Letter here. Excerpt:

'In any debate, people are entitled to their opinions, but not their own facts. The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a revised circumcision policy statement that relies on selectively chosen facts to support the alteration of normal male genitalia ("Pediatrician Group Says Pros Outweigh Cons in Circumcision," Aug. 27 news article).

Read it here. Pandering knows no political ideology or moral limits. There doesn't seem to be a contact page but there is a Facebook account for them here. Excerpt:

'Patriot Voices has released a survey by The Tarrance Group that listens to the voices of moms through an online survey in five Battleground states – Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, and Virginia. What it found shows that Moms Know Best, and that candidates running for national office this November shouldn’t discount the opinions of Moms across these important states. Most acknowledge that they are a key voting block this year, and that although many minds are seemingly made up, this demographic famously make up their minds late, or are often willing to change them.

Article here. Excerpt:

'JTA — One of Germany’s 16 states has declared circumcision legal, but only if performed by doctors — not, as required by Jewish law, by mohels.

Berlin, Germany’s capital and itself a state, is the first to declare the practice legal following a Cologne court ruling in June that non-medical circumcisions on children amounted to a criminal offense, according to DPA, a German news wire. National legislation is pending to legalize circumcision.

State Justice Minister Thomas Heilmann made the announcement Wednesday, saying he felt it necessary to allay fears in this “difficult transitional period,” the Associated Press reported.

The Berlin state has authorized only doctors, and not mohels, to perform circumcisions. National legislation could authorize mohels. The state also required that parents be informed of the procedure’s medical risks before consenting, and that doctors do everything possible during the procedure to reduce pain and limit bleeding.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Emily’s List president Stephanie Schriock says that in 2008 about 10 million more women than men voted in the historic presidential election the propelled Barack Obama into the White House.

Now Schriok and the group that promotes Democratic women candidates across the county hopes that the women’s vote will help Obama win another term.

“We’re going to make sure that happens again,” Schriock told me while at a reception at the Democratic National Convention given by the National Women’s Political Caucus. “It’s going to be great. We can do it.”

The reception, at an uptown bar in Charlotte, featured fiery speeches by veterans of the feminist movement. They claimed that Republicans were waging a war against women and reproductive rights and would fail.

Republicans dismissed this notion and contend their conservative, pro jobs agenda is better for all Americans, including women.

Democrats disagree.'

Stroy here. Excerpt:

'Suspicious that a woman concocted a tale of being threatened at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend, a state Superior Court judge in Morristown has suggested that police and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office investigate the woman’s claim of being victimized.

“I’m going to reiterate: It appears you have grossly misused the domestic violence law,” Family Division Judge Thomas J. Critchley Jr. told Melanie Pilcher, 44, at a hearing in August.

“It’s foolishness what you’ve done and the banner under which you’ve marched. It’s on its face absurd some of the things you’ve been saying.” the judge said.

The current obstacle for the man Pilcher has accused — Jefferson resident Robert A. Mertrud, 55 — is that he remains criminally charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, a charge that alone carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison upon conviction.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A bomb hoax in Philadelphia that turned a Dallas-bound flight around and led to a full-scale SWAT response was apparently triggered by a spiteful ex-girlfriend who telephoned authorities to say her former beau was aboard the US Air flight armed with liquid explosives, police told ABC News.

According to authorities, Christopher Shell, a salesman in his 20's who travels between Philadelphia and Dallas, had no explosives and is cooperating with authorities. He appears to have been the victim of a cruel joke.

When asked how Shell reacted when police took him off the plane, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said at a news conference, "He was obviously very alarmed as I would be if heavily armed police entered a plane to take me off...he was certainly stunned."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Just 69.8 percent of all men over age 16 were in the labor force in August, compared to a long-term average of 78.3 percent since the Labor Department began tracking these data in 1948. The share has been falling pretty steadily over the last six decades but has declined sharply in the last few years.
...
For example, a lot of traditionally male jobs, in industries like manufacturing and construction, have disappeared, and many of the men who were displaced gave up looking for work when they couldn’t find similar jobs.'

Relatedly (and ironically), Secretary Hilda Solis attends ‘Women in the Workforce’ discussion. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'More men in the early childhood education sector would not only bring a range of benefits for children, but could also lift the quality of early childhood education, improve staff dynamics and encourage fathers to become more involved with their child’s education, a new survey shows.

A more diverse workforce, with men represented as well as women, is seen as being necessary to expand the quality of early childhood education for children and bring different viewpoints and ways of working to the ECE profession and the sector.

The ChildForum Early Childhood Network survey questioned hundreds of people involved with early childhood education services and teacher educators about whether they would like to see more men in the workplace and what benefits or disadvantages that could bring.'

Article here. Man uses airplane bomb threat to "avenge" another man's posting of compromising pictures of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook. When will men stop upholding the "honor" of women? Excerpt:

'A man angry about a compromising Facebook photo of his girlfriend took revenge against the ex-boyfriend who posted it, making a hoax call to police that set off a terrorism scare and got the former beau taken off an airliner at gunpoint, authorities say.

The new boyfriend, Kenneth W. Smith Jr., was arrested Friday on charges of making a false threat to Philadelphia police, who recalled a Dallas-bound flight and marched the ex-beau, Christopher Shell, off the plane Thursday.

The episode led to Shell's own arrest on drug warrants after he finally reached Texas to celebrate his 29th birthday.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'One in five 15 year olds, as well as nearly 75 million adults, lack basic reading and writing skills, which makes it hard for them to get a job and increases their risk of poverty and social exclusion.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A national research project is recruiting men to participate in a study on men’s experience with partner aggression. Researchers at Clark University and Bridgewater State University are conducting this study on men who have experienced aggression from their girlfriends, wives, or female partners.

If you are a man between the ages of 18-59 and have experienced aggression from a female partner at some point during your life, you may be eligible to participate in this study. Researchers, Denise A. Hines, Ph.D. and Emily M. Douglas, Ph.D., invite you to follow this link to the study webpage where you can complete the online survey about your experience.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'One question we did not answer until a nurse posed it in the hours after delivery, my newborn baby boy nestled snugly in the bend of my arm, was whether or not our son would be circumcised.

"Absolutely not," my husband replied without a glance in my direction. While my gut instinct was to agree with him, I was caught off guard by his prompt response and the finality with which it was delivered without my input. My mind flashed back to an experience I had long before he and I met, a former boyfriend who was very self-conscious about his uncut penis. It was the only male insight I had into the subject outside of my husband's firm declaration, and I waited until the nurse left to broach the topic. My Husband Wants To Circumcise Our Son... But I Don't

Article here. Excerpt:

'The president of the German Association of Pediatricians was quoted Sunday by the Frankfurter Sonntagszeitung as comparing circumcision to "drilling a hole in the ear of a child and causing physical damage."

On Friday, a district court in Berlin was asked to rule in a unique case in Germany, in which parents of a three-year-old girl demanded compensation from a piercing studio on the grounds that their child was traumatized and had complained of pain in the days after her ears were pierced.
...
"A hole in a child's ear causes irreversible damage, just like circumcision is an irreversible act," said Hartmann, adding that "circumcision is obviously a violation of utmost importance."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'“Dear Doctor,

Just take a tad. Please leave me most of what I already had. Life is too short so don’t make me that way. So please hold steady and have a nice day.”

She noted that the doctor, who has since retired, said in his 40 years of practice he never found another note in a baby’s diaper. After Cody’s procedure, Kathie Lee had wanted the note back to put in her son’s baby book, but the doctor insisted on keeping it. He then framed it and put it on his office wall.

My question is this, what must Cody think? Is he amused or embarrassed that his mother is talking about his penis on morning TV? As if having a note about your circumcision living on the wall of a doctor’s office wasn’t bad enough.

Would you talk about your son’s circumcision in such a public way or do you think that is something best kept private?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Why do countries with long histories of anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry seem to care more about the so-called rights of young children not to be circumcised than do other countries in the world with far better histories of concern for human rights? The same rhetorical question can be asked of countries, such as Norway, that care so much about the rights of animals not to be slaughtered according to Jewish ritual. These questions are entirely rhetorical because every thinking person knows the answer. It's not because Germans or Norwegians are better people and care more about children and animals than do Americans. It is because they care less about Jews. Or more precisely they care a lot about Jews. They just don't like them very much and don't care if they are forced to leave the country because they cannot practice their religions there.