Jan Brown of the Maine-based Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men and Women forwarded me a copy of their Fall/Winter newsletter. You can download a copy of it here. The newsletter discusses the recent DV study by the Centers for Disease Control and mentions a new public service announcement they've released.

Posted for Marc A.: This disgustingly anti-male, sexist article by Gretchen Cochran cites the old lie that 95% of domestic violence is male-on-female, quotes a bunch of gender bigots like Frank Ochberg saying it's in men's genes to use force against women, and posts the phony "power & control wheel."

Please RESPOND by writing to the editor, etc. at:

citypulse-at-lansingcitypulse.com
letters-at-lansingcitypulse.com
gretchen-at-lansingcitypulse.com
thomas-at-lansingcitypulse.com
publisher-at-lansingcitypulse.com

Story here, HOORAY!! This represents real progress in getting this hopelessly outdated practice eliminated from our list of anti-male "socially acceptable" things. And, it's in an MSM publication, two reasons to cheer! Excerpt:

'But, like an increasing number of Jews in the United States, she has decided not to circumcise her son, rejecting the traditional notion that it is a Biblically prescribed sign of the Jewish relationship with God.

"I see circumcision as a blood ritual that I can let go of," said Anderson, who lives in Southern California.

Her position is in harmony with a wider decline in circumcision in the United States.
...
Among those talking about it is a gaggle of young, male, Jewish commentators. This year alone, in books, online and in magazines, authors Neal Pollack, Sam Apple, Jonathan Safran Foer and Shalom Auslander have all fretted about doing to their sons what was done to them. The title of Auslander's memoir, scheduled for publication in October, is "Foreskin's Lament."

Via Marc A. Story here. Excerpt:

'In a May 2007 study, the Centers for Disease Control found that more than 800,000 males in the United States are raped or physically assaulted by their female partners every year.

The National Coalition of Free Men (NCFM) is expressing concern during domestic violence awareness month this October that this study has been unfairly ignored because of the media's gender stereotyping.
...
CDC studies show the gravity of IPV for men and women alike. In the year 2004, IPV resulted in 1,544 deaths with 25 percent being men. Updated in 2003, the corporate cost of IPV in the United States was $8.3 million from medical care, mental health services and lost productivity.'

Despite our heroic efforts to stop HRES 590, RADAR has just learned that the bill passed the House of Representatives last Tuesday.

HRES 590 is jam-packed (.pdf file) with half-truths, distortions, and lies. Passage of this biased resolution is a national embarrassment.

We did succeed in stopping the bill from being debated by the House Education and Labor Committee. But it appears the House leadership did an end-run on us, taking the bill out of committee directly to the House floor. Not only that, the leadership cut the debate short, requiring a two-thirds vote for a voice vote.

Yes, it was a disgraceful short-circuiting of the democratic process, but that's what they did. So we have to learn from the experience and plan to do much better next time.

What lesson did we learn? That stopping a flawed bill like this requires a MASSIVE outpouring of voter discontent. To do that, we need to substantially increase the number of people signed on to the RADAR E-lert list.

Posted on behalf of Marc A. Story here. Excerpt:

'Citizens by and large deduce that women are the primary victims -- and that remains true. But in solving the problem of domestic violence, there must be realism about its nature.

The same CDC study concludes that in about half of the cases, the violence is reciprocal between a man and woman. That's not hard to believe in examining police incident reports, where woman most times do the reporting as a victim but in which men frequently state they were attacked during the incident as well.

What surprised CDC researchers even more was that "in non-reciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70 percent of the cases," and men incurred significant injuries.'

Via Marc A. Story here. Excerpt:

'Kendrapara (Orissa), Oct 1: As women continue to storm the male bastion, quite a few men from this part of the state are crying foul and demanding protection from their aggressive spouses.

With anti-dowry law largely favouring the women resulting in its gross misuse, allegations pour in from husbands who are at the receiving end of persecution and harassment meted out to them by their spouses.

The beleaguered husbands driven up the wall have begun seeking the state women's commission to intervene and save them from rowdy wives.'

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this year RADAR and many members of the VAWA Reform Coalition are sponsoring activities designed to counteract the fairy tales the DV industry delights in spreading around.

This year RADAR has selected the theme, "It's Time to Tell the Truth about Domestic Violence." Throughout the month, RADAR will be releasing reports that highlight how the DV myths often preclude effective approaches to reducing partner abuse, and sometimes make the situation worse!

RADAR strongly encourages you to attend at least one Domestic Violence Awareness Month event held in your area. To find a listing of local events:

1. Go to http://www.usdoj.gov/ovw/statedomestic.htm.
2. Identify the domestic violence coordinating council for your state.
3. At the coordinating council's website, look for activities listed under the Calendar of Events

Always be sure to present yourself in a polite manner. And if you really want to have fun, why not show up at the event early, dressed up as a storybook character:

Along the top of this site are links to other services I've been experimenting with offering to the community. The wiki has been very active lately, but the Planet Blog Reader is in need of some maintenance that I don't really have the time for. I'd like to know if anyone would feel upset to see it go?

Story here. Excerpt:

'DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized Saturday for not better supporting the men's lacrosse players falsely accused in last year's highly publicized rape scandal.

Brodhead, speaking at the university's law school, said he regretted Duke's "failure to reach out" in a "time of extraordinary peril" after a woman accused three players of raping at a March 2006 party thrown by the team.'

Too little, too late. Brodhead, it's time for you to step down.

Bear with us, this site has now been upgraded to the latest and greatest version of Drupal. That of course means old bugs are fixed and new ones are introduced. Please keep us posted on problems you may encounter with the new system to admin@mensactivism.org.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Gouws' interest in "men's studies," as he described the field, developed during his stint at graduate school. The classroom environment, said Gouws, sometimes enabled bigotry under the guise of feminism with nasty consequences. During a class on gender sociology, the instructor presented a paper describing a female 'wild zone' that represented an area of thinking that women alone could experience due purely to their sex.
...
The importance of male-positive masculinities cannot be understated, said Gouws. "The manhood question" - how men define themselves in relation to their gender - is an essential one, and it deserves the same attention that "the woman question" has received. And since he's not retiring just yet, Gouws and his students will have plenty of time to delve further.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"In their closing arguments, defense lawyers argued that Browne Sanders was doomed by her own failure to adapt to an organizational shake-up that began with Thomas's hiring in 2004. A series of clashes with Thomas and star guard Stephon Marbury, poor job performance and personal financial woes put her in a precarious position that prompted her to make false claims, said MSG attorney Ronald Green.

It's up to a jury to decide whose version to believe in a $10 million sexual harassment lawsuit. Deliberations were expected to begin Friday."

On Monday, October 1, Max Elliot Anderson will post a sample chapter from one of his action-adventures or mysteries, written especially for boys 8 – 13. Mr. Anderson grew up hating to read. “Now I write the kinds of books I would have enjoyed as a child,” he said.

Each chapter will come from one of his seven published books. “It’s an opportunity for children, teachers, and parents to get an idea of what my books are all about.”

These chapters can be located on his blog, Books for Boys, at http://booksandboys.blogspot.com/.

Chapters will come from Newspaper Caper, Terror at Wolf Lake, North Woods Poachers, Mountain Cabin Mystery, Big Rig Rustlers, Secret of Abbott's Cave & Legend of the White Wolf, which are compared by readers and reviewers to Tom Sawyer, The Hardy Boys, Huck Finn, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Scooby-Doo, Lemony Snicket, and adventure author Jack London.

“I’m interested in getting more boys to read,” Anderson said. “There is a tremendous need to write books that will capture and hold their attention. I believe I’ve written books like that.”

Others agree.

Story here.

Does Edwards really care about men, or is he simply looking for minority votes? Either way, its the first comment from a presidential candidate regarding the status of American males. Make sure you check out the video. Excerpt:

'Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said if he isn’t elected president, the population of African-American males is likely to either wind up in prison or dead.
...
We start with the president of the United States saying to America, ‘we cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem. And the idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating — pretty soon we’re not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They’re all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two.”'