Link here. Excerpt:

'How does God turn a man into a feminist? Answer: He gives him three daughters.

That gag summed up Margie Abbott's foray into the world of political spin.

The opposition leader's wife made a proud and defiant speech in Sydney on Friday, supporting her husband in the face of opinion polls showing he remains unpopular with women, and a Labor offensive to entrench that view.

The previously publicity-shy Mrs Abbott came out with guns blazing, telling a business lunch in Penrith: "Don't ever try and tell me that my husband of 24 years and the father of three daughters is on some anti-women crusade. It's simply not true.

"Next time you meet someone who says that Tony doesn't get women, ask them when was the last time they cycled 1000 kilometres raising $148,000 for their local women's shelter. Which is what Tony did this year for Manly.

"And in 2006 he ran non-stop up and down the stairs of Centrepoint Tower with Pat Farmer to raise much needed funds to help lift the profile of ovarian cancer."

Story here. Maybe he should be sacked. Question is, if the silly string-sprayer had been male, would the story even had made the news? Would the officer even have gotten into any trouble? I believe the answer to both questions is "No". Excerpt:

'Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey will take "Commissioner's Direct Action" against Lt. Jonathan Josey, the Philadelphia police officer who hit a woman during a public event on Sunday.

That means that effective on Thursday, Lt. Josey will be suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss.

Josey was caught on video striking Aida Guzman during a traffic stop on Sunday.

Josey was part of a crowd gathered for festivities after the Puerto Rican Parade and Josey was the commanding officer on the scene.

The video shows Josey right after she sprayed silly string near the officer. Josey was with several other officers involved at the time in a traffic stop. He turns around and hits Guzman, who falls to the ground.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'The German government is set to pass legislation that would legalize ritual circumcisions if they are performed by a medical professional, allowing local Jews to breathe a sigh of relief three months after a local court criminalized the rite and criminal charges were filed against two rabbis.

German-Jewish leaders welcomed the bill, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times of Israel. The cabinet in Berlin will discuss the 26-page bill next Wednesday, after which it will proceed to the floor of the Bundestag, where it it is expected to be voted into law within the coming days.

“It is a clear political signal that Jews and Muslims are still welcome in Germany,” said Dieter Graumann, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. “We are happy that Jewish commandments and Jewish life are not being pushed into illegality.”'

This is an interesting story that has played out in Australia over the last few months.

Also see: Mother of daughters returned to Italy afraid to visit them

Excerpt:

'THE mother of four girls taken kicking and screaming from her side as part of an international custody battle has no immediate plans to fly to Italy to visit them, despite her daughters being ordered there by a judge.

Australian Federal Police officers took the girls from an undisclosed Sunshine Coast home on Wednesday night. One of the girls yelled "leave me" and another "no, you're going to hurt me".

At Brisbane International Airport, the emotional scenes continued as the girls, aged between nine and 15, struggled with AFP officers who were trying to escort them on a Dubai-bound plane en route to Italy. Their mother could be heard screaming, "I love you, baby."'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'A UK woman, Jullia Lovemore, 41, admitted to the manslaughter of her 6 week old daughter in court stemming from an incident in 2009. Lovemore has been in the custody of the state for three years prior to her latest courtroom appearance. She now awaits the punishment for smothering her child to death.

When the child was discovered dead, it was found to have pages of the bible in its mouth and throat. The mother admits to blocking the airways of the less than two month old child's mouth. She said, "I sat in my bedroom and I was ripping pages out of my Bible. I put some small bits of paper in Faith's mouth and she spat them out."

Many sources have reported the mother describing sitting on the child, and then bouncing up and down. She says she does not know why she did this and that she "got bipolar." Quite an excuse for someone who admitted to taking the life of a child.'

On Monday, President Obama kicked off National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Unfortunately, his proclamation leaves much to be desired.(1) Even though men and women abuse each other at similar rates(2), the focus is on women.

How many men have to get beaten with sledgehammers(3), have their penises cut off(4), get poisoned(5), or get run over with cars(6) by their female partners before the White House takes notice?

We say, "Enough is enough!"

Contact Pres. Obama via Danielle Borrin: Danielle_Borrin-at-ovp.eop.gov. Demand that he tell the truth, the entire truth about domestic violence.

Oh behalf of every male victim suffering in silence or struggling to have his voice heard, thank you.

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

Article here. Priorities: Implementing Title IX in the STEM fields in colleges vs. ensuring our veterans are getting adequate healthcare. What's winning out? Excerpt:

'The Department of Veterans Affairs said it is on track to process 1 million disability claims this year.

With the war in Iraq over and the one in Afghanistan winding down, the VA is sorting through a backlog of more than 860,000 disability claims from American veterans. More than a quarter of those vets -- 228,000 -- have been waiting for a year or more.

Rioux has been trying to get his disability claim fully processed since January 2011, shortly after he returned from Afghanistan.

The litany of delays includes lost paperwork, long wait times for appointments and erroneous lab results. At one point, a doctor prescribed him medication for a bladder infection he didn't have; he'd never given as much as a urine sample.

Story here. Excerpt:

'“The Partridge Family” star Danny Bonaduce is recovering after a crazed fan bit him during a meet-and-greet in Washington on Friday.

The actor was hosting an event at a local casino when a woman approached him and asked to give him a kiss.

He tells local publication The News Tribune of Tacoma, “She said, ‘I loved you on ‘he Partridge Family.’ Can I kiss you?’”

But when Bonaduce agreed, she sunk her teeth into his cheek for several seconds until security officials were able to pry her off him.
...
The woman was taken into custody and the following morning cops stopped by the 53 year old’s hotel room to photograph his wound for their official police report.

Bonaduce does not plan on pressing charges, however, his wife Amy reveals her husband is on antibiotics to stave off a possible infection.'

Petition here. Note you do not need to be Jewish to sign this petition. Excerpt:

'Within Judaism, the Brit Milah, a ritual circumcision performed on the eighth day of life, is considered a central rite.

Reform Judaism, progressive in many other ways, has yet to re-evaluate this practice, in spite of clearly compelling evidence of its medical and ethical shortcomings.

We therefore petition the leadership of the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, as principals of the reform Judaism movement within the United States of America, to recognize these shortcomings, and to sanction alternative religious ceremonies that are spiritually relevant but also medically and ethically responsible.'

Article here. (free registration required) Excerpt:

Article here. Speaks for itself. Excerpt:

'U.S. President Barack Obama issued a new executive order last week to fight human trafficking, touting his administration's handling of the issue.

"When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed -- that's slavery," Obama said in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative. "It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world. Now, as a nation, we've long rejected such cruelty."

But for the third year in a row, Obama has waived almost all U.S. sanctions that would punish certain countries that use child soldiers, upsetting many in the human rights community.

Article here. Excerpt:

'According to the board, performances varied by race, ethnicity, gender, school location and other factors, such as parents’ educational attainment. But the most notable achievement gap was between males and females in both eighth and 12th grades.

On average, female students in the eighth grade scored 160; their male counterparts scored 140.

On average, female students in the 12th grade scored 157; males scored 143.

Education analyst Susan Pimentel, one of the team presenting the test scores on Friday’s NAEP conference call, said that while this test cannot determine cause and effect, there are some clues as to why the gap exists. Students were surveyed to find out some additional information about them as they took the test. Among those surveyed, said Pimentel, 53% of girls agreed or strongly agreed that “Writing is one of my favorite activities”, but only 35% of the boys felt that way. Since writing improves with practice, she said this is “an important variable to observe.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A Family Court judge has awarded full custody of a young child to her adopted mother, instead of her biological mom, in what is believed to be the first such New York state case involving a same sex couple.

Manhattan real estate attorney Allison Scollar defeated the little girl’s biological mom, Emmy-winning TV producer Brook Altman in a bitter court battle, the Post has learned.
...
Manhattan Judge Gloria Sosa-Lintner said, “Although . . . Altman is the biological parent, this does not give her an automatic priority over the adoptive parent. This is analogous to a father getting custody of his own child, where only the best interests of the child are paramount.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It is ironic, I suppose, that the Jewish and Muslim community who cannot make common cause on any meaningful issue should come together on this comedy show. To make an anti-circumcision law based on the child’s inability to choose is insanity: a child by definition cannot choose anything—whether breastfeeding or tonsillectomy. But so long as a child has parents who within common-sense parameters act in his best interests as they see them to be, we do not need judges or governments to make decisions in loco parentis. Because this is what the battle over the centimetres of foreskin is about—not Muslims and Jews versus anti-Semites but the age-old battle between individual liberty and statism—in this case the individual family unit and the state. I’ve watched statism conceal itself in many a Trojan horse: multiculturalism, feminism, human rights and so on. This time children’s rights is the thin end of the wedge. And somewhere in Germany’s dank caves, the anti-Semites may howl but they are not the predator.