Cheddah wrote in to inform everyone that at Ames department stores, (a popular retail chain in the Northeast) the vending machines found in the store or the entryway have recently included stickers that bash boys. See the Read More section below for Cheddah's description of this (including a photo) and where to write in protest. It's bad enough that children see men mocked on TV continually, but to market stickers like this to their peers? It's disturbing to think that these kids are being "trained" early on to accept male bashing as a fact of life.

Mike Geanoulis from the NCFC-NH group wrote an excellent editorial which was printed in Foster's Daily Democrat. Mike's article exposes the bureaucratic inefficiency of the child support collection system, and that despite news reports claiming that the agency is collecting more and more money, the percentage collected per case is actually staying the same, or getting worse. This combined with the fact that child support collection is inextricably linked with a father's access to his children, suggests that the system is doing nothing to help children and families in its current state, and is in need of reform.

Don't forget, tonight there will be an on-line chat at the iFeminists.com chat room where guest Gordon Pusch, a computational biologist, will discuss genetics and reproductive technology. The discussion will also inevitably focus on how this technology will affect men's and women's reproductive rights. The chat starts at 9:30 PM EST on 12/23. See you there!

Ragtime sent in this UK Telegraph article a while ago, which I'm just getting around to posting now. It's about the new book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, which claims that all of the major American media outlets have a strongly liberal bias and intentionally make conservatives or liberal cause opponents look bad. This certainly resonates with my observations of the media, but the fact that Goldberg is an "insider" and quotes people directly discussing this bias makes the material all the more interesting.

This article in The Age focuses on a disturbing Australian trend in which men are being pushed out of the workplace in favor of women. As more and more factory jobs disappear, men are having a difficult time competing with women for jobs in which prejudiced employers feel that women are better-suited (jobs with "people skills," in other words). The author, in the end, justifies the failure of many unemployed men to find work as a fitting comeuppance for Australia's "wage gap." She doesn't see the fallacy in her own logic, however, as even she points out that women are working more part-time jobs than are men.

Neil Steyskal sent in a couple of links to recent responses to anti-male articles in the news. The Dallas Morning News printed two letters from folks from England you might recognize - Raymond Cuttill and Alan Carr, responding to the Peacemaker Role Seems More Natural for Women article. There was also a letter printed in the Washington Post protesting Judy Mann's anti-male article claiming that masculinity is a "culture of violence." Bravo, guys!

Glenn Sacks, the only regularly published male columnist in the US who writes about gender issues from a perspective unapologetically sympathetic to men, wrote an excellent article about men's health and the need for an Office of Men's Health. We're running this as our newest feature article, but it was also printed in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal. In it, Glenn points out the most glaring gender health funding disparities, the need for more advocacy to encourage men to pay more attention to their health needs, and that an Office of Men's Health need not "compete" with the Office of Women's Health, but the two can work together to increase the number of men and women living healthy lives. Check out the Read More section for his article.

Rand T. submitted this article which announces a recent psychological study which found that a father's love and affection is just as important as a mother's love. This is something that pro-father advocates have known from the start, and you'd like to think that it is common knowledge. But considering the way dads are treated in the family courts and in many families, it's good to have some research to back it up.

Tony sent in this article from Wired Magazine and writes "While the article is scientific and logical I just find the opening paragraph highly insulting: "It figures. Men are responsible for the majority of human genetic mutations, according to a landmark publication in the scientific journal Nature." Amazing how easy it is to open an article with male bashing." The title of the article is also, "Human Mutations: Blame Men." Can't we even get away from gender politics when writing science articles?

AFG writes "The Chicago Sun-Times ran a story about a mother who has been found guilty of murdering her 3 children. The jury in the case decided to reject her pleas of insanity, and by doing so, has allowed for her to possibly face the death penalty." The woman killed her children to "get back" at her husband, who was having an affair. Thanks also to DaveW and an Anon User for submitting this story.

Laughter is the best medicine, right? Here, AskMen.com's "Doc Love" gives a man married to a controlling woman advice on keeping his sense of humor, and eliminating the problem at the same time. One lesson I take from this is that, when we can, we should try to deal with our problems in good humor. Catch more flies with honey?

Tony writes "The article at this page discusses a research article about weather related depression, usually referred to as the winter-blues, that found men have greater disparity than women. Maybe this is ONE of the reasons that men are more likely to commit suicide during the winter season."

DaveW and Neil Steyskal both sent in articles about the recent settlement announcement in a Ford discrimination suit against white males. Dave's link is here and Neil's link is here. To sum it up from Dave's article, " The lawsuits challenged the automaker's management evaluation system, which the plaintiffs, current and former employees, alleged was unfairly biased against older, white male employees." The class action suit was settled for $10.5 million.

In an excellent example of what happens when only one side of an issue gets all the media attention, the Bush administration has pledged U.S. tax dollars for the relief of Afghan women and children who suffered under the Taliban. Never mind, apparently, the young boys who were conscripted and the men who were murdered.

Tony writes "This article raises some questions about the recent detainees. "Post-9/11, federal law enforcement is on its highest level of alert," said Dan Nelson, a Justice Department spokesman, "We are extremely vigilant in our enforcement of U.S. law." The strange part is that while they are vigilant the ONLY people being rounded up are men. While the racial profiling aspect of the roundups has been discussed it is strange no one has mentioned the obvious gender bias in this crack down." While most terrorists in the past have been men, it's not going to be long before a woman commits an attack making use of this bias.