Story here. Excerpt:

'A local rabbi is being sued after allegedly botching a bris, the traditional Jewish circumcision ritual, and severing a newborn boy’s penis.

The incident detailed in the lawsuit happened at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill within the last year.

The Jewish circumcision ceremony was performed by Pittsburgh Rabbi Mordechai Rosenberg – who is also a mohel.

Sometime during the bris, according to the lawsuit, Rosenberg severed the baby boy’s penis.

The baby was rushed to Children’s Hospital, where doctors performed emergency microsurgery.

“If your finger, your thumb was cut off and was put back on, that is pretty exciting,” said renowned UPMC plastic surgeon Dr. Joe Losee.

Dr. Losee was not involved in the boy’s treatment and he can’t talk specifics.

This is a response to the document “Human Tissue Intended for Transplantation” [OMB control number 0910-0302, Docket ID FDA-2013-N-0797-0003].

The deadline for submissions is 3 January 2014.

This submission can be made by anybody from any country around the world.

Instructions:

Download and save the document from the following link (Click 'Download'):

http://www.2shared.com/document/WX8SRAgQ/FDA-2013-N-0797-0003.html

Go to the following regulations.gov submission page:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2013-N-0797-0003

Click 'Choose files' to upload the saved document from your harddisk. Optionally, fill in the name fields. Check any boxes under the name field which apply to you and complete any required fields. Click 'Continue'. On the next page, click the box next to 'I read and understand the statement above' and then click 'Submit Comment'.

--------------------------------------------------

In case anyone experiences problems with the above 2shared link, the full-text of the response document is below, which you can copy/paste into the wordprocessor of your choice and upload to regulations.gov:

Response to “Human Tissue Intended for Transplantation” [OMB control number 0910-0302, Docket ID FDA-2013-N-0797-0003]

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback to “Human Tissue Intended for Transplantation” [OMB control number 0910-0302, Docket ID FDA-2013-N-0797-0003]. This response document will briefly address the ethical and safety concerns associated with utilitising foreskin-derived ingredients in medical and cosmetic products.

Ethical and safety concerns associated with utilitising foreskin-derived ingredients in medical and cosmetic products

Story here. Excerpt:

'When Samuel Gerome Dye got the news, he says he went crazy with joy: He ran, he danced, he screamed, he sang in the street.

And then Dye made a beeline for Utah, driving nonstop from Dallas through a blizzard in New Mexico and arriving last Friday to retrieve his 2-year-old son, whom a judge in Utah’s 4th District Court decided last week had been improperly placed for adoption here in July.

On Saturday, Dye and his son Samir traveled home together, putting miles and a nightmare behind them.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the 1980s, laws were put into place nationwide to protect women and children from abusive relationships. However, now the laws that once were instituted for the purpose of protecting women and children from abuse have morphed into a giant loophole to allow fraud and gross abuse of power. These laws made no provisions for men or fathers who have been victimized by domestic violence. Domestic violence against men has been largely ignored and has radically increased. Case in point, the murder of Travis Alexander by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias. This "loophole" has allowed vindictive women to use protective orders as a means to falsely report their child/ren's fathers accusing them of some form of domestic violence and/or falsely report allegations of sexual abuse.

Article here. Excerpt:

'For the past two months, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has been vilified as “anti-Semitic,” “anti-religious” and “insane” and has been accused of promoting “hate and racist trends in Europe ” for adopting, by overwhelming majority, a resolution on children’s right to physical integrity. As the head of the committee that unanimously approved the draft texts in June — after two parliamentary hearings and several committee discussions — I have been saddened by this reaction, much of which has been characterized by bad faith or ignorance about what we said. So I want to set the record straight.
...
The assembly has been criticized for including the circumcision of young boys for religious reasons in a list of violations of the physical integrity of children. Our resolution noted that “supporters of the procedures tend to present [it] as beneficial to the children themselves, despite clear evidence to the contrary.” This list also included female genital mutilation, early childhood medical interventions in the case of intersex children, and the submission to or coercion of children into piercings, tattoos or plastic surgery. All of these interventions permanently alter a child’s body in some form or another, only to very different degrees.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'So far in Canada, P.E.I. is the only province offering free vaccines for boys, with Alberta planning to follow suit in the fall.

Would such a vaccination program be expensive? Yes it would, but there are far greater costs at stake — we’re talking about preventing human suffering and, in come cases, death.

This province vaccinates girls, which is important, since HPV causes cervical cancer. But it can also cause genital warts, and anal, penile and throat cancers in boys.
...
The Department of Health told The Telegram recently: “The high uptake of the HPV vaccine among girls has protected approximately 50 per cent of the population, which significantly lowers the possibility of contracting and transmitting the virus between sexes.”

That’s an awfully narrow view of the world.

What about males who have sex with males? What about males who travel and have sex with females who have not been vaccinated? Our young men are hardly living in a bubble; they can move about, after all.

Article here. Excerpt:

'What you're seeing is how a civilization commits suicide," says Camille Paglia. This self-described "notorious Amazon feminist" isn't telling anyone to Lean In or asking Why Women Still Can't Have It All. No, her indictment may be as surprising as it is wide-ranging: The military is out of fashion, Americans undervalue manual labor, schools neuter male students, opinion makers deny the biological differences between men and women, and sexiness is dead. And that's just 20 minutes of our three-hour conversation.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Mark Andrew, 63, was at a Starbucks inside the mall at around 7 p.m. Thursday when a man grabbed his phone off his table and ran off.

When Andrew went after him, he was tackled by two teenage girls – aged 18 and 17 — one of which began beating him with a billy club. During the attack, they told Andrew, “We’re going to kill you,” police say.

Andrew was left with a large gash on his head that required nine stitches. He has since been released from the hospital.
...
The two women who attacked Andrew were arrested and are in custody. The 18-year-old was identified as Letajia Shapree Cutler-Cain, of Brooklyn Park. She is pictured above and is being held pending felony charges of aiding and abetting aggravated robbery.

Police are still searching for the male suspect.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Females in the Marine Corps currently are not required to do even a single pull-up, and a deadline mandating that by Jan. 1, 2014, they be able to do at least 3 pull-ups as part of their training has been delayed for at least a year, the Corps quietly announced on social media.

Unlike their female counterparts, male Marines have long been required to do at least 3 pullups as part of the Physical Fitness Test (PFT). That's the minimum requirement for males.
...
Currently, “women aren’t able to make the minimum standard of three pull-ups,” Marine spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan told CNSNews.com. Fifty-five percent of female recruits tested at the end of boot camp were unable to do three pull-ups (1 percent of male recruits also failed).

Marine officers told NPR off-the-record that, given the three-pull-ups rule, they were afraid of losing “not only new recruits, but also current female Marines who can’t pass the test.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Nicole Colby Longton, an attorney who represented a student who sued Holy Cross for being accused of sexually assaulting a woman on campus, told Bloomberg News that young men face a “growing risk of being accused” on college campuses.

“One sexual encounter that involves alcohol, and the next thing you know you’re accused and expelled and branded for life,” she said. “Schools are going to push kids to have signed waivers before they have intercourse.”
...
Rape poses a real threat to women on college campuses, and even if these young men are innocent, their claims reveal a desire to maintain a status quo that makes it easy for men to perpetrate crimes and difficult for women to report them. It’s one thing to protest that you were wrongly accused. It’s another to suggest that universities are making it too easy for victims to report crimes and seek justice.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Although the main reason the gap has closed is because women are earning more (they have risen by 25 percent over the last three decades), men are also bringing home less.

"This is a big part of the story," Parker says.

From 1980 to 2012, the median hourly wage for men has dropped 4 percent. For younger men, the drop has been 20 percent.

And it is even worse for young men without a college degree, Parker says.

"Young women are more likely to be enrolled in college," Parker says. "They are more likely to be getting bachelor's degrees. They're more likely to be getting many different types of graduate degrees."'

Article here.

'A Richland County deputies say a 34-year-old woman stabbed her fiance on Christmas Day after they argued over what colors should be used in their wedding.

Investigators say the man was trying to leave a home near Blythewood after the argument when Krysta James attacked him around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Deputies say the man was stabbed in the upper body, but his injuries weren't life threatening.

James is charged with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature. She remains in jail on a $10,000 bond and it isn't known if she has an attorney.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Qualified male candidates were repeatedly passed over for an assistant job in the University of Iowa track program after the athletic department quietly mandated that a woman be hired, a discrimination complaint alleges.

Track and field director Larry Wieczorek joked during the hiring process that then-assistant Mike Scott should consider having a sex change operation to improve his prospects, according to a complaint filed by Scott with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

In their quest to hire a woman, administrators rejected a committee's recommendation to offer the job to a highly qualified male candidate and twice rewrote the position description to try to attract female candidates, Scott alleges. After three postings spanning more than one year, the university hired Molly Jones for the position in September.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The French government has warned 500 companies they face fines for failing to comply with gender equality laws.

Women's rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the firms had been given an ultimatum to comply with anti-discrimination legislation dating back several years, but were still dragging their heels.

She said five companies were already being fined "penalties of several million euros for each month … until they bring themselves in line with the law".

"It is no longer a virtual sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of enterprises, but a real one. Suddenly the companies are sending us their professional equality plans. More than 4,000 have done so since January," Vallaud-Belkacem told Europe 1 television.

"But to be efficient, it [the legislation] has to be dissuasive and above all plausible," the minister, who has said that fining businesses who break the law is a "last resort".

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Hamilton councilwoman’s comments about sexism at Tuesday’s meeting have some politicians explaining, and one resident calling for her resignation.

While voting in favor of a salary ordinance that included a raise for newly elected Mayor Kelly Yaede, Councilwoman Ileana Schirmer said individuals who opposed the increase may be chauvinists because the mayor is a woman.

“When the previous mayor was there, Councilman Meara voted to give that mayor a raise, and then all that junk happened, and they rescinded it, rightfully so. If you go to the council meeting, you can see a pattern; everything the mayor proposes, Councilman Meara goes against,” Schirmer said Wednesday.
...
The councilman said he is not opposed to pay increase ordinances, but that he didn’t vote for this one because Yaede is newly elected and it is not during the budget process.