There is a story in the Metroland News by a father who lives 5 minutes from his daughter/ex-wife and yet has little contact with his daughter due to bias in the family court system. He's seen it all: false accusations, blatant disregard for his daughter's well-being, and being stuck and not able to fight back. It's a well written story with plenty of facts about divorced dads, definitely worth reading.

In Sydney, Australia, an international conference of scholars and doctors held talks on circumcision, and debated whether it is equivalent to female genital mutilation and should be banned as FGM is. "Prof. [Greg] Boyle said circumcision was a violation of a child's human rights and should be considered an offence to be prosecuted through the courts." You can read the news article by clicking here.

An Anonymous User (you can obviously understand why) submitted this link to a Campus Report of a feminist event at Penn State titled "CuntFest." I don't even know how to sum it up, except it was an extremely vulgar and disturbing performance supporting radical lesbian feminism, whatever that means. It was even more extreme than the Vagina Monologues, if you recall what that was all about. Please don't read the article if you are easily offended.

This is a very long, but really insightful and interesting article. Neil Lyndon was a popular writer from Britain, whose life was radically changed after he wrote an article on men's issues that undermined the tenets of feminist theory. His story can be read here, in his own words. I'd highly recommend this article to anyone on his or her way to becoming a high-profile figure in the men's movement, to know what to expect from your opponents. This will continue to be a struggle for us for some time, but things are already changing and opportunities are opening more often these days. I personally continue to remain optimistic. Update: I've changed the link so that it should work more consistently.

This story from the Globe and Mail talks about Fred Rutledge, and 8th grade teacher who went through tremendous grief in a false accusations case over 2.5 years ago. Just recently, he finally completed a law suit obtaining 1.1 million dollars in damages. It was a nightmare case: "In 1998, Mr. Rutledge became one of the hundreds of teachers in Canada falsely accused of sexual misconduct with students. The utter absence of evidence did not prevent the police from arresting him. Convinced that they had stumbled on a vast cover-up, they also laid charges against a school social worker, the vice-principal and the principal for failure to report his crimes."

The UK Telegraph posted this story on the decline of male enrollment at universities. From the article: "Only 44 per cent of this year's admissions are men and academics now wonder whether their encouragement and preference for women may have gone too far...The pattern of declining male applications and rising female university attendance was established in the 1970s. During the past decade, however, it has worsened drastically...Government estimates forecast that men will make up only 42 per cent of university students by 2010."

One would like to think this is a joke, but in today's gender climate, I seriously doubt it will be taken that way. In an article about the way marriage "civilizes" men, Jonah Goldberg happily takes degrading digs at single men and masculinity in general: "The first thing that needs to be stipulated is that men are disgusting by nature...Like dogs, men need to have their instincts redirected toward positive ends...[marriage] encourages knuckle-draggers, like me, to stand up straight, work hard and play by the rules." Does this man have any self-respect? You can read his article at this link.

Marc Angelucci is in the news again, reminding LA Times readers about the reality of domestic violence against men. You can read his letter here. There is no doubt that Marc has been a letter writing "powerhouse" lately, and he is certainly inspiring change.

Here's some more news on the draft topic: As this CS Monitor story from April tells us, women might be subjected to the draft as well as men. At least seven out of ten women oppose being drafted, and if it does go into effect, "the Swedish Constitution would have to be changed, since it now forbids gender discrimination except in the cases of military service or affirmative-action measures." However, the "quote of the week" goes to Annica Kronsell who said: "I think even the women who are very involved in equality issues have taken it a little for granted that men are involved in that sector...This is a little different because it's arguing not to have a right but to have a duty, an obligation."

The organization Feminists for Free Expression has publicly denounced the new Sexual Misconduct Policy enacted at Columbia University, saying, "As feminists, we of course applaud the idea of taking sexual assault very seriously and providing for its punishment. But in reading your 'Policy and Disciplinary Procedure,' we are dismayed by provisions that infantilize students by streamlining away both the protections for the accused and the accountability of the accuser" You can read their official statement here.

Lawrence Hellmann of the National Congress for Fathers and Children wrote a great book review of Warren Farrell's new book, Father and Child Reunion: How to Bring the Dads We Need to the Children We Love. Click "Read More" below to read the review and find out how to get a copy of the book. This would also be a great book to buy as a gift for family or friends! (or social workers, or politicians, or ...)

IHF sent in this article from the UK Times, bearing good news: that paid paternity leave equivalent to what mothers receive is expected to become law in the UK soon. From the article: "Britain now languishes towards the bottom of the European league in conditions for parental leave and the Green Paper will make clear that the status quo is not an option. Mr Byers has said that one of the five key objectives of the paper is to 'widen opportunities for fathers to play a greater role in home life.'"

The Washington Times printed this article about a false accusations case that the man is still serving time for. Apparently his ex-wife took the children and fled to New Zealand (illegally), confounding further investigation of his case. It's a situation in which the testimony of his children was obviously fabricated, and guided by the mother. It's a depressing story that has no closure.

Bill Kuhl submitted this St. Lois Post-Dispatch article and writes, "Did you know that women are allowed to serve on draft boards? The article gives a brief recent history of the draft. Did you know it was Carter who reinstated selective service registration? The main point of the article is that they are hunting for volunteers to staff draft boards now that board members terms are up. I can't help but wonder (perhaps
it's wishful thinking) that people see the draft as so blatantly dicriminatory that they don't want to be associated with it. It's a good, informative article."

Jim Castelli writes, "In this Boston Globe article, attorney Donnalyn Kahn joins ranks of female lawyers "choosing" to leave the insane work demands of Boston law firms. Ms Kahn describes the "harassment" of women who "choose" to work less than 60/70 hours a week. Over the last 30 years we have heard of the gender pay gap where women supposedly earn a fraction of men's salaries. Perhaps the pay gap is the result of women "choosing" to forego the life-shortening demands of a career which expects the sacrifice of life for the benefits of money. The real harassment in Ms Kahn's former work place is not the policies that caused her to leave but the views of society that force men to stay. At a time when the gender life gap shows that women now outlive men by 7 years, the question of the effects of work demands on men needs to be addressed. When will men get the same choice as Ms. Kahn?"