Last December TV talk show host David Letterman found himself named in a restraining order. The order was granted at the request of Colleen Nestler of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Nestler alleged that for the past 11 years Mr. Letterman had been sending her “thoughts of love” in the form of mental telepathic messages and televised facial gestures.

According to a RADAR Special Report (.pdf file) issued today, Letterman’s actions indeed represent domestic “violence,” at least according to the laws of New Mexico. In that state, domestic violence is defined as “Any incident by a household member against another household member resulting in ... severe emotional distress ... [or] harassment.”

The law states “cohabitation is not necessary to be deemed a household member.” Any “person with whom the petitioner has had a continuing personal relationship” is a “household member.” So Nestler’s decade-long telepathic relationship with Letterman made him a member of her household, even though he had never heard of her.

Story here. Thanks to Marc A. for pointing it out.

Excerpt:

Men, too, reporting abuse by partners
Published: September 5, 2006
By ABBE SMITH

Men are victims too.

It's the message more domestic violence experts locally and statewide are trying to get out.

And it's a fact becoming more evident by the growing number of male victims reporting cases of abuse.

According a 1988 report by the state Attorney General's Office, just 6 percent of those arrested for domestic violence were women. By 1998, the total had risen to 16.5 percent.

This sort of reminds me how it is reportedly illegal in Japan to display erotic art in public, so instead Japanese artists make use of animals-having-sex as a theme to portray eroticism.

Obviously discussing human males being killed by females during or after sex and sort of objectifying it as a natural phenomenon would provoke too much overt outrage, so instead, the Times must titillate itself with the "story" it has run. I guess it's their way of reminding everyone (as if we needed it) of such wondrous cultural standards as the disposability of males and the awesome reproductive and sexual powers of women-- all without actually doing so overtly.

Subtle as a sledge-hammer on the back of the head.

But, you have to admire their imagination and cutting-edge scientific reporting; after all, such sexual cannibalism in the insect kingdom has only been known about and studied for, oh, a mere 1,000 years or more.

This is definitely a take-action item. Excerpt from the newsletter:

NEW CAMPAIGN--Veto Domestic Violence Bill Which Excludes Fathers, Children from State Services!

The California Assembly just passed a domestic violence bill which deliberately perpetuates the state's harmful policy of excluding men and their children from receiving state-funded domestic violence services. Under AB 2051, only "battered women" are eligible for the shelters, hotel vouchers, counseling and legal services the state provides victims of domestic violence. We're calling on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto this misguided legislation.

I want all of you to write to the Governor to tell him to veto AB 2051 by clicking here. By filling out the form you will be sending a fax to the Governor.

This story is interesting as it raises the term misandrist in mainstream media:

"If you don't know what a misandrist is, I'm not surprised. It's the opposite of a misogynist and means someone who hates men. Maybe I hang out with inarticulate boofheads, but I've never heard the word used in conversation, let alone as a put-down for a woman who's pointed out basic differences between how men and women view the world and interact with each other. Datum: Microsoft Word's spellcheck doesn't even recognise the term, it is so obscure."

Bitter feminist Germaine Greer just can't help taking a shot at the tragic death of Steve Irwin - apparently "The animal world has taken revenge on self-deluded animal tormentor Steve Irwin" Story here.

You know, all I have to say about this is THANK GOD women are the fairer sex. Thank God women are not as evil and horrible as men. Thank God women aren't as er, uhm, oh, never mind...

Beginning this week, RADAR will be serializing the chapter of Warren Farrell‘s book “Women Can‘t Hear What Men Don‘t Say” that deals with domestic violence. Read Part One here.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Date of RADAR Release: September 4, 2006

Register now for the National Family Law Reform Conference, to be held September 15-16 in Alexandria, Virginia (near Washington, DC). The conference will address the crisis of family law, including biased family courts, false allegations of domestic violence, child abuse, and much more. For more information: http://www.acfc.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=100021

R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a network of concerned men and women working to assure that the problem of domestic violence is treated in a balanced and effective manner. http://www.mediaradar.org/.

Kim Basinger is being hauled into court to explain why she has violated a judges order to permit Alec Baldwin to see his own children. In my opinion, this is big news for the mens movement. Finally, we have a family court judge taking action against a female public figure for abusing child custody. It is amazing to me that a family court judge would hold any ex-wife/mother accountable much less a famous/pretty one. This judge has a set on him.

Article here

I don't know what to say about this other than I can't beleive it is true.

Excerpts:

A recently enacted law allows county prosecutors, the state attorney general, or, as a last resort, alleged victims to ask judges to civilly declare someone to be a sex offender even when there has been no criminal verdict or successful lawsuit.

A civilly declared offender, however, could petition the court to have the person's name removed from the new list after six years if there have been no new problems and the judge believes the person is unlikely to abuse again.

If you are male, move out of Ohio.

Story here.

I.M.O this is nothing but junk science designed to further poison relationships between men and women by enforcing the premise that such relationships are bad or wrong or somehow inferior to 'alternative' lifestyles, etc. However they have sunk to a new low here by suggesting that the very thing men and women ARE DESIGNED FOR in order for us to continue as a species is a danger to women! Since the majority of women have sex with men there must surely be a pandemic of Cervical Cancer?

Teri Stoddard gives us an important heads-up re a bill in California that would further empower the state to incent collection agencies to pursue "delinquent NCPs" by making them pay for the honor of being hunted down! Details here. She also includes the latest on John Murtari's struggle.

This news story from the BBC tells how more and more women are secretly setting up bank accounts, without their husbands knowing, and stockpiling cash to ensure their own future.

It makes it pretty obvious that this is basically to secure their own futures when they decide to leave.

In other words, they take money that belongs to them both (stealing), lie and cheat and then eventually leave him.

But is this looked on in a negative way? Like hell it is. The entire article praises them for protecting themselves from those mean-old men, clever women you.

As usual, what would it sound like the other way around? If men were stealing money and storing it in secret bank accounts for the day they left their wives, I'm pretty sure they'd be portrayed as evil, selfish schemers. But not the girls.

Nice quote: ""Money controlled by women is more likely to be spent on children than money controlled by men, children lose out too," she said."

A few people have requested that a comment rating system be put into place like we had on the old site, so that they can filter out comments that get moderated down. I have enabled a similar system on MANN this evening, so you'll see a rating drop-down list on each comment, and can set your comment display settings to show or hide low-rated comments. Feel free to make use of this to make the commenting system more valuable. Some bugs may need to be worked out at the start, so let us know if the system is being abused.

The minutes from the July meeting of the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Men are now available from the CSM's web site. This meeting included two guest speakers. Dr. Elaine Holden of The Reading Foundation spoke about the prevalence of boys in special education programs, the lack of male educators in elementary schools, and reading disabilities. Justice Gerry Boyle (former Chair of the CSM before he was appointed to become a judge two years ago) also came to speak about domestic violence issues in the courts. See the meeting minutes for highlights from both of these speakers.