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.

Time magazine printed this feature story on divorce and its effects on children. It seems that people are finally starting to wake up to what should be a common sense notion: that divorce can and does affect children for the rest of their lives. And, as un-PC as this may be, barring abuse or addictions, staying together in a bad marriage is generally better for the children than splitting up. I noticed several implicit references to men being the ones to leave or break up families in the article, but overall it is pretty good and well-balanced.

The Fred Lane domestic violence saga continues, as I was notified by Steve Hoffman about this ABCnews article. It appears that Fred may have been killed to keep him from revealing that his wife robbed a bank, and she has now been formally charged for the crime and is being held without bail. Can anyone not be outraged that she had been held on $100k bond for the murder charges, but only now is being held without bail?

Bilal writes "This L.A. Times article
says that hostility against women in the workplace is the reason for the low numbers of women in science, but shows little evidence for that. It says nothing about gender expectations on men to be primary breadwinners or the choices professional women often make to stay home and raise children. This one deserves as many responses as it can get."

I found this story in the Seattle P-I. It announces that the Supreme Court of Washington State has ruled that police involved in child abuse cases which turn out to be unfounded can be sued if they are guilty of negligence in handling the case. Hopefully this will put a damper on the "witch hunt" style abuse cases similar to the one Washington had five years ago that are based solely on the accusations of a minor.

Robert_Cunningham wrote in about another great story, this one on a man from Canada who has created prenatal parenting classes just for new dads. The National Post article can be read here. The story talks about the importance dads play in the development of children, and recognizes that mothers are often "gatekeepers" affecting how involved dads can be with their kids. It's good to see that programs like this are being started, and I'd like to see them catch on.