Link here. Excerpt:

'A gene important in skin tanning has been linked to higher risk for testicular cancer in white men, according to a study led by scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the University of Oxford in England. Nearly 80 percent of white men carry a variant form of this gene, which increased risk of testicular cancer up to threefold in the study.

Video here.

"This is what a date would be like if men treated women with absolute equality..."

Article here. Excerpt:

'Governor Martin O’Malley has convened a Maryland Commission on Child Custody Decision Making. Maybe this is an indication that our Maryland government thinks there is a problem? We sure hope so.

The Commission is the result of HB687 passed during the 2013 legislative session. As part of the Commission’s work it is holding public hearings around the state. Please attend one of the Public Hearings and bring your ideas on how to make shared parenting the norm in Maryland.

National Parents Organization of Maryland worked to pass this legislation to begin the process of bringing shared parenting to Maryland. Maryland need not lag behind other states. Please let us know if you will be attending one of these hearings.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Deep in the underbelly of the Internet is a hidden corner known as the "Manosphere"— a collection of websites, Facebook pages and chat rooms where men vent their rage and spew anti-women rhetoric.

Protected by the anonymity of the Internet, men feel free to post hateful and violent comments. Posts such as "I really wouldn't mind shooting a [expletive] dead in the face, they are evil, all of them," and "Women are the natural enemies of men" are commonplace on sites like "A Voice for Men," a Manosphere blog run by Paul Elam.
...
But experts like Mark Potok, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, believe this rhetoric is problematic. "The Manosphere is an underworld of so-called men's rights groups and individuals on the Internet, which is just fraught with really hard-line anti-woman misogyny," Potok told "20/20."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Earlier this month the Council of Europe agreed on a nonbinding resolution in support of “children’s right to physical integrity.” The purpose was to reinforce the protection of children’s rights, oppose violence against children, and promote children’s participation in significant decisions that affect them. Forced genital cutting of male and female children was mentioned among examples of violations.
...
Days later, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with traditional Jewish groups, denounced the resolution. The ministry statement said the resolution “fosters hate and racist trends,” denied that circumcision causes any harm, and strongly objected to any comparison between cutting of male and female genitals.

Others called the resolution anti-Semitic, a violation of religious freedom, and a “thinly disguised attack” on European Jews. This predictable reaction calls for a response.
...
Here are some relevant facts.

* Jewish circumcision is not mandatory; it is a choice. Some Jews in North America, South America, Europe, and Israel do not circumcise their sons.

* Circumcision is a topic of debate in the Jewish community and has been questioned historically and in various Jewish publications in recent years.

* In actual practice, most Jews circumcise because of cultural conformity, not religious reasons.
...
It is possible to question the actions of a person or group without being categorically opposed to the person or group. Are those who question an American government policy anti-American? Questioning an action that one believes to be harmful is more likely to be motivated by good will than ill will.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Have you heard about the new organization, Leading Women for Shared Parenting or LW4SP? This is a group of prominent women who recognize that absent issues of abuse, neglect or abandonment, government policy and laws must be structured in such a way as to maximize the opportunity of all parents to contribute to the social, emotional, intellectual, physical, moral and spiritual development of their children.

According to Pew Research on the Huffington Post, there is yet another data point to add to the changing portrait of American parents: the number of single fathers has risen ninefold since demographers began measuring it more than 50 years ago.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'There are a growing number of Jews who are becoming increasingly vocal in questioning both the ethics and the legality of circumcision. Jews in the Reform Judaism movement have already been advocating for an end to ritual circumcision during the past 180 years. What follows is a collection of statements from Jews who question the ethics and legality of child circumcision.

Jewish Americans Support Outlawing Child Circumcision
"I am a Jewish mother against circumcision and in support of passing Bill 1777. For years I was a certified childbirth educator and now a journalist and filmmaker. I continue to educate people that childbirth is a natural event rather than one filled with unnecessary drugs and other medical intervention, and circumcision is an unnatural event. These are two clear-cut examples of interfering with nature."

- Katherine Mora, Jewish Mother
Testimony before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

Article here. Excerpt:

'My wife, Amari, was seven months pregnant and we were at our midwife appointment. At this point we knew we would be having a boy. Near the end of our visit, the midwife asked us what we were planning to do about circumcision.

Amari and I are both Jewish and we had discussed it a couple of times before. My take was: “We're Jewish. My grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Our boy is getting circumcised." However, Amari was against the procedure, although she was willing to do it if it meant that much to me.

I had never attended a bris. The thought of cutting off a baby's foreskin made me queasy. That’s when it hit me: How in the world was I going to witness my own son going through it? I put that thought aside, figuring I'd deal with it when it happened.

Article here. Excerpt:

'No one in government can use ignorance as an excuse for tolerating Canada’s dysfunctional legal system: Several recent reports have laid the problem bare.

Last April, the federal government released a special-committee report, “Meaningful Change for Family Justice: Beyond Wise Words,” which stated: “Canadians do not have adequate access to family justice.” In August, the Canadian Bar Association released its 50-page “Envisioning Equal Justice” report, describing access to justice as “abysmal.”

Now we have a new report, “Access to Justice: a Roadmap for Change,” the outcome of a project initiated in 2008 by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. The roadmap envisages better dispute-resolution options, more legal-aid funding, plus triage toward appropriate services and other tools for efficiency to help deliver speedier, more tailored service.

Essay here. Excerpt:

'The Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has ranged widely in apportioning blame for the abuse or neglect of children in Britain. Those at the receiving end of his tongue-lashing included 20 local authorities, with the city of Birmingham in particular singled out as ‘one of the worst places to grow up in the developed world’.

But Sir Michael was clear about the root cause of children’s problems today: hollowed out and fragmented families, where the relationship between mother and father has broken down or never existed in the first place.

He said (£) the problems exposed in child abuse scandals were being deepened by an apparent national obsession with ‘pussyfooting around’ and ‘making excuses’ for bad parents. At the root of wider social problems lay the alienation of many children from their natural father.

A new petition exists on MoveOn.org, complaining of bias by ABC News. Statement:

'We are offended by 20/20's repeatedly offensive reporting of men as violent, as aggressors, as 'deadbeats' and as the oppressors of women. We are boycotting the television show until they start to present the facts as they are. Men want to be with their children. We suffer most of domestic violence. There are nearly no systems to support us. We are underrepresented in research, in mental health services, in education, and in families.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Based on an example Plog offered — a husband making $200,000 a year and his wife earning $50,000 — under the new formula, the husband's 40 percent per month would be $6,667, and 50 percent of the wife's income would be $2,083 per month, so the result under the formula would mean the wife receives about $4,583 per month.

Under the old system, he said, if the wife's expenses exceed her income by $1,500 a month, a court might order monthly maintenance of $1,500 to $2,000 to help meet her reasonable needs.

"If uniformly applied, the (new guidelines) will promote settlements," Plog said, "but the problem is that the payer will have a gun to the head."
...
The Women's Lobby made the bill a priority legislative issue, arguing that it would promote settlement and successful mediation, reduce litigation, and prevent women and families from falling into poverty. In 2011, single women with children had a median income of $26,705, the lowest of all family types in Colorado, compared with $42,075 for single men with children.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In January of 1996, Michael Jr. was hanging out with Anna and her then boyfriend, Paul Dejongh, when the teen was shot to death. The story was so sensational it ended up a reenactment on America's Most Wanted .

"Her words were, from all I've been told, 'get rid of him,' and that's no different than if you got these gangsters. When they use term, 'get rid of him,' we all know what it means," said Michael.

Anna was charged with murder but jumped bail and fled with her boyfriend. After a five month manhunt, she was apprehended in Oregon.

"I think Anna is as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger," said Romaine.

Paul Dejongh was also captured and pled guilty to second degree murder. All charges against Anna were dropped, for lack of evidence.

"If Anna was innocent, then why did she flee? Why did she stay away so long? She's guilty as sin, and yes, indeed, and she got away with murder," said Michael.

Article here. Excerpt:

'All the employees of school districts on a witch hunt to expel and otherwise permanently punish young boys for shooting toy guns or forming their fists into the shape of a gun need to read “Back to Normal.”

The purpose of psychologist Enrico Gnaulati’s 2013 book is to argue how ordinary childhood behavior is often misdiagnosed as ADD, ADHD, depression and autism — frequently with life-long, disturbing consequences.

But along the way he raises the taboo question of whether we “label boys as mentally unstable, behaviorally unmanageable, academically underachieving, in need of special-education services, or displaying behavior warranting school suspension just because their behavior deviates noticeably from that of the average girl?”
...
And it should give school administrators perspective on how best to handle unruly boys and channel their energy without condemning their nature.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Girls’ academic juggernaut isn’t losing steam.

Female students in Eugene-Springfield metro area schools continue to outperform their male peers in nearly every academic category, new state report cards show.

Girls in the Bethel, Eugene and Springfield school districts were more likely to graduate from high school, have lower dropout rates and outperform male students in state math, reading and writing tests.

Some national research has pointed to the way girls are socialized to explain their greater likelihood of academic success, while other research says school systems are structured in ways that end up favoring female students. For example, some studies suggest that girls tend to do better in cooperative environments where they are asked to sit still and listen, compared to boys who may feel pressured by their peers to be more outgoing and competitive.

A University of Michigan study found that the number of boys who said they don’t like school increased by 71 percent since 1980.'