Ed Bartlett from the Men's Health America list writes "Men's health is going international! The preliminary program of the First World Congress on Men's Health, to be held in Vienna on Nov 2-4, 2001, is now available at this site."

This news just in, again from Dr. Chuck Corry: "State District Judge Thomas L. Kennedy, angered over being named a defendant in a $36 million corruption lawsuit, has threatened to arrest the Plaintiff, Father's Rights Advocate, Michael Sandifer, and hold him without bail. "No bail" is used only for the most serious capital crimes. Upon learning of the threat, the plaintiff, Father's Rights Advocate, Michael Sandifer replied, " I am taking this threat very seriously. It's hard to believe such an extraordinary abuse of Judicial power could happen in America." For further information contact Chuck Hansen @ (719) 748-9058."

Marc Angelucci writes "You'd think US News & World Report would be a little more gender-aware after John Leo's coverage of femi-fury at UCLA a few months ago. Not so. This short US News article says one in five girls report violence in relationships, then goes on to tell the usual one-sided story. Not a single word about male victims. Please write to the editor at letters@usnews.com. I'll post the outcomes when they print."

Robert Cunningham writes " A lot of the material written about the plight of divorced and separated fathers is written from a very conservative outlook. This, I believe, helps to limit the appeal of their plight to a narrow audience. Michael Green in his book, Fathers After Divorce and his web site of the same name presents an alternative vision, and in doing so presents their plight in such a way as to appeal to a wider audience. I heartedly recommend his book and site."

Dr. Chuck Corry forwarded me the following press release: "Colorado Springs, Co. - State District Judge Thomas L. Kennedy was named as a defendant in a $36 million lawsuit filed this day in Colorado Springs, Co. The lawsuit is asking for the disbarrment and the removal of Judge Kennedy for Fraud and Conspiracy to Commit Fraud. Plaintiff, Michael Sandifer, a "Father For Equal Rights" advocate called the Family Court System of Colorado "a cess pool of graft and corruption." Other named defendants are: Robert J. Frank, partner in the law firm of Tegtmeier, Frank & Jones, Virginia Etheridge, a Colorado Springs attorney, Connie W. Frhoring, former President of the Colorado Childs Play Therapy Association, and 5 other defendants. For further information contact Chuck Hansen at (719) 748-9058." Legal action is often a path to quick social change. It will be interesting to see if this case is heard and its outcome.

This story on Fox News reports on a growing trend of violent offenses by young women and girls. Several reasons have been given for this turn of events, the most reasonable being that law enforcement is now more willing to arrest females and the most outlandish being that it's the result of women caving to the social priorities of "The Patriarchy." Notably, feminism is also blamed for "teaching girls to behave like boys rather than teaching boys to behave like girls." I remember my young female cousin once pulling my hair because she thought I was sitting too close to the television. She was far too young for feminism. Perhaps girls are simply violent by nature as well?

Ched sent in this story from the Boston Globe about a man who was found guilty for armed assault with intent to murder and armed robbery, but the judge apparently disagreed with the jury's decision and has pretty much openly stated that he feels he is sentencing an innocent man: "This is the most difficult moment I have been faced with during my legal career,'' [Judge] Murphy said. ''I am mindful of the possibility that I am sending an innocent man to jail.''" The man was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The question is: why???

Men who don't pay child support are neglectful and irresponsible, right? Right? Not necessarily so, according to this article on Salon.com. Specifically, this article deals with the problems generated by the perception that low-income black fathers "don't care about their children," and reveals that other circumstances often contribute to the non-payment of child support. Unfortunately, the author's article does claim that Men, women, liberals and conservatives all feel fairly comfortable in reviling deadbeat dads. I think "all" is too general a term here. Anyone else?

Although the Men's Activism News Network is attempting to restrain from posting too many Andrea Yates stories (Texas mother who drowned her five children), the latest news in this case is too important to the men's movement not to post. According to this AP story on Excite News, prosecutors in the Yates case will, indeed, seek the death penalty. Whether you are pro- or anti-death penalty, this news is important because it demonstrates that these Texas prosecutors are willing to pursue sentencing for a woman just the same as they would a man.

This story in the Financial Times explains how some first wives of rich Russians are attempting to change divorce laws so that their former husbands must continue to support them after divorce. The women claim that their rich husbands' dumping of them for younger women "is a social problem" and that legislation must be enacted to deal with it.

This story on Excite News reveals that some Orthodox Jewish rabbis in Jerusalem are threatening to instruct male observant Jews in the Israeli army not to serve in fighting units if the military continues to use women in combat roles. Orthodox soldiers have been complaining about serving with women because Jewish law "prohibits contact between men and women who are not married or related." The observant soldiers, who also make up a small part of the army, say they encounter women through work in cramped tanks, physical training exercises and sleeping in mixed quarters.

The reduction of 200 collegiate men's gymnastics programs to 21 since the introduction of Title IX is a major topic at this year's U.S. Gymnastics Championship, according to this article on Excite News. The article goes so far as to describe it as "an epidemic." Some colleges are trying harder to equalize things, though. "We've added five women's sports so we don't have to cut any men's sports," said Miles Avery, the head coach at Ohio State, which won the NCAA championship this spring. "Every athletic department can't do that, but that is the way it was intended. To add opportunities for women, not curtail opportunities for men."

Well, we're back... I'll be glad to post a summary of what has gone on, but due to the server's problems we've had these past couple of days, I'm very far behind in my work right now. Those of you that are observant, you'll notice the server is running on port 81, and the domain www.mensactivism.org is automagically translated into mensactivism.org:81. The bottom line is, we're back up and running.

This story on Fox News details some of the debate surrounding current talks about human cloning, an act the U.S. House of Representatives has already voted to ban. Although this story doesn't say so, the technique used to clone humans is strikingly similar to the technique recently used by an Australian researcher to develop mouse embryos without sperm. The greatest difference is that the somatic cells in the Australian experiment came from two different adults. The HR bill specifically bans the reproduction of humans via somatic cell transfer, which means the Australian research, though not technically "cloning," is included in the ban. The Fox News article also describes some interesting biological problems with somatic cell transfer, including the production of a more rapidly aging animal.

This article is a must read for those of you who are trying to make sense of the whole ADHD/ADD debate and try to answer that question of "does it exist?" Geoff Metcalf interviews psychiatry-abuse crusader Don Pierson to get the full lowdown on the facts you won't hear in the media, such as the fact that we could easily have another Thalidomide incident on our hands. I'll leave you with this quote from the National Institute of Health in 1998 "We don?t have an independent valid test for ADHD. There are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction. Existing studies come to conflicting conclusions as to whether use of psycho-stimulants increases or decreases the risk of abuse and, finally, after years of research and experience with ADHD, our knowledge about the cause or causes of ADHD remains speculative."