... or so says Ms. Beverly McPhail in this op-ed. Masculinity is so closely tied to violence, she reasons, that it must be re-invented for the good of all, most especially men.

Well perhaps she's right in a few senses-- men do suffer greatly from violence as being expected of them and as the targets of violence most of the time. But she utterly ignores the many acts of violence committed by women to pace those of men if not exceed them. More of the same, folks-- men are violent, women are not, men broken and inferior, women the model in all things and superior. More of the same.

The Houston Chronicle's summary of who she is is a bit lacking. Apparently she's more than a writer; she appears also to be a teacher of WST courses at the U of Houston as well; see here. The Chronicle's editor can be reached at viewpoints@chron.com.

Ms. McPhail can be reached at bevmcphail@earthlink.net.

bandersnatch writes "In this article it is mentioned that a teacher and a 14-year-old former female student whom she is accused of sexually assaulting participated in witchcraft together and even "wed" in a pagan ritual. Call me cynical but I suspect this case may result in more sympathy and a harsh sentence then previously female teacher abuse cases only because the victim is only a female."

Read this and thought it was thought-provoking material. I am sure it will likely generate some discussion here on MANN. :)


Click "Read More..."

Linucs writes "If you do not speak Italian, good! You will not be able to fully understand these two very painful news items. First: if you are a divorced father, earn less than 650 euros/month, and have to pay for child support, do not have DV precedents, you're lucky: you may access the first father shelter! The article even suggests that these fathers will feel kind of younger, because - you see - it's like a college dorm. Second: a court of appeal just decided that a father has to pay child support for his two daughers. Too bad his daughters have 34 and 32 years: the court said that there's no age limit to "child" support, and he has to pay until his daughters get a job and become "independent". Now fathers have to "demonstrate" that the "children" willingly avoid working. (hey - I told you it was painful)"


Ed's note: You can use the "Translate a Web Page" facility at http://babelfish.altavista.com/ to translate these articles from Italian to English.

AngryMan writes "If Secretary Blunkett has to go to court to get access to his child, maybe he will have some sympathy for the father's rights cause. Let's hope so. Story here"

bro writes "Here "Boys are doing miserably, and nobody knows quite why. On measures ranging from writing ability to the likelihood of needing special education, boys are flat-lining - or worse."

We've definitely made progress, when the sexual molestation of a child by a woman is called rape, as is the sexual molestation of a child by a man. It will be interesting, though, to watch the progress of this case. Will defense attorneys succeed in having Debra LaFave acquitted on the basis of insanity partly because of her cutesy talk involving a "pinky promise?"

Congratulations to Glenn Sacks and to all of us who participated in the campaign to end the now-infamous "homework ad" that Verizon was airing! They have informed Glenn that they are no longer going to air it. Story here.

Clancy writes "From Maureen Dowd of the NYT

"I honestly thought, eight or nine years ago, that when we left," Mr. Brokaw said, referring to himself, Peter and Dan Rather, "that it would be the end of white male anchor time."

Nah. Those guys are hard to kill off. Indeed, white men are ascendant in Red State America.

As my mom said, discussing her belief that Martha Stewart had been railroaded by jealous men, "If men could figure out how to have babies, they'd get rid of us altogether."

Article here"

Steven Brown writes "So all along we've believed that AIDS is a disaster for all people. But now it seems it's only catastrophic for women:

here

"...a generation of African girls is standing on the frontline of the carnage...."

Unbelievable..."

Linucs writes "According to CNN, there's a new mighty tool in the hands of abusive men: satellite imagery. Don't believe it? "Cindy Cowan, the director of a Toronto shelter for battered women, echoed Rastogi's concerns, saying the technology could put women at greater risk of abuse. "Already the Internet has become a place where women are stalked, so to give another tool to abusive men motivated to find and track and stalk -- it frightens me," she said." Gone are the days when the simple minded "abusive male stalker" just stalked around pointlessly: now they will spend countless hours chasing their potential victims from the sky. Is this getting ridiculous or what? Will abusive males eventually team up with alien abductors? Makes you wonder..."

After spending 14 years in prison as a child molestor, James Bernard Parker has been freed. His accusers admitted that he hadn't committed the alleged crimes or that the crimes had, in fact, never occurred. Note, however, that the article still refers to the false accusers as "victims." Who is the true victim, and who are the true criminals?

The article also states that "Police found no physical evidence (of the alleged molestations), even though children told stories of being tied to trees and fed poisoned ice cream. They also gave a wide range of descriptions of their attacker." In addition, "The Charlotte Observer ran stories in 2002 in which 15 reported victims and witnesses said the crimes never happened or that Parker wasn't the attacker."

2002... It's damned difficult for a man to prove his innocence in the US of A.

Scientific American has published an article on David C. Page, who has spent a large part of his career debunking some of the proclamations of feminist "science."

A couple of worthy quotes from the article:

"The very idea of investigating the Y chromosome offends those feminists who believe that it serves as nothing more than a subterfuge to promulgate an inherent male bias in biology. And, in Page's view, some reputable scientists have even pandered to these sentiments by writing books and papers that predict the extinction of men--or the Y's disappearance."

and

"Biologist Jennifer A. Marshall Graves of the Australian National University in Canberra argues that gene conversion in the palindromes represents a form of 'genetic masturbation' that may not only fail to inhibit deleterious mutations but may even speed the process of the chromosome's decline. Page's terse response: 'Ah, rhetoric and theory unburdened by experimental data.'"

As tempted as I am to go off on an editorial, I will let MANN readers do the honors. Read it and laugh/weep/fume/etc.

Posted on behalf of author:

Hello everyone.

I am working directly with the United States coordinator for Fathers 4 Justice and would like to hear from anyone that is being raked over the coals and that would be interested in becoming active with F4J on any level.

Many of our local groups tread lightly and speak with a soft voice and we have all seen exactly how much hasn't changed for any of us. While some are intimidated by F4J, as you have seen people are taking notice whether it is Batman or Santa, things are happening abroad as a result of their efforts and the time has come for us to get on board here.

We owe it to ourselves and our children to do whatever it takes (legally of course) to make change happen. If you are willing to be an active participant in a demonstration or if you'd prefer to be involved behind the scenes we need your help.

I can be contacted at MnDadsRock@aol.com. I look forward to hearing from you.