nagzi writes "This isn't directly a men's issue thing, but still a nice idea. If you want to learn some new programming skills (for beginners), check out this
article and then follow the link to icanprogram.com. Just make a donation to your favorite cancer charity and you can take any course of theirs for free." This is a neat idea. The course teaches some of the fundamentals of programming in the Linux environment and you can donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (testicular cancer) or the Prostate Cancer Research Institute, among others.

NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will tonight air a controversial episode in which a male victim of rape must fight to prove he was victimized by a group of women who hired him as a male stripper. The advertisements for this episode include scenes in which one of the women is shouting "women can't rape men" and another scene in which the victim, tears in his eyes, fights to make his voice heard. It looks like powerful episode worth watching. Scott's note: I accidentally deleted a user submission on this same topic, and I apologize to this person!

Neil Steyskal sent in the following story from USA Today which was so strongly biased with gender politics that the Men's Health America campaign reopened just to urge people to respond to this article. Comment to: editor@usatoday.com.

Christina S. writes, "On a recent trip to a local shopping mall in Louisiana, I noticed a disturbing 5' tall sign prominently displayed in the Nine West store window. The advertisement shows a woman in an extremely short, snake scale patterned, red leather dress wearing shiny black, knee-high boots. The woman is stepping on the bare chest of a prone man with one boot." Click Read More to see more of Christina's comments and contact info for Nine West.

The streaming audio news program about men's rights, The Men's Hour, has currently released episode 8. Among the topics discussed are: An interview with Richard Hayden of the AbusedGuys Yahoo! club, the recipient of the "Manhater of the Month" award, and news about a study showing that gender counted much more than race in sentencing drunk driver homicides, which I found to be the most interesting. Click here to visit the Men's Hour site and listen to it in RealAudio or Windows Media streaming audio.

tparker writes "This bill (S 1249) is aimed at insuring economic safety for women who are victims of DV. Senator Murray (D-WA) is pretty clear about this. For more info on the bill, see this site. There is also a link to the companion House bill. The language of the bill seems gender-neutral, but the intent of Senator Murray and her co-sponsors seems otherwise."

Neil Steyskal and Subversive both sent in this link to some more commentary in the National Review about the abhorrent treatment of Christina Hoff-Sommers at the CSAP forum. The whole episode is doing a lot to the CSAP's discredit, and is rightly turning into an enormous negative campaign against them.

Tony writes "This article, from The New York Times (free registration required) is another example of male issues in Afghanistan being ignored. It does mention men and boys in two portions: "In the Dari language, a man who does not beat his wife is sometimes dismissed with the phrase "to nadari," which suggests that he is a eunuch. and hints at some of the issues but fails to discuss them." and another were a local merchant is going to fire all the boys working at his factory because "girls are better workers.""

wiccid stepparent writes "I saw this article and thought it was interesting. It claims that ultrasounds may cause some amount of brain damage in male fetuses. This could have some impact on boys and men if it the evidence is correct."

Trudy W Schuett writes "In the latest edition of the DesertLight Journal, see the chilling details of the latest infanticide by mother in Yuma Arizona. There is no daddy here to take the blame! *** Family Friendly Groups Merge - 10 Yahoo! groups get together to work for serious change *** Pro Se All The Way - to the Supreme Court!--a North Dakota Man bets the farm to get his kids back. And more!"

This story at Tech Central Station describes some of the scrutiny which the Center of Substance Abuse Prevention is taking after Christina Hoff Sommers was told to "Shut the fuck up, bitch" and heckled off the stage at CSAP's Nov. 1 government-sponsored conference on "Boy Talk" and "Girl Power." Apparently, the original National Review Online article struck a nerve, and the outpouring may result in the dismissal of some bureaucrats. The author of this piece says that's not enough.

A controversial study that focuses on male victims of domestic violence is the topic in this story about an Australian national conference on domestic violence this week. The study is controversial because some people in attendance at the conference still believe that women are the overwhelming majority of victims, and that violence against men is generally seen as less serious than abuse of women.

As an extension to last Sunday's joint chat between mensactivism.org and ifeminists.com, this week's MANN chat topic is on ways in which child support could be made more palatable to non-custodial parents. We've all known those parents, usually fathers, who want to support their children, but are either 1) not sure where the money is really going, or 2) not given joint custody or good visitation. So what are some things we could do to improve those situations? Should the custodial parents provide a statement of exactly where the child support is being used? Should the courts be a little more willing to set up joint custody? Join us tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST, talk about it, and decide for yourself.

The latest posting on the Men's Health America mailing list summarizes the substantial effect we've had in the campaign to raise awareness about the plight of Afghan men and the bias against them in the media. Special thanks to Ed and Neil, who tirelessly kept this campaign running. And it's not over yet - the end of the message reports that a new phase will be launched in January, and I will do my best to announce them here on Mensactivism.org.

My latest column, which will also soon be available as a guest editorial on ifeminists.com, explores the recent report by the UK's Advertising Standards Agency that men are fed up with anti-male advertising. I also briefly examine what's so bad and harmful about male bashing in the media.