Today I watched the most recent episode of South Park, and I was truly offended. It had the most gratuitous brutal violence against male genitalia that I've ever seen in a show. Not to mention, a plot that's based around Indiana Jones getting raped by Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas raping Indiana Jones. Yeah, you read it correctly. That's not the truly offensive part, though. It's obviously meant to be symbolic of how they've destroyed Indiana Jones movies by butchering the remakes.

Getting to the brutal violence. Cartman thinks that the Chinese are going to take over America, so he goes to P. Cheng's to try to find out what he can from the owners of the restaurant, with Butter's helping him. Butter's accidentally shoots three men in the dick in the episode. Granted, it is just a cartoon and Cartman does Butters a verbal reaming for doing it, and South Park has actually had an episode in the past where Oprah's vagina and ass pulled guns on themselves and shot themselves. But this is actually presented in a truly sadistic, expected to actually laugh at the pain of the poor men, kind of way.

Story here. Excerpt:

'ORLANDO, Fla. -- A tape recording of what a mother is convinced is abuse inside a Central Florida day care has prompted a Department of Children and Families investigation, Local 6 has learned.

Miranda Asura said that her 2-year-old son came home from Orange County's Brighter Beginnings day care with bruises so she sent him back with a tape recorder stashed in his backpack.
...
Asura played another portion of the recording in which the teacher apparently tells a young girl to hit her son.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'ST. CHARLES, Ill. — A woman is accused of badgering her daughter's teenage ex-boyfriend with hundreds of e-mails and text messages and threatening to post nude images of him on the Internet unless he started seeing the girl again, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
...
Police are pursuing counts of intimidation, harassment and child pornography possession in the case, according to the newspaper. Investigators are analyzing cell phones and computers seized from the girl's home and school.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Whether they admit it or not, a lot of women will hold certain expectations for the behavior of men, regardless of how roles have changed through the years.

Deep down some women still appreciate and judge men on their willingness to do things like open car doors, pay for a meal or pull their chair out before sitting at a restaurant; however, they may not always show this side of themselves.

Unfortunately, these standards are slowly drifting away, and many men are not participating in these so-called acts of chivalry.

In turn, women are excusing the fact that men are not making this effort, thus allowing for the change to occur.'

Contact info for the paper is here.

Story here. Excerpt:

'ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Two men will discuss sexual discrimination during a presentation Oct. 22 at the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph.

Jim Sterba, professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and Warren Farrell, a researcher and international speaker on men’s issues, speak on “Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men?” at 7 p.m. at Alumnae Hall, Haehn Campus Center, CSB.

Their presentation will focus on issues of discrimination in the workplace and in schools. Sterba and Farrell will also demonstrate how to engage in controversial conversations in constructive ways.'

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Ed. note: CSB is a women's college.

Article here. Excerpt:

"A SHATTERED reputation is most likely to lead to suicide among middle-aged men, according to a new analysis which warns naming and shaming must be carried out with caution.

Tasmanian researchers have reviewed 33 cases of suicide linked to a tarnished reputation but no previous mental illness.
...
This paper suggests that loss of reputation increases the risk of suicide, lead author Saxby Pridmore, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Tasmania, wrote in the journal Australasian Psychiatry.
...
`Thus, naming and shaming needs to be conducted with great caution.'"

Story here. Excerpt:

'The mother of two young brothers who died at a house fire in Eastbourne was arrested today on suspicion of manslaughter and child neglect.
...
Neighbours said that they had become trapped in the house after their mother, Denise Goldsmith, 29, ran to get help and accidentally locked the door behind her.
...
The cause of the fire, which led to the deaths is part of an ongoing investigation of this tragic incident, but at this stage it is not being treated as arson.'

Story here. Wonder why no boys are ever given such a deal? Oh yeah, they need to actually earn their heroic status in society by killing people or losing arms and legs first. Excerpt:

'KATMANDU, Nepal - Hindu and Buddhist priests chanted sacred hymns and cascaded flowers and grains of rice over a 3-year-old girl who was appointed a living goddess in Nepal on Tuesday.
...
Devotees touch the girls' feet with their foreheads, the highest sign of respect among Hindus in Nepal. During religious festivals the goddesses are wheeled around on a chariot pulled by devotees.

Critics say the tradition violates both international and Nepalese laws on child rights. The girls often struggle to readjust to normal lives after they return home.

Nepalese folklore holds that men who marry a former kumari will die young, and so many girls remain unmarried and face a life of hardship.'

Critics say the tradiaiton is bad for the girls, while boys and men are busy wheeling her around in a chair for what, 5-10 years? It's bad for HER?

Article here. It's no more attractive when men do it. Of note is that he seems to have no shortage of clients. So much for the women-wouldn't-do-that line. Excerpt:

Article here. So much for the "she has no other option" line. Excerpt:

'...Dancers pay the club a fee to use their premises. After that, essentially, they are self-employed and can earn anything from £20 to £400 in a night. Girls say that the financial security counters any feminist argument against stripping. ... Some girls, though not many, are paying their way through university. Others are single mothers, supplementing a wage. Younger girls do it for the extra cash and party lifestyle.

Zoe, 22, has been dancing for five years....“I have never had a job where I've felt so empowered,” she says. “I've just got myself through university, I've got my own car, my own house."

Article here. Excerpt:

'A whole raft of research shows that whereas some of society’s longest life expectancies are found among groups of nuns, the shortest are found among single men. Single men die early: they drink more, smoke more and kill themselves more often, whereas single unmarried women live longer than their married sisters. The maths is simple: marriage is bad for women and good for guys.
...
So what are you gonna do? Not marry just to save some chick’s life? I don’t think so. Marry her and save yourself. It’s every man for himself, and the selfish man has only one choice: if he wants to die happy and old, marry and marry quick. Staying too long in Guyland is for those with a death wish.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In 2000, it was reported that the FBI's DNA testing over a three year period had exonerated more than 30% of their 4,000-plus sexual assault suspects. Going further back, in the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit's 1983 study of False Allegations, a total of 220 out of 556 rape investigations - 40% - turned out to be false. Over a quarter turned out to be actual hoaxes (remember the infamous Tawana Brawley, who at 15 falsely accused a number of white men of a marathon three-day gang rape, some of them police officers? At least she got successfully sued for defamation, but that was small potatoes for the havoc she wreaked in those men's lives). About 4,000 allegations of rape a year are levelled in Manhattan. About half never happened. Police officials in New Zealand state that 64% of rape reports are false.'

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This is the ideal time to raise Congressional awareness about the flaws and failures of the Violence Against Women Act.

Among VAWA's many failures are the fact that it:

• Funds "solutions" to the problem that are grounded in ideology rather than objective research. Thus the problem grows worse every year because the "solutions" don't solve the problem.
• Undermines constitutional protections and makes a mockery of due process, resulting in innocent citizens being forced
  from their homes and separated from their children based on accusations without any evidence.
• Redefines everyday words in Humpty Dumpty-esque fashion ("When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less"), so that in addition to physical violence, the term "violence" now includes emotional distress - which is highly subjective, easy to accuse someone of, and impossible to disprove.

This week we're asking you to:

Sorry, Fido, It’s Just a Guy Thing

'IF you ask Adam Fulrath who is the love of his life, he will barely blink an eye before responding: Parappa.

Mr. Fulrath, a 37-year-old design director at Time Out New York, keeps five photographs of Parappa, a shorthaired, bicolored, mixed-breed cat, on his desktop. He knows that it might be considered a little weird that a grown man would be so enamored with his kitty, but Mr. Fulrath, who is into video games and comic books and calls himself a “straight, geeky guy,” doesn’t care.

“She’s my primary relationship,” he said.'

Love it! I have always been a "cat man" and it's no mystery to me.

Researchers at Clark University and Bridgewater State College are conducting a study on men who experience aggression from their girlfriends, wives, or female partners. If you are a man between the ages of 18-59 and have experienced aggression from your partner within the past 12 months, you may be eligible to participate in this study. We invite you to follow this link to the study webpage where you can complete an Internet survey about your experiences. Link: http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/dhines