Article here. Excerpt:

'A federal judge has sharply rebuked a team of lawyers from Fox Rothschild for filing an "excessive" fee petition after winning an international custody case, saying their bill of more than $163,000 in fees and expenses was simply too large for a "garden variety" custody battle.

"I simply cannot accept or justify an attorneys’ fee award of this size in a case of this nature," U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel wrote in his 11-page opinion in Clarke v. Clarke.

...
Springer led a team that filed suit under the Hague Convention on behalf of Michael Clarke of Australia, alleging that his wife, Kristen Clarke, had taken their two children, Nathan, 5; and Grace, 2, to the United States and refused to return.

Kristen Clarke, who was born in the United States, responded by claiming in court papers that the children would be in "grave danger" if returned to Australia because, she alleged, Michael Clarke had sexually abused his son.

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

'The ad above pretends that women get paid less than men because of anti-female discrimination. In reality, the wage gap exists for many legitimate reasons, including:

1) Men work longer hours at more demanding and hazardous jobs.

2) Men are more likely to travel, relocate or have long commutes for their jobs.

3) Men are more likely to have more years and more consecutive years of experience, because women are more likely to work part time or take years off of work to care for their children.

Given these factors, it would be very hard for men to not earn considerably more than women. When men and women of matched qualifications are working in matched jobs, women earn as much as men do.'

Story here. A boy and a girl have sex at school, the boy is the only one suspended.

Interesting quote: "Besides her son, Goss said other male students have been suspended for sexual activity while the girls involved have been allowed to remain in school."

VAWA Reformers –

The 110th Session of Congress has now come to a close, and the lights dimmed in the Senate and the House. So it’s time to tally up our accomplishments.

In 2008, four domestic violence bills were introduced in Congress:

1. International Violence Against Women Act (S. 2279 and H.R. 5927)
2. National Domestic Violence Volunteer Act (S. 1515 and H.R. 6088)
3. Domestic Violence Victim Protection Act (H.R. 203)
4. Commending the important achievements of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence as it celebrates 30 years of service to local domestic violence shelter and service programs (H. Res. 1397)

In all four cases, we succeeded in preventing passage of these bills, even though we were out-manned and out-spent, and even though the VAWA Mafia pulled out all the stops to secure passage of I-VAWA and the National Domestic Violence Volunteer Act. Break out the champagne!

To every person who responded to a RADAR Alert, made a phone call, sent a fax, fired off an email, spoke to a staffer, or came to Washington DC to do lobbying, THANK YOU! Your effort TRULY MADE A DIFFERENCE!

Via Jeremy Swanson:

Why Women Lie About Rape
By Paul Clements

The National Organization for Women , radical feminists, and Women’s Studies departments, often deny that women make false accusations about rape by asking the naïve, simplistic, and self-serving question: “Why would a woman lie?”

It turns out that there are plenty of reasons women lie about rape, either deliberately or out of desperation.

A U.S. Air Force study, “The False Rape Allegation in the Military Community (1983) investigated 556 cases of alleged rape, and found a 60% rate of false accusations. As part of the study, women who were found to have made false accusations were asked “WHY?”

Motivations given by the women who acknowledged they had made false accusations:

Reason - Percent

Spite or revenge - 20
To compensate for feelings of guilt or shame - 20
Thought she might be pregnant - 13
To conceal an affair - 12
To test husbands’ love - 9
Mental/emotional disorder - 9
To avoid personal responsibility - 4
Failure to pay, or extortion - 4
Thought she might have caught VD - 3
Other - 6

Story here. Excerpt:

'The woman identified only as Diana P, 45, was found dead by walkers in a ditch near her Fiat Panda car in October.

Extensive DNA testing came back this week on both the corpse and the car, implicating the predator known as the 'woman without a face' who has eluded police for 15 years.
...
The killer first struck in May 1993 when she turned up on the doorstep of churchwarden Lieselotte Schlenger in the town of Idar-Oberstein clutching flowers.

Having bluffed her way into the 62-year-old woman's home, she used the wire that bound the flowers to strangle her.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Here's a tale to make any man who has been ribbed for having 'man flu' suddenly feel a whole lot better - it's WOMEN who are worse at complaining of colds and flu, according to new research out today.
...
It is assumed that sufferers of man flu are exaggerating their symptoms to extract maximum sympathy from a few sniffles and force their partners to run after them with tissues, hot water bottles and painkillers.

But now a poll has found that most women admit exaggerating their symptoms to gain attention or to get a day off work.

Men, on the other hand, are revealed as more stoic and less likely to create a fuss or demand attention when ill.'

I think we all knew that anyway...

Story here. Excerpt:

'MURRAYVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out."

"We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes," Tina King said, tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called "our baby ... a good kid."

But time-out in the boy's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell -- a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper.

Called a seclusion room, it's where in November 2004, Jonathan hanged himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Perhaps the plumpest appointment in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet went to a woman: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was nominated for secretary of state. But his track record on picking women for his Cabinet is no different from that of the two presidents who preceded him.
...
"So far the numbers of women don't look great," Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said of Obama's picks. "George Bush started off with this many, and Bill Clinton, at the height of his presidency, had nine out of 19."

Ellen Malcolm, president and founder of Emily's List, said Obama "obviously started off with a bang, with Janet Napolitano, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice." She added: "We've been disappointed to see women suggested for some positions and not chosen."

Letter here (.pdf file). Excerpt:

'As leaders of women’s organizations and advocates for women’s equality, collectively
representing over 14 million women, we are writing to elaborate on the need for historic levels of women’s appointments and the need to restore and strengthen executive branch offices for women.

We applaud your initial appointments of talented women and we encourage you to further gender balance your White House, Cabinet, and executive appointments. The U.S., with women composing just 17% of the members of Congress, ranks 71st among the world’s parliaments in representation of women. With women so underrepresented in Congress, we believe it is crucial for women’s representation to increase dramatically at the executive branch of decision-making. Many of us will be submitting names of excellent and diverse women for your consideration.

Like you, we believe that we are at a time of real change in our nation’s history. Through both words and actions, you have encouraged and challenged the nation to think transformationally.

Article here. Excerpt:

'What's more, feminists of Hirshman's stripe make ordinary women angry by their replacement of the patriarchal judgment of women's lives with the constant scrutiny and judgment of the feminist matriarchy. Women are weary of being told that they have to sacrifice work for family, family for work, themselves for the greater good, the greater good for themselves, and on and on. Why is it so difficult for feminists to understand that women have deep, complex, often conflicting desires — just like men! — and that human flourishing is not the sacrifice of most of those desires for a lifestyle that some cranky feminist has told us is better than our own? Why are women confronted with two and only two options: the maternal drone or the worker bee? You call this progress?'

Essay here. Excerpt:

'The truth is, Hillary does have extensive experience working in other countries — but not in the way most Americans would expect. During the Clinton administration, she was Bill’s goodwill ambassador, traveling to the four corners of the globe as a high-profile advocate of the feminist agenda.
...
The following year she led the U.S. delegation to China to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women. She delivered the meeting’s keynote speech, making the wrongful assertion that “Women are 70% of the world’s poor.” Clinton narcissistically concluded, “Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.”

Three years later she appeared at a meeting of First Ladies held in El Salvador. This time she made the bizarre claim that “Women have always been the primary victims of war.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When it comes to Barack Obama’s Cabinet, women offer some intriguing advice:

Gender shouldn’t matter.

That’s the finding of a new national poll of 600 women – two-thirds of respondents said Obama should focus strictly on qualifications and “should not consider gender at all” in building his team.

A mere 3 percent said Obama should appoint an equal number of men and women to his Cabinet. And 27 percent staked out a middle ground – saying Obama should aim for gender balance, but not at the expense of finding the best people, the poll for the Lifetime Networks found.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'(CNN) -- With Sen. Hillary Clinton's expected appointment as secretary of state, women are at risk of seeing a decrease in their representation in the Senate -- and some are putting pressure on New York Gov. David Paterson to make sure that does not happen.
...
Women's advocacy groups are calling on Paterson to turn to what they see as an abundance of qualified women when it comes time for him to make his pick. Paterson has the power to appoint a replacement, who then will face a special election in 2010 to fill out Clinton's term. The candidate would have to run again in 2012 for a full six-year term.
...
NOW, along with the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee, has been urging people to call Paterson to voice their support for a female senator.
...
Lasry said Paterson has an opportunity to give women a "leg up" and send a message to people across the country.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Recently NOW joined with the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE) to recommend policy changes and legislative initiatives that would restore protections in academic as well as athletic programs -- which apply to both girls and boys.

The list of women's issues that the new administration will be reviewing is important because eight years of the conservative, anti-women's rights Bush administration has taken a serious toll on our rights. Of course the Supreme Court and conservative congressional leaders have done their share of undermining equal education protections, particularly those established in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.