Story here. Excerpt:

"The son of former haulage boss Eddie Stobart yesterday told how his life had been made hell since he was wrongly accused of rape by a 15-year-old girl.

Edward Andrew Stobart, 19, said he had been beaten up and told to 'dig his own grave' following the case.
...
But although the prosecution was abandoned, she retains her anonymity, unlike Mr Stobart, who says he was attacked by a 15-strong mob at the weekend.
...
'Every time I go out I am shouted at and I have been spat at and called names like "Scum".

'I don't think it is fair that someone who accuses another of rape is given anonymity even if it is proven that it did not happen.'

The teenager is in hiding and says he cannot get a job because of the allegation. '

Story here. I know that some people are getting tired of talking about women having sex with young boys. I think that this news story takes the cake and should be looked at. I cannot imagine how much media this would get if it were men. Instead it is women, yes WOMEN (plural, more than one) in this incident. I have not seen this on any major news outlet yet. I wanna see where this one goes. www.move-off.org

Excerpt:

'Police said two Bucks County moms have been charged after a sleepover involving six teenage boys took an alleged illegal sexual turn.

Angela Honeycutt, 38, and Lynne Long, 45, are facing numerous charges after a series of alleged incidents on April 14.

Authorities said the teens, ages 14 to 16, were attending a sleepover at Long's Lower Makefield home when Honeycutt, a mother of two young children, allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old and performed sex acts with a 15-year-old. Long allegedly watched, listened and instructed the teens not to say anything.'

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I’m doing outreach for two new public service announcements from the Ad Council about fatherhood just in time for Father’s Day. As you know, children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers. I’m hoping that you can share this important message with your readers. Here are the two informative (and entertaining) videos:

Fatherhood Involvement - Cheerleader

Fatherhood Involvement - Super Soaker

Thanks so much for your help and Happy Father’s Day!

If you have any questions or want more info about the campaign, drop me a line at dorothee-at-see3.net.

Article here. The article is funny, anyway. Excerpt:

'According to the study, three out of four women - blessed as they are with education, opportunity, independence and income of which poor Miss Davison could scarcely have dreamed - use their minds, once in every minute, to think about… shopping. That's 960 times a day, 6,720 times a week, and damnably close to the once every 52 seconds that men are believed to think about sex.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Pre-nuptial agreements could soon be legally binding in Britain.

The divorce system has previously resisted allowing the contracts - popular in the U.S. among celebrities and the super-rich - although judges can take them into account during divorce proceedings.

But senior judges and lawyers say the system should be modernised and the contracts should receive legal recognition.'

Story here. This is why I don't bother reading fiction anymore. The actual news fulfills the role nicely, only it isn't fiction. The horror stories are actually real. Excerpt:

'A honeymoon turned into a child-support nightmare recently for one couple.

After returning from their three-day honeymoon cruise in the Bahamas in May, newlywed Joel Coursen was taken from his bride, Amy, in Cocoa, Fla., and arrested for nonsupport on a Buchanan County warrant.

The couple had remarried after being divorced for less than a year. Mr. Coursen said he fell behind on payments because of a discrepancy in the date of the court order. But he said that he got caught up enough to be eligible for a passport and had no knowledge there was any warrant for his arrest.

“It was never anywhere close to $5,000. After I was arrested, they just said it was for felony nonsupport,” Mr. Coursen said. “To my knowledge, I didn’t know there was a warrant issued. It was a big surprise.”'

Samantha Brett of the Sydney Morning Herald ponders whether George Clooney was right to dump his jabbering girlfriend, because research shows that women really do talk too much.

A few excerpts:

* "You talk too much!" is apparently the reason bachelor of the moment George Clooney gave the world for dumping his waitress-turned-model girlfriend Sarah Larson. … If only we could keep our chit-chat under stricter control, perhaps the men wouldn't be scared away ..."

* “Scientists have often proved what we've long suspected - that women talk a whopping amount more than men chalking up 20,000 words a day while men utter just 7000.”

* “When women talk, a rush of serotonin fills our brains, giving us emotions akin to what a heroin addict would feel on a high. (No wonder we like to do it so much!) And yet,when we do talk at the end of our day, it's not to find solutions but it's to discharge the problems. Hence making no sense to the men whatsoever.”

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From Tom in London: "I am sure you are aware of the trumped up hysteria around 40,000 'sex trafficked' into Germany for the 2006 World Cup, whilst EU papers showed only 5 alleged cases of sex-trafficking in the event. For a reminder, see http://www.glennsacks.com/blog/?cat=57.

Well, despite this reality check, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour continues to perpetuate the myths, with an 8 minute discussion (between three sex-trafficking myth peddlers, with no serious challenge to their waffle) - available here.

If you don't listen to Woman's Hour already, it is well worth downloading the necessary media player, as their shows are split into segments and archived on their website, going back 3 years.

I have called the BBC's complaints line, to have them write a letter to me explaining why they chose to put on three sex-slavery myth deniers, and I recommend MANN readers should do the same.

Thanks!

Tom, London.

Via Marc A. Article here. Excerpt:

'Some people will miss the daily blow-by-blow between Hillary Clinton and Obama. Some will miss the hopefulness of Hillary’s charge to be the first female president. And, still others will miss the shock value of the extent to which Hillary was willing to go to win.

However, there are a few things that I won’t miss about the primary campaign.
...
I won’t miss Hillary playing the gender card, even shedding crocodile tears over her alleged mistreatment. I wonder where those tears were when her husband’s cheating was played out on the world stage.

I won’t miss Clinton playing the “white woman in distress card,” with those same tears and hints of being attacked by a Black man.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who took out a home-improvement loan to pay for a hitman to kill her husband was jailed for seven years today — but has already been forgiven by her partner.

Zoe Kenealy, 44, asked her lover, who lived next door, to hire the killer so that she could claim the life insurance money. But today her husband, Timothy, said he forgave her and would resume their relationship when she is released.'

And get this - she is a 'care worker'.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Half a million elderly men lead lonely lives with no friends and no contact from their families, a report warned yesterday.

It found that one person in five with an elderly father is no longer in touch with him. One in four claims to be too busy to maintain contact.

Divorce and family break-up has left millions of men without ties to their children and with few or no family links, said the charity Help the Aged.

Retirement deprives many of the company of work colleagues and others are left alone by bereavement or their own poor health.'

Mark Harris, one of the protesters who sat on the roof of Harriet Harman's house at the weekend, is profiled in this excellent article. He is the guy who was put in jail for waving at his own children in the street. Excerpt:

"No one condones invading private property, but read the moving story of the man on Harriet Harman's roof who spent years fighting for the right to see his daughters ... only to find THEY wanted to live with HIM

On Sunday morning, just hours before he scrambled on to the roof of Harriet Harman's home dressed as a superhero, Mark Harris kissed and hugged his daughter Lisa and set off from the South Devon home they share.

'I told him I was proud of him,' says Lisa, a 21-year-old wages clerk. 'I said that however long he managed to stay up there, I would be cheering him on and sending him my love.'"

Phyllis Schlafly's June 6, 2008 article at WorldNetDaily.com1 comments upon RADAR's recently released analysis2,3 of the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence's flyer "10 Myths About Custody and Domestic Violence and How to Counter Them." It states "'10 Myths' denies the big problem that false allegations of domestic violence and child abuse are frequently used ... to win child custody, and ... ignores the problem that family courts regularly deny custody and issue restraining orders against men based on a woman's unsubstantiated say-so and without giving the man fundamental due process rights."

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s the only way Tory Bowen knows to honestly describe what happened to her.

She was raped.

But a judge prohibited her from uttering the word “rape” in front of a jury. The term “sexual assault” also was taboo, and Bowen could not refer to herself as a victim or use the word “assailant” to describe the man who allegedly raped her.

The defendant’s presumption of innocence and right to a fair trial trumps Bowen’s right of free speech, said the Lincoln, Neb., judge who issued the order.'

More anecdotal evidence of a men's Marriage Strike? Story here. Excerpt:

“... for many women in their 30s - that decade of life in which we hope everything falls into place - being single feels nothing at all like choice. And it frustrates and angers them when it is suggested they are too picky to get a bloke. They say the truth is rather the reverse, and are likely to launch into tales of how the rare single men they meet are quick to bolt for the exit when things get within coo-ee of commitment. ...

There are downsides for a generation that has delayed committed partnering, whose members have remained unhooked - and the major one is the real possibility of ending up alone. … Whether or not you'd say there's a man drought depends ultimately on how you define a drought. But many single women have good reason for believing, as they look to the horizon, that it's not exactly raining men."