Article here. Excerpt:

'New Hampshire currently has the strongest set of domestic violence laws in the country; however, that could all change. Lawmakers held a hearing on Thursday which focused on two bills that would drastically scale back the domestic violence laws currently in place.

One of the bills being considered is House Bill 1581 which would prevent law enforcement from being able to immediately arrest an abuser who has assaulted his or her partner unless the officer has actually witnesses the crime take place. Under the current law, the police can arrest an abuser based on probable cause.
...
“It’s clear if a police officer sees somebody robbing a bank they ought to be able to arrest them,” says Representative Dan Itse, “Our Constitution is clear. You have to prove to an objective party, a judge, that there is reasonably cause that there is warrant for arrest.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Long ago, feminists launched an attack on the concept of manliness, and you can see the fruits of their campaign in the Costa Concordia. Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield, author of Manliness, has said that the "the entire project of modernity can be understood as a project to keep manliness unemployed."

If manliness, a necessary precursor of the virtue of chivalry, is obsolete, why would a crew member risk his life to uphold it? My friend and colleague Carrie Lukas once observed that "gentlemanly conduct isn't about the women at all. It's about the men and their sense of themselves." Today men are discouraged from feeling that there is any intrinsic value in being and acting like a man. If there is no pride, no sense of particular duty to a high cause, why, then, would they possibly surrender a seat on a lifeboat?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Today there is no social norm, so it's every man for himself – operative word "man," although not many of the chaps on the Titanic would recognize those on the Costa Concordia as "men." From a grandmother on the latter: "I was standing by the lifeboats and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls."

Whenever I write about these subjects, I receive a lot of mail from men along the lines of this correspondent:

"The feminists wanted a gender-neutral society. Now they've got it. So what are you complaining about?"

And so the manly virtues (if you'll forgive a quaint phrase) shrivel away to the so-called "man caves," those sad little redoubts of beer and premium cable sports networks.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Americans reacted with disbelief and outrage this week after an ABC TV documentary detailed a conspiracy between prosecutors, social workers and school authorities to destroy Julian Wendrow's family.

Wendrow, 56, is a teacher and paint-store owner. He was arrested at his home in Michigan days before a planned family holiday to Johannesburg in December 2007. He was jailed for 80 days, 70 of them in a 2x2m solitary confinement cell, and threatened with life imprisonment while county officials publicly described him as a rapist and a paedophile.

His wife, Tali, was also taken to jail, fitted with an electronic tether and placed under house arrest for alleged complicity in the "rapes". As a result she lost her job as a research attorney.'

Story here.

'BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) - Rape charges filed against a Wymore man have been dismissed, and the woman who accused him has been arrested on suspicion of lying about the assault and other counts.

Beatrice radio station KWBE (http://bit.ly/xTyNOL) reports that 27-year-old Jennifer Valenta of Wilber has been charged with perjury, false reporting, obstructing government operations, two counts of prostitution and other counts.

Deputy Gage County Attorney Rick Schreiner says Valenta was arrested Friday in Beatrice. Valenta had reported that she was gang-raped by the Wymore man and three others on Nov. 24.

Schreiner says the investigation into the allegations did not support Valenta's claims, and that she eventually acknowledged fabricating the rape.

Valenta remained in jail Saturday and could not be reached for comment.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Jerusalem --- January 20, 2012 .... For many divorced fathers in Israel, the declaration yesterday by Israel Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman that divorced parents must now share custody of children, may have come too late. Neeman has accepted recommendations by the Schnit Committee that joint parental custody be ordered in divorce cases involving young children, which the law defines as those up to age 6. Until now, most divorced fathers became visitors, being limited to seeing their children only a few hours a week.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Circumcisions would again receive state funding under a proposal introduced by several Colorado lawmakers.

The bill would allow Medicaid to again cover circumcisions. The procedure was dropped from Medicaid last year as a money-saving move. Several states have stopped covering circumcisions amid concerns that they're not medically necessary. Colorado projected that it would save about $186,500 a year if it stopped covering circumcisions.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Female American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been involved in more combat than in prior wars and have the same post-traumatic stress disorder rate as men, a new study has found.

For the study, researchers looked at over 7,000 active-duty soldiers who served in the war zones and found that 4 percent of female soldiers reported killing, 9 percent reported witnessing killing, 31 percent reported exposure to death and 7 percent suffered a combat-related injury.
...
"If women are indeed being exposed to combat stressors at a higher rate than in prior eras, we have to be prepared to provide the services they need, and take into account the impact that these stressors can have on their mental health functioning," she said in a university news release.

"We also need to take a closer look at physical injury and its potential impact on women's psychological health," Maguen added.'

Petition here. Overall point of effort very well-taken. But something doesn't feel quite right. I signed the petition, but with a 'signing statement'. I include it as the first comment of the story. Petition excerpt:

'I once trusted the Birmingham Public Schools. I sent my children to school thinking they were safe and protected. I found out different.

My 17-year old-daughter Gloria was sprayed in the face with pepper spray by a Birmingham police officer assigned to protect students in the school.

She wasn’t being violent and she certainly wasn’t a threat to the officer. Gloria was upset because a boy had pushed her. While she was confronting the boy, the police officer grabbed her from behind, pulled out his canister of pepper spray, and sprayed her in the eyes, face, and mouth. My 15-year-old daughter Patrice saw her sister sprayed and ran to her side. As Patrice reached Gloria, the officer sprayed Gloria with a second burst of pepper spray. The second burst also hit Patrice in the face.

Article here. Excerpt:

"The Department for Work and Pensions on Friday outlined plans to force companies that offered “guaranteed minimum pensions” in the Nineties to reassess the different accrual rates for male and female members of the scheme and equalise overall benefits to avoid discrimination.

Under the law at the time, women could collect their state pension five years earlier than men, when they reached 60. Men could only start claiming their pension at 65.

This rule has never been updated for the guaranteed minimum pension scheme since, despite case law in 1990 which ruled it was unlawful to discriminate between men and women in relation to occupational pensions.

According to equality campaigners, this gives female members of the guaranteed minimum pension retiring today an unfair advantage as they can get hold of the benefits sooner than men.

The new rules outlined by the DWP on Friday would see men be able to claim payments at the age of 60."

Petition here. It's not an accident I posted this shortly after In Massachusetts, boys playing on girls teams causes a ruckus. Excerpt:

'On Thursday, October 6, 2011, Mina Johnson sat out of Southampton Academy's junior varsity football game because their opponent, Northeast Academy, threatened to forfeit if a girl played. At 5'2" and 170-pounds, Mina is a starting linebacker for the Southampton Academy Raiders. She is also an honor-roll student and is quite formidable on the football field, having sacked Rocky Mount’s quarterback four times during a 30-24 win on Sept. 22.

This petition was started by members of the U.S. women's national tackle football team to show support for Mina Johnson, her coach and team, and the multitude of girls and women who face discrimination in the sport of tackle football.

From SAVE:

We've all heard the stories. In relationships with violent partners, men hope for the safety of an abuse shelter, just to be told they aren't allowed inside. Abused men and lesbians reaching out for help, just to be told by DV advocates that they must have provoked their female partner.

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before we are serving every domestic violence victim. But the news isn't all bad. There are hotlines, shelters, agencies and counseling centers that serve abuse victims who are GLBT and heterosexual men.

We are on a quest to find them. Will you help?

Please use a phone book or internet search engine to locate the DV providers in your area (county or state, depending on the size and your dedication). Then call them and ask the following questions:

Article here. Excerpt:

'FRANKLIN, Mass. - When Will Higgins won the South sectional 50-meter freestyle in Massachusetts in November, there was mixed joy among his Norwood Senior High teammates.

He broke the meet record in a blistering 23.96 seconds, moving on to the state swimming and diving championships. The win also helped spur his team to an eighth-place finish in the section tournament.

But because Higgins is a boy, his record win sparked increasing attention and criticism from a national audience in what has become a local epidemic: Boys playing on girls teams.

Article here. Excerpt:

'April marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX, legislation passed to ensure educational institutions do not discriminate on the basis of gender. That's why the American Association of University Women recently held a "Tweet-Up" with Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Four decades after the law passed, Secretary Duncan seems to remain largely ignorant of the serious ramifications of this legislation, which, in effect, has helped institutionalize gender inequality, quotas and preferences. During the Tweet-up Duncan wrote, "Contrary to conventional wisdom, since 1972 access to men's sports has not been diminished." He added, "T9 requires schools to offer equal athletic opps for men & women. It doesn't require schools to eliminate any teams."

Well, not exactly, Mr. Secretary.

Thread title is from the OIG mailing-list email:

Link here. Excerpt: