The always lovely Maureen Dowd has an excellent piece in the NY Times today about the issues posed by the Obama-Clinton contest:

'Some women in their 30s, 40s and early-50s who favor Barack Obama have a phrase to describe what they don’t like about Hillary Clinton: Shoulder-pad feminism.

They feel that women have moved past that men-are-pigs, woe-is-me, sisters-must-stick-together, pantsuits-are-powerful era that Hillary’s campaign has lately revived with a vengeance.

And they don’t like Gloria Steinem and other old-school feminists trying to impose gender discipline and a call to order on the sisters.

As a woman I know put it: “Hillary doesn’t make it look like fun to be a woman. And her ‘I-have-been-victimized’ campaign is depressing.”'

Story here. Excerpt:

'French women are becoming increasingly assertive in their sexual habits, while one-in-five younger French men "has no interest in sex", according to one of the most comprehensive surveys of the nation's love lives.
...
"The good old dichotomy (male predators, females patiently awaiting the warrior's return in front of the cave entrance) is in big trouble", said Le Nouvel Observateur.

Female sexual emancipation has been a hot topic in France ever since President Nicolas Sarkozy met Carla Bruni, the Italian model and singer. The couple married last month.

Ms Bruni recently declared monogamy "terribly boring"...
...
At the same time, she reinforced old stereotypes that link status and virility, by reportedly declaring: "I want a man with nuclear power."
...
One of the more surprising findings was that one-in-five French men aged between 18 and 24 "manifests no interest in sexuality", while abstinence rates for men under 35 was twice as high as for women.'

Via Mark A. Article appears here, but this is a subscription-only site. It covers legal issues and is widely-read by attorneys.

FROM BOTH SIDES NOW: LAWYER WINS AS COUNSEL AND PLAINTIFF

By Don J. DeBenedictis
Daily Journal Staff Writer
This article appears on Page 1 of Verdicts and Settlements.

SANTA ANA - If attorney Alfred G. Rava hadn't won an important civil rights ruling from the California Supreme Court last year, lead plaintiff Alfred G. Rava might not have won a hefty settlement in an unrelated men's rights class action last week.

The settlement ends litigation by Rava and other men challenging a promotion by Club Med Sales Inc., the French vacation-resorts company, that offered women, but not men, $400 discounts on airfare to either of two Club Med locations. Rava v. Club Med Sales Inc., 03CC09858 (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 4, 2003)

Rava, a San Diego lawyer and activist for men's rights, had won a unanimous ruling from the Supreme Court last May in a case challenging "ladies' nights" at a nightclub.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who made a string of false rape claims, leading to the arrest of five different men and wasting massive amounts of police time, has walked free from court.
...
Judge David Hodson sentenced Brooks to 32 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years with a three month curfew from 10pm to 7am.'

Alas, unlike the previous story, justice denied.

Story here. File under "Justice Served", at least in this case. Excerpt:

'Jessica Stasinowsky, 21, and Valerie Parashumti, 19, pleaded guilty to murdering 16-year-old Stacey Mitchell in Perth in western Australia in 2006 because she was annoying, Australian news agencies reported.
...
"Even more appalling are your admissions to the effect that at the time of the murder you were each sexually excited by the violence of the event," said Judge Blaxell.

The killers made a mobile phone video of the murder scene, laughing and mocking their victim, and then dumped her body upside down in a garbage bin in a back shed.

A psychologist found Parashumti, who drank blood as part of a vampire subculture, had very strong sexual sadistic tendencies and was sexually aroused by physical torture and violence.'

Sadly I can imagine these girls getting jailed for 10 years or less here in America.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Hillary Clinton has made clear she will insist on the nomination even if she trails in elected delegates, and Obama’s side is sure to be furious if the “establishment” rips the prize away from its candidate. Whoever emerges the bloodied victor will face a daunting task of reuniting the party and defeating Republican John McCain in November.
...
On the morning of the New Hampshire primary, feminist Gloria Steinem added fuel to the “identity politics” fire by arguing in a New York Times op-ed that American women have suffered more political and economic discrimination than American black men.

...
Steinem’s historical arguments threw down a gauntlet to a bitter debate over who’s the bigger victim, blacks or women.

This video clip on the Today Show covers new research about why women lie -- pretty much about everything: sex, marriage,fidelity, motherhood, work, finances, etc. Of course the experts' explanations are that "society" conditions women to lie and be deceptive and so it's not women's fault. This segment is almost as funny as Tom Leykis' "Chicks on Politics." And of course it ends with remarks about how men lie too -- but they are not as good at it as women. The fairer sex caught in a truthful moment?

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman comes in, a man goes out. That's how the quota works; that's the law," says Kjell Erik Øie, deputy minister of children and equality, in the centre-left "Red-Green" coalition government in Oslo. "Very seldom do men let go of power easily. But when you start using the half of the talent you have previously ignored, then everybody gains."
...
So what is stopping companies from appointing women to their boards? Catalyst, an influential New York thinktank, has published a list of the barriers to female advancement to board level. Top of the list is women's lack of management experience, closely followed by women's exclusion from informal networks; stereotypes about women's abilities; a lack of role models; a failure of male leadership; family responsibilities; and naivety when it comes to company politics.
...

More than just yet-another-child-abusing-woman story, this one is asking for leads. If you were in that area and have any ideas, please report them. Story here. Excerpt:

'ORLANDO, Fla. -- Investigators are searching for a woman on Thursday who was videotaped while spraying a girl with a pressured water hose at an Orlando car wash.

Surveillance cameras captured the woman holding the girl with one hand and holding the hose in the other hand at an arm's length distance.'

Story here. If you're a good boy, more num-nums for you! No mention of repairs to faucets or the fact that men are expected to, and far more often than not, have their incomes treated as 'family property' while their wives' incomes are 'her own money'. The whole tone of this article makes me want to reach for the trash can. It just drips with contempt and is filled with garbage. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

"Behold with me the politics of gynocentrism. What a depressing and desiccative sight it is. Just look at Gloria Steinem.
...
American women are the freest, wealthiest, most educated in the world. They are liberated enough to choose someone for president other than a female candidate out of uterus-based loyalty. This should be viewed as progress, not heresy. But the old-guard feminists — the "ruling people" — deeply resent this independence as they cling to what's left of their power base and their shrinking absolute moral authority card."

Story here. Excerpt:

'SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A teenager who told authorities she was gang raped last year by members of the De Anza College baseball team has filed suit against the players.

The civil suit was filed Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court. It comes a year after the girl reported she was raped - and nine months after the Santa Clara County District Attorney decided not to file charges.

The teenager seeks an unspecified amount of money from nine former players and another young man who attended the party. ...She is not identified in the suit.'

Friends to the End is a book that sent me off on a path I'd never imagined.

When I first started writing it in late 1999, my main intention was to write something a bit unusual; a book that wasn't appearing in the dozens by different authors under different titles in every bookstore in the country.

I began writing this book about a male victim of domestic violence, under the same misapprehensions that most people held at the time, and still hold today -- that there is the same help available for male victims as there is for women. All anyone in this kind of situation need do is pick up a phone and help will surely come, is the conventional wisdom.

More on the book here.

Book available here.

Story here. Excerpt:

"The Colorado Rockies have been ordered into mediation by state authorities after a man complained that he was denied a free "Ladies Night" game pass because of his gender.

The ruling comes from the Colorado Civil Rights Division, which concluded that the man, Stephen Horner, had a valid concern and it needs to be addressed, according to a report from KDVR-Television in Denver.

Horner reported he attended a Major League Baseball game with the Rockies in Denver in 2007 when employees of the team were handing out free vouchers to a future game – to women only. He said he asked for a voucher but was told he couldn't have one because he is a man.

He complained, but got no results, he claimed in a subsequent gender discrimination complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division."

Story here. The report starts out with opinions saying it's wrong, but quickly tuns into an apology and ends with:

'Harvard's policy is no different from commercial gyms that cater partially or even exclusively to women, said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"The Muslim bashers portray it as the world coming to end, but if women have a couple hours a week to work out in private, I don't see it as a major issue," he said.'

Yeah, it's not so bad. One little building at the end of campus, just for a few hours a week, that's all. And it'll be OK too when black kids say they're uncomfortable in the gym with white kids, then they can get their own hours too. Same for white kids. And gay people. Gay men might be uncomfortable being naked in the men's locker rooms so maybe they need their own. Same for lesbians. And Hispanics. Hell, maybe everyone needs their own little gym with their own private shower and bathroom too, all out of sense of modesty, in the name of religious belief.