WSJ: The New Art of Alimony:

Long viewed as payment for life, divorce settlements are facing strict new limits as some ex-spouses—primarily men—protest the endless support of a former partner. For richer, for poorer, forever?

Amy Alkon: on Mira Sorvino's Stinky T-Shirt:

On a superficial note, I am not a "gal pal," nor do I have "gal pals," and if I did, I'd be too busy throwing up to have much contact with them. Got this icky-toned e-mail last month, and I was a bit behind due to book-related stuff, so I'm only posting it now:

Subject: Re: Mira Sorvino Wants You To Tell a Gal P.A.L.

In a message dated 9/30/09 3:40:25 PM, Jamie.Dammrich@zenogroup.com writes:

Hi Amy,

As gal pals, we talk about everything. Yet there's one subject that often goes unsaid - domestic violence. Did you know that one in four women reports being abused by a husband or partner in her lifetime?....

Amy lets the writer of the email in on a little secret (sure, one that everyone should know, but pretend not to)--her stats are false. See Amy's response here.

"...the only way to assert your human dignity is to walk away."

Stuart Schneiderman: Is America Going John Galt?:

They do not know and do not care that the productive human beings who make the economy run are about to walk away from it all. They are not seeing things in terms of human beings and in terms of policies that might or might not work. They are seeing a golden opportunity to right what they perceive as a decades-old wrong. They are not going to miss the chance.

So,the new governing class is constantly attacking the productive class, vilifying them, disrespecting them, doing everything possible to lower their status. When someone is taking away the fruits of your labor and using you as their whipping boy the only way to assert your human dignity is to walk away.

Maybe men "should take back the night"

I found it sort of (okay, really) ironic after reading a news article about University of Tennessee women at a "Take back the night" rally to highlight violence against women that two of the stories linked to this story were about....women's violence against men.

In the first story, a teacher is arrested with the statutory rape of a male student:

FENTRESS COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Fentress County Grand Jury has indicted a high school teacher for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student.

Lindsey Seymour, 27 of Allardt turned herself in to Fentress County authorities on Thursday afternoon. She was officially charged with eight counts of statutory rape.

Seymour allegedly had the sexual encounters with the male student between June 2009 and September 2009. In late September, the teen’s parents complained to the district attorney about the contact.

In the second news story, a woman is just now serving time (not much) for shooting her boyfriend through the head in 2005:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – The Blount County woman who gunned down her live-in boyfriend in June 2005 will begin serving her sentence on Monday.

April Jennifer Warren, 38 pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on April 8th, 2008. According to police, she killed Charles Russell, 32 with a single shotgun blast to his head following an argument in their home on June 13th, 2005. Court records indicated she was performing CPR on Russell when police arrived on the scene.

Warren was sentenced to 10 years in prison on May 28th, 2008, but later appealed when it came out that Judge Mike Meares had contacted the family of the victim about the verdict. After sentencing Warren, Judge Meares apparently told Russell’s family that he gave her the maximum penalty with them in mind and asked that they support him in his upcoming election.

This murderer will have to serve only 35 percent of the 10 year prison sentence. I understand this is due to a technicality but 10 years wasn't much to begin with. And I wonder how this murder was counted? As a woman murdering a man? As some lesser crime due to it being voluntary manslaughter? Was it entered in the national data base at all as a woman killing a man?

Maybe it's time men who have been affected by female sexual and physical violence to"take back the night" but that will never happen. Men will rarely stand up for themselves and society sees their lives as expendable, especially when taken by a woman. Men will continue to be abused and will suffer or die in silence, or with the frequent sneer that "he deserved it."

Update: Here is yet another story linked from the same news site (WVLT) about a woman who killed her boyfriend (Good grief, how many are there?). Naturally, she again got only voluntary manslaughter and here is what she served:

In May 2008, the defendant pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in that case and was sentenced to three years in prison as a standard offender. According to her sentencing report, she was to serve 120 days in the county jail in 20-day increments -- with the remainder of her sentence as supervised probation.

Women just say the word, "domestic violence" and they are given a pass for killing, as in this case. When women's groups shout non-stop about domestic violence and violence against women, they plant the seeds in the culture that men are never victims. This is not true but people listen, despite evidence to the contrary.

Update II: DADvocate points out another case where a woman stabbed her husband 193 times, gets 25 years and has the verdict overturned (via Althouse blog). The case sounded familiar and I realized it was that of Susan Wright, one of the women profiled on the Oxygen show "Snapped" that I was on as an expert in 2004. The show is coming to the Biography channel soon according to a promo. That's the thing about cable. The shows are recycled forever.

I talked to WVLT-TV here in Knoxville about the Christian/Newsom case and what it might feel like to be a father in that court room.

You can see the video here. Or below.

PJM column: Obama and His Good Ol’ Boys

I have a column up at PJM about Obama's all-male athletic outings:

Golf without women present? Alert the media!

You can read it here.

John Hawkins has an interview up with Robert Spencer, the author of a new book, The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran.

Kids and pop culture, men's issues and domestic violence

I talked about all of these issues today on George Korda's show "State Your Case" on NewsTalk 100 WNOX in Knoxville from 12:00 until 1:00. Callers called in to talk about the unfairness of the courts, their divorce and/or the treatment of men in the media. It made for an interesting afternoon and made me realize how many more resources are needed out there to provide men with a platform for some of their concerns.

You can now grow a mustache to support Prostate Cancer research (via Instapundit).