THURSDAY, New material added to front page
Topic: Men's Movement
Source: ifeminists
New material has been added to the upper right-hand side of the ifeminists' homepage. Harry Crouch of the National Coalition of Men asks for your feedback on women paying child support. REMEMBER to scroll down the center newsfeed to access the Commentary Section that is updated daily. Enjoy!

Discovery attackers anti human manifesto
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: TMZ
A .pdf of the anti-human manifesto that contains the demands of the gunned attacker who stormed the Discovery Channel yesterday and eventually died of his wounds.

Gay couples cannot divorce in TX
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: ABC News
Gay couples legally married in other states cannot get a divorce in Texas, where same-sex marriage is banned, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 5th Texas Court of Appeals ruled that a Dallas district court judge didn't have the authority to hear a divorce case involving two Dallas men who married in Massachusetts in 2006. Republican state Attorney General Greg Abbott's office had appealed after Judge Tena Callahan, a Democrat, said she did have jurisdiction and dismissed the state's attempt to intervene. (31/08/10)

Kookaburra no longer gay
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Straits Times
AN AUSTRALIAN school principal has asked students to stop using the word 'gay' when singing a classic children's song, but said on Thursday no offence was intended - he was simply trying to keep the kids from laughing. Principal Garry Martin of Le Page Primary School in Melbourne said he instructed students to substitute the line 'Fun your life must be' for the original 'Gay your life must be' when singing 'Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.' The song about a native Australian bird is a favourite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada. [Ed.: the amazing thing about this is that it has received international attention.] (02/09/10)

UK, Women teachers hold boys back
Topic: Gender Discrimination
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Women teachers are holding back boys by reprimanding them for typically male behaviour, according to a study out today. They are reinforcing stereotypes that boys are ‘silly’ in class, refuse to ‘sit nicely like the girls’ and are more likely to indulge in ‘schoolboy pranks’. Women teachers may also unwittingly perpetuate low expectations of boys’ academic achievement and encourage girls to work harder by letting them think they are cleverer (01/09/10)

Controversial anti abortion campaign coming to Houston
Topic: Abortion
Source: 11 News Houston
The campaign has already made its way to the Bryan-College Station area and is expected to be in Houston soon. The billboards read ‘Black and Unwanted’ and show an image of a baby’s face. The campaign’s website, toomanyaborted.com, appears at the bottom. "This campaign wants to expose the destruction of hope and possibility that abortion brings and offer something that is a life affirming solution like adoption or parenthood," said Ryan Bomberger, one of the creators of the Radiance Foundation. The Radiance Foundation and the Life Education Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.) are behind the initiative. Both groups are led by African Americans and say they are trying to expose what they call a huge racial disparity of abortions in Texas. [Ed.: so...the way to 'correct' the racism inherent in abortion is to take choice away from black women?] (01/09/10)

.XXX domain deal stripped bare
Topic: Porn, Prostitution, and Sexual Freedom
Source: The Register (UK)
The company behind a proposal to create .xxx, an adults-only top-level internet domain, is set to run the gauntlet of objections from angry pornographers and appalled Christians for the sixth time. ICANN last week published a draft contract that, if signed, could allow Florida-based ICM Registry to start offering .xxx domains as early as next summer, and opened up a 30-day public comment period. Pornographers led by the Free Speech Coalition are already asking ICANN to kill the proposal. They claim ICM's application is little more than a balls-out effort to bilk them out of money during a time of economic hardship and rampant piracy. Domains with the .xxx extension are expected to cost more than $60 per year, compared to roughly $10 per year for .com domains. Mike South, a self-described "Gun Totin’, Libertarian Pornographer", told ICANN: "How many times and how many ways do we have to say this? The adult industry OPPOSES this money grab by ICM registry. We do not want this abomination." (01/09/10)

Rape case v. Assange reopened
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: The Age
A senior Swedish prosecutor is reopening a rape investigation against the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, the latest twist to a case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other. The Australian has denied the allegations and said they are a smear campaign by opponents of WikiLeaks - a whistleblower website that has angered the US by publishing thousands of leaked documents about military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The case was dismissed last week by the chief prosecutor, Eva Finne, who overruled a lower-ranked prosecutor and said there was no reason to suspect Mr Assange had raped a Swedish woman who had reported him to police. The woman's lawyer appealed against the decision (02/09/10)

Feds appeal order blocking stem cell research
Topic: Abortion
Source: AP via Yahoo! News
The Obama administration on Tuesday asked a federal judge to lift a restraining order that it says could undercut federally funded embryonic stem cell research. The Justice Department filed its request with U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth only days after he blocked government funding of embryonic stem cell research. Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body, and they expect the research to eventually lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments. (31/08/10)

Sorry, you cannot smoke in your own apartment
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: News on Demand
Officials in Washington state say they'll consider moving the health battle over secondhand smoke into a new and contentious arena -- people's homes. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Board will consider a proposal next month to classify secondhand smoke as a "nuisance" in multi-unit housing, The Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune reported Monday. Backers of the measure say they want it incorporated in the state's landlord-tenant law. Smokers' rights advocates say controlling smoking in rental apartments is unnecessary and an assault on private rights. "This is political correctness run amok," said Gary Nolan, U.S. director of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, which advocates for smokers' rights. "They're taking away the rights of the landlord. We have a republic, and they're telling this guy what he can do with his private property. These people should be ashamed of themselves." (01/09/10)

Canada, Polygamy court case will examine Muslims
Topic: Porn, Prostitution, and Sexual Freedom
Source: The Canadian Press
A court case to determine whether Canada's polygamy laws violate religious protection might have been sparked by a fundamentalist Mormon sect in southeastern British Columbia, but the legal challenge will also examine rarely discussed polygamous practices among North America's Muslims. A formal start date for the hearings has not yet been determined, but several affidavits for the case have been sworn in recent weeks. One of them is from Mohammad Fadel, Canada research chair in Islamic law at the University of Toronto. Fadel was asked by the B.C. attorney general to address the relationship between polygamy and Islam. He said as a matter of religious doctrine, the marriage of a Muslim man to up to four wives is disfavoured, but not morally forbidden. (25/08/10)

France, Roma expulsion sparks backlash
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Rianovosti
Europe's Roma population has been at the center of EU and broader international, debates concerning immigration, racial, religious and other issues since July this year when French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a crackdown on unauthorized Gypsy camps in his country. Earlier this month, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Paris to avoid what it called the unjustified expulsion of Roma people. Governing bodies of the European Union have also urged restraint on the part of the French leader. Mr Sarkozy, and France itself, now face criticism and condemnation not just from the left, human rights activists and from the opposition, but also from the leaders of the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, and even the Chief Rabbi. But the French president remains adamant and is determined to follow through on his offensive. (31/08/10)

Iowa, Beat Whitey Night
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Smoking Gun
According to a Des Moines Police Department report, a group of young black assailants pummeled a white fairgoer Friday night, an assault that cops believe may have racial overtones due to what was said by the attackers. A report by Sgt. David Murillo noted that, “officers at the fairgrounds advise there was a group of 30-40 individuals roaming the fairgrounds openly calling it ‘Beat Whitey Night.’” The victim, 36-year-old Jammie Carroll, suffered “severe injuries to his eyes, cheekbones, and nose,” and was hospitalized at Mercy Medical Center with multiple facial contusions. Cops are examining other reported incidents at the fairgrounds since groups of black juveniles appeared to be singling out white victims. [Ed: it is important to fully recognize that racism against whites is possible...and seems to be increasing in prevalence.] (24/08/10)

What a misanthropic bunch of stunts
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Spiked
Author: Rob Lyons
When I was at university – in the days before climate change was the defining issue of our times – a good friend of mine was a keen environmentalist, a bolshie woman who wanted to go out and stop nuclear tests, save whales and generally change the world. So she called up Greenpeace to find out how to get involved with their protests. She was told that they didn’t really need or want lots of people doing that kind of thing, and asked if she would like to send a donation instead. Feeling thoroughly patronised, she had nothing more to do with the organisation. Well, the patronising stunt-performers are back. On Tuesday, four Greenpeace protesters boarded a drilling rig, the Stena Don in Baffin Bay near Greenland, ‘to stop the drilling and defend the Arctic’. As the four activists hang shivering from the sides of the rig, they are promoting all sorts of misplaced alarmism while helping to bolster Greenpeace’s coffers. (02/09/10)

Simpson and the Sacred Cow
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Reason
Author: Jacob Sullum
Alan Simpson violated a taboo last week when he likened Social Security to "a milk cow with 310 million tits." But contrary to the dictionary-deprived critics who accused him of sexist vulgarity, the former Wyoming senator's transgression had nothing to do with his use of a perfectly acceptable synonym for teat. Simpson's real sin was "belittling a bedrock program," as the AARP put it—i.e., showing insufficient reverence for a sacred cow. To Simpson's detractors, it is self-evident that a man who supports entitlement reform has no business serving on, let alone co-chairing, a presidential commission devoted to fiscal responsibility. But anyone who takes an honest look at the federal budget can see how crazy that position is. (01/09/10)

Why do heavy drinkers outlive nondrinkers?
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Time
A new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one's risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers. But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? (31/08/10)

Are Pentagon paid goons crushing Wikileaks?
Topic: Sexual Harassment
Source: Spiked
Author: Nathalie Rothschild
It was only a matter of days before Swedish website Newzglobe revealed that one of the women behind the sexual assault charges was Anna Ardin, a spokeswoman for Broderskapsrörelsen, a pro-Social Democrat Christian socialist organisation (yes, really)....But by the time she was confirmed as one of Assange’s alleged victims, Assange had convinced both himself and large sections of the respectable media and the ‘blogging community’ that the Pentagon was playing ‘dirty tricks to ruin us’. So we’re expected to believe that American intelligence enlisted Ardin, known as a radical feminist and animal-rights activist, as a honey trap, instructing her to file a rape claim so flimsy that the prosecutor had to retract it within hours. The probable truth looks a lot more prosaic. More likely, this was a sexual romp gone wrong, and a case of two women, as well as the police force, applying a wide interpretation of what constitutes sexual assault. (31/08/10)

Life for poker
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Reason
Author: Jacob Sullum
Daniel Tzvetkoff, a young Australian entrepreneur who co-founded the online payment processor Intabill in 2007, had a brief, flashy run as a multimillionaire before his business collapsed amid accusations of financial mismanagement. But his real crime, according to the U.S. government, was doing precisely what Intabill purported to do: facilitate online payments, including bets by American poker players. When Tzvetkoff was arrested during a visit to Las Vegas in April, it was the first time anyone had been publicly charged with violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Enacted in 2006, the law makes it a federal crime for someone “engaged in the business of betting or wagering” to accept a payment in connection with “unlawful Internet gambling.” Since Tzvetkoff did not run any gambling businesses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan accuses him of conspiring with others who do. (09/10)

Bitchslap
Topic: Women, Minorities, and Guns
Source: McSweeneys
Author: Susan Schorn
Warning: humor. An archive of columns. Self-defense instructor, black belt, and generally cranky person Susan Schorn trains at Sun Dragon Martial Arts in Austin, Texas, where she learned karate from a second-wave feminist who could snap people's bones like breadsticks. Here she chronicles instances of everyday combat, from the dojo to the shoe section of Macy's. Groin protection is advised.

McSweeney on Rand
Topic: Ayn Rand, Objectivism
Source: McSweeneys
WARNING: humor. Since the day Johanna was born, we've worked to indoctrinate her into the truth of Objectivism. Every night we read to her from the illustrated, unabridged edition of Atlas Shrugged—glossing over all the hardcore sex parts, mind you, but dwelling pretty thoroughly on the stuff about being proud of what you've earned and not letting James Taggart-types bring you down. For a long time we were convinced that our efforts to free her mind were for naught, but recently, as we've started socializing her a little bit, we've been delighted to find that she is completely antipathetic to the concept of sharing. As parents, we couldn't have asked for a better daughter.