Story here. Excerpt:

'Columbia University may be compelling students in the next month to complete a sexual assault education program or else lose the ability to register for classes or even receive their diploma, according to the Columbia Spectator.
...
Students will have a host of options for how to complete the requirement, including attending an hour-long workshop, watching and discussing a series of short films on the matter or even crafting works of art and poetry to engage with the topic. They will be expected to have complied with the school’s demand by March 13, just one month following its announcement.
...
Notably, while participation is expected of all students in Columbia’s undergraduate and graduate programs, students at Barnard College, Columbia’s all-women affiliate, will not be required to take part, suggesting the target of the initiative is actually Columbia’s men.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sometimes it takes a glimpse into a dark reality in order to spark positive change.

In a video produced by advocacy group Safe Hands for Mothers, young men were asked if they knew what female genital mutilation, or FGM, is, and none of them did. The men then watched clips from a documentary that showed the abusive practice -- which partially or entirely removes the female genitals for non-medical reasons (the clips were recreations and did not show actual victims, according to Safe Hands for Mothers).

Many of the young men cringed, squirmed in their seats and cried as the disturbing footage played.

"This is just barbaric," one of them said.

"I felt powerless," another man noted. "I felt like I couldn't do anything to help."

The video concludes with the men saying, "Now that I know, I say 'no' to FGM.'

---
YouTube video of a circumcision of a baby boy here.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sue Bojdak, Temple Sinai’s director of education, said she sometimes needs to quell the concerns of new parents about whether their noncircumcised sons will feel welcome. “It’s nice to be able to tell these parents, we not only welcome you but we welcome you openly,” Bojdak said.

But why would parents call attention to a boy’s circumcision status? Isn’t that a private matter? Well, yes — but that doesn’t mean they should need to be secretive or apologetic about their choice. For example, noncircumcising parents may feel some trepidation about diaper changes or toilet supervision in Jewish preschool. Some may decide to forgo Jewish programming and affiliation instead of having to explain themselves.

“Families shouldn’t feel they have to hide, or take the don’t-ask-don’t-tell route,” said Anat Shenker, the mother of two sons who are not circumcised. “It’s not nice to feel like you’ve done something wrong or cagey — like you’re trying to pull a fast one.”

Story here. Excerpt:

'A lawyer for two of the William Paterson University students accused of a campus gang rape announced Friday morning they intended to sue the school, its president and other officials after all charges against the men were dismissed.
...
Michael J. Esptein, lawyer representing Collick, his mother, Nancy Williams, and Noah Williams, filed a "notice of tort claim," this week, which is required when someone plans to sue a public agency.

William Paterson University officials failed to conduct a proper investigation of the rape allegations and were not properly trained to investigate such crimes, the claim said. The students were deprived of their rights to due process when they were arrested without probable cause, leading to violations of the state and U.S. Constitution, the claim further alleged.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Uh--oh: Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia senior who’s been lugging a mattress around campus for months to protest her supposed rape by a classmate during their freshman year, is fast turning into another “Jackie,” the University of Virginia student whose claimed gang rape in a fraternity-house basement turned out to be a tall tale concocted by Jackie to get the romantic attention of a young man she had a crush on.

Paul Nungesser, now a Columbia senior like Sulkowicz, she says conducted a brutal anal assault on her in her dorm room following a session of consensual sex—and whom she made a public campus pariah despite the fact that he had been cleared by a Columbia tribunal—finally told his side of the story, to libertarian journalist Cathy Young, writing for the Daily Beast.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Several attendees talked about divorces that had dragged through what seemed like endless issues in the state's family court system and seemed to have a heavier impact on women than men.

Sandra Eagle, a psychotherapist and marriage counselor in Greenwich, said "parental alienation," where a child is "alienated" against a parent through false allegations of abuse, is used by courts to give custody to unfit parents despite valid claims of abuse. The definition has been discredited by the mental health and domestic abuse professionals, she said.

Eagle charged that courts are "undoing" good work by these professionals and putting kids at risk by grabbing onto this theory.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A group of fathers have filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that their constitutional rights were violated when New Jersey family court judges denied them custody of their children.

Six fathers are suing the state and five family court judges in U.S. District Court in Trenton, saying they lost custody shortly after being accused of domestic violence or being incompetent parents.

They claim they should have been given an immediate full hearing allowed to them under the U.S. Constitution.

"Parents in New Jersey are losing custody of children without due process," said Paul Clark, the fathers' attorney.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: But what if she’s lying?

That’s the gist of yet another take on yet another high-profile rape case, this time in the Daily Beast, whose writer Cathy Young trotted it out as the least counterintuitive of all possible premises when it comes to sexual violence.
...
But there is patriarchy. A perfect, many-armed monster, which lives and thrives in this perfect universe of its own design. And it wields the perfect weapon: rape culture.
...
The monster is smart, and it knows where and when to hide and when to strike. Of course it does. The world is its playground, its lair, a welcoming cavern outfitted with comforting amenities like the phrase, But what if she’s lying.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Women in the Military

50. Do you believe that the services are conducting appropriate and objective evaluations to inform decisions on the integration of women into previously closed units and military occupations?

It is my understanding that the Services and U.S. Special Operations Command have been conducting evaluations in accordance with their respective implementation plans. If confirmed, I will closely monitor their progress and ensure they stay on track and meet the Department's timelines. If I receive requests for exception to policy, I will carefully consider them when the time comes.

51. In your view, should the Military Selective Service Act be amended to require females to register for possible military service?

I understand a recent law requires the Department to provide an analysis of the constitutionality of continued application of the Military Selective Service Act to only men.

From a Malecare.org alert I received today:

The national men's cancer survivor support and advocacy nonprofit organization, Malecare, protests against the proposed elimination of funding for prostate cancer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in America. Almost 30,000 American men die from prostate cancer every year.  And, twice as many African American men die from prostate cancer as do white men. Incredibly, the 2016 President's Budget request would eliminate prostate cancer funding at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Wednesday at Georgetown University Law Center, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said there will be enough women on the Supreme Court when it is all women.

Ginsburg said, “People ask me sometimes, when do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is, when there are nine. Some people are taken aback, until they remember that for most of our country’s history, there were only men on the high court bench.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Necessary seems like a strong word doesn’t it? Some people might not consider the “women’s only hours” at our university rec center discrimination, but is there a better word to use for denying service to a certain group of people based on their sex? This kind of blatant sexism demonizes masculinity while further marginalizing women. All students pay the same rec center price (through tuition), but are receiving a different level of service because of this policy.

“People are different in many brilliant ways. If we strive to make everything as fair as possible, we forget the fundamental lesson that life is not fair.” wrote Jessica Foster in her most recent opinion piece where she praises the gender segregation encouraged by this policy. Of course, her statement seems silly. “Women’s only hours” should be justified by more than just a “life isn’t fair”argument, right? I just watched Selma, a fantastic film about Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement. Imagine someone trying to tell the civil rights activists that the racial inequalities our nation faced were actually appropriate because they reminded us of “the fundamental lesson that life is not fair.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Obama administration perversely rewards agencies that overstep their authority by giving them budget increases to handle the increased workload that results. 

A classic example is the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), where I used to work. President Obama wants a 31%budget increase for OCR for Fiscal Year 2016. That is a very bad idea.

OCR’s budget should be cut, not increased. Cutting its budget would make it harder for it to punish school districts and colleges for perfectly lawful and reasonable policies. People who write about educational issues, such as Reasonmagazine’s Robby Soave, and theNational Review’s George Leef, rightly oppose the proposed budget increase for OCR.

Story here. Excerpt:

'GotNews.com has the evidence Pauley Perrette [link added] doesn’t want NCIS fans to see, and that RadarOnline was afraid to print: Pauley Perrette’s signature under penalty of perjury, falsely declaring “I called it Star Crazy. There was no treatment and no script.”

Perrette’s signed Declaration is directly impeached by her videotaped testimony that RadarOnline published earlier today, in which Pauley admits numerous times to the existence of a script called Star Crazy.

GotNews also has evidence indicating Perrette’s attorney Larry Stein bullied RadarOnline into suppressing the evidence of Perrette’s false declaration. RadarOnline was originally going to publish the damning evidence, and sent an email stating so, asking for a comment.

YouTube video here. Description:

'Men and women, taken as groups, are different in important respects. The differences appear to be based on some combination of biological and cultural forces. But is gender role differentiation a sign of well-being and freedom? Christina Hoff Sommers explains how prosperity and equality may bring greater opportunities for self-actualization.'