I am a professor of mechanical engineering. And I have found out that many of the students where I teach are about to commence action on Movember.

I point out that I no longer teach in the U.S. - I left my tenured position there and took up a tenured position in Europe. My wife decided this as she is from this particular country. After seeing the complex contradictions of Valentine's day in the US, where men are expected to buy gifts and attend the Vagina Monologues, SHE - I was blind to men's rights issues at the time (but SHE is the one who has clued me in) - resolved that she did not want our son growing up in a country that did not respect its men. So we moved. And it is great here, but even this country is becoming slightly feminized.

I would like to talk with these men at the first Movember meeting and suggest they extend their activity into monthly meetings on Men’s Rights issues. There are no such groups here.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Gaston County elementary school teacher faces an assault charge related to a domestic violence incident that occurred Monday.

Sharon Denise Putnam left fingernail marks on her husband, Adam, after the two had an argument over a cellphone video, according to a warrant affidavit signed by Stanley Police Officer J.L. Abernathy.
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Putnam said he had to “barricade himself in the bathroom,” but that his wife started kicking and shoving trying to get to him, according to the warrant. “Once the suspect got into the bathroom, she tore the victim’s pants to get the phone out and throw it into the toilet,” Abernathy wrote in the warrant affidavit. The officer noted he could see fingernail marks and scratches on Adam Putnam’s upper arm.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The U.S. Bureau of the Census recently released a report indicating college enrollment dropped by about a half million students from 2011 to 2012. In fact, the press release from the Census Bureau said enrollment “plunged” from one year earlier.

Most people are well aware of the correlation between educational attainment and earnings: in general, the higher the education level, the higher the income. Future prosperity, both as individuals and as a society, is tied to improving education levels (particularly for states that are lagging, such as Texas).

So, is the drop in college enrollment something we should be worried about? I don’t think so, and here’s why.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Jennifer Marie Vargas is being charged with assault with serious bodily injury after admitting to getting angry and pulling her 6-year-old son by his privates and ripping his scrotum.

According to the affidavit, she then cleaned the wound with alcohol and tried to fix it with super glue. She then allegedly ordered him to go to bed.

When the boy's father returned home, he saw the blood and took the boy to San Antonio Military Medical Center where he underwent surgery.

Vargas could face 10 years in prison if convicted.

She's due in court on Monday.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Patients with prostate cancer may be encouraged to get radiation therapy by urologists who own the equipment, new research suggests.

According to study author Jean Mitchell, a professor of economics at Georgetown University, the use of expensive radiation treatments has increased substantially in practices that own the equipment.
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Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said urologists make only about $1,100 for surgery to remove the prostate, and watchful waiting involves only the limited cost of office visits and imaging.

Radiation treatment, however, can cost between $31,000 and $40,000, depending on where in the country patients are treated, Mitchell said.

"This is really showing that financial incentives really influence physician behavior," she said. "Patients have to wonder, 'Am I getting the treatment because it's really the best, or am I getting the treatment because my urologist is making money off of it?'" Mitchell said.
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D'Amico advises patients to ask if the medical evidence for their case supports radiation or surgery.

"The correct answer is either yes or no. If there is a choice, the patient should be told that the medical evidence is inconclusive. That's what they need to hear, because that's the truth. Most of the time, there is a choice," he said. "If they say the medical evidence in your case says it should be radiation, then the patient has to wonder whether or not [they're] getting it straight."

Moreover, D'Amico said patients should get a second opinion.

One critic of the study, Dr. Deepak Kapoor, president of the Large Urology Group Practice Association, said the study represents a political agenda and that doctors aren't pushing radiation therapy when they own the equipment.

Article here. Excerpt:

'When looking at their course syllabi, young conservative women often find assignments that encourage them to challenge gender roles and unabashedly criticize the opposite sex. When searching for clubs to join on campus, they may find similar options — a host of feminist groups spewing a “women rule the world/men are the enemy” message. One organization, however, is continuing to provide female students with a conservative alternative.

For almost a decade now, the Network of Enlightened Women has been working to ignite a conversation on feminism and conservatism on college campuses which challenges the often misguided messages of college feminist groups. NeW celebrates its ninth anniversary this month.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Alcohol is the No. 1 date-rape drug. That’s not victim-blaming, or anti-women (let the record show a large portion of male victims have been drinking at the time of their sexual assaults too). It’s simply a fact. The vast majority of campus rapes happen when the rapist, the victim or both are drunk.

And so alcohol education is essential for students of every gender.

Even when willing partners are sober, communication about sex can be fuzzy. We don’t sit down and make a Venn diagram of what we want and don’t want. Once heavy drinking enters the picture, all nuance disappears. Smashed people converse without any give and take and precious little listening, shouting toward each other as if on separate mountaintops in a heavy fog.
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Binge drinking, whether we’re male, female, straight, gay or one of many shades of gray, dulls our senses and slows reaction times, making it harder to identify our comfort zones until we’re frightfully outside of them.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Jamie Leigh Jones, a young employee for defense contractor KBR in Iraq, captured our national attention when, in 2007, she claimed to have been gang raped by her colleagues and then locked into a shipping container by KBR officials intent on keeping her from going public. Jones' accusations touched on already hovering concerns about powerful defense contractors and the general atmosphere of brutality that stemmed from the war. It felt symbolic of everything that had been going wrong in Iraq. Sen. Al Franken used the case to force the Defense Department to refuse contracts with corporations that mandate arbitration for sexual assault claims instead of allowing employees to sue.
...

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Texas woman was busted plotting to kill the father of her 7-year-old son after she brought the child to meet an undercover cop posing as a hitman and put a down payment on the hit.

Nicolette Beard, 33, was cuffed after she met the undercover officer in a College Station parking lot on Wednesday and gave him $800 of the $4,000 she promised to pay to have her child’s father, Anthony Drymalla, 30, killed, police told the Houston Chronicle.

The two met after a friend of Beard’s alerted cops to the scheme, police said.

Beard brought her son to the meetup, but let a friend bring the boy into a store as she discussed the murder-for-hire plot with the supposed contract killer.
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She told the officer that she wanted it to look like an accident and prefered if Drymalla’s wife were injured or killed in the rubout. But she needed him dead within a couple of days, police said.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Covelo woman remains in custody after being arrested for domestic violence three times in 17 days. The latest arrest occurred on Oct. 14 when she was arrested after her boyfriend told deputies she hit him in the head with a beer bottle.
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When deputies questioned the cohabitant, they noted he had a 3 inch lump on the back of his head. The victim told deputies McFadin hit him with a beer bottle. He told deputies they were not arguing at the time and he had no idea what had angered her enough to hit him in the head. He said McFadin also hit him with a garden hose and threw a rock at a female witness. The victim refused further medical attention.

McFadin was booked on domestic assault on Oct. 3 and Sept. 27.

In the Sept. 27 incident she was suspected of striking her boyfriend in the back with a board. At the time of this incident the victim told deputies he and McFadin were arguing when she hit him with the board.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Jackson Katz believes that there is a national crisis in masculinity because young men believe a man should be tough, strong, independent and respected. The US Government is paying him to educate Marines.
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Surely Katz has studied some history. This makes his claim that the modern media is responsible for these very old ideas about manliness even more dissonant. Blaming the modern media for male violence is like holding Martha Stewart accountable for the habits of all women who enjoy cooking and decorating.
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When Katz decided to blame the modern media for these “narrow”definitions of manhood that box men in…ancient Roman, Greek, Norse, Celtic, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Aztec and Native American mythologies that portrayed men in the same way must have slipped his mind.

It would make more sense for Katz to blame the ancient media.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In 1999 Jackson Katz headlined a documentary that powerfully revealed the mask of masculinity, a pretense of stoicism and readiness for violence that many men feel compelled to put on, at least part of the time. The film, Tough Guise: Violence, Manhood, and American Culture, became a staple in classes on gender across the country.

Last week marked the release of Tough Guise 2 and SocImages was given the honor of debuting an exclusive clip from the new film. In the segment below, Katz explains that men aren’t naturally violent but, instead, often learn how to be so. Focusing on socialization, however, threatens to make invisible the socialization agents. In other words, Katz argues, men don’t just learn to be more violent than they otherwise would be—they are actively taught.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Sexism in the workplace is rife, according to a new study commissioned by employment law firm Slater & Gordon. Sixty per cent of women, the report suggests, have had a male colleague behave ‘inappropriately’ towards them. Now, putting aside the obvious point that an employment law firm may have a vested interest in unearthing potential new cases, the report hardly stands up to scrutiny. Do the 1,036 women who participated in the survey represent a cross-section of society or is the data based on self-selection? Are there any editorial processes or judicial procedures in place to decide what does and does not constitute sexism, or is it merely a case of ‘it is if she says it is’? And then there’s the issue of context. In the report, incidents of harassment includes everything from having a colleague putting their hands up a woman’s skirt, to touching their legs or thighs and placing their hand in the small of a woman’s back. Surely there is a difference between your boss randomly groping your breasts and that over-familiar male colleague slapping your thigh after they have told a dirty joke?
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'To be or not to be? Circumcised that is. Unfortunately for men, when this question arises, we are too young to have any input.

Circumcision is a surgical procedure that removes the foreskin covering the head of the penis. It’s a practice that has been around for thousands of years dating back to 2400 BC Egypt. In our day, many parents have their sons circumcised within their first few months of life due to culture, religion or personal preferences.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A group of 100 protesters – including many topless women – recently marched the streets of Athens, Ohio chanting, "Blame the system, not the victim" and "Two, four, six, eight, stop the violence, stop the rape." Organized by an Ohio University student organization called "f*ckrapeculture," the protest was designed to bring attention to what the founders believe is a toxic culture of sexism and sexual violence infecting their campus.

F*ckrapeculture cofounder Claire Chadwick explained to the campus newspaper, "The name of our organization and the statements that we've made are loud. But it's because we need to be heard." But saying something loudly does not make it true or just.

... However, as universities reexamine their sexual assault policies, administrators should be wary of the demands of these "rape culture" activists. Not only is their movement built on a foundation of dubious statistics and a distorted view of masculinity, but it has already led to policies that have proved devastating to those who have been falsely accused.
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Unfortunately, Warner is not alone in his grievances. Across the country, students accused of sexual assault are regularly tried before inadequate and unjust campus judiciaries. At most schools, cases of sexual misconduct are decided by a committee of as few as three students, faculty members or administrators. At Swarthmore College, volunteers are now being solicited via email to serve on the Sexual Assault and Harassment Hearing Panel. Such a panel is far more likely to yield gender violence activists than impartial fact finders. In a court of law, we rely on procedural safeguards to ensure unbiased jury selection and due process. But on the college campus, these safeguards have vanished.
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