I'll be trying to fix the slash database early in the morning of Wednesday, and the site may become unstable or disappear for a bit. I'll be attempting to fix the broken moderation system so that comments can be rated correctly, which if you haven't noticed, isn't working as it's supposed to. I'll delete this posting when the work is done, whether it succeeds or not.

Raymond Cuttill writes "The March Men's Hour is out. Our answer to the sexist BBC's claim that the woman's hour has general appeal and therefore there's no need for a men's hour. It includes Barry Worrall (Cheltenham Group and UK Men's Movement) about the destruction of marriage and how the judges are making up law, Rape Trials (Calls for anonymity for rape suspects ignored in spite of suicides by men later proved innocent) and Women's History Month. It's at www.menshour.com."

The campaign to establish a national Office of Men's Health now has a new web site advocating it, which can be seen here. Note the link towards the bottom of the page where you can send off an e-mail of support for HR 632 to your Representatives and Senators. It only takes a minute to do! The Media Fact Sheet on their site also provides some useful stats that can be referenced when advocating for men's health.

SJones writes "The Ottawa Citizen has run an article detailing how men are being thrown into debtors prisons in the name of feminism and crushing those 'dead beat dads.' The article is here." The author of this article is, once again, Dave Brown. Brown continues to confront issues that no one else wants to address, and he deserves a lot of support for the flak he must take on a continual basis. His e-mail is: dbrown@thecitizen.southam.ca.

DanCurry writes "Joe Manthey will be on the Dan Curry Show Monday, March 18, at 6 p.m. PST to discuss the civil rights lawsuit against the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on "Take your Daughters to work" day. Some question have arisen as to whether this is the right path to pursue. Don't miss this opportunity to voice your opinion." Some people have wondered aloud whether Manthey's lawsuit prompted Ms magazine to recently change the program to "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day."

This article in the Nashville Scene is more than a year old, but I think it's important to consider as some folks take on more public roles in men's rights issues. The article details the experiences of one male victim of stalking, and makes it pretty plain that anyone can become someone else's obsession, even in Internet forums like this one. According to Seema Zeya, senior program director of the Stalking Resource Center at the National Center for Victims of Crime, men are often too ashamed to report their stalkers. "We haven't gotten a lot of calls from male stalking victims," she says. "They're usually not really comfortable because they feel embarrassed and they're afraid that they won't be taken seriously. Unfortunately, they often are not taken seriously when they do report the crimes. Also, men have complained to us that there are not any support groups in their area for male victims of stalking crimes." Let's hope that's changing.

On tonight's episode of "Your Legal Rights," which airs on Saturday nights on Nashville's 1510 WLAC-AM, a representative of the Tennessee Women's Political Caucas called in to complain about the state's proposed "Shared Parenting Bill," which would make joint custody the "default" judgement in child custody cases. Although the bill is sponsored by a feminist, the caller disparaged Dads Against Discrimination and father's rights groups in general for bills like this one. She and the hosts disparaged the group for seeking equal rights for men. The TWPC representative is scheduled to be a guest on the show next Saturday night to discuss the bill, which both hosts (Charles Galbreath and Fletcher Long) admitted they knew absolutely nothing about, yet were entirely willing to deride. You can listen to "Your Legal Rights" live on the Internet, Saturday nights at 7 p.m. CST. I encourage anyone interested in supporting this bill to call the show and point out the flaws of this TWPC representative's arguments.

This article from the Clare Booth Policy Institute examines Ms. magazine's recent "change of heart" concerning "Take Our Daughters To Work Day" and its name change to "Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day." Ms plans to adopt the change next year. This was, perhaps, in response to male advocate Joe Manthey's civil rights lawsuit against the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Manthey contends that government support of this holiday discriminates against boys. Manthey is correct in that assumption. However, the Ms. Foundation's plans are now doubly detrimental. It offers boys no benefits and subjects them to the same feminist propaganda girls have had to endure.

This story in Ireland's Longford Leader reports that an unnamed Irish man who chained himself to a seat in Carrick-on-Shannon court house in protest against Ireland's discriminatory family law system was cleared of public disorder charges. The man who cannot be named for legal reasons and in order to protect the identity of his spouse and children was charged with a breach of the peace at Carrick court house when he refused to leave the court room when requested by Judge Deery. The man chained himself to a seat and attempted to read out a statement outlining alleged discrimination against men within the Family Law court. The gentleman was also supported by a throng of other protestors outside court.

This story on CNN.com details the jury's sentence handed down on Andrea Yates today. Yates was convicted earlier this week of capital murder in the June drowning deaths of her children. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. "This crime is of horrific proportions," prosecutor Kaylynn Williford said during closing arguments Friday morning. "This crime is a crime of the ultimate betrayal -- the betrayal of a mother to her children."

Glenn Sacks submitted his most recent column, which also ran in the LA Daily News. In it, Sacks examines California's recent Paternity Justice Act and notes: Paternity fraud victims' stories often provoke disbelief.  For example, four years ago Air Force Master Sergeant Ray Jackson was divorced by his wife.  Soon afterwards, he discovered that the three children born during their marriage had, in fact, been the product of three different extramarital affairs.  Jackson's ex-wife has disappeared with the children, and Jackson is still paying half his income to support children who aren't his and whom he'll probably never be allowed to see.

AFG writes "This article from the L.A. Times discusses a recent Bill in California that threatens young men with the refusal of a driver's permit if they do not register for the draft. One critic of the Bill argued the following: "Young people have the right to make a choice,"..."our Constitution allows for dissent and protest.... This bill fundamentally attacks the premise upon which this nation was founded." Personally, I cannot believe that young men are still discriminated against in this manner." They're doing the same thing in New Hampshire, too. Ungh.

Peter submitted this column from the Ottawa Citizen. In it, a couple takes the unusual step of asking the columnist (Dave Brown) to be their go-between for communication because government-forced restraining orders prevent them from communicating directly. They say they have been forcibly separated by "warriors in the war against violence towards women." I also found this report linked to from ifeminists.com about the ongoing silence on male victims of domestic violence.

There comes a time every so often in an activist's career to take things easy for a while. Such is the case here at MANN. It has been decided that we will be running this site in "degraded mode" for the next two weeks, so I can get a handle on academics and enjoy my Spring Break, and the other admins can take it easy for a while and recharge our batteries. Expect updates to this site to be less frequent than usual (probably no more than 2 new stories posted per day) and e-mail responses to be delayed more than usual until Monday, March 25. This kind of downtime is sorely needed for us to catch our breath and prevent the onset of burnout, which would definitely not be cool. I'm certain that we'll be back in form better than before after this break. I'd encourage everyone to do the same on a regular basis to keep our motivation and insight maintained for the long haul.

Stuart Miller, a father's advocate, has written a controversial article on marital rape discussing some problems with the entire concept. As he says, "Contrary to popular propaganda, we do not live in a patriarchal society. Rather, we live in a paternalistic society where we bend over backwards to protect women and children to such an extent that it overshadows our own common sense." Throughout the article he points out this kind of thinking for the problem it is, and how it's not good for society in general.