Tonight's weekly on-line chat is going to be an open discussion. We made this decision since it is probable that people may want to discuss the events surrounding yesterday's tragedies in the United States. There are also a number of men's issues related to this event, including honoring the heroism of the hundreds of firefighters and law enforcement officials who gave their lives yesterday for the sake of saving others. Our on-line chat page can be found here, and we'll be starting the chat at 9:30 PM Eastern Time tonight, 9/12. All friends of the men's movement are welcome to join.

cheddah writes "Although this Boston Globe article does touch on issues relevant to men, it does not explore the reasons why men live on average shorter lives compared to women. Also - referring to men as "males" seems denigrating, and the author points out that men are emotionally dependent on women in order to live a happy life." I feel that the Globe should be applauded for covering such a rarely talked about topic, though - the lonliness of older men is a problem we should care about as a men's issue.

I feel obliged to say something, however unqualified I am to say it, about today's tragedy at the World Trade Center, and offer the condolences of the Mensactivism.org admin team to those who have suffered a personal loss from the attack. Certainly, every U.S. citizen, and most people in the world have felt the sting of this attack on human dignity and freedom. In particular, I hope the best for the folks I met in NYC recently who were organized and promoting men's rights there, and that they are safe at this time.

This column in alternative newsweekly OC Weekly raised the ire of several readers who wrote in to defend a man's right to keep his foreskin. The column writer was called sexist and a bigot for the statements of disgust she makes in her "censorship" column about uncut men.

According to this story on Fox News, the gap between the number of men and number of women in the U.S. has been closing rapidly since 1980, and closed most dramatically in the 1990s. Fortunately, the Fox article takes a newsier approach to this information than the AP and Reuters, which created headlines like this from the story: "Good News For Women! There Are More Men Available."

Bill Kuhl sent in a great essay he wrote about the research he's been doing on domestic violence against men. In it, he discusses two topics that are rarely spoken about in current DV literature: "domestic vandalism" of a person's property, and how the element of surprise is another way that women often gain an upper hand in the domestic abuse of men. See the "Read More" section below for his article.

Wendy McElroy's weekly Fox News column this week tackles the sensitive issue of how feminism has hijacked domestic violence and turned it into advocacy. She spends a great deal of print space, as well, explaining in terms with which we men's issues folks are now very familiar that men can be victims of domestic violence as well as women. Herself a victim of domestic violence, McElroy does a great job of examining how feminism has turned all women into victims and all men into perpetrators. She also mentions our own frequent contributor Marc Angelucci.

This story in Men's Health is particularly appropriate now because September is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month (you may or may not have read so in the media). The article offers some good advice for men (young and old) about the risks and prevention of prostate cancer.

Fortunately for the men of Texas, a woman who claimed two men had assaulted her has now recanted that claim. She originally said two white males had carved the letters "KKK" into her chest. Law enforcement became suspicious of her story when she failed to retell it the same way. Turns out, she had carved the initials in her chest herself with a pair of scissors. Officials have not yet determined her motive for mutilating herself and then falsely alleging that two men had perpetrated the act. The woman is expected to face criminal charges for lying to police and will be charged the cost of the investigation.

Steve writes "I came across this in the Diversions section of U.S. News & World Report: "The Mind of the Married Man (HBO, debuts September 11, 10:30 p.m. EDT) is all about horrible husbands. That means cheating hearts, body parts, and R-rated fantasies. The leading men are - how to put this delicately - sex-addicted idiots. Still, the comedy series can be wildly funny, even poignant. Real-life partners won't be able to stop talking (and arguing) about it." I realize that HBO airs a few decent movies and shows (as well as mindless drivel), but do we really need a series like this? If you want to contact HBO, click here."

Kingsley Morse sent in another great article from the National Post, this one on "gold diggers" - women who hunt down men with lots of money for financial exploitation. The article interviews some self-professed "gold diggers" and some men who've had experience with this kind of woman, which is really insightful. In the end, though, it seems that there is too much justification of the gold diggers' motives, making it sound like being a gold digger is a demanding job in itself, and worthy of the "fruits" of its labor. I don't think the financial exploitation of men should be condoned any more than the sexual exploitation of women.

Andrew sent in this article from Canada's National Post, which should be very useful for people researching false accusations of sexual assault. The article includes many good stats and quotes from Canadian police departments, and also explains the very touchy issue of why a woman might make a false accusation, including cases where "the system" continues to prosecute a man long after it has been discovered that the accusation is false or unfounded.

I'm happy to announce that we've transitioned back to using the standard port (port 80) to run our web server on, now that the ISP block has been lifted. Now, if you have any links which refer to mensactivism.org and include a ":81" in them, those will not work. Just remove the :81 and they will work again. Please send any further problem reports to admin@mensactivism.org.

Surveys by corporate America (especially corporations selling products like alcoholic beverages) are often frivolous, and intended to be entertaining. This survey however, hints at a disturbing problem between men, women, and sports. According to the survey, women have more sinister expectations about men's behavior at sporting events. Not surprisingly, according to the survey, men's true actions do not fall in line with the female thoughts on the subject. Perhaps it is this engrained cynicism about men which allowed the "40 percent increase in domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday" myth to take hold?

A popular plastics softener used in the creation of blood bags and tubing for medical practitioners may cause development problems for children, especially boys, according to new research by the FDA. This story on Excite News suggests that the plastics softener may leach into fluids fed through tubings or blood bags, and into the patient's body. The softener can cause problems with the development of sperm and the development of the testicles.