Story here. As expected the original agenda for discussing the changes of Dowry laws and domestic violence laws suddenly changed.

It tells in the words of government official “We do not want to convey the impression that we believe the existing laws are flawed or need changes. That is why we have changed the agenda,” an official said.

In another related development, Delhi police have issued a circular banning the mandatory arrests over women-centric laws invoking the well-enunciated principle that provision of power to arrest is not the same as order to arrest.

Story here. Excerpt:

"Bullying among adolescents has captured the attention of researchers, educators and parents alarmed by a parade of mean girls and cyber-bullies caught in mid-punch on viral video. But such aggression may not just happen in a whirl of adolescent hormones, some in the growing anti-bully movement argue.

Meline Kevorkian, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., researcher and public speaker on bullying, surveyed 167 educators last year and 25 percent indicated bullying occurs most in elementary schools. Research also indicates that three-quarters of 8- to 11-year-olds report they've been bullied, with more than half identifying it as a "big" problem, Kevorkian said."

I found this video interesting mostly because its an actual news report from a Sacramento television station. This is the first time I've ever seen this issue discussed during a news program.

Story here. Excerpt:

'At a town hall meeting here on Monday, Obama praised the women responsible for his upbringing and outlined his record of pushing to address issues important to women. The only men in the room were reporters, campaign aides and Secret Service agents.

As the working-class women in the audience nodded, Obama continued: "Too many of America's daughters grow up facing barriers to their dreams, and that has consequences for all American families. It's harder for working parents to make a living while raising their kids. And we know that the system is especially stacked against women."'

Senator Barak Obama gave a speech on the importance of fatherhood the same week that the National Fatherhood Initiative released a report, "The One Hundred Billion Dollar Man," on the taxpayer costs of absent fathers. The good news is that more and more policy makers and organizations are starting to understand the impact of absent fathers. The bad news is policy makers do not really understand the causes of the fatherhood crisis.

As one of the few mainstream journalists who understand the government's role in creating the fatherhood crisis, Kathleen Parker, pointed out in "Obama's Incomplete Plea on Fatherhood," Obama failed to mention that "the problem of absent fathers, especially in the black community, is tied in part to well-intentioned social programs such as ... domestic violence prevention." Since "the state's punitive powers, permitted without due process, are mind-boggling to consider" and not every allegation of domestic violence is legitimate, "[o]nce the system is engaged and injunctions issued, even innocent fathers are unlikely to see much of their children. Perhaps never."

This is good news. Excerpt:

'Lautar is under court order to pay nearly $800 a month in child support and other expenses, despite the fact his ex-wife has admitted in Allegheny County court papers that Lautar is not the girl's father. The child was born during their marriage. After the couple divorced, the mother married the girl's biological father. The mother, the father and the daughter live together in Moon, according to papers filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

"I'm stuck in this rip-off, this fraud," said Lautar, 40, of North Strabane. "It's paternity fraud, is what it is. ... And the state is enforcing this fraud."

Obama's recent Father's Day speech vilifying dads got me wondering what more is on his official web site. To be brief, his entries under "Issues" for women and families might have been copied directly from the National Organization for Women.

Obama's site repeats the "1-in-4 women will be abused" myth, along with the "77-cents on the dollar" pay gap fiction. If elected, he pledges to create a new $25 million DV fund to create "partnerships" between DV agencies and Fatherhood programs. He applauds the progress made from VAWA.

He supports a Responsible Fatherhood & Healthy Families Act that will "crack down" on men in arrears for child support.

Other pledges are to more aggressively promote women in science and math, support passage of an Equal Pay Act, and further strengthen Title IX.

Article here.

Apparently, the patriarchy has launched an attack against the poor, long-fingernailed women who have difficulties using the iPhone.

Erica Watson-Currie of Newport Beach, Calif., wanted a stylus. She and other women who have long nails -- as well as some people of all genders with chunky fingers -- have trouble typing on the iPhone.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Mothers will be offered £40 a week to go back to work under plans unveiled by Gordon Brown.

The scheme would give a couple with children £40 if one parent works and the other, usually the mother, agrees to look for a job. If both work the couple would get £80.
...
But critics said the £40 payments did too little. Chris Grayling, Tory work and pensions spokesman said: ‘Gordon Brown just doesn’t understand that what Britain needs is not yet more pointless tinkering with the benefits system for working mothers but real action to tackle family breakdown in a nation where millions of people are trapped in benefit dependency.’'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk said the report of a "pregnancy pact" has not been confirmed.
...
However, Sullivan has now told officials he can't remember what his source of information was.

At a news conference Monday, Kirk said the principal was "foggy in his memory about how he heard about the information."'

Article here. All right, makes sense to a point. However I can't imagine it being good for anyone to be dosed with artificial oxytocin regularly. It serves a purpose and to overload the body with it seems as bad as overloading it with any number of other artificial hormones.

That said, if you read the article all the way to the end, you will see this:

"However, despite the many potential benefits of the research projects, some scientists have sounded warnings over the negative potential uses the hormone offers.

They say oxytocin could have potential as a date-rape drug as it is involved in both trust and sexual arousal."

I do believe the next date rape drug scare will be aspirin.

Story here. Excerpt:

"A bus spotter has decided to give up his lifelong hobby of photographing buses because people fear he is a terrorist and even a paedophile.

Rob McCaffrey - who calls himself an omniboligist - has been taking pictures of buses all over the world for forty years but has only ever faced problems in Britain.

But Rob says that in politically correct Britain he is finding it increasingly difficult to continue his beloved hobby because of the fear and suspicion he causes among onlookers.

In the last year he has been questioned twice by the police and had to give all his personal details after people who saw him innocently snapping buses on public roads reported him."

Story here. Excerpt:

"A 'greedy and wicked' estate agent, who hoped to pocket a fortune kidnapping and torturing her former boss, was jailed for 10 years today.

Ambreen Gul, 23, was so furious when she was fired that she recruited another sacked colleague and two other thugs to make her ex-boss pay.

Having lured Waqas Malik to her flat, the unsuspecting businessman was kicked, punched and pistol whipped repeatedly.

During seven hours of suffering one of his captors stood on his head, while another warned he had he would never see his family again unless he raised £200,000 ransom.

He was told failure would result in the executions of both himself and his 13-year-old son."

Article here. Currently it's the first item in their rotating story box on the MSN home page. Excerpt:

'Keep it to yourself. In a pre-divorce situation, there is a fine line between deception and self-preservation. Though you may intend to leave, Woodhouse cautions against telling your spouse before you are prepared. "It would create a great deal of turmoil," she says.
...
Karen Kerbaugh, an administrative assistant in Haltom City, Texas, got married in 1996, "and from almost the first month I realized I had made a grave mistake in marrying him," she says.

Story here. Excerpt:

'BERLIN - A German court has ruled against a woman who cited an unusual phobia in asking that her child support benefits be restored. The phobia: fear of the contents of official letters.

Evidence in the case before a court in western Rhineland-Palatinate state said the woman, who it did not identify, was sent a letter in May 2007 asking that she supply evidence to support continued payments for her daughter.

After she failed to respond, she was notified in July 2007 that the money was being cut off and that she was being given one month to appeal.'