Article here. If you get a paywall, Google the text of the first paragraph and click the link that takes you to The Legal Intelligencer site. Excerpt:

'There is no dispute that the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt is essential in criminal cases where one's liberty is at stake. The clear and convincing standard is rarely used in civil proceedings, and only when significant liberty interests are at stake, such as termination of parental rights, deportation, and commitment to a mental institution. The preponderance standard is appropriate for civil rights actions, civil actions, and school disciplinary proceedings that result, rarely and at most, with school expulsion.

Civil remedies are commonly available to victims of crime. Is the editorial board suggesting that civil remedies not be available to any victims of crime or is it limiting this objection to victims of sex crimes, thus eliminating a remedy for sexual assault victims (who are mostly women) while providing an unparalleled shield of protection for the accused student? Is it also suggesting that campus disciplinary proceedings should not be used to address student conduct that also might be criminal in nature (e.g., other assaults, arson, robbery, vandalism) or are they just singling out sexual assault?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Hillary Clinton is touting her gender as among the factors that voters should consider when judging her qualifications for the presidency.

"Clearly, I'm not asking people to vote for me simply because I'm a woman. I'm asking people to vote for me on the merits," Clinton said while on the campaign trail in West Columbia, S.C., according to CNN.

"I think one of the merits is I am a woman. And I can bring those views and perspectives to the White House."

Clinton was reportedly responding to a questioner who said his daughter had told him that men have had the presidency for "long enough."'

Another great book review by J Steven Svoboda. This one's of Helen Smith's Men On Strike. Snag the review here. Excerpt:

'As a long-time reviewer of books about men and masculinity, I continue to marvel at the ability of new authors to come along with fresh energy and new things to say. Dr. Helen Smith, a Knoxville, Tennessee psychologist specializing in forensic issues and men’s issues, is no exception in her book Men on Strike. Smith and I would probably not completely agree on all aspects of the gender wars, but who cares—her heart is in the right place and she is full of compassion for all of us. “There truly is a war on men going on in our society, and the average man knows it full well.” It strikes me that Dr. Smith is writing for a newer phase of the men’s movement, with us already having enjoyed at least the limited success of getting our basic message across to “the average man.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'The law is “horribly unrealistic” because it misunderstands how the average sexual encounter works for college students and ignores the common presence of drugs and alcohol, which can impair judgment and sometimes communication, according to John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University.

“The opportunity for misunderstanding is much greater with ‘Yes means Yes,’” Banzhaf said, using the informal term for affirmative-consent standards, partly because consent can’t be inferred between two partners with a consensual sexual history.

“The way to deal with this problem is to have a law that says ‘no means no,’” he said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Earlier this month, a California trial court judge ruled that the University of California at San Diego must reverse the suspension of a male student whose due process rights UCSD officials violated during a hearing over allegations he assaulted a female student.

The lawsuit is a rare win for accused male students who turn to legal action after having been found responsible for sexual misconduct. While the lawsuit is unlikely to set any true legal precedent unless the university appeals, some experts say that the case could provide a road map for other suspended or expelled students looking to challenge the way universities adjudicate allegations of sexual assault against them.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A high school teacher accused of having sex with six male students has a brain condition that left her defenseless to the students' aggressive behavior, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Nicole DuFault, 36, of Caldwell, pleaded not guilty in April to aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment charges. DuFault was a language arts teacher at Columbia High School in Maplewood before she was arrested last September.

Authorities have said the victims were 14- and 15-year-old boys and the assaults occurred numerous times between 2013 and 2014. Some of the sex acts occurred on school property and in DuFault's car, they said.

Her attorney, Timothy Smith, told NJ.com that the teacher suffers from "frontal lobe syndrome," a condition that experts say is associated with socially inappropriate behavior. It also leaves them unable to control their impulses, among other symptoms.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Obama administration disclosed Tuesday it first learned about Rolling Stone’s ill-fated story on campus rape in Sept. 2014, about two months before it was published, when reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely called seeking information on the government’s investigation of the University of Virginia’s handling of sexual assaults.

The revelation from the Department of Education came the same day that a media watchdog group asked congressional oversight committees to start an investigation into what the administration may have known about the story before and after it was published and what it did to address the concerns raised in the article.

Article here. Excerpt:

'As written about here previously, Nobel prize winning scientist Sir Tim Hunt of the United Kingdom lost his reputation and several affiliations and titles in the wake of joking incorrectly and crossing feminist outrage mobs in June.

Several weeks after the uproar, started by one activist academic in attendance at the toast, which Hunt gave to a room full of journalists in Seoul, other accounts began to surface suggesting his objectionable toast about women in the science fields had in fact been an obvious joke, not a serious assessment. In fact, in telling the joke, he had referred to himself as a “chauvinist monster” to satirize the very environment in the sciences that feminists used his words to bemoan.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'An Italian university has banned Sir Tim Hunt from speaking at a conference because of “some hazardous occurrence” threatened by a local group of feminists. The silencing of the renowned scientist follows a recording of his now infamous toast finally surfacing in which laughter is heard following the joke, confirming that it was taken in jocular spirit.

Sir Tim was due to speak at a conference of the Italian Society of Anatomy and Histology in Ferrara later in the year. However, in an e-mail seen by The Times, president of the organising committee, Silvano Capitani, apologised to the scientist before writing:

Article here. Excerpt:

'A preponderance of the evidence suggested that John Doe, a male student at Amherst College, raped his girlfriend’s roommate, Sandra Jones, according to the college’s sexual assault adjudication process. But text messages sent between the alleged victim and other Amherst students point toward the opposite conclusion: that Doe did nothing wrong.

He was expelled anyway—and Amherst has utterly refused to take a look that text messages that might acquit him.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'RAPE ON college campuses has finally begun to get the national scrutiny it deserves, with lawmakers across the country attacking a problem that has plagued schools for decades. Unfortunately, bad policy can nullify even the best of intentions. That’s certainly the case for D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large), who introduced legislation this week shortening the city’s leash on local universities when it comes to their sexual assault policies.

Ms. Bonds’s proposal misfires on multiple counts. The heart of the bill — a mark on the transcripts not just of those found responsible for sexual assault on campuses, but also of those who have been accused and then withdraw from school — flips legal codes on their head by ignoring due process and presuming guilt rather than innocence. And many of the bill’s other provisions, while sensible in theory, are actually unnecessary given the status quo.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'No one said this was an easy issue. As people considered a bill from D.C. Council member Anita Bonds aimed at preventing campus sexual assault, in part by requiring colleges to permanently mark the transcript of a student found responsible by school officials for a sexual assault, they tended to look at the extremes.

They talked about cases in which a student attacked another, got expelled and transferred easily to another college — only to assault another victim.

And they talked about cases in which a student was falsely accused, unable to assert his innocence in a campus investigation, then branded as a rapist.
...
Stuart Taylor, an author who has written extensively about campus sexual assault, said a permanent mark would be appropriate if there were a criminal conviction.

Article here. Excerpt:

'With the Greek crisis entering its last stages after another fudge of a deal was reached earlier this month in Brussels, everyone is now supposed to think the adventure is over (it isn’t), and that we’re safe to switch channels from the endless bulletins of what a German or Greek politician said about the deal or Greece’s debt or someone’s mum. (That last bit might be an exaggeration, but trust me reader, we’re getting there.)
...
Youth unemployment in Greece stands at a staggering 50 per cent right now. Alongside them, the group that has been hurt the most is those in their late thirties and early forties, professionals who are way into their professional lives, making them too expensive to employe compared to the young coming on to the job market with great qualifications, but not senior enough to challenge the boomers who, like in most of Europe, got off lightly compared to everyone else.

Equally spread between men and women, the ailments of the Greek economy have brought medical and social issues to the forefront. Heart attacks among the under-45 have jumped by 74.5 per cent. The greatest increase was amongst women, at 86.5 per cent. In 2014, there were 802 new cases of HIV infection, of which 86.8 per cent were men.

These issues have given birth to a prevailing sense of despair. Mental health is suffering too: 12.3 per cent of the Greek population has shown symptoms of clinical depression. This is obviously tied to the rise of 35 per cent in suicides, in which the most vulnerable group is middle-aged men who were facing financial difficulties. Men under 34, meanwhile, have gone back to living with their parents in a rate of 2 out of 3, a situation definitely adding to their problems.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that a school in Oxford has become the first to introduce “Good Lad” workshops, in which boys are singled out for sessions that teach them about “the scale of sexual harassment and violence aimed at female students” and how they must stand up for women's rights.

The workshops are the latest in a mushrooming series of initiatives in which ideologically-driven activists are being invited into schools, driven by the belief that boys need to be re-educated to prevent them from becoming a threat to women.

In November last year, The Times reported on a programme in London Schools in which two American women, one a former sex crime prosecutor, “re-programme teenage boys’ sexual manners so they are fit for a feminist world”.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Goldman and his group, the Circumcision Resource Centre, give counselling to US men who say that they have emotional problems attributable to their being circumcised as children.

Goldman's book, Circumcision: the Hidden Trauma, and his website, share anti-circumcision sentiments such as: "We are interconnected. When a baby boy's sexuality is not safe, no one's sexuality is safe."

Goldman's comments in The Times yesterday were attacked by scientists. He blamed most of the HIV infections in Africa on contaminated injections and surgical procedures.

Goldman said circumcision did not reduce the risk of HIV.

Scientists and activists yesterday called his group "fringe fanatics" and "conspiracy theorists".'