From MANN reader Ed: Article here. Excerpt:

'Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the most colossal scandal of them all? Watergate? Climategate? Tigergate? If you said 'yes' to any of these, you're not even close!
...
Abusegate refers to our nation's flawed crusade to curb domestic violence (DV). Originally a high-minded and well-intentioned effort, the end-abuse campaign has now fallen prey to an invidious anti-family agenda. In the name of making homes safe, the domestic violence industry curtails fundamental civil rights and often betrays those in greatest need.

Let me count the ways our domestic violence effort has failed to deliver on its promises, all the while undermining our most cherished values and societal institutions:

Fathers & Familes Action Item here. Excerpt:

'Arizona HB 2348 will help protect disabled fathers (and mothers) from child support and alimony abuses—to email and fax a letter in support of the bill, click here.

The hearing on the bill is Wednesday January 27, so please act ASAP. This is a national issue and supporters both inside and outside of Arizona are encouraged to participate.

Although federal law is clear, judges are often ignoring it and calculating veterans’ disability compensation into divorce settlements as a divisible asset. Very often these payments are the only assets a veteran has. When judges include it as income, it creates great hardship for those veterans, who rarely have the resources to hire legal help to contest the taking of their benefits. HB 2348 will help end this practice—to email and fax a letter in support of the bill to all members of the Arizona House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee to express your support for HB 2348, click here. To call the Committee members, click here.

I found this to be quite funny, well-written, and of course, pathetic. Give 'em an inch they want a mile. Give 'em a mile, they want an inch. And on and on it goes. I don't single women out though for this observation. I see it time and again at work, in what the public or the people expect (from government, etc.), and so on. Of further interest though were also the off-linked articles, which I mention after this excerpt:

'I am stricken with the peculiar curse of being a 21st-century woman who makes more than the man she’s living with — first with a husband for 13 years and now with a new partner. It’s an increasingly common situation, according to a recent Pew study that found that the proportion of American marriages in which the wife makes more money rose to 22 percent in 2007 from 4 percent in 1970.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A lack of confidence in their ability to add, subtract and divide is easily passed on to female pupils, it was disclosed.

The study, which was based on 117 infants in the US, found that many girls had a “significantly worse” grasp of maths after a year of being taught by a nervous teacher.

Academics from Chicago University found that “worries and self-doubt” were not passed on to boys as they rejected the behaviour and attitudes of adults of the opposition sex.

The trend is being fuelled by the fact that the vast majority of primary school teachers are female.

Figures published last year showed that almost nine-in-10 primary teachers in England were women. More than a quarter of schools had no male teachers at all, it was disclosed.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'PITTSBURGH — A woman who lured a pregnant teenager to her apartment, drugged her, cut out her baby, then killed her and tried to pass the infant off as hers was found guilty but mentally ill of second-degree murder and kidnapping.

Monday's verdict against Andrea Curry-Demus, while supported by evidence of her long history of mental illness, was "perhaps more merciful than the defendant deserves," Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning said.

In finding Curry-Demus not guilty of first-degree murder, Manning said he wasn't satisfied that her psychotic delusions allowed her to form the intent to kill.

Curry-Demus, 40, of Wilkinsburg, will be formally sentenced in March, but the second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life prison sentence without parole. She will serve part of her sentence in a prison mental hospital until doctors conclude her illness improves enough for her to serve the rest in prison.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Mumbai: In an observation that could have far-reaching implications in the prosecution of rape cases, the Supreme Court recently observed that an Indian woman would never make a false allegation of rape, given the social stigma attached to it. This is likely to bolster the cases of rape victims and may have a bearing on recent cases involving actor Shiney Ahuja and Shree Ram Mills scion Abhishek Kasliwal.

“In Indian society, any girl or woman would not make such allegations (of rape) against a person as she is fully aware of the repercussions flowing therefrom. If she is found to be false (sic), she would be looked at by society with contempt throughout her life,” the apex court observed.

Article here. Excerpt:

'(Jan. 23) – Women are about to claim majority status in the American workplace, sounding the bell on a number of decades-old feminist goals. At last, we're financially independent, professionally respected, in charge of both men and ourselves. But even before we've cleared that milestone, we're ready to give it all back.

Isn't that just like a woman, a man might say.

A recent Pew study found that an increasing number of women express ambivalence about sharing the job market equally with men. Nearly two-thirds of working mothers now say they'd prefer their jobs be part time, up from 48 percent just 10 years ago. Only 37 percent are content with working full time.

Article here. Excerpt:

'I recently came up with an idea: that it would be revelatory to ask as many women who were willing to “nominate” our next world leaders: to choose who, among women, they’d put forward to lead the world. This seems more apt than ever, given last week’s decision by the Supreme Court, which may guarantee even more corporate sponsorship of our elected officials.

What do you think? Is it time for us to start imagining a new kind of world, since this one ain’t working? Is it time for us to try a different approach —say, give the other gender a chance at running things?

Most in the handful of women I polled, of all ages, would like to see women given a chance at piloting the ship for a while. We’ve had men in the majority in just about every area of governance and power — everywhere on the planet. If women were in charge, would things improve? How about The Nine, an international court of women — enlightened governance?

Story here. Excerpt:

'But almost everyone has an opinion on how he ended up there. Mr. Leath, 57, was found dead of a gunshot wound in his own bed in 2003. His wife, Raynella Dossett Leath, said it was a suicide, but she was ultimately charged with murder. Her dramatic trial last year gripped the city, but it ended in a hung jury. Last week, she went on trial again.

The trail of death in the case, however, does not begin and end with a beloved barber, but winds its way up to the highest levels of law enforcement in this city. There was a fatal car crash, a love child, a missing will and, strangest of all, the 1992 death, officially by cattle stampede, of the Knox County prosecutor, Ed Dossett, who happened to be Ms. Dossett Leath’s first husband at the time.
...

Each year, 2-3 million restraining orders are issued in the United States (1). But according to one study, 70% of those orders are unnecessary or false (2).

The Violence Against Women Act bankrolls the issuance of millions of restraining orders, for which there is little proof of benefit, and which, according to the Independent Women’s Forum, only “lull women into a false sense of security.” This week our lobbyists are working Capitol Hill, asking our elected officials to “Investigate Abusegate!”

One of the key supporters of VAWA over the years has been Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. Sen. Hatch views VAWA as one of his legacies. Really? Then Sen. Hatch should be leading the charge to find out exactly how the Violence Against Women Act got sidetracked.

CALL TODAY! Call Sen. Hatch’s office at (202) 224-5251. Or send him an email via http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact. The message to Sen. Hatch only needs to be 5 words long: “Investigate Abusegate! Fix VAWA Now!”

Article here. Excerpt:

'By painting all males as brutes, feminists hope to reduce half the population to a state of dhimmitude.

January 21, 2010 - by Barbara Kay

The industry that has grown up around domestic violence (DV), or, as it is more precisely situated these days in research circles, intimate partner violence (IPV), began in good faith decades ago as a legitimate campaign to help women trapped in abusive relationships.

Over the years, as the triumphalist feminist revolution’s long march through the institutions of the West proceeded with eerily unchallenged vigor, DV emerged as a highly politicized touchstone justifying women’s entitlements — legal, economic, familial — at the expense of boys’ and men’s human rights.

A tipping point in the DV chronology, when the focus amongst militant feminists shifted from helping individual women to the more totalitarian ambition of reducing the male population to cultural dhimmitude, can be traced back in time to December 6, 1989, and in space to a school two miles north of my front door.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A DAD cleared of claims he sexually abused his kids is now hitting back at his ex wife.

The man is accusing his ex-wife of perjury, assault and threatening to kill.

The legal action, believed to be a first for Victoria, will set a controversial precedent and could open the floodgates to similar cases.

"Bill", whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, is alleging his wife deliberately lied when she made allegations that he had sexually abused their children.
...
He was eventually acquitted, but the ordeal cost him his job, his home and about $450,000 in lost income and legal costs. The case is also based on similar accusations of sexual abuse of their children made by the ex-wife during a bitter Family Court battle.

Article here. Excerpt:

'When the earthquake hit Haiti last week I decided to direct my giving toward CARE, an organization that focuses its work on women. Some will question why I don't give right to the Red Cross, a very worthy organization. The honest answer is that I want to give my money to an organization who will put women and mothers as a priority. It's not a sexist statement, as much as a truth that reflects our gendered world.

Article here. Excerpt:

'So, think you have seen it all? You have seen nothing yet. The immorality and disgracefulness of the Feminist movement have now reached a new record high. We have already got used to the fact that feminists make men's lives bitter. However, when we died, feminists used to leave us alone. Well, so it was until recently. Nowadays, feminists have also taken away the privilege men used to have, to die in peace.

When a men dies, it is possible to pump out sperm of the dead body. If the pumping is done within 24 hours from the time of death, the sperm can be used to fertilize a woman. There is only one problem - the man is dead. Which means that you cannot ask him whether or not he agrees to be a father.

Story here. A man need not even be suspected of DV to get charged (of what crime-it seems it matters not), tried, found guilty, and punished by severe beating, all in one fell swoop, and by police officers no less. (No judges need apply.) Sometimes he just needs to be standing there. Excerpt:

'PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper said three plainclothes officers have been reassigned during an internal investigation into the beating of an 18-year-old student violinist from the city's Creative and Performing Arts High School.

Police charged Jordan Miles, 18, with assault and resisting arrest Jan. 11 because, they said, he fought with the officers who thought a "heavy object" in his coat was a gun. It turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew.

Miles said he resisted because he thought the men were trying to abduct him and didn't identify themselves as police.

Miles' family and attorney said he was hit with a stun gun and hospitalized after the violent Homewood struggle during which a chunk of his hair was yanked out and a tree branch went through his gums.