Steve Imparl writes "I will host this week's MANN chat, Wednesday night, starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location. The topic for this chat will be "Competition in the Men's Movement: Traditional Ally in Disguise?" Sometimes, men's activism projects can seem like games of one-upmanship. We try to outdo our fellow activists. We want our Web site, lobbying campaign, discussion group, or protest to be the biggest, best, or most effective. Getting cooperation can be difficult. Are these issues necessarily problems? Is there a place in men's activism for healthy--and even friendly--competition? Join the chat and let others know about it!"

scottAsinclair writes sent in this article from the Nando Times, about a man who fell behind $1,000 in child support. In order to try to get leniency from the court, the man underwent a vasectomy. It is not clear whether the man received any direct order by the court to get the vasectomy, but he apparently was under the impression that this would help his case. scotAsinclair writes, "I couldn't believe this. This is like China."

Trudy Schuett, one of the guiding stars of the men's movement, has announced the temporary suspension of The DesertLight Journal and much of her other activism. She explains that she must do this for personal reasons that involve serious land use issues. Trudy is one of the leaders of the men's movement, and we all owe her a great deal. Please let her know of your gratitude for all she's done. Hopefully for all of us, especially Trudy, this situation will be resolved soon.

Due to recent redistricting, New Hampshire state Rep. David Bickford is faced with a challenging campaign to be re-elected to the NH House this fall, with five new towns added to his district. Rep. Bickford is the original sponsor of HB 587, which passed and will establish a NH Commission on the Status of Men, the first such commission in the country. I know David personally, and have been involved in the activity here in NH and seen him at work. I have never met such a successful politician who was so focused on promoting men's rights, and I can say without a doubt that further legislative efforts in NH are heavily, if not fully, dependent on him being re-elected. He is in dire need of donations for signs and local efforts to help promote his re-election. If you are willing to help David in any way, please e-mail him directly at david1@worldpath.net. If there ever were a time that I would ask the Mensactivism.org community to do me a personal favor, it would be to help David out. He knows our issues, he's articulate and politically adept, and we need this guy, not only in NH but as an effort to show how men's activism can be successful in politics. Update: David is allowing me to include his address, which is in the Read More section below.

Raymond Cuttill writes "The Men's Hour August programme is out, and is over 3 hours long, including news about August protests in England, and the soundtrack from the NCFM, anti-NOW event on June 21st in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event called "Gender Feminism and the Voice Not Heard: Has America Gone Deaf In One Ear?" It includes Warren Farrell, Trudy W. Schuett, Wendy McElroy, Dianna Thompson and Deborah Watkins. Our next programme will be released on Sunday, 15th September"

Smoking Drive writes "An article in the Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney's premier broadsheet) says that the Blackshirts are now on the move from the state of Victoria, setting up branches in neighbouring NSW. Not only is the article of interest but there is a table of information at the end which is quite male-positive." While Mensactivism.org has no official position on the Blackshirts, we will continue to track news on the group, since their activity is based on the lack of men's and father's rights.

The Gonzo Kid submitted this Yahoo! News story about a 5 year-old boy who died after being left in a truck on a hot day by his mother. In addition, the child was allegedly being starved by his mother for the last four months before he died. The father of the boy, who is divorced, expressed anger that he was not given custody of the child during the divorce proceedings. On top of all this, the woman's daughter was taken away after she was accused of beating her. It's a frustrating story.

Ray writes "I found this article linked through Men's News Daily. Half way through this article I had to scroll back to the top, because I couldn't believe a woman could be saying these things. It's just my opinion, but I think some brother, father, son, or husband in her life may have taken a real hit at the hands of the unjust laws, that unfairly target men in child custody struggles. Fasten your seatbelts please, when this lady writes about the unjust treatment of fathers she turns on the afterburners."

Dr. Murray Straus was featured on NH Public Radio's program The Exchange, and the archive of the program can be found on this page. During the interview, Straus makes it clear that he believes including women's violence in DV advocacy is needed today, and that separate shelters and services for men and women are a good idea. He also states that women are seven times more likely to be injured in DV scenarios than men, which I'm sure is going to be controversial among men's activists. Overall I think he did very well in debating Scott Hampton, a very vocal and articulate women's advocate, and the callers (generally) did not devolve into a victimhood contest.

SJones writes "Kathleen Parker discusses the recent case of the father who went to court to demand his right to be a father. She says that if women can choose abortion without input from the father then they should not be able to demand child support. "

incredibletulkas writes "I believe that there is a viable loophole in paternity law to ensure fairness in men's reproductive rights; this is the "Last Clear Chance" doctrine of common law, which provides that, regardless of who was at fault, the person who had the last clear chance to prevent in incident from occurring is ultimately responsible if they fail to do so.
Since, under current law, a woman obviously has the last clear chance to prevent a pregnancy from coming to term (i.e. she can prevent it later than the man can), then she is wholly responsible for the outcome. Likewise, since the right to life of the unborn is considered a religious issue only, then under the First Amendment the law is precluded from permitting one person's religious preferences from being forced upon another person, which would be the case if a woman used her religious-based refusal to obtain an abortion to force the man to pay for her resulting child.
Therefore, if a man informs the woman outright that he does not wish to participate in any pregnancy at a time of the pregnancy when abortion is legal, then the woman, by act of omission, is wholly responsible for the ensuing child.
I am not a lawyer, but this seems like a reasonable interpretation of existing law, and I invite any legal persons to scrutinize it." I thought this was an insightful idea, and wonder if it could work. Comments from the legal community are especially welcome.

warble writes "It is with pleasure that I'm announcing that AB2240 has moved out of the CA Judiciary Committee and will hit the Finance Committee next week. The primary source of opposition came from two opponents. They were Senator Keuhl and CA NOW. I was stunned that Keuhl actually resorted to arguments similar to arguments used to institutionally discriminate against women 100 years ago. Basically, she stated that she agreed that it is unfair for men to be required to care for another man’s children. Then she claimed that it was justified to intentionally harm the man and his biological children because it protects the interest of a single child. Further, she specifically stated on the record that she didn't care about the father's biological children in a paternity fraud matters. She was only interested in the single child in question. I was also stunned (IMHO) that Keuhl was implying that any man could be the father of a fatherless child and that biology doesn't matter. Yea, sure Keuhl...let's have [Bill] Gates be the father of all children where the biological father is unknown because he is rich! In addition, CA NOW specifically stated that they oppose the Paternity Justice Act in ANY FORM! They literally implied (IMHO) that they don't support providing a man that is a victim of paternity fraud with any remedy at law no matter how damaging it is to the biological children of a father or a man. I'll be ordering the transcripts of the testimony because it illustrates the literal bigotry of the opposition. Then we'll get the exact quotes posted for the whole world to view the bigotry of CA NOW and Senator Keuhl. Kudos goes to NCFM, LA for their tireless lobbying efforts of the committee!"

It is with great pleasure and gratitude that I'd like to announce that the MANN on-line chats will resume, hosted by both Steve Imparl and Scott Haltzman. The next chat will be held this Wednesday night, starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location. However, there will be discussion on possibly moving the regular day, so if you'd like the chats to be on a different night, feel free to post a comment on that. The topic for this chat will be electing male-friendly politicians in this fall's elections. Do you know of some candidates in your state or region that would be good or not-so-good choices? Join the chat and let others know about it!

Ouzinki submitted Wendy McElroy's latest FoxNews column where she voices her opposition to CEDAW, and writes "As a frightening follow-up, consider this line from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): .."It affirms women's rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality and the nationality of their children".. What a wonderful recipe - grab the kids, leave the country, and change their nationality. Not much chance of a father regaining custody of a child who's a foreign national, is there? I'm a grand father six times over, and still married, more than a third of a century to the same woman. In other words, I'm probably not going to be personally affected; but this scares the Hell out of me anyway! Time for a congressional letter/email writing deluge perhaps?"

I found out just recently that the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Men's applicant list, which was due to be publicly released on Wednesday, is being pushed back and will not be released until Aug. 28. The public input period would then open and the governor's council would make the final vote on Sept. 12. The delays are frustrating, but there is nothing that can be done other than to wait and see.