Neil Steyskal writes "Today's Christian Science Monitor has a good letter about a very important issue: boys and schools. Read the letter here, titled "Let those kids move around!"" From the article: "When the education system doesn't meet the needs of boys or require them to endure its hardships for its promise, many boys learn that it is not for them. Instead of trying to direct boys (and girls) into a sedentary mold, and allowing large numbers of men to be marginalized in their social contribution, shouldn't we attempt to make society more people-friendly?" I thought this quote sounded particularly Warren Farrell-like. The letter makes some excellent points.

Bill Kuhl sent in some commentary on a recent report by the CBS Evening News: "Last night's broadcast of the CBS Evening News contained a segment on the law's handling of testimony by frontline health professionals in rape trials, especially "he said/she said" cases where the outcome hinges on whether the sex was consensual or not. The report stated that in three separate Virginia rape trials, testimony by sexual assault nurses who had treated the women alleging rape was thrown out..." Click on Read More to view the rest of his comments.

Nightmist writes "In this story on Excite News, Dr. Ellen S. Cohn of the University of New Hampshire says that incidents of date rape and nonconsensual sexual contact are on a decline on that campus. The most interesting part of this study, however, is at the end of the article, where Cohn admits that 8 percent of men in the study reported unwanted sexual contact and 4 percent reported unwanted intercourse. Said Cohn: "I think that people for the most part have associated victims with being women. But in fact we know that there are cases of men who are victims, as well. I think it's just harder for men to come forward and admit that they've been victims.""

An Anonymous Reader sent in an article from the Virtual New York News. It details how Ford has changed their management evaluation system in ways that discriminate against older white men. Two class action lawsuits have been filed and are in process. Read the article here.

Neuticle writes "This story is on a 46 year-old woman who hit and killed two elderly people while driving her Benz and talking on the phone at the same time. She was charged on two counts of vehicular manslaughter. The sentence: 120 days HOUSE arrest, restricted driving (only to/from work etc.) and she is "not to use a cell phone while driving". Yeah, that she was only "grounded" for 120 days after killing two people is outrageous, but, especially in light of this study, I'm wondering if she just had one heck of a lawyer, or if gender bias by the judge had anything to do with it. Would a man in the same situation have got away so easy? I can only wonder."

Well, now that the new hardware seems to be working reliably, it has come time to do the software upgrade of the Mensactivism.org server. This web site will be down beginning Friday morning, June 22, and will come back up (hopefully!) sometime on Sunday, June 24. Visitors to the Mensactivism.org web address will see a temporary page with updates on my progress, and all @mensactivism.org e-mail should still be delivered intact. PS: Sorry about the downtime on Thursday night - we had a power outage and the server was unavailable until midnight EST.

Nightmist writes "Wendy McElroy once again exposes the political nature of some "studies" conducted in the 1990s which led to our current public policy of demasculinizing boys. The parents of one of the boys who participated in the study are challenging its results (results which claimed that boys exist in a "bully culture" and need to be feminized). The boys themselves say many of their answers were jokes. Said one subject: "Our immature attempt at humor four years ago should not be the benchmark for the 21st century.""

I think it was Jello Biafra who said, "don't blame the media...become the media!" Well, that is certainly the case for the Men's Hour web site, which was created by some individuals who felt that there needed to be an alternative to the Women's Hour program on the BBC network. The result is the Men's Hour, an audio program with interviews and news about men's issues and men's rights, listenable worldwide to anyone with an internet connection and a streaming audio player. Take a listen, they have the first program available, and while they are having a few technical issues during the program, it shows a great deal of promise.

Neil Steyskal and Richard Cann sent me Ann Lander's column today, about domestic violence against men. Neil writes "Ann Landers is still claiming that there are more male abusers than female. I hope we can get her plenty of evidence to the contrary." I'm a bit lukewarm about her comments, too - while she admits that men need more services for domestic violence, she also is unwilling to accept women's violence, saying that women batterers are only alcoholics or druggies.

Ed Bartlett from the Men's Health America list writes, "During the month of June, Safeway Foods has joined forces with CAP Cure (Association for the Cure of Cancer of the Prostate) to raise funds for
prostate cancer research. Safeway customers can give the check-out
cashier a $1 coupon, which is applied to prostate cancer research. For more information click here.

John Buethe wrote in to announce that his organization, M.A.D. Men United (M.A.D. standing for Men Against Discrimination) has become an official non-profit organization and redesigned their web site. You can view it at www.madmenunited.org.

An Anonymous User sent in this article. Ilana Mercer wrote the article for Lew Rockwell about how feminist ideology is attacking young men in schools and colleges. She starts out with a statement by a female Computer Science professor that men are lazy because they know they rule the world and their social status is assured. Mercer then delves into the fallacy of this attitude and of "second-wave feminism" itself, including comments by male students who feel they are treated unfairly. It's an excellent read - check it out!

Nightmist writes "This article on Excite News claims that a man's risk of getting prostate cancer increases with the number of female sex partners he has during his lifetime. A good case for monogamy for heterosexual males, although many scientists nowadays believe that monogamy goes against our biological/procreational instincts." And I'm sure that struggle will continue! :)

Trudy W Schuett writes "I noticed kind of an interesting difference of opinion in these two articles - The Seattle Times: ""Do women batter? Sure, but not very often," said Bonnie Campbell, who headed the federal Violence Against Women office under President Clinton. "The more success we have as a society in highlighting violence against women, the more of a backlash we get," she said. "I view a lot of this talk about battered men as a significant part of the backlash."" The Irish Times: "Women are more likely than men to perpetrate domestic violence, according to new research on Irish couples who seek marriage counseling. The report, published yesterday, also found that domestic violence was one of the less important factors in marriage breakdown in the largely middle-class group studied." I wonder what the Irish know that Americans don't? From what I've heard lately, it seems the Irish are beginning to address DV as a non-gender issue, so maybe it bodes well for us Yanks!"

Nightmist writes "This article about a young, reluctant father who changed his ways and grew responsible is important. For years, males have been ignored by teen sex/pregnancy education programs. The young man profiled here is now assisting other young men in these types of programs, helping to get them off the streets and to teach them to wait about becoming a father, as well as how to be a good father. The article also details a bill on the floor of the Calif. legislature to extend more funding to the male program."