10.30-12.00 2G
DADS ON THE AIR
Tuesday 11th September 2007, 10.30am to 12 midday

2GLF FM 89.3 in Sydney
and ONLINE via live streaming at http://www.893fm.com.au/
or in MP3 format at http://www.dadsontheair.net/

FAMILY COURT HELL

With special guests...
Mark Harris, the English father who was jailed for waving at his daughters as they drove past in the family car, and author of a new book "Family Court Hell", a rare and unique insight into the secret British family court system.

"Family Court Hell" is one man's harrowing story of frustration and determination as he battled for access rights to his young daughters following the bitter break-up of his marriage. Incredibly, his was a journey that spanned almost ten years, with 133 hearings by 33 judges, and which reportedly cost the taxpayer over GBP1 million.

"... there is no other court in the land where the penalty for perjury does not exist - you can lie repeatedly and not only NOT be punished for it, but actually be rewarded for it. There is no other court where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. And for non-custodial parents...especially fathers...going through a divorce...and the never-ending litany of custody issues and all the rest that goes with it...it can feel like eternal damnation."

So says a father of two from New Jersey, who has undergone an ordeal in which he was verbally abused by a judge, physically accosted by police officers, criticized by child welfare officials, shown the door by school administrators, and even turned away by life-long friends.

Situations such as this will be perpetuated by House Resolution 590. It allows for the continued abuse of domestic violence laws, creating a dynamic in which allegations are made solely for the purpose of obtaining an advantage in litigation.

Story here. On the heels of the college article, note there are no call for equalizing the numbers of brain-injured war veterans so that it's 50/50 male/female. Or adding women to the selective service act. Or anything else like that. Excerpt:

' NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers*.

Thousands of troops* have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.'

* For "soldiers' and "troops", read "men".

Article here. Excerpt:

"After years of fighting for educational equality, it is disheartening to think that the college admissions' bar has been raised even higher for young women. My guess is that at some private colleges with balanced gender enrollment, women are getting the short end of the admissions stick."'

Related article: College Admission: Tough Times For Girls?

Story here. Excerpt:

'Shauna Mahoney posted a photograph of her baby online earlier this year and described herself as a proud mother.

But a different picture has emerged this week, one of a troubled woman who became the coldblooded killer of her 17- month-old son.
...
Some of those who know her, including the dead child’s father, told The Buffalo News Thursday that Mahoney had been suffering from postpartum depression for some time."

“She never wanted anything to do with the baby,” said the child’s godfather, Michael Kriewaldt.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Fathers in the USA are a lot less supportive and accepting than TV sitcom dads, even falling short of the low bar set by Homer Simpson, a study of college students' views suggests.

Many young people blame constant work demands — seldom portrayed on TV — for draining their fathers' energy and time from parenting, says Janice Kelly, a communications researcher at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.
...
She showed episodes from eight comedies to 108 college students. The programs were as diverse as The George Lopez Show, The Simpsons, My Wife and Kids and Everyone Loves Raymond. She asked the students to rate TV fathers and their own on such qualities as support, guidance, acceptance of other family members and oppositional behavior (for example, ridiculing children). On every measure, TV fathers were rated significantly better than the students' own dads.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'"The National Organization for Women (NOW) has filed a lawsuit in federal court against fatherhood programs in Alaska, Idaho and Oregon. The objective of these programs is to provide career counseling to fathers in three tough categories: incarcerated, military and fathers with disabled children. NOW has objected because women are excluded from these programs 'solely because they are women.'

"There is an old saying that you should be careful what you wish for, since you might get it. I think NOW should think twice about trying to win this lawsuit. If they win, wouldn't that endanger the innumerable government-funded programs that benefit only women?'

First let me say this is in no way to be considered as competition for the excellent discussion group, Men's Issues Online. Or Mensactivism, for that matter. This is something else entirely. In fact if the guys from either of those would like to join us at Gather, they'd be quite welcome to promote the heck outta their valuable activist efforts!

Right now, there is no centralized location where people can get a handle on men's issues in a general-interest community. While there are many politically-oriented sites and groups that occasionally feature "our" issues, and most of you already have your own websites, networks and e-mail discussion groups, I thought you'd all like to have the opportunity to reach a new group of people.

This is at no cost to you in terms of dollars and cents. In fact, you might even make a few bucks! Here's Gather's PR site.

Marc Rudov says "Women can pay their own way."

Mr. Rudov always states that women want so-called "equality" when the money -- and benefits -- are coming towards them yet become 'oppressed' when it comes time for them to pay or refuse unjust female privileges.

I agree with Mr. Rudov as do many intellectuals. Yet the two women on the panel don't agree of course and nor does the chivalrous male wallet that is defending the exploitation of men by women in the following clip.

See the clip here.

Thanks to Greg for the heads-up. Article here. Excerpt:

'It is all rather troubling, especially for the parents of little angels like my daughters. Evidently, it is impossible to satisfy the—apparently justified—parental demand to educate girls in single-sex schools and boys in mixed classes. (Not for the first time in my life, I conclude that the world doesn't have enough girls in it.)'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Police did not know the motive but said Billie Reynolds admitted pouring the scalding water on Gregory Laughlin earlier this week. Laughlin suffered second-degree burns on over 20 percent of his body and remained hospitalized on Friday.'

Story here. Excerpt:

"The disgraced and disbarred former North Carolina prosecutor today walked into a Durham jail to serve a 24-hour sentence stemming from his disastrous handling of the rape case against three Duke University lacrosse players. Nifong, who posed this morning for [a] mug shot, was found guilty of lying to a judge about aspects of the Duke probe, which ended with all charges being dismissed against the accused athletes. The trio is now threatening legal action against the city of Durham over their prosecution.'

Yep, 24 hours on the rock will certainly serve to deter anyone else from doing what he did, uh-huh! I wonder what he would have gotten had his victims been anything other than who they were?

Story here. Excerpt:

'A woman whose 2-year-old daughter died in an overheated car last month had left the girl unattended before and had been warned about the danger that created, according to a police report.

The woman forgot she left the toddler strapped in a car seat when she went to work as an assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati, authorities said. The child's body was discovered more than seven hours later, after outside temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees.'

But this same woman had been warned about this, three times previously.

And, the MSM has a great deal of sympathy for her. Watch here. Quote: "Mothers treated more harshly than fathers and spend more jail time."

Article here. Excerpt:

"Gender inequality seems to have increased with early civilization, including agriculture. Why? The feminist explanation has been that the men banded together to create patriarchy. This is essentially a conspiracy theory, and there is little or no evidence that it is true. Some argue that the men erased it from the history books in order to safeguard their newly won power. Still, the lack of evidence should be worrisome, especially since this same kind of conspiracy would have had to happen over and over, in group after group, all over the world."

Story here. Good for them! Excerpt:

'RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Attorneys for the three players falsely accused in the Duke University lacrosse rape case are seeking a settlement of about $30 million and several changes to the state's legal process, a person close to the case said early Friday.

If the terms aren't met, the players' attorneys will file a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Durham early next month, said the source, who requested anonymity because not all of the details of the proposed settlement had been worked out.'