Article here. A convent? Convent?? For a woman who was a willing accomplice to multiple counts of child rape and murder? Shouldn't she be in jail for life along with her unspeakably evil ex-husband? If this had been two men who had done this, with one being "only" an accomplice, you can be sure he would not ever see the light of day again, and rightly so. So why is this woman? The answer is of course in the last word of that question. Story here. Excerpt:

'The jailed ex-wife of child killer Marc Dutroux has been released from prison, after Belgium's highest court upheld her transfer to a convent.

The controversial move for Michelle Martin comes 16 years into her 30-year sentence.

Relatives of the pair's victims have expressed outrage over the decision, with one describing it as "absurd".

Earlier, a court in Brussels rejected two appeals against the ruling.

Article here. Excerpt:

'At the exhibition, only work by women artists is displayed - and for the first month, only women were allowed in.

The organisers are now letting men in - but for most of the month of August they were turned away.

Sarah Wilson said: "It's kind of an experiment - it's a two-month exhibition and the first month has been solely for women - men are not allowed in.

"I don't have a police badge that means I can throw them out on the street but I wanted to create a space where women can work together with other women."'

Article here. Excerpt:

Commentary here (.pdf file). Excerpt:

'Male circumcision is a radical operation that irreversibly excises and amputates a healthy functional body part. The part removed is the foreskin or prepuce of the penis, which constitutes more than fifty percent of the skin and mucosa of the penis. The foreskin, which is a complex structure containing, smooth muscle, large vascular structures, and is highly innervated, has numerous protective, immunological, mechanical, sensory, and sexual physiological functions. The task force on circumcision, however, makes absolutely no mention of the nature or function of the foreskin, although this information is of great relevance to making a decision regarding circumcision.

Rights of the child

Press release here. Excerpt:

'Intact America demands that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) retract its Technical Report released today* extolling the benefits of neonatal male circumcision. According to Georganne Chapin, founding executive director of Intact America, the Report disregards pediatricians’ ethical obligations to their patients and promotes the benefits of circumcision through a selective and self-serving literature review. Further, by calling for public and private insurance payments for medically unnecessary circumcision, the Report promotes pediatricians’ self interest, at the cost of the safety and wellbeing of newborn baby boys and the men they will become. The Report, written by the AAP’s Task Force on Circumcision, is to go before the AAP membership at its October meeting in New Orleans. It stops short of recommending circumcision, even as it claims the surgery’s benefits outweigh the risks, and calls for parents to be the ultimate decision-makers.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A married woman whose husband donated sperm without her knowledge is calling for clinics to be forced to ask for a wife's consent.

The unnamed mother-of-one from Surrey said she feared that children fathered with the sperm – who would be half-brothers or sisters of her son – may one day 'disrupt' the family by getting in touch.

She has written to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority calling for guidelines on sperm donation to include the spouse's views – and says the sperm should be treated as a joint 'marital asset'.

A controversial ruling in 2005 meant all children born through sperm donation – up to ten families are allowed per donor – have the right to trace their biological father when they reach adulthood.

In her heartfelt letter to the fertility watchdog, she told how her husband had donated sperm against her wishes after suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following the birth of their child.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'(CNSNews.com) - According to the Gallup tracking poll of the presidential race, there is a gender gap in the candidates' appeal: Men are more likely to favor Republican candidate Mitt Romney and women are more likely to favor Democratic candidate Barack Obama--by the exact same percentages.

In Gallup's tracking between July 30 and August 19, 50 percent of male registered voters said they supported Romney and 42 percent said they supported Obama. At the same time, 50 percent of female registered voters said they supported Obama and 42 percent said they supported Romney.

The Gallup poll showed a similar, but larger disparity, between married and unmarried registered votes. Among those who were married, Romney led Obama 55 to 37. Among those were not married, Obama led Romney, 57 to 34.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'HOUSTON — In what’s becoming a familiar scenario in Texas, a man has been freed after spending years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

David Lee Wiggins, 48, of Fort Worth was imprisoned in 1989 for rape, largely because the 14-year-old victim picked him out of photo and live lineups. His fingerprints did not match any at the crime scene. Still, he was sentenced to life in prison.

But this month DNA testing excluded Wiggins, and on Friday, State District Judge Louis Sturns in Fort Worth approved a motion overturning his conviction and freed him.

Before Wiggins is officially exonerated, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals must accept the judge's recommendation or the governor must grant a pardon.

Quite a week for Usher. Stories here and here. Excerpt:

'Usher‘s ex-wife Tameka Raymond just lost in the former couple’s bitter custody battle — TMZ has learned, a judge has awarded Usher primary custody of their two sons.

It’s a shocking development — considering both sides were trying to strip each other of custody. Tameka felt the singer was an absentee father who was too absorbed in his career to be a good dad. She also accused him of using drugs in front of the kids.

Usher argued Tameka was inattentive and irresponsible.'

Organization web site: http://CatholicsAgainstCircumcision.org/

Dear AAP Board Members:

I’m writing to you to request that you withdraw or rescind the newest 2012 AAP Circumcision Policy Statement. Below I have critiqued for you some of the serious problems with this new statement.

The Abstract states on page 585 that “health benefits are not great enough to recommend routine circumcision for all male newborns”, but this is not repeated even once in the long text on pages 758-785. Other long columns favoring circumcision are repeated over and over again, on pages 761-762, 770, 775-776, and 778. The 1999 AAP Statement was 8 pages long (pages 686-693), but this diatribe against living with a foreskin goes on for 28 pages. There is almost the feeling that AAP physicians hope that if they repeat something over and over again, eventually it might become the truth.

Article here. Excerpt:

'“I’m shaking my head because the Democratic gender gap with men as great as the gender gap with women,” Matalin said. “Greta — after the sustained war on women, that Romney is everything, from a dog abuser, to a wife cancer giver, to a felon, to a tax cheat, multimillion dollars, multi-state, multi-faceted the gender gap has remained stable, as has Obama’s with men. We’re doing fine with women. What’s driving the gender gap with Obama — excuse me, one second — is liberal women, women under 30 and post-graduate women. Romney wins every other woman, middle class moms, suburbans. Those are the women who are going to vote. The enthusiasm among younger people, in particularly post-graduate, that’s not enough to overcome the women that Romney is going to win.”

“And this war on women is ridiculous,” she continued. “Do you don’t think that Republicans who are married and have daughters and have sisters don’t care about women’s health or are going to ban contraception?”'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A discrimination and retaliation lawsuit has embroiled the upper reaches of the federal government’s immigration enforcement agency, contributing to a sense of turmoil in a bureaucracy that has been suffering major labor conflicts between senior officials and employees.

The lawsuit, filed by a top federal immigration official in New York, alleges that he was shunted out of a high-level position in the agency in favor of a less-qualified woman because he was a man.

The official, James T. Hayes Jr., also accuses the agency’s chief of staff, Suzanne Barr, of “sexually offensive behavior” that contributed to a discriminatory work environment for male employees.

Last week, Ms. Barr stepped down from her post and voluntarily left the agency on paid leave pending the outcome of an internal review of the misconduct allegations, a spokesman said.'

Your pedictably regular dose of misandry from the NY Times. You'd think that the editorial dept. was run by feminists! Wait, ... it is... anyway, here it is. Excerpt:

'That bias, however, is becoming harder to sustain, as men become less relevant to both reproduction and parenting. Women aren’t just becoming men’s equals. It’s increasingly clear that “mankind” itself is a gross misnomer: an uninterrupted, intimate and essential maternal connection defines our species.
...
With expanding reproductive choices, we can expect to see more women choose to reproduce without men entirely. Fortunately, the data for children raised by only females is encouraging. As the Princeton sociologist Sara S. McLanahan has shown, poverty is what hurts children, not the number or gender of parents.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Non-therapeutic male circumcision is quite unclear in Tasmania and this is the reason that the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute has been asking the government to clear the doubts. It is not even known that infant male circumcision is even legal or not.

However, the institute has asked to ban circumcision among infants. It is very important that new laws should be made, which can clarify that circumcision is not allowed for baby boys. It has been noted time and again that parents and relatives make their infants to undergo make circumcision for varied purposes, which are not related to ant medical problem.
...
Professor Kate Warner, who is the director of the institute, was of the view, "It should also support measures to encourage individuals associated with these traditions to move away from loosely entrenched and particularly contentious practices”. A lot of pain is involved in the procedure, which can affect the mental growth of a person.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'THE American Civil Liberties Union has again threatened to sue the Wood County school system over same-sex classes at Van Devender Middle School.

Sarah Rogers of the ACLU demanded that school officials sign an agreement to end the classes. Dean Furner, attorney for the school board, replied.

"However, after much study and debate amongst administration, myself and the board, the board voted to not sign this agreement," Furner said.
...
The ACLU has the luxury of concentrating on manning feminist bastions. Van Devender Middle School has the much more demanding challenge of nurturing actual girls - and boys.

Outside special-interest groups should not make that job any more difficult than it is.

The ACLU's highhanded, threatening behavior is offputting in the extreme.'