I expect the replacement motherboard and CPU to come in today, so Mensactivism.org will be unavailable during the upgrade process this evening, which will probably start at around 7 PM and end late in the evening.

scott sager pointed me to this article by Cathy Young in Reason Magazine. Young reports that Harvard is increasing the standards of evidence in order to open administrative investigations for various offenses, including rape. Harvard is the last place I thought this would start, but could this be a signal that the tide could be changing at colleges and universities? We can certainly hope.

warble writes "In less than one week, the CA Assembly has moved a mutilated form of the paternity fraud bill from the Committee of Judiciary to the floor and voted. This is unheard of. Normally it takes weeks to get a bill to be voted on and out of the assembly. Worse, there was very little opposition to the original form of AB2240. Yet the Committee of Judiciary amended the bill to accommodate every bogus argument that the opposition presented. They even waited weeks for the opposition to form a weak attack on the original bill. These political tricks and maneuvers demonstrate the power that radical feminists wield in the CA legislature. You can examine the bill and it's history at the following link: AB2240 We will have to organize and move quickly to oppose the amendments in the Senate. No doubt that the opposition has close ties with the feminist there also."

SJones writes "The Oklahoma state senate and house have passed a bill mandating chemical and surgical castration of convicted sex offenders. Of course this will not be applied to women, such as those who rape boys because [these women are portrayed as] the "real" victims. Furthermore it is a blatant violation of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Once it is accepted as acceptable punishment for the feminist-defined sex crimes how long before it is applied to the others, such as domestic violence and failure to pay child support? The governor has yet to sign the bill. Contact him and let him know how you feel about it. The article is here."

David Alloway writes "The Website e-greetings.com is full of male bashing e-cards. Go to this site for just one example. If you sent a card advocating killing a woman, what would happen?" It looks like e-greetings is owned by the Microsoft Network. Anyone have contact info for them? This particular card is blatant and pure misandry, one that I had hoped was discontinued after Hallmark used it during the early '90's.

Peter Zohrab from the New Zealand Equality Party sent in an article about the now-infamous Marc Lepine, a young man who went on a shooting rampage to kill feminists at a Canadian University in 1989. Zohrab believes that the media is censoring information about Marc's motives, and points to an allegedly leaked suicide letter from Lepine that has been suppressed. While no one can condone the mass murders by Lepine, Zohrab is willing to ask questions about his motives that few others have done. Read More below for his article.

Mensactivism.org would like to take a moment to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. Although we'll hear a lot of politically correct talk about the "men and women" who died in war, the overwhelming majority of them were men. Memorial Day should be inclusive of women but not to the point that we forget that men have shouldered and continue to carry the burden of dying for our ideals and way of life.

By now I'm sure many of you have heard of (or maybe even seen) the new movie Enough, starring Jennifer Lopez. The more I think about this movie, the more concerned I become. In case you don't know about it, the plot goes like this: Lopez plays a waitress who marries a wealthy husband (Mitch), who quickly becomes abusive to her. She flees with their daughter and is stalked and harassed by him, finds that the police won't help her, so she turns to vigilante justice. She trains to fight Mitch and throughout the movie runs the theme/slogan, "self defense is not murder," which should have a chilling effect to those of us who know how effective the battered woman's defense is in court. As reviewer Glenn Whip puts it, "Enough" is...offensive in the way it exploits the hot-button issue of domestic abuse for cheap thrills." And it's also dangerous in how it perpetuates a one-sided and antagonistic view of domestic violence and men. The question I put to you is, what can be done to effectively counter this kind of propaganda, which has now even been embraced by the multi-million dollar movie industry?

I've finally got the old hardware setup working with MANN, so the web site will continue to run until the replacement motherboard and CPU come in late next week. I'll post more info about what actually happened (for those of you who are interested in such things), but right now I have a bunch of non-computer related things I need to take care of. Note: Many thanks to David Decker, Jerry Vrooman, and Anonymous who made donations to help defray the cost of the hardware failure.

Steve Imparl has been hard at work on the new web site maledepression.com, which provides resources for people wanting to learn about depression in men. For too long, men's depression has been masked and hidden in our society. We tend to think of it in terms of its symptoms, such as alcoholism or the suicide epidemic among men. Steve's site is a much needed resource to help remove the myths about depression in men and educate us about this taboo subject.

Deacon writes, "The latest commercial for the Lincoln Navigator (a Ford company) markets the power running boards feature of the car. The commercial starts with a man and a woman walking towards the car, and they both notice a large puddle underneath it. Then the man chivalrously takes off his jacket and lays it on the puddle so the woman can climb into the car without getting her shoes wet, but instead the woman pushes a button on her keychain remote, and the power running boards slide out from under the car. She climbs up and into the car with a smirk on her face while the man stands outside, obviously chastised." Contact info for Lincoln is in the Read More section of this story.

Glenn Sacks' latest column came out this morning in Newsday of New York, and can be read on Glenn's web site here. Sacks discusses the issue of stay at home dads and the benefits to both men and women if we dropped the stereotypes about men who decide that fathering is more important to them than their careers. Sacks knows what he's talking about in this article, since he's a stay at home dad himself, and finds in immensely rewarding. Sacks is also hosting (along with Father's Rights activist Dianna Thompson) a webcast on Men's News Daily every Tuesday evening at 6 pm PST.

warble writes "In today’s hostile environment [toward men], it is not surprising that governments would seek to ban home DNA testing. They are trying to claim that the father should have no right to privately check his child’s DNA. I checked and found that a home DNA test costs $250-$500. DNA testing is the only means that a father can use to determine paternity. It removes the requirement to rely only the word of a potentially unfaithful wife. Only the mother can know if she has been unfaithful and have knowledge of any doubt. For the male, there is only belief in the mother’s word in the absence of a DNA test. All males have the right to an equal knowledge of paternity, and DNA testing provides the only mechanism whereby a man can enjoy that absolute right. If ever there was a time for men to organize and protect their rights, this is it. The article can be found at the following link: Banning DNA Testing By Father. I would suggest sending emails to the Human Genetics Commission at hgcpressoffice@westminster.com."

On June 21, the Twin Cities Chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men will be hosting a forum in Saint Paul, MN. The forum is scheduled to coincide with the National Organization of Women's national conference, and NCFM has Warren Farrell, Trudy Schuett, and Wendy McElroy as speakers. The forum is free and open to the public, and media are encouraged to cover the event. This is the closest thing I know of to a "men's rights conference" in the U.S. Learn more here.

warble writes "For all those interested, the amended version of the Paternity Justice Act can be found here: AB2240. Basically, everything is intact except for the right of men to have equal representation on the format of the paternity declaration form. Currently, the feminists have representation by law and male activists are excluded. Does any body know of a case law where this type of discrimination was disputed and won in the favor of males? If so please let me know. It would be best if the laws were challenged in CA but any other state will be helpful."