Posted on behalf of Marc A.:

I recently sent a letter to the editor of a newspaper in Malta, the Malta Independent, in response to their gender-biased article on domestic violence that left male victims invisible. I cited and linked the recent 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire (Straus), which included Malta and which confirmed that female students initiate DV as often as male students and that controlling behavior is found equally in perpetrators of both sexes.
[http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2006/may/em_060519male.cfm?type=n
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID41E2.pdf]
The editor wrote back and said she would do a story on it. The story just printed, read it here. Excerpt:

"The study’s results challenged the common assumption that violence between partners is mainly a male crime, and that “when women are violent it is self-defence”.

Last week, it was discovered that Katie Couric physically assaulted a subordinate editor for using a word in a news story that she could not pronounce. A unidentified witness to the event said that Katie Couric slapped a fellow male editor in anger "over and over and over again on the arm". (http://nymag.com/news/features/34452/index6.html) "It had seemed like a joke at first, but it quickly became clear that she wasn't kidding".

Couric grudgingly admitted to the assault in a New York Magazine article: "I sort of slapped him around," Couric admits. "I got mad at him and said, 'You can't do this to me. You have to tell me when you're going to use a word like that.' I was aggravated, there's no question about that." (http://nymag.com/news/features/34452/index7.html)

CBS has not yet disciplined Katie Couric for an act which, if the perpetrator were a male, would have probably resulted in immediate termination. This sends the message to all CBS employees that workplace violence by women is acceptable.

"MR 2007" ended yesterday with a lot of good work getting done and new faces and names involved. More details are to follow I am sure, but having just gotten off the plane back from it, I can safely say that it may well be the most successful of the three such conferences held so far, by many measures.

Thanks to everyone who attended and to all the great work that has been, is getting, and will be done for our cause.

Story here. Excerpt:

"A Clinton County woman is charged with bigamy for failing to divorce her first two husbands before marrying a third.

April R. Carter, 22, of Frankfort started divorce proceedings for her marriages to Ryan Mendoza and Brian Clendenning, towns of residence unclear, but never completed them.

She then married Brandon Carter -- town of residence also unclear -- whom she says she is still with, according to the probable cause affidavit filed by the Clinton County prosecutor's office June 20."

CNN just put out a story Paternity Fraud in Florida. Excerpt:

"There are no perfect answers," says Susan Paikin of the Center for Support of Families in Delaware. "Deadlines (on contesting Paternity) are imposed so that when families are broken -- the legal process is handled quickly."

Susan Palkin is a hypocrite. While she hems and haws about there being "no perfect answers" and that "deadlines are imposed ... (so that) the legal process is handled quickly", she has little to say regarding deadlines on establishing child support in the first place.

A parent can apply for a court order for back child support at any time up to and even after the child has grown up and left the home. Where is the deadline there? Non-existent. So, in the interest of equality, challenging paternity and child support should have no time limits either.

Article here. Excerpt:

"The angle Democratic candidates are taking is that women lack freedom. According to John Edwards, "Today, too many women are separated from the opportunities of our country because of their gender." Hillary Clinton declares that the Bush "administration has acted to deny freedom to women around the world." The Democratic Party's Web site asserts that, "George W. Bush has said many times that he stands for 'freedom for all Americans' yet his policies and the policies of the Republican Party deny equal rights to women."

So how much less free are women than men? Debates between reasonable people rage on this topic, but we seldom stop to ask women how free they actually feel. When we do so, we get a surprise: It is women, not men, who feel the most freedom in America today."

Posted for Marc A.:

Item here.

We should send letters to the editor using the feedback link in the upper right. You can also email the editorial board through the article page. Marc

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Excerpt:

"Duke is getting the short end of the stick on this one. They suffered a major blow to their reputation as a result of this ill-fated party and took the right actions, both when the allegations came to light as well as after it became clear that the young men were innocent of raping the woman.

Duke owes David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann nothing."

This is exactly the type of posts that we don't need being hummed by feminists. The more these type of outdated posts continue the more it damages the image of men and the important role they play.

Release here. Excerpt:

"The United Nations Population Fund has chosen "Men as Partners in Maternal Health" as the theme of World Population Day.

UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid says, "Men are equal partners in making the new life that the women will deliver." She added, "Experience shows that male involvement can make a substantial difference when it comes to preserving the health and lives of women and children."

Cheers to promoting men and women working as equal partners and looking after each other's health!

But you have to wonder... When the UN will make calls on women to take "responsibility" for men's health? When will they call on women to let kids can see their dads who make that "substantial difference"?

I couldn't help notice that they said "male involvement" as opposed to "fathers' involvement". Maybe I'm cynical, but I think those words were carefully chosen.

It's great they are taking this problem seriously. I just wish they would take MGM just as seriously, which instead of receiving widespread condemnation is in fact covered by most health insurance plans.

Story here. Excerpt:

'LONDON - Female genital mutilation, commonly associated with parts of Africa and the Middle East, is becoming a growing problem in Britain despite efforts to stamp it out. London's Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force, hopes a campaign beginning on Wednesday will highlight that the practice is a crime here.

To make their point, police are offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to Britain's first prosecution for female genital mutilation, Detective Chief Superintendent Alastair Jeffrey said.

In Britain, the problem mostly involves first-generation immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.

Article here. Excerpt:

'U.S. Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., recently introduced the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act of 2007, which they say will address our "national epidemic of absentee fathers."

"Most "deadbeat dads" are low-income men who are unable to meet the demands of the child support system, because of their employment problems. Stepping up already draconian enforcement only makes it more difficult for them to play a meaningful role in their children's lives.'

Story here.

A judge in Omaha has understandably barred a rape accuser from using the words "rape" and "sexual assault" at trial, since these words are inflammatory statements. Their has already been one trial on this case that ended in a hung jury. Of course, the woman wants to bring drama into this trial to make sure there is a conviction this time...so she's pulling a media stunt by saying that she will use these words anyway, defying the judges order. She skews the issue further by saying that she has first amendment rights to say whatever she wants in the courtroom. This article sickens me...yet another possible precedent to make sure rape accusers get to pull out all the stops and make their own rules (with the help of the media) to make sure there are more convictions (based on emotion not facts, of course).

I'm really afraid that she will get everything she wants and more.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Across the United States, the number of households headed by single fathers almost doubled between 1990 and 2006, from 1.15 million to 2.1 million – or 20 percent of all single-parent families, US Census Bureau figures show. No longer willing to accept that the mother should automatically look after the children – the "pay up and shut up" narrative in divorce – fathers now are competing more aggressively for custody and are winning cases.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"Very few fathers file for divorce Why? Consider Massachusetts, where custody is granted to the father in only 2.5 percent of cases, but the mother gets it 93.4 percent of the time, and joint custody is permitted in only 4 percent. In a divorce, fathers lose regular access to their children."

Article here. Excerpt:

"In the article "Day of the dad: paedophilia hysteria leaves men afraid to help," The Telegraph raises a question that applies equally to North America. Have high profile cases of pedophilia created such public hysteria that the average decent human being, especially a man, is now reluctant to approach a child in need?
...
Child abuse must be addressed but it is worse than folly to punish those who help children. Our society is creating Clive Peachey -- decent men who will walk away from a child in need."