Article here. Excerpt:

'In announcing her plans to continue leading the Democrats in the House, Nancy Pelosi stressed this morning an unusual but critical and easily overlooked political force in resolving the fiscal cliff: gender diversity.

“As we move forward to debate our economic and fiscal challenges in the weeks and months ahead, one thing is clear — our economic agenda and choices will be viewed through the perspective and eyes of our nation’s women,” the California congresswoman said at a Wednesday news conference, flanked by other women Democratic lawmakers.

It’s a sign of how identity politics will come into play as Washington scrambles to address the economically toxic mix of tax hikes and spending cuts that are slated to begin next year. Rather than accepting a changing of the guard, Pelosi — with more than a decade of time in congressional leadership — decided to highlight how she embodies an increasingly diverse caucus.'

The race/gender composition obsession seems endless. I honestly think if Minnie Mouse wanted to run for office vs. Sam Rayburn, Wasserman-Shultz would endorse the mouse. Video here. (For those unfamiliar with it, EMILY's List is a PAC that supports only female Democrat party candidates who support a pro-choice abortion position.)

Article here. Excerpt:

'David Petraeus' cheating was somewhat, if not entirely predictable. As Lisa Belkin points out, the Men Behaving Badly phenomenon is quite common when it comes to politics: FDR, JFK and Slick Willie Clinton are three egregious examples.

It isn't just that male politicians who sleazy, but women in general are expected to stay attractive in middle age, whereas men don't have to because they still call the shots. I hate to say this but as soon as I saw Petraeus' wife's picture I said to myself: "poor thing, a once-attractive gal, who has gained weight and looks somewhat frumpy can expect that her famous husband's eyes will wander when he comes into close contact with a younger woman."

Story here. Excerpt:

'A disturbing case out of Canandaigua*. A teacher is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. Investigators believe the relationship lasted for several months. Officers say the most recent incident happened last weekend.

44-year-old Lisa Footer has been charged with sex abuse, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child.

On her teacher web page, Lisa Footer says it's her 22nd year of teaching and she's determined that it will be her best. Obviously it isn't turning out that way as she stands accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student who attends Canandaigua Academy.

Footer is charged with three misdemeanors: sex abuse, forcible touching and endangering welfare of child. She was arraigned Tuesday night. According to police, she was having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student.

"NBC's White House corespondent Chuck Todd Discussing Nancy Pelosi running for Minority leader again." Video here.

Article here. Excerpt:

Few would dispute the intentions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as it applies to sports. To prevent discrimination on the basis of sex, the law requires all institutions receiving federal funding to provide equal opportunity in athletic participation.

But a new study, based on participation data and the hypothesis that women are inherently less interested in sports than men, asserts that Title IX might be taking the wrong approach.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Back in the late 1970s, as an undergraduate at Princeton, I auditioned to be the loudspeaker announcer during halftime at football games. It would be, I thought, a great gig: sitting in some box talking into a microphone, narrating the funny skits the band performed on the field. I made it to the final callback, but in the end the judges gave the slot to a guy. They told me afterward that it was just too hard to imagine a woman's voice coming out of a loudspeaker at an Ivy League stadium. That was what the 1970s and '80s were like, for women: opportunity and setback, goofy small disappointments along with important big ones. We were there, but they didn't want anybody to, you know, hear us.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Pelosi's wind-up was epic. For nearly 10 minutes, she praised her fellow female members and admitted that "we want more." She emptied the cliché-o-matic, talking about the need to "reignite the American dream" and work "for a healthy nation, a healthy political arena, a healthy planet." Finally, after cable had cut away, she announced that she'd "made the decision that some of you might have some interest in." She was running for leader again. Her team of women burst into cheers.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Toledo woman and her son al­leg­edly con­spired to kill them­selves and three young chil­dren — her grand­chil­dren and his nieces and nephew — in or­der to pre­vent the chil­dren's par­ents from re­gain­ing cus­tody, po­lice the­o­rized on Mon­day.

Po­lice found the five fam­ily mem­bers — Sandy Ford, 56; Andy Ford, 32; Paige Hayes, 10; Logan Hayes, 7; and Mada­lyn Hayes, 5 — dead in­side of a car parked in­side the fam­ily's at­tached ga­rage at 5142 Harvest Lane on Mon­day af­ter­noon.
...
Ser­geant Hef­fer­nan said the par­ents were in the pro­cess of get­ting full cus­tody and po­lice be­lieve that was the mo­tive for the al­leged mur­ders and suicides. He said carbon monoxide poisoning was suspected as the cause of the deaths.

Dean Sparks, ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of Lu­cas County Chil­dren Ser­vices, said Mon­day night that he did not im­me­di­ately have much in­for­ma­tion about the case, but did know that the chil­dren were placed in the Fords’ cus­tody in 2009.

This week is the beginning of our "What Happened to the Presumption of Innocence?" campaign. And we're starting right out of the gate with a 24-hour call to action.

Today is a Day of Action for some victim advocates, with calls and tweets asking for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). We're not so quick to jump on that bandwagon, because VAWA is not ready to be reauthorized. It still has many provisions that strip the presumption of innocence from the accused.

See our recent press release for more details: http://www.saveservices.org/2012/11/pr-anti-violence-law-may-dash-the-presumption-of-innocence-save-warns

Article here. Excerpt:

'Today, men are slightly more likely to be unemployed than women, while women are 6% more likely to be in management positions than men. Women dominate many of the professions poised to grow the most in the next decade, while several male-dominated industries -- notably manufacturing -- are losing jobs. And, in an economy where a college education is increasingly important, women are 46% more likely to have a bachelor's degree by the time they turn 24.

Nothing scares the unholy monkey-snot out of Islamists like the Taleban more than a girl with a book. This is because they know that if girls and women learn to read and make up their own minds about the Islamists' particular version of Islam (which I would argue isn't really a version so much as a perversion), they will stop supporting Islamist men in what they are doing. When men lack the moral and personal support of women at home for a war they go to fight, by and large, they decide to stop doing it. Or as history has shown time and again, as with the Spartan mother who used to tell her son to "Return with your shield or on it!", there is nothing like a mother's encouragement to make her son go get his head blown off for king and country.

Article here. Excerpt:

'BERLIN - Left-wing lawmakers in Germany are threatening to oppose government efforts to keep male infant circumcision legal.

More than 50 lawmakers from three parties are proposing that parents should have to wait until their son is 14 so he can give informed consent for the procedure.

The proposal obtained by The Associated Press on Monday would radically amend a government bill that would give parents the power to decide.

The bill was prompted by a regional court ruling that circumcision could amount to criminal bodily harm. The government has enough votes to pass the bill and defeat amendments.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'SAN FRANCISCO — The Y chromosome may have gotten a bad rap. Despite the claim that this male sex chromosome is mostly junk, new research suggests it's actually a lean, mean, highly evolved machine for producing the fittest males possible.

The findings, presented Friday (Nov. 9) here at the American Society of Human Genetics' annual meeting, dispute the notion that historically most men in a generation have not passed on their genes while a few lucky guys fathered hordes of children.

Article here. Excerpt:

'An Arizona woman, in despair at the re-election of Democratic President Barack Obama, ran down her husband with the family car in suburban Phoenix on Saturday because he failed to vote in the election, police said on Monday.

Holly Solomon, 28, was arrested after running over husband Daniel Solomon following a wild chase that left him pinned underneath the vehicle.

Daniel Solomon, 36, was in critical condition at a local hospital, but is expected to survive, Gilbert police spokesman Sergeant Jesse Sanger said.'