Nashville Tea Party Convention

Glenn and I will be in Nashville covering the National Tea Party Convention for PJTV. Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart are scheduled to be there as well as 600 attendees and others. You can watch streaming live coverage at PJTV.

John Hawkins interviews John Yoo on his new book, Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush.

Carnival of Misandry

Well, so many of you are writing in with tips that I figured it was time for another Carnival of Misandry. Thanks to all the readers who sent me links this week, I can't include them all, but I read each one. No reader names will be used so people can discuss freely but if you want your name mentioned, let me know very clearly in your email.

First up comes an article from the Australian, where "a report on family law recommends a change to the legal definition of violence to encompass behaviour that is "economically abusive", threatening or coercive:

The report, by the Family Law Council, says changes made to the Family Law Act (1975) by the Howard government narrowed the definition of violence and was "conservative in its drafting".

The review was one of three reports released this week on family law, one of which warned that women and children were at a greater risk of violence.

The Family Law Council report said the definition of violence in the act was in "some ways reminiscent of the common law definition of assault".

"It is questionable whether it encompasses the debilitating psychological abuse by controlling conduct," the report says.

It argues that the definition of family violence should be amended to encompass behaviour that is not only physically or sexually abusive, but also economically abusive, threatening, coercive, "or in any other way controls or dominates" the other party.

Why not just include the definition of family violence as any person in the family over 5 who dares to have a penis?

Next up is a case about some women in Wisconsin who avoided jail time in a glue-related revenge plot:

Ziemann, a mother of six, acknowledged that she lured the 37-year-old man to a motel last July after the man's wife contacted her and told her he was seeing other women.

First she tied the man up and blindfolded him under the guise of erotic play. Then she summoned the other three women with a text message, according to court documents.

She told police she slapped the man in the face, cut off his underwear and used the glue to attach his penis to his stomach. The other three women arrived, and several berated and belittled the man. Eventually he worked his way out of his restraints and the women fled.

Perhaps it is the judge here who should get the prize for the most misandric of this crew--the women got probation and community service and the judge responded:

The judge acknowledged a possible double-standard with the sentencing. If the incident involved a man who committed similar acts against an unwilling woman, that man would doubtless face prison time, Judge Donald Poppy [my emphasis] said.

But in this case the victim and his "bad behavior" were partly to blame, he said.

The victim "started the ball rolling, philandering with others besides his wife, who was putting bread on the table and taking care of his children," the judge said.

So, the judge admits he's biased against men--that's just plain scary. Men need to take action in Wisconsin and do something about this judge of injustice.

Finally, Glenn Sacks sent me a post about an English professor over at Psychology Today by the name of Regina Barreca, Ph.D who praised Clara Harris, a female dentist who ran over her husband, and killed him. I did a show once on this case and it was horrible. I thought psychologists were against domestic violence but perhaps that's only if a woman gets hurt. If a man dies, that's just deserts. Luckily, Glenn Sacks is on the case and is asking that people sign a petition that lets Psychology Today know how they feel about these misandric statements.

Well, there is plenty more but I am out of space, until next time.

Update: The women only food lines in Haiti also deserves a mention here at the Carnival of Misandry (thanks to the Javelineer).

Men don't tell

Trudy W. Schuett: The silent victims: Battered husbands:

If there’s anything I’ve learned in 10 years of advocacy for unserved victims of partner abuse, it’s that men don’t tell.

Yes, the U.S. Dept. of Justice says there about 840,00 male victims of domestic violence each year. But those are just the ones who've reported it.

Not that the numbers really matter: What matters is that it's happening, and it’s no joke.

Trudy gives good advice to men in this column, like the following:

Do not phone police unless you are in immediate danger, and your life is at risk. Law enforcement professionals nationwide have been trained to presume the man is always the perpetrator. There have been many cases where a man has been arrested, even while his wife is in the process of assaulting him and/or a police officer. Don’t add this extra risk unless you absolutely cannot avoid it;

This is sad, but probably true. What we need is more education of law enforcement, but how will that happen if no one believes that men are at risk?

I was recently talking to a woman I know who said she used to work at a Home Depot. "There was a co-worker there, a guy in his late fifties who always came in all beat up. We all thought he was just a drunk. It turned out that his wife was beating him. One day, he ended up in the hospital but we heard he went home and his wife was 'taking care of him.' We kind of wondered what happened to him."

Like many silent victims, probably no one will ever know.

PJTV: Mind reading 101

Is science advanced to the point where a jury could decide a man's guilt through mind reading? What if reading a defendant's memory could betray their guilt? Can we determine the guilt or innocence of a terrorist just by scanning his brain?

Glenn and I talk to Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong about the legal and psychological aspects of the new science of Neurolaw. Is it ethical? Should the government have the power to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to "read people's minds"? Does it really work? Find out.

You can watch the show here.

The Anchoress at NPR "Monsters Inc.? The Lady Gaga And Madonna Parade."