Article here. Excerpt:

'Former Newsweek editor Evan Thomas made a bizarre statement on PBS's Inside Washington Friday.

"Unexplored story of the year: white men dropping out - dropping out of the workforce, dropping out of elections, just plain dropping out, getting social security, not doing anything, going hunting, fishing, just not in the game"
...
As such, the biggest decline in this statistic has come from black men not white men who continue to by far represent the largest chunk of the labor force with a participation rate of 73.2 percent.

With this in mind, Thomas might want to rethink his bizarre conclusion.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Like every mom, Jessica — who requested her last name not be used for this story — had important things to consider during her first pregnancy, including whether or not to have her newborn son circumcised.

A recent policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics updated the organization’s 1999 policy on circumcision, the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The AAP states that the decision should be left to the parents, weighing medical information along with their own religious, ethical and cultural beliefs and practices.
...
Jessica watched a video of a circumcision during a childbirth preparation class. At the time, she and her husband lived in the Northeast.

“That sealed the deal,” she said. “If it’s not necessary, why do it?”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last month*, Germany’s official Pediatric Association, the Berufsverband der Kinder- und Jugendärtze (BVKJ), joined the Dutch Medical Association and spoken out against infant circumcision. Below is a transcript of the statement; you can read the original in German here.
...
Initially, it should be observed that there is no reason from a medical point of view to remove an intact foreskin from underage boys or boys unable to give consent. Additionally, in pre-school age, there is only very rarely a real medical indication for removing the foreskin (circumcision). At this age the foreskin (praeputium) is physiologically to a greater or lesser extent, strongly fixed to the glans of the penis. Infections and painful tears often occur due improper attempts to pull back the fixed and still immature foreskin.'

---
* Nov., 2012

Story here. So where's the wailing cries of sexism and demand for apologies? Excerpt:

'No matter what vulgar things Kathy Griffin does on CNN's live New Year's Eve broadcasts, the folks at the supposedly most trusted name in news continue to invite her back.

On Monday night's program, after first telling co-host Anderson Cooper "I'm going to tickle your sack," she shortly after midnight actually kissed his crotch (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Roughly eleven minutes into the program which began at 10 PM, Cooper commented about how on Twitter folks were suggesting that there should be a game that whenever he giggles nervously during the show, contestants have to take a drink.

Then, completely out of the blue, Griffin said, “I'm going to tickle your sack. You can say sack. That's not bad.”

An obviously nervous Cooper responded, “I don't know what you're talking about. I have no sack of gifts here.”

Link here. Excerpt:

'A US woman charged with child neglect has agreed to not have any more children as a condition of her probation and house arrest.

In October 2011, Kimberly Lightsey, 30, was arrested after she allegedly left her four young children - one of whom has epilepsy, cerebral palsy and brain damage - alone at a trashed hotel room while she went partying.

A guest called police after finding one of the Florida woman's children, who were aged from one to 11, strapped into an overturned stroller in a hallway at the hotel.

At the time, Lightsey was already serving four years of probation after not contesting a charge of hitting her six-year-old son in the face with a belt two years earlier.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Breast cancer, the most common female cancer which has a similar death rate to prostate cancer, received more than double the annual research spend with £853 per case diagnosed compared with £417.
...
The figures were published by Prostate Cancer UK to mark the start of a fund-raising campaign, The Sledgehammer Fund, presented by Bill Bailey, the actor.'

Interview here.

"Single moms raising children on the rise" -- 4:25, Dec. 30, 2012

For those new to the MR scene, read about Glenn at Wikipedia.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 33-year-old woman who suspected her husband of having an affair started a fire in their house Sunday, forcing the couple’s children to hide in a closet and call for help, Tacoma police reported.

Department spokeswoman Loretta Cool said the woman was burning some of her husband’s items downstairs when the rug caught fire at their home in the 3800 block of East J Street. Her husband was not home at the time.
...
Police arrested the woman on suspicion of arson and domestic violence and called Child Protective Services, who placed the children with their father. One child was treated for smoke inhalation.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Seattle woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death during an argument has been charged with murder.

King County prosecutors contend Christina D. Kasper-Lewis killed Dante Durant on Dec. 19 during an argument at Durant’s Skyway apartment. Stabbed in the chest, Durant died at the scene.

According to charging documents, Kasper-Lewis, 31, had stabbed Durant previously during other incidents of domestic violence. She allegedly told police she picked up the knife to show Durant she was serious about their argument, and then stabbed him once when he grabbed her by the lapels.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'JERSEY CITY, N.J., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Police in New Jersey said they arrested a woman accused of charging at her boyfriend with a hammer when he refused to pay for laundry.

Jersey City police said they responded to an apartment Saturday on a 2:52 p.m. report of a man locked in a bathroom while his girlfriend pounded on the door with a hammer, The Jersey (Jersey City, N.J.) Journal reported Monday.

Police said they subdued Jazmin Duran, 24, after a brief struggle and she was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, criminal mischief, domestic violence, possession of weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon and resisting arrest.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'WINTER HAVEN | It's not difficult to get arrested for domestic violence: A tossed cupcake or a soda shower can get you a ride in the back of a squad car.

The Nov. 25 arrest of Baxter Troutman, a former four-term state representative from Winter Haven, is a case in point of how in some domestic violence episodes, the bar for an arrest can appear low.

Although the domestic violence-battery charge against him was quickly dropped, Troutman first spent a night in jail, which he called a humiliating experience.

But, he said, people have been overwhelmingly supportive of him.

Troutman acknowledges throwing a bedspread in the direction of his wife, Becky.

She told a deputy it hit her in the face. He said it didn't hit her anywhere.

Sheriff Grady Judd, whose deputies arrested Troutman, said if someone calls about a domestic assault in his or her home, "somebody is going to jail. Every time."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Conventional wisdom has long intimated that girls are more adept at language arts and reading than boys of the same age. A recent study indicates there may be some merit to the assumption that boys tend to lag behind girls in reading. In order to bolster interest in books and reading comprehension, parents and educators can look to many successful literary series that tend to draw the attention of boys.

Boys and reading

A 2010 study by the Center on Education Policy that looked at trends beginning from 2002 to 2008 found boys have been lagging behind girls on standardized reading tests in all 50 states. According to Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, "We found no state in which boys did not lag behind girls in reading at the elementary level, the middle school level and the high school level. So it's pretty clear: Boys are not doing as well as girls in reading."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Young boys across the country have trailed their female classmates in language arts proficiency for at least four decades, but over the last four years, the gender gap in New Jersey’s public schools has widened, test results released last week show.

Between 2009 and 2012, the percentage of fourth-grade girls who passed the reading section of the annual NJ ASK test held at about 65 percent, while the share of boys who passed declined by 8.1 percentage points.

This year, nearly half of the state’s fourth-grade boys failed the test.

Male students’ declining reading proficiency is evident to some degree in every grade and in every demographic subgroup, according to superintendents, who said they don’t understand why this is happening or how to solve the problem.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Yesterday, the Daily Mail published an article on the free-falling rate of UK vasectomies and implied that modern men are to blame.

In 2001-02, there were 37,700 procedures across England and Wales, compared with 15,106 in 2011. There's been a 16 per cent decline in the past two years alone.

According to the feature, which was written by Tom Rawstorne, many women across the country blame the decline on men being 'selfish'.

They also assume that male fertility is a ticking infidelity time bomb - something which should be treated as highly suspicious, not a natural human state.

I disagree.

The truth is that modern life, and medicine, has simply out-grown the vasectomy.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 31-year-old Bronx woman charged with pushing an immigrant to his death from a New York City subway platform has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Erika Menendez was arraigned Saturday night on a charge of murder as a hate crime, the Associated Press reported. Judge Gia Morris ordered that she be held without bail and be given a mental health exam, it said

Menendez is charged in the death of Sunando Sen, who was crushed by a train in Queens on Thursday night.

Menendez, who was seen muttering to herself before shoving a man onto subway tracks in front of a speeding train, said she did so because, "I hate Hindus and Muslims," prosecutors said on Saturday.'