Article here. Excerpt:

'Americans have been living through an enormously sensationalized college rape hoax, but as the evidence accumulates it's becoming clear that the entire thing was just a bunch of media hype and political opportunism.

No, I'm not talking about the Rolling Stone's lurid and now-exploded fraternity gang-rape story. Whatever the truth behind that story, it's now clear that basically nothing that Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely told us happened, actually happened. But the hoax is much bigger than one overwrought and perhaps entirely fictional tale of campus goings-on.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the first week of public comments on a federal proposal to encourage male circumcision in the U.S., most people are telling Uncle Sam to leave the foreskins alone.

“His body, his choice” and “Foreskin is not a birth defect” are among the hundreds of negative comments in the Federal Register against a proposed policy by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise that males of all ages be circumcised for health reasons.

The strongest objections were for infant circumcision, since it is a “human rights” violation for a male to permanently lose a piece of his body without his consent.

The CDC is wading into the controversy because a handful of studies from Africa have shown that the relative risk of a man acquiring HIV from an infected female partner was halved if the man was circumcised.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'"It’s not only the culture of men in America we have to change, we have to change the culture of our daughters. My daughter, my sister, have been raised to understand that it is never, never, never, never, never, never, your fault. I got in trouble in the hearing, when I was doing this hearing 20 years ago, I said, ‘If a woman got up stark naked, walked out of this room, and walked across to the Capital, she’d be arrested for indecent exposure. But no man, no man, would have a right to lay a hand upon her.’ I got more hate mail than you can imagine. No man, no man, has a right, and no woman should ever question what did she do to deserve this?

Article here. Excerpt:

'The first thing President Teresa Sullivan of the University of Virginia needs to do in the wake of what now appears to be a faux rape scandal is to apologize to the victims – that is, to the members of Phi Kappa Psi, who have been vilified, forced to move off campus into motels, and suffered suspicions even from family members and close friends. That would be the human and moral response. That Sullivan will not do so is nearly as certain as the chance of her taking false accusations as a matter that needs university attention.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In a now-infamous Nov. 19 story in Rolling Stone, disgraced journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely asserted that at least five members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity gang-raped a freshman named Jackie at a frat house party, then left her in a bloodstained dress to exit via a conveniently vacant side staircase.
...
Whatever Erdely’s motive, her discredited piece begs the question: Is it remotely true that American college administrators and college students are indifferent to the allegations of rape victims? What about the exponential growth of rape activism on campus? What about the routine occurrence of “take back the night” vigils?

Could this perceived indifference actually be warranted skepticism? In fact, the number of completely fraudulent rape allegations made by women on American college campuses is far from trivial.

Article here. Excerpt:

'What does a night in the life of a dad look like? For 28-year-old Jon Arrigo, who posted a picture on Reddit last week entitled “Just being a dad,” it looks pretty good: Playing video games, snuggling with one daughter while getting his toenails painted by the other.
...
Responses to the photo were mixed. Some commenters noted that letting his daughter paint his nails demonstrated Arrigo’s willingness to have a little fun. “That’s awesome, no shame in making your kids happy, this warmed my heart up :)” wrote user Sasha_Fire. “I hope so much that if/when my [significant other] and I decide to have children he’s this awesome of a parent,” echoed Kmccain9. 

Article here.

'A new recommendation from the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks. The procedure has been shown to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, with little or no loss to sexual pleasure.

Dr. Avshalom Zoossmann-Diskin, a geneticist and director of Ben Shalem, tells host Ilene Prusher that some of the conclusions about health benefits in this recommendation are simply wrong. He believes that those in favor of circumcision for religious reasons are looking for medical justifications for a procedure about which they have already made up their minds. In addition, since 88 percent of white males in the US are circumcised, Dr. Zoossmann-Diskin believes that white males in the CDC are grasping at medical justifications for procedures that were done to them and that they are doing to their children.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers of Michigan sponsored an event Sunday, titled “New Perspectives on Circumcision,” at the Michigan League in order to discuss the merits and pitfalls of the debated practice.

John Geisheker, executive director of the nonprofit Doctors Opposing Circumcision, and Robert Van Howe, professor and interim chair of Pediatrics at the Central Michigan University College of Medicine, spoke. The event addressed medical and ethical problems associated with circumcision, a surgical procedure that removes the foreskin around the tip of the penis most commonly performed on newborn males.
...
Rackham student Andrew Kohler, member of the University’s chapter of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, said he believes that circumcision violates one of the most fundamental human rights.

Letter here. Excerpt:

'No feminist can be satisfied with the Pacetti and Andrews affairs. In the face of the demand by the feminist movement for absolute equality between men and women, these affairs tend to confirm the worst suspicions that male chauvinists hold.

Both men were politically blacklisted by the Liberal party and suffer the full glare of reputation- destroying publicity on the basis of accusations alone. The women levelling the accusations are kept from public view and maintain their party standing.
...
Neither woman is prepared to publicly come forward and level accusations, saying they are "too traumatized" and "fearful of being exposed." What was that business about being equal again?

This episode of the Steve Wilkos show suggests how we all, including men, are inclined to believe what a woman says and become judgmental of the man. In this episode, the host does that mistake but thankfully apologizes later. It's the story of a cheating wife who sleeps around while her husband is working hard, which also brings me to think: shouldn't men today have the right to know if they are raising their own biological children?

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Obama administration is moving to outlaw public school curriculum establishing single-sex classrooms, where boys are taught about bikes and girls are quizzed about bracelets.

The Education Department issued guidance this month to clarify George W. Bush-era regulations that expanded the use of gender-specific education. 

Groups have increasingly questioned the legality of education policies that have cropped up in the years since the 2006 rule was enacted.  

“As we receive increasing inquiries about single-sex offerings we want to be clear what federal law allows: protect civil rights and promote achievement,” Catherine Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a news release. 

Civil rights groups say they hope the guidance will put an end to unproven practices that have been creeping up across the country.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A week of protests came to a head inGeorge Will’s Saturday morning speech about Michigan State University’s embodiment of what the role of government should be.

Will, a columnist with the Washington Post, spoke to graduates from the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, James Madison College and the colleges of Arts and Letters, Business, Education, Music and Social Science.

Will gave a history lesson about the Morrill Act of 1862, which made MSU the first land grant university, and the GI Bill of Rights from 1944, which allowed college enrollment to explode. He said the current toxic political climate in Washington D.C. can be solved if lawmakers look to the past, and places like Michigan State.

“We have had the knack before and we can have it again,” Will said about government passing policies that help its citizens. “But, then, Michigan State Univeristy not only understands this, it embodies this.”

Story here. Excerpt:

'Musician Lenny Kravitz [link added] is being honored for saying something remarkably sexist in an interview. “I personally think women should be running the world...I believe women are so much more sensible, have so much better intuition, and ultimately are stronger.”

Glamour.com raved: “And our favourite celebrity of the day is... Lenny Kravitz! Why? Because he recognises how wonderful us women are. That's right - Lenny Kravitz thinks women should be running the world because they are stronger and more sensible than men.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Finally! A scientific explanation for Johnny Knoxville — he of “Jackass” fame — and the fans who keep him at his dangerous and moronic antics: Male Idiot Theory.

New research has rigorously tested Male Idiot Theory, which posits that, well, men are idiots and are driven to take ridiculous risks despite the clear prospects for self-harm, and for no defensible reason. Newly published by the venerable British Medical Journal (in its annual BMJ Christmas issue), the landmark study has shown that Male Idiot Theory holds up under strictly scientific scrutiny.

While the latest research does confirm that males can be idiots, it fails to shed light on a larger mystery that has preoccupied this correspondent since girlhood, growing up in a household with six brothers: How did these idiots ever convince the non-idiot gender that they were somehow superior (and worthy of earning close to 30% more, on average, in the United States)?'

More from the guilty-even-when-proven-innocent files. Petition here. Excerpt:

'In 2008 we adopted 5 adorable siblings and were finally able to add four girls and a boy to our family of two biological boys. We did our best to blend our children into a unit, but in late 2010, our world fell apart. Our oldest daughter ran away and the second oldest, upset at being left behind, made allegations of abuse against my husband. He was convicted of two counts of child molestation in December of 2011.

Six months later, our daughter told her caseworker that she had lied about the abuse. Finally, in Spring of 2013 she sent letters and testified at a hearing that she had perjured herself. Her caseworker also testified under oath that her office had been aware of the false accusation for over a year and that they were confident that there had been no abuse. Still, they did nothing. Scott's request for a new trial was denied on the basis that our daughter had not been charged with perjury therefore the judge could not award a new trial.