Seems Belarusian police think women are not as responsible for law-breaking than men. While at once anyone not being hauled off for the "crime" of objecting peacably to election results is a good thing, it isn't good that only some people seem to be worthy of this indulgence over others for no other reason than the content of their pants. Article here. It closes with:

According to an opposition presidential candidate who arrived at the square, all the women were allowed to leave.

So, I guess it's not so bad then, right? Wrong.

Anonymous User writes "She has sex with four students under 16 and gets '4 to 20 years.'

Teacher tries to use the same defense that Debra Lefave used too. Interesting quote: "Debra LaFave, a Florida teacher facing similar charges avoided prison this week. What was different?"

Uhm, she was a pretty blonde..."

DADS UNITED DEMO - Friday 16th June
2006

Click "Read more..." for details.

Craig writes "From 'The Sun' on Tuesday 21st about 'wondermums'. Six mothers from across the UK and Ireland have been nominated as wondermums-except one of the mothers is actually a single father of two nominated by his kids. Read about and vote for the nominees here.

It's nice to see positive recognition for fathers for a change, especially single fathers. I voted for the father and I hope others will do the same."

Surprising, in a positive way, this article from MSN.

John Doe writes "Kathleen Parker reviews some recent NY Times articles on the decline of fatherhood. Excerpts:

'...men are necessary, if not to certain women, then certainly to children, who, despite the creative inventions of many modern mothers, seem to love their daddies.

A society in which women are alone, men are lonely, and children don't have fathers is nothing to celebrate. And a future world filled with fatherless children - bereft of half their identity and robbed of a father's love, discipline and authority - won't likely be a pleasant place to live.'

Column here."

Joanna Grossman, a FindLaw commentator and legal professor, defends the status quo re the lack of parental rights for men here. Needless to say, the arguments she uses as well as the ones she cites that the Supreme Court has used to deny men equal protection are laughable but alas, all too common. Mysteriously, the message board link at the bottom of the article leads to a page-not-found type of error. I submitted a note telling them it was broken; we'll see if they fix it!

Return of the King writes "The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday (Mar. 22, 2006) that police without a warrant cannot search a home when one resident says to come in but another tells them to go away, and the court's new leader complained that the ruling could hamper investigations of domestic abuse. Yet, This case has no bearing on the capacity of the police to protect domestic victims," Souter wrote. "No question has been raised, or reasonably could be, about the authority of the police to enter a dwelling to protect a resident from domestic violence; so long as they have good reason to believe such a threat exists." In other words, the police will enter your home on assumption of threat which is already assumed, anyway."

Luek writes "Here is yet another man cleared of rape after spending many years in the Gulag.

What makes this story of interest is that the state of Texas "MAY" pay him up to $250,000 for the time he spent in prison for a crime he didn't commit. $250K / 18 years = $13,888 for each year incarcerated. Gee, how magnanimous of the state! It is common for judges award that much for a years worth of child support for one child!

A new twist to these now common false rape convictions is that the current DA actually apologized to him. However, this same DA said nothing about implementing failsafe procedures that would prevent such judicial outrages from occurring in the future."

In this essay, Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks refute the unjust and unfounded feminist claim that American men are slackers.

For our LaFave watchers, read it here. The stated motivation for the dropping of this set of charges is that they don't want to put the boy through the process of testifying for his own sake, and such would be required since the judge has rejected the proposed plea bargain. Thoughts?

Roy writes "N.O.W. has published an excellent menu of activist suggestions for promoting Women’s Herstory Month. These ideas could be easily adapted by MRA’s to raise awareness of men’s rights. Among the creative ideas -

*MAP IT OUT* Create a timeline of the women's movement on your campus or of women's contributions in your local community... Be sure to use bright colors and pictures! *TEACH IT* Many schools' history programs do not give a full portrayal of women's herstory. Organize a Women's Herstory 101, and talk about the importance of teaching women's herstory in our schools. If your university does not have a women's studies department, consider petitioning the administration to establish one. *SLAM IT OUT* Organize a women's herstory poetry slam.

(WTF, no bake sale of vagina-shaped confectionaries?)"

Anonymous User writes "As usual the media attempts portray all things male as deeply flawed and probably evil. The latest attack on manhood is directed at the President. A laundry list of complaints about Bush is offered in this article suggesting if that he were just more female none of these terrible events, all conserative victories by the way, could have been avoided. Is anyone else tired of being attacked simply beacuse you're man? It's time to stop the hate. Email this troll and let her know how you really feel: marcusr-at-washpost.com"

Anonymous user writes""Donor 401" has fathered eleven babies... now the are trying to find out who this mysterious donor is. There's a waiting list for his sperm! I don't blame this guy (blonde haired, blue eyed, athletic, 6'1) for trying to conceal his identity. If you think one child support is bad... try eleven and counting."

Ed. note: Posted not to belabor the topic, but as an interesting follow-on to yesterday's post on the topic of artificial insemination. All I can say is, the world just gets weirder and weirder. Is this some sort of strange kind of polygamy-at-a-distance thing? If I had any reason to believe this story was fiction, perhaps I would, but don't.

The NYTimes seems to be on this issue fairly regularly. It's a long read but worth the review. My own take is that a lot of things are contributing to the phenomenon, not just the vastly-reduced status of men in our society or even just the perceived importance of fathers in the lives of children, though obviously these are major factors. Anyway, read it here.