According to this Associated Press story, President Clinton has commuted the sentences of 4 women convicted and doing time for drug crimes. The reason for doing so: the women received much harsher sentences than the men which were also involved. Now, it does seem to be true that in this case these women were given unfair sentences (by comparison to the men's sentences), but you can almost feel an uprising of a new feminist myth: that women receive harsher punishment than men for the same crimes. Please do what you can to head off this myth as soon as possible; efforts made now will make a much bigger impact than if we let it slide for awhile.

In a bizarre bit of news, a female student has admitted in court to holding Germaine Greer (a well-known feminist) captive in Greer's home and harassing her. The punishment? Two years of probation. I don't think I need to raise the obvious question: what would have happened if the student were male? I'll leave that to your own imagination. An ABCnews report of the court verdict can be found here.

Edward Bartlett from Men's Health America has drawn up an action plan to get Rep. Randy Cunningham's Men's Health Act of 2000 passed. Click "Read More..." below to read the action plan and find out how to sign up to receive action updates via e-mail. As Ed puts it, It's incredibly important that we get this bill passed, for one simple reason: Men Deserve to Live.

This Salon article by Cathy Young covers an interesting topic - women who are actively fighting for father's rights. Young tells stories about second wives, mothers who feel children should have the right to spend more time with their fathers, and other women who are interested in obtaining equality for fathers in family court. Kind of long, but full of interesting info about how some women are fighting for father's rights.

The Washington Times printed this article a few days ago, which reports that some researchers on divorce and family issues recommend that a reduction of the divorce rate should be addressed as a national issue. With suggestions on how to reduce divorce, they list many benefits to society that may result. It's hard to deny that divorce today in the U.S. is often done too readily, and particularly without regard to the effects on children. An interesting read.

Indianapolis Colts running back Fred Lane has been fatally shot by his wife in a domestic dispute. Despite the fact that police have indeed determined that it was Deidra Lane who shot him, they have not as of this posting pressed charges. Anyone who cares about domestic violence against men should be up in arms, and writing letters to their local newspaper. You can read the Associated Press story here. News submitted by c4m.

The UK Times reports that a man who was accused of rape had the charges thrown out of court after producing tapes of phone conversations with his accuser where she pleaded for him to renew their relationship. Read the article here. The details of the investigation are disturbing - the police expressed no interest in hearing the tapes, and when they finally did so, continued to prosecute him. He also lost his job because of the accusation.

As you can see, The Men's Activism News Network is on a new server, and I've given the site a facelift. There is only one problem I've run into, and that's the URL you're seeing at the top of your web browser. It's supposed to say, "www.mensactivism.org", but it's showing my real IP address, which changes frequently!. So don't try to bookmark the site, because it won't work for long. I'll stick some Javascript link to automatically insert a correct bookmark at some point this evening. Thanks for your patience... Update: I haven't found a solution to this yet, and will be doing more research on it tomorrow. Another update: I have a solution to the problem, but it's going to take a few days to implement it. The site will be down at various times this weekend while I work on it.

Thomas Lynch wrote a terrific op-ed piece in The New York Times about male reproductive rights. The essay is well thought out and he covers all of the issues surrounding choice for men, including the concept that forced paternity affects a man's body just as much as pregnancy affects a woman's body. This, I feel, is the crux of the argument for reproductive rights for men. Free registration with NYT is required to read the article.

Click on "Read More..." to view the National Coalition of Free Men's e-mail newsletter, the NCFM E-Zine. The National Coalition of Free Men (NCFM) is a non-profit educational organization that examines the way sex discrimination affects men. It also tries to raise public consciousness about little known, but important, topics dealing with the male experience. Their web site can be found at http://www.ncfm.org.

This article from The Washington Post gives a mixed message with regard to the gender "wage gap". Several fields are mentioned where women make more than men, but the author is quick to say that women still earn less than men in many jobs. It looks to me like this author is on the fence - and it would be a great opportunity to write to The Washington Post and give them some well researched facts. (Such as these, for instance?)

Andrew Sullivan laments the lack of intellectualism among men today, and asks what needs to be done for masculinity to be seen as something more than what is printed in "men's magazines". His ideas: the revival of all-male institutions and for men to meet together regularly and form strong relationships with one another. I believe this article has some good thoughts on issues that successful men's organizations are addressing. An occasional reference to men being more powerful than women is outweighed by the relevance of the article to men's issues. The New Republic printed the article here.

Many people are unaware of the incredibly low percentage of male teachers in early childhood, elementary, and middle school education. This Associated Press article discusses the issue and talks about the importance of male teachers as role models for young children, especially boys.

The New York Post reports that schools in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan have adopted outrageous guidelines regarding sexual harassment - which apply all the way down to preschool-aged children. Actions that can be identified and treated as sexual harassment under these rules include sexual jokes and teasing. Certainly sexual harassment can be a legitimate issue in high school and even middle school, but I think in the context of 4-6 year olds an "unwanted kiss" shouldn't be identified as "sexual harassment". The article can be read here.

In Australia, thousands of police officers have been asked to offer samples of their DNA to rule them out as suspects in crimes. But many of them are refusing for the specific reason that they don't want the genetic information used against them in paternity suits! Apparently the police are well aware of the immense power that child support agencies have, and are frightened for good reason about it. The article was found in The Daily Express Micro Edition, and can be found here.