From MANN reader Ed:

Every year around this time lobbyists for the domestic violence industry anoint themselves with sackcloth and ashes. They travel to the state legislature, hat in hand, pleading for more money to help all the abused women that shelters had to turn away the past year.

But these lobbyists conveniently leave out the fact that many shelter directors are making very good money. Here are 3 examples:

As of 11:45 PM EST, writing from upstate New York, the main page of Yahoo! looks like this.

I am not sure but I will guess that the Yahoo! main page is probably in the top 5 URLs people set as their web browser's start page. So one would think (hope) the people at Yahoo! (like MSN) would be willing to serve up a bit more substantive vittles for the hapless end user.

Instead, we get strange obsessions like Kate Gosselin's expensive new hair extensions and "Requests men shouldn't make" (note the red circle around the tab in my off-linked piece of ad-hoc art mentioned above).

I had no idea who Kate Gosselin was. I had to Google her name to find out and then I had to ask myself why anyone would care about the narcissistic carryings-on of her and her husband.

Article here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – Girls around the world are not worse at math than boys, even though boys are more confident in their math abilities, and girls from countries where gender equity is more prevalent are more likely to perform better on mathematics assessment tests, according to a new analysis of international research.

"Stereotypes about female inferiority in mathematics are a distinct contrast to the actual scientific data," said Nicole Else-Quest, PhD, a psychology professor at Villanova University, and lead author of the meta-analysis. "These results show that girls will perform at the same level as the boys when they are given the right educational tools and have visible female role models excelling in mathematics."

Article here. Excerpt:

'An ASU team of researchers recently received $1.9 million in grants to help close the gender gap between men and women in science fields, a disparity that some women in the field say is still prevalent today.

The rate that women are earning doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is 7 to 10 percent lower than males, according to an ASU statement released Wednesday.
...
When Baker was younger, many family members and colleagues were put off by the fact that she wasn’t planning on having children, she said.

“My mother would say, ‘You poor woman, you have no children,’ and no one ever said, ‘Your poor sisters, they have no education,’” she said. “I caught a lot of flack from parents and relatives telling me I wasn’t doing the right thing.”

Engineering sophomore Emily Christman said she chose to go into engineering because she has always liked math and been good at it.

Story here. Excerpt:

'BELFAST, Northern Ireland – A political scandal riveting Northern Ireland has a certain cinematic feel: an affair by 58-year-old woman named Mrs. Robinson with a 19-year-old male lover.
...
But there is a serious side to the story of Iris Robinson, who also happens to be a member of Parliament and the wife of Peter Robinson — Northern Ireland's government leader.

The BBC reported that Iris Robinson allegedly solicited 50,000 pounds ($80,000) from businessmen so her young lover could open a restaurant — without disclosing the fact to lawmakers.

Iris Robinson has said she would not seek re-election because she was suffering clinical depression that left her unable to function in public life and revealed that she attempted suicide. She also begged forgiveness from her husband, Peter, and the public.
...

On Wednesday, Peter Robinson invited four journalists to his home to give his own agonized account of his family's private turmoil — an unprecedented display from a man renowned for an icy demeanor.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 71-year-old German woman has been arrested in Florida for murdering her grandson to keep him from growing up with divorced parents in the United States.
...
The police said on Wednesday the grandmother decided to kill the five-year-old boy during her holiday on St. George Island while her husband had gone shopping. After drowning her grandson in the bathtub, the woman identified as Marianne Bordt from Nufringen near Stuttgart vainly attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself in the ocean.
...
She told police she killed the boy, who has US citizenship, because she couldn’t bear to see him grow up in a broken home after his parents divorced in 2006. According to the authorities, the boy spent most of his time in Georgia with his mother, who is the murderer's daughter.

The grandmother now faces either the death penalty or life in prison should she be convicted of premeditated murder.'

In a new book called "Committed," Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of "Eat, Pray, Love," reveals her attitude toward making even small sacrifices for the sake of a relationship with a man. A review appearing in The Wall Street Journal, written by Meghan Cox Gurdon, describes the experience of Gilbert:

'She interviews her mother and friends about married life and learns that both husbands and wives need to make small personal sacrifices if the union is to succeed. This insight would seem stunningly self-evident to anyone who has ever tried to get along with anyone else, but it frightens Ms. Gilbert.
...
The spectacle of a celebrity author publicly working herself around to a position that she has already taken may seem a trifle sophomoric and more than a little self-indulgent. But here Elizabeth Gilbert is, a re-married woman. It would be churlish not to wish her and "Felipe" every happiness.'

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

'A 42 year old married man from Texas meets a 16 year old Ontario girl in an online chat group. Over the course of many months he grooms his relationship with her through the online chat group. During this time he comes to Canada more than once and sits outside the girl's home watching her and her family through the window.

Then, over the Christmas holidays, he flies to Toronto in order to meet the girl and spirit her off on a romantic rendezvous. When he is finally found with the girl by police he says he thought the girl was 20. No big deal right? No crime committed? The man involved would never be charged nor would he ever be arrested, right? Just a nice normal teenage fantasy playing out in the real world right?
...
Now let's consider the exact same story but change the married man to a married woman and change the 16 year old girl to a 16 year old boy.

Is there any difference in the way this case should be handled?

Story here. Excerpt:

'Texas authorities have arrested a Houston woman for allegedly luring a 16-year-old Barrie, Ont., boy from his home, after meeting him through an online video game.

Investigators believe Lauri Ann Price, a 42-year-old mother of four, struck up a relationship with the Ontario teenager about two years ago while playing the popular computer game World of Warcraft.

Donna Hawkins, a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, told CTV.ca that the two allegedly "engaged in a cybersexual relationship" for more than a year.

It is alleged that Price flew to Toronto last month, rented a car and drove to Barrie to pick up the teenager. Police said the boy left a note for his mother saying he was running away with Price.

The teenager was later found in Orillia, Ont., and was returned to his parents.'

Article here.

The latest person to weigh in on what really happened at the Tiger Woods home on the night of Nov. 27 is former Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens head coach Pat Burns.

Burns, a one-time police officer who lives Florida and reportedly has many law-enforcement contacts there, related what he's heard to a Montreal radio station on Tuesday morning. His version is very similar to that which first emerged on the blog of retired sports columnist Furman Bisher shortly before the new year. Nobody has been able to prove or disprove this version of events, but Burns adds another voice in support of it.

From MANN reader Ed:

To hear it from the Abusegaters, men are inherently abusive creatures, and women are utterly incapable of being physically aggressive with their partners.

That’s what the DV industry has been saying for years. No doubt about it, Abusegate represents one of the biggest scientific hoaxes of our time.

And how do the Abusegate propagandists get away with all the Ms.-Information? Simple... no one dares to challenge them, because they don’t want to be called “misogynist” or “anti-woman.”

But what if everyone decided at the same time to stand up and tell the truth? What if we all started saying “YOU LIE!”

It’s time to step up and speak out (and if you can say it with a smile, even better!): “Why are you telling only half the story?” “That’s not true!” “Stop stereotyping men as abusers!”

So what’s stopping us??

To learn more about the Abusegate myths, see: http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARreport-50-DV-Myths.pdf

Article here. Excerpt:

'Feminists will argue until they're blue in the face that women are victims of the Great Satanic Patriarchy. That tenet is laughable when one considers women are leading men on almost every indicator of social welfare.

But give them credit, feminists are a determined bunch. So in their crusade to spread the gospel of female victimization, they have established a network of domestic violence shelters around the nation. These programs resemble socialist thought reform experiments more than anything that can be considered to be professional counseling or crisis intervention.

To gain admittance to such facilities one must of course be female — after all, male victims of domestic violence are unlikely to benefit from a regimen of patriarchal deprogramming.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Married parents don't have any legal obligation to pay for their adult children's college education or living expenses. But a bill just introduced in Virginia's legislature would require divorced parents to pay for such expenses.

HB 146 would extend child support beyond age 18 to age 23 when the "child" is attending college. Right now, child support in Virginia usually ends soon after the child reaches the age of majority.

Please boycott Mary J. Blige for her abuse to her husband just as Chris Brown is being boycotted for his abuse to Rihanna.

Abuse transcends genders. Demand the end of the defending, minimizing, encouraging and denying abuse from females.

My YouTube video on this topic is here.

From MANN reader Ed:

“Abusegate” refers to the systematic distortion of the truth about partner aggression by representatives of the domestic violence industry. These falsehoods form the basis of a well-financed but harmful effort to curb partner violence.

In January, we are mounting a high-profile campaign to inform the American public about the truth of domestic violence. At the national level, the campaign will be waged on three fronts: