Technical problems, etc. withheld release of this Fatherless Day, Los Angeles, 2009 video, until now.

Fathers4Justice, L.A. (F4JLA), and the National Coalition for Men, Los Angeles (NCFMLA) staged this protest last summer.

This is the downtown Los Angeles courthouse, where a number of Hollywood celebrities have had their divorces and child custody/support cases heard over the years.

I knew I had heard that name before! Turns out she is the exact same "Amy Bishop" who shot and killed her brother back in 1986 - yet the death was deemed an accident. Read it here. And get this: The file on that case is missing! Excerpt:

'Bishop is the University of Alabama, Huntsville professor accused of killing three of her colleagues and wounding three others on Friday.

Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier said the file of the 1986 shooting which the police closed as an accidental gun discharge, is missing.

He added that from what could be pieced together, the police chief in 1986 ordered Bishop released even before her arrest was formalized.
...
Bishop killed her brother with a shotgun blast in 1986 in Braintree, Mass. in what she said at the time was an accident, according to the Boston Globe and other news outlets.'

Stay tuned - skeletons are going to pop out of closets and people who thought they were safe from scrutiny over the 1986 case will now be scrambling to explain the whos and whys.

In case you haven't seen it recently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_rights

(URL, text only: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_rights)

Very nice. Thanks to the author(s) thereof.

Oh yeah, that "%27" in the URL is the single apostrophe in the topic name. Without that kind of encoding, some older-version browsers won't load the page correctly. The later-version ones can handle apostrophes in the URL, so you can also try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men's_rights

(URL, text only: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men's_rights)

Article here. Excerpt:

'A judge's race or gender makes for a dramatic difference in the outcome of cases they hear—at least for cases in which race and gender allegedly play a role in the conduct of the parties, according to two recent studies.

The results were the focus of a program about “Diversity on the Bench: Is the ‘Wise Latina’ a Myth?,” sponsored by the ABA Judicial Division at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Orlando on Saturday afternoon.

Story here. It seems a female professor decided to go Rambo after being denied tenure*. Read the story quickly because I'm sure it will be shuffled to the back page in a matter of minutes. At least on CBC, the story is short, vague and understated. Excerpt:

'Three people were killed and several more injured in a shooting Friday in a science building at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, university officials said.

A woman was in custody, but university spokesman Ray Garner said he could not identify her or the victims. Local television stations reported she is a faculty member.

Trent Willis, chief of staff for Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, said several other people had been shot in addition to the four Garner reported, but he did not have an exact number or their conditions.'

---
*Ed. note: I don't see that mentioned in the article. Possibly Scottie knows this from another source, but the article itself does not contain that as a fact.

Story here. Excerpts:

'CHICAGO — Greg Baddick helped his 9-year-old daughter learn the state capitals of the Midwest.

Later, when he asked Isabella how her test went, she said she got an A-plus — although she almost forgot the answer for Nebraska.

Baddick congratulated her by Internet video link, the same way he helped her study. "I’m proud of you.”

Because Baddick, a senior manager for a pharmaceutical company, is divorced from Isabella’s mother, he helped his daughter study using their laptop computers and the Internet. The virtual visits are a weekly date, in addition to the in-person weekly visits and twice-monthly weekend stays. Isabella lives in Elgin, Ill.; Baddick in Chicago.

"It’s been, honestly, a godsend,” Baddick, 39, said. "I feel like I’m there. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Michael Lohan is a deadbeat dad.

"It's almost been a year without child support," Dina Lohan said after a closed door meeting with her ex-husband in Nassau County Family Court on Tuesday.

The parents of troubled starlet Lindsey Lohan have been squabbling over court-ordered child support payments.

It's unclear how much Michael Lohan owes, but TMZ.com reported it was more than $15,000.

"I just want him to do the right thing. I just want him to take care of his kids," Dina Lohan said after the meeting. "This isn't about us. It's about his children."'

So the Lohans (ie, Lindsay and her mother) can't get by without $15k over a year's time in addition to whatever it is they are taking in by being famous?

Article here. If a woman cheats, no matter what, she should never be assaulted over it, never ever, not even if she is brazen in it -- and that is a good thing; a man being so abused should just leave her without violence. (I am told that in China, men whose wives cheat on them are talked of; they are said to wear a "red hat", and people laugh at them. If anyone can say where this "red hat" image comes from, please post. And we can find many similar cultural values all over the world wherein men are "blamed" for a wife's infidelities, or in most cases, made fun of over it.)

But should a man be unfaithful though, well, he is fit for a good whacking. The offending sentence is at the end of the article, so I state it here: "I desperately hope that one of these days some humiliated spouse will whack the guy with a frying pan. I'd give good money to see that."

From MANN reader, Ed:

Over the last umpteen years, the VAWA Mafia has stage-managed the public discourse on domestic violence, in the process disseminating an untold number of half-truths, misrepresentations, and lies.

Just consider all the publicity that NOW president Terry O’Neil garnered the last few days over her single remark on the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad: "I am blown away at the celebration of the violence against women in it."

So next week, it's OUR turn to speak out!

To move the Abusegate, Investigate! campaign into the public eye, we'll be doing press releases, radio interviews, a phone-a-thon, and more. We want the public to understand the extent to which federal laws have been ignored, Constitutional protections trampled upon, and families upended.

Say it loud, say it proud: "Abusegate, Investigate!"

In the meantime, we invite you to bone up on the issue by checking out 50 Domestic Violence Myths (.pdf file).

Solicitation for guests here.

"When you were a child, were you sexually abused by an adult female? The Oprah Show is looking for adults who are willing to discuss the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a mother, aunt, family friend or other female in your life. How did the sexual abuse start and how long did it last? When did you finally start discussing the abuse? Do you think you were "groomed" by your abuser? Are you finally willing to discuss the traumatic events of your childhood and how they affected the rest of your life? Please provide as many details as possible. Respond only if you are willing to discuss this sensitive subject on nation television."

Story here. When I was 6, I used to throw tantrums, too. And even though the principal's office scared the hell out of me, even if I had thrown a tantrum there, it wouldn't have been grounds for arrest by a police officer. What normally happened was I was taken (by force if necessary, such as picking me up) and removed from wherever I was and placed in my room. If I had done this at school my folks would be called and I'd be kept in a room until they arrived to take me home, which thankfully, never happened.

I see this story is yet further proof that parents in general are continuing to lose both legal and practical control of their kids.

As for men's (and boys') rights, well, stories like this are much more likely to elicit sympathy for the child given that she is a girl. As in other cases of excessive restraint use against children, I would say she is a victim of state abuse of police power as well.

Story here. Excerpt:

'(CNN) -- A single mother who chose taking care of her infant over deploying to Afghanistan has been discharged, the Army said in a statement.

When her unit deployed to Afghanistan in November, Alexis Hutchinson was missing from the plane. Her lawyer said she refused to go because there was no one to take care of her then 10-month-old son, Kamani, and she feared he would be placed in foster care.

But the Army contended that the young mother and now former Army specialist had plenty of time to sort out family issues and said she could face court-martial.

The issue was resolved this week, the Army said in a statement Thursday from Fort Stewart in Georgia, where Hutchinson was training.

"The soldier will not be tried by court-martial and therefore is not at risk of receiving a federal conviction," the statement said. "She is, however, reduced to the lowest enlisted rank, private, and subject to losing other military benefits from the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs to which soldiers who serve honorably are entitled."'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'A British woman has been convicted of killing her lover by lacing his curry with the 'Queen of Poisons'.
...
Ms Singh poisoned a leftover curry in the fridge of her lover's home in west London with aconite, known as the Queen of Poisons. It hasn't been used in England since 1882. The mother of three had sneaked into the couple's home to spike the food.

Mr Singh died hours after eating the curry, while his 21-year-old fiance, Gurjeet Choongh, fell violently ill but survived.

The couple ate the meal while they discussed their upcoming wedding, due to take place on Valentine's Day last year.
...
Singh was also found guilty of causing Miss Choongh grievous bodily harm with intent but was cleared of attempted murder.'

From Ed: In our ongoing effort to expose the fraudulent and discriminatory practices of the domestic violence industry, our Abusegate campaign now has its own webpage on the website of Men’s News Daily.

To visit the Abusegate page, go to http://mensnewsdaily.com/ and then click on the picture of the little boy covering his face with his hands (this image highlights how the DV industry exploits children by separating them from their fathers). Or you can link directly to the Abusegate page: http://abusegate.mensnewsdaily.com/.

To leverage the visibility of this international awareness campaign, we invite you to post the words “Abusegate, Investigate!” on your website, and provide a link to http://abusegate.mensnewsdaily.com/.

2010 is the year that we put VAWA’s Pandora back in her box.