Free Republic

VANCOUVER — As the famous Village People song declares, “Every man wants to be a macho macho man / To have the kind of body, always in demand.” But are “macho macho” mindsets becoming a thing of the past? A new study finds that male millennials are drifting away from stereotypical masculine values. The research, led by the University of British Columbia, showed that younger men tend to value selflessness, social engagement, and health over traditional male ideals like physical strength and autonomy.

Men who work for the Sörmland County Council in central Sweden should sit down rather than stand up when urinating in office toilets, according to a motion put forward by the local Left Party chapter. The Left Party in Sörmland is taking a stand to ensure men take a seat when emptying their bladders in the county council's own toilets. According to the party, there are two very important reasons for the proposal encouraging men to sit instead of stand when they urinate. One reason has to do with hygiene and a desire to ensure that no one who uses...

A Vancouver restaurant has come up with an interesting solution to the men-can’t-aim problem: Ban men from peeing standing up. Recently, my wife and I had brunch at the Edible Canada bistro on Granville Island. When I went to use the facilities, I was surprised to see just one unisex bathroom with about six private stalls and a communal sink area Even more surprising, though, was the sign above the toilet, showing a stick man tinkling into a toilet with a line through it. Yes, Edible Canada has banned men from peeing standing up

Gentlemen meet Spuk For those of you who do not know, Spuk or Spook, is a little device that attaches to the underside of a toilet seat, like so… As long as the toilet seat is down, all is well. But once the toilet seat is lifted you will hear "Hey, stand-peeing is not allowed here and will be punished with fines, so if you don't want any trouble, you'd best sit down," one of the devices orders in a voice impersonating the German leader, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. Another has a voice similar to that of his predecessor, Helmut Kohl....

UNISEX wash basin areas could be built in schools to help tackle bullying. The move is part of recommendations covering schools in England being rebuilt or refurbished as part of the Government's £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. BSF aims to rebuild or renew every one of England's 3,500 state secondary schools during the 15-year lifetime of the initiative. The new guidelines were issued by the Government agency responsible for delivering the programme, Partnerships for Schools. Toilets in Schools was published earlier this month and details new toilet block designs to be incorporated into all BSF schools. It...

"The head of The Democrats Party, a splinter group of former Progress Party hardliners, Vidar Kleppe, is outraged that boys at Dvergsnes School in Kristiansand have to sit and pee. Kleppe accuses the school of fiddling with God's work, and wants the matter discussed at the executive committee level of the local council, newspaper Dagbladet reports. "When boys are not allowed to pee in the natural way, the way boys have done for generations, it is meddling with God's work," Kleppe told the newspaper. "It is a human right not to have to sit down like a girl," Kleppe said."

It's an entirely new definition of "Standing Room Only." Or perhaps a new measure of "equality" has arrived. Whatever it is, it has sparked a huge political debate at a school in Kristiansand, Norway, according to Aftenposten. The trigger for the explosion of opinion? A decision in the local district that schoolboys must sit on toilet seats when urinating, not stand. According to the news report, the rule was announced for boys at Dvergsnes School, prompting outrage from Vidar Kleppe, the chief of The Democrats Party. He's accusing the school of "fiddling with God's work," and now he wants the...

NEWLYWEDS in America are “meshing” their names in an attempt to banish the sexism that comes when a woman takes her husband’s surname. Much as the tabloid newspapers have christened film stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes “Tomkat”, couples are opting to mix and match elements of their names as a sign of togetherness. Gary Ruderman, 43, a playwright and architect, got married last year to Jodi Wilgoren, a writer for The New York Times. The couple now go by the name of Rudoren. Ruderman’s wife-to-be first raised the subject, saying that she would love to share his name but...

At first glance, the blond six-foot hunks populating Germany make the place seem like a heaven for women. Until you start dating. German men are much more difficult than you might think. For single women visitors, the dating game in Germany can at first seem like a free, gourmet buffet. The men are almost all impressively tall, many are blond and, almost invariably, they are extremely handsome with the bodies of Adonis. Even better, they dress well, smell of expensive eau de Cologne, and they're intelligent. Indeed, the first impression is so overwhelming that it almost always leads directly to...

A path-breaking new study by Robb Willer, a Cornell doctoral candidate in sociology, finds that, as Willer tells the Cornell University News Service, "if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they . . . tended to support the Iraq war more": Willer administered a gender identity survey to a sample of male and female Cornell undergraduates in the fall of 2004. Participants were randomly assigned to receive feedback that their responses indicated either a masculine or a feminine identity. While women's responses were unchanged regardless of the feedback they received, men's reactions "were strongly affected by this feedback,"...

HUMAN EVENTS has learned that a billboard blitz "thanking" Hollywood for the reelection of President Bush will be unveiled early next week. The advertisements feature the faces of liberal Hollywood icons Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Affleck, Martin Sheen, Chevy Chase, Barbara Streisand, and Sean Penn, and offer thanks to Hollywood their help getting President Bush reelected. Two versions of the billboard were created, both "thanking" Hollywood -- the first for "4 more years" and the second for "W. Still President." Billboard creator Citizens United, a group that advocates a return to traditional American values, has purchased the use of...

Politics: The Democrats should be in the middle of a vital debate over their disastrous performance in national elections in recent years. So what do they do? They continue to fight lost battles. Losing a major election is usually a time to reflect on your strengths and, more important, your weaknesses. For Democrats, this seems now to be impossible. Their recent behavior will doom them to more electoral failure, and even possible irrelevance.

MSNBC has just reported the Senator Clinton will rise in support of Barbara Boxer. It is unknown if she will actually sign the letter. Also, Barack Obama and Chris Dod will will also have letters of support.

First lady criticized for swift boat remark Sunday, August 29, 2004 Posted: 6:56 PM EDT (2256 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Kerry campaign Sunday criticized first lady Laura Bush for what the campaign called her "statement in support of the swift boat smear ads." The campaign was referring to a new Time magazine interview in which Mrs. Bush is asked about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads attacking Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's war record and his comments upon return from Vietnam. In the interview she is asked, "Do you think these swift boat ads are unfair to...

NEW YORK -- Hundreds of people, mostly mothers and many toting small children, marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday to protest against President Bush just days before the Republican National Convention. The march was organized by a group calling itself Mothers Against Bush, or MOB, but the crowd that gathered at Cadman Plaza on the Brooklyn side of the bridge included many fathers as well. Bush "has no thought for the future. He just trashes things for the good of the old boys. I'm worried about my children's future," said Cynthia Ruse, who was marching with her husband, Travis,...