I asked plenty of people in Detroit how they’d first learned of the men’s human rights movement and AVfM, and a clear majority said the videos of Karen Straughan had led them to one or both. We had a number of chats during the conference, and during the socialising in the evenings. She was a total delight, and very funny too. Her talk in Detroit was done without notes – just a few pointers on her iPad, I think – and it’s as impressive as you’d expect from Karen. She’s introduced by AVfM’s Attila Vinczer. Enjoy.

Last Thursday afternoon the Detroit event’s press conference took place, the day before the main conference started. The lengthy video is here. I was introduced by Paul Elam, founder and publisher of AVfM, at 1:36:40, and my initial contribution ends at 1:42:35. The lady to my right is Anne Cools, a Canadian Senator, and to her right is Erin Pizzey. Both were very engaging characters, and it was the first time I’d ever met Erin face-to-face. She’s a most remarkable woman who was clearly regarded with awe by speakers and delegates alike. During the Friday night dinner she was presented with a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award by AVfM and – of course – received a standing ovation.

I’ve just returned from the Detroit conference – the first ever international conference on men’s issues – and I’m pleased to say it exceeded my wildest expectations. Everyone I spoke to was really upbeat about it all, and there will definitely be another one next year, I’m sure with even more attendees. It will surely be an annual event for many years to come. My own speech went down well, I’m pleased to say, and hopefully we’ll have a link to it soon. A Voice for Men have already posted a few of the speeches including an excellent one from Karen Straughan (GirlWritesWhat). I’m somewhat jetlagged, so I’ll probably leave it a day or two before I post a blog piece about the event.

I’m slowly working through the large number of unread emails from the past 4-5 days, and one gave me particular satisfaction. The website ‘UK General Election 2015’ issues on a monthly basis a ranking of British political parties on the basis of website ‘hits’. J4MB has just moved up two places – #7 to #5 – and now stands just below the Conservatives and the Scottish National Party (the latter not being a surprise, as the referendum on Scottish independence isn’t far away – September). Our website is now more popular than the websites of the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, as you can see here.

Onwards and upwards!

The Detroit conference is imminent, and this will be the last post before the office re-opens at 09:00 on Tuesday, 1 July. Tomorrow morning I’ll be flying from Gatwick to Detroit, thanks to the generous people who’ve supported our fundraiser and made the trip possible. We thank them and all the people who’ve supported us in a multitude of ways, including financially, to help get us to where we are today. Two UK-based supporters / donors will be joining me at the conference, which is greatly appreciated.

I don’t understand the technical side of these things, but for those of you who do, there’s going to be ‘live streaming’ of the conference – details here. Brief details of the speakers are here, the timetable of their speeches is here. If I get the opportunity to post any blogs during the time I’m at the conference venue or my hotel, I shall.

Onwards and upwards!

I’ve spent more than enough time contributing to ‘discussions’ on Amazon following their page on Laura Bates’s book Everyday Sexism, but I’m thankful to Charlotte for drawing my attention to a 5-star review of the book, posted yesterday by Dran Ward:

I don’t know anything about this book as I bought it for my son at his request, so I haven’t read it and he hasn’t read it either but has given it to his girl friend as a present.

Why would a boy (or man) want his girlfriend to become more whiny? It’s a mystery.

I’m just putting the final touches to the speech I’ll be giving later this week, at the Detroit conference. Yesterday AVfM published a piece on my recent second appearance on London Live TV. The link to the video and associated commentary is here, it will take you to my AVfM article archive. They’re published 44 of my articles since December 2012 – two months before J4MB was launched – and the London Live TV piece has already attracted more comments (138 so far) than almost every piece I’ve published on AVfM. With stars like Dina Rickman appearing, who can be surprised? A supporter published this meme, inspired by one comment made by Ms Rickman. She also won one of our coveted Whiny Woman of the Month awards, which in future will be ‘Whiny Feminist of the Month’ awards.

It’s often claimed by feminists that it’s reasonable that the vast majority of places in refuges are allocated to women only, because more women than men are killed by partners and ex-partners. We hear nothing of suicides provoked by being a victim of domestic violence. We’ve just been informed of an interesting paper written by an American researcher, Richard Davis, and published in 2009 by the Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Studies. Link here. One of the findings of the study, reported in the Abstract, was this:

When domestic violence-related suicides are combined with domestic violence homicides, the total numbers of domestic violence-related deaths are higher for males than females.

Another excellent article by Kathy Gyngell for the website she co-edits, The Conservative Woman.

Last night we posted a piece with a link to James Delingpole challenging the odious feminist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Channel 4 News. Our thanks to Herbert for this:

“Thank god we are now seeing men with humour, clear minds, and great determination, take on this sick feminist anti-male, false victim culture that is sweeping through our lives. As James Delingpole said, ‘I find it astonishing that you girls can’t see this. I find it depressing that this country has got to this where you play these very, very dodgy games …’ Well, hurrah, and hear hear!

Cathy Newman was obviously part of the self-righteous claptrap conspiracy trying to whip up yet another feminist attack on men over alleged condoning of violence against women. Her response to the ‘you girls’ comment, that last time she looked she was a woman, clearly showed James had raised her hackles. I suggest a mature woman, one confident in her own skin would not have even picked up the point, let alone confrontationally.

But, of course in the rigid, humourless pitched battle against men in which these allegedly grown-up women are permanently engaged, they are as edgy and brittle as hell, which speaks volumes about their feminist psychology.

Then, of course, there is Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, diving, ducking and weaving, playing every tactic in the feminist lexicon to gain advantage, starting with the poor-hurt-woman card when, as James Delingpole pointed out, she has the ‘hide of a rhinoceros’.

And when the hurt woman line was demonstrably shot down in flames under Delingpole’s magnificent rhetoric, she had the brazen effrontery to play the race card. Then, when that didn’t work, she played the ‘If a Muslim had tweeted’ what Michael Fabricant had tweeted, ‘what would be the outcome?’

Is there no end to the ploys and whiles of these narrow, bigoted women? Do they have no shame?

JD calling her an ‘uber troll’ is so apposite. And her response? ‘Typical male attitude’. And his response? ‘It’s about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, the most annoying woman on the planet.’ Well said! Amen and amen, is what I say.

But the icing on the cake came in Delingpole’s final comment, that what YAB really wanted was Fabricant’s testicles on a silver platter. Man, did he hit the nail right on the head?

England may be out of the World Cup, but this was definitely a 4-0 victory for men over these blatantly misandric bigots.

Hi-fives all round I think.”

Life doesn’t get much better than this, our thanks to George for pointing us towards the piece. It’s the second of two spirited challenges of a truly odious feminist whine merchant, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, by the Spectator columnists Rod Liddle and James Delingpole, on the relentlessly feminist-friendly Channel 4 News on which the worst presenter for bending over backwards to support feminist narratives is Jon Snow. In his absence, Cathy Newman does her best. Enjoy.