Article here. Excerpt:

'Former Chief Judge of New York State Judith S. Kaye always makes necessary sense, as she did when she recently wrote this in the opinion pages of The New York Times:

“As universal pre-K and the Common Core standards dominate the headlines, we cannot overlook a third subject that deserves top billing: keeping children in school and out of courts” (Letters, The New York Times, Feb. 22).

Kaye was writing in response to an op-ed that had run in the Times last month. In it, Robert K. Ross and Kenneth H. Zimmerman, the respective heads of the California Endowment and the United States programs for the Open Society Foundations, wrote: “Large numbers of students are kicked out, typically for nonviolent offenses, and suspensions have become the go-to response for even minor misbehavior, like carrying a plastic water gun to elementary school ...
...
At South Eastern Middle School in Fawn Grove, Pa., 10-year-old “fifth-grader Johnny Jones asked his teacher for a pencil during class. Jones walked to the front of the classroom to retrieve the pencil, and during his walk back to his seat, a classmate and friend of Johnny’s held his folder like an imaginary gun and ‘shot’ at Johnny.

“Johnny playfully used his hands to draw the bowstrings on a completely imaginary ‘bow’ and ‘shot’ an arrow back.
...
The school’s code of conduct required Principal John Horton to “contact the appropriate police department, complete an incident report to file with the school superintendent and begin the process of mandatory expulsion immediately.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'The criticism of the debate’s all-male panel from feminist-leaning students is almost not worth addressing, especially as the full panel was still clearly ‘to be confirmed’. Nonetheless, it is worth pointing out that the debate is primarily about free speech and censorship. The priority is to have a balanced ‘pro-ban vs anti-ban’ line-up, rather than a ‘male vs female’ or ‘feminist vs anti-feminist’ one. People should be treated as absolute equals; there’s no room for ‘token’ panelists in a grown-up debate.

However, given that a campaign to ban the Sun and the Daily Star from Nottingham’s campus shops is currently under way, under the banner of the feminist No More Page 3 campaign group, I accept that an all-male panel, or one which excluded feminists altogether, would be unbalanced and ineffective. But this is precisely why I have been in contact with female and feminist speakers from the outset. A few feminist speakers, willing to argue that banning Page 3 is an essential step to gender equality and put me in my place for daring to suggest it is ‘censorship’, would be welcome. Unfortunately, those I have invited to speak have been too concerned about the wording of the title of the debate and the motivations of other associated groups to participate.'
...
In response to my invitation, a prominent member of the national No More Page 3 campaign commented that ‘No More Page 3 would be unlikely to host or sponsor a debate about Page 3’; instead they would have preferred a ‘seminar’. It’s quite clear what a ‘seminar’ would entail. If I had wanted to stage a one-sided sermon or a call-to-arms rally I would have organised one. Instead, my intention is to host a balanced dialogue where the side making the most convincing case will come out on top.

Article here. Excerpt:

'High-achieving women such as Beyonce and Condoleeza Rice have joined Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s new campaign to ban the word “bossy.” No, really. They want to ban the word “bossy.”

'2) Girls are strong. Stop overprotecting them.

It completely conflicts with the “Lean-In” message to treat girls like they’re dainty little flowers who change their entire personalities if someone utters a not-even-that-mean word in their general direction. If you want women to take over companies and give up their wombs until they’re approaching 40 to do so, you have to toughen them up, not cater to their slightest hurt feelings. Seriously.

3) ‘Bossy’ isn’t even gender-specific.
True story. My 4-year-old came home from school on the day of the BanBossy campaign launch to tell me that a little girl told a little boy in the class that he was being bossy by not letting them play with the toy he was using. I think that the entire crew will survive this horrible slight and that they might even grow up to be functioning members of society. But the idea that “bossy” is something only girls hear is just not in any way matched by my experience. Or my daughter’s.
...
6) Making people feel bad for using adjectives is pretty bossy. So wait, all the cool and beautiful girls who are super-popular and wealthy got together and decided that not only were they not going to use a word but that no one else could either? No, that’s not bossy at all, is it.

7) Not everyone’s a leader and it’s time to stop shaming people who aren’t.

This is perhaps the most important point. The BanBossy site says:

Together we can encourage girls to lead. Pledge to Ban Bossy.

Article here. Excerpt:

'`Assertive little girls are leaders to be celebrated. Assertive little boys are rapists to be medicate`
...
Yep, as Twitchy reported, this is happening: A#BanBossy language-policing campaign launched by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

We wonder if they will accept this compromise?

`If we're going to stop labeling little girls "bossy", can we stop labeling little boys with finger guns "psychotic latent mass murderers"?`
...
That tweet was retweeted 500 times and counting. It does say it all, doesn’t it?'

Story here. Children are being denied contact with famous father who is quite ill in hospital with Parkinson's Disease by step-mom Jean. However the "Dad" in this case is formerly well-known radio personality Casey Kasem who hosted a weekly national program called "American Top 40" until he retired in 2009. The now-adult children simply wish to see their father before it is too late and are lobbying for legislation that would allow this to happen. For more information go to http://www.kasemcaresfoundation.org/. Excerpt:

'But the courtroom stirred and the spectators sat forward when Case No. BP145805 was called, and no fewer than six attorneys lined up before the judge in the matter of Julie Kasem et. al., petitioner, v. Jean Kasem, respondent, in respect to a "conservatorship of person" -- that absent person being 81-year-old Casey Kasem, the radio legend. For decades, Kasem counted down the weekly hit singles on American Top 40 and its spinoffs, exhorting his listeners to "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." Several generations of kids also knew him as the voice of the teenage Shaggy on the Scooby-Doo series. He had taped his last broadcast in 2009, then quietly retired.

Contrary to claims from feminist groups pressing for greater numbers of women on corporate boards, article here. Excerpt:

'They may lack the competitive streak of their male colleagues but women are loath to work together.

A study found two women are less likely to co-operate than two men when one is more powerful than the other.

Similarly, two females of different rank are less likely to work together than a man and a woman.

The finding contradicts the widely held belief that women’s nurturing nature makes it natural for them to help each other out, while men are too competitive to have time for each other.

Researchers said that men may be wired to put their differences aside in order to form alliances. Women, however, are most comfortable with people who are on the same level as them.

Richard Wrangham, of the University of Quebec at Montreal, said: ‘The question we wanted to examine was: Do men or women co-operate better with members of their own sex?

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Norwegian woman pleaded not guilty to murdering her 22-month-old daughter Monday at the opening of a trial where she is accused of drowning the child while following live online instructions.

The woman's British lover, accused of giving instructions for the murder via an online video service, also pleaded his innocence in Oslo District Court.

Yasmin Chaudhry, 28, and Ammaz Omer Qureshi, 35, are accused of drowning the woman's daughter from another relationship by plunging her head into a bucket of water in October 2010.
...
The man, who was in London at the time, allegedly told the woman to "discipline" the child and issued instructions which led to Chaudhry plunging the child's head under water until she lost conciousness.

Chaudhry then called emergency services and reported the incident as an accident. The child died in hospital the following day.

Article here. So tell me Col. Italiano, what would have had to have been the case for the girls' mother to justify stabbing them all to death? Excerpt:

'Authorities in the northern Italian city of Lecco say they have arrested a mother who confessed to stabbing to death her three young daughters.
...
Italiano said the parents had just separated, the father had departed Saturday for Albania, and the mother had no job. Italiano said, "There were economic difficulties, but not serious enough to justify this."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Would you like to know just how dogged states are when it comes to collecting child support? Gilbert Tso’s story offers a good illustration of exactly that. In his case, an Illinois court that plainly has no jurisdiction of the case went ahead and issued a child support order anyway, plus hefty arrearages just so, if it collects anything from Tso, it can chalk it up as another “success” and get paid by the federal government’s Office of Child Support Enforcement. Maybe the Illinois court is onto something. After all, if a court doesn’t have to have jurisdiction of a case to issue a support order, why not issue more of them? Why not pick fathers in Alaska, Maine, Florida, or anywhere else? Hey, you might get lucky, and every time you do, Uncle Sam sends the state more money.

Article here. Excerpt:

In today’s National Post, there is a very thoughtful and serious discussion of whether the phenomena of “rape culture” even exists. It will no doubt receive the usual stream of invective — accusations of trivializing rape, denying that sexual assaults occur, implying that women who drank too much deserved to be raped. Hardly real criticisms in any intellectual sense, but they will come.

These critics — that seems almost too kind a descriptor for them, but alas — don’t seem to understand that a denial of rape culture is not a denial that rape exists or an expression of indifference to the pain it causes its victims. The world is imperfect. Bad or disturbed people commit crimes, including rape; good, well-adjusted people don’t. My heart breaks for children killed by their guardians, and in a perfect world none ever would be, but even 100 children dead at the hands of their parents does not make Canada a child-killing culture, or anyone who’d say so a child-murder denier.
...
Here, where women are socially and legally equal to men, official sympathy for rape victims at every institutional level has created a climate so overwhelmingly sympathetic to female victims of sexual abuse that the emerging cultural danger is injustice to falsely alleged perpetrators. We are gripped by a baseless, but pandemic, moral panic in which significant collateral damage is beginning to pile up.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Increasingly, sexism, if not downright misogyny, is so endemic in society that many of us barely register it. But when we do – when a report like the EU one wakes us up to the hard, cold facts – we have to be very, very careful how we phrase our outrage. God forbid we may upset people. Or be called muck-raking cranks. Some people are very sensitive, we may hurt their feelings (they may sue!), so we have to be very clear and say, "not all men, only some men hate women", and only the "odd man" is actually a "real" misogynist. And of course, we understand and acknowledge that "men suffer from domestic violence too". And of course, we should be talking about women who are violent to their partners as well.

Pretty soon, we're apologising for saying that we live in a sexist world (we do) which overwhelmingly benefits the male sex (it does) and that we're concerned about the level of violence directed against women (we are). Soon after that, we're agreeing that yes, men certainly do terrible things to women, but women can be just as bad, if not worse, and before you know it, the discussion is no longer about endemic societal misogyny and violence against women but about the dubious effects of feminism, and whether militant 'feminazis' are destroying society as we know it.

I noticed this in many of the comments about articles on the EU report: "Why is this report only about one gender?" "Surely men suffer more violence than women?" (Eh, not at the hands of women.) "Why does female violence go almost unreported?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Amane Gobena of Ethiopia won the women's race and Gebo Burka of Ethiopia won the men's race in the 29th Asics L.A. Marathon.

Gobena, 31, won in 2 hours 27 minutes 37 seconds, collecting $25,000 for the victory.

Burka, 26, clocked a 2:10:37 to win a marathon for the first time. He also won $25,000.

Gobena won $50,000 for winning the gender "challenge." The women were given a 17:41 head start and Gobena finished 41 seconds ahead of Burka.

Joshua George won the men's wheelchair race in 1:33:11.

Tigist Tufa of Ethiopia was second in 2:28:04 and Lauren Kleppin of the United States was third in 2:28:48 in the women's race.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Victorian Liberal backbencher Sharman Stone has suggested her colleagues should look to Labor for ideas about how to get more women into politics.

"I'm beginning to think very seriously that really, the Liberal Party, we have to do more," Dr Stone told AM.

The Labor Party has long had a quota system in place, although it is yet to achieve its target of getting women into 40 per cent of its seats.

The Liberal Party is opposed to the Labor model of quotas, arguing candidates should be preselected on merit rather than gender.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been criticised for the make-up of his cabinet because it includes only one woman, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Dr Stone, speaking ahead of today's International Women's Day celebrations, said she was very disappointed to see her Liberal colleagues recently dump Mary Wooldridge from the safe Victorian state seat of Kew.

She said the Liberal Party needed to do more to ensure women are preselected in winnable seats.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'“All I could visualize, to be perfectly honest, was being a teacher, a social worker and a secretary,” said Rep. Susan A. Davis, D-Calif.
The women of Congress are working to change that dynamic and empower young women to see themselves in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — careers.

The women of Congress are working to change that dynamic and empower young women to see themselves in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — careers.

The congresswomen joined leaders from businesses, nonprofits and global corporations for a luncheon Wednesday hosted by the nonpartisan Million Women Mentors. The almost 150 people in attendance dined together to celebrate MWM’s efforts to promote mentoring young women in STEM fields.
...
To bridge the gender gap and bolster the U.S. labor force, female leaders say young girls need to see STEM careers as an option through mentorships and exciting hands-on education.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Universities should be required to set “diversity targets” to recruit more women into traditional subjects to address a gender divide at the heart of the education system, according to Britain’s biggest business group.

A major report from the Confederation of British Industry will call for drastic measures to boost the number of girls studying disciplines such as physics and maths to a high standard.

The study – to be released this week – will say that all school sixth-forms, colleges and universities should draw up recruitment targets designed to create a more balanced intake on A-level and degree courses.

Girls currently outperform boys at A-level and are more likely to go to university and graduate with a good degree.

But the CBI claim that too many are being shunted onto traditionally “feminine” subjects such as the arts and insist changes are needed to reverse long-standing gender stereotypes among teachers, pupils and parents.'