So - two stories on the same day from the BBC. Spot the difference:

Man jailed for sex with teenager

Jail term for underage sex woman

Glad to see the story is, at the moment anyway, at the top of CNN's "Most Popular" videos. Not glad to see that the story even exists, however. Watch it here (RealPlayer or similar required). Note toward the end of the report though that the reporter mentions that something must have gone "drastically wrong", since the assailant was more badly-burned than the victim.

What actually has gone drastically wrong of course is that women think they can do this sort of thing and get away with it, and that reporters seem more sympathetic with the assailant than the victim, provided the assailant is female and the victim male.

The British TV actor Ben Freeman has been charged with raping a 16 year old British girl in Barbados.

"Freeman was granted US$10,000 (£7,550) bail and had to surrender his travel documents.

The girl has returned to Britain. But hotel staff say she was seen sunbathing three days after the incident on Saturday.

A staff member said: 'You would have thought that after something as traumatising as that she would have wanted to get as far away from here as possible.'"

It will be interesting to see how this one develops...

Story here.

'Studies of Vietnam and Gulf War veterans have documented post-traumatic stress in females - with higher rates than men, in some cases.
...
... anxiety - along with depression, irritability and feelings of isolation – also are common symptoms for men with post-traumatic stress, but some mental health experts believe there are distinct pressures for women veterans.
...
...the VA reports that slightly more than a third of 23,635 women veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan had a preliminary diagnosis of a mental disorder.'

By the way, of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, females represent 2.13% -- 67 of the 3,141 killed as of today. Of the more than 21,485 wounded, female injuries are 430. Cite here.

You guys can file this story as Weird/Irony.

"Attorney John Fitzgibbons is used to dealing with high profile cases and female criminals. His name and face has been plastered all over national news since the Debra LaFave case unfolded."

"Now Fitzgibbons is back in the news, except this time he's the victim."

Story here.

"Statewide, the number of females arrested – but not necessarily charged – for sex crimes against adults and children increased more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2005, while the number of males arrested during that period declined 7.1 percent. The number of female arrestees has increased from 1,169 in 2001 to 1,766 in 2005."

"Authorities say the problem is recurrent, and they believe the crime of female adults molesting minor males is not necessarily a rarity, but just underreported."

Story here

"According to the report, Williams used them as ashtrays, stabbed them with glass and knives, burned them with cigarette lighters and beat them with exercise equipment at her Toepfer Road home. They also said she forced them to sleep on the floor without blankets, choked them with a belt and bound their arms and legs with rope."

And The Truth Continues...

We are very excited to announce Kright's Radio goes live with our new weekly panel show - "VLR Discussion's."

Beginning Saturday December 2nd / 3:30PM EST, 2:30PM CST, 1:30PM MT,

The topic of discussion for our Live Show will be:

"The State Of Noncustodial Parent's In America Today."

Guests:

Alicia Crow - WWW.realdadsstandup.com

Bessie Hudgins - WWW.three-sides-to-every-story.org

Jim Loose- WWW.pepintexas.org

Jim Semerad - United States Navy Commander and Family Readiness Officer

Moderator/Host: Richar' Farr

In this article which appears in todays St. Petersburg Times, reporter Abbie Vansickle does not highlight the fact that Kristen Anne Schmidt had 5 jobs in her first three years after graduating from nursing school.

Also it turns out that her husband divorced her in 1992, because she was having an affair with a fellow employee.

As well as telling us about Schmidt's virtually perfect work record, the article also has the obligatory sympathy-raising statements about Schmidt's personal life, telling us about Scmidt's two kids (who she has custody of, needless to say), and how her 'house is decorated with Christmas lights'.

Article here. Excerpt:

"The proposal actually makes it a crime for a man to "change or attempt to change an existing housing or cohabitation arrangement" with a pregnant significant other, to "file or attempt to file for a divorce" from his pregnant wife or to "withdraw or attempt to withdraw financial support" from a woman whom he has been supporting -- if it is determined that the man is doing these things to try to pressure the woman to terminate her pregnancy."

Great news! Bet that was the best sundae he ever tasted. Good work, John! Story here.

Posted on behalf of Marc A:

Joseph D. just showed me this BIASED article by the L.A. Times on the "inequities of women." PLEASE, let's FLOOD them with letters immediately so we can get as many as possible printed! Email them at letters-at-latimes.com, and copy the author at carla.hall-at-latimes.com.

The article says things like:

"Most striking is that 40% of the estimated 88,000 homeless people in the county are women and children." But combining women and children together is totally deceptive. According to the Institute for Homelessness and Poverty's 2004 report, 77% of single adult homeless were male." Cite (.pdf)

Story here.

"A prosecutor will argue that she had a legal duty to intervene. They will say she should have known the boy was being severely hurt," said Jack King, spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers."

"But King said a defense attorney could argue that there was little Schmidt could have done to stop the guards: "They might say she was just one woman surrounded by a bunch of crazed men, by these goons that were going crazy."

Read it here, best on an empty stomach.

The urge to close the browser after the first one or two paragraphs is strong, but keep a-reading anyway. Some degree of reality seeps through in one paragraph (below), but the overall tone of this peice of writing is that men-as-fathers are vestigial organs at best and a necessary (for now anyway) evil that has to be carefully managed and allowed involvement in their own children's lives only at the permission and fine-grained-control management of the mother. All in all, a real barf-maker. The review's author has her own web site, here, which also lists a contact email address. Excerpt:

The Globe and Mail, Canada's largest national newspaper, printed this editorial:

"From the opposition outcry over budget cuts to Status of Women Canada, Canadians might think the Conservatives had throttled women's aspirations for equality. That is simply incorrect. Instead, 35 years after the creation of a status-of-women cabinet post and 22 years after the recognition of women's equality rights in the Constitution, Ottawa has decided to close 12 of the agency's 16 regional offices across the country. The closings come as Ottawa pares $5-million from the agency's $23-million annual budget over two years. It's about time."

[...]

"Today, it seems more like a government relic, laden with jargon from old wars."