Recent Suicides - sons of celebrity's

I just read that Marie OSMOND's 18yr old son, Micheal BLOSIL took his own life on Friday Feb 26.  He had been subject to depression and in Nov 2007 he was admitted to drug rehab the same week as his celebrity mother fainted while performing on "Dancing with the Stars" and his grandfather passed away.  I found it odd that no mention of his father, Brian BLOSIL - in the article.

Also last week, actor Andrew KOENIG - son of Walter KOENIG (the original Star Trek TV series character "Chekov") - was found dead in Stanley Park in Vancouver.  He had arrived before the Olympics and was reported missing by friends.

It is standard policy that the press not report suicides so as not to encourage "copy-cat" behaviours.  But obviously these intentional deaths were reported because of their parents celebrity status - the main caveat for breaking this press code of conduct.  This alone is distasteful as it is undoubtably a sad time for these parents who may be left alone in their grief, yet it also elicits compassion for them by the public.

But one can't not be struck by the thought that even with all of these fellows obvious family support, they felt compelled to take their lives.  I think it says alot about men's attitude to their own perceived sense of failure, and we know that we have faced an untreated epidemic in that regard for decades now.

(image courtesy: The Globe & Mail)

Darren Mack can NOT be defended, EVER

Darren Mack lost his appeal over his murder conviction of his ex-wife, Carla and Judge Weller in Nevada (in image to left and who is arguing in front of Weller for her own safety here) who was involved in his case and he also attempted to murder.

These shocking developments are obviously how our detractors wish to paint all men - as conniving and  murderous, barely in control of ourselves and on the edge of insanity.  Anything is possible I suppose, but  for a far great majority of men this not the case.  If anything can be learned from this case, it is that men (and women) must be more careful in determining the motivations of all parties in such cases and BE VERY AWARE about being intemperately used.

Glenn Sacks has provides links to all of his comments in this case, including the fact that Mack attempted to get a  number of other Arizona Fathers Rights Groups to support him.

Besides Darren Mack, he brings up the equally heinous U.S cases of  Herbert Chalmers and Tony Camcho.

Professional Discourtesy's

In Family Law it is a standing joke among Fathers how badly documents are served upon individuals.  In Civil Law it is called "Proof of Service".   But really it is treated as an afterthought in many cases - especially "Case Management" where strict rules of court are not observed but "managed" between the Judge and Lawyer or Self-Represented Applicant/Litigant (aka SRL).

Often Fathers never receives any proper legal notices before actions are taken (especially under "Ex-Parte" hearings) or finds them in your court file well after the event.  This goes along with other "Professional Discourtesies" used by Lawyers with unsuspecting  SRL's such as providing an affidavit in the court-room at the last minute to confound the ability to respond.

In this regard I was pleased to find a Review of these Rules of Civil Court at the UK Minister of Justice website dated Sept 2007 and entitled Review of Part 6 of the Civil Procedure Rules: Service of Documents.   Results of that Consultation were published in March 2008.

Another interesting fact of British Justice is that the Law Society of England and Wales is not "self-regulated" - rather it is regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) - which investigates complaints and is governed by lawyers, judges and laypersons.

Also, the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC) investigates complaints about Judges, Magistrates or Tribunals. Here is how they describe their creation:

Following the implementation of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the OJC became the sole regulatory body responsible for the investigation of matters of personal conduct and behaviour relating to judicial office-holders. Prior to the OJC being established, members of the general public could write to the Lord Chancellor or to the Judicial Correspondence Unit; however, the way the complaint was dealt with was not open or transparent, and unless requested to do so, no advice was given to complainants on how to complain.

The OJC still receives a large number of complaints relating to the judicial decision or judicial case management functions of judicial office-holders. These are matters that do not fall within our remit. As the judiciary is independent, complaints relating to dissatisfaction with a judicial decision or the way in which a case was managed, can only be made via the courts, by way of an appeal, dependent on any independent legal advice that the complainant may receive. The OJC tries to inform complainants, at the earliest possible opportunity, that these matters cannot be investigated. 

All of these items seem like good idea's to pursue.

Jane LAMARSH of Wallaceberg ON charged with killing her grandkids

Not to be outdone, OPP finally charge a Grandmother with murder from Dec. 3, 2009 when she drove her car into the freezing St. Clair river, killing grandchildren Taiya Talbot, 6, and Tyler Bernard, 10. This women's 12yr old daughter, Jennifer survived by swimming to the banks with her mother (that is weird).

I recall prominent feminist politician of the 1970's with the same surname from that area of SW Ontario - Judy LAMARSH, a strident member of the Federal Liberal Party. She was almost single-handedly responsible for the formation of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, that gave rise to our current rad-fem mess.

(Judy LAMARSH with Pierre TRUDEAU 1973 photo credit: Niagara Public Library)

Amy BISHOP, faculty member shoots three other university staff over loss of tenure - Birmingham AL

By now, everyone has heard Amy BISHOP.

A female teacher shot dead three people and wounded three others Friday after learning she had been denied tenure at an Alabama university, school officials and local media said.

So, why don't they name her in the storey? There was no doubt at the time it was released to the media, but they failed (in this newswire storey) to name her.  Maybe it's just me but there seems to be a double standard.  When a man goes on a rampage somewhere we have his Drivers ID photo and name spread all over the place - even if he is just a suspect.

And look at her history!  She shot her brother in 1986 - ruled an accident (she fired 3 times!). She was also a suspect in a Mail-bomb attempt against a Harvard Professor in 1993 but no-one was ever charged.  Now, why would anyone miss these signs of criminal instability?  Bueler?

From 1983 High School Yearbook 

From this to this...

 upon remand in Birmingham AL.

Prostate vs Breast Cancer

"Taliban" Jack LAYTON has prostate cancer.  In this article Margaret WENTE mentions the unreliability of PAS (Prostate Specific Antigens):

One widely cited study found that, for every man whose death was prevented by a PSA test, 48 men received needless treatment. 

Cancer in Canada in 2008

Loraine D. Marrett, PhD , Prithwish De, MHSc PhD , Parisa Airia, MD MSc , Dagny Dryer, MD for the steering committee of Canadian Cancer Statistics 2008

Table 2: Estimated number of new cancer cases and deaths for selected cancers in Canada in 2008.

No. of new cancer cases - Breast / Prostate: 22,400 / 24,7000
No. of cancer deaths - Breast / Prostate: 5,300 / 4,300

[Update:  July 19, 2011 Here is article that explains up to 3times as many women than needed are "false positives".]

Corrupt Democrat - John MURTHA dies of complications from surgery

At 77 on Feb 8, 2010.  This long-time (35 years) Congressman has been known as the "King of Pork" for Johnstown PA. Watch this clip beginning at the 1:15 mark.  His death - like Ted KENNEDY - will create another Republican opportunity, unless the voters in Johnstown PA are terrified of facing the truth.

Murtha was despised as a traitor to his Marine comrades for his testimony about activities of soldiers during the Vietnam war.

Why do we support Zero Tolerance?

This is not a popular idea - but I admit I have been coming to this conclusion for some time (Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense Feb 9, 2010 by Ashley HERTZOG at www.townhall.com).   In this case a 12 yr-old girl was taken into police custody for writing "I love my friends Abby and Faith" on her school desk in Spanish class.

Yes - you read that correctly. She scribbled "I love my friends" on her desk.

The school principal (Alexa GRANT) denies any responsibility for calling the police as she says "the school's "zero tolerance" policy requires her to have students arrested and charged for run-of-the-mill incidents."

There's a distinctly anti-male agenda behind zero tolerance, which is no surprise given that groups like the National Education Association kowtow to militant feminists. Normal, healthy boys engaging in normal masculine activities are regularly treated like felons.

Needless to say, sex abuse hysteria is written into many schools' zero-tolerance policies. A Branson, Massachusetts, third-grader was suspended for "sexual harassment" after he kissed a girl on the cheek.

Where else is this practised?  You know the answer.

Just another murder of comon-law husband - by his comon-law wife.

I saw this account and had to make note of it:

• Homicide was "accidental" - she didn't mean to kill him.
• Attack with broken bottle severed a number of artery' in the man's arm - he bled to death.
• Call (at 0330h) came a long time after the altercation (supposedly at 0130h)
• must interview 50(!) people who were witnesses at party to find out circumstances.

This dispassionate account leaves many glaring holes - ones that would not be available if "vic" was a women.

Dr. Helen Interview - What every young man needs to know...

Dr. Helen did an online interview with Laurence KANE, a Martial Arts instructor from Seattle WA and author of book entitled "The Little Black Book of Violence: What Every Young Man Needs to Know About Fighting."

I believe this kind of work is important.  However, I am not satisfied with the way it has been treated in the case of IPV and this book seems not to have helped (caveat: I draw this conclusion from this interview and reading synopsis/summaries at Amazon.com, where the book is available).  Most DV programs fail to deal with the root causes and understanding of IPV (Intimate Partner Violence).

The advice given in this book is the life lessons that fathers used to teach their sons!  With the breakdown of family and marginalization of fathers in playing a role as parent, we now need to depend on Judo instructors to do the job and discern the true nature of threats, violence and how to deal with.  Women and mothers - on balance - have different experience with anger, aggression and personal combat than men.  In fact I believe that they mis-coach their sons to "step-up" using stereotypical/idealized ideas of male chivalry and actually exacerbate confrontational situations.  This has not helped boys - who grow up to become men - or families deal with violence.

What I found interesting in this interview is the contention by KANE that a number of deadly encounters should be distinguished as either social aggression or predatory violence - and he spends a great deal of his book instruction readers how to discern between the two.  Each requires a different approach.  In particular he discusses the little used method of "de-escalating" situations by talking down subjects and/or "walking away".  (The RCMP should review this part of the book as they appear to have forgotten it.)