We'll be meeting on Capitol Hill Friday morning for a day of lobbying, followed by a get-to-know-each-other dinner.

On Saturday we'll enjoy the conference, have lunch, and participate in our June Domestic Violence Legislative Project (DVLP) meeting. DVLP: http://www.saveservices.org/dvlp.

Meet your fellow advocates, activists and citizen lobbyists. Learn from the experts. Get hands-on training. Feel empowered!

Visit the SAVE website for more information about this year's conference: http://www.saveservices.org/dvlp/annual-conference-2012

Start making plans now to attend. Register early, as space is limited. To register, email info-at-saveservices.org.

I can't wait to meet you all!

Sincerely,

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

Article here. Excerpt:

'Actually, what we find weird is that someone who claims to be a “feminist, a writer, and a gentlewoman of fortune” who refuses to be labeled as some sort of damsel in distress has absolutely no problem making up stereotypes for Mr. Gosling before having met him.

In an email to The New York Observer (sent before the Gawker piece), Ms. Penny wrote about that fateful meeting:

"Lucky or not, I feel it’s some sort of karmic retribution for my having spent so much time cackling at the ‘manarchist Ryan Gosling’ meme. I have no idea if Mr Gosling is actually a manarchist, but he’s clearly a decent sort of person, and looks rather dashing in double denim."

Link here. Excerpt:

'A Queensland man has lost a bid to gain full responsibility for his ex-girlfriend's unborn child.

The man, who cannot be named, had applied for an injunction from the Family Court of Australia to stop the 16-year-old girl from terminating her pregnancy and to get full custody of the child once it was born.

He also wanted to ensure the girl told him when she went into labour and that he was given permission to visit the hospital, the Daily Telegraph reports.'

As a follow-up to this item, I received the following in reply to my letter to the D.A.:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6th, 2012

KELSO, WA - Cowlitz County Prosecutor Sue Baur will not be filing perjury charges against Cassandra Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy recently claimed she lied in 2001 as an eleven-year-old victim when she testified against her father, Thomas Kennedy in a jury trial. The jury convicted Mr. Kennedy of three counts of Rape of a Child in the First Degree. Her recantation was found to be enough to warrant an order for a new trial, but was not determined to be the truth.
There is a misconception that Mr. Kennedy would not have been released unless he was found innocent. This is untrue. He has never been found innocent of the crimes of Rape of a Child.

Petition here. Excerpt:

'Taylor Bigler, Entertainment Editor of The Daily Caller has written an article about the sexual mutilation and abuse of a man at the hands of his ex-girlfriend. In writing this article, Ms. Bigler somehow found this man's horrific injuries which may have caused permanent damage and the crime committed against him by his ex-girlfriend to be a humorous and positive event. If the genders were reversed and a man ripped the breast from a woman's body, would Ms. Bigler have made comments such as "As if this story isn't already good enough...." Good enough? So Ms. Bigler finds some good out of this poor man's sexual mutilation. http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/06/angry-ex-girlfriend-goes-ballistic-rips-off-mans-scrotum/

We ask that Taylor Bigler resign from The Daily Caller or be fired by them. Nothing short of Ms. Bigler's resignation or firing will suffice.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'To the great delight of the vast majority of men, it appears the days of women setting their sights on marrying ‘above themselves’ are over.

The attractions of the Mr Darcys of this world are waning as women become better educated and better paid, research has found.

Indeed modern women could hardly be further from the likes of Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet and her scheming to net Mr Darcy – not just the man she loved but, crucially, a wealthy aristocrat.

Analysing how female aspirations have changed over the past 50 years the researchers found women in their late twenties and early thirties are increasingly marrying ‘beneath themselves’ by opting for men of lower social classes.

The study by the Institute for Public Policy Research adds weight to the idea that today’s economically independent women are freer to marry for love rather than to further themselves.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, a mother of two, believes women should marry women. In exceptional circumstances, they can marry men, she said during a recent Makers interview (excerpt embedded above).

“The most important thing — and I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it a hundred times — if you marry a man, marry the right one,” Sandberg said. “If you can marry a woman, that’s better because the split between two women in the home is pretty even, the data shows.” She didn’t elaborate on her source.

Unlike men, women feel guilty for working full time, according to Sandberg. Furthermore, they are liked less the more they succeed. That’s something that needs to change.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Of course, it was a man who sued the Copenhagen Bella Comwell for its “Bella Donna” floor dedicated solely to rooms for women guests. The hotel, which has decided to challenge the decision by the Danish Gender Equality Board, reports full occupancy for the “ban men” floor. So do other hotels that declare men unwelcome on specific floors in Australia, as well as various cities in the U.S., Singapore and Dubai.

I’ve never stayed at such a hotel, but it’s hard to find fault with the idea of a secure-access floor served only by women, offering white, king-sized beds, fresh flowers, bowls of green apples, fashion magazines, complementary natural-beauty products, steam irons, ionic hairdryers, satin-padded hangers and an emergency kit with nylons and other items that one may have forgotten. Not to mention fine chocolates, smoothies and wine by female winemakers in the mini bar. All that for about $50 extra or at no charge? Check me in, please.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'(JTA) -- A New York mohel who performed the circumcision of one newborn who died of herpes and of three other infants who contracted the disease apparently tested positive for herpes, The New York Jewish Week reported.

Yitzchok Fischer, who was ordered in 2007 to stop the circumcision ritual of metzitzah b’peh, in which the mohel orally suctions blood from the circumcision wound, refused, however, to submit to a DNA test to determine if he is a match to the viruses found in the babies.

The Jewish Week reported April 6 that a copy of the 2007 New York State Department of Health order obtained by the newspaper through a Freedom of Information Law request said that he tested positive for an infection that he was "capable of communicating to others."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'HARTFORD, Conn. — Victoria Steele saw her daughter on the day she was born, and was not allowed to see her again for five years.

Steele, just 18 at the time, was wanted for violating the terms of her supervised home release on a robbery charge. She was sent to the York Correctional Institution directly from the hospital. The state placed the baby with her paternal grandparents, who spoke only Spanish and never brought the child to visit in prison.

"I was so depressed," said Steele, now 45, of West Hartford. "I was emotionally, mentally, and physically lost. I had no I idea how to connect. It was like losing my child. I lost her. There were no support services in prison."'

Link here. Excerpt:

'My name is Peter. In August 2012 my the 6 week old little boy was subjected to circumcision.

He was circumcised for no medical reason, without his consent and without my consent as his father.

* In my view, society (or a parent) has no right to subject an infant to surgery without medical reason. An infant's body does not belong to parents, he is only in their custody until adulthood.

* My son was circumcised without my consent as father. My son had a natural right to expect that he would have my protection, care and authority. I had a natural right to give him that care, protection and authority. As you will read, every politician, every bureaucrat and the medical regulators are of the mind that the circumcision of my little boy was none of my business.
I DISAGREE.

For a doctor to take the decision to circumcise an infant without the informed, considered consent of both parents represents a blatant moral and ethical failing. If the doctor's decision is defended in law, the act becomes one of state sanctioned bastardry.

Article here. Excerpt:

'(Reuters) - President Barack Obama, leading in the polls among women voters, said on Friday he wants to help working women fight discrimination and juggle the demands of motherhood but stopped short of making promises on gender equality if he wins re-election.

At a White House event on women and the economy, Obama noted "there has been a lot of talk about women and women's issues lately," a nod to the emergence of contraceptive rights, working women and all-male establishments as heated issues in his race for re-election in November.

"But I do think that the conversation has been oversimplified," Obama said. "Women are not some monolithic bloc. Women are not an interest group. You shouldn't be treated that way."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Have you been contacted by the Department of Child Support Services that your information was on one of the four backup storage cartridges lost?

Information about 800,000 adults and children in California's child support system were lost during shipment. The cartridges contain such information as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, drivers’ license or identification numbers, names of health insurance providers, health insurance plan membership identification numbers and employer information.'

Article here. (Ed. note: This is not the same article as published by Kelly McParland, just posted here on MANN. Interesting the meme sprouted up at the same time in two different places, isn't it?) Excerpt:

'Today, a lot of younger women simply don’t need guys any more. Guys can even be a liability. The New York Times reported last month that, in the U.S., having children outside of marriage is the new normal. More than half of births to American women under 30 now occur outside marriage. One mother, Amber Strader, 27, told the Times she was in an on-and-off relationship when she got pregnant. Marrying her boyfriend, a clerk at Sears, never entered her mind. “It was like living with another kid.”

If illegitimacy has lost its stigma, so has being out of work. Men who failed to provide for their families used to be known as “bums” and “deadbeats.” Now they’re just slackers.

Article here. Excerpt:

'It may be that this condition manifests itself more in younger men because the old farts are too conditioned to adjust. Feminism has been a gradual process, and the ripple of unanticipated consequences has expanded at similar rate. Men raised to provide may feel uncomfortable outside that role, but less so a younger generation of males that hasn’t been treated to the same level of conditioning. Schools now work on the expectation that women are supposed to do well. To a much greater degree, society is set up to move them along the path to success and achievement. They still have the option of motherhood if they prefer, but there’s much less stigma (perhaps none at all) in choosing career over mothering, or vice versa. What’s important is self-esteem, and the assurance that, whichever path you choose, society fully embraces the choice as valid.