Article here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor Thursday as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. The vote was 68-31 for Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. She becomes the 111th justice and just the third woman to serve.

Democrats praised the 55-year-old Sotomayor as a mainstream moderate. But most Republicans voted against her, saying she'd bring personal bias and a liberal agenda to the bench.
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The Republicans said that they might disagree with some of her rulings, statements or views, but that she was well-qualified to serve on the nation's highest court.
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Like Democrats, many of them called Sotomayor's background inspirational. The daughter of Puerto Rican parents, she was raised in a South Bronx housing project, then educated in the Ivy League before rising to the highest legal echelons.'

Story here.

HOUSTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Jury selection began in Houston Thursday in the trial of a mother accused of cutting off her infant son's genitals and blaming the family dog.

Katherine Nadal, 28, said the dachshund did it when the boy was 5 weeks old on March 13, 2007.

Nadal tested positive for cocaine, methadone and a tranquilizer the day after the 2007 attack, a Child Protective Services spokeswoman said.

Investigators said they ruled out dog bites and accused the former Anahuac High School cheerleader of using a sharp instrument to remove his penis, The Houston Chronicle reported.

The boy's aunt, Patches DeShazo, who is caring for the child, said the toddler is recovering and still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Nadal is in jail in lieu of $75,000 bail.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'With endowments shrinking, donations falling and operating budgets squeezed, colleges and universities face great pressure to cut costs. Athletic departments are an obvious target. But, troublingly, men's sports are disproportionately bearing the brunt.

This year, men's programs across the country have gotten the third-strike call: swimming and soccer at Kutztown University (Pa.); baseball at the University of Northern Iowa; football at Western Washington; wrestling at Delaware State, Portland State and Carson-Newman. MIT, which has one of the largest athletic departments in the nation, eliminated men's teams in gymnastics, ice hockey, golf, wrestling, alpine skiing and pistol.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It is Friday evening at Liverpool Street station, London, and while browsing commuters kill time in WH Smith before their trains, a dozen young women attack a stand of lads’ magazines. Over the covers of Nuts, Zoo, GQ and Loaded — “50 Boobiest Blondes”, “Summer’s real breast fest” — they slip brown paper bags adorned with handwritten slogans: “Don’t be Nuts — get this sexism out of my face”, “Stop mainstreaming porn”, “FHM: For Horrible Misogyny”.

Story here. Excerpt:

'There is acting and then there is the Academy Award-worthy performance put on by Dalia Dippolito on Wednesday morning after cops told her that her newly wed husband had been murdered.

A second after the words were uttered by Boynton Beach police, Dippolito broke down in tears and hysterical screams at the thought of her beloved husband leaving this earth. Her townhouse was surrounded by detectives and crime scene investigators.
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Turns out Dippolito had hired a hitman to kill her husband of only six months -- or so she thought he was a hitman. It turned out to be an undercover Boynton Beach cop.'

The story of a woman who apparently killed her husband (John Housman) in Boulder, Colorado affirms what has become our cultural norm: if a woman kills a man, he must have deserved it.

The Denver Post called the murder a tragedy. The Boulder Daily Camera has now run two stories, including this one, describing Housman's various past sins, including the contents of an e-mail from an ex-wife who assures us the killer must have acted in self-defense. The murder victim apparently had a bad temper, was ticketed was for DV, and harassed a former landlord.

It's difficult to imagine any newspaper running a story that suggests, implies, hints that a murdered woman deserved to die. But the BDC has now run two suggesting Housman deserved to die. Excerpt:

'BOULDER, Colo. — Nine years ago, in the throes of a divorce, John Housman — then 32 — was ticketed for domestic violence after threatening to kill his wife and “bash” her face in, according to a Boulder police report made public Wednesday.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Topics of national and international import – the swine flu pandemic, doctors' hours, bankers' bonuses, war in Afghanistan, turbulence in Iran – are of no concern to the woman in charge while Gordon chews his nails in a sodden Lake District and rues the political necessity of having to take a holiday at home. Instead, Miss Harman's fixation with "equality" continues – although her ranting has taken on a disturbing shrillness reminiscent of the "all men are rapists" school of feminism.
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There is no question that Miss Harman has her eye on a forthcoming vacancy. But she may come to regret her outburst this week. It has alienated a majority of women, who know, instinctively or through experience, that without merit there can never be a meritocracy.'

Crespo vs. Crespo – the case that gave new hope to anyone who was ever hit with an unwarranted domestic violence restraining order - was back in the spotlight as the New Jersey Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision that vacated a final restraining order (FRO) against defendant Anibal Crespo.

For those unfamiliar with judicial standards of proof, there are three levels:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Harriet Harman has been acting Prime Minister for only a week, but in those seven days she's unleashed a veritable blitzkrieg against the male sex.

Today we report that, to the fury of the Justice Department, she's been trying to grab the limelight in a move to make the law on rape even tougher towards men.

On the same day, she's almost certainly used her influence to force the Home Office to conclude that the most serious crime problem facing Britain is the threat to young women, despite statistics showing that young men are the most likely victims of crime.

Scarce resources are being diverted to silly ideas like compulsory lessons in domestic violence.

On Monday, she opined that if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters it wouldn't have gone broke.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Harriet Harman has vetoed a review of the rape laws at the eleventh hour, complaining that the proposals fail to address the concerns of women.

Article here. Excerpt:

'All-women shortlists have brought more females into the Commons, but not improved its performance. Of course, it should be illegal to promote only on the basis of colour, religion, or gender — and it is. Certainly much better than 40 years ago, when I needed a man’s signature to open a bank account. But we long since got to that point, and beyond. What’s upsetting is the gap between Harriet’s priorities and the nation’s real needs. Here we are, struggling with the mother and father of all recessions, with the worst government deficit and national debt in recorded history, in which everyone is desperately trying to hang on to their jobs and pay the mortgage. Then there’s the war in Afghanistan and the terrible toll of young soldiers sent to fight it.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Harriet Harman has been making headlines which will have troubled many of her male colleagues in government - not to mention the male population at large.
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The overall theme suggested by some papers is that Harriet Harman is using her time standing-in for the holidaying Gordon Brown to promote her own "feminist agenda".

The other suggestion is that Ms Harman is using her stint as "temporary PM" to flag-up her credentials in preparation for a tilt at the "top job".
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Harriet Harman once joked that if she became prime minister "there wouldn't be enough airports for all the men who would want to flee the country".

Article here. Excerpt:

'Pupils as young as five will be taught about the evils of 'wife beating' and the need to form healthy relationships.

The lessons are part of a controversial drive, unveiled today, to reduce violence against women and young girls.

They will include teaching boys that they must not beat their partners or any other female.
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This is despite evidence showing that boys and young men are more than twice as likely to fall victim to violence, and that young women are becoming increasingly aggressive.
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She added: 'It is young men who are most likely to be the victims of violent crime. It is a distortion to suggest otherwise. It appears that everything must be viewed through the prism of 1960s feminism.'
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It came as the Government prepared to announce the introduction of new Violent Offender Orders for wife beaters and other violent thugs being released from jail.

Video report here. Caption:

'A mom is arrested after dragging her son through a store on a leash. Did she go too far? Prime News reports.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – A mother drank vodka and smoked marijuana while taking a vanload of children home from a weekend camping trip that ended in disaster when she went the wrong way on a highway and crashed into an SUV, killing eight people, police said Tuesday.

Diane Schuler, who died along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces in her red minivan, had more than 10 drinks of alcohol in her system and a high level of the main ingredient in marijuana, authorities said. A broken 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in her wrecked minivan, police said.

The revelations from the 36-year-old Long Island woman's autopsy helped explain how the woman her family called "an accomplished working mother who always put her children before any other priorities" wound up driving the wrong way for nearly two miles on a suburban parkway before slamming into the SUV.'