The Washington Times printed this interesting opinion article by a woman who examines the recent Lazio-Clinton debate and is disgusted by the tactics Hillary and her supporters are using to rebuke Lazio for his explicit challenge to her campaign. She also brings up the idea that many people are voting for her as an expression of sympathy for having an unfaithful husband in office and for dealing with Lazio's aggressiveness. It's a well written piece. Thanks to IHF for submitting it.

Marc writes "This bill (click the 9/12/00 Assembly Analysis version) in the California Legislature, sponsored by Mazzoni, requires the government to study prisoners with children, but it only focuses of female prisoners and ignores males. This could possibly be an equal protection violation. Californians should write to their assemblypersons and to Mazzoni about this, if not the Department of Justice."

Craig Ventimiglia, Manager of DadsDivorce.com writes "The following is an excerpt from our online divorce guide written by Joseph Cordell. This portion deals with the steps to take and issues to consider when a custody dispute looms on the horizon..." Click "Read More..." to read the excerpt or click here to go directly to the DadsDivorce site to read the entire guide.

Robert Cunningham writes "Here is a sizeable interview of Christina Hoff Sommers, where she persuasively argues why the special needs of boys are ignored at school. The plight of these boys is not helped when two sociopaths [The Columbine Killers] are presented by educators as symbols of the American maleness. Their plight is also not helped when these educators are silent about the role of fathers and their importance." I thought CHS did a great job in this interview. She was obviously well prepared for it.

Rand wrote in with a very interesting story from the National Post. It's on "workplace bullies", and it was found that women bullied their co-workers and subordinates as often as men did. Very interesting findings. And here's a very thought provoking article: "'As a man, I'm surprised by those figures,' said Dr. Namie, 'but I'm surrounded by women who say, "What's the big surprise?"'" That's something to think about for a bit. You can read the story at this link.

Robert Cunningham wrote in about the recent Cathy Young article about gender issues in medical research, and also to alert me to this Australian opinion piece by a woman who is attacking the September Men's Health feature article on colleges that are pro/anti-male. She quickly reduces the article to: "At the core of his argument is the assertion that anything pro-women is anti-male." and that the "implicit, and now explicit, anti-women agenda that Men's Health [magazine]...sprouts" has been revealed. Interesting that even Aussie feminists are getting upset up about this article.

This story is on the use and abuse of Ritalin, the notorious drug used for the treatment of hyperactivity and attention defecit disorders. It confirms that Ritalin is an addictive drug when abused, and suggests that children taking the drug who have been misdiagnosed should be considered "abusers" of the drug, and taken off of it. I often wonder: would I have been put on Ritalin as a child if I were born in this day, and how would it have influenced my life?

You may have heard of the recent political debate between New York Senator candidates Rick Lazio and Hillary Clinton. Toward the end of the debate, Lazio walked over to Clinton, demanding that she sign a contract to promise not to use soft money in the campaign. Critics of Lazio's "confrontational" tactics were accused of being "sexist" by Lazio recently, and I think it's really good that he is exposing this double standard of gender. Lazio has also spoken bluntly on the issue of gender in the political race. You can read the article from the NY Times here (Free registration with the NYT may be required to view the article).

James Bohne writes "Using tried and true fallacies and half-truths feminist/supremacist causes are being exported by none other than the United Nations. This article featured in the Salt Lake Tribune repeats many of the claims and finger pointing promoting gender polarity and misandry in America over the last 30 years. Typical of good political propagandizing, it is sprinkled with enough truth to create an appearance of credibility to their scapegoating. The fact that both men and women are affected by poverty is ignored. It isn't enough men in third world countries bare the burden of protecting and providing for women and children under the most difficult conditions, they must now bare the social burden of being blamed for the social conditions keeping them and their families impoverished, and the guilt for not protecting women from conditions beyond their control."

IHF submitted a link to this UK Guardian story on how young people perceive gender roles and their behavior. It should be little surprise that there are tons of mixed messages out there and still a great tendency to play out the roles of one's parents. The story examines issues facing both boys and girls, and concludes: "At different times in the past decades public anxiety has focused on one or more of the genders, but it needs to be recognised that both young women and men may be vulnerable in different ways."

An anonymous reader wrote in to tell me about a great health site with many sound reports on men's health. Check out DrMirkin.com and the numerous reports in the men's health section.

James Bohne writes "We all know that men discriminate and women are fair-minded victims, don't we? Not according to Joseph Picca, a graphic designer for the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. This article published in the Salt Lake Tribune claims Mr. Picca has been passed over repeatedly in favor of less experienced female designers for art director and other managerial positions. He is exercising his right to seek civil compensation from the Girl Scout's for employment discrimination."

This piece from Salon.com is on the hype and misperceptions surrounding the supposed lack of funding for women's health issues. It's written by Cathy Young, and in her typical style, she does a very thorough job, though she dismisses the gender "death gap" as a simple fact of biology rather than social factors (such as men's roles and lack of concern for men's health issues). Nevertheless, there are lots of good facts to be found in this article.

Lots of news today on divorce and family issues... An anonymous user sent in this link to excerpts of an upcoming book Betrayal of the Child, which is on family law issues and how they are destroying families and harming children. There is a good focus on the issue of fathers being shut out of their children's lives (except as a paycheck) and a call for more shared parenting/joint custody rulings in divorce cases.

Related to the previous divorce article from Time, a reader submitted this Yahoo! news story on the self esteem of fatherless black boys. The study demonstrated a significant difference in self-esteem between African-Americans with and without fathers, but no such gap for black girls. And without father figures in their lives, many young black men turn to gangs for affirming their masculinity.