Article here. Excerpt:

'Figures show that 15 per cent of boys struggle to form simple words such as “dog”, “cat”, “mum” and “dad” from memory at the end of the reception year.

They are around twice as likely as girls to fail in basic writing at the end of pre-school, it emerged.

Data from the Department for Education also showed that some four-in-10 boys and almost a fifth of girls cannot write a simple shopping list or a letter to Santa.

In further figures, It was revealed that eight per cent of boys cannot count up to 10, compared with just five per cent of girls. They were also considerably more likely to struggle to dress independently and manage their own hygiene.'

Letter here. Excerpt:

'According to the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey given by the Centers for Disease Control, one in four women and one in seven men in the United States will experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. There is a stigma in this country that men cannot be victims so the services available to them are limited. As a social work graduate student who works at a domestic violence agency, I am concerned by the amount of support males are able to receive. I have had calls from both homosexual and heterosexual male victims asking for support. In reality, until we raise awareness and reduce the stigma, male victims will continue to be underserved. Shelters are only for women so men end up having to go to a homeless shelter and often face discrimination even from shelter staff.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Obese teenage boys are at risk for more than diabetes and heart disease, a new study has found. They also have alarmingly low levels of testosterone - between 40 to 50% less than males of the same age with a normal body mass index.

The study, published this week in the journal Clinical Endocrinology, investigated the effect of obesity on testosterone levels in young males.

It has its origins in earlier research, which showed that type II diabetes and obesity in older men are linked to a high rate (25-33%) of hypogonadism, or low testosterone levels. According to the new study, the rate of hypogonadism in type II diabetic men ages 18-35 is greater than 50%.

In addition, concentrations of free testosterone — testosterone that isn’t chemically bound and thus available to the body — were shown to be negatively related to BMI: The higher the body mass, the lower the concentration.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) arguably is one of the most misguided pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress. From conceptualization to consequences it has wreaked a wide swath of destruction across American society and accurately can be described as “A War on Men.” Conceptually, VAWA is based on the false Duluth Power and Control Wheel model. VAWA falsely presumes that all Domestic Violence (DV) is perpetrated by evil patriarchal males against virtuously innocent female victims. This false gender ideology has no research support.

Change.org petition here. Looks a lot to me like they are ignoring what is happening to this guy because he's male. If this were a female getting sexually abused this way by men or women, I am sure the DA would be all over it. Men have the right to live lives free of assault and abuse by people of either sex, and it's time the powers-that-be knew it. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'One of the country’s leading family law firms says increasing numbers of female breadwinners are left feeling “aggrieved” when their less well paid husbands walk away with more generous divorce settlements.

Their biggest complaint is often that while they have shouldered bigger financial burdens and longer working hours than women in previous generations, their husbands have failed to step in to take on more of the responsibility on the domestic front. The result is that they feel they have been doing “two jobs” – something the courts do not take into account when dividing assets.
...
“Both spouses will need rehousing and if the husband’s income is lower than his wife’s, his mortgage capacity will also be lower,” she explained.

“He may therefore need more capital to enable him to obtain a suitable property.”

Regarding the post from yesterday, please contact Whoopi Goldberg for her courage to stand up and be counted even if what she says is unpopular-- unpopular, but right. A Google search turns up no direct contact email address for her but The View can be contacted here. Of course, no guarantee The View management or staff will pass along your feedback, but it will let them know that people are watching and are as capable of rewarding with praise as punishing with condemnation when someone on their show does the right thing.

Google did turn up a snail-mail address for her via a celebrity information site, found here. I can't vouch for the accuracy though of the contact information one way or another.

Article here. Excerpt:

'GENESEE COUNTY, MI (WNEM) - A bitter custody battle has spawned major changes in Lansing and now, a newly passed law is helping a Hartland father's fight to get his daughter back.

Daniel Quinn and his then 2 1/2-year-old daughter are all smiles in the pictures he has framed. But four years ago, his baby girl was taken away right in front of his eyes.

"Now, she's 6 years old, last time I talked to my daughter was August of 2008, and the last time I saw Maeleigh was Memorial Day of 2008," Quinn explained.

This story starts in 2006, when Quinn was dating Maeleigh's mother, a woman who he said claimed to be divorced. She got pregnant and the two moved in together. But shortly after Maeleigh was born, Quinn learned something wasn't quite right.

"At the hospital, I was denied to be able to sign my name on the birth certificate, and it was at that point, the hospital said that she was married," Quinn said.'

Article here. An interview with Bettina Arndt. Excerpt:

'Marriage has become a "dud deal" for men, says Bettina Arndt.

Gone are the times when men would be thanked for their hardwork - where leisure time was their own and sex was a "wifely duty".

Now, according to Bettina Arndt, "many men find themselves grovelling for sex or having sex handed out like meaty bites to a dog".

She says modern marriage demands more from men and rewards them less. Plus, the threat of divorce looms larger than ever with women's expectations on the rise.

"The risk of divorce is another really important issue - the fact that marriage is a really risky deal for men because they stand to lose an awful lot if the marriage goes wrong," she says.'

Video here. The "Ladies of The View" took up this topic. Kudos to Whoopi G. for standing up for the right of the driver to fight back-- regardless of the sex of the driver and his assailant. Predictably, most of the other "Ladies" disagreed.

Later this week, members of the Intact America staff, along with intactivists from around the country, will arrive in New Orleans to protest outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, where the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will be hosting its annual convention, and formally announcing its new Task Force Report on Circumcision.

Why are we outside this year, and not inside? Because we’ve been barred from the convention’s exhibit hall by the AAP.

As you know, every year since its inception, Intact America has had a booth inside the AAP’s annual convention. To get more bang for our buck, we linked up with the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC). As our profile became more and more visible and our position became more and more threatening to the AAP, we fully anticipated that the AAP would try to silence us; we just didn’t know how.

Last August we asked you to intervene on behalf of single father Vladek Filler in Maine(1) who had endured 5 1/2 years of persecution by Asst. District Attorney Mary Kellet.(2,3) Filler was facing jail when he needed to prepare for Kellet's disciplinary hearing for her procedural misconduct in his case.

We asked, and you took action! Filler's incarceration was postponed. But, so was Kellet's hearing.

Now Filler has been ordered to jail on October 17, right when he should be preparing for Kellet's October 22-23 hearing. Coincidence? We don't think so.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Introduction to the NHQR and NHDR

Priority populations include racial and ethnic minorities, low-income groups, women, children, older adults, residents of rural areas and inner cities, and individuals with disabilities and special health care needs.
...
Colorectal Cancer

* From 2000 to 2007, the rate of advanced stage colorectal cancer in males age 50 and over decreased significantly, from 111.4 to 88.0. During the same period, rates for females age 50 and over also showed a significant decrease, from 83.2 to 67.0. In all years, males had significantly higher rates of advanced stage colorectal cancer compared with females.
...
Diabetes

*From 2000 to 2007, males had significantly higher rates of admission for lower extremity amputation. In 2005-2007, the amputation rate for males was 4.8 per 1,000 admissions compared with 2.2 per 1,000 admissions for women.
...

HIV and AIDS

Article here. Excerpt:

'I believe that that Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines require extensive revisions because they are actively harmful to the wellbeing of children.

Best Interests of Children
Life teaches us that almost any beneficial factor is beneficial in moderation; and that too much or too little are usually harmful. It is intuitively obvious why too little child support is harmful to the wellbeing of children. It ought to be intuitively obvious that too much court-ordered child support is also harmful to children, but so little thought has been devoted to this issue by decision-makers that it is often lost.

Article here. Note you may get prompted for login, and paid registration is required.