Paul Graham just published an insightful essay on How to Disagree. This isn't an article on men's issues or double standards based on gender, but I'm submitting it here because I think spending some time understanding this essay could improve the quality of discussion/disagreement in the men's rights community. Gender issues tend to be very divisive and emotional topics to discuss, and I think the overview Graham gives of effective disagreement can serve to strengthen pro-male discussions. Check it out.

First of all I'd like to say how proud I am to be a part of this organization. I have noticed male bashing in the media for years and frankly I'm getting sick of it along with all the other injustices we've been victims of such as divorce law and child support policies.

Anyways, it seems Australia is on the forefront of *gasp!* treating men like human beings! This article from news.com.au relays the good news that the child support policies are getting a major improvement. Included in the changes are the determination of child support payments taking into account the income of both parents, as well as the amount of time the children stay with the non-resident parent. Tax benefits have been altered, as well, giving non-resident parents monetary incentive to spend time with their children. Like a parent needs to be paid for incentive to see their children. It's still a nod to MRA groups, though. So keep your fingers crossed and your heads high.

Via e-mail:

A report on the Men and Fathers' Health Forum, held at Parliament House, Canberra, last Wednesday 19th March 2008, can be downloaded here (.pdf file). Please distribute it amongst your colleagues and networks. In particular we would encourage you to write and/or email the parliamentarians listed in the report with a 'thank you' note from yourself as an individual, organisation or group.

This will do two things. Firstly it will encourage the individual parliamentarians. They work hard on our behalf and rarely get thanked. Secondly, whilst men are the largest minority 49.2% in the nation, they are also the most silent. Thankfully this is starting to change. We believe the men and fathers' movement affected the course of the last election quite profoundly. Our Men and Fathers Family Friendly Forum on 20th June 2007 might have changed the course of electoral history. The proposal for the National Men's Health Policy was triggered at that forum.

Britain has, if not the highest incidence of single motherhood in the First World, then one of the highest, and the highest crime and alcohol and drug abuse rate among children of both sexes. Time covers the whole awful mess in this week's issue, here. By making marriage (or at least stable long-term relationships) as unattractive as possible to its young men with one feminist-inspired piece of legislation after another and by the same mechanism marginalizing/criminalizing the fathers of children, it is sewing what it has reaped: social chaos.

America and other countries are on the path: France, Germany, Australia, Spain, the list goes on. In 50 years, western countries have gone or are going from vibrant, powerful, and generally prosperous and content to being economically stagnant/declining, uninspired, and dangerous places for law-abiding people to live.

Progress, at least in the way the story is worded. Usually it's "Mom allowed to see child..." Instead, it's "Dad allowed to...". But things would be better if such a story never needed to be run. Excerpt:

'OMAHA, Neb. — A 10-year-old Nebraska girl with terminal brain cancer had a simple last wish: to have her dad by her side as she lay on her death bed.

On Wednesday, seemingly against all odds, Jayci Yaeger's wish came true.

Her father, Jason Yaeger, who has been locked up in a South Dakota federal prison on methamphetamine charges, was allowed to see his daughter for what may be the last time.'

Keep tissues handy; it's a sad story indeed.

Florida School Security Officer Tasers 11-Year-Old Girl

That title seems a bit more in keeping with what REALLY HAPPENED than the title of the Fox News article:

So, the girl attempts to MURDER a fellow student, ASSAULTS a teacher, and the article is made to indicate that the poor girl was tasered for NO GOOD REASON.

If it was a guy, I bet it would have used my title.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Shoplifter convicted for the 175th time was spared a prison sentence after magistrates decided to give her another last chance.

Joanne Jones, 31, has faced more than 200 court hearings and served 34 jail terms over the past 16 years, at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £700,000.

But she walked free from the court after Canterbury magistrates decided there was a "chink of light" to suggest she could change – despite the fact that she was on bail when she committed her last offence and is still hooked on heroin.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A mother killed her two children and later went to the nearby college she attended and brandished a gun Thursday before handing the weapon to a health counselor, police said.

The threat at the University of Louisville ended with no injuries about half an hour after it began, but police who were then asked by school officials to check on the children found them dead with gunshot wounds.

Gail Lynn Coontz, 37, is charged with murder in the deaths of 14-year-old Greg Coontz and 10-year-old Nikki Coontz, said Louisville police Officer Phil Russell.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"Ohio Crime Stoppers has issued a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest of a Bexley, Ohio, woman accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, 10TV.com reports.

A search warrant revealed the girl was at Becky Jo Tatum’s house earlier this month and said she "had been drinking and had a buzz" prior to the alleged sexual conduct.
...
According to Tatum's daughter, her mother has engaged in sexual activity with a number of her friends, Townsend reported.

"(She's) done this before with my friends; I'm kind of used to it," Tatum's daughter said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Heather Mills is trying to prove Paul McCartney is worth much more than the $800 million he claimed in their divorce battle, the Daily Mail reports.

She has told friends she is employing a team of forensic accountants to examine her estranged husband's finances, the Mail says.

Such information, she hopes, will lead to the divorce ruling being overturned and see more money go to their 4-year-old daughter Beatrice, according to the Mail.

In her impromptu press conference after the divorce hearing at the High Court in London, Mills said: "We all know he's worth $1.6 billion. He's been worth $1.6 billion for the last 15 years."'

Article here. The argument seems to be that the registry would be helpful for health reasons (It's For The Children![tm]) and that would override privacy considerations, because no one, least of all the government, would ever consider inappropriate use of this information, and what kind of scum are you not to want your children to able to find you, anyway, sir?!

Seems to me such a registry would have health benefits for the children of recipients of egg and sperm donations, but I am somewhat concerned about privacy. What if you wound up being a DNA parent to 30 - 40 infants, all of whose mothers demand CS? Talk about a Family Court feeding frenzy!

Story here. Excerpt:

"After two decades, Sean Reid of Surrey, British Columbia, discovered that he had a son. Fred Turley of Des Plaines, Ill., learned he didn’t have a daughter. And Wendy Lieb of Lewis Center, Ohio, made certain she wasn’t going to be a grandmother quite yet.

In all three situations, crucial genetic information altered the lives of the people involved. And in each case, it came not from a doctor or other medical source, but from a $29.99 kit on a drugstore shelf.

Reid, Turley and Lieb are among more than 800 customers who responded to the first wave of marketing for do-it-yourself DNA paternity tests sold as Identigene by Sorenson Genomics of Salt Lake City."

It's official. Read it here. More than that, white men in particular are less empathetic than... everyone else.

This "experimental report" includes two fractionate categories: "white men" and "everyone else". No experimental bias here! And by the way, just how does one measure "empathy" in an objective way? What "newly-devised test instrument" did they use that the author mentions? Well anyway, excerpt:

'In several previous posts, I've discussed Simon Baron-Cohen's theory of autism as a symptom of an "extreme male brain" ..., and also Mary Bucholtz's hypothesis that nerdity is defined by "hyperwhite" behavior ... I'm ashamed to say that it never seriously occurred to me to cross-pollinate these two theories, ...
Thus, in their sample at least, the difference between males and females in two empathy-related measures was smaller than the difference between whites and non-whites.
...

The petition is here. As we know, boys are much more likely to be prosecuted under differential underage sex laws than girls. In the case in question, it has a 16-YO boy branded a sexual predator for the mistake of believing a 13-YO girl when she told him she was nearly 16. Excerpt:

Artilce here. Excerpt:

'When professor Suzanne Steinmetz published the results of her survey on domestic violence, no one had prepared her for the firestorm that would ensue. You see, feminists take it as an article of faith that only husbands abuse their wives.

So when Steinmetz revealed that women are often as violent as their husbands, the fem-fascists started a whispering campaign designed to block her promotion at the University of Delaware. When that didn't work, they phoned in a bomb threat at her daughter's wedding. Cowed by the threats, Steinmetz soon suspended her pioneering research.

Erin Pizzey of England had impeccable credentials -- she was the founder of the first abuse shelter for women. So a few years later she published Prone to Violence, a book that revealed these women are often as physically aggressive as their mates.