Backlash.com is sponsoring a letter writing campaign to help raise awareness of Len Miskulin's hunger strike, and to help ensure that the media and courts have little room to escape accountability for ignoring his situation. Even if you're from the U.S. or Canada, your letters can go a long way to help this cause.

Clayton Giles, the fourteen year-old boy who is hunger striking to get his mother to sign over custody to his father, has moved his web site to a new server. Click here to read his frequent on-line diary entries. At this time his mother has still not given in, and he is still going without food.

There was an interesting article from The Scotsman on the topic of domestic violence and Erin Pizzey. Pizzey was one of the first people to open battered women's shelters in the UK, and is an equity feminist as evidenced by her frequent criticisms of feminists who support the anti-male portrayal of domestic violence as one-sided. Apparently she has ruffled quite a few feathers, and this article sounds almost apologetic when discussing modern feminism. One thing is for certain - with more and more people challenging false information about domestic violence, radical feminists will be forced to go on the defensive in the near future.

Henry Makow wrote in to tell me about his new web site, which has a neat multimedia introduction to the issue of men and the anti-male climate at the University of Winnipeg. Henry was formerly a professor of English at UW until he was ousted from the school because he was seen as anti-feminist. You can read his story here. I will be posting a review of his book on this site by the end of the week.

An article from the Topeka Capital Journal is about the headaches and problems the child support office has caused, not only for non-custodial parents, but also for the CPs and children. Over 2,400 people did not receive child support checks in the month of October from the Kansas payment center. We have reported on other major issues stemming from paperwork and computer problems at child support agencies, and from this article more than one woman quoted in it has become so fed up that they have stopped using the agency.

Richard writes "I am passing on a special request from Len Miskulin. He asks that as many people as possible go to this website and submit a letter of support for him. He needs as many letters as he can get as quickly as possible. Please take a couple of minutes to do that. It's important for him and all non-custodial parents." Len has been striking for a month now, and has stated that he is willing to die. You can find out more info on this site. Please take a moment and show your support of Len.

I was looking around on the web for something to post here about Martin Luther King, Jr, but found a short e-mail by Ed Bartlett to be very appropriate. It's a quote from Dr. King, and reads, "If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." - MLK Speech in Detroit, June 23, 1963. I believe the men's movement as a movement can learn a lot from the civil rights movement. Here is a web site at Stanford devoted to the original writings of Dr. King.

And here's a perfect example - this story from DrKoop.com talks about the various health risks and developmental issues that boys have, and essentially ridicules them in a condescending tone: "So much for the macho male...New research...says guys are -- brace yourself -- 'fragile.'" The author then goes on to talk about how boys shouldn't be treated so callously and roughly when young. Apparently it's ok to shame and patronize them, though.

The Sydney Morning Herald carried this story today, reporting that a class action lawsuit of fifty men are suing the federal government for sex discrimination because testosterone hormone replacement therapy is not covered by the state (as it is for women's HRT). The case may bring attention to the issue of "male menopause," an often neglected men's health problem.

In a major victory, Ed Bartlett from Men's Health America is reporting that the National Institutes of Health have modified their position on the "gender heath research gap." From the article: "According to William Harlan, MD, NIH Associate Director for Disease Prevention, 'Women have been included with overall equivalency in most observational epidemiological studies when the conditions commonly affect both genders.'...[the] statements came in response to the recent report, 'Were Women Excluded from Medical Research?' by Men's Health America."

Licia Corbella of the Calgary Sun was covering the story about Clayton Giles, the 14 year old boy who is on a hunger strike to protest the mistreatment of children in family court and his own custody ruling that kept him from his father. She wrote an article stating that upon review of the court documents in the Giles' case, she was appalled at the vindictive behavior of Clayton's father, and regrets writing in support of him. You can read her article here (sorry, as of 1/14 the link is now outdated). Clayton wrote an e-mail response to Ms. Corbella which can be read from his diary entry. This is obviously an extremely controversial case.

I received a request from an anonymous reader to help question the Break-The-Cycle organization for presenting misleading information on domestic violence. His message is a bit long for the main index, so you can read it by clicking "Read More" below. It will only take a moment to send an e-mail to this organization asking for the sources of their statistics, and it would help to put pressure on them to change their extremely harmful portrayal of domestic violence.

I discovered this New York Post story about a gay man who won custody of his son who was born though a surrogate mother. NY Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Diamond "said her decision was mainly based on her belief that it's in the child's best interests to stay with his father, with whom he already lives. The mother was ordered to pay child support."

Tony Delgado directed me to this article from Excite News which is about a man who was convicted for domestic violence because he accidentally knocked off his wife's glasses while driving. His wife didn't want to press charges, but the police went ahead and did so anyway. He had to be pardoned by the Ohio governor to avoid being deported from the country. Tony writes "The same reasons that immigration offices are trying to use to avoid deportation of women are now used to enforce deportation of men. This doesn't surprise me, but unfortunately it is yet one more example of how biased American society is becoming against men. Apparently police departments in our country must think that women are sacred and untouchable, not even touchable by mistake."

The New York Law Journal is reporting that a group of employees at IBM who worked in a particular "clean room" and now have cancer are suing IBM and the manufacturers of several chemicals used in the clean room for damages. All of the men are under the age of 30, and two of their coworkers have already died of cancer. The article quotes the lawyer defending the men as saying, "What makes [this case] unique is that this is the first time anyone has taken on the computer industry." For the sake of men's health and to decry the disposability of men working at dangerous jobs, be it in a coal mine or a "clean room" with toxic chemicals, I hope this suit succeeds and makes a statement (and they don't just take a settlement out of court).