Exposing Men: The Science and Politics of Male Reproduction. By Cynthia R. Daniels. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 260 pp. No price on book but publisher website gives price as $40.00. www.oup.com Rutgers University Associate Professor Political Science Cynthia R. Daniels has published Exposing Men; The Science and Politics of Male Reproduction, a book examining [...]

The New American Sport Our society has sunk to a new low. Six years ago, during the halftime show of Super Bowl 38, the world went berserk when Janet Jackson exposed her nipple to Justin Timberlake and all of TV-land. Yesterday, however, during Super Bowl 44, when a young boy slapped a man’s face in a [...]

Planned Parenthood, NOW, et al got played tonight. Had they not made such a fuss about the Tebow Super Bowl ad I doubt anyone would have noticed it. Instead they made a big stink and got everyone talking and watching. Tebow's story was all over the internet, television and newspapers long before the ad aired tonight. Focus on the Family got far more than they paid for thanks to the hyperventilation of those groups who felt that Focus on the Family shouldn't have been allowed to share their message during the super bowl (hello freedom of speech anyone?).



Can't have women on television talking about how much they love their kids now can we? How is it that this is so objectionable but there's not a peep about other ads that I won't mention? Those are some interesting priorities.

This is the other ad that aired during the pregame festivities.

We all tell ourselves lies from time to time in order to avoid making a difficult change that we know is in our best interests. Deciding to leave a bad relationship with an abusive woman should be a no-brainer, but it’s often a painfully difficult and heart wrenching decision for many men. The following are [...]

Welcome to Weekly Health Update By, Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS “A critical weekly review of important new research findings for health-conscious readers” VITAMIN D, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE & DEATH There is mounting evidence that Vitamin D plays a much more complex role in maintaining health beyond its primary function in regulating calcium absorption.  Increasingly, research data suggests that [...]

With so many revelations of fraud in support of the man-made global warming, it has gotten much more difficult for propagandists to contend that science is on their side. NASA has a well-earned reputation in science and technological advancement. Surely one might think that if NASA is worried about global warming then we should be [...]

Child support decision theory has taken a leap in development; finally providing a sound theoretical formula that can be used to consistently produce “just and appropriate” awards. The following comments provide an quick summary of guideline history and briefly state the character and significance of the breakthrough. A link to further information is included at [...]

A new type of dry-wall could shave 20% off of cooling costs.

Your typical dry wall is just a sheet of plaster, coated in paper-pulp; it's used in almost every building that goes up today because it's cheap and easy to install. But it's a terrible insulator--meaning that we have to heat and cool our buildings even more to make up. By contrast, according to Tech Review, the plaster in ThermalCORE is embedded with microscopic beads of wax that are encased in plastic shells. (Pictured at left.) During the day, the wax melts and absorbs heat--thus helping cool a room. By night, the wax hardens and releases that heat, warming the room back up.

Seldom are there opportunities in the Men’s Movement for activists to universally coalesce around a single event. We have no national conventions, few organized protests, no membership drives or organized assemblies. And yet we are gaining momentum anyway. Now we have an opportunity to act together for one important, pivotal day, and we can do it [...]

Child support decision theory has taken a leap in development; finally providing a sound theoretical formula that can be used to consistently produce “just and appropriate” awards. The following comments provide an quick summary of guideline history and briefly state the character and significance of the breakthrough. A link to further information is included at [...]

Recently I posted an open letter to Dr. Robert Brannon of the National Organization of Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) regarding their upcoming conference on men and masculinity.  The letter was also sent to Dr. Brannon via Email. In it, I expressed concerns over what appears to be positions and activities by NOMAS that are in diametric [...]

J.C. Watts: "Bad Dog Food From The Dems"

The conservative Republican and former Congressman opines: "We need a fiscal policy that will create an environment for private sector investing by way of capital gains tax reductions, no tax increases, and that will generate credit for small businesses. Big banks got bailouts, small business got shunned. Considering what has happened to my Democrat friends in the past two months, I anticipated a pivot to the political center in the State of the Union address. The president instead blamed Republicans for his problems, in spite of Democrats having an overwhelming majority in the U.S. House and a filibuster-proof margin in the Senate in 2009. This tells me the president and the Democrat leadership are not only not listening, they have their hands over their ears. However, the president facing his opposition at the Republican members’ retreat a few days ago was a step in the right direction."

Craig Bardo: "Why Obama Is A Practiced Liar"

The conservative Republican blogger in Nashville, Tenn. opines that the president is implementing a Saul-Alinskyesque, Marxist agenda: "What some are still clinging to or trying to spin others into believing is that Obama is not an authoritarian leftist ideologue. Democrats believe that asking Republican candidates if Obama is a socialist is a winning strategy. The problem for them is that my guess is that a majority of Americans do believe that, which is reflected in his poll numbers. Except for academics, distinctions in the name of the leftist ideology don't matter. Whether it's fascist, socialist, communist, Maoist, Marxist, each of these is authoritarian, top down and contemptuous of liberty, private property and profit.  The question remains, why is Obama a shameless liar? Using recent examples, he is careful to throw into his prepared remarks outrage over deficits. What? He has prepared two consecutive budgets that add more to the national debt than all of his predecessors combined! Yet, he is captured in sound bites talking about how these deficits are 'unsustainable' as if he is detached from their creation."

More: "The reason Obama lies is that Americans oppose his anti-American agenda. However latent or suppressed, liberty is in our DNA, we can smell authoritarianism on this guy, even those who weren't listening to or dismissed what he said during the campaign. Americans don't want the country remade into a welfare state. Even liars tell the truth sometimes and there is one thing that I do believe about him. He says he won't quit. I believe him. Do you?"

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The African Executive, a libertarian website based in Kenya, writes: "The bid by the African Union (AU) to launch a fund to support Haiti, resettle and adopt Haitians is a clear manifestation that the regional body is finally minding the interests of Africans. This action, reminiscent of a move that saw the creation of Liberia by freed US slaves and Jews worldwide airlifted to Israel, is a huge landmark this February, the Black History Month. Haiti, the first black republic in 1804, carried high the flame of liberation and freedom for black people. Watching the nation go under from upheavals and calamities without a helping hand from Africa is not only an abuse to African accomplishment, but a serious breach of sense of duty and solidarity."

Its editorial continues: "Although skeptics might want to focus on Africa’s sensitivity on land issues to declare this quest stillborn, what is important here is the powerful signal AU is sending to the world. That is: the current global economic system is skewed and is not in favour of black people. The power in AU’s move is in its connection of Africa to its sons and daughters in diaspora. The AU should invest in the next step - pushing for a system that will uplift African talent and input globally and agitating for dehumanized Africans in countries such as Italy, Saudi Arabia, US, Egypt and Sudan. This will put the world on notice that Africans are not orphans."

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"It just so happens that I think socialism is wrong, and even if you showed me what advantages it might have (pragmatically), you will need to first show me that my moral judgment of the system is wrong. I judge it as morally wrong based on the fact that for it to be justified there has to be the assumption that the individual is not the real owner of his 'own' life (or property). If government is allowed to state how much I can sell my newly invented radio for (just because they do not want the poor to be 'exploited'), then government owns my product, which means that government owns my mind, which means that government owns me – how else can someone have the right to control something that comes from the initiative of my own consciousness? if government owns me, then I am a slave – not of the white slave trader, but of my own black government. If, on the other hand you accept that government does not own my life or my property, then their attempts to control it, to take it from me, etc, is an act of theft. Either way it is wrong." — Chanda Chisala, libertarian president and editor of Zambia Online

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The moderate blogger in California discusses a case involving Otis McDonald (pictured in olive suit), a retired maintenance engineer and lifelong Democrat who is the lead plaintiff challenging Chicago's longtime handgun ban: "In March, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for why local governments should not enact gun control laws that infringe on the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. The lead case the high-court will consider is that of Otis McDonald, a 76 year-old Black man from the Morgan Parks [sic] section of Chicago, who is suing the city because he says he needs a gun to defend himself in his crime-infested neighborhood. However, McDonald’s lawyers are not arguing the 2nd Amendment, as the National Rifle Association would hope, but rather a violation of 14th Amendment, whereby constitutionally backed 'privileges and immunities' offered the citizenry of (several) states are denied in another state."

He continues: "The NRA is a respondent and supporter of the petitioner, Mr. McDonald, but it seems like they agree more with Mr. McDonald’s skin color, than with his argument for why he should get his gun. In fact, McDonald lawyer, Alan Gura, and the NRA do not agree upon which Amendment battle to hang their respective hats. But what they do both seem to agree upon is the promise that changing the gun advocacy argument from one of rural, conservative, White males onto the plight of an aging Black man, is a winner. So who, I ask, is playing the race card in McDonald v. Chicago? Some full-metal jacket spin-doctors are even going so far as to liken Mr. McDonald’s plight to that of freed slaves whose rights as new citizens were protected from similar attempts to block individual states from passing laws to selectively strip them of constitutional rights, particularly gun ownership. Other charlatans have the nerve to compare this strategy to Thurgood Marshall’s approach in Brown v. Topeka Kansas (Board of Education). BS! Finding a compelling, sympathetic example of a wrong, as Marshall did, within a similar offended group is quite different than slight-of-hand re-framing of an argument across demographic lines, to play on the racial and political sensitivities of the justices and the public."

More commentary from Mr. Collier: "As much as I feel for Mr. McDonald’s desire to protect himself in his home, I cannot sanction this trickery in order that more White men (and women) can strap on 9 millimeters to watch their kids play soccer, or buy legal AK-47’s for ‘sport hunting’, or running around the woods target shooting in preparation for an upcoming race war. The number of potential fatal accidents involving registered guns in dense urban places far outweighs the approach of arming everyone to the teeth. I don't like it, but McDonald should stash his unregistered shotgun at the ready, knowing that no jury will ever convict him of ridding the world o[f] one more B&E thug operating beyond the law. And honestly, he stands a bigger statistical chance of having the weapon used against him, rather than protecting him."

Booker Rising response: Dang, is Morgan Park bad now? I grew up not far from there, and attended school in the neighborhood. I remember when Morgan Park was very safe. College friends of mine grew up in the neighborhood. I haven't been in the area for about five years now, so it could've gotten a lot worse. Yeah, a grandfatherly black man trying to protect himself from gangbangers in his neighborhood is an excellent, sympathetic image as the public face of gun rights.

I must take issue with Mr. Collier. First of all, he assumes that only whitees really care about gun ownership. Tell that to my family, many of whom own guns and are members of the National Rifle Association to boot. I grew up in a home with several guns for protection. What's ironic is that gun ownership is the lowest in black neighborhoods, where crime disproportionately takes place. So law-abiding black masses are defenseless while a tiny thug minority (who will always acquire guns, regardless of the law) rips and roars in many communities. Meanwhile, liberal elites expect us to wait for the police (i.e., government) to arrive to help us....when the police are apt to take their sweet ass time coming to black neighborhoods. Also, handguns are cheaper, so a handgun ban disproportionately harms law-abiding black citizens.

Mr. Collier also overlooks the lives saved by guns. As longtime readers know, one of my aunts was able to fend off a potential rapist after she was coming home from work because she was carrying a handgun that my uncle had given her for protection (this happened in the early 1980s, before Chicago's ban took place). Yet Mr. Collier argues that my aunt shouldn't have been able to protect herself with said handgun,which means that her rape (and possibly her murder) would've occurred. Chicago has one of America's strictest gun laws, but yet has one of the country's highest murder rates. Let us not forget that gun control got its start to disarm the black populace. Black folks have the right to protect ourselves and our property. Many of us are tired of being hostage to a thug minority wreaking havoc in our communities, and local laws hamstringing us from protecting ourselves as we see fit. Good to see the tide may finally be turning, with Mr. McDonald leading the charge. Free Otis' handgun!

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Kenya: Victory For Anti-Abortion Lobby

The threat by influential Christian leaders to mobilize a vote against Kenya's draft constitution if it does not explicitly prevent any expansion of abortion rights appears to have succeeded. The draft assembled by a Committee of Experts for consideration by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) contained no specific reference to abortion, but the National Council of Churches (NCCK) and the Catholic Church were up in arms about a phrase stating that "everyone has a right to life" while failing to define when life begins. The parliamentary committee later decided to define life as beginning at conception.

Phrases guaranteeing everyone the right to health care (including reproductive health care) and stating that no one may be refused emergency medical treatment have been deleted. Added is a phrase ruling out abortion "unless in the opinion of a registered medical practitioner the life of the mother is in danger". These changes have raised an uproar, with professional associations of medical practitioners saying it will hurt Kenya's attempt to reduce maternal deaths. Currently, abortion is permitted in Kenya only to save the mother's life. Despite this law, 300,000 abortions occur annually: about 29 abortions for every 100 live births in Kenya, with 21,000 resulting in trips to hospitals to treat complications from botched abortions. More than 2,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions, making up 30%-40% of all maternal deaths.

Black Conservative Pastor: “U.S. Abortion Industry Targets African-American Women For Genocide”

Rev. Dr. Clenard H. Childress Jr., the senior pastor of The New Calvary Baptist Church in Montclair, N.J. and the founder of BlackGenocide.org, asserts, that African-American women are being targeted for abortions. In an interview with RT, he asserts that the abortion industry - especially Planned Parenthood - continues the mission of the infamous eugenics movement of the 20th century. He stated statistics showing that African-American women make up 12% of the U.S. female population but 36% of those getting abortions. Rev. Childress Jr., contends that President Barack Obama is in alliance with the abortion industry to promote black genocide, alleging that the president has a classist attitude that "lesser ones are expendable".



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In expansive remarks at a law school in Florida, Justice Clarence Thomas - who rarely makes public appearances - yesterday vigorously defended the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision (hat tip: Chad Callahan). Justice Thomas responded to several questions from students at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla., concerning the campaign finance case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. By a 5-to-4 vote, with Justice Thomas in the majority, the court ruled last month that corporations had a First Amendment right to spend money to support or oppose political candidates. “I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company,” Justice Thomas said. “These are corporations.”

The part of the McCain-Feingold law struck down in Citizens United contained an exemption for news reports, commentaries and editorials. But Justice Thomas said that reflected a legislative choice rather than a constitutional principle. He added that the history of Congressional regulation of corporate involvement in politics had a dark side, pointing to the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions to federal candidates in 1907. “Go back and read why Tillman introduced that legislation,” Justice Thomas said, referring to Senator Benjamin Tillman. “Tillman was from South Carolina, and as I hear the story he was concerned that the corporations, Republican corporations, were favorable toward blacks and he felt that there was a need to regulate them.” It is thus a mistake, the justice said, to applaud the regulation of corporate speech as “some sort of beatific action.”

Justice Thomas said the First Amendment’s protections applied regardless of how people chose to assemble to participate in the political process. “If 10 of you got together and decided to speak, just as a group, you’d say you have First Amendment rights to speak and the First Amendment right of association,” he said. “If you all then formed a partnership to speak, you’d say we still have that First Amendment right to speak and of association.” “But what if you put yourself in a corporate form?” he asked, suggesting it must be the same.

The Supreme Court judge would not directly address the controversy over President Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United ruling or Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s mouthed “not true” in response. But he did say he had stopped attending the addresses. “I don’t go because it has become so partisan and it’s very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there,” he said, adding that “there’s a lot that you don’t hear on TV — the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments.” “One of the consequences,” he added in an apparent reference to last week’s address, “is now the court becomes part of the conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It’s just an example of why I don’t go.”

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Last night, libertarian feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali drew a capacity crowd at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The roughly 3,500 people went through tight security akin to airport security, resulting in the Somali-born former Dutch parliamentarian taking the stage an hour late. She was promptly greeted by a couple of people in the audience who shouted, “Allāhu Akbar,” or “God is Great” in Arabic. Ms. Hirsi Ali, a former-Muslim-turned-atheist who for years has received numerous death threats by jihadists, responded that she could not say “God is Great.” But she apologized for the security measures and late start. “Some people think that I should be silenced,” she told the crowd. “I thank you for giving me a platform.”

In her hour and a half talk, Ms. Hirsi Ali stood firm on her controversial views. She said she had once been a devout Muslim, but had since come to question not just how Islam has been interpreted and practiced, but the core of the Prophet Mohammad’s teachings. “No culture, no religion, no idea has ever been as brutal to women as Islam,” she told the crowd. “It was a special kind of hatred the Nazis had against the Jews. Islam sanctions a special kind of hatred against women.” She said that Islam is more than a religion, but also a political system, one that is incompatible with U.S. democracy and pluralism. “They are as different as day and night.” As an example she asked the audience how many people had heard of the case of Yaser Said: a Texas man suspected of killing his two teenage daughters for dating Western men in 2008. By not criticizing the crimes of men of color against women, Ms. Hirsi Ali said feminism had become “a force that protects only white women.”

She issued a call to action for all Americans to fight against the human rights violations against Muslim women. "We must use intelligence and reason to confront what I see as one of the world's greatest inequalities: the treatment of Muslim women. This inequality is not only a moral tragedy, but is a threat to global peace." She stated that in countries under Islamic rule, “It is law to disclude women from rights and freedoms enjoyed by men. Marriage and divorce, testimony in court, dress, inheritance. In these issues, Islam scripture is implicit that women are inferior to men.”

There were plenty of emotional responses and questions from the crowd afterwards. Some accused Ms. Hirsi Ali of ignoring the violence the West perpetrates on Islamic countries and the brutal histories of other religions. Ms. Hirsi Ali responded that because it hasn’t been scrutinized or criticized, Islam hasn’t evolved the way other religions have. “I’m not here to defend American foreign policy,” she said. “I’m here to say when America has a bad idea...those ideas are examined.” Then she added: “If America is killing people, are you saying you have the right to kill people?” She said that Islam would benefit from scrutiny and criticism and looking at other cultures and belief systems. “The Muslim mind can be opened by looking outside of Islam and then retaining what people find valuable about Islam, like hospitality,” Ms. Hirsi Ali said. “I don’t think gazing at the Koran for hours and hours can help that.” And she, added, “The emancipation of the Muslim woman is the key to reforming Islam.”

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Colin Powell: "I Now Favor Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy That I Created"

Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, who opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces when he was the nation's top military officer, said today that he supports lifting the ban. "Attitudes and circumstances have changed" in the 17 years since Congress, with strong military backing, mandated the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the moderate Republican said in a statement issued by his office. Noting that he has said for the past two years that Congress should review the legislation, Mr. Powell said he "fully supports the approach" outlined in testimony yesterday by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Secretary Gates said the Pentagon is preparing to repeal the ban, despite significant opposition from senior Republicans, and some Democratic, lawmakers.

Backing from Mr. Powell provides the current military leadership with significant additional support. Although gay men and lesbians do not have to reveal their sexual orientation to the military under legislation adopted in 1993, their discharge is required if it becomes known to their commanders. It was Mr. Powell, then Joint Chiefs chairman, who first proposed the "don't ask, don't tell" formulation as a compromise less than a week after President Bill Clinton's inauguration, as President Clinton moved to implement a campaign promise to end an absolute prohibition against military service by gay men and lesbians.

Kenneth Durden: "End Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

The libertarian-conservative blogger and military veteran writes: "I served in the military with people who I knew were gay and I didn't care. Gay people have always served in the military and continue to do so. If these citizens and patriots wish to put their lives on the line to serve their country they should be able to do so. The biggest complicating factor will be whether the military will extend family benefits to the partners of gay service members. This is the one issue that requires a bit of consideration."

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The conservative activist and America's Independent Party member argues that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shows that she's insufficiently anti-abortion, with her endorsement of Rep. Ron Paul's son in his U.S. Senate bid in Kentucky: "According to the principles of the US Constitution, people institute government (at any level) in order to secure the unalienable rights given to each person by the Creator, God. It is therefore not legitimate (lawful) for government at any level to use its delegated powers to destroy the security of those rights. The term 'limited government' refers in the first instance to this just limit on the use of government power. It makes no sense for politicians to proclaim themselves to be staunch advocates of limited government, but then espouse a position that rejects the premise of limited government when it comes to perhaps the most vital and dangerous power of government, the power to decide who should be put to death. Yet this is exactly what Palin, Rand Paul and other 'pro-choice for states' politicians are doing."

Mr. Keyes continues his commentary: "Advocates of states' rights need to remember that state governments have no rights that are not derived from the God-endowed individuals in whom all unalienable rights originally reside. Those rights reflect the obligations that arise from the determinations of God (His laws) that make human existence possible. The key to the pro-life position is the understanding that individuals cannot disregard the law of God that authorizes a right without destroying their claim to it. Since government derives its right to act (just power) from the delegation of such individuals, the state can have no right to act that supersedes the individual obligation from which the right arises. Therefore, if individual mothers cannot have the right to decide to murder their innocent children, state legislatures cannot have it either."

Booker Rising response: Where in Article I, Section VIII of the United States Constitution or any of the amendments does the federal government have the power or responsibility to ban abortion? Per the 10th Amendment, this should properly be left to the states and to the people

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