Story here. Excerpt:

'PHILADELPHIA — The ex-headmistress of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa sued the talk show host for defamation, claiming Winfrey falsely suggested she tried to cover up abuse at the school.

In widely reported remarks last year, Winfrey suggested that Nomvuyo Mzamane, 39, of Philadelphia, knew about alleged abuse by a dorm matron and tried to cover it up, Mzamane says in the lawsuit.
...
Former dorm matron Tiny Virginia Makopo, 28, is charged with abusing six students at the $40 million school for poor girls that Winfrey built. Makopo allegedly tried to kiss and fondle the victims and is also accused of kicking and hitting some of them.'

Review here. Excerpt:

'Baldwin wants us to believe that P.A.S. is a legitimate syndrome, yet he goes to curious lengths to show us that it may not be a sound diagnosis. He then wraps up by interviewing a Harvard law professor, a “rising star” and a woman who argues that feminism is in part to blame for the broken family law system. The transcript format he uses here is ponderous, self-serious and rigid. You can almost hear him as Jack Donaghy interviewing the hot little number from Harvard.

For all its faults, its creakinesses and almost codger-like crankiness, its occasionally sludgy prose, this book has a point. Divorce is hell. Lawyers are vultures. Children get lost. Baldwin bravely set out to illuminate and change the way divorce is conducted in this country; he also, wittingly or not, offers a candid, unhappy portrait of a marriage gone desperately sour.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A 75-year-old woman told police she was "at her wits' end" when she shot her husband to death as he was sleeping.

Myrtle Marie Walter was being held Monday without bond in the Benton County jail on a capital murder charge in the slaying of Paul Walter, 74, at their home in Rogers.

She told police she and her husband had been drinking Friday night and she had four or five beers. She said her husband wanted to have sex but she did not want to, and she could no longer tolerate the mental abuse, according to court records.

She retrieved a loaded gun, returned to the bedroom and shot her husband once, then fired two more times when she saw him move, court documents say. Rogers police arrested her Saturday and recovered a .357-caliber revolver that was on the bed.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'HONG KONG — An American woman lost an appeal Monday of her conviction in a Hong Kong court for the beating death of her husband in a sensational case widely known as the "milkshake murder" trial.
...
The 44-year-old housewife from Minnesota was convicted in 2005 of giving her husband a milkshake laced with sedatives in 2003 and then fatally bashing the wealthy banker on the head with a metal ornament.

Kissel said she was defending herself from an abusive husband and appealed the conviction and her life sentence in prison. But prosecutors argued Kissel was a cold-blooded wife who planned the attack in the couple's luxury apartment.'

Excellent YouTube video of Stephen Baskerville, PhD, author of "Taken Into Custody", on the 2008 Presidential election and VAWA. Note what is said about Biden! MANN readers, please send the YouTube link through your networks ASAP.

Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JsB0f32NaM

Also, if you have a "Current" account be sure to vote his video up so that it will be shown on Current TV.

Thank you for your activism!

Story here. Not such a bad idea-- but will the curriculum include the whole truth about intimate partner violence? Excerpt:

'One other state, Texas, mandates unspecified awareness education on dating violence for students and parents, while several other states encourage it. But the Rhode Island measure goes further by requiring the topic be incorporated annually into the curriculum for students in seventh through 12th grade.
...
School districts are expected to start implementing the law this school year. By December, officials hope to have established a policy for responding to incidents of dating violence.

The law is gaining traction around the country, with members of the National Association of Attorneys General unanimously adopting a resolution encouraging the education in their states. Nebraska's top prosecutor said he intends to submit legislation modeled after Rhode Island's law, and apparel maker Liz Claiborne Inc. has helped promote it around the country.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"HOUSTON -- Attorneys for a woman convicted of stabbing her husband nearly 200 times got an extra day Friday to prove their claims that she suffered from battered woman syndrome....

Susan Wright and her attorney are asking for a new trial and a new sentencing because her first trial attorneys were allegedly deficient by not calling key witnesses during her murder trial more than four years ago. Wright is trying to shorten her 25-year prison sentence. She claims the killing was in self-defense after being abused by her husband, Jeffrey, for many years."

One might ask the obvious question. If Wright was battered for years, why did she not flee to refuge in any of the hundreds of women's shelters available to her, instead of killing her husband?

Article here. Excerpt:

"Child protection experts reacted with fury last night after the head of a teachers' union said staff who have sex with pupils over 16 should escape prosecution.
...
Teachers who have sex with sixth form pupils are only guilty of an 'error of professional judgement' and it is unfair to put them on the sex offenders register, she insists.
...
Dean Dainty, who was 16 when he had a sexual relationship with his 22-year-old drama teacher Nicola Prentice, says the teacher's abuse of her position wrecked his life.

In an interview for the programme he said: ‘Looking back now, I wish it had never all happened. It affected me in a big way, my personality and things, and I started to do stupid things after it and not be myself.

'It took me a long time to get myself back together – I suppose it took a piece of my life away really.’"

... so they've created some new 'hilarious' crap to offend all penis-owners everywhere (at least those of us who aren't pussy-whipped into thinking this kind of thing is 'fun'...)

http://www.voodooknifeblock.co.uk/hanging-harry-light-pull.php
http://www.voodooknifeblock.co.uk/dead-fred-pen-holder.php
http://www.voodooknifeblock.co.uk/splat-stan-drinks-coaster.php
http://www.voodooknifeblock.co.uk/voodoo-doll-toothpick-holder.php

Appalling.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Isn't it infuriating when women who probably abhor the very fundamentals of feminism suddenly embrace it in order to play victim? And isn’t it so offensive when Gender is used as the convenient and automatic justification for losing?

Watching the otherwise fascinating American elections unfold, I’m stunned by how ‘sexism’ has become a central character in the narrative. First, they argued that Hillary Clinton got booted out because she was female. Never mind her dithering, incoherent positions on Iraq; forget about the surly anger and petty control that her husband brought to the campaign and don't even mention the fact that when they thought the ‘tears’ were working, her managers pushed her into playing it even ‘more female’. If anything, surely that’s sexist?'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who set off a major police investigation after falsely claiming she was raped by a stranger in Orkney, has been spared a custodial sentence.
...
Sutherland was sentenced to 300 hours of community service at Kirkwall Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Graeme Napier said Sutherland came across as a selfish young lady whose actions had had an insidious effect on the community, but that she deserved some credit for admitting her guilt.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Boys will perform better in education if they have a male teacher in their primary school, according to research published today.

A study of more than 1,000 men reveals almost half of them (48 per cent) cited male primary school teachers as having had the most impact on them during their school life.

In addition, 35 per cent said having a male teacher challenged them to work harder at school while 22 per cent said males had boosted their confidence in their own ability.'

Story here. Of course the opening text reports three fathers abandoning kids at "safe haven" spots, creating the impression that they are the typical dropper-offers. Excerpt:

'Between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, three fathers walked into two hospitals in Omaha and abandoned their children. One left nine siblings, ages 1 to 17.

The men, unless proven to have abused the kids, won't face prosecution under a new Nebraska law that is unique in the nation. The law allows parents to leave a child at a licensed hospital without explaining why.
...
Landry says the courts will decide whether to require the parents to pay child support or to try to reunite them with their children.
...
All 50 states have "safe haven" laws, but the others apply only to infants less than 1 year old.

The Nebraska law is the "worst-case scenario of unintended consequences," says Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a research group. He says it allows parents to walk out on troublesome teens.'

13.5% of likely voters, or 16.5 million voters, believe the Violence
Against Women Act (VAWA) and the intrusive state-level domestic violence laws that flow from it are deeply flawed. (The calculations, including number and percentage of voters in each state, are shown at http://www.mediaradar.org/political_argument_for_fixing_vawa.php)

People adversely affected by VAWA, and their family members, represent a cross section of the electorate and very often feel so strongly about the harm they suffered that any promise to fix VAWA would override all other issues. This could well be the factor that determines which candidate they vote for.

Furthermore, VAWA-inspired domestic violence laws clog our courts with false claims of domestic violence, which prevents true victims from getting help.

This week, we ask you to share RADAR's calculations with the Democratic National Committee:
http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contactissues

According to the DNC's website, one of their guiding principles is to "restore our civil liberties and uphold the civil rights of all." (http://www.democrats.org/a/party/stand.html) Tell them one way they can achieve this laudable goal, and pick up lots of votes in the process, is to Fix VAWA Now!

As always, be courteous.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Date of RADAR Release: September 29, 2008

Want to improve the chance that they'll pay attention to your letter? Click here.

Story here. Excerpt:

'In a significant pronouncement on family matters, the Delhi High Court has ruled that a woman earning sufficient income is not entitled to maintenance from her estranged husband.

The logic for alimony is given in a Supreme Court ruling, which says that a woman is entitled to maintenance if her personal income is insufficient to maintain the standard of living she was accustomed to while living with her husband.'