We'd like to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day, the second one that Mensactivism.org has been around for. Here's a proclamation by President Bush on Father's Day. All sorts of events are planned, from marches on Washington to local events, such as the NCFC-NH chapter picnic in Dover, NH. Click here to view the official Father's Day 2001 web site, and enjoy the day with dad! I hope many of you also did something to promote men's health, as this is the final day of National Men's Health Week.

Australia's ABC news network is covering the story of a female senior magistrate (judge) who has said that many women lie about rape. Pat O'Shane is defending her comments, saying she is stating a fact: "It's a fact of life, people do it...there is no question that...women do manufacture complaints against men, just as men manufacture all sorts of allegations against women, and for that matter against each other." The outcry from women's groups has been significant, and they are demanding for Ms. O'Shane to resign. The Chief Magistrate of New South Wales is considering reviewing the cases that Ms. O'Shane handles, to ensure she is not given sexual harassment or rape cases.

More fatherhood news, appropriate as we get so close to Father's Day: frank h writes "CNN actually managed to say something about fatherhood, single fatherhood nonetheless, and they did it without being critical or sarcastic!" It's a short piece on the rising number of single dads, and while they made sure to quote some children as feeling a deep loss without their mother (when's the last time an article on single mothers mentioned father loss?), the article generally seems lukewarm to single dads. Click here for the link.

Not PC sent me this article from New Zealand's Stuff site and writes "The fact that men get tougher sentences shouldn't be too much of a
surprise to anyone who's been around a courthouse in the last thirty
years. Here is another study, from New Zealand, that also includes family law and domestic violence. As usual, judges look for an explanation and an excuse for an offending woman, whereas all men are bastards. One quote which would be humorous if it wasn't said in all seriousness was from Oakes' lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr. She said,
"I believe that it was Cecelia Lashlie who, when she was in charge of
Christchurch Women's Prison, said that most of the women whom she locked up were there directly or indirectly as a result of their association with a man.""

Mark and Tarek both submitted this story from Yahoo! News. It describes a study in which young men were polled about their attitudes toward marriage and divorce, and it was found that having a close relationship with one's parents, especially one's father for boys, dramatically improves a son's outlook on marriage and confidence in building long-term relationships. From the article: "In this respect, a boy's relationship with his dad may be even more important than the one he shares with his mother, since fathers remain a boy's most important male role model, shaping his attitudes toward intimate partnerships." The article can be read here.

Matthew writes "A Story from the Ottawa Citizen about parents abducting children is here. It mentions that when a child is abducted by a parent it is 'equally likely to be women or men' who are the abductors. This is provided without a source and it isn't clear whether that's in absolute numbers or as a percent of non-custodial parents. If it is in fact true that the numbers are equal in absolute terms, considering that there's fewer non-custodial mothers than fathers, then that is certainly food for thought."

frank h sent in this story from the National Post and writes "While this news is not new (it was mentioned in a posting a few days ago), this author provides an interesting analysis of the recent announcement by feminists that they will boycott the subject government meetings. Their misandry is showing, glaringly, and I can only conclude from this that progress is being made. However, I'm not sure that the government's language, even now, supports men/fathers very well. The author includes phone and fax numbers at the bottom of the article and I would encourage all of our Canadian readers to use them."

Andrew writes "I expected this article to be about the feminist destruction of the American military, particularly in reference to the recent decision to issue the Army Rangers' 'black beret,' previously restricted to an elite fighting force, to all 'soldiers' (including perky girls) regardless of ability or accomplishment. Indeed it began on that subject, but quickly developed into a really excellent analysis of all that has gone wrong in American culture in recent decades, focusing on the 'downsizing' of men and manhood that is the real (and inevitable) aim and effect of the feminist campaign to make everyone 'equal.' And that ultimately can have only one result: as I've noted, while America is working to make its military 'female-friendly,' China is busy toughening up the largest army on the planet. In the real world, which will actually prevail? Are you willing to bet your freedom - or your life - on your answer?" Click on Read More to view more of Andrew's comments and background.

Nightmist writes "Fox News reported this story about a young girl who was locked in a closet and nearly starved to death by her mother and step-father. The mother regained custody of the girl after changing her mind about allowing another couple to adopt her. A tragic tale, and more proof that our justice system really isn't interested in "what's best for the child" as much as they are protecting the rights of motherhood."

Nightmist writes "The Christian Science Monitor published this article about the author of a new book on fatherhood and entertaining children. Dads are generally the entertainers of the household, in addition to their other duties, according to the author. His book provides dads with even more ways of entertaining the kids."

frank h writes "In this Town Hall article, Michelle Malkin takes the time to criticize Camryn Manheim for her "fathers are superfluous" position and her defiant choice to be a single mom. Thanks Michelle!" From the article: "In the "progressive" feminist worldview, dads are little more than expendable sperm donors. The strength, discipline and guidance Ms. Manheim received from her own father mean nothing to her now. Women like Ms. Manheim see children not as the fruit of a loving union between two married partners for life -- but as just another accomplishment to check off on their to-do list."

Chad from the Men's Movement Connection writes, "On June 12th 2001, Mr. Bill O' Reilly had the pleasure to have a discussion on the rights of fathers. The discussion took place on "The O' Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel. His guest was Mr. Jeffrey Leving, author of the book, Father's Rights. O' Reilly revealed (according to his statistics) that 50% of all fathers are denied visitation to their children, and on top of that, only 12% of
fathers see their children, and only once a month. However, Mr. O' Reilly's took the narrow-minded view that it was the father's fault and not the courts or the government. And he went on to say that, "If it is not possible (to see them), don't have them." And on top of all of this O' Reilly seemed to not let his guest explain any of the issues. If you would like to write Bill O' Reilly the email address is
OReilly@FoxNews.Com."

Mark sent me this article from BBC News and writes "With the arrival of a new baby in the home of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, there is talk of how much of the nation's new 13-week unpaid paternity leave he will take. The article mentions that Britain, though ahead of the US, still lags far behind other industrialized nations in the amount of leave that fathers may take. In Sweden and Japan, the leave (up to 450 days) is completely transferable between the parents and up to 85% of the income is to be paid."

Well, today I received in the mail the parts I'll be using to upgrade the Mensactivism.org server. In addition, I'll be performing an upgrade of the server's OS and the Slash web engine which runs this site. It's not going to be fun, since the setup I'm using is extremely customized. After I've installed the new hardware and tested it, I'll announce when Mensactivism.org will be down for the upgrade. It could be for a duration of 3-4 days if things get really nasty, but I'll create a temporary page to keep people posted on the progress.

Nightmist writes "Healthology, a leading health-oriented Web site has teamed up with Men's Health Network, AskMen.com, and Dadmag.com to provide Web-casts about men's health issues for each day of National Men's Health Week (June 11-17.... this week!). This article on Excite News explains the details and purpose of the arrangement."