For weeks the Domestic Violence industry has been promising that the Senate would vote on its version of the Violence Against Women Act, S. 1925, by March 23, or certainly no later than March 30.

But that promise came unraveled this week as Senate majority leader Harry Reid postponed a vote on VAWA until after April 16, when the Senate will come back into session after its Easter recess.

Some say the reason for the delay is the reluctance of Sen. Reid to compete with the publicity surrounding President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which is being argued in the Supreme Court this week. But the more likely explanation is that Sen. Reid is having difficulty lining up the necessary 60 votes to secure passage of the VAWA reauthorization. It is known that some senators who are generally supportive of the bill are insisting that amendments be made before they will vote in favor of it.

In the last week, Senator Leahy (D-VT) gathered enough co-sponsors to avoid a filibuster, and the Senate is expected to vote on the Violence Against Women Act (S.1925) very soon.

This means time is running short to take action.

Let's make sure that every senator knows that without accountability, accreditation and equal protection, VAWA is a flawed bill. Let's make sure they know that we want them to vote NO.

Find your senators' phone numbers here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Or call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, where an operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request.

The vote could be this week, so please call right now.

Sincerely,

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

Video here.

Uploaded by girlwriteswhat:

'What has feminism done to shatter the patriarchal "women and children first" mentality, and elevate men to status as full human beings deserving of empathy and human rights? What has it done to reinforce and legally entrench the mentality that everyone, including men themselves, should put men last?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The recent improvements in the job market have given us reason to hope the economy is finally on the mend.

But after five years of struggles, here’s a sobering reminder of how far we still have to go: Nearly two in 10 American men in the prime of their life still are not working.

Nearly 83 percent of men ages 25 to 54 – traditionally the core of the nation’s workforce – were working in February, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
...
Holzer said there has been some real progress for working men in recent months, but a look at long-term trends shows that we still have far to go. He’s particularly concerned about working-age men who do not have a higher education and have been hit hard by cuts in fields such as manufacturing and construction.

“They were having a hard time even before the recession hit, and they really got slammed by the recession,” he said. “That’s a problematic group that we need to think about more seriously.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Re: Circumcision tied to lower prostate cancer risk: study, March 12

I am continually baffled at the seemingly endless array of problems that routine infant circumcision is supposed to “cure” or “prevent.” First it was masturbation in the Victorian era, then cancer, then HIV (even though the U.S. with a high rate of circumcision has a much higher rate of HIV transmission than non-circumcising countries like Germany, Norway and Sweden, and infants are not sexually active anyway) and now cancer again, even though the data in this study is showing correlation and not causation — a common misconception.
...
The procedure itself does not treat any medical condition in infants and children and is therefore unethical as removing healthy, normal, functional tissue from an infant for no medical reason is a clear violation of the doctor’s oath to “do no harm.”

Video here. Caption:

'Male students march around Temple’s campus in high heels to demonstrate against domestic violence and victim blaming.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Steven Landsburg, the professor who was denounced by his university for criticizing Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, stuck to his position in an exclusive interview with The College Fix.

“Everyone deserves respect, but some people are not interested in discussing their ideas, or possibly examining a different side,” said Landsburg, a bestselling author and professor of economics at the University of Rochester. “Fluke clearly has no desire to do this.”
...
His opinion sparked controversy at the University of Rochester. Student protesters entered Landsburg’s mid-afternoon lecture and formed a line, shoulder-to-shoulder, between him and the class. Landsburg continued to lecture. The students distributed fliers that read: “We denounce professor Steven Landsburg’s attempt to smear a gender with derogatory terms.”

UR president Joel Seligman wrote an e-mail to faculty and staff that said he was “outraged that any professor would demean a student in this fashion.”

Landsburg found these criticisms to be absurd.

Article here. Excerpt:

'What do you do when you don't have dragons to kill? You beat up women and remove their rights. It is the new American way. Women are smaller. They can be destroyed with a single word or with a well placed blow to the neck. They fall quicker than dragons and die easier. You can even have a fun time before you finish them off. When they are dead the problem is gone. This is the war on women.
...
So what do you do if people don't like you beating or killing a woman? You organize and whine. "Men have no rights in a divorce." "Judges always give women restraining orders." "Women always claim their husbands beat them." Here's a secret for you ladies. Even the guys who say these lines don't believe them. That hasn't stopped a hot air men's rights movement from springing up in support of batterers. "Punishing a batterer is sexist." "A 100 pound woman is just as much of a threat to a 250 pound man as he is to her." "Children are better off with a rich batterer than in a domestic violence shelter."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'WASHINGTON, Mar 27, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Washington, DC/March 27, 2012 -- The broader American public opposes reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, according to a U.S. News and World Report poll that shows Americans think the law is ineffectual and unjust. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) notes the recent U.S. News "Debate Club" feature on VAWA has elicited an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the law: http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-the-violence-against-women-act-be-reauthorized.

The top vote-getter in the poll was a commentary by Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, who argued the Violence Against Women Act should "outrage decent people" because it "victimizes both women and men." Crouse's statement beat opposing votes by a nearly five-to-one margin.

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'Question from Andy Katz: Well, Mr. President, it is going to be the 40th anniversary of Title IX [on June 23]. What is the impact of that legislation on society in America?

Answer from President Obama: I am a huge believer that sports ends up being good for kids, and especially good for girls. It gives them confidence, it gives them a sense of what it means to compete. Studies show that girls who are involved in athletics often do better in school; they are more confident in terms of dealing with boys. And, so, for those of us who grew up just as Title IX was taking off, to see the development of women's role models in sports, and for girls to know they excelled in something, there would be a spot for them in college where they weren't second-class, I think has helped to make our society more equal in general.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'With the exception of a few colds, my 16-month-old son has been a healthy baby. He hasn’t been afflicted with chronic ear infections, colic or bowel problems. His visits to the doctor have been almost all routine.

...Like about half of newborn boys, my son was circumcised. The day we checked out of the hospital, the doctor and a nurse came and got him, wheeled him off and returned him a short time later. I was instructed to cover his wound with Vaseline and gauze for a week and a half. And that was it.

Except that wasn’t it.

Link here. Excerpt:

'The Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men's Health (FFCMH) is seeking a PhD candidate for a research project aimed at improving the delivery of health services to men and developing more effective responses to men’s health concerns.

The project :

The project will examine men’s attitudes and help-seeking behaviours in relation to their health and wellbeing using data from a recent survey of 1500 men in South Australia, conducted to investigate the perceived health care needs of men, and the Florey Adelaide Male Ageing Study (FAMAS), a longitudinal study of over 1000 men in South Australia designed to learn about age-related changes in men’s health.

Latitude to explore additional areas of interest in relation to men’s health service utilisation will also exist within the project framework.'

Me But Not My Son: A Young Jewish Man Breaks Rank on Circumcision Excerpt:

'I am 21 years old, Jewish, and opposed to circumcision. I attend college in Indiana. I grew up in a small Southern town where my family was one of a handful of Jews. My parents were born and raised Jewish. I was circumcised when I was eight days old by a mohel at a brit milah.

My Jewish identity was always very important to me growing up. I went to synagogue a lot, spent my summers at a Jewish summer camp, had a bar mitzvah, and in high school was part of NFTY (North American Federation of Temple Youth). I went to Israel for a semester in high school. When I was a child and teenager, I was always proud to be Jewish, to be a part of G-d’s chosen people, to be in a culture that valued life and not death. I’m also a person who finds the idea of permanent body modification disturbing. I feel G-d made us the way we are for a reason. Every organ has a purpose. Even our imperfections are a sign of our individuality. When I found out I was circumcised, I was horrified.'

Available here or here if you have trouble with the first link. This issue focuses on elders/senior citizens and their issues. Note WILL is not an MRA publication as such, but runs MRA issue-friendly articles from time to time.