No, not a joke. Read this. Excerpt:

'LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 22-year-old woman in the United States is publicly auctioning her virginity to pay for her college education...

The student ... said she had no moral dilemma with her decision and found it "empowering".
...
"We live in a capitalist society. Why shouldn't I be allowed to capitalize on my virginity?" she added.

The woman, who has earned a bachelor degree in women's studies and now wants to start a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, is hoping the bidding will hit $1 million.
...
The online auction site eBay turned her down so the auction will take place at a Nevada brothel, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, where her sister is working to pay off her college debts.'

Just what would Susan B. say if she were alive to see it?

Via email submission. Article here. Excerpt:

'What's a conference on domestic violence without fireworks? An American speaker shot off a doozy here yesterday, charging that the leaders of some fathers' rights groups are abusers who use the organizations as tools to harass women.
...
"The agenda, often by the leadership, is to completely undermine women's rights," she said. "The ones that are the most dangerous are, in fact, creating safety problems for women and children."
...
Want more fireworks? Here goes. Smith also said domestic abusers who fight for custody in U.S. courts win full custody, joint custody or unsupervised access 70% of the time, regardless of the evidence of the mother.'

Story here. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Look at the comments below it. It's encouraging to see some appalled by the double standard. Excerpt:

'A Guelph, Ont., woman who told a psychiatrist she had suffocated her two infant sons is expected hear a verdict Thursday in her trial on murder charges.

The 27-year-old woman, who cannot be identified because she was 17 at the time of her first son's death, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.
...
The defence has argued that the woman should be convicted of infanticide, rather than murder. Infanticide is defined in the Criminal Code as a woman's killing of her newborn child while her mind is "disturbed" by the effects of childbirth.
...
If convicted of infanticide, the woman could receive a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.'

Story here. Notice how 'poverty' was the culprit. Apparently dad failed to provide for the family. Excerpt:

'MANILA, Philippines — Police say poverty apparently has driven a jobless woman in the Philippines to kill her three young children and herself by getting them to drink toilet cleaner before she also took some.
...
Police say her husband, a construction worker in Manila, had not sent money for a month.'

The subtitle of this article is appropriately called "A new study says parents are right to worry about their sons."

The author points out that instead over-diagnosing boys with ADHD, prescribing medication and placing them in special ed, there are other methods. She suggests it would be helpful for educators to realize that boys have a hands on, visual and active learning style. Sometimes restless boys who are treated as "bad" really just need more free activities and options.

Closing statements from the article: "Let's take a moment, before the school year gets any farther underway, and ask ourselves whether we are raising and educating our boys in a way that respects their natural development. And if we are not, let's figure out how we can bring our family life and our schools back into line."

One other point: Compare this article with the If boys will be boys, men will beat women article which calls for schools to single out boys and put them in special programs which treat them all like potential woman-beaters.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Heather Mills has failed to hand over a multi-million pound charity donation.

The former model vowed to give "a large majority" of her £24.3 million divorce payment from Sir Paul McCartney to the Adopt-A-Minefield organisation, of which she is a patron, but charity sources claim they haven't received anything.

A source said: "They have waited in vain for their millions. She's had plenty of time, but sadly it's yet another untruth by the queen of lies."
...
Meanwhile, Mills's former publicist has branded her a "pathological liar".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Failing to treat a woman more favourably than a man is not sex discrimination, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled.

Commander Dawn Kenney, awarded an OBE for active service in Iraq, claimed the Ministry of Defence discriminated against her by rejecting her for the post of captain and medical director in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and giving the job to a man.
...
“Second, and in any event, the fact that in certain very exceptional circumstances it is open to an employer to give preference to one gender rather than to another does not demonstrate that it is even prima facie unlawful discrimination if that opportunity is not taken and all candidates are treated equally,” he said. “It is not discriminating against a woman to fail to treat her more favourably than a man.”'

Story here. Excerpt:

'PLYMOUTH, Michigan (AP) -- A California woman who escaped from a Michigan prison more than 30 years ago and remade her life as a suburban mother pleaded guilty to escape Tuesday after a judge said he would give her probation.

Susan LeFevre, 53, was in court for a routine hearing on the escape charge. But that changed unexpectedly after the offer from Wayne County Circuit Judge Leonard Townsend, defense attorney William Swor said.

"I was glad the judge was willing to inject some rationality into this environment," Swor said. "He said 'Enough is enough.'"

"She was crying," Swor said of LeFevre. "She was somewhat surprised and relieved that this could come to an end."
...
However, LeFevre must serve at least 5½ years on the drug charge that led to her original sentence of at least 10 years in prison sentence before getting a chance at parole.'

Story here.

Columnist Adam Voiland of U.S. News & World Report reports on how two organizations -- the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office for Evangelization -- are shining a light on the psychological effect that a woman's abortion has on the father. Contrast this with the American Psychological Association's report that an abortion is not detrimental to a woman's mental health (with no investigation or even overture to how it effects that of a man).

Story here. Excerpt:

'A central Illinois woman convicted in the drowning deaths of her three children is free on parole.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp says Amanda Hamm left the Dwight Correctional Center just after 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Hamm was convicted of child endangerment in 2006 in the deaths of 6-year-old Christopher Hamm, 3-year-old Austin Brown and 23-month-old Kyleigh Hamm. She served almost five years of a 10-year-sentence.

Hamm's boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone Jr., is serving a life sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder.'

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

"The leaders of a women's political organization that launched earlier this year to support Hillary Clinton are speaking out against what they say are examples of media sexism toward Sarah Palin and urging members to tell the press corps "to back off.

WomenCount, a group co-founded by top Hillary fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell, posted a lengthy item on their blog decrying questions over whether Palin can, as a mother of five, juggle her family responsibilities and still be vice president.

...
"To paraphrase the words of one blogger who said it best over the weekend: We will defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because we like her or support her, but because that’s how feminism works."

I don't know who questioned whether Gov. Palin can "juggle her family responsibilities and still be vice president," but I would hardly consider such a consideration as hatred of women. But again, terming anything feminists don't like as "misogyny" is how feminism works."

Article here. Excerpt:

'Mothers should receive financial help of up to £6,000 a year to stay at home and care for their babies and toddlers, according to a report which says that nurseries fail to provide the one-to-one adult interaction children need.

Too many parents of babies and toddlers are being forced back to work by financial pressure and government policy when they would prefer to stay at home during their offspring's earliest years, according to the research by a think-tank chaired by the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.
...
"We need to level the financial playing field for parents," Mr Duncan Smith said. "The current system pressurises mothers – and it is mostly mothers – into going back to work soon after their children are born.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"On Friday, Judge Maria del Mar Verdin handed 18 life sentences, five 20-year sentences, seven 17-year sentences, four 5-year sentences, and nine 1 1/2-year sentences to James Wallace Galloway, 52, said Mike Scerbo, a spokesman for the county attorney's office.

Galloway was convicted on 43 counts relating to the sexual abuse and molestation of minor children, furnishing obscene material to children and public sexual indecency, Scerbo said."

Comments? Would a woman receive this type of dramatic and emotional sentence by a male judge? What are his chances of getting the sentence reduced?

---

Ed. note: The point here is not should he be punished with what is effectively a life sentence-- some may think that is too much, others not enough. The point is this: would a female convict of the same crimes get the same kind of sentence?

Blog entry here. Excerpt:

'...In many ways Sarah Palin is a model of what feminists have long said they wanted - women who are able to build a successful career on their own without depending on their husband’s position to get where they want to go. And to have a family with a husband who fully shares in the parenting duties. Yet now we know that that is not enough. A woman also has to be a liberal to be a true role model: When Gloria Steinem takes to the pages of The Los Angeles Times to tell us that Palin is not the right woman for other women because of her positions, I guess that is a step forward that Palin can be evaluated on the basis of her positions more than on her gender, but it also helps clarify that organizations like NOW were never really about women but only about liberal women. And what they’re now horrified to discover is that there are a whole lot of women out there who don’t ascribe to that agenda.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Opening the case for the prosecution Michael Chambers QC told Chester Crown Court that Mrs Hill was "ashamed and embarrassed" of her daughter's condition and murdered her in a "determined and planned act".
...
"The defendant put her in the bath and drowned her by holding her head under the water for a long time until she was dead."

After the killing, Mrs Hill dressed her daughter's body as if nothing was amiss and drove her around for eight hours, drinking several glasses of wine, before taking her to hospital claiming she was unconscious, the jury heard.
...
Mrs Hill, who denies murder but admits manslaughter, told police she had been suffering from suicidal thoughts before the killing and later suggested she was psychotic.
...
"The defendant couldn't cope with caring for Naomi and left a lot of the everyday care to her husband Simon," said the barrister.