chicago joe writes "There is an article in this month's Oprah magizine [October] that should make everyone see red. It is a story about a former pro football player named Don McPherson and his men's program concerning domestic violence. He has been brainwashed into believing the traditional feminist stereotypes. He tells men at his workshop that women do not commit domestic violence - men do. He labels only men as perpetrators in gender crimes, and he states that male privilege, and our culture that breeds it, are responsible for most of women's woes. The article is also filled with the same anti-male distortions and facts that is common for this subject, and it convinces it's readers that the trend for many males is create or join organizations such as McPherson's so as to "take a hard look at their manhood.""

Luek sent us this article and writes "In Lawrence County, Pennsylvania the ACLU got 37 men out of the child support prison gulag. They reasoned correctly that anyone arrested and threatened with imprisonment is entitled to free legal counsel if they can't afford it and due legal process. Just because you are a male you still can't be treated like a piece of property by the iron heeled state tyrants." This could be a very important breakthrough if this kind of legal case is made in other regions. The ACLU has been lukewarm or completely apathetic to certain men's issues (ie, male reproductive rights) in the past, but this could be a way of getting our "foot in the door" and might lead to the ACLU being more open to men's rights issues. Let's hope for the best.

Jeff Mapes from Kalamazoo College in Michigan is looking for a pro-male speaker to come to his campus and give a presentation on men's issues. If you're interested, please e-mail Jeff at k00jm03@kzoo.edu. Jeff has been successful in starting a "men's issues house" on campus. Here's an excerpt from the house's mission statement: "At every level of discussion on this campus, masculinity is ostracized and shunned. From the way sports players are cynically referred to as “jocks,” to the tendency of every discussion on masculinity to center around gender violence, the students, faculty and staff of Kalamazoo College largely operate under a fundamentally negative—and utterly wrong—conception of men and masculinity. This conception begins with the assumption that men, left to their own devices, will act like brutish animals in a Hobbesian state of nature. As a house, our primary mission will be to fight this misconception." We definitely need more college groups like this.

Rams forwarded me this article about an English professor at the University of New Hampshire who has taken a close look at boys and literacy. Prof. Thomas Newkirk argues that instead of viewing popular culture as of no intellectual value, that in the case of boys and reading, it can be a very important influence: "Newkirk interviewed 100 boys and girls in third, fourth and fifth grades in New Hampshire schools for the book, and discovered that sports, movies, video games and other venues of popular culture are a powerful way to encourage young boys to read and write. In his book, Newkirk argues against the simplistic stereotype of boys, showing that rather than mimic violence, boys most often transform, recombine and participate in storylines, and resist the unreality of popular culture." Newkirk has written a book on this subject, Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture, that many MANN readers might want to check out.

frank h writes "This CNN story is on how single-sex schools are gaining popularity nationwide. It's among the few articles I've seen that highlights the advantages to boys of single sex schools; most highlight the advantages to girls. Perhaps this plays to the boys' advantage because it seems that the people who need to be convinced are feminist groups like the AAUW. Also, the article mentions the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, an organization perhaps we ought to look into supporting. Anyway, I'd like to all states REQUIRE that single sex classrooms (not necessarily whole single sex schools) be offered in public education, as it offers some tremendous advantages for BOTH boys AND girls. The men's movement, as a community of organizations ought to get behind this initiative in a big way. It may well be the "silver bullet" in solving the education gap between boys and girls."

SJones writes "A study in Australia seeks to blame men for creating sex offenders. Or at least that is the spin the headline gives it. It says bad fathers are to blame for producing male sex offenders. Mothers are given a pass. The article is here. And by all means, get on the bulletin board commenting on this article and slam the radical female supremacists who are dominating it right now."

The Gonzo Kid writes "Men's News Daily reports that an Australian woman faked the birth of a baby and forged documents in order to fleece an ex-boyfriend of nearly $25,000 dollars. Now tell me it's about the child, and not about money and revenge."

Acksiom submitted this article from NZCity and writes "New Zealand Children's Commissioner Roger McClay is going to ask the Government to consider criminalizing the routine genital mutilation of male minors. . .a big step forward for intactivism, if it happens!"

Marc Angelucci writes "Here you can read L.A. County's agenda for today. Take a look at Items 28 and 32 for more anti-male bias. Excerpt from Item #28: “specialized services in the areas of domestic violence against Cambodian refugee WOMAN and child care training and certification in total amount of $383,909...” Apparently Cambodian men are never DV victims, so they need not be included. Never mind that "approximately 1.5 million women and 834,732 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States." Excerpt from Item 32: “...$361,000...annually from the State Office of Criminal Justice Planning…to help combat teen pregnancy by prosecuting adult MALES who violate existing statutory rape laws with minor females and to obtain court orders against the fathers to increase child support collections, effective July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2003.” Is this a sincere effort to combat teen pregnancy? Or is it targeting men for the purpose of political grandstanding? Is imprisoning young males and then seeking child support from them an efficient, rational and effective way to use $361,000 a year to combat teen pregnancy? This is another reason we need a commission for men."

Steve Imparl's MaleDepression.com site was changed this morning, to create a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. As a site to help promote psycholocial healing, I felt that this was very appropriate. Thanks, Steve.

If the New Hampshire primary election is any indication, Rep. David Bickford has a clear shot of being re-elected to the NH House. According to this Foster's Daily Democrat story, he received the most votes of any of the other candidates in his district. Rep. Bickford was the original sponsor of HB 587, which established a Commission on the Status of Men in this state. Many people responded from the plea on MANN to help David out, since due to redistricting he was going to have to campaign in six new towns, many of which historically vote only for Democrats (Bickford considers himself a moderate Republican). Due to the outpouring of support, David was able to buy and put up many signs in his district, and the effort clearly paid off. Thanks to everyone that gave David support in any form. His e-mail is david1@worldpath.net.

As this post on Men's News Daily states, the United States Senate will be voting in the near future on whether to ratify the CEDAW treaty, which is well known to be a piece of gender feminist propaganda with wide ramifications that would make it harder for legitimate men's issues related to discrimination to be acknowledged. You are asked to write to your Senators and voice your opposition to the treaty. Please take a moment to let them know what you think - the members of N.O.W. certainly are.

Glenn Sacks and Diana Thompson co-authored an article discussing the recent federal raids on "deadbeat dads," which resulted in dozens of arrests in recent weeks. The Sacks & Thompson duo shed light on the phenomena of "deadbeat dads," and find that unemployment, not apathy, is the primary factor in fathers who aren't paying child support. They then continue to tear down the myths about fathers who are not paying sufficient child support, discussing the need to enforce visitation rights and offer unemployed fathers more access to employment resources, rather than stigmatizing them and throwing them in jail.

Thundercloud. writes "Any one see "60 Minutes Special Edition", a few nights ago? Well, if you did, maybe you were as shocked as I was to see the Dixie Chicks taken to task about their video celebrating the murdering of men, called, "Goodbye Earl." Dan Rather (of all people), in an interview with the "Chicks", asked one of them: "Do you think it would've been OK if a male singing group had done a video showing the celebration of guys murdering a woman?" Of course, she gave the usual glib answer - she said something like: "No it wouldn't be OK. It's OK for US though, because we look so innocent..." HUH? Well, at least someone in the usually anti-male news media took these misandrists to task."

Since we're noting the possible undermining of the NH Men's Commission, I thought it would be worth pointing out the stacking of the so-called Equal Opportunities Commission in the United Kingdom. Note that the chair, deputy chair, and chief executive are all women. In total, there are 13 women and 3 men -- equal opportunity in the allegedly post-feminist, western world.