Wednesday night's on-line chat will be on the topic of establishing a state men's commission. I'll be there to discuss the process that led up to this bill, and will try to answer any questions as best I can. I've invited members of the NH NCFC activism group to join the chat and help answer questions and be available as contacts to people who are interested in trying the same in their own states. Stop by the MANN chat room on 4/17 at 9:30 PM EST and say hello!

Anonymous User writes "Unfortunately, today everything has to get filtered though a women's perspective. Read this article and see what you think... "Guys are given a bad rap. They are sensitive and caring and all this stuff, but it's just a matter of semantics. If you ask a guy `Do you care about your relationship?' he'll say no. But if you say `Do you want to have more sex?' Yes. `Do you want to fight less?' Yes. It's semantics. We are just giving men the room to be who they are,'' she adds." It is important to remember that men are also individuals. Note: This was the 2,000th story posted to Mensactivism.org!

warble writes "Sen. Katherine Wheeler, D-Durham claims, "Men are not suffering the kind of institutional discrimination women did. I’m sorry you feel put upon, but it’s not institutional discrimination..." This callus statement demonstrates that many women in positions of power do not believe there is a real crisis for men. It does not matter that suicide rates have dramatically risen. For her, that is an acceptable condition. This article outlines some of the objections by democrats to the commission for men. It is truly an indication of ignorance, on the part of Ms. Wheeler, to claim there is no institutional discrimination against men. Ms. Wheeler just doesn't get it." It has certainly been interesting to see from where the objections to the commission have emerged so far.

Dan Lynch submitted this article from the Ottawa Citizen. According to the story, Cathy Fordham, who falsely accused Jamie Nelson, 35, of raping her, also allegedly falsely accused several other men. Nelson was exonerated after 3.5 years in prison. But... Mr. Nelson's [false accusations] complaint was investigated by Ottawa police Sgt. Garry Granger. Sgt. Granger's report was finished in January, and was forwarded to the Ottawa Crown attorney's office to determine if charges should be laid. However, in the meantime, Mr. Nelson filed a civil suit against the police, investigating officer Sgt. Robert Kerr, the Crown attorney who prosecuted him, Mark Moors, Ontario's Attorney General's office, and Ms. Fordham, 31. Because an Ottawa Crown attorney was named in the suit, Sgt. Granger's report was forwarded to the Belleville Crown's office to avoid a conflict of interest.

Marc Angelucci writes "The L.A. Times printed a front page story about the paternity fraud bill in California. The story gives some of the basic arguments on both sides, but as one might predict the author didn't quote any of the men's rights groups who helped write the bill, namely the National Coalition of Free Men (L.A. chapter) and the Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents' Rights. Maybe some letters (letters@latimes.com) would help."

Dan Lynch submitted this story from White Horse Star. Apparently, the Yukon Minister of Women (Sue Edelman) sent out an e-mail in March in which she used the term "feminazis" to describe gender feminists/radical feminists and lamented the way radical feminism took over what was originally an equality movement. Radicals are demanding her resignation, and she has offered it to the prime minister. I certainly do not agree that men are responsible for all the woes of the world. I don’t think my son should be held responsible for all the batterers in the world, and the men who use crude language. Edelman has both a son and a daughter and seems particularly offended by the anti-male slant of gender feminism. She might be an important person to keep in the position of minister of women's issues as long as such a position exists. If anyone has contact information for Edelman, please post it.

Glenn Sacks takes on American school systems in his newest column, which examines how boys are disciplined more often than girls and are less likely to receive a quality education comparatively. Boys at all levels are far more likely than girls to be disciplined, suspended, held back, or expelled. By high school the typical boy is a year and a half behind the typical girl in reading and writing, and is less likely to graduate high school, go to college, or graduate college than a typical girl. Boys are three times as likely to receive a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as girls, four times as likely to commit suicide, and far more likely to fall victim to teen drug or alcohol abuse.

A while ago, I brought you a story about a guy called Steven Stevenson, a man who Held A Masculist Workshop And Lived and guess what? He did it again. I guess you can't keep a good man down, eh? Anyway, I think you'll want to read Son of Confest Masculist Workshop to find out how his second excursion went.

Steve sent us this story from ABCNews, about a workplace program for men which focuses on men's health, and particularly getting men more comfortable talking about health issues and going to see a doctor. The article provides several examples of men who had gone through great lengths to avoid seeing a doctor, and the unique problem we have in getting men to seek medical attention for themselves. Foster's Daily Democrat also printed a story on this today, which can be read here.

Given the way things have been around here, I think we could do with some humour. So I had a look around the web and I happened to find The POW Pages which is a collection of satirical articles on "Being the ideological Ms.-adventures of Colleen Hyphenated-Lastname, president of the Propaganda Organization for Women, who personifies the traits of paranoia, delusions, megalomania, bigotry, greed, and intellectual dishonesty, yet still makes more sense than Andrea Dworkin." Hmmm, how can one refuse a look? That being said, there is still the feeling that somehow, somewhere, these things were really said....

Tonight's mensactivism.org/ifeminists.com chat will feature yours truly as the "guest" this week. We'll be discussing my recent column on male victims and female perpetrators of domestic violence. Specifically, we'll focus on some little-discussed areas of female perpetrators. Why do they do it? How do they get away with it? What can we do to help their victims and change the cultural bias against male victims? Chat starts at 9 p.m. EDT in the ifeminists.com chat room. Please join us.

Today's Foster's Daily Democrat, a seacoast NH-area newspaper, slammed the proposed NH Men's Commission in its editorial section today. "So, why do men need a commission? Frankly, the idea is absurd. The status of men in New Hampshire is that they’re doing just fine. And most men would agree with that." Maybe we should demonstrate that quite a few men don't agree with this editorial. Mail to: letters@fosters.com. Note also that Foster's printed this news story on the bill Friday.

This Sunday, April 14, the NH Chapter of the National Congress for Fathers and Children will be meeting to discuss various activism projects they're working on, including planning the next steps for the NH Men's Commission bill, which could hit the Senate Finance Committee as soon as Monday. Other issues to be discussed are laws related to no-fault divorce, shared parenting, and child support. The meeting will be held at the Newington Town Hall starting at 7 PM. For more info and directions contact Mike Genoulis at: geancfc@juno.com.

Ron Herbert submitted this National Post article and writes "What I found disturbing about this article was the glaring omission of boys' lagging academic performance in school. Talk about a case of the "elephant in the room" syndrome!" The researchers explain that boys are less emotionally invested in relationships, so their grades are not affected by having a girlfriend. Perhaps the social pressure on boys to perform well could have something to do with this as well? Or maybe the fact that so many boys are doing so badly, they're not sacrificing academics for the sake of their relationships, but some other time that they give up (ie sports or recreation)? The researchers seem quick to jump to stereotypical conclusions, and yet I don't see much evidence they used to back this up.

fritzc77 writes " When I saw this article in print, it incensed me. It is about nuns serving in a church rocked by molestation scandals. The gender focus, of course, is on men. But if it is true that women abuse as much as men, shouldn't it also hold true, that nuns are just as capable of sexual abuse as priests? That we haven't heard about them doesn't mean it isn't happening. But you would never know that from the story. Please note the misandrist comment from one of the nuns: "men are men."
Here is the link to the article (free reg. required)."