Douglas Rome, a journalist who writes extensively on men's issues in the UK, has told me that a particular domestic violence organization in Scotland is promoting lies and misleading info about domestic violence. Their "facts and figures," in particular, can be read here. Douglas has been organizing a campaign to lobby the group to change their information, and could use your help. Helen Norman is a main organizer for the group and can be e-mailed at HNorman@dghb.scot.nhs.uk. I would encourage people to be polite, but firm in their lobbying of this organization. Your efforts could be instrumental in changing the way DV awareness is promoted in Scotland.

Nightmist writes "A new Tennessee law will automatically place injunctions against spouses running away with children, draining joint bank accounts, and making harassing phone calls during divorce proceedings. The attorneys in this article (all female) disagree on whether the law is a good thing."

AngryHarry sent in this story from the UK Sunday Times, about how "An elite team of detectives and psychiatrists is being set up by police to target would-be killers and stop them before they commit murder." To what extent do you think this program will target males - particularly men of color? In other news, the Tampa Bay News Channel 9 is reporting that a camera system has been set up in Ybor city which digitally scans people's faces and compares them to a database of people's faces who have an oustanding arrest warrant. I sure hope they don't get too many false positives.

Nightmist writes "It's finally happened. Four night clubs in Singapore have offered a response to all the Ladies Nights offered by clubs all over the world: Men's Night. And guess what? They've been successful. In fact, the article suggests that the majority of the crowds who attend men's nights are male and heterosexual, meaning that the guys just want a night out without the girls. Likewise, the males on men's night are getting free or discounted admission to these clubs as well as free or discounted drinks. Maybe other clubs will take a hint and either get rid of the discriminating discounts altogether or offer comparable discount nights to males. Either way, I'd be happy."

Neil Steyskal writes "In this Reason magazine review of recent feminist books, Cathy Young finds some documentation of women's desire to control child rearing." Young's commentary on where feminism stands today is quite interesting, and she calls for the inclusion of men's perspectives in the ongoing dialogue about gender, even in books about feminism.

Nightmist writes "According to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, the father of the five Yates children recently slain by their mother (allegedly in a fit of postpartum depression) should bear the responsibility for the deaths of said children. Of course, O'Reilly is going under the assumption that the mother really was insane at the time of the killings, an assumption which the science of postpartum depression may dispute. Again, remember that Bill O'Reilly is Fox News' Jerry Springer, so I wouldn't consider his opinion as being either informed or asserted with any great intellect."

Here's an amusing incident involving the dress code at the South Carolina House of Representatives, a non existent Men's Caucus sending a memo, and some women's advocates. So how do these things come together to form an amusing story? Why don't you click the link and find out? The scary thing to me is that legal action could be in the works for something that was obviously satire.

Nightmist writes "The Salt Lake Tribune ran this article recently about Jade Rubik and www.safe4all.org. In the story, Rubik tells some of his own horrifying experiences as a victim of abuse. I e-mailed him after the story ran. He said the piece ran on the front page of the print edition. That's pretty high profile in mainstream media. It's about time."

Yes, it's another"no men allowed" incident, according to this Ottawa Citizen article. As you would expect, they're backed up by the law to a certain extent since their justification "cites a 1986 case in Montreal, in which a feminist group wanted to exclude men from a musical event on International Women's Day. The Quebec Human Rights Commission ruled that excluding men was within the organization's right." If ever there was a good reason for men's groups to gatecrash....

Mensactivism.org is proud to announce a new feature for the site: an on-line chat page. The only requirement to participate is a web browser with Java enabled, no one even has to sign up for user accounts to use the chat room. Our first official chat session will be held on Thursday, July 5, starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time. The session will last for as long as people participate. We'll have weekly chats on Wednesday nights at the same time from then on (next Wednesday is July 4, hence the exception). On top of that, there will be another special announcement during next Thursday's chat session including some free giveaways!

Nightmist writes "This article on Excite News details new gene therapy trials which could turn protstate cancer cells into targets for anti-cancer drugs. The therapy involves inserting a modified virus directly into the cancer cells."

Trudy W Schuett writes "Marc Angelucci's short-but-sweet Letter to the Editor suggesting more equitable coverage of domestic violence issues appears in today's LATimes. Way to go, Marc!"

Nightmist writes "This article on Fox News gives little detail on the charges against Paula Poundstone, who has been arrested for "three counts of committing a lewd act on a girl under the age of 14 on May 19 and June 6, as well as endangering two other girls and two boys on June 6, Deputy District Attorney Gina Satriano said in a statement. She could face a maximum of 13 years and four months in prison if convicted of all charges." It is interesting to me that in most cases of child endangerment involving males, the charges and details of those charges are laid out in black and white in the story. Here (even though police reports are public record in most states) we are told the D.A. isn't releasing details... interesting."

Matthew writes "This is a story that I found at www.gendercide.org (a great site for unbiased international news on gender issues). The story is from BBC News and gives a brief history of the massacre. What the story fails to mention is that all the prisoners killed were men. The gender imbalance in the criminal justice system (all over the world) is an issue that doesn't get discussed as often as it should and when something like this happens (to men) the gender aspect has almost always been completely ignored. Part of the problem, I feel, is that organizations that pay the most attention to these issues (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Peace Brigades International, etc.) tend to have a feminist perspective. It would be beneficial to the people who depend on these organizations if more 'masculists' got involved with these organizations. On a final note I do think that it is to their credit that these organizations are beginning to progress to a more unbiased view of the world. It's just feels agonizingly slow to me."

Andrew sent me this disturbing article from Yahoo! News. It begins: " William Gregory spent eight and a half years in a Kentucky Prison for a rape he did not commit - leaving his son on state child support. But with his freedom came a twist straight out of Kafka: not only did he get no compensation, but the state then sued him for the child support it paid while he was in prison." Gregory was quoted as saying he was sleeping in the streets after being freed, and was given nothing to help get him back on his feet, despite the fact he was falsely imprisoned.