New Hampshire's Portsmouth Herald printed a front page story about the proposed Commission on the Status of Men in NH, which has passed the House stripped of the program's funding and is headed for the Senate. The article outlines many of the findings of the research group which proposed the commission, listing several key areas where men are not doing well, including health issues, fatherlessness, and education. FYI, the legislative report can be downloaded here.

Now there's a headline for you. :) Nightmist writes "This article on Excite explains how several young Colombian women have been rubbing narcotics on their breasts, then luring male victims to lick them. The men are rendered unconscious and then robbed. On rare occassions, the article says, victims of this type of drugged robbery have died."

Nightmist writes "From time to time, I e-mail various corporations about their advertising campaigns. If I find a campaign particularly offensive to men, I send a scathing e-mail. If I find a campaign presenting men in a rare positive light, I will send a congratulatory e-mail. Recently, I sent one of each to Tylenol. Click "Read More" below for the results of those letters."

This article from the New York Times (free registration required to read) was announced on the Men's Health America mailing list. The story is about a report that H.I.V. infections among young black gay men in large cities is dramatically above the rates for young white men - up to six times as much. The report should expose the need for more aggressive screening and educational programs about H.I.V, and "that programs for black men "must address the stigma of homosexuality which prevents many of these men from identifying themselves as gay and bisexual and may keep them from accessing needed prevention and treatment services.""

Marc Angelucci writes "The Pasadena Star News printed my letter responding to their editor's downplaying of male victims of DV. In the original editorial in which the editor belittles the numbers, the editor made a fool of himself because he assumed the National Institute of Justice was some crazy advocacy group and he said "something called the National Institute of Justice says . . ." When I pointed this out to him and showed him the data, he became upset and evasive, called it "nutty," and said "I don't believe your data." (As though it were "my" data and not the National Institute of Justice's data.) I think he's just upset that he made himself look like a fool." Update: I've fixed the link to the story. Another update: But now it's broken again! Read More to view instructions on how to access it.

Nightmist writes "Junk Science, a fascinating Web site full of debunkery, posted this article regarding the recent retraction of one 1997 study claiming women were "routinely excluded from clinical trials." FYI: this site also debunks a few myths about breast cancer. A 1997 article about the IWF (I have much respect for those women) and its stance against the myths also appears here."

BusterB writes "While not strictly a men's rights article, this opinion piece in Canada's National Post amused me because - as a man - this is exactly why I've soured on modern literature, plays, and in some cases film. So much of it seems to be designed to bash me over the head with overt, ideological messages about how ashamed I should be to be white, be a male, or be both. It's refreshing to see a hard-core bookworm complaining about this, too."

Not PC sent me this editorial from the Washington Times. It outlines the controversy at UCLA for the printing of the Independent Women's Forum Ad which factually refutes feminist myths. Christie Scott's call for an apology and for "this to never happen again" is being well exposed as the oppressive PC-censorship that is really is. The article concludes: "In their obvious reluctance to joust, fact to fact, in a debate of ideas, campus feminists reveal not only their loathing for the First Amendment...but also their fear of it. Why else try to stifle someone else's freedom of speech, rather than more vigorously exercise one´s own?"

AngryHarry pointed me to this article from the UK Telegraph. The courts of Scotland were considering allowing anonymity of those accused of rape until a conviction is secured. The Scottish Justice Minister decided against it, however, claiming that he didn't believe false accusations of rape are common. I'd be interested to see what the numbers actually are. The article describes a couple of cases of false accusations, and also interestingly comments that providing anonymity of the accuser is done according to custom, rather than law.

It has come to my attention that the message board over at shethinks.org has become a battleground for gender feminists, who are attacking equity feminists for speaking out against the top 10 lies of gender feminism. If you support the Independent Women's Forum for distributing the ad, please take a moment and help support them by going to their bulletin board, and posting supportive, non-antagonistic messages. Try to counter the irrational hatred with calm, reasonable postings.

Nightmist writes "This story in the Courier Press details how several middle-school age boys on a tour of prison facilities were forced by teachers and jail employees to 1) watch while inmates were strip-searched and 2) forced to remove their clothes for a strip-search in front of other students as a "demonstration of what it's like in jail." The thing that concerns me most is that officials say they are "looking into whether the boys' civil rights were violated." I say there's no "looking into" to it."

Nightmist writes "MSN published The Top 10 Habits of Great Dads today. In typical MSN fashion, they posted the list on the "Women Central" portion of their Web site (they have no section dedicated to men). The list comes from the 1999 book "Throwaway Dads" by Ross D. Parke and Armin A. Brott."

Nightmist writes "This article claims that men's health is more affected by threats of layoffs or job insecurities than women. The article hints that one potential reason for this disparity is that men's lives are more devastated by job loss than women's. Perhaps this is because women still may choose to stay at home or work, while men's identities--for the most part--are still closely associated with our jobs." That sounds like a very reasonable explanation to me. What do you think?

frank h writes "In the Washington Times today, there is an article entitled "Study: Poor fathers need help with jobs to pay child support." I found it incredibly offensive. Absolutely no mention was made of improving custody and visitation enforcement, just finding ways to make men work harder to pay child support that was mandated by the courts without considering the father's means to begin with. "The beatings will continue until morale improves!!""

Trudy Schuett sent out the May 30 issue of The DesertLight Journal, which can also be read on the web here. DLJ is a bi-weekly e-zine dedicated to father's rights issues and domestic violence against men. Check it out!