This story in the Sun-Sentinel once again highlights how boys and girls (and men and women) are treated differently when it comes to criminal activity. Four youths (three boys and one girl) produced a pornographic video starring themselves. All four were set to benefit financially from its production. The three boys are now likely to face child pornography charges. The girl will not be charged. “You can’t pick and choose who you’re going to charge when you have more than one child involved,” Lerman said. “It shows the way society treats boys and girls. The boys are punished but the girls have to be protected.”

I'm again late in announcing this, but the streaming audio program MensHour has had a new release this month. This episode is a kind of year-in-review, with contributions from several people involved in the men's movement, including Karl from AngryHarry.com, Philip Cook, author of Abused Men, Trudy W. Schuett of the DesertLight Journal, Jim Bailey from Family Oriented Men, and several others. You can listen to the program here.

I've found this UK Guardian article claiming that "Within a generation there will be probably be mass use of artificial wombs to grow babies". You're probably wondering why I posted this, the main reason is to counter all those claims that the nearest man is "redundant" and "biologically useless" by showing the other side of the coin, as it were. While the technology is still a few years off, the article makes for an informative and perhaps un-nerving read. That said, do read it, as it pays to be in the know.

nagzi writes "The Washington Post has this
article about the upcoming Men's Health Bill. Also, there are three articles dealing with Prostate Cancer. Facts about prostate Cancer (VERY short on facts), Prostate Cancer (filled with some interesting info), and Tackling a Man's Disease (a Female Urologist Crusades Against Prostate Cancer)."

Brian Smith writes "This an an article from the Lewiston, ME Sun Journal newspaper, about a man who must pay child support after a paternity test positively concluded he was not the father." He is still being forced to pay, and DHS is denying him visitation rights because he's "not the father." While the Supreme Court might not be of much help anymore, perhaps this man should try to establish a state court decision on Maine?

An Anonymous User sent in a Foster's article about an elementary school teacher who was accused of "improperly touching" one of his 11 year-old students, who he apparently had frequent contact with outside of class, as she lived a few houses down from him. I read an update on this story which I can't find on Foster's site which said that the judge declared a mistrial and the accused teacher cannot be tried again. Note that there were never any formal sexual harassment or assault charges filed against the man, nor is it ever clear that the girl once told him she felt uncomfortable with any of his physical contact. Still, I have to wonder how much common sense the guy has making any physical contact at all with his students, especially in this day and age. Update: The news story of the mistrial can be read here.

Anonymous User writes "Admittedly, [this is] not the most important topic we'll ever discuss here. This article in the Bangor [Maine] Daily News reviews a Bangor judge's odd belief that a public nudity law might only apply to men. Aside from interest generated by the weirdness factor, no one else seems to think the judge is making sense."

Neil Steyskal writes "It appears that sex with more partners increases the risk of [prostate] cancer. However the quantity of sex with one parter, or alone, does not increase risk." The story is here This Spectator article was apparently generated after an anti-pornography advocate wrote to the paper hinting that increased sexual activity among men has led to an increase in prostate cancer.

Marc writes, "The LA Times printed my article addressing male victims of domestic violence. They left out the Fiebert
bibliography and a few other things, but it’s still progress. I’m working on getting them to do a story on the topic in the near future, and it looks promising. But meanwhile there may be responses that misleadingly attack my facts and figures, so a few positive responses sent to letters@latimes.com would be nice. Thanks!"

The LA Times printed Shawn Larsen's letter regarding the Times recent article which spoke of abuse of women and children but ignored men. Thanks to Neil Steyskal for this submission, and thanks to the rest of you who wrote the LA Times. Scott's update: Shawn Larsen himself wrote in to tell us about this success. Great work, Shawn!

Neil Steyskal submitted this story from USA Today about a group of college wrestling advocates who are taking the Education Department to task (in court) over the destruction of men's sports by Title IX. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleges that the Education Department's interpretation of the law has wrongly prompted colleges to bring their athletic programs into compliance by eliminating men's teams and scholarships. An Anonymous User also submitted this story from jsonline.com.

Thomas writes "This article describes the recent refusal by the US Supreme Court to hear the case of a man forced to pay child support for children born by his then-wife as a result of her cheating on him. For now, at least, this all-too-common, monstrous injustice must be fought on a state-by-state basis." Ouch. This is a major loss for the cause of men's reproductive rights.

This Sunday's (1/20) joint MANN/iFeminists.com chat will be on whether the law is morally responsible for the suicides of fathers who seem to be arbitrarily denied access to their children. The recent protest/suicide of Derrick Miller has temporarily, at least, brought some attention to this problem. What should be done? What are also the implications for the children, the women, society? Join us at 9:00 PM EST at the iFeminists.com chat room.

Neil Steyskal sent us Cathy Young's latest column in Reason magazine. In it, Young makes some important observations about rape shield laws, and the problem of achieving justice when potentially important and relevant evidence is barred from the courtroom. She argues that rape shield laws were enacted when there were abusive practices involving prejudice against the alleged victim, but now the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.

JimBWarrior has announced a recent merger between his group, Family Oriented Men, and the International Men's Network. As such, they have a new web site, which can be seen here. I think it's great to see more co-operation between groups in the men's movement. As more people work together, our effectiveness increases.