Information here. Political conservatives are putting on a conference today, Saturday September 19, in Washington, D.C. One of the breakout sessions is entitled, "The New Masculinity," and calls for a redefinition of masculinism and feminism as "compliments" to each other. You can watch the conference live (Eastern Standard Time, GMT -5). From the schedule:

2009 Value Voters Summit
Date: Saturday, September 19
Sponsored by FRC Action: The legislative action arm of the Family Research Council

Breakout session #2:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Why hasn't it worked? Perhaps it's because making rape prevention the responsibility of young women teaches students that guys can't be expected to be responsible for their own actions. Not surprisingly, that results in student bodies eager to let rapists off the hook and campus policies (like the one recently implemented at Tufts that forces victims into "mediation" with their rapists) that treat rape as an unfortunate disagreement instead of like the violent crime it is. Make no mistake about the danger of these equanimous attitudes -- in his 2002 landmark study of 1,882 male college students in the Boston area, Dr. David Lisak demonstrated that most campus rapes are perpetrated not by well-meaning boys confused about consent but by repeat-offender sociopaths who know exactly what they're doing. Treating rape like an unfortunate but understandable miscommunication doesn’t just deny victims justice and downplay the traumatic nature of the experience -- it allows rapists to remain free to rape again and again.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'(CNN) -- A Maryland mother faces assault charges for allegedly ordering a group of teens to beat up a 14-year-old who was stabbed in the ensuing melee, Baltimore County police said Friday.

Kimberley Lyn Cudanin, 34, told her 16-year-old son and at least four of his friends to attack Malaki Malloy as retaliation for a recent assault against her 14-year-old son, police said in a news release.

On Saturday night, Cudanin drove some of the teens to where Malloy was, about a mile from her home, police said. Those teens and others at the scene then beat and stabbed Malloy and three friends who were with him, police said.

Malloy was released from the University of Maryland Medical Center's shock trauma center Monday, hospital spokeswoman Cindy Rivers said Friday.

Cudanin and her son Andre were arrested Monday and face first- and second-degree assault charges, police spokesman Bill Toohey said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The absence of strong men’s organizations became painfully evident recently in Sweden when there was a prominent debate in the media about male circumcision (there is no Swedish tradition to circumcise men, but we have lots of Muslim immigrants and also a small Jewish community that practise circumcision). The only ones who spoke up against male circumcision were a few male surgeons who refused to perform the procedure, even though the Swedish government has ordered hospitals to offer this service to those who want it. A survey later showed that two thirds of surgeons were reluctant to circumcise healthy boys.

Anyhow, the main point is that no men’s organization spoke up because there are no men’s organizations in Sweden that could speak up. Where the men’s groups should have been, was only a compact vacuum.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Attorneys for Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberer have formally asked a Nevada court to sanction the lawyer for the woman who accused him of rape.

Roethlisberger's attorneys claim that Cal Dunlap, the lawyer for Andrea McNulty, allowed her to bring forth a civil suit alleging rape when he knew the story was not true.

In court papers, Roethlisberger's team team said that Dunlap "welded together false allegations to punish (the plaintiff's) employer and coerce a windfall from an admired, civic minded and successful professional football star."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Both rape and rape accusations are products of the roles assigned by rape culture. In the traditional seduction scenario, a woman is expected to not desire to have sex, and to only submit after the man has successfully coerced her into submission. When the preferred model for consensual sex looks a hell of a lot like rape, an array of fucked-up scenarios are inevitable: the woman never wanted to fuck the guy, refuses to submit, and is raped; the woman submits to the man’s coercion in order to avoid other negative consequences (like being raped); the woman had desired the sex all along, but must defend her femininity by saying that she had been coerced into sex. Thankfully, a good deal of modern men and women reject these antiquated ideas, but they’re far from being banished from the sexual landscape. Especially when that landscape involves four men, one woman, and freshman year of college.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'First Lady Michelle Obama made the case Friday morning that health care reform is a women's issue and called on female activists to support President Obama's reform plan.

"Health insurance reform and what it means for our families is very much a women's issue," Obama said, speaking to a group of female advocacy leaders at the White House. "If we want to ensure women have opportunities that they deserve, if we want women to be able to care for their families and pursue things they could never imagine, then we have to reform the system."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK (CNN) -- Four young men falsely accused of raping an 18-year-old student at Hofstra University were trying to return to their normal lives Friday after an ordeal that two of them described as traumatic.
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Authorities dropped charges and freed the four men hours after their accuser changed her story about having been forcibly tied up and sexually assaulted in a dormitory bathroom.
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The woman recanted her story Wednesday after authorities told her that part of the incident was recorded on a cell phone video, Rice said.

"That was when she began to tell the truth," she said.
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Authorities have not released the accuser's name.

"I believe that it is a question of potential safety for her, and the investigation is ongoing," Rice said.

It is against the law to report a crime when there was not one, Rice said. Authorities gave no indication whether the woman may face charges.

"Her actions and her demeanor depict a very troubled young woman in need of much help," Rice said.'

Video here. More on Dr. Edell is found here. Excerpt:

'In 1978, Edell began broadcasting regularly on KGO AM 810 radio in San Francisco. The Dr. Dean Edell radio program has been in continuous production since then, and is currently (2005) syndicated to 90 markets by Premiere Radio Networks, and airs weekday afternoons on America's Talk on XM Radio. Its opening theme music (presently, in 2008) is "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Men who smoke and let fat clog their arteries die a decade earlier than those who don’t.

Scientists looking for a connection between life expectancy and cardiovascular risk factors combed through the Whitehall study, a survey of 19,019 male civil servants that started in London in the late 1960s.

They found that those who had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoked in middle age died about 10 years earlier than the others after reaching age 50. The findings are published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal. The reduction in life expectancy was even greater when the researchers factored in body mass index and diabetes.

In the study, the researchers found smoking shortened life by about six years and married men tended to live about two years longer.'

Article here. Okay, get the barf bag ready: wives are indeed the better half. MSNBC and psychologist Carin Rubenstein say so. Women do it all; men do next to nothing. Excerpt:

'It turns out that a majority of married couples — about two out of three — are just like us: the wife is the one who can't get hit by a truck. She's the one who develops expertise in nearly all aspects of modern life; she becomes the de facto master of the marital domain while also earning a significant part of the family income.

Article here

'An 11-year-old Fresno boy was hospitalized Wednesday after he was stabbed by a 25-year-old woman, police said.

The victim suffered injuries to his chest, collarbone and back that were not considered life-threatening, police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said.

He was in stable condition Wednesday night at Community Regional Medical Center.

Police arrested the woman and booked her into jail on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Police have recovered an ink pen.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'CANTON — A Canton man was stabbed in the chest during an argument early Thursday morning and his wife was jailed.

Tanisha Baker, 35, of 1462 Gibbs Ave. NE, was booked into the Stark County Jail on a felonious assault charge and held in lieu of $50,000 bond, jail records said.

Canton Police reports said Anthony J. Baker, 34, of the same address, was stabbed in the chest with a knife during an argument at their home at 4 a.m.

The records did not provide details about the argument.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'BULLHEAD CITY - Police arrested the wife of a Bullhead City Council member on Monday following a domestic violence incident at the couple's home.

Cyndie Renee McClure, 52, was arrested on suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct, both per domestic violence, at approximately 7:30 p.m. Monday in the 1500 block of Garnet Lane.

John “Mickey” McClure, 67, allegedly told police that he and his wife had been drinking at the Elks Lodge and that his wife got mad at him when they returned home and punched him in the face.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - David Moran calls the 1986 trial against Karl Vinson a "scientific train wreck."

Moran is co-director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic at U of M. He says prosecutors presented false evidence at the original trial, including the fact that they called Vinson a "non-secretor," meaning his blood type wouldn't show up in any semen found at the scene of the crime.
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"We know," says Moran, "and the evidence shows, and every scientist we've consulted says that he is conclusively exonerated."'