I man­aged to avoid the crime news, which is always hor­rif­ic. Okay, I most­ly avoid­ed it. The three boys under 10 who are being charged with kid­nap­ping and rape¹ is get­ting to me. That poor lit­tle girl!

Transgender candidate misled voters, suit alleges²

Actu­al­ly, these guys seem to be suing every­body but the dog­catch­er down there in Riverdale.

What does Ms. Bruce’s gen­der have to do with how she’ll per­form as a city coun­cil mem­ber? Noth­ing, of course Ir’s been brought up because a cou­ple of sore losers just won’t let go. Ass­hats!

Trumpet the news: Elephant is going to be a mom³

But she won’t deliv­er until some­where around April 1, 2009! 22 months of preg­nan­cy. Dum­bo nev­er men­tioned that lit­tle fact.

In metro Atlanta, profile of those in need during the holidays has changed⁴

It isn’t just dur­ing the hol­i­days, either. Food banks across the coun­try are see­ing more and more work­ing peo­ple who need help. They’re hav­ing to reduce the amount of food giv­en to each per­son or fam­i­ly because the demand has out­paced the sup­ply so much.

I can’t say that I’m sur­prised. I know too many peo­ple who are just bare­ly scrap­ing by, and it isn’t because they’re irre­spon­si­ble. It’s just how the Amer­i­can econ­o­my is, and some­thing needs to change very quick­ly.

From the lat­est Dads & Daugh­ters newslet­ter:

Our friend Dr. Mark Tap­pan is co-author­ing a book, to be called “Pack­ag­ing Boy­hood” about mar­ket­ing to our sons. The book aims to “scru­ti­nize the world of boy pow­er, and the ways media and mar­keters’ stereo­types about how to be a man reach way down into the lives and enter­tain­ment of younger and younger boys.” Mark is writ­ing it along with Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown and Dr. Sharon Lamb, co-authors of the 2006 book Pack­ag­ing Girl­hood: Res­cu­ing Our Daugh­ters from Mar­keters’ Schemes.

To gath­er data for “Pack­ag­ing Boy­hood,” these pre­em­i­nent schol­ars on the role of gen­der in the emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal and cul­tur­al devel­op­ment of our chil­dren put togeth­er a very inter­est­ing online sur­vey at www.packagingboyhood.com. Par­tic­i­pa­tion by dads and/or their sons will be worth­while.

Dads & Daugh­ters is a great resource for par­ents, edu­ca­tors, or any­one else who cares about chil­dren. This is the first time I’ve seen them post some­thing son-spe­cif­ic, but much of their mate­r­i­al is impor­tant regard­less of the gen­der of your child(ren). Maybe well see a Dads & Sons before long, or some­thing sim­i­lar.