"That's the way society is these days..."

Many of you (thanks!) have been emailing a troubling article from the Telegraph entitled "Father prevented from photographing own children at fair." It seems that photographing one's own kids at a public place now makes one a pervert:

Gary Crutchley was taking pictures of his sons Cory, seven, and Miles, five, on an inflatable slide when staff questioned him and told him to stop.

When Mr Crutchely, a father of three and an industrial rubber consultant, insisted he only wanted to photograph his own children, another parent challenged him, saying he could be putting the pictures up on the internet.

Mr Crutchely, 39, of Reedswood, Walsall, sought a second opinion from police at the Wolverhampton City Show, but was told "that's the way society is these days", though they admitted taking the pictures was allowed....

He said: "Another woman joined in and said her child was also on the slide and did not want me taking pictures of the youngster.

"She then said I could be taking pictures of just any child to put on the internet and called me a pervert."

Mrs Crutchely, added: "I was annoyed, extremely upset and embarrassed. I was shocked by the reaction of those women. It is very sad when every man with a camera enjoying a Sunday afternoon out in the park with his children is automatically assumed to be a pervert.

So, guys, remember, if you're out and about on a Sunday afternoon and have a camera in hand, especially in the UK, you may just be labled a pervert. I hate to think what would happen if a lone man actually walked around taking pictures without his own children present. Jail time may be next, if decent people don't stand up against this sort of absurdity.

Interview with Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker is a columnist and author of Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care. While I am not crazy about the title (it implies that men are victims in need of saving and only because women are involved), the content in this book is worth a read by anyone who thinks that men are still in charge of society and by those who already know differently. Far from focusing on men being victims, Parker brings to light the need to fight unfair laws and societal trends that lead to a loss of freedom and autonomy for men and harms families and children.

Parker discusses the lower rates of men in college, domestic violence, what the Presidential candidates need to know about fatherhood, and whether the Democrats have become the party of girly-men.

You can listen directly -- no downloads needed -- by going here and selecting the gray Flash player. You can download the file and listen at your leisure by clicking right here. And you can always get a free subscription via iTunes -- and why not, really?

Music is by The Mr. T. Experience. Show archives are at GlennandHelenShow.com.

"Carnival" of Misandry

I often receive many interesting tips and links from readers on male bashing and abuse but I can't post on all of them since I would be here 24/7 to do so and would need a huge staff! I have been reading Kathleen Parker's Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care for an upcoming podcast and thought this carnival seemed fitting in light of her research. Here are a few highlights that readers have found that I wanted to share with you:

Reader Jay emails in this news story from Denver on a woman who has been accused of stabbing people over the course of 21 years:

A woman suspected of stabbing a man to death this week has a 21-year history of threatening people with knives and was twice charged with attempted murder for stabbing her husband.

Audrey Eve Cahow, 51, was arrested Thursday for investigation of the first-degree in the death of Anthony Martinez, 62, Denver police spokesman John White said.

Investigators believe Cahow and Martinez were arguing when Cahow stabbed him. Martinez died of a single stab wound to the chest and heart.

In 1987, Cahow was charged with attempted murder for stabbing her husband, Paul Vaughn, who was then 62. She pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and sentenced to two years' probation.

Three years later, police said she admitted stabbing Vaughn five times after he pointed his finger in her face. She again pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to six years of intensive probation.

Yep, pointing that finger in her face justified her husband getting stabbed and of course, a two year probation and then six whole years of probation really taught her a lesson, so much so that she went on to kill a subsequent husband. Kudos to our legal system and their "egalitarian" approach to domestic violence.

Another reader sends in this story from The Wall Street Journal. It seems that men's computer coding is inferior to women's coding and must be replaced:

We all know men hate to ask for directions. Apparently they loathe putting directions in computer code, too.

Emma McGrattan, the senior vice-president of engineering for computer-database company Ingres–and one of Silicon Valley’s highest-ranking female programmers–insists that men and women write code differently. Women are more touchy-feely and considerate of those who will use the code later, she says. They’ll intersperse their code–those strings of instructions that result in nifty applications and programs–with helpful comments and directions, explaining why they wrote the lines the way they did and exactly how they did it.....

There’s a big need to fix testosterone-fueled code at Ingres because only about 20% of the engineers are women, McGrattan says. (Most of them are in jobs involving quality assurance or adapting the product to a new locale, she says, and not the “heavy lifting” of writing code.) She’s on a mission to get more women interested in computer-programming careers. But “it’s proving very challenging,” she says.

Women good, men bad...even their coding is proof of that!

Reader Eric writes in to point out that Glamour magazine patronizes men in their posts about Mother's Day and Father's Day. "These posts," Eric states "have become opportunities to fix what's wrong with men." The writer, Rebecca Roberts, states in a post entitled "Father's Day Wishes":

On Mothers' Day, I wrote that I believe the responsibility of raising boys to respect women is as important as raising girls to respect themselves. This Fathers' Day, I've been thinking about fathers and daughters, and the responsibility fathers have to raise unapologetically ambitious, fearless girls.

In addition to being patronizing, it seems to me that the Glamour writer has no clue that on Father's Day, men actually have sons as well as daughters but everything is about what is "best" for girls and women-- boys and men are simply objects whose sole purpose is to help girls become the President of the US or learn to respect themselves.

And finally, guys, beware, you might be punished severely for being thoughtless enough not to call your date back (Hat tip: Chris):

A college student who branded a date's body with a scalding piece of metal as payback for never calling her after they had sex was sentenced to five years in prison Friday.

Kristina Caban, 23, had no comment as state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus sentenced her for what he called a crime that was "not remotely justifiable."

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told Obus that Caban was the "mastermind behind the plan" to sear the torso of Samir "Sammy" Sara, then 23, for having sex with her once in 2004 and never calling her again.

At least the Supreme Court Justice had some sense and gave her jail time.

When women and the media go on about how sexist and abusive men are, I wonder if they overlooked these stories? Of course, they will say that these "tales" are an aberration but if my inbox is any indication, this could not be further from the truth.

Massachusetts is an Expensive Place to Live

Reader Jim writes in with a link to this Boston Globe article entitled, "The chilling effect of state's divorce laws." The article describes the antiquated Massachusetts laws that have men paying alimony indefinitely to women who are often educated and/or working. Naturally, no one gives a damn that men are often being screwed, having to pay up to 30 to 40% of their income to these women. The big issue is that (gasp!) women who marry men having this obligation might also get screwed!

FORGET KAFKA. Welcome to Massachusetts. In the 1980s, it was known as Taxachusetts. These days, it's known as the state whose divorce laws are so out of date that many people decide against marrying here - or marrying anyone anywhere whose alimony obligations originate here. I'm one of them. Two divorce lawyers tell me that the state's laws are so extreme they have "a chilling effect on marriage." Prenups offer no guarantees. Judges routinely ignore them.

Cathy Ortiz, a secretary in Fairhaven whose husband is out of work, was ordered in 2007 to make alimony payments from her own paycheck to his ex-wife - who has a full-time job with benefits.

Alimony law is largely case law, not statute. Many legislators are shocked to hear the feudal details, unique to Massachusetts. But not shocked enough to reform the law.

The laws are gender neutral, but the facts are not: 96 percent of alimony payers are men, who often must give 30 to 40 percent of gross earnings to educated and sometimes employed women. [my emphasis]Alimony does not automatically end or decline at retirement, even after an ex-wife has gotten an equitable share of marital assets. This applies in no-fault divorces, to the middle-class, and to millionaires.

A man is really in a catch 22 in Massachusetts if he cannot pay alimony. It's not fair if his current wife has to pay the ex alimony but on the other hand, only when more and more women start suffering from these laws will anyone decide to do anything about them.

When False Rape Allegations Ruin a Reputation

A police officer loses his job due to false rape allegations (thanks to the reader who emailed this story):

A special prosecutor has dropped the rape case against a Parachute police officer who lost his job as a result of the allegations.

Tammy Eret, the chief Mesa County deputy district attorney who was brought in to handle the case, said she questions the credibility of the alleged victim. In a motion to dismiss the case, she outlined 22 concerns about the alleged victim’s credibility, and suggested the woman might have had consensual sex with the man, then regretted it.

Prosecutors decided to dismiss all charges against him. Magistrate Lain Leoniak said Wednesday that she signed an order and the case will be dismissed. The 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office had been specially appointed to review the rape case against Duncan, 25.....

The defendant, Kristopher Duncan, a former Marine and Iraq war veteran, said he hopes to return to law enforcement, but he hadn’t decided where. His lawyer, Greg Greer, of Glenwood Springs, said it remains “unanswered” whether or not his client can sue Parachute for being fired in the wake of the incident.

“I think the biggest thing was the embarrassment that I would even be accused of something like that,” Duncan said, “but I knew I didn’t do anything wrong....”

Greer praised Eret’s decision to drop the case. “Our challenge now is just to restore his good reputation,” Greer said.

His lawyer (Greer) makes a good point but how do you restore a man's reputation who has been charged (although what turns out to be falsely) for rape--even though he was cleared, hasn't damage been done? Why shouldn't the liar who gave the false report have to pay in some way? Why is it okay to ruin a man's reputation with false rape allegations without repercussions? Why is this acceptable?

This case reminded me of something that columnist Kathleen Parker wrote in her new book, Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care:

The assumption of guilt when it comes to males and rape is so entrenched in the American psyche that we ignore our better sense and embrace the righteousness of the mob. The same feminist spirit that successfully fought to eradicate the "she deserved it" attitude toward rape victims inexplicably found acceptable an equally unjust "of course he did it" attitude toward men.

The rest of society is finding it acceptable too. It is not. If a woman was raped and lost her job because of what happened, people would be outraged. If a man loses his job by having a false rape charge against him, there is often nary a whimper.

"Senator Biden Wants to Give Your Ex-Wife a Free Attorney..."

So says Glenn Sacks:

Biden’s latest domestic violence bill is the National Domestic Violence Volunteer Attorney Network Act, which amends Biden’s Violence Against Women Act to create an extensive network of volunteer attorneys to help abused women. The attorneys would provide free legal help in forging divorce or separation agreements and in winning child custody...

Why should only women get "free" attorneys basically provided by the government? What about low income men who cannot get custody of their children or men who are falsely accused of domestic violence--where is their free attorney? Isn't this unfair?

"People think that if you can bombard people with numbers and jargon, you have more legitimacy"

Sometimes, those numbers and jargon are called facts--something Walter DeKeseredy, a professor of criminology at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology refuses to consider-- when it comes to domestic violence research. In an interesting article in the National Journal, Neil Munro looks at the politics of domestic violence:

Proponents of the rival perspectives have amassed studies and facts to buttress their arguments. Feminist-affiliated groups cite surveys from battered-women's shelters to bolster their claims of male violence; family-conflict advocates and groups of divorced fathers cite data collected in surveys of men and women. The different perspectives "have historically been fueled rather than resolved by research, which has ... generated a variety of findings, some flatly contradictory ... [and has] left little room for cooperation," according to a report by participants in the Wingspread conference.

Advocates on either side charge the other with dishonesty and bad intentions. Murray Straus, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire, says that feminist groups deserve credit for launching the campaign against domestic violence. However, they "have created a climate of fear that has inhibited research," he wrote in the July 2007 issue of the European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research.

Straus and like-minded researchers are "advancing a political agenda that supports the goal of fathers' rights groups," responded Walter DeKeseredy, a professor of criminology, justice, and policy studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. "People think if you can bombard people with numbers and jargon, you have more legitimacy, but it is a struggle about whose side you are on -- and our side is on the side of women, and we're proud of it."

So Professor Dekeseredy admits that he is proud of the fact that he overlooks statistics and methodology, which is basically what "numbers and jargon" are--and just sides with whatever studies favor women? What kind of research is that?

Men Feel "Handcuffed by Political Correctness"

According to this article in the Telegraph, modern men feel emasculated:

Many men believe the world is now dominated by women and that they have lost their role in society, fuelling feelings of depression and being undervalued....

Men said they "felt handcuffed" by political correctness - only 33 per cent felt they could speak freely and say what they thought, whereas two thirds found it safer and to conceal their opinions.

Harvey Mansfield, a Harvard professor and America's best known political philosopher, who tackles the topic in his book Manliness, says the issue is ignored.

...According to the survey, men hold other men who speak their mind in high regard - the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Jeremy Paxman, Bob Geldof and Gordon Ramsay. Their biggest hero is Churchill.

But four out of 10 are frightened of heights and spiders while a third are frightened of bossy women.

Surely the men in the survey did not state they were "afraid" of bossy women--for if the resulting emotion men have to being silenced and oppressed by women is fear, we are lost.

Women who kill get light sentences in Tennessee. Read this and decide if it's becoming a trend.

Is There Really Such a Thing As "Positive Discrimination?"

Apparently, the Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman in the UK thinks so (Hat tip: Mecurior):

White men could be legally blocked from jobs or promotions under controversial government plans to help women and black employees achieve equality.

Employers would be allowed to give jobs to qualified minority candidates in preference to other candidates under a change in discrimination law being drawn up by the Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman. The 'positive action' tactic, already used in the United States, has been a legal minefield in the UK and Harman's plans are likely to upset MPs who believe that merit alone should determine who is hired.

However, she believes radical changes are needed to help talented black and female candidates break through barriers in business and public life. The positive discrimination plan [my emphasis] would apply only in cases where two equally qualified candidates were after the same post, allowing the employer to tip the balance in favour of the minority candidate on grounds of race or gender.

And I love this:

Employers can currently specify that they welcome applications from minority candidates, and promote themselves to specific groups. However, Avon Fire Service, whose firefighters are 97 per cent white and male, triggered a storm of protest this year when it barred white applicants from an open day.

White applicants were barred? Is there really such a thing as "positive discrimination?" I say absolutely not. What goes around comes around. When I get thoroughly disgusted and think there is no justice in the world, I try to remember what Thomas Jefferson (or someone since Wikipedia says this quote was misattributed to Jefferson) said many years ago that still rings true:

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

At some point, the very laws that are supposed to promote "equality" by discriminating against certain people are usually the very ones that end up harming those they intended to help in the end--it's just a matter of time. I will not be so eloquent here as the above quote is regarding government "intervention," but I hope that laws like the above will come back to bite the very people who make them in the ass.