From Abusegate Bob:

In her June 18 message, Office of Violence Against Women director Susan B. Carbon highlighted the recent DoD advisory. Carbon writes (see key sentence in bold):

Last week, the Department of Justice clarified that the criminal provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) apply with equal force in cases when the victim and perpetrator are of the same sex. The Department is working to ensure that all U.S. Attorney offices are aware of the law’s applicability to LGBT relationships. In addition to publishing an Office of Legal Counsel opinion on the subject, the Department has provided notice of the opinion to the U.S. Attorney offices. This confirms that Department of Justice prosecutors have access to all available tools to protect victims of domestic violence and stalking whether they be in same sex or opposite sex relationships. This does not represent a change in the law, nor will it narrow or otherwise impact VAWA’s existing criminal applications. Rather, it clarifies to the extent that there was any doubt that VAWA is inclusive and protective of women and men, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Read more: http://www.justice.gov/olc/2010/vawa-opinion-04272010.pdf

This is the first time the OVW has made an official statement recognizing the existence of male victims of domestic violence. It's an important first step to turning things around.

We encourage you to send a positive note to Judge Carbon thanking her for her work to assure VAWA is gender inclusive in its programs and services. Here's her email: OVW.Director-at-usdoj.gov

Story here. He couldn't pay child support because the courts took away his driver license. He lost his job because he could not drive so he could not pay child support and they threw him in jail. Deadbeat Dad my ass. Excerpt:

'Jeff Dolan spent Father’s Day in jail, locked away for failure to pay child support. Deadbeat dads don’t garner a lot of sympathy. But you don’t need to study Jeff’s case for long before you realize that he’s anything but a deadbeat. Instead, he’s a man hopelessly ensnared in a crushing bureaucratic machine: He’s in jail because he couldn’t pay child support, but he couldn’t pay child support because he was unemployed ... and he was unemployed because the court took his driver’s license for failure to pay child support ... after he went bankrupt paying his court costs.

According to an unsigned editorial in the Ottawa Sun some dads don't deserve the title.
The comment field is not moderated so have at it people though be respectful and not sink to the level of the commentators blatant misandry. Article here. Excerpt:

Yesterday was Father's Day, a B-list occasion when compared to Mother's Day, or even Valentine's Day.

This is no secret.

Yes, we're a day late and a penny shy.

But so what?

Fathers will understand this, especially if yesterday passed with little or no fanfare -- with only a card, perhaps, or some cheap cologne.
...

It should be noted that not all dead-beat dads are wearing that label by choice.

Too many child advocate offices and provincial family responsibility offices have pushed many fathers over the brink by garnisheeing wages way beyond reasonableness, thereby forcing them into untenable positions.

These agencies must lighten up, and wake up to the reality that one cannot get financial blood from a stone once the stone has bled out.

Document here. Excerpt:

'From the first moments of life, the bond forged between a father and a child is sacred. Whether patching scraped knees or helping with homework, dads bring joy, instill values, and introduce wonders into the lives of their children. Father's Day is a special time to honor the men who raised us, and to thank them for their selfless dedication and love.

Fathers are our first teachers and coaches, mentors and role models. They push us to succeed, encourage us when we are struggling, and offer unconditional care and support. Children and adults alike look up to them and learn from their example and perspective. The journey of fatherhood is both exhilarating and humbling it is an opportunity to model who we want our sons and daughters to become, and to build the foundation upon which they can achieve their dreams.'

Great words. I just wish the legal system as well as this and previous administrations acted like they believed them.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A good Father's Day gift would be to reform the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), make it gender-neutral, and assure men that family courts will accord them constitutional rights equivalent to those enjoyed by murderers and robbers. VAWA will be coming up for its five-year reauthorization later this year, and that will be the time to hold balanced hearings and eliminate VAWA's discrimination against men.

VAWA illustrates the hypocrisy of noisy feminist demands that we kowtow to their ideology of gender neutrality, to their claim that there is no difference between male and female, and to their opposition to stereotyping and gender profiling. VAWA is based on the proposition that there are, indeed, innate gender differences: Men are naturally batterers, and women are naturally victims.
...

Feminists have changed state laws to include a loosey-goosey definition of family violence. It doesn't have to be violent -- it can simply be what a man says or how he looks at a woman.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Fathers who stay with their partner to look after their children should be paid up to £2,000 a year in tax credits, Frank Field, the government's 'poverty tsar', has said.

The Labour MP, who is leading the coalition's review of poverty, wants reform of the tax credits system to end discrimination against two-parent families.Mr Field wants tax credits to include more married and cohabiting couples with children. If his proposals are accepted almost two million families could benefit.
...
Under the current system, brought in by Labour, a single mother can lose more than £200 a week in benefits and tax credits if she lives with a partner. The system has led to claims that couples are worse off living together than they would be living apart. Mr Field said his "Second Parent Premium" would encourage couples to stay together.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

"The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) blamed the trend on a combination of rising unemployment, slow pay growth and higher household cost. The group said despite men typically having lower debt levels than in previous years and earning more than women, they were generally less able to repay what they owed than women, while many struggled just to meet their basic living costs.
...
Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of the CCCS, said: "Men have been hard hit by the recession and are emerging as the new underclass. Debt alone is no longer the problem. It is loss of income and other rising costs.

"This deterioration in the economic circumstances for men, still the main breadwinner in most homes, has serious implications for many households."

Article here. Excerpt:

'US government statistics show that women in 35 per cent of professional dual-income homes are now making more than their husbands. That proportion was only 28 per cent five years ago.

Maddy Dychtwald, a Californian demographer, attributed the trend – affecting professions such as lawyers and doctors - to a combination of employers being more amenable towards women staff, declining birth rates and the US recession's comparatively light impact on female workers.
...
She said: "It's role reinvention. It's a full-blown paradigm shift, one that gives both men and women more options when it comes to pursuing their careers, providing for their families and expressing their own talents and strengths."'

From an ACFC email, here. [As an aside, also therein mentioned was an article written by a young woman who blogged on the effects of feminism on society here.] Excerpt:

'Sunday is Father's Day.

Ever wonder how it began? Although many think it's a holiday made up by Hallmark, it actually has roots in Spokane, Washington dating back to 1909.

That's when 27-year-old Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a Sunday church sermon about mothers and honoring them.

Dodd was just 16 hen her father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was left to raise his six children alone after their mother died in childbirth.

Smart ran a farm in rural eastern Washington state.

After the sermon, Dodd began her campaign believing the entire nation should show more respect to fathers.

She persuaded the local ministerial association and YMCA to pass a resolution in support of Father's Day and the first local holiday was observed on June 19th, 1910.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Every night when 98-year-old Lily Barron goes to bed, she looks at the large framed photographs that line her bedroom wall and says a prayer for her father, "the most important man in my life. I loved every inch of him."

Lily's dad was a miner who lived with his wife and four young children in the town of Blackwood in south Wales. In his attitudes to his children, he was in some ways surprisingly modern. He never smacked them, he read bedtime stories, and he cuddled and kissed them every day. Twice-married Lily remembers him as "the loveliest and gentlest man I ever knew".

This image of the gentle and loving Edwardian working class father is at odds with our general perception of fathers in the past. We tend to picture them as tyrannical patriarchs whose children were seen and not heard and lived in fear of father's punishments. It is only in recent decades - or so we imagine - that dads have become approachable, caring and committed to the wellbeing of their children. Nothing could be further from the truth.'

Article here from The Huffington Post about a domestic dispute over what to watch on TV that turned deadly. Excerpt:

'JOHANNESBURG -- Police say a South African man who wanted to watch a World Cup match nstead of a religious program was beaten to death by his family in the northeastern part of the country.

David Makoeya, a 61-year-old man from the small village of Makweya, Limpopo province, fought with his wife and two children for the remote control on Sunday because he wanted to watch Germany play Australia in the World Cup. The others, however, wanted to watch a gospel show.

"He said, 'No, I want to watch soccer,'" police spokesman Mothemane Malefo said Thursday"That is when the argument came about.

"In that argument, they started assaulting him."
...
"He was always a happy man, never violent," Makoeya's nieces, Miriam and Anna, told the Daily Sun newspaper. "On Saturday, we saw him the last time at a funeral.""

By Ulf Andersson, PappaRättsGruppen
http://www.dads-r-us.se/

International Press Release

Swedish Father Rights Action targeting politicians in the Riksdag (Parliament) launched

In a joint co-operation action for the upcoming election in Sweden on September 19th these groups:

PappaManualen, http://www.pappamanualen.se/
PappaOmbudsmannen, http://www.pappaombudsmannen.se/
Daddys-Sverige, http://www.daddys-sverige.se/
PappaRättsGruppen, http://www.dads-r-us.se/

have sent 10 questions about fatherhood in PDF format, to the politicians in the Riksdag (Parliament) and politicians in the 290 municipalities and additionally 130 authorities.

With the support of modern research and statistics we hope that common sense and a humble attitude will apply.

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

"Young people who said they talked seriously to their dads "most days" gave themselves an 87 per cent score on a happiness scale compared with 79 per cent for those who said they hardly ever spoke to their fathers in this way.

The findings, from an analysis of research from the British Household Panel survey into 1,200 young people in Britain aged between 11 and 15, were released by the Children's Society to coincide with Father's Day this weekend.

Nearly half of young people - 46 per cent - said they "hardly ever" spoke to their fathers about important topics compared with 28 per cent who hardly ever spoke to their mothers about the things that matter most.

Only 13 per cent confided in their father "most days", according to the analysis.

The study, commissioned by the Children's Society and undertaken by the University of York, showed that young people talk less to their fathers about important issues as they get older."

Article here. Excerpt:

"Dads – do you feel a bit of a spare part? Do you see yourself in relation to your kids as about as useful as a stick of furniture – one of the lesser used pieces, like the side table in the guest bedroom? Well, the good news, delivered in a BBC documentary just in time for Father's Day, is that those traditional dad activities, such as talking over your children's head with long words and complex sentences, or swinging them around so that their shoulders threaten to come out of their sockets, are biologically useful. Fathers make evolutionary sense – and not just as reconstructed pseudo-mummies, or "new dads".