NPR has a tendency to subtly favor women over men. I remember a story they ran about the current recession -- which has affected men more heavily than women -- where they still tied it into a woman's story somehow.

Today, I saw a piece they ran on autism here. It's a decent piece overall, and autism unquestionably affects women. However, autism affects males at least 4 to 5 times more often than females. Yet, NPR chose to put a female face on autism.

Also, in this piece it's clear NPR spoke with researcher Simon Baron-Cohen. However, NPR never mentioned one of his main theories regarding autism -- that it can be viewed as a sort of "excessive maleness" in the brain. Baron-Cohen even theorizes that a possible cause of autism may be excessive testosterone exposure while in the womb.

There is no mention of any of this in this story. There is no indication that autism is a profoundly male problem.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Chelsea, who until recently honed her pitching arm in Plant City, Florida's Little League program, told CNN Sunday that she feels "really honored and blessed" to be recognized on a national level at such an early age.

In addition to her Hall of Fame achievement, Chelsea was also recently featured on ESPN's "E:60" series.

Chelsea, who says she has been pitching since she was 7 years old, boasts a fastball in the mid-60s (miles per hour) and a baffling knuckleball that has been known to make her male opponents shed a tear.

"Yeah, when I strike them out with the knuckleball, sometimes they'll throw their helmets and start crying," she laughs. "It's just really funny to watch."

Reporter giggles happily at around 1:20.

A study discussed here, while the study link is here (.pdf file). Excerpt:

'Over the last twenty-five years, leading sociologists have repeatedly found that men and women commit violence at similar rates.
...
...the literature consistently suggests that only men commit domestic violence. Either explicitly, or more often implicitly, through the failure to address the subject in any objective manner, female violence is denied, defended and minimized.

I assert in Part III that today’s refusal to react is a product of the feminist control over the issue of domestic violence. Female violence presents both a threat to feminist theory as well as to the practice of domestic violence law. Notwithstanding such concerns, today’s myopic understanding of domestic violence has serious implications.'

From Jeremy S.:

Domestic Violence- An Introduction

Part 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO5kLprp3Qg

Part 2 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu7z_v2NNPI

Part 3 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNf4hmWBtrk

These are must-see clips.

Story here. They died for her right to piss on their graves and then have sex in public nearby? Not so sure about that. Excerpt:

'A hunt was on Sunday for the woman branded "Britain's most disgusting person" for urinating on a war memorial after she fled court following a public shaming by elderly veterans.

An arrest warrant is out for Wendy Lewis, 32, who was given a "guard of dishonour" by angry veterans when she appeared at Blackpool Magistrates Court.

She was caught on security cameras relieving herself on the seaside town's Cenotaph, before performing a sex act on a man nearby.

Lewis was found guilty of outraging public decency and was due to be sentenced Friday.

But after turning up 40 minutes late at court, she vanished before her case began.

Veterans wearing smart uniforms and campaign medals lined up outside to give her a slow handclap. They shouted "Disgusting!" at she went inside.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Women in nine U.S. cities -- Seattle, New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Honolulu, San Francisco and Austin, Texas -- will gather in public spots on Aug. 22 to put the hot-button issue front and center by wearing little more than strategically placed stickers.

In addition, male supporters of the cause will show their support by wearing bras and bikinis.

"It's a matter of fairness," Go Topless director Nadine Gary said. "We want equal topless rights for all or none."

Gary believes that the right for women to go topless should be guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. "The Supreme Court won't stop us," she added

Although other countries, such as Gary's country of origin, France, tolerate topless women, she wants it to be in the legal books so there is no wiggle room.
...
Meanwhile, Gary is getting support from, not surprisingly, men.

"Guys are great," she said. "They understand this issue, and we get lots of cooperation from males."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Update: Swedish prosecutors have canceled the arrest warrant issued for Assange. “Chief prosector Eva Finné has come to the desicion that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority has announced.
...
“According to Expressen, the Australian is facing charges leveled from two women. The media report suggests that Assange has been charged in absentia, based on recent claims leveled against him,” reports OneIndia this morning."'

From Abusegate Bob:

Nearly everyone has heard the expression, "You're in good hands with Allstate." And now the Allstate Insurance Company has set up a domestic violence grant program.

But its website features the usual parade of one-sided and flawed statistics:

"Each day in the U.S. three women die as the result of domestic violence."
"More than one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime."

To see the real truth of domestic violence, see this Fact Sheet: "Seven Key Facts about Domestic Violence"

Complain to Allstate now: 1-800-255-7828
Or email: http://messaging.allstate.com/corp.aspx

But don't complain just once -- do it every hour today until Allstate posts balanced information on its website.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Teen boys wearing sweats with “Awaiting Instructions” emblazoned on the front? What is all this crap from something called the Family Violence Prevention Fund about?

“Respect Girls”? what do you think of this horrible ad de-balling innocent teen and pre-teen looking boys? Why should young teens wear t-shirts or sweats with the words: “Awaiting Instructions” pasted across the front?

Since when are young boys abusing anyone? Do these children look like abusers? This gives new meaning to child abuse!

“Awaiting Instructions”? From whom? For What? Where did this come from? What did this poor kid do to be branded an abuser and told to await instructions?

Looks like the folks at the Family Violence Prevention Fund, (endabuse.org) want to turn our young boys into feminized Zombies, ball-less geldings, waiting to be awoken by a superior race and given some type of instructions.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Paris, France (CNN) -- French police believe they've gotten to the bottom of a series of robberies in which teenage girls exposed their breasts to distract men withdrawing money from Paris cash machines.

Two teenagers have been charged with three hold-ups, but they will be prosecuted as juveniles since they are under 18, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

Police say that on August 7, a man inserted a card into a cash machine in central Paris to withdraw money when two young females approached him and asked for money. The girls waved a newspaper at the man in an attempt to distract him, but the technique didn't work.

So the girls tried another strategy: One of them bared her breasts and put her hand on the man's genitals while the other took the opportunity to withdraw 300 euros, police said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Despite a worldwide campaign for circumcision to slow the spread of AIDS, the rate of circumcision among American baby boys appears to be declining.

A little-noted presentation by a federal health researcher last month at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna suggested that the rate had fallen precipitously — to fewer than half of all boys born in conventional hospitals from 2006 to 2009, from about two-thirds through the 1980s and ’90s.

Last week, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautioned that the figures in the presentation were not definitive. But they are already stirring a sharp debate on the Internet.

The numbers were presented to the AIDS conference by a C.D.C. researcher, Charbel E. El Bcheraoui. The presentation was not covered by any mainstream news outlets, but a report by the news service Elsevier Global Medical News, along with a photograph of a slide from the presentation, quickly made the rounds of the blogosphere.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Click here to find out more!

Just when we thought President Obama had reached the ultimate in seizing extravagant power by appointing a Health Care Czar (Donald Berwick) to exercise life-and-death surveillance over Medicare and Medicaid, Congress is now trying to give him a czar with global powers. It would be a czar over worldwide women's issues.

Based in the State Department, her statutory title will be "Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues." Her task will be to assure a "gender integration" perspective in all State Department policies and programs.

The breath-taking reach of her powers is openly stated in the bill's first section: "The Ambassador shall coordinate and advise, and where relevant lead -- (1) State Department activities and policies, including as they affect programs and funding relating to prevention and response, including gender integration and women's development internationally as relates to prevention and response."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'(Aug. 12) -- The former girlfriend of a famous French chef has confessed to punching him to death and then hiding his body in a freezer for the past two years, prosecutors say.

The police raided the apartment the two used to share in Lyon, southwest France, after Guylene Collober, 51, confessed to her daughter on Tuesday that "something unfortunate" had happened to the 71-year-old Jean-Francois Poinard in 2008, The Globe and Mail reported today.

The daughter told police. When they arrived at the apartment, Collober collapsed in tears saying, "I think you'll find what you're looking for."
Jean-Francois Poinard - his body found stuffed in freezer.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Tonight in New South Wales, more than 700 women will spend the night behind bars, and some will have their children in custody with them.

The mothers and children's program at the Emu Plains Correctional Centre in western Sydney has been operating since the late 1990s.

The minimum security complex has now started a program to help women maintain a link with their children on the outside.

Nearly two years ago, Cindy MacDonald was convicted of firearms offences, and since then she has been held inside the Emu Plains Correctional Centre.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Thirteen-month-old twins Kimora and Kamari Roberson were underweight and overheated when they died in their Far South Side home, officials said on Friday.

The sisters, who each weighed only about 13 pounds, died of hyperthermia, environmental exposure and failure to thrive due to maternal neglect, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The deaths were ruled homicides, and the babies' mother, Regina Lofton, 21, was charged on Friday with felony child endangerment resulting in the death of a child.'