This past week our hard work was rewarded with two victories. And both of them stemmed from flawed reports from the United Nations.

1. UN Study on Violence Against Women

   The first report was the UN secretary-general's Study on Violence Against Women. The document amounted to an ideological denunciation of the "patriarchy" and recommended that every country around the world enact VAWA-like laws: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw. Columnist Wendy McElroy described the report as "embarrassingly inaccurate, ideological, and biased against men." (http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.55)

   What happened next was nothing short of miraculous.

Article here. Excerpt:

"What drives a woman to strap a suicide belt to her body and blow herself up among a crowd of people?"

"Aside from highlighting the differences in Israeli and Arab coverage of the phenomenon, he reminds us that the lives of female suicide terrorists are no less tragic than those of male suicide bombers, yet the media accords women more sympathy and treats them with "kid gloves."

Story here. Excerpt:

"A woman charged with murder in the slaying of her police officer husband was indicted Wednesday on dozens of charges stemming from alleged financial crimes."

"The 58 counts brought in Iredell County Superior Court against Misty Keller Witherspoon include allegations of embezzlement, identity theft and obtaining property by false pretenses."

Story here. Excerpt:

"Later that day, as Jon White was leaving work, his wife chased him back into the Woodland Towers building by driving her Ford Explorer through the glass doors and into the lobby, according to testimony. She struck her husband, causing him to flip over the vehicle and fall to the floor."

"Schatz said he may be able to argue at trial that Brenda White was suffering from "extreme emotional distress."

Story here.

"The judge sentencing a French woman who fled Canada with her children and sparked a bitter international custody battle said on Friday the true victims in the case were the youngsters.

Judge Marvyn Koenigsberg said she believes Nathalie Gettliffe did not intend to remain in France permanently when she kidnapped her children, but that did not diminish the harm the case had caused.

Gettliffe fled to France with the children in 2001 after a Canadian divorce court rejected her request to take them there for 10 months. The court had ruled that would violate their father's right to have access to them.
...
"I don't think the greatest harm that happened to the children is not the five years (away), it's that they learned to hate their father," Koenigsberg said, admitting she was struggling with how to handle the case.

Story here.

"MENINISM is the catchcry of a movement of males who will storm the streets and burn their ties, rallying against the "all men are bastards" image that has an entire sex pigeonholed as violent, heartless and untrustworthy.

This is according to a new study saying there is a competing interest to the feminist struggle for equality; men and boys are now the target of negative stereotypes.

The research shows almost 70 per cent of social commentary on the male gender is unfavourable – portraying men as violent, sexually abusive, unable to be trusted with children, "deadbeat dads" and commitment-phobic."

Story here. Excerpt:

"The most surprising part of the breakup of Anthony Siminiuk's eight-year marriage is not the fact that he never saw it coming.

It is not that he drove his wife and two small children to the Regina airport for what he thought was a visit with family in Ontario, unaware she'd already cleaned out the closets, quit her job and planned on leaving for good.

It is not even that it has been eight months since he has seen his children, even though a court has granted him "liberal access ... either in Ontario or Saskatchewan" -- an entirely untenable option for someone on a modest sales salary.

What is most surprising is that it all seems to be perfectly legal."

Another video for you from CNN, here. This time the perp is the mother of the slain infant and the reporter comments something to the effect that at this time, police don't know what may have "pushed this mother over the edge."

More she-gets-a-pass commentary from the press.

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.
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...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."