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.

tpaker writes, "I am starting to assemble a list of nicknames, e-mail addresses and state/province info for men's rights activists at my web-site. The idea is to allow people in the same state to find each other and work together. I can be reached at parkertr@w-link.net, or through the main page of my web site." Please consider having yourself added to this list - the more people who participate, the more useful the list becomes. And I think it was a smart move not to require people to give out their full names to protect everyone's privacy.

Neil Steyskal sent in this article from MSNBC. It describes that single men in their 30s are having a harder time finding mates due to a decline in birth rates over the past several decades. The trend is especially true for men looking for younger women, and is expected to continue.

I've gotten behind in announcing the Men's Health America campaign to inform the media about the brutalization of Afghan men. Here are some MHA postings to read, one, two, three, four. Neil Steyskal also submitted this article from the Baltimore Sun. Comment to: letters@baltsun.com.

Wendy McElroy of ifeminists.com once again tackles gender feminism in her weekly Fox News column. This week's focus is on the struggles by gender feminists to institute quotas for women in the post-Taliban government of Afghanistan to ensure that women have a voice in the new government. McElroy correctly argues that quotas and democracy are contradictions.

AFG writes "Christie Blatchford at the National Post reports that the Canadian government had chosen to honour the 14 victims of lone gunman Marc Lepine by ordering all federal flags to be flown at half-mast on December 6. While this seems like a good idea, the government had failed to order a similar undertaking for the November 11 Rememberance Day honouring the 100,000+ men and women that died in the two major world wars, and in Korea." Thanks also to an Anon User who sent this in, and zerostress who sent in this story and this followup which states that the Minister of Canadian Heritage was unaware of the government order, and is concerned about the unequal recognition.

DaveW writes "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has its own department of sexist bigotry in the form of columnist Martha Ezzard. In this column, Ezzard continues her anti-male rhetoric by writing about abused girls and "adolescent prostitutes, victimized by male pimps and predators." She fails to mention that women often force or seduce children and young adults into prostitution. She fails to mention that women often manage prostitutes. She fails to mention that male children are sometimes forced into prostitution, often by their mothers. She also derides expenditures for youth sports programs, which can provide discipline, purpose, and mentoring that are the salvation for many kids. Feedback to: mezzard@ajc.com."

John Fox, a graduate student in the Dept. of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, asked me to make this survey available to Mensactivism.org readers. It's a survey he's doing in his research about the various men's movements. The document is in MS Word format, and he would like people to edit it with their responses and send it back to him at: fox@soc.umass.edu. Please consider taking part in this study.

Subversive writes "A court in Sweden has ruled that a man who donated sperm for artificial insemination, enabling a lesbian couple to have three children, must pay child support after the two women separated. A county court ruled that the man was undoubtedly the children's biological father and hence obliged to pay child support of $265 per month after the women's 10-year relationship broke up. Here's an idea: why not hit up the lesbian for child support instead?" Thanks also to an Anonymous User and krob4399 who submitted this story.

Neil Steyskal submitted Richard Morin's latest Unconventional Wisdom column, where he discusses the effect of men and women working long hours on their health it turns out that men's health tends to suffer when their wives work more than 40 hours/week, while women's does not when men work 40+ hours/week. After some commentary on the possibilities of why that is so, a subsection of the column devotes a couple of paragraphs to the way men are portrayed as idiots on popular sitcoms in the past few decades.

An Anonymous User sent in this link from the UK Observer. It's an encouraging testimony to the effect we're having on the advertising industry. "Figures to be released this week by the Advertising Standards Authority show that the number of complaints has doubled this year. Over the last six years protests have increased tenfold. Men say they are fed up being depicted either as sex gods with unfeasibly muscular bodies and chiselled jaws or - more often - as incompetent, brow-beaten slobs who cannot express themselves, hold down a job, clean the house, or keep a girlfriend."

Donald Cameron writes "In a National Post article we are treated to an interpretation of a landmark OECD schooling study. According to this article, it would appear that the boys seem to be lacking any benefit from their " innate overreaction to stress." Reporter Heather Sokoloff would have us believe that this study applies to all students. She would also have us believe that the test is actually meaningful in any sense. I have to wonder if Canadian boys just read differently than Canadian girls but schools and tests don't deal with this."

Please come by tonight for the second Mensactivism.org/iFeminists.com on-line chat, which this time (and from now on) will be held at the iFeminists chat room. Tonight's topic will be a controversial one, I'm sure - the rights and responsibilities of men in abortion. Should men have any say in an abortion, or should they have the option of "abortion" themselves? Or something else? Go to the iFeminists chat page tonight, 12/9, at 9:00 PM Eastern Time and offer your input!