Deborah Watkins, President of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of NCFM is doing a project to "adopt" homeless men in the area. If you'd like to help contribute to the efforts of this group, click "Read More" below to read Deborah's message and info on who to contact.

The Ottawa Citizen printed a good letter recently by Joe Rade, who counters claims that Dave Brown's recent editorial on Bill 117 was overzealous. It's important to recognize what little public dialogue is going on about this law, and to bring it to people's attention. In today's fast-paced world, it is easy to let controversial issues slip by without comment. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. " (Edmund Burke)

This controversial article by Warren Farrell tells us how women's oppression has been analogized to black slavery, but how it is also true that men could be seen as "niggers" on the same level, even though the term has been used to imply a one-sided oppressiveness. As Warren puts it, "But what none of us realized was how each sex was the other's slave in different ways." Read it and judge the truth of it for yourself.

Richard Bygrave submitted his web site where you can read about the frustrating but all-too-typical problems he's had with the family court system in Canada. I'd like to see more dads putting their stories on the web, to create a kind of historical record of the injustice many men are dealing with today. Thanks for coming forward to publicly tell your story, Richard.

I received incredibly good news from Ed Bartlett of Men's Health America. Due to pressure from activists challenging the text of an NIH fact sheet that read, "Historically, research studies were conducted
only with men" has now been changed to remove that misrepresentation! You can view the updated sheet here. As Ed put it, "We have just landed a stone in Goliath's eye." Great job to Ed and his team! Now we can go a step further and try to get the NIH to actually change the underrepresentation of men in health research.

I was forwarded this message written by Warren Farrell: "...This Monday, December 4, I will be debating feminist attorney Liz Schneider before a live audience...It will be taped, on NPR, meaning, of course, a feminist moderator. Their audience will be at the Civic Center, from 7:30-9:00pm...Schneider favors clemency for women who kill husbands and say they were abused. My question: Do you know of any men's issues people, men who have been victims of domestic violence, or domestic violence against men advocates who could be audience participants? If so, would you ask them to contact Sheryl Flowers, the producer, at (202) 879-6784 or email her at sflowers@appcpenn.org? I have been assured by her she will accommodate the people representing men's perspectives."

According to a University of Michigan study, "men who lived in urban areas were 62 percent more likely to die than men who lived in suburbs, small towns or rural areas" What's interesting are the race and gender comparisons in this article. However, this study does seem a bit inconclusive. I believe we need to keep an open mind on this until more scientific studies are done. Scott's note: While I didn't see any direct gender comparisons in the article, the way it was worded suggested to me that women do not have a corresponding rise in mortality rate from city living - and this is why this is most newsworthy.

John L. writes "I found on USA Today this story from a London AP news release. In connection with World AIDS Day, the following statement was released: "The United Nations' message for the 13th World AIDS Day was that men must take responsibility for their behavior to help stop the spread of the deadly virus.'...'Men can make a particular difference - by being more caring, by taking fewer risks and by facing the issue of AIDS head-on,' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said." It appears men alone must take "responsibility" for their actions, the implication being that men are responsible somehow for this epidemic. The article also later singles out men as being disease vectors, while ignoring that virtually all infections of babies are transmitted from the mother, and that women can infect men from having intercourse as well. Statistics indicate that the majority of HIV carriers are women, and women are as likely as men to be unaware of the infection. Seems like more scapegoating of men to me."

ABCnews reported recently that the wife of Jon Colombini has abducted their son and sailed to Cuba (sound kinda familiar?). Jon has joint custody of the child and is fighting for something to be done. It won't be easy, considering that Cuba does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S, and the fiasco that surrounded the Elian Gonzalez situation. For more information about the complications of international child abduction, you can read another story we previously reported on.

The UK Sunday Times printed this story on child abuse (including sexual abuse), and many of the misconceptions surrounding it. The article has a good deal of information in it, including data on family situations that are more prone to abuse (broken families are worse than intact ones) and mothers who are abusive. Take a look at the data - I learned quite a bit by reading it.

Jim Castelli writes, "James Carroll's Boston Globe editorial, when stripped of the disingenuous disclaimers, essentially says that black heterosexual men are the cause of AIDS. While purporting to not blame males, Carrol presents thinly veiled stereotypical generalizations of black male sexuality reminiscent of "To Kill A Mockingbird" while absolving women of any role in the spread of AIDS. The demonization of gays which Carroll strongly asserts was wrong two decades ago is now being replaced by the demonization of heterosexual men and boys. It is as if he is subtly suggesting that the safest of all solutions would be to eliminate male heterosexuality."

I'm posting this as an example of sex differences in human beings (something which is a controversial gender issue), a topic I haven't reported on previously on Mensactivism.org. A news story from Yahoo! states that women tend to use both halves of their brains when listening, while men tend to use only the left side of their brain. While I've read some immature remarks that imply that this is some biological deficiency in men, I've likewise heard that men can do more with half a brain than women can with both halves. I say let's just let the scientists determine the implications of this, and resist the urge to turn this issue into a superiority complex.

In another UK Telegraph article, someone else is questioning the wage gap between men and women. It is explained that the difference in average wages is mostly the result of men and women's choices, and says, "the picture is more complicated than is often thought. Single men earn less than married men, who are spurred to work harder by the responsibility of a family. The reverse is true for married women, who earn less than single women largely because they are more likely to work part-time...Only a part of the labour market advantage enjoyed by men can be attributed to discrimination in any sense that can be addressed by public policy."

An article from the UK Telegraph, submitted by IHF, explains how the UK singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall of Simply Red was arrested on false rape allegations. Not too long ago we reported on the similar situation that Paul Weller found himself in. No mention was made of the accuser's name, which again is an example of the lack of accountability in false accusation cases.

This alarming news article from the National Post reports that for Canadian boys, the obesity rate has tripled in the past 15 years (it also doubled for girls during the same period). "The findings are considered alarming and significant, particularly since overweight children tend to become obese adults, who are much more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart disease." Here's a great reason for promoting fathers, who tend to encourage sport and outdoor activity participation with their children.