Trudy Schuett's DesertLight Journal, Volume 1, Number 6 has been released and can be read here. Trudy has also created a page where you can view archived past issues of the e-zine, which focuses on father's rights and domestic violence against men. Update: Trudy also had a letter printed recently in the Phoenix New Times decrying the abuse of restraining orders.

frank h sent me this story from the National Post. It's about the increasing sales of home DNA "paternity testing kits" in which tiny samples of genetic material are collected from the father and child and sent to a lab for testing. The company can then establish with certainty the paternity of the child. "although the test was aimed at men, the firm had been surprised at the number of women applying to find out who was the father of their baby...[The lab's director said]:"We make it clear that it's better if all parties are informed, but we do not insist."" This, to me, is what I find most disturbing. Genetic testing without consent seems very much like a violation of privacy rights to me.

Nightmist writes "This article on Excite News details how about half of African American men responding to a survey felt discriminated against by law enforcement. Notice that fewer black women reported feeling discriminated against, hinting that not only do some law enforcement officers racially profile, but they also profile by gender."

I'd like to thank everyone for being patient for the past five days in which Mensactivism.org was down for the system upgrade. From running out of space on my backup tapes to pulling my hair out trying to configure sendmail, to the lack of responsiveness from the DNS servers which direct the mensactivism.org domain to the correct server, it was a very stressful five days. But with new hardware, a less buggy version of the Slash web engine, and a fresh operating system, The Men's Activism News Network is now prepared for further expansion and some new ideas I've been working on. One of them is a weekly on-line chat session, which I'll release more details about this Friday. It's good to be back!

Nightmist writes "This editorial which ran in the Daily Illini and was reprinted on Excite News, offers some mainstream media support for building domestic violence shelters for men. It mentions the controversy over the numbers (battered women v. battered men), but then makes this well-stated point: "Whether there are 20,000 physically abused men or 20, they should have access to domestic-violence services. Family violence is harmful and wrong, no matter which gender is doling out the abuse.""

Nightmist writes "According to this article on Excite News, black men all over the country and poverty-stricken men of all races in the rural south are more likely to die of heart disease than their white or more affluent counterparts. From the article: "The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on heart disease the results showed the need to reduce inequalities in social environments.""

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.