Letter here. Excerpt:

'According to a recent national study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one in seven men has been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner. Men are also victims of verbal, emotional, psychological, sexual and financial abuse. One in 33 men have experienced sexual assault and one in 19 men have been stalked. All of these forms of violence are devastating and can be debilitating, causing depression, guilt, shame, humiliation and anxiety.

Male victims face numerous barriers when attempting to report abuse. They are often not believed, mocked, and devalued for the abuse. Attitudes in our society that say men should be strong and tough limit a male survivor’s ability to seek and receive help and often results in experiences of further shame and re-victimization.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"A young mother has been jailed after she made two different false reports of rape within hours after drunkenly sleeping with her friend's partner.

The man only proved his innocence because he filmed the sexual encounter on his mobile phone and the footage showed she was a willing and active participant.

Ashleigh Loder, 25, wasted at least 100 hours of police time and subjected the man, who has not been named, to police questioning after inventing the two attacks in Bideford, North Devon.
...
A friend of the man's partner, Loder admitted she fabricated a story fearing the consequences of sleeping with him.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Of course, there is a flip side. There are women who unapologetically hate men. Scrolling through Instagram the other day, I noticed an author whose work I admire wearing a misandry t-shirt. She suggested it should be a “staff uniform” for her magazine. When I asked her via email if the t-shirt was ironic, she wrote back saying, “To me, there’s nothing ironic about misandry. I really do hate men. A lot.”

Article here. Excerpt:

MANN admins received the following from a reader and M.D. involved in the study of the practice and effects of circumcision:

The recent publication of an extraordinary association between country-level rates of circumcision with their respective country-level rates of autism (r=0.98, p<0.000005) [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23656698] explains the recent observation of less than expected rate of autism prevalence in Spain where an equal male to female autism prevalence was also observed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23746744) as Spain (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16177149) and Hispanics in the U.S. have the lowest circumcision rates (2% in Spain) while Hispanics in U.S. also have a less than expected autism prevalence (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20019320).

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Council of Europe’s resolution earlier this month to prohibit the circumcision of infant boys for religious reasons has ignited another round to the “foreskin wars”. This time it’s about the rights of religious freedom and autonomy versus the right of individuals to retain “physical integrity”. As usual, different groups are shouting that my human rights are more important than yours.
...
Meanwhile, bioethicists and lawyers will continue to disagree about therapeutic and non-therapeutic values because there is an inescapable tension in how we think about harm, autonomy, and competing claims for rights. What are the rights of children, including psychological well-being associated with “belonging”? Do we necessarily favour physical integrity over respect for cultural difference?

One conclusion is that we need to be wary about easy answers in relation to human flourishing, diversity and the “right to health”.'

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.
...
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.
...
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.
...
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.
...
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.
...
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.