The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 4, 1994 (the following is contributed by Paul Shaner) - The PI recently carried a tragic story of domestic violence in the gorilla cage. Seems that the keepers were tying to get a male, Congo, to breed with a new female, Amanda. However, according to zoo staff, his mate, Jumoke, took offense at a new rival in her cage and started a row, which provoked Congo to attack Amanda, biting her and chasing her up a tree.
This display of male aggression against females is unacceptable. What is worse is that the zoo keepers tried to cover it up by saying this is just the way it happens in the wild and blaming it on the poor down-trodden mate of the brute, Congo.
Congo should be arrested, placed in jail and sentenced to anger management classes until he takes total and complete responsibility for his actions. (Maybe he could share O.J. Simpson's cage.)
The fact that he is a gorilla and preverbal shouldn't be too much of a handicap -- feminists claim most human males are preverbal, too.
The zoo staff need to be sensitized to domestic violence issues by mandatory classes on the feminist approach to domestic violence. To claim that Jumoke was responsible for provoking Congo is an attempt to absolve him for his heinous actions and blame a probable battered female. After all, if Congo is willing to batter Amanda, he is probably guilty of battering Jumoke. Has anyone looked into other mates of this ape? Does he have other victims? If the zoo staff is overlooking such reprehensible male behavior in the ape cage, what is going on amongst the ducks, tigers and snakes?
PC diagnosis?
NEW ORLEANS (AP) February 5, 1995 - According to Dr. Howard B. Pride, "strep infections, bowel disease, lice, folk medicine and even celery soup" can leave marks that are sometimes mistaken for child abuse.
Dr. Kathryn Coffman noted that, "out of roughly 500 children a year brought to Children's Hospital in New Orleans for suspected sexual abuse, 20 to 30 turn out to have medical conditions that included diaper rash and infections."
Between four and six percent may not be significant to a divorce lawyer or feminist extremist with an ax to grind, but it should give any decent person reason to stop and think. Dr. Pride recalled one case in which a father was kept away from his family for a year before they determined his daughter was not a victim of child abuse, but had a medical condition. In two other cases, the fathers committed suicide.
Excessive demands?
The Honolulu Advertiser, February 5, 1995 - The minute the honeymoon is over, the curtain goes down, the house lights come up, and before the ink is even dry on the divorce papers, another deadbeat dad is out the door, on the run and... don't tell that to Steven Itson.
When his ex-wife had custody of their two girls, Itson, a merchant marine, paid $1,000 a month in support. In 1993 the court awarded him custody and ordered his ex to pay a whopping $129 per month.
Aside from the fact she hasn't paid a cent (how many non-custodial mothers do?), does anybody else notice something a little...askew, here? I mean, really, isn't $129 a month exorbitant?
April 8, 2005—Today I received angry emails from two women, one who claimed to be the daughter of Mr. Itson, the other, who claimed to be his ex‑wife. The woman alleging to be his daughter claimed to be "disgusted," and both threatened legal action unless I removed the item and posted a retraction.
The alleged ex‑Mrs. Itson claimed that the Honolulu Advertiser, the source for the item, printed a retraction to their original story. No proof, nothing just the bald assertion.
Considering that nowhere in the item do I refer to anybody other than Mr. Itson by name, and that I relied on a credible source, I could have responded with a flat rejection, or even ignored them. But, being a sweetheart of a guy, I responded to the alleged daughter by suggesting she write an article or a book. To the alleged ex‑wife, I replied that I don't back down to bullies, and if she wants me to remove the item, then she needs to provide proof that the Honolulu Advertiser has retracted their story, and ask me politely.
In reply, the alleged ex‑wife impugned my credentials as a "supposed journalist." Journalist? Me? When did I become a journalist? The item above came from the original The Backlash! 'zine, when it was an activist publication. These days, I write opinions and analysis. But then she did ask, somewhat politely, if I would post an admission that "there may have been an error on (my) part."
The Honolulu Advertiser is a credible source. If they were in error, and there is a retraction, I'll say so. But it would be an error to take the word of people emailing to say that it's wrong. Otherwise, I'd have to run a banner on the index page that reads, "Warning, everything on this web site is, according to leftists, progressive‑liberals, feminists, androphobes, environmentalist whackos, white supremacists, black supremacists, neo‑nazis, and a host of hate‑mongers, wrong."
Actually, that would be kind of fun. And true.
Nevertheless, it's certainly possible that the Honolulu Advertiser was in error. So, for all 3 of the people who have read this page during the past several years (since virtually nobody reads the archived pages), let it be noted that I acknowledge the Honolulu Advertiser may have been in error, and when I receive proof I will certainly print or reprint their retraction.
Talking sex
Washington Post, February 12, 1995 - "America is the only place where being womanly as well as successful is an embarrassment," complains Liesl Schillinger. "No romance, please, we're American."
How can this be? "A culture that lacks romance fears sex more than it values love, which makes it a dangerous culture, alien and alienating."
Now who would want to create a climate where, "in the workplace, a mood of tension prevails, each sex fearful of offending the other, each uncertain of the line between pleasantry and innuendo"? Any clues?
Feminist leader slain, American men to blame
Anchorage Daily News, February 16, 1995 - Nabila Diahnine was shot and killed in Tizi-Ouzou, 65 miles east of Algiers.
In related news, Susan Faludi and Naomi Wolf are working on new books that explain how much American women suffer at the hands of oppressive American men. Said Wolf, "women are buckets of lust."
The Boston Massacre revisited?
Olympia, WA, February 1995 - Brent Wellman, Director for Legislative Affairs, Fathers Rights & Equality Exchange, reports that at the behest of Governor Mike ("I'm innocent!") Lowry, House bill, HB1202, and the Senate version, SB5198, are now before the Washington state legislature. If passed, these bills will "suspend or revoke the driver's license of child support payers who fall three months behind." In other words, it "deadbeat dad" legislation.
A few months back, Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe spoke well of such laws, which are being passed and implemented in other states. But before she and Governor Lowry say any more, they should pause to consider the old adage about ignoring the lessons of history.
March 5th marks the 225th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, where British troops killed several rioting colonists. Would there ever have been a Boston Tea Party without the massacre? And what about the American Revolution?
Who can tell? What we do know is, there's a lesson to be learned from our own history. Question is, will anybody listen?
Goodman goes conservative?
The Boston Sunday Globe, February 19, 1995 - Don't look now, but Ellen Goodman may be coming to her senses.
Writes she, "in the era of sexual liberation and equality, the old laws were rewritten. We went from a double standard of gender to a single standard of power." The result, she discovers, is that a "substantial number of teen-age mothers are what we used to call jailbait."
Didn't George Gilder say almost the same thing more 20 years ago? Hm, maybe it was President Ronald ("I don't remember") Reagan. Regardless, in the pages of both
Misandristic myopia?
New Woman, March 1995 - Men are angry. How can we doubt this? Women like Wendy Wasserstein say it, so it must be true: "What's intolerable to these guys is that they're no longer at the center of power."
Yep, she's right. Just yesterday I was a captain of industry, and ... well, okay, so that's not true, but it was true for most men, wasn't it? Only if we ignore the 82 million men in America who have never been within spittin' distance of power, let alone at the center. Guess Ms. Wasserstein doesn't think most of the male population are really men.
It's an odd affliction, this inability to see working and middle class men. A myopia suffered by those who complain how oppressed women were hundreds of years ago when their husbands withheld the reigns of power, and forced women into the tedious role of running their castles. (Do these people learn history from history, or historical romance novels?) I dunno, guys, are we angry? Yet?
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