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.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A growing number are intentionally becoming pregnant by men they don't expect to be involved. Is it feminism or folly?
...
Katya’s attitude might seem blunt, reducing it to nothing more than a biological transaction between herself and a suitable stud, but as a fiercely independent and financially secure woman, she is not alone. The news that the French justice minister, Rachida Dati, 42, is pregnant was greeted with feverish speculation about the identity of the father. Dati, meanwhile, has refused to name him, saying simply that her private life is “complicated”. “I’ve always said that having a child was fundamental to me,” was as far as she would go.'

Author Steve Moxon places yet another nail in the coffin of the thrice-debunked "glass ceiling" myth.

An excerpt from the article: "There is no "concrete ceiling" for women. Or even a glass one, come to that. Yet this entirely bogus and unscientific notion is claimed by the Equality & Human Rights Commission -- as a continuation of the old mantra from the unlamented EOC. Women newspaper columnists have queued up this last week to rubbish it, though only on the unenlightened usual lines of women being held back by babies. The broadcast media struggled even to manage this, notably remaining as scientifically illiterate on this as on all matters.

This article from ninemsn in Australia is about a woman who crushed florescent glass with a meat tenderizer and mixed it into her husbands sandwiches to poison him slowly. After discovering an affair he was having, she decided to get her revenge this way. The husband eventually found a tupperware container full of this crushed glass and a note.

From the article: "The court heard Mr Nash called police after he found his wife's handwritten note saying: "Q - at death what happens to transfer of property?""

Comments from the judge, from the article: "However, Justice Tennent said Quessy, a charity worker, was unlikely to reoffend and was previously of exemplary character."

From the article: "Justice Tennent noted Mr Nash had lifted an apprehend violence order against his wife in March, allowing her to return home after he had testified that he no longer feared her. A silent Quessy was shepherded out of the Hobart Supreme Court past waiting media by 12 supporters just before lunchtime."

12 supporters? No jail time? Unlikely to reoffend?

Well, fellow MRAs, it's time to start boycotting Cadbury Adams, the maker of Trident and Stride gum. As if those terrible Trident Splash commercials weren't enough, now Stride has a commercial featuring not one, but two groin shots. In the ad, a man is crossing the street, talking on his cellphone, when out of nowhere a ram comes along and hits him in the crotch. He then falls and tries to get up, when it hits him again, forcing him to spit out his gum. Two guys then come along, grab the piece of gum and jump into a van.

This ad is beyond immature, and is reminiscent of the trident ad "the fifth dentist". I'm convinced that the advertising department at cadbury adams must really hate men. I decided to write them the following letter:

Hi. I was just writing because I have a great idea for an ad for your product, Stride gum. A woman is just walking down the street, minding her own business, when out of nowhere a ram head butts her in the crotch, causing her to fall to the ground in agonizing pain. Then when she tries to get up, it hits her again, causing her to spit out her Stride gum.