Article here. Excerpt:

'Young women have been trained in their dozens to become suicide bombers in one Iraqi province in an attempt to reverse an improving security climate and derail talks about an upcoming security pact, Iraqi officials believe.

The assessment follows the latest lethal blast on Sunday at a checkpoint outside a hospital in Baquba, which is believed to have been carried out by a girl as young as 13. Pathologists and police are still trying to determine her exact age and identity.

The girl's death has taken to 27 the number of female bombers from the province of Diyala, 37 miles (60 km) north of Baghdad, in the past 18 months and has led to an urgent Iraq-wide security review, which is likely to involve more intrusive searches of women at checkpoints.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sjoberg painted the clear picture that when it comes to war, women are still seen as these naturally nurturing, domesticated and inferior people who need protection.

Instead of taking this stereotypical viewpoint, Sjoberg said, "As women's freedoms increase, so will their violence." They no longer need to be looked at as people who need protection, she said, adding that, in fact, others may need protection from these women.

Sjoberg said that when women engage in violence, they are often portrayed as one of three things: mothers, monsters or whores who have no agency in their violence. Instead, their violence is always attributed to some sort of emotion or problem, never just because they are strong-willed women fighting for their rights. If it's a woman engaging in violence then popular culture always attributes her violence to some sort of disorder or emotional breakdown.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Indianola, Ia. - Shannon Michelle Rew faces up to 10 years behind bars and a lifetime as a registered sex offender, but the 37-year-old Indianola mother of three is unapologetic about her sexual relationship with a teenage boy.
...
Rew, who pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of third-degree sex abuse, said she and the boy "cared a lot about each other" and "kind of let emotions just take over," which prosecutors say led to an ongoing relationship that included pornography, explicit text messages and a sexual encounter in her van while she was free on bond.
...
People who are charged with crimes try "to make excuses to justify their crimes and take the focus away from what they did wrong under our laws by focusing attention on the victims," he said. "She took advantage of an emotionally unstable individual. That's what a criminal does. He or she takes advantage of someone who is vulnerable or in a fragile state."'

International Men's Day was first celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago on November 19, 1999. Other countries probably observe different days, but celebrate? Not yet. This is changing as India and Australia observing International Men's Day on November 19th.

An Australian Non-Governmental Organisation has decided to celebrate International Men's Day on November 19th. Excerpt:

"One of the promoted themes for the celebration of International Men's Day in Australia is honour and sacrifice, a theme that resonates with Aussie men, particularly as this date coincides with a major loss of male lives in the HMAS Sydney naval tragedy.

Having International Men's Day in November also ties in very well with Movember - a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Circumcision, though common among males in Canada, is considered a massive human rights violation when done to women. So why are male and female circumcision gauged so differently?
...
The acceptance of male genital mutilation is an outdated social construct that needs to be looked at from a less dichotomous perspective. It’s almost the same thing, so why treat it differently?
...
Parents are rarely well-informed when choosing circumcision for their child. The most common misconception is that the foreskin is unhygienic and an infection waiting to happen.

Circumcision is not necessary to maintain good personal hygiene. Like any other folds of skin, foreskin can trap exfoliated skin particles, natural oils, dirt and moisture. The combination of these things is called smegma, and can accumulate on both male and female genitals if not cleaned properly.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'CHARLESTON - In addition to the White House, the road to reforming a federal anti-domestic violence law ran through Charleston as a dinner featuring a delegate for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was held the same day Obama's running mate, and the chief architect of the law, was in town for a campaign stop.
...
However, later that evening at a domestic violence awareness dinner held at the Marriott, General Parker, a Peoria, Ill., boilermaker, who was elected to serve as a delegate for Obama to this year's Democratic National Convention, said despite its good intentions, VAWA's impact has been the break-up of families.

Story here. Excerpt:

'SCOTT COUNTY, MS (WLBT) - A bouquet of flowers covered little Austin Watkins' tiny white casket. The child's life was drastically cut short just days before his fifth birthday.

Authorities say little Austin, who weighed a mere 19 pounds, was starved to death.

"It looked like just skin over bones, it was just a terrible sight. Over my years of coroner I've never seen anything like it," said Joe Bradford, Scott County Coroner.

The child had been living in a trailer home near Ludlow with his grandmother, 43-year-old Janice Mowdy, and his 23-year-old aunt, Stephanie Bell.

Both women have been charged with murder and felony child abuse.'

Story here.

'(KSL News) A Utah County woman accused of abusing two children in her care by starving them and making them sleep in a bathtub wants to get out of jail.

Lawyers for Mary Heath yesterday requested her bail be lowered from $50,000 to $10,000. A judge will hear arguments on the motion next week.

Heath was arrested last month after her 9-year-old niece was found wandering her Eagle Mountain neighborhood wearing nothing but underwear. Police then went into Heath's home and found the girl's 8-year-old brother locked in a bathroom and almost starved to death.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Within two months after Catherina Voss' Navy husband was murdered by a hit man she admitted hiring, she plowed through a $100,000 death benefit on jewelry, trips and other items she shared with her boyfriend.
...
Voss admitted her actions in federal court in Newport News after agreeing to testify against her boyfriend, Michael Draven, and David Runyon, who is accused of being the hired gunman. Prosecutors dropped plans to pursue the death penalty against her.

On Friday, Voss was sentenced instead to four life prison terms plus 20 additional years. She pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy to commit murder for hire, and related charges.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'WARREN -- The Detroit Police Department is investigating allegations that a female school teacher had a sexual relationship with a male student last year.
...
The Warren teacher is alleged to have engaged in a six-month relationship with a male student, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident last year when the school was located in Roseville. The sexual encounters occurred in Detroit, which is where the student resides, Superintendent Charles Meredith said.
...
The Warren charter school incident follows a string of others involving female teachers in Metro Detroit.

A former Roseville High School French teacher was sentenced in Macomb Circuit Court this summer to three years' probation for allegedly having sex with her teenage classroom aide. Janelle Batkins, who pleaded no contest in May to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, was also ordered to register as a sex offender, complete 240 hours of community service and continue counseling.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A 40-year drift away from single sex schooling has sacrificed girls' education in order to give struggling teenage boys a "wake-up call", according to one of the country's leading girls' school heads.

Vicky Tuck, head of Cheltenham Ladies' College, who will open the annual girls' school conference in Winchester, Hampshire, on Monday, said that boys' schools are increasingly going co-educational because they are struggling to recruit and to boost exam results.

She said girls are being used to improve their male classmates' education and are losing out on a focused women-only school life.'

Domestic Violence Treatment for Abusive Women: A Treatment Manual, by Ellen Bowen, was just made available for pre-order. Description:

'Recognizing that women can be as abusive in their intimate partnerships as men, this book provides the clinician with comprehensive information to understand the characteristics and treatment implications for women's domestic violence. It offers guidance for conducting group treatment of abusive women.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When Guy Ritchie met his children at the airport this week, he reportedly didn't just receive hugs and kisses. He also got a list from Madonna's PA of do's and don'ts for the kids during their stay...

...why does he need a list of the responsibilities he fulfilled before then?

It's not just an academic celebrity question. Most couples I know have tension in their relationships when dad takes over and mums tries to stage direct from the wings. "They don't eat their spaghetti like that" or "That's not how she does her hair for school" or even "You're folding the towels wrong". Almost every dad I know has experienced it and every mum I know has guiltily admitted interfering, even though she knows it sets her partner's teeth on edge and that the kids will be fine even if dad does it a different way.'

To the fans of Mensactivism.org,

My name is Joe Soltys. I have started a new live internet radio show dedicated to discussing and debating men and father issues, gender issues, and sexual poitics.

The show will be broadcast live by BlogTalkRadio.com on Sunday mornings and is titled “An Hour With Joe Soltys".

Listeners can voice their opinions during each show by way of a listener phone number, or by way of a live chat room that will be available to my listeners for the duration of the show.

If you cannot listen to the show on Sunday mornings, within an hour of each completed show, a recorded copy will be archived and available at BlogTalkRadio for those who missed the live show.

This Sunday’s topic will be: Should women be forced to sign up for Selective Service, and should they be forced onto the front lines of combat in the name of gender equality?

So stop by, listen to the show, and tell me what you think.

Video report here regarding the firing of Sam(antha) Mason, a popular (former) BBC radio personality. Caption: "A guy with a turban is going to freak her [daughter] out. She's not used to Asians." She also said she would prefer a female driver, too.

The commentary that follows includes a debate among the commentators (all female) that includes speculation that the BBC's actions are not entirely justified or legally defensible, and then goes on to discuss whether or not it would have been less offensive and even a far-more valid concern if she had only asked that the driver be female. They seemed to be in agreement on that point.

They also compared her case to Don Imus' and said the difference between him and her was that Imus said what he did on the air and she did not. They close with the speculation that the taxi company had done her wrong by releasing the tape to the BBC. There is a related print story here.

And so it goes.