Story here. Excerpt:

'Women's groups that had been urging President Obama to select the fourth female Supreme Court nominee in American history greeted his choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor with enthusiasm.
...
The National Organization for Women also cheered the nomination of Sotomayor and president Kim Gandy said it would launch a campaign to ensure her "swift confirmation."

"Judge Sotomayor will serve the nation with distinction. She brings a lifelong commitment to equality, justice and opportunity, as well as the respect of her peers, unassailable integrity, and a keen intellect informed by experience. President Obama said he wanted a justice with 'towering intellect' and a 'common touch' and he found both in Judge Sotomayor," Gandy said in a statement calling for Sotomayor's confirmation before the Senate's August recess.'

Video report here. Truth once again is stranger than fiction. Continental Airlines is suing some pilots who "faked" their divorces so they could get their pension distributions early rather than take the chance that their employer will go out of business and eat the pension fund.

The bigger picture here, aside from jobs being in danger and people acting thusly, is the fact that these kinds of policies encourage couples to split up rather than stay together. As for the comments regarding the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, I doubt most people believe this, even if it is true, in the face of so many institutions considered solid just a year ago turning out to have feet of clay.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Maine East High School teacher is being held on $50,000 bond after she was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse as a result of an eight-month relationship she admitted to police she has had with a former student, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said.

Jennifer Espinosa, 38, of Park Ridge, told Cook County Sheriff’s Police investigators she “loves” the 16-year-old boy, who was expelled from Maine East in September and is a known Sureno 13 gang member, investigators said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A former assistant attorney general alleges in a whistleblower suit filed May 18 that the Texas Office of the Attorney General fired her in 2008 for reporting that two OAG attorneys in the Dallas child support office tried "to suborn perjured testimony" from her about a Dallas judge.

This story on the Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye this morning, with the headline "Bedroom ad ruled offensive to men". Quote:

'The Advanced Medical Institute (AMI) has been forced to pull a television commercial for longer lasting sex because it "vilified and shamed" men.

But the AMI says it is appealing the "bizarre" ruling on the advertisement, which features former A Country Practice police officer Sergeant Frank Gilroy entering a couple's bedroom after what is perceived to be a rather short love-making session.
...
"The ruling from the ASB says this ad is discriminating against and vilifying men who are suffering serious health problems such as premature ejaculation," he said.

"Of course they're serious problems - these are the very men we're trying to reach with this ad.

"It wouldn't be very effective advertising if we were upsetting the very people we're trying to talk to about available help, so we're planning on appealing this bizarre decision."

Article here. Excerpt:

'Feminists will probably jump all over me, but here's the real deal.

Many of us joined the women's movement decades ago without looking ahead to see what repercussions our actions would have on both our families and the economy. Now, most of us have to work, which leaves our husbands and children angry because no one is at home tending the hearth.

Our choice to be independent of men financially and of the family structure creates a wide range of problems in our children. And many men feel displaced and angry now because women are competing with them at work.

Far too many women are willing to go it alone and risk poverty and instability for shallow reasons of "self-empowerment" rather than trying to work out their marital challenges. Families need both parents in the household - not just economically but also spiritually and morally.

Story here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama chose federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, praising her as "an inspiring woman" with both the intellect and compassion to interpret the Constitution wisely.
...
In one of her most notable decisions, as an appellate judge she sided last year with the city of New Haven, Conn., in a discrimination case brought by white firefighters. The city threw out results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough. Coincidentally, that case is now before the Supreme Court.
...
As a federal appeals court judge in 2002, she ruled against an abortion rights group that had challenged a government policy prohibiting foreign organizations receiving U.S. funds from performing or supporting abortions.

In her opinion, Sotomayor wrote that the government was free to favor the anti-abortion position over a pro-choice position when public funds were involved.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Under prevailing law, which is based on the Brown University case brought by women gymnasts whose team had been eliminated in a university-wide cutback, institutions must "fully accommodate" the interests and abilities of women to participate in intercollegiate sports. It is not simply a matter of eliminating equal numbers of men's and women's teams or even equal numbers of opportunities to participate for each gender. Women's teams simply cannot be eliminated unless a college can prove that females in the student body have their interests in participating fully met. Unless college women suddenly decide that they no longer wish to pursue college athletics, schools will have to save money by cutting only men's teams or finding some other means to balance their budgets. They can always follow the Brandeis University approach of either selling their artwork (which Brandeis ultimately decided not to do) or cutting pension contributions for their loyal employees (which Brandeis decided to do last week).'

Story here.

'MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police have charged a woman who they say used a child car seat with a 2-month-old infant inside to hit a Wal-Mart employee.

Detective Monique Martin said in a news release Monday that Camilla Fields of Memphis, Tenn., was charged with felony child abuse and neglect and assault. Police did not know if she had an attorney.

A police report from the Wednesday incident says Fields was carrying the car seat when she was confronted by a security guard about shoplifting.

Police say Fields threw the seat and ran away, causing the baby to land face down on the pavement. A paramedic treated the baby until the child regained consciousness.

The child's mother, Stacey Cleaves, was also charged with false reporting and child neglect.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The Women Airforce Service Pilots was born in 1942 to create a corps of female pilots able to fill all types of flying jobs at home to free male military pilots to travel to the front.

In the days after the outbreak of the war, Jacqueline Cochran, one of the country's leading female pilots at the time, went to a key general to argue that women would be just as capable pilots as men if they were given the same training.

She won the argument, and the program was launched.
...
Some 65 years after their service, the WASPs are being honored with the Congressional Gold Medal [hyperlink added] -- one of the national's [sic] highest civilian honors.
...
"This is a largely overlooked veterans group. They haven't gotten the medals they deserve, the recognition they deserve," Ros-Lehtinen told CNN.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'As low- and semi-skilled manual jobs disappear, working-class men are getting hammered - and so is their masculinity. “Manual labour has been a key source of identity, pride, self-esteem and power for working-class men,” says a recent British study, which set out to probe a fascinating question: What makes these men so unemployable?

Article here. Excerpt:

"I can't tell you the number of women, including Michelle, who say choose the person you think is going to be best," President Obama said in an interview airing today on C-SPAN.

Michelle Obama understands the nomination of a woman to the Supreme Court in a way her husband cannot.
...
Those feminists who continue to insist that the president should nominate a woman to the bench in order to balance the numbers to reflect the population are demeaning all professional women.

In my career in politics and the media, I have never gotten a job because my boss needed a woman. I was hired for my hard work ethic, experience, intelligence, and skills.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The current economic crisis has thrown such touchy issues into sharp relief. With the recession intensifying financial pressures on millions of families, many men have lost—or are afraid of losing—their jobs. Even in prosperous times, husbands often feel threatened when their partners’ achievements or incomes surpass their own. More than a quarter of working wives now outearn their spouses, and as women’s economic empowerment and professional clout transform the American marriage, couples are becoming increasingly egalitarian. But even if a husband remains the major breadwinner, his wife’s financial autonomy may threaten his control or erode a fragile sense of self-worth. Needless to say, problems can be greatly exacerbated if the man’s economic power is diminished or jeopardized.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who was allegedly raped by a man whom she met on MySpace.com now says the sex was consensual, according to Orlando Police.

The woman told officers earlier this week that the man raped her when she went to his apartment on Westgate Drive.

The 21-year-old woman told officers she met the man, 25, on MySpace.com on April 20 and began talking to him on the phone and via e-mail.

According to a police report the woman went to the man's apartment on Tuesday afternoon to hang out there and eventually leave to go hang out somewhere else together.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'"Do as your wife commands and never question her authority": this advice to husbands came in a lighter vein from a vacation Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma. The judges asked them to adhere to this time-tested formula.
...
The Bench’s banter did reflect the traditional sympathetic view that the law and the courts adopt towards the fair sex. Law considers matrimonial relationship to be sacred and takes a strict view of anyone polluting it.

Take for example the offence of adultery, which is punishable under Section 497 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). The offence, as defined in IPC, can only be committed by a man, not by a woman! In Sowmithiri Vishnu vs Union of India (1985 SCC Sup 137), the SC held, “Indeed, the section provides expressly that the wife shall not be punishable even as an abettor... The contemplation of law is that the wife, who is involved in an illicit relationship with another man, is a victim and not the author of the crime.”'