Article here. Excerpt:

'The Local Government Association (LGA) has said that at at least 15 per cent of those in operational roles should be female.

That means they will fill one of the five or six places for crew on each engine.

The LGA said an increased number of firewomen is necessary "to meet the needs of local people".

But critics warned that political correctness was being put above the ability to save lives.

Susie Squire, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Introducing this sort of quota to the fire service is a big mistake.

"If ever there was a job that should be awarded on merit and physical fitness, it is that of a firefighter.'

The Los Angeles Times reports today: Arsenic levels too high in Kern Valley State Prison's drinking water. Excerpt:

"At the California Institution for Women in Chino, the state has been buying bottled water for prisoners for five years -- at a current annual cost of $480,000 -- because of nitrate levels that violate federal standards in the water supply to the facility and to the nearby California Institution for Men.

Chino-area municipalities have built systems to filter their own water, and the state hopes to complete a similar project a year from now for both the women's and men's prisons."

Fred and I discussed the APA's DSM-III on episodes of Face Up To Fred that dealt with Parental Alienation.

It's too bad this L.A. Times article (DSM psychiatry manual's secrecy criticized) doesn't address the "gender politics" that goes into some of the DSM's conclusions (in my opinion). Excerpt:

"...the issue carries real weight for parents desperate to address children's difficult behavior or people in distress over their mental state. It also speaks to citizens' concerns over news accounts of an overmedicated America and of the troubling financial links between some psychiatric researchers and the pharmaceutical industry."
...
"Darrel Regier, who heads the APA's research arm, said the critics are failing to recognize progress in the field. 'The field of psychiatry has gone from an ideology to a scientific pursuit,' he said."
...
"Some critics suspect that a quest for profits has encouraged the field to create mental illnesses out of personality quirks."

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Canadian man is urging others who may have slept with his Thai stripper ex-wife to get tested for the HIV virus after she passed it on to him, according to a report in the Toronto Sun.

"I know there were other men she slept with," Percy Whiteman told the Sun on Sunday. "I am lucky that I was able to find out early."

Whiteman said learned her HIV status when she fell ill in 2004. She was convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for infecting Whiteman with HIV and was sentenced to three years in jail in August 2007, the Sun reported.

Imkhong came to Canada in 1995 and was a dancer at the Zanzibar Tavern in Toronto until 2004. She married Whiteman in 1997. "She should have been deported a long time ago for what she's done to others," Whiteman told the Sun. "I don't think justice was fully served."'

Dear MensActivism,

I received a link to this site recently in an email note and thought that you might be interested.

Regards,

Heretic
http://hereticalsex.blogspot.com/

--

Ed. note: This study has been mentioned before here on MANN but it can't hurt to mention it again for the benefit of people new to the site.

Story here. Excerpt:

'NEW DELHI: A little less than 20% of sexual-assault cases reported in and around Delhi are false, shows a five-year study. In almost every fifth incident, or, in 18.3 % cases to be precise, rape is used as a weapon to malign and attempt revenge, found a group of psychologists who assist Delhi Police in investigating sexual assault allegations.
...
In September 2007, the Supreme Court had alerted lower courts to attempts at misusing the rape law, noting "the courts should bear in mind that false charges of rape are not uncommon."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Tahlequah woman was arrested by Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies Monday for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, domestic abuse, and domestic abuse in the presence of minors.
...
Finch met deputies at a neighbor’s house. When the deputies went to her residence to talk with her husband, they met the man with numerous injuries, including stab wounds, scratches and bite marks on his shoulders, scalp, forehead and forearm. He was bleeding in numerous places. He told deputies his wife had thrown snow globes at him and stabbed him numerous times.

Three children in the home were interviewed by deputies, and said Finch had thrown snow globes at the man and also hit him over the head with a green vase.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Suddenly, Obama was an obstacle to the advancement of women. Now, President-elect Obama is again being portrayed as an obstacle to the advancement of women. Radical feminists whine that he didn't appoint enough women to his Cabinet.

Upon seeing that Obama had named five women to top administration posts, Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said, "there need to be a lot more women's voices in this administration."

Amy Siskind, co-founder of New Agenda, said Obama has taken "shocking steps backward." She said "this constituency does not matter to the President-elect."
...
This type of bean counting, as Bill Clinton called it, is silly. Obama should have the freedom to pick the people he believes best suited for the work without being criticized by activists who care more about pressure politics than good government.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If I have a daughter one day, among the many things I'll teach her will be how to tie her shoes, to look both ways before crossing the street, to never end a sentence with a preposition, and to always let the man say "I love you" first.

I'll give her plenty of other relationship tips, too, like how it's perfectly okay to ask a guy out, to make the first move, to even propose, but when it comes to the "L" word, the ball's in the guy's court.

Unlike asking a man out, making a move on him, or even proposing, there's no action-based response to the first "I love you." It's all words, it's all emotion. In that moment, he either loves you back or he doesn't -- you only hear the black or white of a 'yes' or 'no,' not the gray of "Well, I like you a whole lot and I could see myself falling in love with you, but I'm just not quite there yet."

Article here. Excerpt:

'Obama is toadying to his feminist friends by pushing ratification of the UN Treaty on Women, known as CEDAW. It was signed by Jimmy Carter in 1980 and persistently promoted by Hillary Clinton, but the Senate has so far had the good judgment to refuse to ratify it.

This treaty would require us "to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women," to follow UN dictates about "family education," to revise our textbooks to conform to feminist ideology in order to ensure "the elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women," and to set up a federal "network of child-care facilities."

Article 16 would require us to allow women "to decide number and spacing of their children." Everyone recognizes this as feminist jargon for a UN obligation to allow abortion on demand.

The site is http://www.withoutafather.com/. From the "About" page:

'Welcome to WithoutaFather.com

This site was created for teens growing up without a father or without a mother.

If was created for those who rarely see their fathers after their parents got divorced and for those who never even knew their fathers. It was created for those who lost a parent to cancer and for those who go through long periods of time without their fathers or mothers because of their service in the armed forces. It was created for those who may have a physically present, but emotionally absent father.

In all these cases and many others, this site was created for you and with you in mind. Even more, this site is for to any teen anywhere who is trying to improve their life.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK — A 15-year-old Bronx girl has been charged with two homicides including the death of a man whose dismembered body was found in a plastic bag.

Sharell Butler was arraigned late Saturday and charged as an adult with murder in the deaths of 24-year-old Christopher Umpierre on Dec. 19 and 22-year-old John Hopkins-Drago on Dec. 21.

A Bronx building superintendent found Hopkins-Drago's body stuffed in a garbage bag. The medical examiner's office said the cause of death was stab wounds to his head, torso and extremities.

Prosecutors said Umpierre was shot in the chest during a home invasion robbery involving Butler and others.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Children are more likely to behave badly in front of male teachers than females, according to a survey published today.
...
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, said: "Despite the impression given by some national figures that women teachers are more subject to experiencing bad behaviour than men, the evidence is that it is male teachers who sometimes experience greater levels of poor pupil behaviour.

"It also demonstrates how misleading gender stereotypes are."'

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Australian man has died from horrific burns after his wife allegedly set fire to his genitals while he was alseep.
...
His wife, Rajini, is expected to be charged with manslaughter or murder.
...
Police allege Mrs Narayan doused his genitals with methylated spirit and then set him on fire early on the morning of December 7.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'(CBS) The Pentagon says 1 in 5 service members who come home from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress.

Some find their experiences too much to bear. There were 115 military suicides last year, and 93 through just August of this year.

The biggest obstacle to getting those numbers down may be the military culture itself, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.
...
On July 11, 2007, McKinney, serving on his second tour, killed himself in front of his men. He had endured months of sleeplessness, nightmares and guilt over losing so many of the soldiers he commanded.

"I think he felt like he couldn't send one more broken body home, one more dead person home," Jeff McKinney's father, Charles McKinney, said.'