warble writes "Why it takes a woman to get this kind of ruling is beyond me. See the ruling at this press release. I am dumbfounded that a woman is able to get these guidelines proven to be illegal while men's cries were largely ignored. It is stunning and demonstrates how biased and cruel the judicial system is in its treatment of men. This challenge cannot possibly be the first challenge to the oppressive and illegal requirements of the child support laws throughout the U.S." While I understand the double standard at work here, I think we should still celebrate this ruling as a great step forward.

Another woman is being let off easy after committing the murder of her two infants, according to this story from Nashville's WSMV NBC affiliate. Her excuse is not postpartum depression, but another "rare" form of mental illness. Similarly, an "angry" Cincinnatti woman will not be indicted on assault charges after she shot a man in the groin. The man was alleged to have assaulted her son, but had not yet been tried or convicted. The grand jury cited "emotional distress" as their excuse for not indicting her. And, in a final act of judicial hypocrisy, an 8-year-old Ann Arbor boy has been charged with felonious assault for pointing a toy gun at his classmates.

Anonymous User sent us this story from the Boston Globe and writes "Poor Jane Swift is playing the "gender card" claiming that powerful men are trying to undermine her next run for MA Governor. She knows that the Massachusetts press will eat this ploy up and and cast doubt on any man that runs against her now. Shameless... The poll at the end of the article shows that she has very low voter support. Maybe she should stick with the issues..." I do hope MA voters will show Swift and others that this kind of politics will not be supported.

dominic7 sent us this BBC article and writes "[This is] interesting. It's frustrating to keep on seeing study after study prove that the inclusion of fathers in their children's upbringing is important, yet see these studies ignored by the "powers that be"." One notable thing about this article is that it also acknowledged that even divorced dads have an important impact on their children's educational success, something I wish many family court judges would take note of.

SJones writes "A transvestite castrated his/her husband, apparently out of anger, and the husband is reported to have died from the pain of the castration itself. The article is here. This is the second time I have read a news article in which a medical professional said a man may actually die from the pain of an injury to his testicles. The first was the case of the woman who bit off the testicle of a drunken man who sat on her."

The upgrade of Mensactivism.org this weekend went surprisingly well - there were no unexpected problems or delays, except for a temporary DNS issue. As I'm now way behind in a ton of my other commitments, things will get back to normal at a fairly slow rate. The apache compression module hasn't been installed yet, and probably won't be until this weekend. The new moderation system will also become more visible as the week goes on. We'll do our best to get up to date on our current submissions bin, and thanks to everyone for your patience!

This Sunday (3/3), the jointly sponsored mensactivism.org and ifeminists.com chat will feature a question and answer session about writing as activism. The featured answer-woman and answer-man will be Wendy McElroy and myself. While Wendy can answer specific questions about writing as a widely published columnist/activist, I will answer questions from the newspaper perspective related to getting your op-ed or letters to the editor in print. Join us at 9p.m. EST on Sunday in the ifeminists.com chat room.

JM writes "Out of France comes a new test (already starting to be used) that, in the words of an influential science magazine, will "prove rape". It does not prove rape. What it really shows is that a woman has had sex with a man from a certain biological group - NOT a certain individual - up to a week or so after sex. It does this by detecting Y- chromosomes. This test only determines that sex has taken place. The rape aspect is still totally dependent on whether the sex was consensual. It looks very much as though this test could be used as a "plan B" to prosecute men - guilty or innocent - when it has been shown that no sperm are present."

The Men's Activism News Network will be unavailable this weekend due to a major server software upgrade. The outage will begin early Saturday morning and the site should be back up by Sunday evening. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we intend to offer some cool new features with the upgrade, including an apache file compression module that should increase the download speed of MANN for most users, regardless of your internet connection speed.

Anonymous User sent us this Boston Globe article and writes "[This is] yet another example of how terrorism isn't only performed by men." Thanks also to SJones for sending us this link, and to Rams for sending us this one. It's a sad fact that terrorism, like all violence, isn't a gender issue.

I found this link to callrape.com while I was surfing ifeminists.com this morning. This site provides an overview about the rape of males and attempts to dispell some myths surrounding it. There's also a history of male rape and some words about the "aggression vs. sexual desire" debate. MYTH: The majority of male rape occurs in prison. FACT: A study of incarcerated and non-incarcerated male rape victims in Tennessee concluded that the similarities between these two groups would suggest that the sexual assault of men may not be due to conditions unique to a prison, and that all men are potential victims (Lipscomb et al., 1992).

sjones writes "Scientists have just discovered that low levels of testosterone in men causes emotional problems just like it does in women. In the process of reporting this the media made fun of the men, saying that the research "has an amusing side" and that testosterone does not solve the problem of men's inability to wash dishes. The story is here." One has to wonder if they reported this as a health article or just for laughs. Thanks also to Serge for submitting this BBC article, which has more details about the study.

ronn sent in this column from the Washington Times, which relates the story of Gerald Amirault, a man who, along with his sister and mother, was convicted on fraudulent child abuse charges 16 years ago. In spite of the unanimous recommendation of the Governor's Board of Pardons to free Amirault, Mass. Gov. Jane Swift has chosen not to do so, apparently for fear of election backlash. The column's author suggests that Swift's re-election campaign is more important to her than justice.

Anonymous User writes "The Richmond Times Dispatch reported in an article that there are bills under consideration in the Virginia House of Delegates that would give married women "the ability to charge rape without having to prove they no longer live with their husband or without having to prove a serious bodily injury." When opponents complained that changing the law could cause women in divorce cases to file false charges of rape as leverage for securing more child support and alimony, supporters of the bill "scoffed at that argument, explaining the change was a matter of fairness." The bill's sponsors are Del. Terie L. Suit in the House and state Sen. Thomas K. Norment. If you live in Virginia you can find who your representatives are at: this link."

Steve pointed out to me that N.O.W. has included a quote from me (out of context as it is) on their "Scary Quotes: Hair-Raisers from the Radical Right" web page. Click here and check the third quote on the list. I actually didn't say this at the Senate hearing, it was something I spoke of when interviewed about Stop Hating Men. The quote in context is, "'Men as a class have never had much power,'...Sure, certain men have had power, but so have certain women." Although I'm sure this doesn't change it from being the same heresy from N.O.W.'s point of view. :)