R.I.P., Mr. Salinger. Article here. Excerpt:

NEW YORK – J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son, actor Matt Salinger, said in a statement from Salinger's longtime literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, Inc. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in a small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.

"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight — and concern."

Story here. Excerpt:

'HAMPTON - After beating him with a frying pan and stabbing him with a kitchen knife, a Rothesay woman avoided jailtime and returned home with her victim/boyfriend.

Judge Henrik Tonning couldn't deny if the male/female roles were reversed, the penalty would likely be harsher.

Instead, he followed the joint recommendation of Crown prosecutor Kelly Winchester and defence lawyer Al Levine by sentencing Mary Lisa Joyce Carrier to a six-month conditional sentence, followed by one year's probation for assault causing bodily harm.

Carrier, 21, sat next to the boyfriend she assaulted and still lives with during her sentencing in Hampton provincial court. When she stood to be sentenced, he stood with her and often put his arm around her.
...
He said if the role was revered and it was a man who beat his girlfriend with a frying pan and then stabbed her repeatedly, he is "doubtful" the sentence would be as light.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The results of a major piece of government research on partner abuse in Scotland slipped out relatively unreported before Christmas. The new Scottish findings mirror much Australian and international domestic violence research showing family violence against men is frequent and often goes unreported.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2008-09: Partner Abuse was published by Scotland’s Chief Statistician on December 15th 2009. The research was conducted with 16,000 interviewees and represents the most comprehensive investigation to date into the extent of partner abuse in Scotland.

Interviewees were asked about their experience of physical or psychological partner abuse both since the age of 16 and within the preceding 12 months. The findings included:

• 18% of adults who had had at least one partner since the age of 16 reported having experienced at least one form of partner abuse. The figure for women was 20.9% and for men 15.3%.

Article here. (Daily Mail has an article by Natasha Walter also on this topic.) Excerpt:

'"In previous generations many women had to repress their physical needs and experiences in order to fall in with social conventions, and feminism was needed to release them from the cage of chastity," writes Walter. "But what I heard from some women is that they feel there is now a new cage holding them back from the liberation they sought, a cage in which repression of emotions takes the place of repression of physical needs." In short, they daren't feel because it might limit the exercise of their freedom. "It's my choice," is now an argument-clincher for any kind of louche behaviour.

Article here. Excerpt:

"Record numbers of women are being arrested for violent crimes, it was revealed today.

Annual criminal justice statistics showed 88,139 women were arrested for violent offences in a single year - or nearly 250 every day. That is an increase of nearly 1,000 on a year earlier. At the same time the number of men arrested for violent crimes fell by 10,000.
...
The rise in arrests means that for the second consecutive year women were more likely to be held for crimes of violence than for any other offence. It overtook shoplifting for the first time in 2005/6. Today's figures, published by the Ministry of Justice and covering 2007/8, showed arrests of women for theft continued to fall, by nearly 3,000 to 77,425.
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Violence against the person - a category which includes manslaughter, assault and grievous bodily harm - accounted for 35% of all crimes committed by women.

Story here. Excerpt:

'The young pledge said she was told the beatings would "humble" her, that each flesh-rending strike with a wooden paddle would build love and trust between sorority sisters.

It wasn’t hazing, she said they told her. The women of Sigma Gamma Rho at Rutgers University didn’t condone hazing.

For seven nights the beatings went on, she said. In all, she was struck 201 times. On the eighth day — unable to sit, her buttocks covered with blood clots and welts — she went to the hospital. Then she reported it to the university.

Today, Rutgers police said they had arrested six members of the sorority on charges of aggravated hazing, alleging they repeatedly beat at least three pledges between Jan. 18 and Jan. 25. A university official, vice president of student affairs Greg Blimling, and the pledge who spoke to The Star-Ledger put the number of victims at seven.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In addressing intimate partner violence, the focus is usually on women who are physically battered by husbands or boyfriends. However, women sometimes hurt their partners as well.
Previous Section

Women are doing virtually everything these days that men are—working as doctors, lawyers, and rocket scientists; flying helicopters in combat; riding horses in the Kentucky Derby. And physically assaulting their spouses or partners.

In fact, when it comes to nonreciprocal violence between intimate partners, women are more often the perpetrators.

These findings on intimate partner violence come from a study conducted by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The lead investigator was Daniel Whitaker, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist and team leader at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (which is part of the CDC). Results were published in the May Journal of Public Health.'

From IA's recent email:

'Over the history of circumcision, there's been one justification after another," said Intact America's Georganne Chapin in a Washington Post article reviewing the debate over routine circumcision last week.

Hundreds of concerned readers have written comments in response to the article's apparent bias in favor of circumcision – and The Washington Post subsequently published a letter to the editor from John Geisheker of Doctors Opposing Circumcision. Read his letter to the editor and post your own comment >>

A new study finds little evidence that circumcision can prevent sexually transmitted infections, urinary tract infections, and penile cancer. Read the article >>

Story here.

'MADISON, Wis. -- A Wisconsin appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims she has been unfairly portrayed as a stalker by the Milwaukee Brewers and radio announcer Bob Uecker.

The District 2 Court of Appeals did not rule on the merits of Ann Ladd's claims.

Instead, the three-judge panel said Wednesday that her allegations of defamation and invasion of privacy were either filed after the two-year statute of limitations had run out or lacked a legal basis.

In 2006, Uecker alleged a pattern of stalking and harassment by Ladd. She was charged with felony stalking, but a prosecutor dismissed the criminal charge after a court commissioner issued an injunction barring her from contacting him.'

Article here. Perhaps. But so is the "oops, I forgot to tell you I didn't take my birth control" excuse. THAT is reproductive coercion as well - if not outright FRAUD and hijacking a male's finances for 20+ years. Excerpt:

Experts are studying a phenomenon that brings a whole new meaning to the term 'unwanted pregnancy.

About a decade ago, Elizabeth Miller remembers seeing a certain teenage girl at a hospital clinic for adolescents in Boston. The patient thought she might be pregnant and asked for a test. When it came out negative, Miller started asking the standard questions, inquiring as to whether her patient wanted to be pregnant (she didn't) and whether she was using contraceptives (she wasn't). So Miller explained all of the birth-control options and, as she describes it, "sent her on her merry way with a brown bag of condoms." It was, by most measures, a pretty routine appointment.

Story here. A false-accuser was fouled in her 2+ year assault on the famous magician David Copperfield. Her accusations of being subjected to the crime that dares not speak its name by Mr. Copperfield were exposed as an attempt to extort money from him. She was also charged with being a "common whore" also by the authorities. It is significant to note that out of this ordeal Mr. Copperfield suffered no drop in income from his fan base and is estimated to have made $30 million last year from his performances. I guess getting accused of a sexual assault no longer carries the stigma it once did because so many public men are being accused? Too bad the perpetrator will probably not be charged with a major felony. A false accusation of rape is RAPE. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'-- More men are attending college and graduating with a bachelor's degree, reversing the tendency of female undergraduates to outnumber men and outperform them academically, according to a new report out Tuesday.

One notable exception is young Hispanic men - especially new immigrants - who are falling further behind Hispanic women.

Men account for 43 percent of overall college enrollment and earn 43 percent of bachelor's degrees - figures that have remained consistent since the early 2000s.

However, the analysis by the Washington-based American Council on Education shows the disparity lies largely in the fact that men are much less likely than women to go to college - or return to college - later in life: Undergraduate men age 25 or older are outnumbered by women in the same age group 2-to-1.
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The U.S. Civil Rights Commission is investigating whether private liberal arts colleges in the Washington, D.C., area are discriminating against women in an effort to better balance their enrollments.

Article here. Excerpt:

'EVER since Betty Friedan urged women to leave the house and pursue careers, people have argued over whether women’s marriages and romantic prospects would suffer for it. Was a financially successful woman a threat to her husband or a relief?

Last week, a report from the Pew Research Center about what it called “the rise of wives” revived the debate. Based on a study of Census data, Pew found that in nearly a third of marriages, the wife is better educated than her husband. And though men, over all, still earn more than women, wives are now the primary breadwinner in 22 percent of couples, up from 7 percent in 1970.

Article here. Excerpt:

'For years, the only reason women would take a step back from their career was to raise a family, but my friends are getting off the treadmill before then.

A new book called 30-Something And Over It - What Happens When You Wake Up One Morning And Don't Want To Go To Work. . . Ever Again sums up the mood.
...
In the book she quotes some interesting statistics. Apparently, 26 per cent of women at the cusp of the most senior levels of management don't want the promotion. One in 15 under-35s have already dropped out of paid work to pursue ' self-improvement', while half plan to do so in the future.

She speaks to several psychotherapists who are seeing as many people in the midst of thirtysomething burnout as they do those with mid-life crises.
...

Story here. Quick, fund more programs for girls! That'll fix the problem! Excerpt:

'CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. economic recession has taken a particularly heavy toll on young Americans, with a record one out five black men aged 20 to 24 neither working nor in school, according to research released on Tuesday.

Teenagers have found it significantly harder to get a job since the recession began in late 2007, with black youths and young people from low-income families faring the worst, wrote Andrew Sum of Northeastern University in Boston, a employment researcher commissioned by the Chicago Urban League and the Alternative Schools Network.

"Low-income and minority youth, who depended on part-time jobs as a significant stepping stone to future employment, have been forced out of the job market and economically marginalized," Herman Brewer of the Chicago Urban League said in a statement.