Article here. Excerpt:

'Until this bill, the prevailing standard has been “no means no.” If she says no (or, more liberally, indicates any resistance with her body), then the sex is seen as nonconsensual. That is, it’s rape. Under such a standard, the enormous gray area between “yes” and “no” is defined residually as “yes”: Unless one hears an explicit “no,” consent is implied. “Yes means yes” completely redefines that gray area. Silence is not consent; it is the absence of consent. Only an explicit “yes” can be considered consent.

This is, of course, completely logical, and fully consistent with adjudicating other crimes. Nevertheless, it is bound to raise howls of protest from opponents of women’s equality and their right to make decisions about their own bodies.'

Article here. Excerpt:

We all know Republicans have a woman problem, but let’s focus on the Democrats’ problem with men, specifically white men. Earlier this month, U.S. News and World Report reported that while women outnumber men and vote more than they do, “in a campaign cycle set to see a handful of margin-of-error races that determine U.S. Senate control, it’s an often overlooked and undervalued element of the election.” The story also says that this male voter deficit with Democrats is “more pronounced” than the Republicans problems with single women voters.
...
The article noted that in races dependent on turnout, men could be the deciding factor. In North Carolina, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, who’s fighting for her political life, has a healthy 8-point lead amongst women, but her Republican opponent, Thom Tillis, is dominating with male voters by a 13-point margin.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sponsored by Forté Foundation, a U.S.-based consortium of companies and business schools that encourages women to earn a business degree, the one-day event offers advice, networking and access to 36 MBA schools from Canada, Europe and the United States.
...
Ms. Fernandez attended the event last year to explore her interest in an MBA. This year, with her score in hand from the Graduate Management Admission Test, she plans to meet some of the schools on her shortlist.

Article here. Excerpt:

'New Yorkers can already choose from yellow taxis, green cabs or black livery cars. They can tap a smartphone app for a ride, or simply stick out an arm. They can pay with cash or credit.

Now there is one more option: a female driver.

A new livery service starting Sept. 16 in New York City, Westchester County and Long Island will offer female drivers exclusively, for female riders, according to its founder. It will take requests for rides through an app, and dispatch drivers sporting hot pink pashmina scarves.

The service will be called SheTaxis — SheRides in New York City because of regulations barring it from using “taxi” in its name — and aims to serve women who may feel uncomfortable being driven by men, or who simply prefer the company of other women. The app will ask potential riders if there is a woman in their party. If not, they will be automatically redirected to other car services.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Men could struggle to get highly skilled jobs because women are increasing skills and qualifications at higher rates, say researchers.

Two-thirds of such jobs could go to women by 2020, says the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

UKCES warns that men urgently need to improve their levels of expertise if they want to compete.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said she feared better skills might not lead to better pay and jobs for women.

"The increased disparity between men's and women's skill levels is concerning for both sexes."

The researchers drew on 10 years of quarterly data on skills levels from the UK Labour Force Survey, which gathers data on 54,000 people of working age.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'David Cameron has a new reason to be cross with Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president whose appointment he so spectacularly failed to block.

Last week, Juncker warned the Prime Minister that if he wanted a British nominee given charge of one of the big jobs at the Commission, he had better put forward a ‘female candidate’: unless Cameron’s nominee Lord Hill of Oareford undergoes an immediate sex-change operation, that won’t happen.

Yet if the Tory leader finds this unreasonable, he would rightly be accused of hypocrisy.

Yesterday, Rona Fairhead was named as the new head of the BBC Trust — an appointment which Cameron had let it be known he wanted to go to a female (as if that were somehow a special qualification for the role).

And, in fact, Juncker was doing at a European level what Cameron has been up to at Westminster.'

Presentation here. No direct links to particular entries, so you have to click through to see specific individuals. What strikes me is that even a recent one like Plavšić is news to me; did her deeds get coverage on US mainstream news? And just how does a war crimes tribunal pretty much just let her walk like that?

'2. Biljana Plavšić

As the former president of Republika Srpska, she lead Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Serbian genocides of the 1990s.

It was her comments that ethnic cleansing was a "natural thing" and that six million Serbs needed to die, that rallied her republic to perpetrate genocide. After her arrest, she plea bargained with the war crimes tribunal and remained in prison until her release in 2009. She is currently staging a political comeback.'

According to this new report, ISIS is teaching children how to behead. The fact is that ISIS is teaching and brainwashing *boys* to behead. If the genders were reversed, there would be a further outcry re a worldwide war against women. Yet, when boys are trained to kill, we extend no sympathy to them. Excerpt:

'This summer, in his hometown of Raqqa, 13-year-old Mohammad was forced to attend a children's training camp established by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

When his father opposed his son's conscription, ISIS fighters threatened to kill him. Mohammad left for camp, which his father describes as a form of “brainwashing the children.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Please join me in a rare opportunity for personal growth and social reform: the Family Law Reform Conference hosted by Divorce Corp, November 15-16, 2014 in Alexandria, Virginia!

This will be an unprecedented opportunity for you to learn about family court trends, meet leaders in the reform movement, learn the latest research on shared parenting and other subjects that can help you, learn how to keep court costs down, and debate the best strategies for reforming the courts, child support agencies, and child protective services.

These conferences do not come along very often. The cost is modest, and this is the perfect time to purchase discount airfares. That is why you need to register right away.

If you are a leader of a National Parents Organization chapter or committee, it is very important that you attend. To paraphrase Woody Allen, 80% of leadership is showing up. I would like to meet you and get to know you over a beer.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Swiss university is taking the “exceptional” step of advertising a job specifically for women to boost gender diversity among staff.

The dean at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne said that it was able to make the “aggressive” move because the post is sponsored by industry.

But an official from the Swiss Federal Office for Gender Equality has questioned the legality of the situation.
...
“Typically, openings are not gender-specific. This is exceptional,” Andersen said, adding that specifying gender in a job advertisement is not possible for Swiss government-funded university posts.

Andrea Binder, head of the legal division of the Swiss Federal Office for Gender Equality, said that under Swiss law, the exclusive hiring of women can be justified in exceptional circumstances, such as employing staff for a women’s refuge or for the purpose of promoting true gender equality in certain positions.

Story here. Excerpt:

'“Should a man decide to join Curves, we would let him. It’s the law. However, it could place an uncomfortable tension in our centres for both male and female members,” Ms. Thompson said.

David Arnot, chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, said safety concerns could factor in to those types of gender-specific policies.

Mr. Arnot wouldn’t say whether his office had received a complaint, nor would he comment on the specific one.
...
“If you purport to discriminate against a person based on their gender, you run afoul of the human rights code,” Mr. Arnot said.

“Every case is different and every case has nuances to it.”''

Article here. Something that you don't see very often: a story that actually tells the point of view of men without demonizing them. Excerpt:

'The University of Massachusetts at Amherst was one of the first of 55 institutes of higher education declared to be under investigation for Title IX violations over the way it handled sexual violence and assault. As a result, its ability to protect victims has been under intense scrutiny. However, two lawsuits against the university filed by male students who were expelled for misconduct—one for sexual, the other physical—alleged that the school struggles just as much to deliver justice for the accused.
...
In many ways, the trial reveals how men and women are judged differently when it comes to the mixing of sex and alcohol. This is an issue that is not limited to UMass. “I think in a lot of cases, there are gender stereotypes of who should be responsible for drunk interactions involving students engaging in sex, and it always falls on the male,” Kimberly Lau, who is also one of the attorneys for John Doe, tells The Daily Beast. “It's persecuting the male students and allowing females to escape scrutiny for voluntarily ingesting alcohol, as well.”
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Raised an Orthodox Jew in Massachusetts and then Israel, Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon has emerged as one of the leading intellectuals of American Jewish Intactivism. A filmmaker, his movie “Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision” helped to introduce the subject of Intactivism to Jewish audiences in the United States. His movie received good reviews including within the Jewish press, and in the Jewish Intactivist community. His choice to keep his own son intact was the result of a serious Jewish and moral investigation of these issues.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Miriam Pollack, MA, is one of the leading Jewish Intactivist scholars. A Jewish mother and active Jew, she was chosen as Intact America’s Intactivst of the Month. Pollack has written for Tikkun, and been interviewed in BeyondTheBris.com. She has led talks with Eli Ungar Sargon, an Orthodox raised Intactivist on the subject. She is part of a group of Intactivist Jews who've made moral arguments for a shift in Jewish interpretation of the bris.

Pollack has lectured on Jewish Intactivism at conferences as early as the 1990's. She is one of more than 200 Bris Shalom celebrants, Jewish leaders who will hold a bris covenant ritual for intact Jewish boys. Pollack visits Israel frequently, and has also helped to connect Jewish Intactivists in Israel with the American movement. She has joined some Rabbis in making ethical and moral cases for an Intactivist interpretation of the Jewish covenant.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'CALGARY - Charges of abduction and break and enter are pending against a woman whose nine-year-old daughter was found dead in a vehicle near Sundre, Alberta, this week.

Identified as Amber Lucius, 9, the girl's body was discovered in a vehicle on a rural road near Sundre -- about 116 km northwest of Calgary -- by RCMP on Tuesday.
...
Franks said a woman was found near the vehicle and taken into custody.

Laura Coward, 47, is now facing charges of break and enter to commit theft and abduction in contravention of a custody order.

Police said Coward is Lucius' mother.

When reached, family of the father, Duane Lucius, declined comment, but said the couple are in the midst of a divorce.'