Article here. Excerpt:

'Men are two and a half times more likely to file for bankruptcy than women, possibly because they are less efficient at running their finances, according to research by Tenon Recovery. More than 430 of the 600 bankruptcies handled by Tenon last year involved men. The firm said anecdotal evidence suggested women were less likely to fall into insolvency because they were more efficient at tasks such as keeping financial records and collecting payments.

"Women's strong organisational skills could go some way to explaining why they are better at managing their finances than men,' said Carl Jackson, head of Tenon Recovery.

More women are losing their jobs in this recession than in previous slumps. But research by NatWest and Everywoman has found that female business owners are more likely to take a structured approach to running a firm, with 55% following a business plan, compared with only 34% of men. They are also more willing to take advice. Both of these traits could help female businesses survive the crunch.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When Hilary Black ditched her boyfriend two years ago she didn’t exactly expect sympathy – she was, after all, breaking his heart – but she assumed her girlfriends would rally round, assuring her she’d done the right thing.

Instead her decision was met with gasps of surprise and barely disguised disapproval. The boyfriend concerned was rich, you see. Very rich. “One of my friends actually said, ‘Are you crazy? This guy could take care of you for life!’” says Black.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Arriving in stores this month are "The Boys' Book of Survival: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere" and "The Girls' Book of Glamour: A Guide to Being a Goddess."

This newfound embrace of "la difference," as the French say, can be traced to the astonishing international success of 2006's "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by British authors Conn and Hal Iggulden.

The book - which instructs boys in manly pursuits such as building treehouses, skipping stones and learning Latin - was catnip for conservative critics with ears for Christina Hoff Sommers' argument in "The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men" that modern American educational theory is inordinately troubled by blossoming masculinity, with the practical consequence that boys are disadvantaged in classrooms.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'MANILA, Philippines—A high-ranking Vatican official currently in Manila has warned of the erosion of manhood and the “crisis in fatherhood” that have resulted in millions of children worldwide without a father or enjoying emotionally healthy relations with one.

German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” the Vatican dicastery (or administrative agency) on charity, aid and relief, blamed “gender mainstreaming” and “radical feminism” for attacking biological manhood and insisting that “sexual roles are learned.”

He said men are demeaned and what is held up as an ideal is a man who is feminized and emasculated, one who, in a European study, is held up to be “a sweeter man.”
...
Cordes said statistics around the world “confirm that today the self-understanding of manhood and especially fatherhood is in crisis.”
...
Some newspapers hailed this as ‘the end of fatherhood.’”

Story here. Excerpt:

'Unprecedented plans to give bureaucrats the power to revoke people’s driving licences and passports without going through the courts will be unveiled this week.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell will announce the far-reaching proposals on Tuesday as part of a new crackdown on absent fathers who refuse to pay for the upkeep of their children.

Officials in charge of pursuing them for child maintenance arrears would win the right to bypass judges and ban them from driving or travelling abroad at the stroke of a pen.
...
But in December 2007, the respected Lords’ constitution committee warned that giving State officials the power to cancel passports would be a ‘serious’ curtailment of long-standing freedoms.’

It added: ‘The freedom to travel to and from one’s country is a right of great significance and should only be curtailed after a rigorous decision process.’

Story here. Excerpt:

' A BBC personality has shattered her ex-boyfriend's life by falsely accusing him of rape.

The woman, who has broadcast to television audiences of millions, accused him of raping her 40 times throughout their two-and-a-half-year relationship.

He was arrested, held in a police cell and handcuffed as police searched his flat for evidence of his crime. But she retracted her allegation weeks later, and the officer investigating the claims described them as 'inconsistent' and 'not credible'.

Despite the lack of evidence, the incident remains on the Police National Computer thanks to a legal loophole, which campaigners say is blighting the lives of falsely accused men.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In Agent Provocateur's most racy advertising campaign yet, model-of-the-moment Rosie Huntington Whiteley gives her on-screen lover an adults-only lap dance.

The nearly three-minute film culminates in her thumping her boyfriend across the face to remind men not to forget Valentine's Day.
...
Huntington Whiteley proceeds to tie him up, faux bondage-style, before blindfolding him with a black tie.

With the sound of his heavy breathing in the background, the girlfriend marches over and punches him in the face.

'This will teach you to forget Valentine's Day,' she says, and then marches off.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'CHEERS erupted from the public gallery at Doncaster Crown Court after a teenager was cleared of rape charges.

Dean Bunn, aged 19, broke down in tears and had to be helped from the dock when he was overcome by emotion at the end of his six-month ordeal.
...
Mr Bunn, of Pickering Road, Bentley, was first arrested in early July when he went to a police station after seeing a cordon thrown around the alleged crime scene next to Bentley railway bridge.

He told police he had had sex with a woman in bushes at the bottom of the bridge embankment, but said she instigated it – something he maintained throughout two trials.
...
A second trial, in which the 36-year-old woman who had cried rape gave evidence by video link for a second time, concluded yesterday with Mr Bunn's acquittal.

In his defence he said he had been walking from a pub at Carcroft to town when he met the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Bentley Road near the bridge. He had never met her before.

Story here. Excerpt:

'CLEVELAND - A mother charged with aggravated murder in the bathtub drownings of her two daughters was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday.

A three-judge panel in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court determined that 23-year-old Amber Hill suffered from a severe mental disorder when she drowned her daughters on Oct. 1, 2007.

"The court concludes she did not know the wrongfulness of her horrific acts," said Judge John Sutula.
...
"Now my daughter can get some help," she said. During the trial, Hutchins had testified that she wanted to take her daughter to a hospital for mental health counseling before the children died.

Mack said Hill had since been medicated and was functioning well.

"She was a good mother," said the defense attorney Myron Watson. "She cared for those children. Those children were the center of her life."'

Story here. Eureka! A win for the good guys! If you can find the judges email address send her kudos. Heck if I knew where I would send her flowers. Way to go judge!!!! Excerpt:

'In a stunning and unusual family law decision, a Toronto judge has stripped a mother of custody of her three children after the woman spent more than a decade trying to alienate them from their father.

The mother's "consistent and overwhelming" campaign to brainwash the children into thinking their father was a bad person was nothing short of emotional abuse, Justice Faye McWatt of the Superior Court of Justice wrote in her decision.

The three girls, ages 9 to 14, were brought to a downtown courthouse last Friday and turned over to their father, a vascular surgeon identified only as A.L.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Federal Prosecutors say an alleged sexual assault and attack in the Waldo neighborhood was staged.

Federal prosecutors charged Julie Bernet, 39, of Bucrys, Mo. And Gordon Reabe, Jr., 33 of Lee’s Summit, Mo. with wire fraud on Thursday.

Court documents say Bernet and 23-year old Lindsey Crawford offered to pay Reabe $100,000 to duct tape them and assault both women inside Carwford’s garage on Nov. 25, 2008.
...
Prosecutors say the women hoped the attacks would force a higher settlement of their sexual harassment lawsuit against a former employer.

Bernet and Crawford filed the lawsuit against former employer Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City last year, citing gender discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile work environment and retaliation.

Court documents indicate Bernet ran across the street to a neighbor’s house, claiming two masked men attacked them the home minutes after Reabe assaulted them.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'On Jan. 1, Massachusetts adopted new child-support guidelines that will likely raise the amount paid by non-custodial parents, usually fathers.

Are the new guidelines excessive and unfair, as a lawsuit charges? Or were the old guidelines too stingy? How much child support is enough? How much is too much?

Fathers & Families, a Boston-based advocacy organization, says the payments under the new guidelines are excessive. Non-custodial parents, usually fathers, who must now make increased payments could be forced to work long hours or move to a distant community to find housing they can afford.
...
"Currently the guidelines tell the minimum wage employee whose income is $16,000 that you're going to pay $4,000 in child support. It can't be done." In Boston, a minimum wage employee with that obligation might be able to rent an apartment but would have nothing left over for food, Holstein says."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'“I killed him by mistake,” she says.

“Mistake, what kind of mistake?”

Josepha, serving a life sentence for murder one, is known to be one of the most violent and unpredictable women in a society of violent and unpredictable women. She stares at me with gray eyes that are surprisingly warm and endearing.

I have to be careful. I’ve been in this women’s prison for three days and I don’t understand the social rules that make this place go round. I’m terrified of saying something really dumb, and then seeing my insides, well, outside.
...
Prison. One thing I’ve learned about the inmates: they lie. Whatever they say, you have to read between the lines to discover anything resembling the truth.

I’m doing research for a film.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Two years after her three-year-old foster child died of cranial trauma so severe that it left his brain "popping out of his skull," the killer still walks around a free woman.

And it will be another three months before a judge finally determines an appropriate punishment for her deplorable crime.

"I'm sick to my stomach," the victim's aunt said yesterday as she struggled to keep her composure.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'HOUMA – A district judge scolded a 47-year-old house cleaner Tuesday morning who pleaded guilty to having sex with a group of teen boys – two as young as 13 – in her Ashland trailer.

Maureen Lirette, 444 Ashland Drive, must serve five years of probation and register as a sex offender to comply with a plea deal she took. She was charged with three counts of carnal knowledge of a juvenile and could have received 10 years in prison for each count.

The boys’ families requested that Lirette get no jail time, said Juan Pickett, a Terrebonne assistant district attorney.
...
“It’s not unusual for them not to want jail time,” he said, adding the Terrebonne District Attorney’s Office has handled a few cases such as Lirette’s. “It’s rare to see it reported.”'

I have no words to describe what I think about this. Perhaps my fellow brethren do.