Article here. Excerpt:

'If we’re reading an article about heroic working moms “doing it all” both at work and at home, but still losing custody to fathers who apparently do nothing all day long, then it’s a good bet we’re reading the Huffington Post. And sure enough, we are here (Huffington Post, 6/1/13).

This time it’s family attorney Lisa Helfend Meyer whose piece utterly misrepresents the known facts about child custody, who gets it and why. In the finest HuffPo tradition, 90% of her article is nothing but a series of unsupported assertions that would embarrass an 8th-grader. But Meyer’s goal is to paint working mothers as, in some way, shorted by divorce courts. Of course nothing could be further from the truth, so I emailed Meyer to learn her sources. Er, no word on that as yet.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Earlier this month, the candidates fighting to become the next mayor weighed in on the controversial circumcision consent form that requires parents to sign a waiver before their infant can undergo the "metzitzah b’peh" ritual—the circumcision practice in which a mohel sucks the blood from a freshly snipped foreskin. Most of them seemed to be for the basic consent forms (which only informs parents of potential risk—it doesn't prevent them from having the ritual performed if they want), but mayoral candidates tend to have a slippery way with words. And it seems most of the democratic candidates are now AGAINST the consent forms, as you can see in the video below.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In alarmed response to emerging “men’s rights awareness” groups (MRA) on a number of Canadian campuses, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a union body representing some 500,000 students, seeks to amend its “Sexual Assault and Violence Against Women on Campus” policy.

The CFS rejects any need of formal fellowship around specifically male issues, alleging MRA groups’ real purpose is to promote “misogynist, hateful views” and to “justify sexual assault.” Simon Fraser University’s recently inaugurated $30,000-funded men’s centre, for example, was demonized as a place to “celebrate hegemonic masculinity.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Looks like Mike Barnicle's not going to let anyone get to his PC-left when it comes to women.

On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle claimed that "a lot of men . . . fear the fact—and I think it's a fact—that women are better balanced than men. They have better judgment about things than a lot of men." Barnicle's comment during a discussion about the statement made yesterday by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant that the decline in educational outcomes for children today is due to the entry of women into the workforce.

Could an expert of feminism and political correctness kindly enlighten us? Is it more PC to say that women and men are identical, or are sex-specific differences OK to acknowledge? If the latter, is there anything other than brute strength at which it would be safe for Barnicle to suggest that men might be better than women?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'When I appeared on a Huffington Post Live Web TV panel in late May with two of the campaigners, Jaclyn Friedman of Women, Action and the Media, and Laura Bates of the Everyday Sexism Project, they asserted that women were being driven from Facebook by rampant misogyny. But evidence of this exodus is lacking: Last year, women made up 57 percent of Facebook users, same as three years earlier.
...
This shows that in mainstream American culture, abuse of women is universally -- and rightly -- abhorred. On the HuffPost Live panel, Friedman asserted that misogyny is our society's last acceptable form of hate speech. But that applies far more accurately to male-bashing. A Facebook page titled "Beating up your boyfriend to keep him in line" had more than 16,000 "likes," while the pages targeted by the activists (such as "Kicking your girlfriend in the fanny because she won't make you a sandwich") had at most a dozen or two.

Article here. Excerpt:

“American Secret” is a film about an outdated medical practice, but at core the film is an examination of how memes proliferate, how ideas spread, and how thought patterns take hold.

The film also explores questions we rarely ask ourselves, such as how we decide what we’re going to think about, what we’re going to reconsider, what we’re going to resist, and what we aren’t. The film’s overarching questions being: “How do we come to believe what we believe?” and “What role do reason and fact play in establishing or changing our beliefs?”

Announcement here. Looks like the governor has drunk the Wage Gap Kool-Aid. No one ever bet wrong however pandering politically to women as a group. At least, not so far. I do wonder when there'll be a similar Act addressing such things as paternity fraud, protections for men against false accusations, equal rights around child custody, reproductive rights, etc.? Maybe he'll announce that next month? (ROTFL!) Well, New York men can dream, I suppose. Excerpt:

'Today, Governor Cuomo, joined by members of the Women’s Equality Coalition, introduced legislation to end discrimination and inequality based on gender and to restore New York as a leader in women’s rights.

This Women’s Equality Act includes the following 10 points:

Well, IMHO, anyway. In fact it looks to me like both parties got off way too lightly. Still, the drunk female driver will likely walk with time served. The male one, probably 10 years. Meanwhile, a perfectly sober law-biding citizen is dead. Justice served here? Not in my opinion. Not by a long shot. Here is the story. Excerpt:

Article here. There is a literature prize in the UK that is only open to women. In the UK more books are published by women than men. The highest earning writer in the UK is female. There is no separate literature competition for men. In the past the prize was sponsored by a mobile phone company. Some men have boycotted the phone company. The prize is now being sponsored by Diageo, the multi-national drinks company. I, for one, will avoid products of this company until men are allowed to enter the competition. They have many products!

Article here. Excerpt:

'Former prosecutor Nancy Grace went to the Estrella Jail and spoke with six female inmates like the ones she once locked away. The women opened up about their fellow inmate, Jodi Arias.
...
“She likes to sing,” said Rosa Leon, a pregnant mother accused of first-degree aggravated assault.

“Yeah, she sings really good,” added accused murderer Stephanie Conley.

“She’s an amazing person,” Key said.
...
Nancy Grace: I know, but why did she have to stab Travis Alexander nine times in the back?

“She was angry,” Key said.

“Nobody knows the real story though. Nobody does. Only God and her and the man that’s dead,” said Dean.'

Article here. Kathleen Parker makes an effort at defending dads and men. Could be stronger but she raises good points. But I always wonder: Are some women really so morally arrogant they believe they're only ones necessary to human existence? Excerpt:

'News that women increasingly are the leading or sole breadwinner in the American family has resurrected the perennial question: Why do we need men?
...
My argument that men should be saved is that, despite certain imperfections, men are fundamentally good and are sort of pleasant to have around. Most women still like to fall in love with them; all children want a father no matter how often we try to persuade ourselves otherwise. If we continue to impose low expectations and negative messaging on men and boys, future women won't have much to choose from.

We are nearly there.

So, you're thinking about attending SAVE's 2013 conference on false allegations, "Celebrating our Progress," but you're just not sure? Did you know that conference attendees can request to join a SAVE team for a day of lobbying?

We'll be lobbying Congress on Friday, June 21. Then we'll head over to McPherson Square for dinner and a Skype call with Erin Pizzey, founder of the abuse shelter movement.

You can request to join a lobbying team, even if you've never lobbied before. There will be a mandatory orientation conference call June 12. And we'll meet Friday morning to go over last minute details.

Visit SAVE for more info: http://www.saveservices.org/dvlp/annual-conference-2013/
Register for the conference: http://celebratingourprogress.eventbrite.com/

Once you've registered, let me know by June 10th that you want to lobby: tstoddard-at-saveservices.org

I'm looking forward to this, are you?

I think we all have a sense that the world does a lot of pandering to women, and very little to men. Society, businesses, charities, governments, women, and men all seem to put women up on a pedestal. But just how bad is it? I decided to do an informal survey. For one week I noted all examples of gender promotions, or exclusiveness, or pandering, both to men and women. I counted all examples that I saw referenced, whether or not the actual events occurred during the week.

I counted 125 instances of pandering to women. Most of these were from the news. I wasn't looking at Oxygen or Katie or Ms Magazine. If you think the count for pandering to men was a big gander egg, you'd be wrong. I actually found one instance, although I suppose one could argue that it was more about women than men: 125 to 1. How can women complain about anything when they receive so much more attention than men? How can men feel like anything other than second-class, inferior, or worth less than the afterbirth? (Actually, I did hear a story about placentas during the week, so men and placentas were tied for amount of media attention.)

A report was in the news during this week concerning sexual abuse in the military. Even though the report noted that most of the victims were men, only one of the 22 news segments on this issue mentioned this fact (an interview with Barbara Boxer on MSNBC's The Place for Politics.) There were two references to the victims as men and women on Meet the Press before other remarks focused on the female victims. All other news stories behaved as if women were the only victims. And a CBS Evening News segment actually said incorrectly that all of the victims were women.

Story here. Excerpt:

"LAS VEGAS (AP) — Singer-actress Pia Zadora was arrested at her Las Vegas home over the weekend following a rapidly escalating attempt to impose a bedtime on her teenage son.
...
Zadora's son was hanging out with her husband and his son when she asked him to turn in. When he protested, she sprayed him and his step-brother with a hose, according to her statement to police.

She then began scratching and punching her husband, Michael Jeffries, and his son as they tried to calm her down, according to the 16-year-old's statement to police.

He later called 911, but his mother attempted to wrestle the phone away from him, according to the report, injuring his ear in the process.

When he got through, the 16-year-old told the dispatcher that "his mother was going crazy and her hands were around his neck."

He said all three of his family members ultimately prevented him from going to answer the door when police arrived. This led to an hours-long stakeout of the house.'