Via Marc A.: On September 24-27, 2009, the NCFM-sponsored documentary film Support? System Down by filmmaker Angelo Lobo had an excellent turnout at the Peach Tree International Film Festival in Atlanta and was the highest-ranking film on the buzz meter.

The film, which includes an interview with NCFM's president Harry Crouch, examines the problems related to the child support system in the U.S. including issues such as draconian guidelines, flawed data, paternity fraud, procedural defects, problems for military parents, bias against non-custodial parents, and how these and other problems affect children, families, homelessness, incarceration, suicide and other issues.

The film has also aired with great success in San Diego and New York and is now being screened for consideration for the Lone Star Film Festival in Fort Worth, Texas.

This article raises an interesting question. For years, rape advocate groups have exaggerated or lied about the number of rapes or sexual assaults in order to draw attention to the problem or increase their influence. In this case, UC-Davis and the director of its Campus Violence Prevention Fund lied about the number of sexual assaults in order to increase the funding it receives from the federal government. That's fraud, the author argues:

"The question, obviously, is this: Why did UC-Davis fudge its numbers? The source of the false information was Beeman, who used inflated figures to increase the federal grants that the university could receive...Readers have to understand that this is a classic example of real-live fraud as defined by federal fraud statutes. Unlike many of the fraud cases in which people charged really have not committed actual "fraud" but have run afoul of federal regulations or engaged in a legal action that the feds can re-interpret as being criminal.

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'First, columnist Mike Adams reported on the plight of Mark Harwood, psychology professor at Humboldt State University which is located in Birkenstock-addled northern California. Based on extensive research, Harwood informed his students that women were as likely as men to engage in partner aggression.

But scientific truth apparently did not goose the gander of these gender guerrillas. So the women took it upon themselves to disrupt the class, taunting the good professor as a "privileged, rich, white male." Judge, jury, and executioner!

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Brooklyn mother, apparently upset when her baby wouldn't stop crying, slashed him across the throat yesterday and then plunged a knife into her own leg, police said.

Cops took Tineka Johnson, 29, into custody after responding to an early-morning 911 call at her East Flatbush home.

She was charged with attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

The baby's grandmother reported the incident on East 38th Street, and Johnson was taken away without incident, authorities said.

The 5-month-old boy was rushed to Kings County Hospital a block away where officials said he was in stable condition yesterday.

Johnson had been taking medications for a mental disorder and may have missed her dosage, sources said.'

I didn't realize it, but it's the 40th anniversary of unilateral divorce. Article here. Excerpt:

'Thus, the noble purpose of no-fault divorce was to remove the contentious, annoying legal requirement for couples to prove anything other than their desire to divorce. After all, the thinking went, if marriage was the union of two people, and one person wanted out, then the union was no longer viable.

Except that wasn't the whole story.

"The key to understanding the problem is to recognize that the grounds for divorce did not go from fault to no-fault; they went from mutual consent to unilateral," said Allen Parkman, University of New Mexico economics professor and author of books on divorce.

Under the fault system, "most divorces were negotiated and eventually [happened] based on mutual consent," Mr. Parkman said. But once one person could legally end the marriage, "there was no longer any need for negotiations."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Let us examine the dynamics of having a child out of wedlock by beginning at birth. With all the medical professionals to witness the beautiful mess of birthing, pinpointing the mother is easy - she's the one lying on the table screaming for an epidural. Unless the old switcheroo is played at the hospital, that person goes on the birth certificate as "mother" and half of the parenting team is established.

There's also a place on the birth certificate for the father. Whoever signs up at the hospital is presumptively the father whether or not he knew the mother under Old Testament guidelines. A legal presumption is something that is assumed true but not considered firmly established. Legal presumptions can be subsequently disproven.

Article here. Excerpt:

'More than a decade after a landmark study recommended an overhaul of Canadian divorce law, courts still haven't caught up to the new reality of Canadian family life. A generation of dads who can't stand being apart from their children is pushing for change.
...
Family courts around the world have seen a "dramatic increase" in court disputes launched by divorcing dads determined to see their children more than every second weekend and Wednesday evenings, observes Australian law professor Patrick Parkinson.

Story here. Excerpt:

'NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Reacting to the case of a Franklin, Tenn., father, the U.S. State Department called upon Japan Wednesday to sign an international agreement on parental child abductions.

Christopher Savoie sits in a Japanese jail, accused of kidnapping the two children who had been taken from him here in Tennessee.

And we're seeing how close Savoie came to getting his children back onto what might have been, at least legally speaking, U.S. soil.

Witnesses say Savoie and his two children raced past Japanese police just outside the front gate of the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka, Japan.'

Article here.

'MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The Alabama Supreme Court has set a legal precedent in the state by ruling that child support payments are not automatically extinguished when parental rights are terminated.

The court's ruling Wednesday reversed the state civil appeals court, which had held that a parent who loses rights to a child no longer has a responsibility to pay child support.

The Supreme Court, split 6-3, said parental neglect could be rewarded if child support would no longer have to be paid.

In dissent, Justice Glenn Murdock said the issue was one that the Legislature should address and that the new legal standard could create uncertainty in the child welfare system.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'However, a few months ago, a came across a whole new way of “undressing” feminism, that I hadn’t seen before. This new kind of criticism towards feminism came from Swedish researcher Helen Lindberg, who earlier this year presented her doctoral thesis called Only Women Bleed?: A Critical Reassessment of Comprehensive Feminist Social Theory.

In her thesis she has evaluated four different feminist theories, with regard to internal coherence, and their usefulness as theories in a research context.
...
The short version of what she’s saying is that using feminist theory as the basis for conducting research, is about as useful as using Marxist theory to conduct research. She also nullifies the standard feminist reply to criticism (”what branch of feminism are you criticizing?”) by demonstrating that each of the four branches of feminist theory examined have the same theoretical weaknesses.

Story here. Story below:

'A 44-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of a felony weapons violation in Ventura on Sunday after she allegedly pulled a large handgun on a man during an argument, police said.

Michelle Hodgin of Ventura was arrested about 4:40 p.m. in the 1500 block of Spinnaker Drive after officers responding to a report of the incident found a loaded .357 Magnum revolver in her purse, Ventura police said in a prepared statement.

Several witnesses shopping near the Ventura Marina told authorities they had seen Hodgin display the gun in a hostile manner during a verbal argument with a man, police said.

Hodgin was booked into county jail on suspicion of carrying a concealed firearm. She remained in custody Monday in lieu of $50,000 bail.'

$50k? Maybe women are starting to be treated a little more 'equitably' for their crimes. Then again, this could be just an isolated instance of fairness.

Story here. It seems the authorities are determined to nail this guy even after three decades have passed - and even though the purported victim has effectively said, "enough".

Excerpts:

'"It is [my] opinion as the victim of this crime that the 42 days he has already served is excessive."'

'Geimer, who in recent years has been an outspoken proponent of dropping the charges against Polanski, has acknowledged reaching a civil settlement with him.'

'Geimer was 13 in 1977 when she told police that Polanski had raped and sodomized her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's Mulholland Drive home.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'SEATTLE - One man was shot and a woman taken into custody in what appears to be a case of domestic violence late Thursday night.

The incident began at about 10:30 p.m. at a home in the 800 block of SW 117th Street in the city's White Center neighborhood.

According to the police, the man and woman were apparently arguing when the woman pulled out a gun and shot the man. The relationship of the couple is still unknown.

The woman remained in the home for about 3 and a half hours before police went in and arrested her.

The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center with what are called non-life threatening wounds.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Jude Ruddock-Atcherley, from Hampshire County Council, said more men were coming forward as victims of domestic violence.

"I think a lot of men don't come forward because of the stigma attached to being a victim who is male who may be thought of as being able to protect themselves," she said.

"The more people that we are aware of, the more priority there will be attached to providing funding and services for men specifically."
...
National statistics show that one in six men and one in four women will become a victim of domestic violence in their life.'