Story here. Excerpt:

"The state Supreme Court today terminated a father's parental rights, ruling that he's unable to provide a safe home for his 4-year-old special needs son, largely because the presence of the alcoholic and mentally retarded mother poses a serious risk to the boy.

Experts found that the mother had the intellect of a child, periodically ran away from home for "alcoholic binges,'' and made repeated false charges of domestic abuse.

Although we are mindful of the mother's limitations, it is the father who established the dangerous situation at home, who maintains those conditions, and who is unable or unwilling to substantially alter those conditions,'' Zazzali wrote.

Story here.

The link above is about the appeal of a black widow who was convicted of 1st degree murder in Michigan of all places and sentenced to LWOP. A political hack state circuit court judge overturned that sentence and reduced it to second degree murder which would have made her eligible for parole in a short time. However, that was appealed to the state appeals court which reinstated the original sentence of life without parole. The political "fix" may have been in because the female governor is rumored to be working behind the scenes to free this vicious killer.

MSN's editorial character once again takes a turn and out comes this. It lists the many reasons one is better-off single but alas neglects to mention the legal-risk factor.

But even stranger, MSN also asks women if they are not afraid of commitment themselves, then lists the ways this can manifest itself! That article is here. Excerpt:

'For years, it was the men who had the monopoly on commitment-phobia. But what about commitment-phobic women? Yes, women! Raised to believe that men are the commitment-shy gender, many women coast through life completely oblivious about their own commitment anxiety—believing they want a relationship yet systematically pushing away one perfectly suitable candidate after another. Isn’t it high time we looked at ourselves and admit that maybe, just maybe, we are the ones who have become commitment-challenged?'

Story here. Excerpt:

"Kirsten A. Kinley, 27, a special education teacher at Marriotts Ridge High School, turned herself in to authorities Thursday after learning about a warrant for her arrest on charges of sleeping with a 15-year-old boy in 2004 and 2005.

She was charged with two counts of third-degree sex offense, two counts of fourth-degree sex offense and two counts of solicitation of a minor. She was released on $75,000 bond Thursday night."

Transcript here. Excerpt:

"Judge Judy:

If you have somebody who finds out two years, or three years, or five years, or 10 years after the event that he's not a child's biological father, and who wants to be relieved of that obligation, is it right to say to him, sorry, you may have been defrauded but the child's best interests require you maintaining that parental relationship with the child and, therefore, we are not going to order a DNA test? And even if we do, we are not going to say you're not the father. You're going to pay support forever. Unreasonable."

Article here. Excerpt:

"It has become de rigeur for women to claim false allegations of violence in order to gain the upper hand in divorce and custody courts. The mere allegation of domestic violence is enough in many states to affect the child's access to a noncustodial parent. Programs instituted by the VAWA often leave kids in jeopardy and promote a society of fatherless children."

Story here. Excerpt:

"Once again, Missouri judges have ordered a man to pay thousands of dollars in child support for a child he didn't father.

This time, even the child's mother agrees the man is not the father. Yet a state agency says he is, because he was married to the woman when she gave birth.

The state wants David Salazar thrown in jail, and an appeals court on Tuesday agreed."

There's a bit of gold in the article, a quote from the victim:

"Reynato said that if he had married his girlfriend like the mom wanted, she probably (the mom) would not have stopped nagging them anyway and he saw no need of marrying her as it kept their relationship much more alive that way."

That's the attitude we all shoud have, we just need to avoid women who "warned him that if he did not get her what she wanted after staying with him that long, then she would cut off a part of her body that he loved the most."

Article here

Perhaps if a woman claims someone spiked her drink, we should ask if self-diagnosis by a drunk person is the most reliable source of information. Excerpt:

"Researchers at Wrexham Maelor Hospital who tested wobbly hospital patients who claimed their drinks had been spiked found most were simply legless, the BBC reports."

Here is the story.

Link to article. Excerpt:

"Officials: Woman pleaded guilty to attempted sex abuse. She will serve 36 months in prison after deal with prosecutors. Sex with foster child in her care admitted in a taped confession."

Will we be hearing about how "lucky" the boy must have been? Or perhaps we'll hear that you can't force a boy to have sex against his will, so he must have been "into it".

Well, hard to feel too much sympathy for Mr. Fiennes; chalk it up I guess to lessons learned. She'll capitalize well off of it, but he is likely to pay! Story here. Excerpt:

"The Qantas stewardess who claimed she rejected an amorous Ralph Fiennes on a flight to India has admitted having sex with him in an aircraft lavatory.
...
Miss Robertson, 38, told friends she was so overwhelmed with the moment that she did not care who was listening, what they saw or what they assumed had been going on.

That is in stark contrast to what she told her bosses at Qantas.

In a statement, she portrayed Fiennes as the villain, claiming he had followed her into the lavatory where he made his intentions clear.

...
It emerged that the liaison with Fiennes could prove rather profitable for Miss Robertson, who was declared bankrupt three years ago.

Essay here. Excerpt:

'Senator Biden needs to get his facts straight. On May 19, 2006 the Center for Disease Control confirmed that over 150 studies have found females are equally likely as males to engage in domestic violence and dating violence. The Senator is helping to continue to hide the other half of that “dirty little secret.”'

MSN.com has a story here primarily on the way high costs for long-term care and the counter-productive structure of Medicare/-caid have conspired to cause a huge surge in the divorce rate of the elderly:

"The population of divorced people over 65 has exploded in the past 15 years, and elder-law attorneys suspect money is at least partly to blame."

The comments of one expert to the effect that two-thirds of otherwise happily married older couples refuse to even consider the idea of divorcing for purely monetary reasons suggests the problem could be much worse. The current cadre of elderly is perhaps the last which was raised solely with traditional values about marriage being a life-long commitment, and they'll start to be replaced with Boomers with much different attitudes over the coming decade.

The article was written primarily from a personal finance planning perspective and didn't address possible changes in public policy, though you'd think this would be of concern to the family values and pro-marriage crowd.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Tiffany Sutton apparently wanted to drink up her lover on Valentine's Day - literally, authorities said.

Police early this morning arrested Sutton, who they believe may have tricked her acquaintance into having "kinky sex" so she could drink his blood.

The victim, 45, and Sutton, 23, were lying in bed naked at early Wednesday when Sutton asked if he wanted to be tied up and he consented, police said.

But that's when Sutton reportedly pulled out a knife and cut the victim's leg, police said.

Sutton reportedly told him that she "likes to drink blood" and made several cuts to his upper body, police said.'

POOR DEAR, I HOPE SHE GETS THE TREATMENT SHE SO DESERVES...

The falsely accused man (now acquitted) tells his story. His wife accused him of raping his daughter.

Story here. Excerpt:

"I later came to know from Khadesahib that Sangita was behind the entire conspiracy. She wanted to take possession of my Nallasopara flat (costing Rs 6 lakh), jewellery worth Rs 50,000, and also my job. She even applied BMC to give her the job in my place, since I was in jail for 'raping my daughter.' Fortunately, the BMC rejected her application, because as per rules, jobs are given only to kin after the employee dies in service. In the Palghar court, Sangita said she was unaware as to where I worked! At the same time, she wrote to the BMC for employment!"