From Marc A.:

The FBI is expanding its definition of "rape" to include male victims and anal or oral penetration.

The change goes from: “Carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will" to "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

Good move, FBI, even though the article somehow forgets to mention the inclusion of male victims. But one thing they seem to have omitted is penetration of the urethra. That may be one of the ways Stephen Hawking was raped by his wife, who apparently also broke his wrist, blackened his eyes, let him slip under the bathwater, let water into his tracheotomy site in his throat, and denied him his urine bottle. (Story here.)

Most of you are aware of Verizon's latest Dad-Bashing commercial, Monster but do you remember this Dad-Bashing commercial from several years ago, and the effort Glenn Sacks led to have the ad pulled.

Dad-Bashing is apparently nothing new for Verizon. It appears to be a pattern. Is this really the business model Verizon wants to project to its customers and potential customers? If so, why?

Story here. Excerpt:

'Jesua Tatad is said to have scalded her former spouse as he slept and then beat him with a baseball bat.

Even though they were divorced, the 39-year-old shared the same home with the victi, who suffered 60 per cent burns.

Prosecutors said Tatad waited until her ex was asleep before pouring a full pan of boiling water over his body.

As he leapt up in pain she was waiting with a baseball bat and allegedly clubbed him in the head.

Police said the husband was able to escape and flagged down a passing security guard outside his home in Daly City, California.

An ambulance rushed the man to San Francisco General Hospital where he was admitted in critical condition.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the victim is unable to speak due to his injuries.

He said Tatad wasn’t cooking anything prior to the incident and deliberately boiled the water for the attack.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Unfortunately, ramping up to implement circumcision has been slow. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that 1 million circumcisions have been performed over the last 4 years, three-quarters funded by the U.S. government. This is just 4% of the number of circumcisions needed in sub-Saharan Africa. This seems disappointing. It has been four years since randomized controlled trials definitively showed that circumcision can reduce HIV transmission by 60%. And at $75 or so per procedure, circumcision is one of the great bargains in the fight against HIV/AIDS. As many cynics have observed, if there were an HIV/AIDS vaccine as effective as circumcision, we would have been celebrating wildly and intensely pushing its production and distribution. Why has circumcision been treated differently? Why has it taken so long to ramp up circumcision?'

Story here. Excerpt:

'In the Gulf region, where gender restrictions keep the majority of educated women at home, an airline company has come up with a unique formula to encourage a female workforce within its ranks.

Eithad Airways has opened an all-female customer call center in the university city of Al Ain, about two hours east of its main office at Abu Dhabi International Airport, the New York Times reported.

The call center opened in March 2011 with 80 workers and, since then, the staff has more than doubled, according to the newspaper.

“They’re more comfortable, and their families are more comfortable,” Samia Barj, manager of the center reportedly said, in reference to cultural mores that keep women from mingling with men who are not related.”'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Chicago lawyer well-known locally for his "fathers' rights" advertising has taken on a celebrity case ... for a mom who says teen singer Justin Bieber is the father of her baby boy.

Although Mariah Yeater has dismissed without prejudice her San Diego Superior Court suit against Bieber, it could be refiled at any time, her attorney, Jeffery M. Leving, told the Associated Press.

Bieber, who denies that he could be the father, has reportedly agreed to take a paternity test and the suit has been put on hold while both sides wait for the result.

"We are trying to settle this matter out of court with Bieber's camp." said Leving, adding: "It's better that it's handled out of court which is in the best interests of everybody,"' [sic]

Sory here. Excerpt:

'Only a man can be proceeded against and punished for adultery, but the wife cannot be, even as an abettor, the Supreme Court has ruled.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha said, “Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code [which deals with adultery] is currently under criticism from certain quarters for showing a strong gender bias, for it makes the position of a married woman almost as a property of her husband. But in terms of the law as it stands, it is evident from a plain reading of the Section that only a man can be proceeded against and punished for … adultery. Indeed, the Section provides expressly that the wife cannot be punished even as an abettor.”

Kalyani appealed against an Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment that dismissed her petition against registration of a case for adultery under Section 497 of the IPC and wrongful restraint under Section 341 of the IPC by another woman, Sailaja, who alleged that her husband was in an illicit relationship with her.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'You can’t make this stuff up~

Lisalyn R. Jacobs charged and arraigned today for assaulting Ben Vonderheide, aka. Daddy Justice At a VAWA Hearing in the Senate Building in Washington D.C. Another one bites the dust.

Do your job VAWA people and stop supporting and defending false accusations or you will be exposed and go down one by one.
...
See the assault caught on tape...' (at http://vimeo.com/26559450)

Story here. Excerpt:

'RICHMOND, VA (WTVR) - The day is finally here and Thomas Haynesworth can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The wait for a full exoneration is over.

A panel of judges from the Virginia Court of Appeals has decided the 46-year-old Richmond man is not a rapist and he’s not a criminal. It acknowledged Haynesworth’s record should be wiped clean.

“Today justice is finally served for Thomas. God has been merciful and I’m so thankful” said an emotional Ken Cuccinelli during a Tuesday afternoon news conference.

He told a packed auditorium that his job as Attorney General is not just to convict people, but rather it’s to seek justice.

Cuccinelli formally apologized to Haynesworth. He said the mistake that led him to be imprisoned for 27 years was just that, a mistake.'

Outrage is growing over the Verizon Foundation video that portrays abusers as "monsters" and denies the existence of abusive women or abused males: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/52044-verizon-foundation-national-domestic-hotline-video-launch-monsters

Editorialists have called the video "outrageously misandric" and having the "potential for spreading harm and hate." The pro-feminist blog Jezebel described the video as "disturbing."

Activists across the United States and Canada are going to their local Verizon store to raise awareness about the video's systematic biases. We invite you to join in this effort.

Print out copies of this flyer: http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/Verizon-Monster-Video-flyer-FINAL.pdf. Then, pass it out to customers as they enter the store and to store employees.

Tell them the Verizon video is hateful and harmful, and needs to taken down immediately.

Sincerely,

Article here. Excerpt:

'Think most of the misogyny on MTV comes from men? Guess again, says a new study of the network’s shows, which finds women engage in a whopping 88 percent of the shows’ sexual dialogue, insult each other much more than the men, and offer themselves up in positive portrayals only when they’re talking about physical appearance and their ability to bounce back from getting ridiculed.

Television watchdog group The Parents Television Council (PTC) releases its jaw-dropping report “Reality of MTV: Gender Portrayals on Reality TV” on Wednesday, and Fox411.com got an exclusive first look at its findings.
...
Here are their bombshell findings:

-- Only 24 percent of what females said about themselves was positive across all shows combined.

-- Positive dialogue between females focused on their appearance, sense of accomplishment and emotional resilience.

Story here. Excerpt:

'In the end, the 11-woman, one-man retrial jury found the former governor guilty after nine days of deliberation. Jurors decided Blagojevich had tried to sell Obama's Senate seat and personally gained from his position of power. Each of the wire fraud convictions carry a maximum 20 years in prison.

They spared the former governor on count 17, however, saying he never shook down the Illinois Tollway. The jury didn't come to an agreement on counts 11 and 16, which dealt with the Illinois Tollway and trying to get favors for releasing funds for an elementary school.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'France's parliament is to debate abolishing prostitution through a crackdown which would criminalise payment for sex.

The National Assembly will vote on a symbolic resolution drafted by a cross-party commission which, if successful, will be followed by a bill in January.

The resolution urges abolition at a time when "prostitution seems to be becoming routine in Europe".

Some campaigners reject the bill, advocating prostitutes' rights instead.

Around 20,000 people are believed to be working as prostitutes in France.

France has been committed to abolishing the practice in principle since 1960 but the MPs behind the resolution want this stance to be "proclaimed loud and strong".

The criminalisation of clients is "the best way to see prostitution reduced in France, given that all the countries that have regulated this activity have seen an increase", the commission has argued.
...
However, France's sex workers' trade union, Strass, has called a rally outside parliament to oppose the proposed bill.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Court date for man’s £50,000 lawsuit against ‘male-blaming’ gender studies degrees at LSE

(AVfM News)A former student of the London School of Economics (LSE), who has filed a lawsuit claiming all five of its gender studies Masters degrees “exaggerate women’s issues and recommend blaming men to justify ignoring men’s issues,” will make his case at the Central London County Court, a hearing date now set for February 14th, 2012. As reported by The Evening Standard, The Guardian ...,Forbes Magazine, The West End Extra, A Voice for Men, Men’s Matters, and dozens of blogs and vlogs, Tom Martin’s case has garnered a lot of public support, his legal fund receiving £3055 in donations from ninety people in eight countries to date, but Martin says he now needs more donations, “Clerical errors by the court have caused a three month delay, so I now need a few thousand pounds more to continue devoting all my time in preparation for winning the case.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Solomon Metalwala’s 2-year-old son Sky disappeared while in the custody of his estranged wife Julia Biryukova a month ago. Since then, everyone’s focus has been on the search for Sky, as it should be. We speculate that Sky has been stashed with a relative in Ukraine, Biryukova’s native country, but nobody really knows. We hope that Sky is safe and that he will be reunited with his father as soon as possible.