warble writes "On Tuesday, August 6, 2002 the California Senate Committee of Judiciary held a hearing on AB2240. Several men's activist groups appeared, including NCFC, and NCFM, LA. Monday, they lobbied the CA Senate in favor of AB2240, in an effort to discern the arguments presented by the opposition. The effort is directed at moving the bill out of committee onto the floor. As usual, the opposition is forwarding frivolous arguments, trying to dilute the bill, or simply stop it in committee. Currently, the bill has been completely feminized and yet they are still trying to oppose it. The lobbying efforts are aimed at trying to get amendments that eliminate absolute judicial discretion, hold women responsible for paternity fraud instead of rewarding them with money from the richest man, modifications to the declaration of paternity form so that women can choose to declare that they require paternity testing, and elimination of the three-year time limit while moving the bill out of committee. Therefore, your letters in support of the bill are appreciated. To read the bill go to "Bill Information" and enter AB2240. To send an email to the committee go the following link: CA Senate Committee of Judiciary"

Thundercloud writes "Here is yet another "Heads-up."
After having to endure the new show "SHE-SPIES" (and many others like it), yet another "girls beat-up the guys" (and love it) series has been spotted on my radar. This one is called "BIRDS OF PREY." It is based on the DC Comics characters "Black canary" and "Oracle." It's to debut this fall (September, I think). Once more the previews show, what else, women beating the holy hell out of men (and my guess is the men will probably get masochistic pleasure from it, as in MOST of these types of TV shows and movies). Apparently abusing men sells (to a mostly female audience)."

Trudy W Schuett writes "I saw a need for a brief overview of the issues, and it's up at the DLJ website here." Raymond Cuttill also writes "MSNHatesMen is sort of running. Firstly it is not on MSNHatesMen.com as the site has moved, but the upload etc. won't be working for a while, so it's being hosted at menshour.com for the time being. So far only 1 ecard is available. It's "Women are always whining...". It isn't as fancy as the MSN one but it makes it's point. To send an ecard go to this link. As the site says, it's not about hating women, it's about challenging the hating of men. Sauce for the gander."

A new study has been done on domestic violence which focuses on DV among college students. Included among the study's authors is Dr. Murray Straus, and the University of New Hampshire was one of the schools where data samples were taken. The results came out as all of the Sociological studies have shown; that assaults are committed by women and men at about equal rates. In some cases, women were even more likely to be the aggressor than men. Foster's Daily Democrat reports on the study here. Update: Foster's has printed another story on the study today. Second Update: The Concord Monitor printed a must-read article on the study, too.

Ray writes "This article is linked through ifeminists.com to the IWF, and is as relevant to issues affecting men as any all-male topic. Should taxpayer dollars be used to fund college level Women's Studies programs that are used to support an anti-male/radical feminist agenda? Are the distortions taught in the Women's Studies programs actually traumatizing otherwise healthy females more than the fallacy they preach of; ie man as patriarchal oppressor? It appears this article from the Independent Women's Forum speaks volumes about where the vitriolic rhetoric against men in America is spawned, hatched, and nurtured, but you be the judge."

Marc writes "This is a petition some of us sent to Robert Hirshon, president of the American Bar Asociation, about their misleading info on male victims. I've been telling them about this for almost two years now and they still aren't doing anything. If you have a moment you may want to write to Robert Hirshon at rhirshon@dwmlaw.com and explain why the ABA should be more fair to male victims." Read More below to view the petition.

Once again Mensactivism.org has overcome another technical glitch, and it appears that I was able to utilize partial backups to recover data up until the night of the crash. If anything is acting odd, let me know. For now, I'm just glad things appear to be working at all! :)

Mike Medved has written
an article about the problems men and boys have when it comes to education in America. Of course, this is a western problem, but there's nothing wrong with localizing your efforts. Anyway, he's quite aware of the double standards here, and in my opinion takes a hard line stance
in defense of the nearest man, which is much needed.

Here's a review of Rich Zubaty's
book What Men Know That Women Don't and it's well worth reading. While the reviewer writes from a Christian viewpoint, don't let that put you off, as the review gives a in-depth look at Zubaty's writings far more than most. I think I'll leave at that and let you judge for yourself.

Men's Health America released a special report on male longevity (or the lack thereof) which can be read here. Some interesting facts from the report: " The World Health Report, published every year by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the most authoritative source of information on life expectancy and mortality patterns in every country around the world...The rate of suicide is almost universally higher among men compared to women by an aggregate ratio of 3.5 to 1... The lifespan gender gap exists in almost every country in the world. The disparity ranges from 3.8 years in Israel to a disturbing 15.4 years in the Russian Federation."

Josh writes "This story focuses on the attack on boys in Academia, exposing the lies about girls being shortchanged, the elimination of recess from public schools, and other such things." I believe we may have linked to a similar story recently from the Massachusetts News, but even if so, the information this article provides could be very useful in educating people on men's rights issues that boys and young men face.

Raindrop writes "'If you could make male mortality rates the same as female rates, you would do more good than curing cancer.', according to a New Scientist report on male mortality rates." What a great sound bite - I'd highly recommend using that one with politicians. The study spanned 20 countries again confirms the urgency of the "death gap" issue.

Ray writes "Now, from MND, another sensational story of domestic violence from the category of: "I don't need no stinking steam roller." A man is run over, flat as a pancake, dead as a doornail and this is no “Road Runner” cartoon. Now, here’s the shocker: $30,000.00 [bail] and she’s back out on the street. I guess when a woman kills her husband she’s no longer a threat to society, since in this case, the only one she had to kill is now laid out on the slab. Way to go Ms. you really showed that cheating man. We can’t wait to see the rest of the circus." The woman has been charged with first degree murder. His daughter watched him die. $30k bail?

Don Koberg sent us a press release about a new compilation of men's writings, entitled It's a Dick Thing: Secret Thoughts of Silent Men. The book was contributed to by thirty-three men and covers all kinds of perspectives related to maleness. "When silent men speak to confess, advise, laugh, question, brag a bit, and repair, anything is possible. The silence of the male is herewith broken." The press release is downloadable in MS Word format.

Another story in Australia's The Age offers more information about the "blackshirts," a group of men who are aggressively protesting they way they are treated by the family court system by publicly shaming vindictive ex-wives and using other controversial methods, which some claim is harassment. According to a spokesman for the group, the blackshirts support fascism, and claim that the Nazi's weren't fascists. To me, this is a big disappointment, and I hope the public does not make an association with the men's movement and this radical group.