Article here. Excerpt:

'Boys learn very quickly growing up they should respond to challenges with violence, says the senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Wollongong.

Dr Flood says: “There’s good evidence that male-on-male violence … is shaped very strongly by codes of manhood based on honour, on pride, on aggression."

“We need culture change. We need change in the way we raise our boys.”

Boys learn to react with violence from their peers, family and culture.
...
“I think we need to complement campaigns about violence against women with ones about men’s violence against men.”'

Today, we're asking you to intervene on behalf of a young father in Maine. Judge Robert E. Murray convicted Vladek Filler and gave him a sentence of 21 days in jail for allegedly pushing his wife Ligia Filler in April 2007. The problem is that the conviction and harsh sentence follow five years, two criminal trials and appeals involving prosecutorial misconduct by Asst. District Attorney Mary E. Kellett.

The charges stem from Filler's child custody dispute, and range from spousal rape to splashing water on his then-wife. The 1st trial court and Maine Supreme Court found prosecutor Mary N. Kellett had engaged in misconduct. The divorce court granted Filler sole custody of his children, found his wife made false allegations and was a violent child abuser.

Video here.

'Scientists in California are reporting promising results with an experimental contraceptive gel for men. Using a combination of two hormones, the researchers say they have been able to lower the sperm count of males significantly, bringing a new era of male responsibility for birth control a big step closer.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'More than 1.2 million infant boys undergo the surgery each year, making the United States one of the industrialized world’s leading producers of circumcised men. But the once ubiquitous practice, in which the foreskin is removed from the penis, is waning.

From a high of about 80 percent in the 1960s, the portion of baby boys leaving hospitals with petroleum-jelly-covered wounds in their diapers dropped to 56 percent in 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The figures do not include those circumcised in outside clinics or by religious providers.)

The downward trend is probably fueled by Medicaid laws in many states that have stopped paying for the surgery, increased immigration from Latin America and other areas were circumcision is less common, and a growingly vocal cadre of so-called “intactivists” who argue that the practice is a human rights violation.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Men can legally challenge the paternity on the grounds of fraud, mistake or misrepresentation following the 2011 amendment to Chapter 161 of the Texas Family Code.

The new law enables a man who has previously been named as the biological father of a child in a court order or has signed an acknowledgment of paternity to challenge his paternity by filing a petition in court to terminate his parental rights after later discovering the fraud.

In order to successfully challenge paternity under the new law, a man must file a verified petition, after which the court will hold a pre-trial hearing to determine whether the man has a justifiable reason for not previously questioning his paternity. The court then will order genetic testing.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The statistics tell the story — boys are losing out when it comes to education.

On a number of counts, the evidence suggests that more young men than women are experiencing difficulties with school.

They appear to be less engaged and eventually drop out before graduation at a higher rate than girls.

Theories and proposed solutions abound, but one common element among experts is the education system needs an overhaul for the so-called “boy crisis” to be resolved.

Two local women in the masters of education program at Thompson Rivers University have come up with one way to address the problem: get kids moving.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'1. Against Their Nature: Wouldn't it strike you as strange if a tiger suddenly turned vegetarian? This is because it is against their basic nature. In the same way, feminism is against the basic nature of men and that is why women hate men who claim to be upholders of women's rights.

2. Traitors To Their Own Cause: The types of men who start calling themselves feminists are seen as 'traitors' among men folk. Generally, men despise male feminists much more than they despise female feminists. How do you trust someone who has betrayed their own kind? If they have betrayed their own gender that is men, they might as well betray you.

Story here. Excerpt:

'(CBS/AP) HOKENDAUQUA, Pa. - Na Cola Darcel Franklin spent her weekend in jail when she was supposed to be celebrating her first days as a newlywed. She is accused of killing her fiancé at their eastern Pennsylvania apartment hours before they were to get married.

Franklin, 31, was charged with criminal homicide Saturday morning in the stabbing death of 36-year-old Billy Brewster in their Whitehall Township apartment. She seemed unable to grasp her fiancé's death during her arraignment by video from jail Saturday, when she reportedly pleaded to the judge, "You got to check again!"

District Judge Donna Butler told her that Brewster had been pronounced dead earlier, to which Franklin wailed and covered her face in her hands. When asked if she understood the homicide charge against her, Franklin wept and choked out the words one at a time.

"I ... did ... not ... kill ... him ... on ... purpose," she said, according to the Morning Call newspaper.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'For more than 20 years, the South Carolina Department of Social Services used false contempt of court threat to scare parents behind on their child support. It would issue a summons to appear for a hearing and pointedly remind the parent that he or she could be held in contempt of court for failure to pay.

Of course, it was an empty threat. No judge was present. It was not a judicial proceeding. Nobody could be held in contempt. The scare it placed in child support obligors who received it, however, was real. And yes, it skirted, if it not violated, all notions of due process.

One father questioned this practice. Because of his lawsuit, this scare tactic has been stopped.'

I can just imagine in the mind of the average reader: "He had it coming!" Yes, if she had done the same thing to him and he had stabbed her, do you suppose the "average reader" would think the same thing? Article here. Excerpt:

'According to a police probable cause affidavit, Sherry was cleaning the dishes when her boyfriend, Michael Martinez, “slapped her in the buttocks.” Martinez told a Bethlehem cop that he did this as a “joke” since he “was aware Sherry had sunburn in the area.”

Sherry, however, did not find this amusing and “became immediately agitated.”
...
After directing her two children to leave the room, Sherry allegedly “poked” Martinez in the abdomen with the knife, and then stabbed him in the shoulder. Before stabbing him a third time, “Sherry screamed, ‘I’m going to fucking kill you.'”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Part of the problem is cultural, which policymakers may not be able to address easily or at all. One Dallas principal I spoke with noted that as more families split up, more young boys live in homes without a father. The lack of a dad can create numerous problems, he pointed out, but it especially can create a problem for young boys who lack a male figure helping supervise them.

Divorce may be the only way forward for some families, but fathers in situations like that owe it to their kids to remain a part of their lives, helping create horizons for them. For one thing, young men with only a high school degree are more likely to suffer economically. Holly Hacker reported in December on a telling difference: Men with high school degrees suffer higher unemployment rates than men with either an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree.'

Letter here. Excerpt:

'Most people might not know that if a person is charged with domestic violence and a jury acquits them (or the charge is dismissed) it does not prove that the defendant is innocent. The verdict simply means that there is reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty. This is much different from "proof beyond reasonable doubt" or the question of moral certainty where one would act in reliance upon its truth in matters that are important to them.

This also means that a juror cannot decide a defendant's actual innocence, although it does exist, and that leads to injustice. Moreover, an innocent defendant may be subject to a restraining order because the law does not require an overt act. Instead it is based on what the innocent defendant might do rather than what that person didn't do. That's open to pure speculation that continues to be fostered by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Article here. Excerpt:

'Flag football will be a girls varsity sport in public high schools this winter, costing the Clark County School District $225,000 for the first season as it tries to comply with federal requirements.

And flag football may just be the beginning, with girls lacrosse being considered for the 2013-14 school year, said Ray Mathis, the district's executive athletic director. Local high schools added girls freshmen soccer last school year but didn't do the same for boys. And boys won't receive any new sports for a while, he said.

That is because the district is trying to close the gap between the number of its male and female student-athletes, which was pointed out in a civil rights complaint made in 2010.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Looks like the Department of Homeland Security could be renamed the Department of Hyper Sexuality.

A blistering federal discrimination suit accuses agency honcho Janet Napolitano of turning the department into a female-run “frat house” where male staffers were banished to the bathrooms and routinely humiliated.

James Hayes Jr., who now is New York’s top Homeland Security cop, claims Napolitano filled top spots in Washington, D.C., with two of her gal pals who were bent on tormenting male employees.

The suit identified them as Dora Schriro, who is now running the city Department of Correction, and Suzanne Barr, the chief of staff for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.'

This story is doing the rounds in Australia, and finally some traction. Excerpt:

'A public backlash has prompted Virgin Australia to announce it will review its policy barring men from sitting beside unaccompanied children on flights.

The company was today widely criticised after a Sydney fireman reported his experience of being asked to swap seats because he was sat beside two unaccompanied boys.
...
"In light of recent feedback, we're now reviewing this policy. Our intention is certainly not to discriminate in any way."

A Virgin spokeswoman said the policy was shared by Qantas, Jetstar and Air New Zealand.'