Dan Lynch sent us this story from Men's News Daily and writes "Here is an opportunity to do some more letter writing activism. There is a male friendly judge who is trying for a supreme court seat. In fact I think he is all about the greatness of fathers. Even his own daugther, which I think is great, is his biggest supporter. His name is Judge Steve Alexander who "is a fiscal and social conservative who believes in the sanctity of family and fatherhood" is trying to get himself on the ballot for Washington State Supreme Court, Position 4. If this is of an interest to you, you may consider writing in or helping with the "grassroots" campaign they, his daugther and many others are trying to organize for his admission. "I wanted to be there for my children--not just a name on their birth certificate, but a strong, warm, and loving presence in their lives"-Judge Alexander." I'm really sorry for taking so long to post this, I hope there's still time for it to help.

Serge writes "CBS recently aired a "60 Minutes" episode on boys. "Just as educators’ special efforts to improve the performance of girls in school is showing success, they now have a new problem: boys are falling behind at all levels of education. Lesley Stahl reports." The above snippet is the only transcript found on their site. All the other segments of that showing are transcribed! While partially putting the blame on fathers who fail to encourage their sons in scholastic achievement, as well as crying that "men still earn more," the program did raise important questions that are but all too familiar to this site's readers. But overall, I think it was a step in the right direction and is sure to get some discussion going in wider circles. Perphaps someone else could find the transcript of this on their site, as I am unable to. Otherwise, we should probably encourage them." I've received word that N.O.W. has issued an action alert to lobby CBS to stop acknowledging the plight of males in school, so we really need to counter their efforts and help increase this kind of coverage.

Robex writes "The BBC reports today that "Some of the UK's biggest cancer killers get only a fraction of the funding they deserve".

The graph has been produced by The UK National Cancer Research Institute and is the first ever comprehensive breakdown of cancer research in the UK.

You will be unsurprised to find that Breast Cancer is one of the most heavily funded cancers versus mortality rate. And if you ever were in doubt about the task we face in getting people to write about male health, the article manages to avoid mentiononing Prostate Cancer once. Of all the cancers shown on the graph, it and Melanoma are the only ones not mentioned."

kade writes "FoxNews has an excellent argument against "Battered Woman Syndrome",
which claims that battered women are psychologically traumatized and therefore not responsible for their violent actions.
As stated in the article, BWS is "a legal defense available to women and de facto denied to men."" Wendy McElroy is the author of this excellent piece.

Steve writes "I will host this week's MANN chat, Wednesday night
(10/23), starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location. The topic
for this chat will be 'Men's Support Groups as Aids to Activism.'  On
Sunday, I had the pleasure of meeting several men's activists in Denver, Colorado.
 They gave me a warm welcome and we discussed, among other things, men's
support groups.  Establishing a men's support group can be challenging.
 Running a men's support group can be even more challenging.  Yet,
great adventures and rewards await those who face the challenges of working
with a small group of men who meet regularly and support one another on various
issues.  What do men's support groups have to do with men's activism?
 How can I start a men's support group?  How can being 'one of
the guys' in a men's support group make me a better activist?  Join us at this week's MANN chat to discuss these questions
and more.  Take a friend or two to the chat, also!"

Dan Lynch writes "On Thursday I am scheduled to be on the Lion Radio at Penn State University. I will be talking about Men's Issues that are known to us and possibly challenging whoever it is they bring to debate me. I'm going to try and get an mp3 of the show so I can send around to people if the show turns out well. You can listen to the show live over the net. You will have to suppress your 'pop up squasher program' if you have one, so you can get the pop-up link to choose your bandwidth, etc... The show is planned for October 24th starting at 5 PM EST. Log on early just in case; sometimes the music is pretty good and it has less comercials. You can even call in and rant. I have no idea how many people listen to this station but that's what it's all about - raising awareness wherever you can. I will try to use my negotiation skills in regards to dispute resolution. Let's see what comes of it."

This is quite an
interesting article here, as it looks at the monastic community of Mount
Athos which is a spiritual retreat for the nearest man, and for a thousand years has banned
women and all images of women from the island. The writer thinks this is woman hating at its
worst, but overlooks the fact that at the start at the article he says this was done in the
name of the Virgin Mary. As Bugs Bunny would say, "what a maroon!"

Didja miss me? I hope so, as it shows good taste :-) Ok, enough cheap jokes and let's get to
the article. This one is a series of articles centered around Sylvia Ann Hewlett's book
Creating A Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children which is focused on the
large trend of childless career women. I admit this is not what you expect to see around here, but this book has got
a large amount of feminists going mad over the issues it raises, and I thought you might
be interested in seeing what all the fuss is about. Feel free to
check it out for yourself.

An Anonymous User sent us this link to the California chapter of NOW's debunked Family Court Report 2002. It appears that it has been revised recently, and I'd be curious to know if anyone familiar with the controversy over the first version could tell us what the new changes are? Please post your thoughts in the comments section below.

Luek writes "Here is some good news about the fight to cure prostate cancer that kills over 30,000 American men each year. Scientists say a gene has been identified that will predict if the cancer will develop into its most lethal form. The earlier the treatment the more chance there is to cure it. Identifying this gene will give the doctors the edge in their diagnosis and treatment plan.

How appropriate just a couple of weeks after Prostate Cancer 'Un'awareness Month."

CJ writes "Here are examples of how police departments become biased against men (with huge grant offerings) by teaching them the "correct way" to handle domestic issues. In MA, against all evidentiary facts in just about every instance, men (fathers, husbands, boyfriends) get arrested because this is the "correct and trained way to handle these things." Many men are sitting in jail in MA without any examination of the facts concerning the incident. I know, I was one of them. Please contact the people listed on this page with accurate domestic violence statistics. Whether they want it or not doesn't matter, they need to know. Stop the "witch hunt" against men in MA."

frank h writes "I found this article on Madonna's new movie "Swept Away," and after I read what the movie is about, it occurred to me that the reason the critics panned the movie so aggressively might be because the female lead, played by Madonna, is made to look weak and dependent on a man, the male lead played by Adriano Giannini, and worse yet, a man below her "station." The film tells the story of an American "rich bitch," who makes life miserable for a lowly Italian crew member of the yacht on which she is cruising the Aegean. But when the couple are accidentally stranded, the Italian "rough trade" sailor forces her to beg for his help to survive until they become lovers. I haven't seen it yet, and I'm not really a movie critic, but it would be interesting to see what the folks here have to say about it. Is it really a bad movie, or is it just that the illiterati don't like the fact that the woman isn't dominant?"

Raindrop writes "Newscientist reports that men wanting a baby "unconsciously"
increase testosterone levels. This goes against popular opinion of the "little brain" controlling the "big brain" - seems it's the other way around."

Tummler writes "Men who put their career before having a family should beware: the ticking of the biological clock is as important for fertility in men as it is in women.

American scientists have discovered that genetic damage to sperm routinely starts to cause infertility in men as young as 35." Scott's update: Men's News Daily also has an interesting follow-up article to this story.

This is just a final reminder that the 2nd Annual Conference on Male Victims of Domestic Abuse will be held this Saturday in Portland, Maine. Word is that Mary Cleary from AMEN (Abused MEN) will be at the event, coming all the way from Ireland. I also know other attendees are coming from all parts of the U.S. and even Canada.