Ms-information

Here are sites refuting common feminist pseudo-scholarship and Ms-information.

Warren Farrell has a new book on the pay gap between men and women. A lot of conventional wisdom is wrong.

Women also commit domestic violence

Here is a summary of research on domestic violence:

Over 100 studies have examined the extent of DV [domestic violence] in developed countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. These studies have reached a consistent conclusion: men and women are equally likely to engage in partner aggression. ...

Overall, the results from these surveys of over 12,000 persons in nine non-Western countries are generally consistent with the findings in Western societies: men and women are equally likely to commit partner aggression. ...

Psychologist John Archer reviewed and analyzed 552 DV reports from around the world. His study represents the most rigorous summary ever conducted of the domestic violence literature. His article, published in the Psychological Bulletin in 2000, reached this conclusion:

“Women were slightly more likely than men to use one or more acts of physical aggression and to use such acts more frequently.”

Most people seem to assume that men are primarily at fault.

Soccer stars at six-fold risk of brain damage

John sends this story:

[Health India]: London,Feb.24 : A survey covering 7000 soccer pros in Italy reveals that football players are six times more prone to fatal brain diseases than others, as they repeatedly use their heads to knock the ball.

Top footballers like Don Rovie was one of those who was hit by a motor neuron disease after retiring from the field. The disease has already proved fatal in the cases of Middlesbrough's Willie Maddren and Derby's Rob Hindmarch.

Medical researchers, however, believe the main reason behind the outbreak of such ailments might be repeatedly heading. Expert Dr Adriano Chio said the average age for the start of the disease in footballers was 41, 20 years earlier than usual.

Remember that the next time you hear about soccer moms.

Man Sleeps Through Police Standoff

Here is what can happen if you tell your niece that you have a shotgun at home for self-defense:

Joe Persinger was the most surprised man in town when he woke up from his sleep Tuesday night. A day after streets were blocked and the EPD SWAT Team deployed, we ask if that response was appropriate. Persinger said, "I'm 5'11" and I weigh about 165, 170 pounds. I'm not John Dillinger."

Persinger switches between emotions. He sometimes laughs about what he lived through, but he's also angry that the Evansville Police SWAT Team woke him up.

Persinger said, "I was surprised and shocked, and thought it was the biggest bunch of bull I'd ever heard in my life. I mean, it was completely and totally ridiculous."

About half of all American households have guns.

Punitive child support enforcement

John sends this NY Times story on punitive child support enforcement:

Donald Gardner owes $119,846 in back child support to his former wife, but there is little chance he will pay it soon - or ever.

After failing to pay support for his two children for much of the early 1990's because he felt the payments were too high, Mr. Gardner broke 27 bones in a car accident in 1997. Being in and out of hospitals for three years left him penniless, and when he tried to return to work he found that the state had suspended his driver's license because of his accumulated child support debt.

That prevented him from going back to work as an interstate truck driver.

"I've decided that I'd like to get this behind me and pay the support," said Mr. Gardner, 47, who now lives in a homeless shelter in Harlem, "but if I can't drive I can't pay. It is like a Catch-22." ...

About 70 percent of the debt is owed by men who earn $10,000 a year or less, or have no recorded wage earnings at all, according to the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. Less than 4 percent is owed by men with incomes of more than $40,000.

And the poorer men are getting caught in a vicious circle. Their debts have become obstacles to getting licenses for jobs to help them produce wages to pay down the debts.

Recent research by the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, found that aggressive collection of debts played a crucial role in pushing low-income black men ages 25 to 34 out of lawful employment, the opposite effect policy makers might have desired.

I think that it is exactly the effect that the policy makers wanted. They are all in favor of throwing low-income black men in debtors prisons. There is no other explanation for their policies.

Mr. Gardner, for example, said he had been to court to get his driver's license back on the condition that he started paying his former wife. But the court would not agree to the arrangement, he said, because it could not locate his wife.

"In theory you are supposed to be able to go into court and you are supposed to be able to get modifications," Ms. Holtzman said. "But in reality, there are a lot of judges who are sick and tired of dads who haven't paid child support. They don't want to hear you had a drug problem or were in prison. They just want the money and they don't even care if you can't pay it."

Remember, these child support obligations are to moms and welfare agencies, and there is no requirement that any of it be spent on children.

Fox hunting banned

Fox hunting is now illegal in Britain, so now they can hunt humans instead:

It's fox hunting, minus the fox. In a drag hunt, a field master leads a team on horseback, guided by foxhounds on the trail of an animal scent. A huntsman manages the dogs with the help of his assistants, the whippers-in. But instead of tracking and then killing a live fox, the hounds follow a dragsman—an ordinary (if athletic) human who runs ahead of the pack daubing the trail with artificial scent.

The scent is made from animal droppings or human urine, aniseed, and fixative. The dragsman pulls it along in a bag to create a cross-country trail (or "dragline") of a few miles that includes natural barriers and jumps for the horses. When the pack catches up with him, the dogs get some biscuits, and the hunt begins anew. A typical day of drag hunting takes only a few hours, whereas a fox hunt—in which hounds are liable to find a scent, lose it, and find it again—can take all day.

Foxes are usually considered pests. It is bizarre that British think that hunting humans is somehow better.

The Powerline blog reports on civil disobedience.

Feminist lizards take the male out of the picture

Mike asks whether there is any empirical evidence for lesbianism. The closest I could find is this account of Fake Sex in Virgin Whiptail Lizards:

Only females exist in several species of the lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus, which might seem like a problem when it comes time to propagate the species. The females don’t need the males though, they reproduce by parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual. So basically, the females don’t need the males; they just produce clones of themselves as a form of reproduction. Despite the fact that it is unnecessary and futile to attempt copulation with each other, the lizards still like to try, and occasionally one of the females will start to “act like a male” by attempting to copulate with another female. The lizards evolved from a sexual species and the behavior to copulate like a male -- to engage in fake sex -- is a vestigial behavior; that is, a behavior present in a species, but is expressed in an imperfect form, which in this case, is useless.

The item is no. 3 on a science site's top 10 vestigial organs. No, it does not try to relate the feminist lizards to human beings.

Why men fall asleep after sex

Here is new research on the obvious:

'As frustrating as it is for most women that their male partners just roll over and fall asleep after sex, men aren't entirely to blame,' said Dr Neil Stanley, director of sleep at the University of Surrey.

'Humans are the only animals in which sleep and sex are linked and while often seen as just a poor excuse, there are scientific reasons why men feel tired after sex. ...

Not everyone nods off after sex. The survey found 48 per cent of men had actually fallen asleep during the act itself.

A mere 11 per cent of women admitted being guilty of this.

A key word is "admitted". Surveys also show that women lie about sex more.

The pills don't work

Reuters reports:

A New Jersey man has filed a false advertising lawsuit against a maker of herbal penis enlargement pills, alleging the medicine does not fulfil its promises, the plaintiff's lawyer says.

The makers probably figured that their dissatisfied customers would be too embarrassed to complain. I wonder whether the plaintiff's shortcomings are detailed in the court papers.

More Aircraft Laser Incidents Pinned on Gay Club-Goers

The Swift Report blog says:

FBI agents have traced another airline laser incident to a gay nightclub, this one in Dallas, TX. Last year, after pilots began complaining of laser beams penetrating their cockpits, investigators linked the green beams to gay nightclubs around the country, where laser wielders use the green rays to shine a light on club ‘hotties.’

The red lasers are cheaper and more readily available; I am surprised that the gay clubs use green lasers. The green lasers are more dangerous to aircraft.

Men don't have a regular problem

These union women want menstrual leave:

Unions say they are negotiating a landmark industrial relations claim to allow women to take extra sick leave for menstrual pain.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says some women have particularly bad periods and are genuinely forced to call in sick.

As part of negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement at Toyota, the union has asked for women to be allowed 12 paid days menstrual leave a year. ...

"We believe that they shouldn't be disadvantaged against men that don't have a regular problem once a month."

I think that the women should be happy that they are paid the same as men.

Victims Gone Wild

The local paper prepares us for Valentines Day.

How Feminism Has Messed Up Relationships
By Amy Alkon

"IN SEDUCTION, the rapist often bothers to buy a bottle of wine," proclaimed radical feminist Andrea Dworkin in 1976. If you're a woman born 20 years ago, you probably don't even recognize Dworkin's name. Yet, there's a good chance you've had some seriously frustrating dates with her unwitting progeny: the guy who waits until date three or four—not to grab you, throw you up against the wall and suck face—but to politely inquire, "May I kiss you?"

Equal pay for equal work? It's a beautiful thing. Equal opportunity? Thrilled to have it. We women owe an enormous debt to Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all who followed in their footsteps, fighting the righteous fight against sex-based discrimination.

Unfortunately, in the late '70s and early '80s, feminism got hijacked by a small but vocal gang of Victims Gone Wild.

I am glad to see someone recognize that men and women are different, even in liberal California. You can read more from the same columnist here.

It's stupid and it stinks

An elementary school installed a sound meter:

The stoplight is mounted on the lunchroom wall and goes from green to yellow, flashes, and then turns red.

When the light turns red, the lunchroom stays dark and youngsters have to stay silent until the Talk Light resets and turns green again.

"The ones who continue to talk have to write 50 times: 'I will not talk during lights out,' " said Renee Johnson, a lunchroom supervisor.

Not everyone is cheering. Fourth-grader Ethan Stiles recently grumbled as the light turned red just after he sat down to eat his lunch.

"It's stupid and it stinks," he said.

I would recommend hiring that fourth grader to evaluation the school's zero-tolerance policies.

Witch-doctor’s spell backfired, says transvestite

Here is some news from Africa:

A transvestite who is being prosecuted after winning medals and titles in women's athletics events has blamed a witch-doctor's faulty spell.
A Bulawayo court heard that Samukaliso Sithole, a Zimbabwean who competed in domestic and regional competitions for women, was actually a man. Sithole faces charges of psychological offence, reported the state-run Herald newspaper.
Prosecutors allege Sithole offended the dignity and sexuality of a woman who befriended him, confided in him and felt comfortable being naked around him, while believing him to be female.
Sithole was identified to her as a man by an acquaintance when he was among a group of women preparing to travel by train to an athletics meeting. Sithole tried to sprint away but was caught, and police supervised a medical exam. ...
The world athletics body no longer conducts gender determination tests, and the Olympic movement ceased these in 1999. The International Olympic Committee legally recognises transsexuals provided hormone therapy ceased at least two years ago.

I didn't know that the Olympics allows transsexuals to compete as women.

Hate Messages on Google Site Draw Concern

A NY Times article expresses concerns that people on private, invitation only, web sites might express some politically incorrect views, and that such private sentiments might be illegal in some other countries:

Under Brazilian law, it is a crime to practice, induce or incite discrimination or prejudice on the grounds of race, color, ethnicity, religion or national origin. If convicted, offenders could serve two to five years in prison, in addition to paying a sizable fine.

"The U.S. is pretty unusual providing the broad protection we do to hate speech," said Professor Sunstein. In "South America, Europe - Google could have problems with many other jurisdictions."

Mr. Santos, the author of a book on hate crimes in Brazil, is targeting "all the communities that use racist and discriminatory terms on the site www.orkut.com," according to documents he filed in court. Because Brazilian law does not include discrimination based on sexuality in its criminal code, those behind sites like "I Hate Transvestites" would not face criminal charges.

Free speech means letting people express their views.

Fatherphobia

This new column says:

The threat to the right of children to be raised in mother-father homes comes not only from gay adoptions. It also comes from the fatherphobia of family courts that deprive children of their fathers. ...

Despite an extended string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their children (reaffirmed in a 2000 case), and despite a very high standard that the government must meet in order to terminate parental legal rights, fathers are routinely denied due process when it comes to determining child custody after divorce.

Family courts use a highly subjective rule called the best interest of the child as recommended by court-appointed child-custody evaluators or psychotherapists. There is no requirement that they have any first-hand experience with raising children, and they are allowed to use their own personal prejudices to overrule the parents.

Homeowners can kill burglars in self-defence

Good news for Brits:

Homeowners who confront burglars were told by the Government yesterday that they were entitled to kill in self-defence - and use guns and knives - to protect their family and property.

They were reassured that they will not be prosecuted if they acted "honestly and instinctively" against intruders in the heat of the moment.

Previously, some British homeowners were jailed for acting in self-defense.

Cambodian dog story

This Cambodian man had to choose between his newlywed 20-year-old wife and his dog.

The wife became even more upset when the man confessed he loved the dog more than her, district police chief Tuon Dorn told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from Kampot province, about 140km southeast of the capital.

"When we arrived, the husband told us, yes, of course he did it. But as police, we could only solve the problem of his wife then wanting a divorce. We cannot solve the problem of his relationship with his dog, because under Cambodian law it is not strictly illegal," Tuon Dorn said.

"It is amazing, but this husband is not crazy. It seems he is a passionate human being who looked at a dog, and the more he looked, the more passionate he became."