Story here. Excerpt:

'Jim Cook, often called "The Father of Joint Custody," passed away last week. He is pictured above at the left along with Warren Farrell (right) and Dr. Ned Holstein (center). Time Magazine described Jim's work in 2003:

As late as 1971, the Minnesota State Bar Association's handbook advised lawyers and judges that "except in very rare cases, the father should not have custody of the minor children. He is usually unqualified psychologically and emotionally."

When James Cook, a Los Angeles real estate lobbyist, divorced in 1974 and sought shared custody of his son, "the judge thought it was preposterous," he recalls. "He told me, 'I don't have permission to do it.'"'

Story here. Excerpt:

'RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina mother who reported for Army duty with her two young children will be discharged from the military, her attorney said Monday. Attorney Mark Waple of Fayetteville said it wasn't yet clear if Lisa Pagan would receive an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions. It also wasn't certain when she would be discharged.

The reason for the discharge will be that she doesn't have, and cannot have, an adequate family care for her two young children, he said.

"There is definitely some feeling of relief, especially since she has been led to believe that the command at Fort Benning is going to do everything to expedite this so she can return to Charlotte, North Carolina, with her children," Waple said of Pagan's reaction to the decision.

She has received no time line "except they are trying to process it as quickly as possible," he said.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Ray Alan Drilon has annulled the marriage of a Negrense couple after a DNA test showed that the child borne by the wife was not the biological offspring of the husband who works abroad.

The family court judge ruled that the marriage of the couple, whose names are being withheld by the DAILY STAR on the request of the court, was null and void.

Due to fraud committed by the wife in getting her overseas worker husband to marry her, properties acquired during their marriage are awarded in favor of the husband, the judge said in his decision, a copy of which was furnished the DAILY STAR yesterday.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Family values were under attack again last night with the news that single women having IVF will be able to name anyone they like as their baby's father on the birth certificate.

New regulations mean that a mother could nominate another woman to be her child's 'father'.

The 'father' does not need to be genetically related to the baby, nor be in any sort of romantic relationship with the mother.
...
'Teenage pregnancy is on the increase, abortion is on the increase, family breakdown is at record levels and we have got a growing number of dysfunctional children that are the product of broken homes.

'The lesson seems to be loud and clear to me that fathers are required.'

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said the change would destroy the 'basic nature' of a man and a woman bringing up a child together as parents.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman accused of smothering her father after binding him with cling wrap has been found not guilty of murder by a Sydney jury.

Daniela Beltrame, 55, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ederino Beltrame, 70, in the early hours of April 26, 2001, at his Canley Heights home in Sydney's west.

She earlier had admitted to a charge of forging his will and on Monday was convicted of a third charge of coercing a witness - her daughter Loretta Appleyard.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'In a fit of rage, a woman allegedly castrated her husband while he was asleep at their house in the Amraiwadi area of the city, police said on Monday.

The incident occurred late on Sunday when Kailashben Mackwana (23), who had a fight with her husband Kanusinh (23) earlier in the day, in a fit of anger, cut his genitals with a knife, they said.
...
"The patient's condition is stable. For now we have done skin grafting in the affected area. His penis has been cut, but there is no injury to the testicles," Dr Gautam Sharma of the civil hospital said.
...
The police have arrested Kailashben, who told them during interrogation that the duo had a fight over some mortgaged jewellery.

Futher investigation is on, police said.'

Vote here. Some comments:

"This isn't a feminist issue (and I have often been described as one), both men and women who have served their country with honor but then kept on the list for recall should as parents be able to care for their children. The military has the ability to provide stateside jobs and should take every means possible to provide this. It is not their duty to break apart families. Let the parent complete their military contract where they can also be the parent they need to be."

"I completely agree. We cannot whine our way into the service and then use the fact that we can carry children to try to whine our way back out. When you sign up for the military, you KNOW this is a possibility...like it or not, you can hope it doesn't happen, but it does...now deal with it! And, YES, I am a mother!!"

Story here. Excerpt:

'A PROMINENT academic has avoided jail for crashing her car with her child onboard, after consuming an estimated 15-20 standard drinks.

Dr Fiona Rummery, 41, a lecturer at the University of Western Sydney was found guilty of drink driving after crashing her Volvo into the back of another parked car in Haberfield on the evening December 10 last year.

Rummery's young daughter and pet dog were both in the car at the time but none were injured.'

As a kind of companion piece to the article I submitted yesterday about the 'model' who disfigured a young man because he was laughing at her:

Ladette binge-drinking violence soars by 300% in just seven years. Excerpt:

"Violent attacks by binge-drinking teenage girls have risen by nearly 300 per cent in seven years in a frightening wave of ‘ladette’ violence."
...
Hundreds of thousands of women have signed up to online forums where they boast about their antics and proudly post pictures showing them in various states of inebriation and undress, including kneeling over lavatories, being sick, exposing themselves or answering a call of nature in public.'

The gentler sex, eh?

Richard Smaglick of New Hampshire is asking for as much support as possible for HB139 - a bill which would establish a default presumption of shared parenting in divorce or separation cases. You can read more and sign a petition here. Please consider taking part in this simple act of activism that can help an important effort for parental equality.

... thanks to the way British 'justice' works:

Model who left student scarred for life in glassing attack is jailed for two years. Excerpt:

'A former model who smashed a glass in a student’s face, leaving him with horrific lifelong scars, has been jailed.

Drunk air stewardess Lisa Kee hit Liam Sharratt twice with the glass, dragging it down his face and wounding him in five places.

Kee, who lashed out when a flirtatious conversation turned sour, was jailed for two and a half years at Manchester Crown Court yesterday. She was dragged screaming into custody.
...

He said: ‘This was a vicious and wholly unwarranted attack and you know what you have done and you know the enormity of what you have done and the effects which will continue to be a blight on Mr Sharratt every time he looks in the mirror.’

She was ordered to serve at least half of her sentence after admitting a charge of unlawful wounding.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The most offensive of these supposedly light-hearted monologues was one entitled “The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could.” It was given from the perspective of a sixteen year-old girl (thirteen in Ensler’s original play) who hates her “little coochie snorcher” (read: vagina) because of myriad reasons including an over protective mother, a deadbeat father and an earlier sexual assault described in far too much detail.

Then one glorious day she meets a nice twenty-four-year-old lesbian who takes the girl away from her mother, gets her drunk and sexually abuses her further. The girl, however, describes the encounter in positive terms saying of the assailant: “[she] turned my sorry-ass coochie snorcher into a kind of heaven.” The same phenomenon is seen in those suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome.

Story here.

'A THAME woman who had sex with a 14-year-old boy who contacted her over the internet to help with his learning difficulties, will not go to jail.

Catherine Armstrong, 33, had admitted three charges of sexual activity with a child and was today given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Oxford Crown Court.

In sentencing Armstrong, Judge Julian Hall told her that he did not think she posed a danger in the future and that female prisons did not have the facilities to help sex offenders.

"You have been given the chance to rebuild your life," he added.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A network of refuges for male victims of domestic violence has opened in Northamptonshire.

Privately run and funded by mother and daughter team Dawn Hardie and Rachel Allen, Next Steps Housing Association provides 35 three-bedroom homes across the region with spaces for 105 men fleeing violence and their children.

Ms Hardie said the scheme is the second in the UK, and the first on this scale.

‘There is nowhere for men…and there’s no funding available, no support at all…it’s an uphill battle and we’ve funded it from our own pockets,’ she said.

The association has already received six men, two who had been victims of rape and another who had been hit in the face with a claw hammer.

‘All of them have been hospitalised, they suffer from depression and feel they have failed. They’re all high risk,’ Ms Hardie said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Inside a lecture hall at UNC Charlotte, professor Joe Marinello teaches criminal justice students. His passion is understanding and ending domestic violence.

"Domestic violence is a social cancer,” he said.

He said it's a disease that's slowly killing society, and for too long women have led the movement alone to try to stop it.

“Men have to come out of the shadows and admit that we are the primary perpetrators against women, children, and other men,” he said.
...
Marinello is also reaching out to teach boys and girls in middle and high schools about respect in relationships. He said he wants to plant the seeds for change that men should be protectors and not controllers.'