Article here. Excerpt:

'Of course, with her deep connections to Saudi sheiks and Silicon Valley squillionaires, you might mistake her for the kind of person the deck is stacked in favour of. But never mind. It’s the image that counts!

Ms. Clinton’s only claim to underdog status is that she’s a woman. The last time she ran for president, she played this down because she thought it was a liability. This time, she’s going to milk it for all it’s worth. So don’t expect to hear a lot about foreign policy for now. (All things considered, that may be just as well.) Instead, you will be hearing a lot about the joys of being a grandmother.
...
... In the interview, Chelsea explains there are two reasons why her mom deserves to be president. First, because it would be a major breakthrough for women everywhere. Second, because the world would be a better place if women were in charge. Women, she says, have been able “to build more consensus so that decisions have longer-term effects, whether in economic investments or in building social capital.”

The idea that women lead differently than men – and also better – is much in vogue these days. They’re more caring and compassionate. They believe in compromise and consensus, not conflict and power struggles. These skills are said to be crucial in a world that’s becoming networked, not hierarchical. Women are supposed to be naturally better at soft power (diplomacy, negotiation, relationship-building), when soft power is what our age needs most. In other words: Hillary would make sure those old boys get along!

Article here. Excerpt:

'For a lot of men, there are two dirty f-words in the English language: the four-letter one we hear at football matches and, at the risk of having faecal matter posted through my letterbox, the term ‘feminist’.

I don’t say this because men oppose equality – not at all. But, rather, because feminism often goes hand-in-hand with toxic and misleading anti-men sentiments.

American writer Andrea Dworkin once said she wanted ‘to see a man beaten to a bloody pulp with a high-heel shoved in his mouth, like an apple in the mouth of a pig’, while author Sally Miller Gearhart suggested (in all seriousness) that ‘the proportion of men be reduced to, and maintained at, 10 per cent of the human race’.

Even Jilly Cooper, queen of the bonkbuster, famously asserted that ‘the male is a domestic animal which, if treated with fairness, can be trained to do most things.’

Article here. Excerpt:

'Equal Pay Day is coming up on April 14. That means it's time for false statistics and legal claims from groups pushing for more rules and red tape governing employee pay, such as the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act.

On April 10, Linda D. Hallman, Executive Director of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), sent a mass email containing two false claims. The first alleged that "women have to work almost four months longer than men do to earn the same amount of money for doing the same job."  This is a fundamental misinterpretation of a statistic that itself is obsolete and years out of date. 

It is based on a much-repeated and much-debunked statistic that women make 77 percent as much as men do. That statistic was obsolete in 2013, when former Chief Labor Department economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth noted:

In case you missed it, article here. Well, I have to admit, I called it wrong. I had her for sure not running. Maybe she will for a time and then drop out after more cash flows into the Clinton Coffers, I dunno. Under normal conditions I might say, "Just sit back and watch the fun," but the stakes are too high. Resistance is *far* from futile. We're stuck, for all practical purposes, with one of two candidates now: The Hildebeast and whoever gets the GOP nod since the Demo party result is a foregone conclusion. If ever there was a time to be politically active during an election year, 2015-2016 is it. Excerpt:

'Ending two years of speculation and coy denials, Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Sunday that she would seek the presidency for a second time, immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic nominee.

“I’m running for president,” she said with a smile near the end of a two-minute video released just after 3 p.m.

“Everyday Americans need a champion. And I want to be that champion,” Mrs. Clinton said. “So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote — because it’s your time. And I hope you’ll join me on this journey.”

The announcement came minutes after emails from John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, alerting donors and longtime Clinton associates to her candidacy.

Mr. Podesta said that Mrs. Clinton would meet soon with voters in Iowa and host a formal kickoff event some time next month.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Vancouver Island teacher who was falsely accused of raping and torturing a student is seeking compensation after the girl's claims were found to be based on a popular TV crime show.
...
Barber was arrested, then suspended. But charges were never laid due to a lack of evidence.

The Qualicum school district hired lawyer Marli Rusen to look into the case. Her 2013 investigation supported the student's allegations, and recommended that Barber be banned from the school district altogether. Soon after, Barber was fired.

The longtime teacher with a spotless record fought for his job. Ultimately, an arbitration hearing uncovered that all of the student's claims were lifted from the TV show "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." The girl testified that she had watched every episode of the drama at least three times, and some as many as 10 times.
...
The student responded that the similarities between her stories and the show was just a coincidence.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On the main campus of Pennsylvania State University, the editors of The Daily Collegian published a 433-word editorial arguing that Rolling Stone’s fabricated, completely retracted article, “A Rape on Campus” demonstrates that “false accusations” of rape “are extremely unlikely.”

In the bizarre, unsigned Thursday op-ed, The Daily Collegian laments the fact that the Phi Kappa Psi chapter at the University of Virginia is now suing over damages caused by the Nov. 19 article by disgraced journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely.
...
"The most important thing to come out of this failed journalism is the concept that sexual assault is a huge problem on college campuses, and false accusations are extremely unlikely,” the editors of The Daily Collegian declare. “We cannot let this situation hurt and set back sexual assault reporting and investigating.”
...
“While we understand the fraternity may have a right to legal action, we don’t support its decision to pursue a case,” they lecture.

“With all of the media covering of this case, it has become general knowledge the fraternity’s name has been cleared and the article has been retracted.”
...
Notably, Erdely did not apologize to Phi Kappa Psi.

Story here. A good review of the South Carolina child support system. Excerpt:

'But Scott, who was killed on Saturday by police officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina, had also long struggled to pay child support. In 2008, he went to jail for a full six months after falling behind by $6,800 in child support payments, according to The Associated Press. Scott spent one night in jail in both 2011 and 2012, again because he owed thousands in child support. At the time of Scott’s death, there was a warrant out for his arrest due to failure to make child support payments. (Scott also had a history of convictions and arrests for other offenses, according to The Post And Courier, a Charleston paper.)

The knowledge of the arrest warrant for failed payments is likely what spurred Scott to run from Slager on Saturday during a traffic stop over a broken taillight.
...
In 2009, Patterson conducted a survey of 33 county jails in South Carolina, which found that one out of every eight inmates -- or 13.2 percent of the inmate population -- was behind bars for contempt of civil court after falling behind on child support payments. In Charleston County, where Walter owed his back payments on child support, Patterson’s survey found that over 15 percent of inmates had been imprisoned for not paying child support. In a handful of the other counties studied, the figure was as high as 20 percent.

Patterson told The Huffington Post in an interview that most states are more forgiving than South Carolina when it comes to child support payments. In general, there is no set number of days after which the debtor automatically goes to a contempt hearing.

Letter here.

'Congress should cut the budget of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, where I used to work. Contrary to Howard Kallem’s argument, it needs no budget increase (Letter to the Editor, “Office for Civil Rights Needs More Resources,” April 2).

Kallem cited the fact that more complaints have been filed at OCR recently. But that includes many copycat complaints that cost little to investigate. On March 18, The Washington Post quoted OCR’s head admitting that just “two individuals were responsible for filing more than 1,700 of those allegations.”

Three new book reviews from the executive director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child, J. Steven Svoboda. I look forward to his book reviews. These cover the following:

Pleading here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Mr. McLeod, 24 years old, is suing Duke for his diploma, arguing the university unjustly made him an example to show a get-tough approach. “I believe that I’m wrongfully accused,” he says. “I believe that it was an unfair process and I believe I had something I earned taken away from me.”

His case is part of a broad and rapid change in how U.S. colleges and universities deal with sexual-assault allegations. Campuses have rewritten policies to lower the burden of proof for finding a student culpable of assault, increasing penalties—sometimes recommending expulsion. In the process, schools find themselves in legal minefields as they try to balance the rights of accuser and accused.

Mr. McLeod’s suit is one of more than 30 that men have brought against U.S. campuses since January 2014 alleging due-process violations in sexual-assault cases, says A Voice for Male Students, an advocacy group.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Chemicals that can cause adverse health effects are used in many settings, including manufacturing industries, water treatment facilities, food processing plants, schools, and homes. Because of this, chemicals are involved in tens of thousands of emergency incidents each year and lead to thousands of personal injuries and hundreds of deaths. In addition to physical injuries, persons exposed to chemical releases can experience long-lasting mental health effects (1–3), and communities where incidents occur can be strained (4).
...
The sex of 12,611 injured persons was known; 8,096 (64%) were male and 4,515 (36%) were female. The majority of responders (91%) and employees (70%) of the responsible party were male. More members of the general public who were injured in chemical incidents were male (54%), whereas more students injured at school were female (58%). The mean age was similar for employees (37 years), responders (36 years), and the general public (34 years). Students exposed at school were an average age of 13 years.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Forget Madonna, Marilyn, Liz and Oprah. While it may be a testament to those icons’ power and fame that they can be recognized simply by their first names, it’s apparently a sexist degradation to Hillary (does she still use “Rodham”?) Clinton to presume the same standard should apply to the former first lady.

Don’t let the fact fool you that there’s literally a “Ready for Hillary” PAC, either. The pros get to call this their way; the antis, not so much. If you don’t have anything nice to say about Hillary … Clinton … don’t say you weren’t warned if her supporters start calling out your overt sexism the next time you forget to use her full name.

“[S]ome Americans, mostly women, don’t think the former secretary of state, U.S. senator from New York and first lady should be called by just her first name,” McClatchy reported Tuesday in a story that made liberal use of the “some people say” journalistic device.'

Video here. Right on target. Description:

'Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather MacDonald on the magazine's errant reporting on an alleged rape, elite opinion and statistics.'

Story here.

'One of two former high school teachers accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student has agreed to a plea deal that will allow her to avoid prison time or having to register as a sex offender.

The deal was announced in Hahnville at a Thursday hearing in the case of 32-year-old Shelley Dufresne (doo-FRAIN'). The deal avoids a May 20 trial.

The New Orleans Advocate reports that Dufresne pleaded guilty to one felony count of obscenity. She received a $1,000 fine, but a three-year prison sentence was deferred on the condition that she complete 90 days of mental health treatment.'

She and another former teacher at the school have been arrested, but not yet formally charged, in a Jefferson Parish case involving the same student.'