Article here. Excerpt:

'Sadly, statistics bear out these writers' pessimism. Academically, boys lag behind almost from the day they're born. They are four times more likely to be expelled from nursery, are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and, because they are seen as more demanding, wait twice as long to be adopted in some parts of the UK.

Some of the challenges associated with raising sons are integral to their gender: their surplus energy means they require to be exercised daily, while their desire to avoid meaningful conversation means more effort is required to keep the lines of communication open. Other difficulties are the result of social change – the large number of single parent families means many boys are growing up not only without male role models, but with mothers whose own experiences with men may be negative.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In terms of strategies and recommendations, Edwards and Harris suggested first giving college men permission to stop performing and to be themselves. “It’s really about creating some kind of balance to the external pressure,” said Harris. “We talk about challenge and support, challenging the negative behavior.”

Edwards and Harris also recommended providing opportunities for critical self-reflection about what it means to be a man – “to disrupt the functioning of hegemonic masculinity” – including through facilitated student affairs programming and academic courses (a course in women’s studies, for instance). They recommended a need to build "cultural competence" for faculty and staff in issues of gender. While many in the audience lauded the transformative impact of small group discussions among men, one common point was the need for a facilitator who really understands gender dynamics.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'...Hostility toward men and masculinity begins in daycare and increases each year thereafter. Sexual harassment training and policies have created an uncertain environment, if not a hostile one, where men have to watch their every word and action lest it be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Some experts criticize a campus "worldview that sees things only in terms of oppressors and the oppressed." Typically, the few campus men's studies programs are designed to push an anti-masculinity agenda.
...
Actually, the solution is much simpler: create an environment starting in kindergarten that teaches children to respect masculine traits. To do otherwise is to discriminate against our sons and brothers.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Germans also gave us the concept of kindergarten, which has become the foundation of public education.

Well, a couple years ago, the Germans came up with an extension of the kindergarten concept. It’s for women fed up with their partner grumbling about having to go on shopping ventures. Thanks to progressive thinking, a fraulein who wants to shop ’til she drops doesn’t have listen to a man whine, “Is it time to go, yet?” She can drop off her male at Maennergarten.

Maennergarten is a day care service for men. And guys, before you get all huffy and go into macho outrage at the notion of “hubbie kindergarten,” check out this deal.

First, Maennergarten day care isn’t held in a private home owned by someone named Bertha, with three dozen screaming, drooling, snot-nosed kids climbing all over you.

Nah. Maennergarten is held at watering holes, like a bistro in downtown Hamburg called the Nox Bar. The only screaming, drooling, snot-nosed humans present are other grown up males!'

Article here. Excerpt:

'PHILADELPHIA - A woman accused of staging an abduction hoax that began near Philadelphia and ended at Florida's Walt Disney World was returned to Pennsylvania in police custody on Friday and was held on $1 million bail.

A drained-looking Bonnie Sweeten appeared in an Orlando, Fla., courtroom for a brief hearing Friday morning before detectives from Bucks County, Pa., escorted her to the airport for the flight home.
...
Defense lawyer Louis R. Busico told reporters before the court appearance that Sweeten, 38, is not a flight risk and was not running from the law when she went to Florida with her 9-year-old daughter.

"It's not a crime to take your kid to Disney World," Busico said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'For more than three months, Scott Michael Waite wore an electronic ankle bracelet that made him a prisoner in his own home. With his reputation sullied and his life put on hold, he sat accused of raping a 26-year-old woman he had met in an Oakdale bar on a cold January night.

But in a recent unique turn of events, after an exhaustive investigation by his attorney, Ryan Garry, prosecutors dropped the charges in April. Waite, 29, now must rebuild his life.

"I'm pretty shook up by the whole thing," Waite said. "I was treated like a complete criminal. To hear people say these malicious things about me is really hurtful."

The case was dropped "in the interest of justice" and was an unusual one "where we get information after the fact and feel we really can't prove our case at all," said Susan Harris, first assistant attorney in Washington County. "In this particular case, they found a lot of people willing to come forward and speak against [the accuser]."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Concord woman who claimed her boyfriend tried to rape her has been arrested and charged with false reporting.

The police are still trying to figure out what exactly happened between Tabitha Carbone, 18, and Andrew Trudell, 25, early May 22, when Carbone told the police that Trudell grabbed, choked, and tried to rape her after she said she wanted to break up with him.

But prosecutors have dropped the charge of attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault against Trudell, who was arrested after a foot chase the night of May 22. His bail, originally set at $100,000 cash, was reduced and converted to personal recognizance. He left the Merrimack County Jail on Wednesday.'

Two "men of a certain age" have just launched Men's Space, a new social networking site for mature men. The site, http://www.mens-space.com/, will provide a platform for men over 30 or even younger, to air and share their views because, said co-founder John Murphy (64), "There is so much support for women but men seem to have to tough it out for themselves".

Co-founder Tony Reid (a little older) said "We want to give men a voice again. A "man of a certain age" can be a man of any age, so long as he wants to engage with other men in a grown-up manner". The Men’s Space site will have a very different demographic to the likes of Facebook and that is the target.

Men's Space has the usual facilities to be expected of a social networking site, including the main forum, the ability to form groups and profiles with photo galleries.

Story here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON – The White House says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor acknowledges she made a poor word choice in a 2001 speech in which she said that a Latina judge would often reach a better conclusion than a white male judge who hasn't lived the same life.

That's according to presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs. He says he has not talked directly to Sotomayor about it but has spoken to people who have.'

So she is saying she made a "poor choice of words". At least, she is said to have said to have said something like that. That is, someone is saying he heard from someone else that she said words to that effect, or in some way acknowledged it.

"Poor choice of words". I wonder what "choice of words" she would choose today to express the sentiment, whatever it was, since her first choice of words was, apparently, "poor" -- or so we are told by someone told by someone else who said she said something like that.

Article here. Excerpt:

'OK, GIVE yourselves some credit. You had this Bonnie Sweeten abduction pegged for a hoax by morning coffee break Wednesday.

Anybody around the water cooler with an IQ of 65 or above was starting to sense that the by-now hardy perennial tale of the missing blue-eyed blonde being hijacked by those handy, hulking black men from Central Casting was bogus.

Don't gloat too much, though. The odor of week-old carp was wafting off of this one from the moment the call came in from the damn'dsel in distress.
...
The paper trail she left behind was easier to follow than the bread crumbs Hansel and Gretel left on their trek through the woods. Her inevitable conviction may be a deterrent to the next fable spinner.

But this is small solace to hundreds of black men who have found themselves in the dragnet after one of these bogus yarns. Some of them have been convicted on the basis of lies not much better than this one.

Looks like it's teacher-student-statutory-rape-story-Friday here on MANN. One more here. This one's a real shocker, but is anyone really surprised when so many female teachers get away with it so easily so often? Excerpt:

'It was inside a second-story classroom where police said Weber gave one of her students an up close and personal lesson in sex education.
...
...But authorities said the 27-year-old took particular interest in one student, having sex with the teen seven times from mid-April to mid-May, all after school.

She allegedly told him: "Don't tell anyone. I could get arrested and I could lose my teaching license."

Investigators said after the boy's mother was tipped off by school employees, she checked her son's cell phone and found hundreds of calls and texts from Weber, the last text reading, "erase your phone."'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'FLINT, Michigan -- A showdown is coming between former Flint Mayor Don Williamson and 45 city police officers who claim they are the victims of reverse discrimination.

And it could cost Flint taxpayers millions if the cops win.

A federal judge this week refused the city's request to toss a lawsuit that claims Williamson passed over qualified white officers when he handpicked five officers for his Citizens Service Bureau in 2006.

Four of the officers were black men and one was a white woman.

The lawsuit filed by 45 white officers claims that Williamson "unlawfully discriminated against them when Williamson personally selected officers on the basis of race" for the department.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'During the 3:00PM EST hour on MSNBC on Wednesday, political analyst Pat Buchanan wondered why President Obama’s short list for the Supreme Court only included women, in response, anchor Norah O’Donnell declared: "Did it ever occur to you, Pat, that maybe there weren’t any white men who were qualified?"

Buchanan replied: "No, it did not occur to me...You mean there are no white males qualified? That is – that would be an act of bigotry to make a statement like that." O’Donnell defended her remark by claiming past discrimination against women in the nominating process: "In the past there have been no women that have been qualified." Buchanan argued: "They certainly have been qualified in the past. I don’t doubt there are. But probably half of the great lawyers and judges are white males in this country. And to rule them out, why? Because of their sex and because of their race is wrong, I think. At least it’s affirmative action."'