Cherie Booth, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is apparently about to propose that mothers be sentenced far more leniently than others for given crimes. Her idea is that, if mothers are imprisoned, there is a negative impact on their families. The effect on families of the imprisoning of fathers is, of course, given no such consideration. Maybe the UK should just imprison the children's fathers for the crimes of the mothers.

CJ sent us this Boston Globe story about the prevalence of boys in special education and emotional disability programs. The article is well researched and discusses the fact that the gender gap in these programs is directly related to how vague the "disability" is defined and that we are taking too many active young men and labelling them as disabled rather than dealing with the shortcomings our educational system has with regard to teaching boys.

Tony writes "While this is not recent news it is current news since the the International Labor Union has not changed its policy as of yet. A letter written to the convention in 2001 highlights some of the issues that are still very relevant to male rights around the world.
",... the ILO's Forced Labour Convention designates one group and one group only as legitimate targets for forced labour: these same adult able-bodied men. Article 11 of the Convention states that "Only adult able-bodied males who are of an apparent age of not less than 18 and not more than 45 years may be called upon for forced or compulsory labour," so long as "they are physically fit for the work required and for the conditions under which it is to be carried out" and "the number of adult able-bodied men indispensable for family and social life" is allowed to remain in communities targeted for forced labour. In addition, the ILO states that both the forced labour involved in military conscription and the use of prison labour are acceptable under the terms of the Convention. Both of these institutions, of course, target males close to 100 percent of the time."
Here is the article and other case studies of international targeting of men for gender specific mass murder."

Cathy Young's column in the July issue of Reason magazine examines the issue of gender bias in criminal sentencing, particularly for murder. Young's analysis, as always, attempts to achieve a balance - she criticizes some of Warren Farrell's outline of women-only defenses in criminal cases - but she clearly agrees that there is a substantial bias in courts which obtains more lenient sentences for women. It's definitely a must-read article.

With the Tour de France ongoing, I thought it would be worthwhile to post news that Lance Armstrong has won the prologue and will be wearing the yellow jersey early on in the bike race. Armstrong, of course, is a survivor of testicular cancer and is responsible for a lot of awareness regarding this men's health issue, not to mention the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Let's all hope the best for Armstrong, who has won the last three Tours in a row. Will he make a fourth? Either way, he's a great role model for men and a spokesman for cancer.

Serge sent us this BBC article and excerpts from the article: "Too few men are training to become doctors, the British Medical Association's annual meeting was told on Wednesday...For the first time ever, more women than men graduated from medical schools...Six out of ten present students are women, according to figures, and some are worried that medicine may become overly-dominated by women in the future...[Stephen Sanders] said that just as it had been wrong in the past when the profession was male-dominated, it was equally wrong that the pendulum should swing too far the other way. "

warble writes "My friends, in the state of CA we have the most powerful group of radical feminists in the world. Currently, I have information that they are marshaling their forces to testify against the Paternity Justice Act (AB2240) in California on August 6, 2002. They intend to use their trickery to try and disprove genetic testing as a reliable means of determining paternity. For example, I have been told that they intend to testify that paternity testing is unreliable due to the practice of organ transplants. It is their intent to use rare examples of a person having multiple organs for an organ transplant to prove that DNA testing is an unreliable mechanism of establishing paternity. We must fight this lie with every genetic expert possible. This is especially important because CA legislation tends to set trends for the rest of the nation. Therefore, I am issuing a call for any DNA experts to appear before the CA Committee of Judiciary to explain to them why such feminist lies are wrong or misleading. The testimony of these experts will have a dramatic impact on a man’s right to be free of paternity fraud. Your testimony as a single expert will make a literal difference in men’s rights for the entire planet. We need your help!"

Trudy W Schuett writes "My editorial entitled, "NOW Family Court Report -- Revealing the
Feminist Agenda" now appears at the Sierra Times. Here's an excerpt... I've been aware of this agenda for some time, yet have hesitated to speak out publicly about any specific organization. I felt that sooner or later, their arrogance and disregard for reality would lead one of them to do something that so clearly and publicly revealed their anti-male hate agenda, that no spin on the part of any hired PR girl could explain it away..."

Wayne submitted Glenn Sacks' and Dianna Thompson's latest article, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and comments: "Since i was divorced 15 years ago I too have been on an absolute [marriage] strike...Any man who gets married needs a full frontal lobotomy." Sacks' article discusses the possible reasons behind a growing trend of men forgoing marriage.

frank h writes "Wendy McElroy has apparently been drawing some blood among the NOW gang, as evidenced by their latest invective here. Wendy has been an ardent supporter of men's rights and one of few who have been willing to speak out AND who have a forum from which to do so. She needs our support as we need hers. Now would be the time to write to the folks at Fox AND to the LA Times, the Sacremento Bee, and whatever the big papers in San Francisco are. This is clearly an organized attack designed to discredit Wendy in the same manner in which Warren Farrell and others have been attacked. We cannot let it succeed."

Raymond Cuttill writes "www.MSNHatesMen.com starts 4th July. It is an antidote to the male bashing ecards on MSN. Including the ecard about hearing men whining there are 4 cards on MSN that are blatantly anti-male. There are no ecards that are blatantly anti-female. There are 4 ecards on MSNHatesMen, equivalent female bashing ecards. If MSN withdraws the male bashing ecard, we’ll withdraw the female bashing ecard. MSN also has a women’s section but no men’s section."

Raymond Cuttill writes "www.MensMovement.org starts on July 4th and is intended to be a resource for men and men's studies. This will include links to men's websites including men's groups/father's groups. The men's studies part will be about sources of online information about studies relating to men's issues. It should become a resource for any man looking up any men's issues to find websites, men's groups and information about the issue. Users can submit links automatically"

This essay by Glenn Sacks covers a matter that we've recently discussed, but I think it's worth giving Glenn a prominent spot in this case. It's more of the same: A woman commits a crime, an effort begins to determine which man or men can be blamed.

This article dares to raise the question of whether false accusers should be named. Among other important points, the article states, "The woman claimed Hann... forced himself on her as she was in an alcoholic daze, and suggested he may have used the date rape drug Rohypnol... But forensic tests found no evidence of semen on her, no drug traces in her blood or the glass she drank from in Hann's apartment, and a blood alcohol content just below the legal driving limit."

Not only will this woman probably never see the inside of a courtroom, after being charged with making a false accusation, even her name may never be revealed.

Wendy McElroy has stirred the pot with her rebuttal to the National Organization of Women's "Family Court Report" which claims family courts are corrupt and overwhelmingly biased against women. McElroy's article, which appeared on the Fox News web site, has ruffled a few feathers in the CA Chapter of NOW, to say the least. There is talk that McElroy will personally debate the authors of the study - more details will be made available as they are confirmed.