Article here. Excerpt:

'When the kindergartners at the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, one of New York City’s schools for gifted students, form neat boy-girl rows for the start of recess, the lines of girls reach well beyond the lines of boys.
...
Educators and experts have long known that boys lag behind girls in measures like high school graduation rates and college enrollment, but they are concerned that the disparity is also turning up at the very beginning of the school experience.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Feministing’s Jessica Valenti has a new op-ed in the Washington Post, and she has decreed that to qualify as a feminist one must believe that American women are oppressed. She writes:

Feminism is a social justice movement with values and goals that benefit women. It’s a structural analysis of a world that oppresses women, an ideology based on the notion that patriarchy exists and that it needs to end.

The article, titled “The fake feminism of Sarah Palin,” targets the Alaska governor for daring to call herself a feminist; Valenti also throws in shots at the Independent Women’s Forum, Kathryn Lopez, and Christina Hoff Sommers for failing to get just how much American women still suffer.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Northern Territory researcher says studies show women can be just as violent as men and social changes are behind a reported rise in violence among young women.

A senior lecturer in psychology at Charles Darwin University, Dr Peter Forster, says there is no truth to the argument that testosterone levels make men more aggressive.

He says social factors such as the rise of feminism in the last few decades could be behind the rise in violence amongst women.

"We've now taken away the expectation that women will behave differently to men," he said.

"It used to be that one of the biggest differences was that women were more peaceful, they were peacemakers.

"[But] that kind of inhibition to be violent has gradually diminished to the point where it no longer inhibits women at all."

Article here. Excerpt:

'Late for appointments? Rude to your wife? Maybe the security guards should ask you to check your bags on the way into a store.

Some personalities are more prone to shoplifting than others, finds a study published in the June issue of the British academic journal Personality and Individual Differences. Its authors conclude that men who are "unpleasant and antisocial" or "disorganized and unreliable" are more likely to shoplift than anyone else.

"There's this sterotype of elderly women stealing tins of salmon, but that's not what we found," says Vincent Egan, a psychology professor at the University of Leicester who co-authored the study. "My results suggest dishonest consumer behavior is narrowly associated with how unpleasant and disorganized you are."'

All the subjects identified in the study as shoplifters were men. Outgoing youths were also more prone to steal, maybe because they don't fully understand the consequences of their actions and may get "carried away by the moment," says Egan.'

Blog entry here. CPS extremism sometimes whacks decent moms as well as dads. Excerpt:

'The case that's dropped jaws all across the U.S. and Canada is finally coming to an end. Judge Kip Leonard is finally allowing Noah Kirkman to return to his native Calgary after two years in foster care in Oregon. Read about it here (Yahoo, 5/29/10).

I and countless others have written outraged pieces about the case. Noah Kirkman is now 12 years old. When he was taken into foster care by Oregon authorities two years ago, he had not been abused; he had not been neglected. No one has ever claimed that his mother Lisa Kirkman (pictured) or his stepfather John Kirkman has ever been anything but a good parent to him. That's reflected in his grades which are straight A's despite Noah's severe ADHD.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Question: What do lawmakers Arlen Specter, Alan Mollohan, Barbara Boxer, and Orrin Hatch have in common?

Answer: They are all high-profile supporters of the federal Violence Against Women Act whose political fortunes have plummeted in recent months.
...
Most lawmakers who support the Violence Against Women Act sincerely believe the law is doing good. But according to a recent report, "Assaulting our Rights: How Domestic Violence Laws Curtail our Fundamental Freedoms" (http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/SAVE-Assault-Civil-Rights), VAWA is dealing a devastating blow to our constitutional protections, with two million Americans having their civil liberties trampled upon every year.

Over time, that builds up into a tsumani of disenfranchised voters who are tired of business as usual in Washington DC. And that's why many lawmakers are thinking long and hard about reflexively supporting the Violence Against Women Act this time around.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'IOWA CITY — Tom Dunn jokes that it will take the rest of his tenure as Iowa’s men’s gymnastics coach just to clean out his desk.

For 31 years Dunn, 60, led the Hawkeyes, once taking them to a second-place finish at the NCAA championships. He will retire next month, witnessing his sport change dramatically over his tenure. And that’s no joking matter.

Since 1988, 49 colleges have dropped men’s gymnastics, and just 17 teams compete annually for a combined NCAA title, including one Division III school. It’s a sport where expenses soar past revenues, and the combination of gender-equity and economic issues have made it vulnerable on the chopping block.

“We did obviously lose a ton of teams over the 20 years, but recently it hasn’t been an epidemic by any means,” Dunn said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A female schoolteacher in the small Western New York town of Canandaigua has been accused of a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student, among other misdeeds.

Marla Gurecki-Haskins, a striking brunette that makes it easy to see how young boys would be taken with her, allegedly performed oral sex on the student in a classroom. She's also accused of encouraging two 16-year-old boys -- via cell phone, text, and email -- to engage in sexual conduct, says the Times Union.

She's pleaded not guilty to a felony count of disseminating indecent material to a minor and three misdemeanor counts of official misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child, according to CBS. As if that's not enough, even more charges may be filed.

Article here. Excerpt:

'And now, in keeping with the annals of our rigorously ignored history, we are setting about the business again of orchestrating a future catastrophe. After a bloody revolution for our freedom, the scourge of slavery, an even bloodier civil war, and a civil rights campaign that we handled with police dogs, riot guns and water cannons, we have put ourselves right back on the course of an inescapable social crisis.
...
A recent Wall Street Journal article, Meet the Unemployable Man, predicts that over the next several years, one in six men between 18 and 54 years old, or 18 million, will be unemployed, and unemployable.

That is 18 million men who will look for work and find none; millions of others who once carried briefcases or hammers and nails, but who will, in the days ahead, push brooms make French fries. There will be 18 million men who become the other guy. And that is in addition to the millions of other guys that are already walking among us.
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'VALENCIA COUNTY (KRQE) - A New Mexico father said his son's purple heart is tarnished now that the military is billing him for equipment the wounded soldier left behind on the battlefield when he was airlifted to safety.

Gary Pfleider said it's still hard for him to talk about the day he found out his son was hit by a sniper while serving in Iraq in 2007.
...
Gary’s son, Gary Pfleider II, must now wear a brace and walk with a cane around his home in Oregon. The soldier remembers that incident a little differently.
...
Several months ago, the soldier who now has a purple heart, scars and a brace to show his bravery received a bill in the mail.

It totals over $3,000, which includes interest, for equipment Gary II took to the battlefield and the military said he is still responsible for—items like his canteen and even some grenades.
...
“I mean what do they want, the soldiers to go, get wounded and say not-ah you're not moving me until I get my gear,” Gary Sr. said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The circumcision of boys is reportedly almost always unnecessary and medically risky. The Royal Dutch Medical Society (KNMG) has published recommendations advising doctors to discourage parents from having their sons circumcised. Jewish and Islamic organisations have reacted angrily.
...
More than 46,000 Dutch doctors and trainee doctors are members of the society. They call circumcision for non-medical reasons “an infringement of a child’s right to autonomy and the right to bodily integrity”. And they say there are unnecessary risks.
...
The growing number of circumcisions among boys has not led to any kind of serious discussion in the Netherlands, in marked contrast with the circumcision of the daughters of African immigrants. The excision of girls’ labia minora and/or clitoris is almost universally condemned as genital mutilation.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Far more boys than girls in Snohomish County either barely scrape by or flunk their high school classes, according to a Herald analysis of grade point averages.

Through last June, just under half of the county's girls — 48.8 percent — had a grade point in the solid A to B range of 3.0 or above. A third of boys — 33.4 percent — could make the same claim.

At the same time, nearly a third of boys had a grade point average of 1.99 or less, the C-minus to F range, compared to fewer than 1 in 5 girls.

The data also shows that high school girls tend to earn higher grades in all core subjects, including math, at all grade levels despite the fact that boys scored slightly higher in that discipline on last year's state WASL exams.
...
Gurian makes the case that girls and boys are programmed differently. Girls tend to be more verbal learners; boys, more spatial, mechanical and physical. While most children can learn either way, many others struggle in the traditional classroom.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The boy child education in Central Kenya is the worst hit in the country, according to Gender and Children’s Affairs minister Esther Murugi.

Addressing education stakeholders at Rurii stadium in Kiria-ini where she officiated the second Mathioya district education and prayer day at the weekend, the minister said the province had recorded an enrolment of 10,000 pupils less than that of girls.

The minister attributed the discrepancy to irresponsible fathers who had neglected their role of guiding boys.

She said a recent survey in the province revealed that men spend only 15 minutes per week with their sons leaving parental responsibility entirely to their wives.

Consequently, the minister said, teenage boys had begun emulating what they see their mothers do among them braiding hair and piercing ears.

“That’s why you see young men behaving like females,” said Ms Murugi.'

Here in the US, it's Memorial Day. Like any other holiday, it's too easy to forget the real meaning of it. (Too often it's viewed as just another chance to have a long week-end or enjoy a cook-out.) But by no means is Memorial Day like any other holiday.

Most other holidays commemorate an individual or a very small set of them (Presidents Day, for example, commemorates certain of our past presidents), or they commemorate a single event (religious holidays are often like this). But Memorial Day commemorates a very large group of people and not just for one event but for many. In this case, that group is veterans, most especially those killed or wounded in action.

The fact that the overwhelming number of veterans are men seems to get lost in the language around the event, too, just as with men's occupations replacing the word "men" while referring to them in news reports, a phenomenon discussed here on MANN already.

Actor Dennis Hopper Dies at 74 After Suffering From Prostate Cancer

"Hopper died Saturday at his home in the Los Angeles beach community of Venice, surrounded by family and friends, family friend Alex Hitz said. Hopper's manager announced in October 2009 that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer."

I will miss the offbeat character roles Mr. Hopper took on. While often outrageous, his characterizations were always entertaining. The individuals he created on-screen were as unique as he was. RIP Dennis Hopper.