Article here. Imagine the reaction if a husband and son had plotted to kill their wife/mother.

'The Texas girl who was charged alongside her mother with trying to hire a hit man to kill her father says her mom often talked about getting rid of her husband, but that she never took her seriously.

"She pulled me into the spare bedroom and said sort of laughing, 'Hey, I bought these pills, let's put them in your Dad's beer,' and I was like, 'Why would you do that?'" Ashley Shamp, 18, told "Good Morning America."

The Katy, Texas, teen was arrested just two days after her own mother, 38-year-old Catherine, was charged by Harris County Sheriff officials with solicitation of capital murder and faces the same charge.

The bizarre story started in late November when David Shamp's wife, Catherine, was arrested after a confidential informant -- later identified as her daughter's ex-boyfriend Nathaniel Blake -- contacted the sheriff's office and said she had asked to hire him to kill her husband.'

Article here. Excerpt:

An Army general in Iraq backed away from his threat today to court martial female soldiers who get pregnant.

"I regret that the term 'court martial' is bandied about or mentioned," Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III said from Iraq today. "I do not ever see myself putting a soldier in jail for this."

Cucolo triggered debate, some of it angry, when his Nov. 4 policy forbidding pregnancy among his soldiers became public recently. His policy statement said violation of the rule could be punishable by court martial, and that it would also apply to the men who get female soldiers pregnant, even if the couple is married.

Pregnant soldiers are immediately redeployed out of combat zones to bases where they can get comprehensive medical care.

Story here. Excerpt:

'RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil's Supreme Court chief justice is expected to rule Tuesday on an appeal that a U.S. father hopes will reunite him with his young son after a five-year custody battle.

A Supreme Court official said Tuesday afternoon that the decision by Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes would be issued before the end of the day. It originally was set for release Monday, but was delayed for unexplained reasons. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the case.

David Goldman, a New Jersey man who has pledged to fight for his 9-year-old son, Sean, as long as it takes, was still holding out hope of being reunited in time to celebrate the holidays with his son in the United States.

Mendes will rule on appeals made by Goldman and Brazil's attorney general seeking to lift a stay on a lower court's order that Sean be handed over to his father.'

This is regarding a recent article in India Today titled 'Separated Women Can Now Adopt Children'. According to the article, the Cabinet recently cleared an amendment to the Hindu Adoption and Marriage (Amendment) Bill, paving the way for separated women to adopt a child. The law defines separated women as those who are living apart from their husbands but are not yet divorced. The Bill will now be tabled in Parliament. The step has been welcomed by women’s activists. Excerpt:

'"It should have happened long ago. But in a patriarchal society like ours it takes time for such changes to happen," former National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Mohini Giri said, according to the article.

This fake orgasm cost this woman in the pocket book. Excerpt:

'A woman who accused her gynaecologist of giving her "leg buckling" orgasms during an examination has had her case dismissed and been ordered to pay her doctor damages of around $55,000.

Bibi Giles' case and credibility fell apart after a second doctor came forward and said she had tried to seduce him.

Ms Giles, 50, dropped her case after hearing the doctor was prepared to give evidence, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

In her case against gynaecologist Angus Thompson, she accused him of touching her in a sexual manner in 2006.
...
He wrote a letter of complaint to the Medical Defence Union before his patient announced she was suing him for sexual harassment.

Dr Thompson was fully exonerated in court and will return to work.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Herein lies the troubling paradox of the situation. Only one national writer, Hanna Rosin of Slate Magazine, has written about the domestic violence implications of the situation. Why is Woods in seclusion? Florida is one of many states where police responding to domestic violence calls have the power to arrest based on their own assessment as to who the likely aggressor is, without allegations or charges from the victim. Most important, the legislation states: “The decision to arrest and charge shall not require the consent of the victim or consideration of the relationship of the parties.”

I think the reason he refused to talk with local police, and the reason he hasn’t been seen in public, and probably won’t for several more weeks, is because his injuries were obviously inconsistent with the car crash scenario. His very sharp and well-paid attorneys and agents moved quickly to contain the situation and avoid the even more embarrassing scenario of his wife being hauled off to jail.

Story here. Excerpt:

'It's a gift that won’t exactly spread festive cheer when taken from under the family tree.

But that hasn’t stopped the lawyers behind divorce gift vouchers – which entitle the recipient to free legal advice.

They have been put on sale by Vanessa Lloyd Platt, a leading family lawyer who has represented celebrities including Les Dennis and Anne Diamond.

The vouchers cost £125 for 30 minutes of advice and £250 for an hour, both excluding VAT, and some embossed with a gold scales of justice logo.

Miss Lloyd Platt’s firm said it had sold more than 50 since they went on sale earlier this month with requests from husbands, wives and mistresses.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Ortiz is one of the new faces among America's homeless veterans. They're younger than homeless male veterans and more likely to bring children. Their number has doubled in the past decade, and there are an estimated 6,500 homeless female veterans on any given night - about 5 percent of the total homeless veterans population.

But women-only programs such as the one Ortiz participates in are few. "It is always hard to find a place or resources or help when you are homeless," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. "It is almost impossible if you are a woman. Most of the VA facilities cater to men, and you can't take a mom with two little kids and put her in the middle of a homeless center with 30 or 40 male veterans."
...
Administrators had worked with male veterans for years and assumed the same types of programs worked for women. They quickly learned when they opened the women's program in 2001 that the women's issues were more complex and required longer treatment.'

Story here.

'Colorado's female skiing community is buzzing about this month's opening of the Jeannie Thoren Women's Ski Center in Vail, the nation's first slopeside ski center exclusively for women.

Thoren, a veteran crusader for women's ski equipment and proper fit for females, long ago developed the "Thoren Theory" that applies female-specific anatomy and physical movement to proper alignment on skis. Named one of the 100 most influential skiers of the century, Thoren has traveled the country for decades explaining how the anatomical differences between men and women affect ski performance and how gender-specific equipment makes a difference.

Now, women can visit the gear guru on their own schedule with the advantage of test- riding equipment on Vail Mountain, just steps from Thoren's Women's Ski Center in Lionshead. Thoren specializes in picking the right ski and boot for a women's ability, adjusting bindings and adding heel lifts and cants for optimal alignment.
...
Get it: Call 970-476-3888 or visit jeanniethoren.com'

Article here.

'Over four months ago I wrote an article about the phenomenon of what I have come to call "fetal-ripping", the violent crime of cutting open a pregnant woman to steal the fetus. This article came on the heels of a prediction I made on wendymcelroy.com/smf in which I discussed the most recent case of fetal-ripping that had occurred in late July. In that case, after Darlene Haynes was killed and her living fetus taken, I predicted that when the violent criminal was found that it would be a woman, which eventually turned out to be true.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (yes, it’s still around and, yes, it’s outlived its usefulness) is about to subtract from national wisdom about college admissions by focusing on exactly the wrong problem.

Letter here.

'Editor: I saw a Girl Power T-shirt at Backdoor Disc and Tape in Cotati that showed a woman beating a man. When I asked the male clerks if they would sell a T-shirt that celebrated a man beating a woman, they looked at me like I was crazy.

The root of this double standard is misandry, the sexist counterpart of misogyny. Because we live in a gynocentric society, misogyny is considered unacceptable and closely monitored.

Even though misandry is visible to anyone, it is not visible to most as a problem. Misandry is usually excused (“Men are jerks”), trivialized (“Take it like a man”) or rationalized (“He had it coming”). The latter is apparent in “Saturday Night Live” sketches and cartoons making a joke of Tiger Woods allegedly being assaulted by his wife.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the latest anti-male screed to pop up on Feministing, one feminist takes an article written by a working wife and mother… and turns it into a man-bashing rant.

On my Twitter feed I came across this article, from a woman explaining why she was late for work. Turns out she is, somehow, the only person responsible for rounding up the kids in the morning:

So where the f*ck is her husband, who presumably sired the kids in question?

Women of the world: it’s time to leave those useless hunks of flesh called “husbands” and “fathers” who feed off your labour while you earn 70 per cent of their wages.

And by the way: don’t forget to leave them custody. Leave your guilt at the door. The kids will work out fine. Your husband will have to make sure of that, just like you would if you were the sucker. Don’t be.

After all, men earn more money. They can look after the kids better. Let them.

Just so you know, this was listed as one of the editor’s favorites on the site for this week. While several commenters condemned this article, there were just as many who applauded it. Apparently, calling men “useless hunks of flesh” is perfectly fine in the feminist world. Can you just imagine the outrage if some male blogger called women nothing but useless hunks of flesh?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Well, here's another one. We know that, within the past few months, at the University of Chicago, the University of Manchester and Oxford University, student organizations have been established to better understand men and masculinity. In each case, feminists have been outraged and gone to some fairly debased lengths to try and stop the groups from getting university recognition.

But now it turns out that at Hull University in the U.K. they've gone a step further. It seems that the Student's Union there (and at 12 other universities in the country), until recently had a Men's Officer. It also seems to have a Women's Officer. In any event, there was a move to abolish the position of Men's Officer, even though there had been a campus-wide referendum on the position in 2007 and male and female students alike had voted to retain it.

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK (Reuters) – A recent spate of exonerations in New York state has put renewed focus on the plight of the wrongly convicted, with advocates saying it is not as easy as it should be to get an unjust verdict reversed.

In the last two decades, 246 people have been exonerated in the United States with the help of DNA evidence after being convicted of crimes.

But advocates say the system still lags for a far larger pool of people -- who are part of the 90 percent of criminal cases where no DNA evidence exists, but where compelling evidence might surface, such as questions about the reliability of a witness.

Last week, a 32-year-old carpenter who was convicted of rape became the fourth New York man in six months to have his conviction overturned after flaws in the evidence against them were uncovered.

The man, William McCaffrey, had served almost three years of a 20-year prison sentence until his accuser came forward and said she made the story up and lied in court.