This year will be the first Father's day in Switzerland (congratulations, gentlemen!). Story here.

The little dig by the journalist at the end is a nice touch: "The demand for a change of the civil code comes more than 25 years after judicial equality between men and women."

It's disappointing that the Swiss Association of Single Parents called paternity leave "out of touch with reality". I can't seem to find their web site to see if they have further comment.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands has been sent to prison.

Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

Monti admitted wounding and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.'

At last, an editorial cartoon gets it right for Father's Day.

'nuff said.

Steve

Story here. Excerpt:

"Facing the loss of his law license, a tearful Mike Nifong said Friday he will resign as district attorney, more than a year after he obtained rape indictments against three Duke University lacrosse players who were later declared innocent by state prosecutors."

Article here. Excerpt:

"Noncustodial parents, mostly fathers, say financial child support has been deemed by some officials as the most important thing they can contribute to their children.
...
The situation is beyond absurd. We have loving, fit fathers, who want to be there and support their children, who are unfairly prevented from doing so. On the other hand, we have men proven by DNA testing not to be the dad, yet they are forced to financially support children they may not even know and did not father."

The EQUAL Parenting Bike Trek will be discussed on the ultra-popular Radio Lia Show! The Radio Lia Show has a national audience and also a growing fan base in Canada! Robert Pedersen and Robb MacKenzie will be interviewed on June 17, 2007 at 6PM on the Radio Lia show. More information can be found at http://www.daddy.typepad.com/.

We ask other websites and Bloggers to spread the word on this amazing break for the EQUAL Parenting Bike Trek. This will bring our issues to a nationwide audience!

Story here. Excerpt:

'INDIANAPOLIS -- Sixth-grader Matt Porter didn't enjoy getting "Most Likely Not To Have Children" and "Sir Clowns-a-Lot" awards from two teachers at his school.

His parents aren't pleased, either.

Matt said he received the awards in front of classmates during a ceremony at the Decatur Intermediate Learning Center at the end of the recently finished school year. His mother and his stepfather have asked the Decatur Township school system to reprimand the teachers, and they want an apology.'

Likely they would have done this to a girl? Doubt it. You can be sure they would have been fired by the end of the day had it been a girl they targeted. I'll also bet next week's paycheck that the teachers who did this were both women.

We are all by now familiar with the sad saga about the 17 year old high school jock who was convicted of having oral sex with a 15 year old. And of course we all know this happened in the State of Georgia.

However, going back to the late 1980's there was IMO a much worse travesty of justice and misandric justice at that concerning the case of James David Moseley who was sent to prison for having consensual oral sex with his ex wife. The wife who consented was not prosecuted but he was. And of course this happened in Georgia too. Oral sex just seems to hold a special terror there for some reason.

Read about it here.

Article here. Excerpt:

"Amy Jones, 21, falsely claimed to police that her stepfather Rod Swainson had been abusing her since she was 12.

After she gave a lengthy statement to detectives, Mr Swainson was arrested and charged with rape.
...
Jones, of Bury, was sentenced to four months in prison after admitting perverting the course of justice."

Notice even in the headline they try to start making excuses, as if being 'lovesick' or a lesbian somehow explains why you tried to ruin an innocent person's life.

Story here. Excerpt:

"A state registry set up to make adoptions easier is under fire at the Florida Supreme Court. The high court heard an appeal Monday on behalf of a Tampa man who was denied the right to raise his own child after the single mom decided to give the baby up for adoption."

--

Ed. note: The story is really delivered via video. Click the "Florida's Fathers Adoption Rights" link next to the red camera icon just below the headline to watch it.

In a just-posted article, msnbc.com looks at the devastating effects of fatherless households, including comments from dads in "A National Survey of Dads’ Attitudes on Fathering". It found that 91 percent of those questioned agreed there is a father-absence crisis in America. They listed work demands as the No. 1 barrier to being a good father. Other major impediments included the media and popular culture followed by financial problems. Fathers who were not married to the mother of their children cited a lack of cooperation from mothers as the chief obstacle to being a good father, followed by work responsibilities, financial problems and treatment of fathers by the courts.

Interestingly, the word “feminism” never shows up in this otherwise intelligent report.

Recently there have been some registered user accounts which have been used to post spam on the site using automated methods. For the time being I have enabled "captcha" image verification for comment posting. I know this will be inconvenient for the regular posters here, and I intend to look into alternatives or ways to whitelist some of the more regular commenters.

In the meantime, please keep an eye out for these spam posts (they will be obvious, usually containing dozens of links to other sites) and let us know when you come across them. Thanks!

Story here. Excerpt:

"... when the Mayor [David Miller] was asked generally why so many young men who are involved in gun violence are also fatherless and part of a gangster culture, he downplayed the important role of fathers in the lives of boys.

Mr. Miller told [radio talk show host] John Oakley, who called him on this, that he had grown up without a father and that he is not convinced a father is needed in a child's life. That to even raise the issue is to blame the mothers."

Story here. Excerpt:

'OTTAWA -- A growing number of men are ditching work for daddy duty at home in the weeks after the birth or adoption of a child, according to a new report.

The Statistics Canada study released Wednesday showed that since 2001, the proportion of women who took time off work for a child's birth or adoption has remained stable but the proportion of men who did so has increased.

"After government increased eligibility for benefits and extended parental leave in 2001 to 35 weeks, the proportion of fathers who took any kind of leave for the birth or adoption of their child, including parental leave, rose from 38% in 2001 to 55% five years later," the report said.
...
"Among men, factors related to finances, employment and career played a dominant role in the decision not to take leave. In fact, men were twice as likely as women to cite their financial situation as a reason," the study said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"Researchers trying to understand why high school-age boys are involved in serious delinquency more often than girls have found that males are exposed to higher levels of risk factors and lower amounts of protective factors.
...
The 22 protective factors measured included the teens' attachment to each of their parents, rewards for good behavior in school and social skills in dealing with other people. Risks included family conflict, low commitment to school, peer drug use and sensation seeking.

While boys experience higher levels of risk and lower protection for 18 of these factors, girls only reported higher risk for family conflict and less protection from attachment to their fathers. There were no gender differences for exposure to peer drug use and for peer rewards for delinquency."