The Washington Post printed an article which outlines the current legislation to establish an Office of Men's Health at DHHS. Read it here. The article mentions that much of the 15.5M budget that the Office of Women's Health has was used for public health awareness, and that the establishment of one for Men's Health could go a long way in changing stereotypes about men and health care.

Australia's The Age printed a story whose apparent purpose is to shatter myths about child abuse, including the misperception that most child abuse is committed by strangers. The article sounds the alarm that child abuse and neglect barely register on most people's minds as a serious, widespread social problem. I also noticed that there was absolutely NO mention about the prevalence of abuse according to gender. No doubt most people who read the article will think that it is men who are the primary abusers of children, when in fact this is not the case. Perhaps the author assumes we can only deal with a couple myths being shattered at a time. Click here for the story.

Ed Bartlett of Men's Health America announced today that the NIH has issued three letters retracting claims they made that women were neglected in medical research. You can read the MHA press release here. If anyone challenges you when you claim that gender health research disparities have not been harmful to women, this information will certainly be very useful. Now we must go another step and have it demonstrated that the research still isn't equal, and that men are in need of "catching up."

Marc Angelucci writes "For the first time, someone actually responded to me in the Daily Bruin. This one attacks the National Coalition of Free Men and makes some very weak and tired arguments about males being in power (as though men in government meant men's issues were being addressed). I enjoyed this one. Just thought I'd post it." I thought the article was interesting in that the arguments were transparent - there was little dishonesty in this person's views, they are simply based on a feminist portrayal of reality which has never truly considered men's side of the story.

Marc Angelucci writes "Steve Gaskill is an activist in the gay black male community who joined the Barnes & Noble campaign. The sexually-liberating experience he describes in this article can be, in my opinion, analogous to even the non-sexual bond that straight men feel upon sharing male experiences or discovering a common interest in men's issues. I just thought I'd share it."

Jon writes "Good news for Austrian men - Yahoo! News (through Reuters) posted this article in their Oddly Enough section about a new Men's Department in the Austrian government's Social Affairs Ministry. Still think that the media isn't biased against men? Notice how Herbert Haupt, the man proposing the department, is described as "a member of the far-right," and his detractors are described as merely "opposition." At least Yahoo! News doesn't judge whether it's odd that the department is being created or odd that critics are so violent in their opposition..."

Debbie Schlussel wrote an interesting column for WorldNetDaily where she talks about how Ms. Magazine has named her "Enemy No. 1" for being a popular female commentator on conservative issues. "Clearly, Ms. is out of touch with the modern world. I know, because as a young, Gen-X, professional, single woman, I'm their target audience...And I'm not listening." It's good to see women who are willing to take the modern feminist movement to task for claiming to represent them.

This article describes one of the most hateful studies written about men I've ever come across, but it does have a redeeming feature. Namely, it proves that all the work of Daniel Amneus is true, in that the ghettos are the result of the Male Role having no stability, where he can kicked out of family life at any second for displeasing mom. Be certain that you read Amneaus' works online, including The Garbage Generation and download The Case for Father Custody in Adobe PDF format to read the truth for yourself - they're "must read" material for anyone in the mens/fathers movement.

Yahoo! News reported that Jimmy Williams of Ohio is receiving a new trial for the rape of a 12 year old girl, who is now a grown woman and has recanted the accusation. Williams has always maintained his innocence through the years, and will finally get to be with his 10 year old son that he has never been able to spend time with. It is possible that Williams could sue for $25k for each year he was imprisoned, for a total of $250,000. Imagine if that money could be put into an organization to lobby for the rights of accused men?

Kathleen Parker wrote a column for Town Hall which discusses the uncomfortable subject of paternity fraud. A man from Georgia has been trying to get a law passed that would allow victims of paternity fraud to absolve themselves of child support and relations with the child, if desired, and give fathers who dispute their paternity the legal right to having a DNA test. Parker's sympathy for both men and children in cases such as this is well balanced: "How can you suddenly stop loving a child for whom you've always been Dad? How can you abandon a child who needs you? These are tough questions and prompt emotions that interfere with one's usual impulse to fairness. But fair is fair, and the truth looks like this: The mother who lies about paternity is guilty of fraud and deserves condemnation at least equal to what we assign fathers who abandon their children. In no other imaginable scenario, meanwhile, do we punish victims of a false allegations."

Marc Angelucci writes "The UCLA Daily Bruin printed my piece on discrimination against men in the Justice System. I had provided a plug to Mensactivism.org, but they didn't include it. They did, however, put the National Coalition of Free Men in there. Click here.
I'm working on forming a local chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men in Los Angeles. We really need some local grassroots activism. Please e-mail me if you live in the L.A. area or nearby, or if you know someone there who might be interested, and I'll include you in the invite for an initial meeting: Angelucc@2000.law.ucla.edu."

Marc Angelucci writes "The Los Angeles Times covered my Barnes & Noble petition drive after I sent 1,000 signatures in. There are a few misquotes, and some things were left out, but I think the article was for the most part pretty well done and I'm happy with it. Click here to read it. I'll still continue to petition. Meanwhile, please don't hesitate to drop Barnes & Noble a line at customerrelations@bn.com."

Also in today's TNH, an article by Chris Godbout on male body image and eating disorders can be read at this link. Chris, myself and Peter Welch from the Health Ed. Dept. are working together on a presentation called Junk Male: Images of Men in Advertising which will be shown toward the end of March. This semester is looking to be a great one for awareness of men's issues at UNH!

I managed to get a biweekly editorial column in the UNH school newspaper about men's issues. You can read my first article, about how men are seen as "success objects" at this link. I hope to make use of the column to get a dialogue going about men's issues started at the university, and hopefully meet some people in support of men's rights. My articles will also be posted in the "Men in the Media" section of the new Massachusetts Coalition for Men web site, which is currently under development and will be unveiled soon.

Bill Kuhl submitted an article from the St. Lois Post-Dispatch about the way fathers are devalued in the media. The author, who once supported the portrayal of Murphy Brown in her TV sitcom to have a child on her own, has since changed his mind and strongly believes we are harming children by condoning the absence of fathers in families. "If I told you a mother was unimportant to a child's well-being, you'd look at me like I had two heads. Yet somehow, we have bought into a lie that says father is dispensable, that anything he brings to the table can be replicated by a determined single mother or, indeed, any loving person who happens to be around."