Ed Bartlett from Men's Health America has begun "Round 2" of the activism campaign to establish an Office of Men's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The first round targeted the House of Representatives and resulted in sixty-one representatives co-signing the bill! If you want to jump into the campaign and do something for men's lives, now is the time to do so. See this posting for more info and join the MHA mailing list.

AngryHarry submitted this story from the UK Independent. Although it might be too early to say, perhaps a wave of awareness of men's health issues is starting to sweep the globe! The issues of male suicide as well as increased heat disease risk were mentioned in the article, and the causes of the gender discrepancy were noted as due to both men's attitudes toward health as well as lack of funding for male health problems. With the recent news about setbacks in men's reproductive rights, I think it's all the more hopeful to see some progress being made in the area of men's health.

I received this depressing news from Kingsley Morse: "The Supreme Court in the U.S. state of Georgia has legalized
discrimination! In Palmer v. Bertrand, Georgia's highest court has made men second class citizens by ruling that it's OK to protect women's family planning, but not men's. The man in this case is going to ask the court to reconsider, and if it won't, he intends to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a related move, the U.S. based National Center for Men has also thoroughly updated it's internet efforts. You can help too." Click "Read More" below to view the rest of his message, and to find out what you can do to help.

Jim Castelli submitted this link from the Boston Globe and writes, "Jane Fonda continues the egocentric ways that have endeared her to millions of men since the Vietnam War. Contributing $12.5 million dollars to Harvard to create a center on gender education, Ms. Fonda asserts that for too long "she had fashioned her opinions and image to make men happy" because of her low self esteem. Anyone who remembers "Hanoi Jane" from the Vietnam War will have a difficult time accepting her argument. Anyone who has the temerity to go to North Vietam during the height of the Vietnam War and essentially thumb her nose at her country and all the men who were dying in Vietnam is not motivated by a desire to please men. Ms. Fonda now as always suffers from an ego that expects men to worship her beauty and her opinions without question. From Barbarella, to Vietnam, to her fitness videos, to her marriage to Ted Turner, Ms Fonda suffers not from low self esteem but from an exagerrated view of her own importance."

Not PC submitted a link to this Christian Science Monitor story about a recent flurry of controversy over MIT's unequal treatment of female faculty. As it turns out, there was no evidence to support the claims: "Check out the study yourself at MIT's website. You will notice an astonishing fact: MIT's study is innocent of evidence of gender discrimination. Not an iota of data is offered to show that MIT treated its female faculty any differently from its male faculty." The story demonstrates how quickly the media and public are willing to believe without question any claims of discrimination against women to the point that facts are no longer checked. The woman who made these claims obtained an enormous grant from the Ford Foundation and many other workplace 'perks' from MIT.

Jerry Boggs from NCFM submitted this piece about women's violence in night clubs reported on by the Toronto Sun. The article explains how problems of violence used to be mostly with male patrons, but has significantly shifted to female-on-female incidents. Many of them are even over a man! "'Women rule this world,' says the club's (male) night manager wryly. 'It's not just violence. There's unabashed sexual aggression.'" Note: article has been archived on the Toronto Sun web site, and is accessible for a fee. Click "Read More" below for reference information to retrieve the article if needed.

Bill Kuhl writes, "Greg Freeman, who is quite popular locally (he also has a local TV show and a radio show) has done an article on an institute devoted to helping male victims of sexual abuse. The article is well written and very favorable to our cause. The man whom Freeman interviews, the director of the institute, I am almost positive is the same guy who started a men's issues bulletin board at Washington University's School of Social Work (a highly acclaimed MSW program). I strongly encourage readers to e-mail Freeman at: gfreeman@post-dispatch.com and thank him. Like I suggested above, Freeman has a lot of clout at least in this area.

I came across this story from the Independent Women's Forum about Heather Mercer, the female kicker who was cut from Duke's football team after showing poor performance in practice. She later sued and won $2M from the university. While hailed as a heroine in some circles, Kimberly Schuld points out that she in fact has made things worse for aspiring female athletes. In retrospect, the Duke coach could have refused to give her a chance outright (this exception is allowed in contact sports), and thus would have been safe from a lawsuit. But by giving women a chance in male contact sports, it is now apparent that schools are opening themselves up to legal liabilities. The result: no one will want to take that risk and women will be denied the chance to try out for male contact sport teams.

Al Knight wrote a great column for the Denver Post, outlining the current crisis in men's health. Lots of stats are given and Knight's theory of why the legislation for the Office of Men's Health is going to be well received is that Cunningham has obtained the support of several female legislators, and as he writes "Clever move. If women are for the bill, who would have the nerve to be against it?" Thanks to Not PC for submitting the link.

Kingsley Morse has announced that his C4M web site, long deemed the main web site of the male reproductive rights movement, has been completely redone. They have a new redirection domain: www.choiceformen.com. Check out the web site and be sure to send Kingsley your comments. The web site changes were long overdue but well worth the wait!

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."