (9/25), starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location.
The topic for this chat will be "'Child Support': What's Wrong and How Can We Fix It?" The tax-free transfer of wealth from one parent to another is fraught with legal, economic, political, social, and moral problems. In fact, a frightening number of distraught fathers have committed suicide as a result of draconian "child support" policies. How can we fix this mess? Should we fix it, or scrap it? What are the viable alternatives to so-called "child support"? At this week's MANN chat we will share ideas with fellow activists, and plan strategies for reform. Please join us and tell others about it!"

Dan Scott writes, "I managed to obtain the NCHS data base for Marriage and Divorce, 1989-1995 by Sally C. Clarke and do a statistical analysis for the state of Maryland. I completed the analysis of the NCHS data by going past the gender data to the race data. Given the recent legal decision in Georgia, based primarily on the evidence
supplied by Ms. Clarke's study, I can understand why the states complained under the euphemism that it was too costly to continue the statistical reporting. We now have the evidence that Maryland discriminated in making custody decisions. African American men are even worse off than men as a group. Any way you look at it, Maryland discriminates based on both race and gender. The "Best Interests of
Children" as practiced in Maryland is nothing more than a euphemism for discrimination. We now need a test case to go before the Federal District Court, the Maryland Appeals Court has already ruled in Griffin v. Crane that determination of custody by gender is not permissible, however, the local judges are very clever in getting around an issue for their own personal beliefs and political agenda.
We need a call to all men having recently lost a custody battle to file an appeal based on sex or race discrimination and have the State of Maryland Family Law system labeled as having committed discriminatory conduct requiring monitoring.

Richard Cann from Brookline, MA is willing to make matching donations
with anyone who makes a donation to Mensactivism.org between now and
October 10, up to a total of $200. So making a donation during this time
period is effectively doubling your contribution, and helping out
Mensactivism.org even more. Please consider participating in this,
however small your donation may be. For more info on how to donate, see our donations page. And many, many thanks to Richard for this offer!

Dan Lynch writes "I have an opportunity to do a speaking engagement discussing men's issues. This is the type of activism I would really like to get involved in. It will give me the chance to bring items up to people who are literally "virgins" to the men's movement. The group wants me to speak for about an hour and what I would really like is some advice on what to talk about and how to organize the speach etc.. The group may be small maybe even as many as 20 people I don't know, but I want to get the message to them clear and concisely. Any advice and thought input will be very welcome." Please offer Dan some suggestions in the comment section of this story.