http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro Your Daily Dose of Counter-Theory Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:32:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 People accused of domestic violence have a lot to lose. Not just their freedom, but the right to even visit their children. That was the scenario for a Stamford man who was arrested two years ago for allegedly assaulting his wife. She said he threw her down a flight of stairs and kicked her in the head, all in front of their two toddlers. But the defendant, Fernando A., whose full name is not released in court records, said the two were divorcing and his wife fabricated the attack story to gain leverage in family court proceedings. Fernando A., however, never got a chance after his arraignment to object to the order of protection issued against him that prevented him from seeing his children. His lawyer, Steven D. Ecker, of Hartford’s Cowdery, Ecker & Murphy, asked for an evidentiary hearing after the arraignment, but Superior Court Judge James Bingham denied the request. Ecker challenged the denial up to the state Supreme Court. In an opinion to be officially released this week [1], a divided court ruled that a defendant must be granted an evidentiary hearing at which the state must prove, by the civil standard of a preponderance of evidence, that the order of protection is a continued necessity. “All we were asking for is a hearing within a reasonable time after someone is kicked out of their home and prohibited from any contact with their children,” said Ecker. “It seems appropriate a court would permit a hearing to consider both sides of the story. That doesn’t seem particularly controversial.” There are about 19,000 protective orders currently in place in Connecticut. And in a year when domestic violence cases have repeatedly made headlines in the state, it’s no surprise that the Fernando A. appeal drew interest from various advocacy groups, including the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. Full article here [2] [1] http://jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR294/294CR144.pdf [2] http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?ID=35377 http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/06/domestic-violence-suspects-get-another-day-in-court/ From John Stossel: I made The New York Times last week. It even ran my picture. My mother would be proud. Unfortunately, the story was critical. It said, "Critics have leaped on Mr. Stossel's speaking engagements as the latest evidence of conservative bias on the part of Fox." Which "critics" had "leaped"? The reporter mentioned Rachel Maddow. I wouldn't think her criticism newsworthy, but Times reporters may use MSNBC as their guide to life. He also quoted an "associate professor of journalism" who said my speeches were "'pretty shameful' by traditional journalistic standards." All this because I spoke at an event for Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a "conservative advocacy group." full article at reason.com [1] [1] http://reason.com/archives/2009/11/05/the-double-standard-about-jour http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/06/the-double-standard-about-bias-in-journalism/ From CNN.com... ...In our investigation, we reenacted the crime scene and determined it was impossible to discern any words spoken or shouted from 50 yards away. Later, we tracked down the then-teenage witness who said he saw McKinney that night. The man recanted his testimony on videotape, and told us police beat him. We also found a fire department document that indicated the paramedics were called to the police station during McKinney's interrogation, raising the question of whether he was roughed up during his interrogation as he said he was. We interviewed the "gang-bangers" who chased him that night. They acknowledged they chased him after the Ali fight because they were angry he had damaged their car earlier. Finally, we identified alternate suspects, one of whom stated on videotape that he was there when the murder was committed -- and that McKinney wasn't. After I graduated, the investigation continued. Once Protess felt there was enough evidence, after nine teams of student reporters had worked on the case, the information was shared with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern's Law School and McKinney's legal team. The audio and videotaped interviews, affidavits and other on-the-record interview transcripts we worked on also were presented to the district attorney's office. Last year, the new evidence was submitted to the Cook County Circuit Court in an effort to exonerate McKinney. I am still haunted by the case. I am still haunted by my visit to see McKinney in prison -- the gentle face of a man who still has hope after so many years. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, Sally Daly, told me that we, as students, were "conducting these interviews for a grade in this class." She went on to say the "request for the grades goes to explore any possible bias, interest or motive." The claim is that we, as students, were motivated to get witnesses to play into a preconceived thesis of innocence in order to get good grades. I think I speak for my fellow alums when I say this class was never about grades. It has always been about searching for truth and justice for people whose cases didn't get due diligence from a bogged-down system. This was about journalism in its purest and most passionate form. full source article here [1] [1] http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/06/lapin.wrongful.conviction/index.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/06/prosectuors-investigate-innocence-project-team/ From the UK Daily Mail... Any parent with a teenager will be painfully aware that for impressionable young TV viewers, there's nothing sexier than a vampire - and it's got nothing to do with Halloween. Channel 4's latest attempt to seduce us with a mixture of swearing and sex comes in the form of True Blood, the latest in the long line of sexually explicit, violent and vulgar programmes that have, sadly, become the norm on British television. True Blood is a shocking tale of depravity, explicit sexuality (bordering on pornography) and vile language. Even before the opening credits have rolled in the first episode, we see a young woman pleasuring a young man while driving her car. Sexually explicit: But True Blood can be accessed at any time by children via the internet The plot is lazily set up at the outset via a television broadcast of a lady vampire informing us that since scientists have found a way to make artificial human blood, vampires no longer represent a threat to society. As the tale unfolds, we learn there has been a horrifying reversal of events and that some humans, known as vampire drainers, like to drink the blood of vampires as it increases their strength, sexual appetite and performance. The programme is full of others with fantastical powers. Set in Louisiana, there's the telepathic waitress, Sookie, and the 'shapeshifter' Sam. Then there are the 'fang-bangers' - humans who like having sex with vampires - and the drug dealers. More offensive than all this is the sheer distasteful nature of the content. There's oral sex, overt discussion of genitalia, graphic sex scenes bordering on the deviant, and foul language. Read more: [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1225388/True-Blood-vampires-explicit-TV-sucking-innocence-children.html [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1225388/True-Blood-vampires-explicit-TV-sucking-innocence-children.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/05/normalizing-deviance-tv-show-on-vampires-is-violent-vulgar-explicit-and-aimed-at-kids/ At issue is a move by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate liberal arts college admissions. [1] The inquiry was begun based on reports that many private liberal arts colleges -- struggling to have anything close to parity between male and female students -- favor male applicants. Private undergraduate colleges generally are considered to have the legal right to do so, given an exemption in Title IX for their admissions policies. But much of the probe is directed toward the issue of athletics, with commissioners favoring the inquiry saying that it would be "preferable" for liberal arts colleges to add male athletic teams to attract more male students than it is to use admissions preferences, as is alleged to be taking place now. Remainder of this story. [2] [1] http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/02/admit [2] http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/11/03/titleix http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/04/title-ix-trojan-horse/ Energy Department funnels $560 million of $3.4 billion in smart grid grants to Al Gore and partners. [1] [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/6491195/Al-Gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/03/al-gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire/ Satire from The Onion... You know, I'm getting really sick of this. I am a perfectly normal, fully functioning adult, and yet it seems like every other day someone tells me that I need to get professional psychiatric help and probably be put on some sort of medication. Well, if I'm so batty, then answer me this: Why do so many men have sex with me every week? Most people don't even know how to respond when I bring up that important little fact. Because what can you say in the face of such hard evidence of complete normalcy? Of course, I get the occasional "Gina, listen to me, you've got histrionic personality disorder and you have an excessive, self-destructive need for attention, negative or otherwise." But please. If that's what you think, then how do you explain the men practically lined up around the block to hook up with me when I'm wearing next to nothing and dancing on a barroom pool table at three o'clock in the morning? You're trying to tell me they would approach a complete lunatic? Give me a break. source and full article here [1]. [1] http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/if_im_so_crazy_then_why_do http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/03/if-im-so-crazy-then-why-do-people-keep-having-sex-with-me/ ... we kids growing up in the fifties were better off in all sorts of ways. Mad Men has lots of fun showing the Drapers heedlessly clouding their children in secondhand smoke and letting them run around in dry-cleaner cellophane. But in that less fearful and blissfully P.C.-free age, we also learned independence and resilience by roaming the neighborhood unsupervised and playing dodgeball at recess. And though it’s hard to imagine in a time when eight-year-olds are robbed of innocence by everything from Miley Cyrus to the smutty double entendres of Two and a Half Men, our TV shows—Wagon Train and, yes, [Leave it to] Beaver—offered lessons in bravery, honesty, and doing the right thing. In school, our teachers and history texts stressed America’s founding ideals and the remarkable individuals who’d struggled to bring them to life, and we came of age with a straightforward, uncynical love of country wholly alien to children today. Full article @City-Journal.org: What Mad Men Gets Wrong [1] [1] http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_4_snd-the-fifties.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/02/harry-stein-what-mad-men-gets-wrong/ From the Daily Mail (UK): Having reached the age of 38 without meeting Mr Right, Karen Shefras decided to become a mother by using donated sperm. As a result, Karen, who runs her own company, has never met her ten-month-old daughter's father. The closest she came to him was at the clinic where five of her eggs were injected with sperm donated by the dark-haired and intelligent businessman. 'Ideally, it would have been nice to have met a man and had a baby the conventional way,' says Karen, now 41. 'I always pictured myself getting married - but it just didn't happen... The Human Fertility & Embryology Act 2008 means that doctors no longer need to take into account the 'need for a father'. Instead, a woman requesting sperm must only demonstrate that any child will receive 'supportive parenting'. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1224225/Daddies-damned-Who-British-women-think-fathers-irrelevant.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0VfTSN9Mg http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/01/daddies-be-damned-who-are-the-british-women-who-think-fathers-are-irrelevant/ By Stephen C. Webster [1]@rawstory: British police inspectors have been building a massive, secret database containing personal information on thousands of otherwise innocent political activists, an investigative report revealed Sunday. "The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor 'domestic extremists', the Guardian can reveal [2] in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime." The UK paper added that the term "domestic extremist" has no legal basis, but is instead intended to tar those who may have participated in something so benign as civil disobedience. Even merely attending a protest and standing on the outskirts of the crowd can be enough to land one on the National Public Order Intelligence Unit's list of "domestic extremists." The database, which is operated by some 100 employees, gets £9 million in public funding, the paper reported. In addition to giving officers the ability to search for an "extremist" by name, vehicles associated with individuals tied in to the database are automatically tracked across the country by a system of license plate recognition cameras. In one instance, the paper revealed that a man who attended one protest was stopped by police 25 times in just three years because his vehicle was tagged with a "protest" flag. source and full article here [3]. [1] http://rawstory.com/2009/author/stephencwebster/ [2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/25/police-domestic-extremists-database [3] http://rawstory.com/2009/10/report-uk-police-categorize-political-activists-domestic-extremists/ http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/11/01/report-uk-police-categorize-political-activists-as-domestic-extremists/ A soft-spoken Muslim woman tried to slit her Staten Island husband's throat as he slept - enraged that he made her eat pork and wear sexy skirts, officials said. "It's time for you to die!" screamed Rabia Sarwar as she pounced on hubby Sheikh Naseem, sources said. He woke early Wednesday to find her straddling his chest and hacking at his neck with a knife. The burly 41-year-old, a teacher at Susan Wagner High School, overpowered the pretty petite Sarwar, 37, and grabbed the weapon. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/10/30/2009-10-30_woman_held_in_slay_try_of_hubby.html#ixzz0VT4pBSQK [1] [1] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/10/30/2009-10-30_woman_held_in_slay_try_of_hubby.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/30/its-time-for-you-to-die-muslim-woman-tries-to-slit-husbands-throat/ Be Prepared for the Worst by Ron Paul Any number of pundits claim that we have now passed the worst of the recession. Green shoots of recovery are supposedly popping up all around the country, and the economy is expected to resume growing soon at an annual rate of 3% to 4%. Many of these are the same people who insisted that the economy would continue growing last year, even while it was clear that we were already in the beginning stages of a recession. A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954. I fear that our stimulus and bailout programs have already done too much to prevent the economy from recovering in a natural manner and will result in yet another asset bubble. Anytime the central bank intervenes to pump trillions of dollars into the financial system, a bubble is created that must eventually deflate. We have seen the results of Alan Greenspan's excessively low interest rates: the housing bubble, the explosion of subprime loans and the subsequent collapse of the bubble, which took down numerous financial institutions. Rather than allow the market to correct itself and clear away the worst excesses of the boom period, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury colluded to put taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars. Those banks and financial institutions that took on the largest risks and performed worst were rewarded with billions in taxpayer dollars, allowing them to survive and compete with their better-managed peers. This is nothing less than the creation of another bubble. By attempting to cushion the economy from the worst shocks of the housing bubble's collapse, the Federal Reserve has ensured that the ultimate correction of its flawed economic policies will be more severe than it otherwise would have been. Even with the massive interventions, unemployment is near 10% and likely to increase, foreigners are cutting back on purchases of Treasury debt and the Federal Reserve's balance sheet remains bloated at an unprecedented $2 trillion. Can anyone realistically argue that a few small upticks in a handful of economic indicators are a sign that the recession is over? What is more likely happening is a repeat of the Great Depression. We might have up to a year or so of an economy growing just slightly above stagnation, followed by a drop in growth worse than anything we have seen in the past two years. As the housing market fails to return to any sense of normalcy, commercial real estate begins to collapse and manufacturers produce goods that cannot be purchased by debt-strapped consumers, the economy will falter. That will go on until we come to our senses and end this wasteful government spending. Government intervention cannot lead to economic growth. Where does the money come from for Tarp (Treasury's program to buy bad bank paper), the stimulus handouts and the cash for clunkers? It can come only from taxpayers, from sales of Treasury debt or through the printing of new money. Paying for these programs out of tax revenues is pure redistribution; it takes money out of one person's pocket and gives it to someone else without creating any new wealth. Besides, tax revenues have fallen drastically as unemployment has risen, yet government spending continues to increase. As for Treasury debt, the Chinese and other foreign investors are more and more reluctant to buy it, denominated as it is in depreciating dollars. The only remaining option is to have the Fed create new money out of thin air. This is inflation. Higher prices lead to a devalued dollar and a lower standard of living for Americans. The Fed has already overseen a 95% loss in the dollar's purchasing power since 1913. If we do not stop this profligate spending soon, we risk hyperinflation and seeing a 95% devaluation every year. Ron Paul is a Republican congressman from Texas. http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/30/ron-paul-be-prepared-for-the-worst/ From the Calgary Herald... Men walking about in Langley should be wary after a woman viciously kicked a man in the groin, causing him to lose a testicle. ....the force of the assault had caused his testicle to rupture. It had to be removed and will be replaced by a prosthetic before Christmas. Embarrassed by the situation, [the victim] didn’t go to the police until nearly four weeks after the attack. Constables have told him there have been three or four similar assaults on other men.... The suspect is described as a Caucasian woman, in her late teens or early 20s. She was between five foot five and five foot seven tall, and 130 pounds with a slim build, and brown hair. source: full article here [1] [1] http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/loses+testicle+after+random+vicious+kick+woman/2152272/story.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/30/man-loses-testicle-after-random-vicious-kick-by-woman/ From the Daily Mail... Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own. But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1223617/No-men-OR-women-needed-artificial-sperm-eggs-created-time.html#ixzz0VMCIRIRF http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/29/no-men-or-women-needed-scientists-create-sperm-and-eggs-from-stem-cells/ From the Wall Street Journal Online: Conventional wisdom holds that two parents are better than one. Scientists are now finding that growing up without a father actually changes the way your brain develops. German biologist Anna Katharina Braun and others are conducting research on animals that are typically raised by two parents, in the hopes of better understanding the impact on humans of being raised by a single parent. Dr. Braun's work focuses on degus, small rodents related to guinea pigs and chinchillas, because mother and father degus naturally raise their babies together. When deprived of their father, the degu pups exhibit both short- and long-term changes in nerve-cell growth in different regions of the brain. Dr. Braun, director of the Institute of Biology at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, and her colleagues are also looking at how these physical changes affect offspring behavior. click to read full article at wsj [1] [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754804574491811861197926.html http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/29/this-is-your-brain-without-dad/ New Delhi: About 100 people staged a protest against the Domestic Violence Act in the capital Sunday saying it was "full of loopholes" and needed to be made "gender neutral". Activists of Save the Family Foundation, who organised the protest, said that service providers must ensure that the law is made more gender neutral to avoid its misuse. Niladri Shekhar Das, secretary of the NGO, said: "The Domestic Violence Act is full of loopholes, because of which it is being increasingly misused by a lot of women. Efforts must be made that the law is just and gender neutral so that no one can take advantage of it". "The Act assumes that women are always the victims. Hence they are not required to provide any proof for their claims. The sole testimony of the so-called aggrieved person is enough for the court to conclude that an offence has been committed. This is a baseless assumption that helps people misuse the law," Das told IANS. Submitting a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil on ammending the law, the NGO further said that an decision on the custody of the child should be made by a court based on fair hearing of both parents. "Unless there is compelling evidence to believe that either one or both parents are harmful to the child's physical and emotional health and well-being, joint custody should be granted to the mother and the father. Also, if it's realised that a person has filed a false case under the Domestic Violence Act, they should be punished in order to discourage others from following suit," Das added. source Additional refs Husbands allege misuse of Domestic Violence Act [1] There is a welfare ministry for women, why not one for men? [2] [1] http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article38941.ece [2] http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_there-is-a-welfare-ministry-for-women-why-not-one-for-men_1303548 http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/26/india-mra-uma-challa-reports-on-domestic-violence-act-protests/ Women now claim more than 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees, 61 percent of all master's degrees, and half of all professional and doctoral degrees, according to Education Department data cited by University of Michigan economist Mark Perry and others. They also earn more Ph.D.s than men in the humanities, education, health sciences, and social sciences, including two-thirds of new psychology doctorates. Such data might find a principled administration and academic establishment busy documenting and attacking discrimination against or cultural hostility toward underrepresented males. After all, it is an article of faith in the Obama administration, Congress, and much of the academic establishment that there are no innate differences between females and males in interests or cognitive capacities. From this dubious premise, they conclude that only pervasive, ongoing sexism and stereotypes can explain the huge gender disparities in academic fields -- hard sciences, engineering, and mathematics -- that are still male-dominated. Full article at the National Journal here. http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/25/selective-concern-on-sex-imbalances/ From John Dias of misandryreview.com... This is an interesting article about a phenomenon known as the Quiverfull movement.  This movement promotes cultural separation from the secular and feminist culture, promoting as an alternative a patriarchal family-oriented structure based on Christian beliefs and male headship. What I find striking is that political conservatism is often embraced by some in this movement.  They clearly have an antipathy against government encroachment into their lives, and rather than recognizing that excessive State power is the problem that needs reigning in, they instead promote candidates who they trust to wield the ever-expanding power of the State.  Who is in power in government seems to matter more to them than the excess of government power itself. I do think that it's an omen of things to come when people start to form their own cultural communities rather than attempt to massage and reform the existing politicized secular culture.  I think that cultural separation can be a good method of circumventing feminist influence, so long as the leaders remain vigilant in their integrity and don't become intoxicated with power.  One such excess is described below in a quote from the story by a woman who had left the Quiverfull life when her husband had taken his headship role too far: The family's demanding lifestyle eventually began to take its toll. All the food was made from scratch. There was no television, no baby sitters, no time for a break. Meanwhile, Garrison's eldest daughter began cutting herself, an act of rebellion that wasn't supposed to happen. In the Quiverfull movement, it is believed that teenagers trained in the ways of the Lord will transition seamlessly to Christian adulthood.One day, her daughter attempted suicide."That's when it all crumbled for me," Garrison says. "Her self, her emotions, her desires were completely negated. Something inside of her wanted to be an autonomous being, and this was not being allowed." One other interesting quote, this time from a pastor who is favorable to the movement: "As society allowed women and girls more freedom and equality, instances of rape and sexual abuse have skyrocketed," Theron says. This one I agree with.  Excessive sexual license (encouraged and defended by 3rd-wave feminism) results both in higher incidence of rape, as well as higher incidence of false allegations of rape.  The cure, in my opinion, is a much-needed influx of sexual discretion, and I believe that fathers in stable intact families have the greatest capacity of bringing about this cure against not only rape, but also all kinds of violence resulting from fatherlessness in society. If such cultural separatists could restrain the temptation of conflating family headship into stifling authoritarianism, I think that stability will result in a silent groundswell that will buffer the caustic excesses of state intrusion into the personal sphere and family life. -- John Dias Baby makers Preaching patriarchy and procreation, Quiverfull and like-minded groups live by the (good) book By Sena Christian and Ted Cox Sacramento News and Review October 22, 2009 http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1304920 [1] West Sacramento resident Theron Johnson has a vision for an ideal society. In it, racism is eliminated. The United States disbands its large standing army and refrains from engaging in unjust wars. People live within their means and accrue no debt. The weak are protected, taxes lowered and inflation is considered theft. Government agencies stop encroaching on our daily lives, doing little more than protecting homes and property from fire or theft. Personal liberty and freedom reign supreme. In his ideal society, women do not have the right to vote. Male politicians fill government posts, as women seek higher personal meaning through submission to their husbands. Parents raise little girls not to attend college but to marry godly men and bear as many children as the lord gives them. Abortion, same-sex marriage and divorce: illegal. This, to Johnson, is a Christian society. Johnson's vision reflects a growing cross-denominational Christian theology that has recently come to be known as the Quiverfull movement [2], comprised of evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants. Followers typically home-school their children, operate home businesses and attend home-based churches. The movement takes guidance from many Bible passages, including Psalm 127: "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate." Under this ideology, followers understand the Bible as the divine word of God and follow the book's literal meaning, including the Old Testament's strict gender divisions. Wives must submit to their husbands and stay at home and raise children, passing on the same values to their progeny. The movement touts complementarian roles of female submission and male headship. In this arrangement, a woman provides unending service to her husband. One such service is to bear children, as ministers advise women to "reject women's liberation in exchange for the principles of submissive wifehood and prolific stay-at-home motherhood. ... Women's bodies and lives did not belong to them, but to God and his plans for Christian revival," writes Kathryn Joyce in her book Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement [3]. The ills of modern society and the need for a new Christian vision lies, largely, in confusion over sex roles brought by increased gender equality. The culprit: feminism. Although the loosely tied Quiverfull movement goes by other names, such as family-integrated churches, the Christian family-renewal movement or the practice of biblical family values, followers of its central ideology are estimated to number in the tens of thousands, primarily in the Midwest and Bible Belt of the United States. Their numbers are steadily growing, according to Joyce, who has spent the last few years intensely following the movement. Here, in Sacramento, a handful of these churches exist, in rented rooms and halls, including Church of the King, of which Johnson is a founding elder, located in downtown Roseville. Johnson, his wife, AnneMarie, and their eight children live in West Sacramento. Meet the Johnsons Except for the soft sound of crayons neatly filling in black-and-white drawings, the Johnson house is nearly silent. It's an amazing feat, since there are nine family members now occupying this immaculate five-bedroom suburban home. The home is filled with modern furniture and appliances. A screen saver dances across the computer screen in the kitchen. Costco goods fill the cabinets. Theron and AnneMarie sit at the table in their bright sunlit dining room. As soon as the morning alarm rings in the Johnson's home, Bible-based teachings lead the day. The routine begins with prayer, making beds and getting dressed. Sometimes, a few of the children rise early, eager to get a head start on their schoolwork for the day. At 8:30 a.m., the family reads the Bible for 15 minutes. Then, the home schooling begins. The children learn about grammar, science, history and geography. Mom does the majority of the teaching for continuity's sake, because the children's dad works as an airline pilot, often spending nights away in Hawaii. As the couple explains their reasons for keeping the children out of public school, one daughter approaches AnneMarie with a question, pointing to a page in book, God's Gift of Language. The mother responds, and her daughter jumps back to her spot on the carpet in the living room. While AnneMarie, 32, was home-schooled during her upbringing, Theron, 47, earned his education in public school and later the United States Air Force Academy. Theron, an African-American man, remembers being held back from advanced classes in school because of his skin color. So when the time came to decide how to educate their own children, it was a no-brainer: Mom would home-school them. The Johnsons cite several reasons for home schooling, which includes not wanting to be separated from their children for hours at a time, taking a direct interest in their children's education and establishing a moral code. "Knowledge in itself is not enough," Theron says. "You need a moral compass to hold you up." Additionally, by using a Christian-based curriculum, they don't waste time countering lessons taught in public school, such as the theory of evolution. The children's education isn't entirely home-based, either. Home schooling gives them the flexibility to visit the Joshua trees in the California desert or the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. The children also participate in a music cooperative where they play instruments with fellow home-schooled students. But the Johnson's choice to home-school is based on more than the drawbacks of the public school system. Their take on education, along with other Quiverfull families, is also biblically inspired. Not only does scripture teach that parents maintain primary responsibility for the education and development of their children, but, according to Church of the King's Web site, the U.S. Constitution doesn't contain any "provision for schools financed and run by the civil state," which means followers see the American public school system as unconstitutional. The U.S. Department of Education reported that in 2003, 1.1 million students between the ages 5 and 17 were home-schooled, up from an estimated 850,000 home-schooled students in 1999. In the same 2003 survey, 30 percent of parents cited "religious or moral instruction" as the primary reason for home-schooling their children. Vision Forum Ministries, a nonprofit organization based in San Antonio, is one of the leading resources for Christ-centered home-schooling curricula and is dedicated to the preservation of "our covenant with God through biblical patriarchy and multigenerational faithfulness." To reverse what it sees as the long, steady erosion of biblical standards for men and women, Vision Forum advocates teaching history as the province of God and training character through home education. Theron shares Vision Forum's view, as do other Quiverfull proponents. "As Christians, we gear everything we're doing toward our faith," Theron says. "It's how we conduct ourselves, how we define ourselves. It's the core." For Theron and his family, while the core of their faith lies within the home, they find support, fellowship and guidance in a small rented hall in downtown Roseville. His kingdom come It's late Sunday morning, and music flows down the narrow stairwell into the street. Climb the wooden steps and the music grows louder. Sixty people stand on their feet, singing from the Book of Psalms: Lo, children are an heritage of the LordAnd the fruit of the womb is His rewardAs arrows are in the hand of a mighty manSo are the children of the youthHappy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:They shall not be ashamed,But they shall speak with enemies in the gate As the hymn ends, the congregation -- men wearing shirts and ties and women in long dresses and hats -- sit down in stacking chairs. Pastor John Stoos, a balding man of medium height, stands and addresses his predominantly Anglo congregation about the Annunciation, the morning of Jesus Christ's resurrection. Pastor Stoos and his family formed Church of the King five years ago. They began, like so many modern churches, in humble circumstances. Stoos and a few families met in a rented room at the Days Inn off Watt Avenue. Church ranks soon swelled, however, and now about 80 members meet each Sunday in the upstairs room of Eagles Hall on Vernon Street in Roseville. The location may be less than ideal -- a disco ball hangs from the ceiling and the hall shares building space with a smoke shop on the corner -- but for now, it's home. Until five years ago, Stoos and his family, including his daughter AnneMarie Johnson, attended Covenant Reformed Church in Sacramento. CRC touts itself as "pro-family." But, over time, Stoos confronted a serious doctrinal issue: The church barred children from communion. Stoos found no biblical justification keeping children "from the table," referring to the practice of families taking bread and wine from a table each week. Stoos raised the sacramental issue to CRC elders, but they wouldn't budge; CRC's denomination, the Reformed Church in the United States, had previously found "no conclusive evidence favoring either infant or young child communion in either the Old or the New Testament." Stoos disagreed. And so, in 2004, he and a few families split. They had a few options when it came to finding a new place to worship. There are churches in the Sacramento region that preach conservative, pro-family values. Among them: Living Hope Christian Church and The King's House, both in Citrus Heights. The National Center for Family Integrated Churches identifies these congregations within its network (churches could not be reached for comment by deadline). However, neither of these fulfilled their vision. Faith Baptist Tabernacle in North Highlands is also listed in the network, which came as a surprise to church Pastor Mike Rodgers, who says although his church is "very much for the family," it doesn't specifically identify as "family-integrated." Faith Baptist Tabernacle resides in a large white building off Watt Avenue. It sits across the street from a vacant lot, a towing-and-repair facility and some campers. Roosters cock-a-doodle-doo nearby. Pastor Rodgers calls his church "fundamental" in relation to "mainline Protestant denominations that have become more liberal." He believes in Christian home schooling, but doesn't demand his congregation subscribe to this practice. Unlike Quiverfull churches, Faith Baptist Tabernacle offers Sunday School, but similarly, the church promotes female submission. The church's Web site states: "The wife is to submit herself to the Scriptural leadership of her husband as the church submits to the headship of Christ." The men who became the founding elders of Church of the King also considered All Saints Reformed Episcopal Church in Vacaville. But Stoos and his wife had been impressed by their visits to the Reformation Covenant Church in Oregon City, Ore., and, with that church's support, started their own place of worship. Stoos served part time as Church of the King's pastor until retiring from his job with the state of California in 2005. Stoos says his weekly service differs from most evangelical churches. Church of the King includes traditional practices such as a call to confession and weekly communion, and services focus more on adhering to biblical principles than maintaining tradition. "We don't believe that women should teach in the church; you wouldn't see a woman leading services or leading prayer," Stoos says, adding that the policy prohibiting women from speaking in church dates from the Garden of Eden to the apostle Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, which states that women should not speak in church. The church's emphasis on childbirth and child raising is also biblical, according to Stoos. In fact, there's no separate Sunday school for children; little ones stay with their parents at all times. "Again, it starts at the beginning, at the time of creation and even after the fall," Stoos said. "God told man that he should be fruitful and should multiply and replenish the Earth." Indeed, members of Church of the King are multiplying. Each Sunday, church elders announce the birth of a new child. One middle-aged woman tells the story of her daughter, also a Church of the King attendee, who is expecting her ninth child. Even though her daughter's pregnancy is fraught with complications, she beamed about welcoming yet another grandchild. Church of the King belongs to the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a denomination that split from the Presbyterian church in 1998. The split was partly due to that church skewing more liberal on some issues; Presbyterianism was becoming more concerned with addressing social-justice issues than with bringing sinners to repentance. For self-described traditionalists, Presbyterianism's break from Calvinism proved alarming. In their interpretation of Calvinism, religion and faith inform not only Sunday sermons but every aspect of a Christian's life. So in 1998, some traditionalists formalized their split from Presbyterianism and formed the CREC. The return to Calvinism is not merely a religious revival; to followers, it's a push to restore biblical principles to their rightful place at the forefront of society. That Christian restoration begins not in the courts or in the legislature, but in the home. Children of men Thirteen years ago, Theron and AnneMarie married, after a courtship that began at the church where her father, John Stoos, previously served as pastor. The couple developed a friendship on the porch of AnneMarie's parents' house, where congregants gathered on Sunday evenings to eat popcorn and discuss religious and philosophical issues. The men smoked cigars. Six years after marrying, the couple already had three daughters and, eager for a boy, they adopted an 8-year-old. He's now 14. Since then, they've had two more sons and two more daughters. The couple doesn't use birth control or natural family planning, which is typical of followers of the Quiverfull movement. Its staunchest proponents argue against family planning, proclaiming the practice's immorality as it attempts to dictate the will of God. Pastor Stoos is disturbed by what he calls the modern notion that posits children as a burden rather than a blessing. Nor does he see his church's stance against birth control as restraining women. "If anything," he says, "[childbirth] makes them stronger. ... Women who take that seriously are stronger and wiser for it." Indeed, the womb has become central to Christian revival, a "weapon of demographic warfare," as author Kathryn Joyce puts it. Quiverfull writer Mary Pride, author of The Way Home: Beyond Feminism and Back to Reality [4], writes, "My body is not my own." It's a slap in the face to generations of feminists who fought for recognition of the exact opposite. Quiverfull and like movements see women's value inherent in pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Couples are encouraged to bear children, and if a woman dies in childbirth, at least it's for the sake of God's kingdom. As Joyce writes in her book, "Women are domestic warriors in the battle against what they see as 40 years of destruction wrought by women's liberation: contraception, women's careers, abortion, divorce, homosexuality and child abuse." Christian women can undo the damage wracked by their feminist peers by raising more and more children who will seek a return to biblical values. However, childbirth and child rearing doesn't constitute the only role for women in a Quiverfull society. They also exist for the purpose of men, a belief drawn from the Bible's first story, when God created Adam and Eve. As Joyce writes: "She was not some independent, new creation who could do what she liked. She was part of man. Out of man. Made for man." The Johnsons echo this sentiment, arguing the scriptural basis for gender divisions, noting that God is characterized as a father figure in the Bible. The husband heads the household, but not as an overlord. Someone needs to make the final decision when it comes to big issues, such as buying real estate, cars and business endeavors, and that someone is the man. The relationship, the Johnsons say, is mutually beneficial. "God created woman not as a slave, but as a help meet," Theron says, referencing a phrase from Genesis 2. During a Sunday service in August at Church of the King, Pastor Stoos also preached that upon Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, he first appeared to the women who had come to the tomb to prepare his body for burial. The women served this man even in death. Yet the feminist movement has put women in a position of independence and authority that defies their role in the Christian economy, which identifies gender equality as one of the greatest threats to the Quiverfull movement. Or, as Pastor Stoos says, "Modern feminism is anti-God." Fighting feminism, to Stoos and his parishioners, requires two actions: bearing Christian children and preaching the word of God. One overcast morning in August, as AnneMarie prepares peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for the children's lunch, Theron describes how scriptures use militaristic language to describe God's kingdom and the conflict that arises in terms of spreading Christianity. "That's where the battle is," Theron says. "It's not at the ballot box or trying to overpopulate the world. The challenge is to talk to people and evangelize. That's what we try to do." And so Theron talks about his ideal Christian society. He talks about current problems -- government intrusion into our lives, loss of personal liberty, the retreat of the Church, laws that subvert parents' authority over children. Firmly against the Iraq war, Theron says he doesn't support the notion that "might makes right." He believes in converting by the word, not by the sword. In his ideal society, he places more emphasis on personal responsibility and the country's return to the Christian principles upon which it was founded. "The family is the basic unit of society, and government should be there to protect family and individual rights," Theron says. The U.S. Congress would be comprised of men, as women stay home to raise children. Although no woman would be granted the right to vote under God's perfect design, AnneMarie actually cast a ballot in the last presidential election, after consulting with her husband to make sure her choice didn't conflict with his. They didn't particularly care for Republican nominee John McCain, but voted for him because they liked Sarah Palin. Otherwise, AnneMarie would be fine with giving up her voting rights for the sake of a Christian world. When women vote, "You're not working together with your husband," AnneMarie says. "We'd be at odds and at conflict." Unmarried women would also not be allowed to vote, because single females remain under the leadership of their fathers until marriage. That describes the course of AnneMarie's life. As the daughter of a church pastor, she was home-schooled, but later attended college and trained in nursing while waiting for a good husband to come around. When he did, she quit school to begin a family. Now, AnneMarie has her own daughters. While the Johnsons say they'll encourage their sons to move away for college (as long as they find good churches in the new place), their daughters will stay local. "I'm looking out for my girls," Theron says. "I'm not going to send her out by herself. It's part of being a Christian man, protecting women." According to the Johnsons, females need all the protection they can get, as American society no longer treats women with respect. Ironically, that's the very thing feminists have long demanded, although in a much different form than imagined by Quiverfull. "As society allowed women and girls more freedom and equality, instances of rape and sexual abuse have skyrocketed," Theron says. In this view, feminism and equal rights are to blame for violence against women. As Quiverfull thinking goes, if a woman was simply a better wife, didn't nag her husband, submitted to man's domination and didn't mess with gender roles, then domestic and sexual abuse wouldn't occur. Indeed, the Bible promotes women's placement under men's protection, most notably with the story of Jacob's daughter, Dinah, who went out into the world and was raped. Her brothers avenged this by killing all the men in the village, but the rape remained Dinah's punishment for having the audacity to go out and carouse about town. This, argue Quiverfull proponents, is the lesson of the Bible: Men are not responsible or culpable for their own actions. Rather, women either commit sins or somehow cause men to sin. In the Johnsons' ideal society, females would dress modestly and not be seen as sexual objects for male consumption. However, she must always be sexually available. As the Johnsons do what they can to promote a Christian revival, they also share a vision for their own daughters' futures: Be of good character and high moral standing. Obtain an education. Remain a Christian. Marry godly men. Have children. Breakaway blogging For a long time, Vyckie Garrison, 43, lived out the Quiverfull image of a good Christian wife, with seven beautiful children and a popular newsletter run out of their Nebraska home. But two years ago, that all changed. Garrison, who lived in Sacramento as a child, now runs a blog called No Longer Quivering [5], writing about what she calls her escape from the Quiverfull movement. At 17 years old, Garrison accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior. After marrying her second husband in her mid-20s, she started to explore biblical family values, attending home-school conventions, urging her husband to adopt the lessons of the Bible, and to follow God's plan in their lives and marriage. "The promise of this ideal family, the security, the closeness, the high value placed on motherhood looked very appealing," Garrison says. "I had a chaotic childhood and was looking for stability." Gradually, she grew so consumed by the teachings of the Quiverfull movement that she encouraged her husband to reverse his vasectomy. By that time, Garrison had mothered three children, each pregnancy life-threatening and each child born through Cesarean section. To make ends meet, Garrison and her husband published a conservative Christian newspaper. Her husband held the title of newspaper president, but Garrison says she did the bulk of the work. As her family became more isolated and withdrawn -- they home-schooled, operated a home business and had a home church -- Garrison says her husband became tyrannical and paranoid. Held up as the leader of the household, his narcissism magnified itself, she writes, as he attempted to control every single aspect of the household and its occupants. The family's demanding lifestyle eventually began to take its toll. All the food was made from scratch. There was no television, no baby sitters, no time for a break. Meanwhile, Garrison's eldest daughter began cutting herself, an act of rebellion that wasn't supposed to happen. In the Quiverfull movement, it is believed that teenagers trained in the ways of the Lord will transition seamlessly to Christian adulthood. One day, her daughter attempted suicide. "That's when it all crumbled for me," Garrison says. "Her self, her emotions, her desires were completely negated. Something inside of her wanted to be an autonomous being, and this was not being allowed." Garrison divorced her husband and left the Quiverfull movement. She hasn't looked back. "I have no regard for the Bible," Garrison says. "I'm not hip to Jesus either. His symbol of martyrdom, the cross and laying down your life for others -- you can't just give and give and give without falling apart." Welcome to the patriarchy Church of the King and its sister churches are preparing the world for Jesus Christ's triumphant return and the establishment of a perfect society: a theocracy where the Bible, and the men who interpret it, reign unchallenged. "No Christian says we will have it in this lifetime," Stoos says. Rather, home schooling, pronatalism and a patriarchal church organization function to erect the basic pillars of a new society in time for Christ's second coming, during which all Christians will be taken up to heaven in the Rapture. The pro-Bible, pro-patriarchy movement extends far beyond the Church of the King. The church has received e-mails from congregations around the world hoping to implement similar pro-family teachings. Pastors from as far away as Japan, Russia, Hungary, France and African countries have contacted the Church of the King, according to Theron. Meanwhile, the Quiverfull movement has gone mainstream, thanks to the popular cable show Eighteen and Counting [6], about the Duggar family, which comprises a Christian husband and wife and their 18 children. The couple's 19th child is due next spring. Last October, 6,000 women attended the True Woman conference [7], an event in Chicago promoting "biblical womanhood." Part of the event included a signature drive for the "True Woman Manifesto [8]": The two-page document has garnered more than 10,000 signatures worldwide and claims that when women "respond humbly to male leadership in our homes and churches, we demonstrate a noble submission to authority that reflects Christ's submission to God His Father." It is precisely this promotion of female submission that troubles women's rights advocates. "There is no difference between the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Quiverfull movement here in the United States," says Patty Bellasalma, president of the California chapter of the National Organization for Women. "Whether these men are Christian, Muslim or any other religion, each uses God to justify brutality and oppression. Violence against women can never be justified, nor can women's equality be denied or justified by hiding behind religion." But the Johnsons and others in the Quiverfull movement see no problem. This is their life, their family and their belief system, albeit one they hope to spread. We can either live in a Christian society or a non-Christian one. Ultimately, the controversy is a conflict of worldviews. The question, though, is which one, if any, will win out? For the Johnsons, the answer clearly lies within the pages of the Bible. In the end, their God wins. source: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1304920 [1] http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1304920 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiverfull_Movement [3] http://www.amazon.com/Quiverfull-Inside-Christian-Patriarchy-Movement/dp/0807010707/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256236367&sr=8-1 [4] http://www.amazon.com/Way-Home-Beyond-Feminism-Reality/dp/0891073450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256237441&sr=8-1 [5] http://nolongerquivering.wordpress.com/ [6] http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/18-kids-and-counting/duggar-family.html [7] http://www.truewoman.com/ [8] http://www.truewoman.com/assets/files/TW_Manifesto.pdf http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/22/thoughts-on-the-quiverfull-movement/ From MRA author Stephen Baskerville... A review of Taken Into Custody [1] has just been published by the economist Jennifer Roback-Morse in the prestigious scholarly journal, The Family in America: http://www.familyinamerica.org/roback.php [2]. She reviewed it together with Alec Baldwin's book on his divorce ordeal, A Promise to Ourselves [3] , [4] so it is sure to get attention.  An excerpt is below. Taken Into Custody [5] is very high on the Amazon rankings right now. with 60 reviews, almost all 5 starts.  This should help boost it higher, and I would be grateful for any help with publicity. The Family in America has been expanded into a full-length journal and contains other valuable articles on the family.  In fact, I have an article due out in the next issue. IN 2007, THE MEDIA HAD A FEEDING FRENZY around a voice-mail message actor Alec Baldwin left his daughter. He screamed at her for not answering her phone. The public was shocked: many assumed that he was yet another self-absorbed celebrity, with neither control over himself nor regard for his daughter. But in fact, Baldwin had been caught in the web of the totalitarian nightmare known as the American family court system. His book, A Promise to Ourselves, tells his particular story, while Stephen Baskerville's book, Taken Into Custody, presents the general problem of which Baldwin’s story is a particular case. source:  http://www.familyinamerica.org/roback.php [1] http://www.familyinamerica.org/roback.php [2] http://www.familyinamerica.org/roback.php [3] http://mensnewsdaily.com/2009/01/02/alec-baldwin-a-promise-to-ourselves/ [4] http://mensnewsdaily.com/2009/01/02/alec-baldwin-a-promise-to-ourselves/ [5] http://www.amazon.com/Taken-into-Custody-Fatherhood-Marriage/dp/1581825943/sr=8-2/qid=1169683598/ref=sr_1_2/102-0715661-8120912?ie=UTF8&s=books http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/18/has-the-american-family-court-system-become-totalitarian/ HYDERABAD, INDIA - Mothers-in-law in our country are being severely discriminated against, neglected and subjected to all forms of domestic abuse over the last decade. Unless provisions are made to protect mothers-in-law from discrimination, domestic violence, and legal harassment, and unless steps are taken to ensure their welfare during their post-menopausal years, we will witness serious deterioration in the health conditions of aging women in the country, and reduction in their life span. Andhra Pradesh Mothers-in-law Protection Association (APMPA) is the first ever social forum created to protect the rights and interests of mothers-in-law in Andhra Pradesh. APMPA is the Andhra Pradesh chapter of All India Mothers-in-law Protection Forum (http://www.aimpf.org) which was launched on 6 September 2009 in Bangalore, followed by the launch of local chapters in Delhi, Nagpur and Lucknow. Mothers-in-law have historically been portrayed as evil and bloodthirsty by media and popular culture. However, it is a scientifically and also statistically established fact that mothers-in-law are unnecessarily maligned and subjected to discrimination by the society. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS [1]) (http://www.nfhsindia.org Vol-1 Page 500) has conclusively established that a woman in the age group of 15-49 years of age faces 8 times more violence from her own mother compared to her mother-in-law. 13.7% women have faced violence from their own mother as compared to 1.7% women who have faced from their mothers-in-law. Recent Research has shown that “daughters-in-law are programmed to hate mothers-in-law”. This is one of the most important causes of the stereotyping of mothers-in-law in the society. Mothers-in-law are being discriminated against in spite of their generosity just for the sin of giving birth to sons and getting them married. They are being forced to part with their earnings, savings and inherited wealth and they are being thrown out of their own property at the behest of a disgruntled daughter-in-law. They are losing their mental peace and health, and many a time even their husbands and sons to untimely death or suicide when daughters-in-law indulge in making false allegations and defamation of the husband’s family. In many instances, the mothers-in-law themselves commit suicide. Mothers -in-law in India face severe abuse from daughters-in-law: Physical harassment including assault, locking up the mother-in-law in a room, denying food and medication etc. Mental harassment including taunts, allegations, caustic comments, threatening to file police cases, disallowing communication with her son, grandchildren, defaming her and her family etc. Verbal harassment including name calling, insulting, abusing, etc. Economic abuse including extorting her money and wealth, throwing her out of her own house and forcibly occupying the house, etc. Legal harassment including inciting the police to threaten her, filing false cases under Dowry Prohibition Act, IPC Section 498A, Domestic Violence Act, and other related sections, sending her to jail or forcing her to run around the court for years together. Driving mothers-in-law to commit suicide. The National Family Health Survey, conducted by the Ministry of Family Health and Welfare only counts women between the ages of 15-49 as women. Mothers-in-law who fall in the age bracket above 49 do not count as women, and their health and welfare is not a matter of concern for the Government of India. While there are close to 15 laws that provide protection to daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law do not have any societal support or legal protection from any form of discrimination or abuse. In the last four years, over 1,23,497 women, most of them being mothers-in-law, have been arrested under IPC Section 498A alone, without evidence or investigation, not for committing any crime under law, but only because they were related to a man. Noted women’s rights activist Madhu Kishwar acknowledged that IPC Section 498A is heavily misused, and that a significant proportion of individuals who approach “Manushi” these days are mothers-in-law and husbands who are falsely accused of marital cruelty and dowry harassment. Renowned IPS officer Kiran Bedi admitted that many poor and illiterate mothers-in-law, who are falsely charged under anti-dowry laws, are languishing in prison every year. Several elderly women, falsely accused under IPC Section 498A (for the only crime of mothering sons and getting the sons married) approached the National Commission for Women, seeking justice. These women have long heart-rending accounts of how they are being harassed by their daughters-in-law. The NCW’s short, yet prompt and candid response to these mothers was, “Your matter does not fall under the mandate of the Commission”. Similarly, in June 2009, a 45 year old mother-in-law was arrested in a dowry harassment case filed by her daughter-in-law. The poor lady was allegedly gang-raped in police custody, in Bhopal. The news, which was reported in leading newspapers, went completely unnoticed by the NCW or any other women’s organization that harps about fighting atrocities against women. No panel was set up. No probe was initiated and no action has been taken against this brutality perpetrated against a mother-in-law. On 8 October 2009, a news report described the gut-wrenching tale of a 75-year-old mother-in-law, Jiwan Devi, who is another victim of societal and legal bias against mothers-in-law. Holding back her tears, here is what she said to the journalist who visited her: “What is the point?...I and my sons were in jail for four years before we were acquitted. And my grandchildren were at the mercy of our neighbours and distant relatives. Why?... My granddaughter is 19. While all her friends are in college, she is still in class 11. This happened only because there was no one to take care of them while we were in jail. They were also in deep shock”' There are thousands of Jiwan Devis in this country, whose lives have been destroyed, just for having given life to sons. These are the women whose woes do not fall under the agenda of the Ministry for Women and Child Development, the National Commission for Women, or any other related women’s organization, and they have nowhere to go to seek help and support for problems specifically affecting them. APMPA will work towards the protection and welfare of such mothers-in-law in distress by creating awareness, giving them moral support and legal counseling. We will also urge the government to reform the present “wife-centric” domestic violence laws and demand equal protection for mothers-in-law from domestic violence. The helpline numbers of the Andhra Pradesh Mothers-in-law Protection Association are 9704683163, 9753605415. Mothers-in-law facing harassment from their daughters-in-law can contact these numbers. Venue: Public Gardens, Opposite Jubilee Hall Date and Time: 18 October 2009, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. SOURCE [2]: http://dvawareness-india.blogspot.com/ [1] http://www.nfhsindia.org/ [2] http://dvawareness-india.blogspot.com/ http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/15/india-launch-of-andhra-pradesh-mothers-in-law-protection-association-apmpa/ LONDON (Reuters) - Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle. These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled "Manthropology" and provocatively sub-titled "The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male." McAllister sets out his stall in the opening sentence of the prologue. "If you're reading this then you -- or the male you have bought it for -- are the worst man in history. "No ifs, no buts -- the worst man, period...As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet." full article here [1] [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59D0BR20091014 http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/15/modern-man-a-wimp-says-anthropologist/ LOS ANGELES/October 9, 2009 -- October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the National Coalition For Men (NCFM) anticipates two successful high profile legal rulings this year and last year in West Virginia and California, respectively, will bring needed attention to the hidden, overlooked side of partner abuse - male victims. On October 2, 2009, a West Virginia judge struck down state rules for regulating domestic violence shelters because they operate "on the premise that only men can be batterers and only women can be victims" and "exclude adult and adolescent males from their statutory right to safety and security free from domestic violence" based only on their gender." One year ago on October 14, 2008, NCFM won a landmark appellate victory in California, which held that state laws violated men's equal protection rights by excluded male victims from state-funded domestic violence services. The court found "domestic violence is a serious problem for both women and men" and that "men experience significant levels of domestic violence as victims."  The court also found 15% of state-funded programs deny men services, but NCFM believes it is higher, as programs often "help" by only giving referrals. More attention is needed for male victims and their children, as both are overlooked in state-funded outreach and services.  And, for several reasons, men are already less likely than women to seek help for domestic violence.  A major national study funded by the Centers for Disease Control in 2007 found women initiate or commit at least half of heterosexual domestic violence and both sexes suffered significant injuries. http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a [1] This is supported by more than 200 other empirical studies summarized in an online bibliography by Professor Martin Fiebert of California State University.  See  www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm [2] This research is more reliable than crime data because men are less likely to report the violence or to respond positively to crime surveys.  But regardless of statistics, services should be need-based, not gender-based.  When victims don't get help, the violence often escalates, and children are emotionally damaged by witnessing it. SOURCES: 10/8/09 Associated Press story in San Francisco Chronicle on ruling in West Virginia www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/judge-wva-shelter-rules-biased-against-men-63771622.html [3] 10/14/08 ABC News story on Woods v. Horton decision in California http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=6453627 [4] Woods . Horton decision in 2008 in California http://www.cpedv.org/docs/101608CPEDV-Woods_v_Shewry_Decision.pdf [5] [1] http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a [2] http://www.csulb.edu/%7Emfiebert/assault.htm [3] http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/ap/judge-wva-shelter-rules-biased-against-men-63771622.html [4] http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=6453627 [5] http://www.cpedv.org/docs/101608CPEDV-Woods_v_Shewry_Decision.pdf http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/10/during-domestic-violence-awareness-month-legal-victories-bring-light-to-battered-men-again/ "Make no mistake. We're now in the middle of a bloodless coup – the takeover of an entire nation by the hate-America crowd – a cold-blooded gang that despises America's prosperity, our standing in the world, our trust in God and our generosity and goodness," says political activist Floyd Brown in a post on the new Impeach Obama Campaign website. [1] [1] http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112098 http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/09/impeachment-suggested-to-remove-threats-to-america/ Norwegian Nobel Committee does it again. [1] [1] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/09/president-barack-obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize/ http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/09/obama-wins-nobel-peace-prize/ http://mensnewsdaily.com/sexandmetro/2009/10/08/racists-in-them-thar-tee-parties/