Article here. Excerpt:

'The number of British women going bankrupt has risen almost fivefold in the past 10 years, with new figures revealing a 28 per cent increase in the past year alone. In some cases, according to insolvency experts, the surge is down to the "irresponsible spending" of women trying to emulate glamorous celebrities, while others are being driven to financial ruin by unemployment, pay inequality and childcare costs.

New figures from the Insolvency Service show that women now account for 40 per cent of all bankruptcies, rising from 6,042 in 2000 to 29,680 in 2009.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Fathers who are not married to the mothers of their children could soon automatically have equal rights over their children, with Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger preparing to change the law in their favour.

The idea is to introduce a presumption of joint custody over children, rather than the current presumption of a mother’s right to sole custody, according to a report in the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.
...
“Children should have the right that their fathers taken on responsibility and make joint-decisions over important things in their lives,” Stephan Thomae, family rights expert from Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger’s Free Democratic Party.

He said unmarried parents would share custody unless the mother – or presumably, the father - convinces a court to grant her sole custody over the child.'

Undoubtedly, you'll get a good laugh from this. Excerpt:

'I recently participated in a TV discussion on why prostitution is on the rise in the country. I shared the panel with a closet feminist and a radical feminist, both of whom were of the opinion that prostitution was better than marriage since the house is unsafe for a woman, and she would at least get paid for her services if she were a prostitute.

I returned home thinking about their wise utterances and went to bed discussing the same with my husband.

Article here. Excerpt:

'To outsiders, an abusive relationship could seem like a black and white situation.

But, experts on domestic violence say those relationships are complicated, all shades of gray.

Someone may see a couple where one of the partners — statistically more often than not the man — is abusive and the other a victim as rocky, tumultuous, volatile or dysfunctional.

But, that’s not how experts define it. It goes well beyond the surface, well beyond the visible bruises and apparently petty arguments, and is about far more than what outsiders may think.

“The way we talk about domestic violence behaviorally is that we see it as a pattern of coercion and assaultive behaviors that one person uses to gain power and control over their intimate partner,” said Merril Cousin, executive director of the King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'DALLAS (AP) - A suburban Dallas woman accused of killing her two young children told a 911 operator that she first tried to poison them because they were autistic and she wanted "normal kids," then choked them with a wire until they stopped moving, according to the recorded call.

Irving police on Wednesday released recordings of the 911 call after Saiqa Akhter was charged with capital murder in the death of her 5-year-old son, Zain Akhter. Police said the children were attacked at the family's apartment Monday night.

Another capital murder charge is pending in the slaying of her 2-year-old daughter, Faryaal Akhter, who died Tuesday night, police spokesman David Tull said.'

From Abusegate Bob:

Yesterday 12 people gathered on Capitol Hill (in advance of the Family Preservation Festival) to meet with staffers to put the kabosh on President Obama request to INCREASE federal funding for DV programs in 2011 by an additional $130 MILLION.

By the end of the day, we held 20 face-to-face meetings in the House, and distributed this flyer to all 435 Representatives and 100 Senators.

So please spread the word – call your elected officials at 1-202-224-3121 to say NO to extra funding for DV programs until the false allegations stop!

Article here. Excerpt:

'(NewsCore) - The actor who played geek Steve Urkel on TV sitcom “Family Matters” has been cleared of charges related to allegations he punched his baby’s mother in the breast in front of the child in California, TMZ reported Thursday.

Jaleel White, 33, was accused of punching Bridget Hardy in one of her breast implants while they were driving with their daughter in the car on Pacific Coast Highway three weeks ago, sources told the entertainment website.
...
However the LAPD said there was not enough evidence to pursue the case and White was cleared of charges.

A representative for White denied the allegations saying, "There was absolutely no battery ... no abuse ... and the incident never happened."

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Victorian County Court has heard a former primary school teacher molested two Grade 3 students in a backgarden tent while her family was at home.

After a three week trial, a jury found 59-year-old Josephine Greensill from Altona Meadows guilty of nine counts of indecent assault.

Yesterday, the Crown urged a judge to jail her for at least five years for the offences committed in the late 1970s.

She was a 29-year-old teacher at a school in Melbourne's outer east when she invited the 8-year-old boys to her home.

While her then husband and three children were inside the house, she had sex with the boys in a tent outside.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A recent 2008 Gallup poll in Great Britain finds that 33% of women "often or very often" feel resentful of men, compared to 14% of men who often feel resentful of women. So fully a third of women carry with them an ongoing resentment toward their opposites, as compared to about a sixth of men. By my own careful calculations, that is a truckload of anger.

A sixth representative has signed on as a co-sponsor of HR 2115, The Men and Families Health Care Act of 2009. Undoubtedly this bill will not be passed in 2010 given the few number of cosponsors it has, so it is very important that anyone who has signed on be thanked and supported in their courageous stand to cosponsor it. Bill summary is found here.

Rep. Baca's govtrack.us entry is here and he can be contacted here.

The DID web site is here. A special on the organization was aired July 19, 2010 on Dads On the Air. The show is available for downloading as an .mp3 file.

Congratulations to DID for its 10-year anniversary, and may there come a day when they are no longer needed!

Article here. Excerpt:

'This just in! A conservative man in Toronto has been convicted of rape after consensual sex with a liberal woman, who assumed he too was liberal because he was wearing Birkenstocks and carrying a backpack with a Greenpeace logo on it.

Even though the sex was fine, when she found out he was a card-carrying member of the Conservative Party and was using his nephew’s backpack as a ploy to arouse her lust (the sandals really were just for comfort), she accused him of rape. The courts found that indeed the man had committed “rape by deception.”

Via Jeremy S. who comments: "And please note in 5 of the 6 cases they were deemed insane. How many Fathers would have been so diagnosed had they been the murderers-rare though an incident such as that would be?" Article here. Excerpt:

'Darlie Lynn Routier, 40, of Rowlett is on death row for the June 1996 stabbing death of her 5-year-old son, Damon. She also was charged with killing his older brother, Devon, who was 6, but was not tried in that case. She has long contended that an unidentified intruder attacked them all, killing her boys and stabbing her, as well. Prosecutors say Routier killed her kids because they interfered with the lifestyle she wanted to live.

Andrea Yates, 46, of Houston drowned her five children in June 2001, believing she was protecting them from Satan. A jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity and she was ordered into a state mental hospital.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape ‘by deception’ after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.

Sabbar Kashur, 30, who had introduced himself as Daniel, was only charged with the offence when she later realised he was an Arab.

A court in Jerusalem made international legal history by jailing the delivery driver for 18 months despite acknowledging it had not been ‘a ‘a classical rape by force’.

From Abusegate Bob:

SAVE’s Special Report that documents the massive civil rights abuses occurring under VAWA has just come out in the July issue of the Journal of Aggression, Conflict, and Peace Research.

Be sure to share this article with your lawmakers, lawyers, and others who care about civil rights.