Over the past few weeks Volvo has received over 3,000 calls and letters from protesters seeking to convince Volvo to decline Arnold Worldwide's bid for a pending $150 million ad contract because of Arnold Worldwide's track record of making TV commercials which mock and ridicule men. To learn more about our campaign, click here.

Volvo executives have been calling protesters to assure them that Volvo will remain a "family-friendly" company and that it is they, not the advertising agency they hire, who will direct the kinds of advertisements they create.

Final presentations for the Volvo contract are being made on March 20 and 21 in Goteborg, Sweden. I suggest you call Volvo executives in Goteborg during their meetings. The names and phone numbers of the relevant Volvo executives in Goteborg are listed below. The phone numbers can be dialed directly using the numbers exactly as they are listed below.

Tim Ellis
Director, Global Advertising and Sales Promotion
Volvo Car Corporation in Goteborg, Sweden
ph: 011 46 31 59 00 00 (the main number at headquarters)
fx: 011 46 31 59 79 30 (this is specific to Tim Ellis)
tellis23@volvocars.com
 

This morning Richard Smaglick of www.fathersandhusbands.org reminded me of the excellent story CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood did in 2005 about the way television advertising and programming portrays men and fathers. CBS discussed our Campaign Against Anti-Father Verizon Commercial and conducted interviews with men's issues author Warren Farrell and myself. Farrell, author of Father and Child Reunion, made the excellent point that were aliens from another planet to view our TV shows, they would come away with the impression that fathers are a roadblock that children must overcome.

Arianna Huffington also made an appearance and contradicted the our view that men are bashed on TV in part because it is not socially acceptable to criticize women. Huffington said that we shouldn't be unhappy because it's only TV.

The show also highlighted a perfect example of the problem--Alan Kirschenbaum, Executive Producer of CBS' Yes, Dear, and one of the directors of Everybody Loves Raymond. Describing dads past and present, Kirschenbaum said "we don't want to be fathers like our fathers were--very quick to not bear any responsibility for raising their kids, always off doing what they wanted to do instead." Kirschenbaum said modern fathers are different--that we want to father for about 20 minutes and then hand the kids off to our overworked wives and go off and play.

To watch the CBS piece, click here.

(The trashing of fathers of previous generations ala Kirschenbaum is one of my pet peeves--I defended the "old" father in my column Hate My Father?  No Ma'am! (World Net Daily, 4/8/02. In defense of the modern dad/husband, I suggest my co-authored column Men Blamed for Marriage Decline but Women's Relationship Wounds Often Self-Inflicted, Chicago Tribune, 1/21/07).

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

My new co-authored column, Anna Nicole dispute shows system's flaws (Chicago Sun-Times, 3/10/07), explains that the legal maneuver being used to deny a DNA test to Larry Birkhead, who has long asserted that he is Smith's baby's father, is common in paternity cases, and is often used to separate fathers from their children. In the column family law attorney Jeff Leving and I wrote:

"Behind the Anna Nicole Smith circus lies an important truth about fathers' rights. The long line of opportunistic men who have lined up to be Smith's baby's dad since Smith's death has diverted attention from the case's key fact: photographer Larry Birkhead, Smith's ex-boyfriend, has a legitimate claim to paternity. He has been thwarted for several months by the same legal maneuvers which are often employed to separate fathers from their children.

"Rather than allow the DNA test, Smith and Stern apparently decided to use a common ploy in paternity cases--they stalled. If the DNA test is delayed long enough, by the time biological paternity is established the judge deciding custody will likely decide that Stern is the baby's 'psychological parent.'

"Judges are understandably reluctant to remove infants from the care of the only parent or parents they've known, regardless of actual paternity. Stern is many things, but he isn't stupid. He knows that in child custody cases the baby is like the football in a football game--whoever has possession is in control."

If you'd like to express your opinion on the column, you can send a Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times regarding Anna Nicole dispute shows system's flaws (3/10/07) by writing to letters@suntimes.com. To send a Letter to the Editor of the Bergen Record, which also published the column, regarding Amid a sordid story, a question of dads' rights, write to letterstotheeditor@northjersey.com.

To read more and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Aspiring Republican presidential candidate John McCain contemptuously dismissed fathers' concerns over family law at a mid-day town hall meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Friday. Shared parenting activist Tony Taylor asked McCain if he "would be bold enough to address the issue of equal access to children for fathers that have gone through divorce." McCain testily replied:

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, I am not going to overturn divorce court decisions. That's why we have courts and that's why people go to court and get a divorce. If I as President of the United States said this decision has to be overturned without the proper appeals process then I would be disturbing our entire system of government... But for me to stand here before all these people and say that I'm going declare divorces invalid because someone feels that they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a, uh, uh, tar baby of enormous proportions."

In other words, McCain is saying, "the family court issue is a mess. Given the power of the women's groups and the lack of power of fathers' groups, there's nothing for me to gain and much for me to lose in tackling the issue."

It's unfortunate, but McCain's assessment of the politics of the issue is probably accurate at this point, and is one reason why we can't get politicians to meaningfully act on our issues. And as unfortunate as McCain's response is, to be fair, at least answered the question honestly. Whereas most politicians will give some vague, meaningless answer designed to appease the questioner into thinking he was going to do something about the issue, McCain made it clear he had no interest in the issue.

Also typifying the weakness of our movement, McCain's remarks have been very controversial, but not for the right reason. McCain referred to the issue as a "tar baby," meaning a sticky mess, which reforming family law certainly is. Yet "tar baby" also has a racist connotation, and Tony Taylor is black, perhaps the only black person at the meeting. McCain's use of "tar baby" is being widely reported, and McCain apologized for using the term.

To watch video of the incident, which begins right after Taylor asked his question, click here. To learn more, see the CNN story McCain apologizes after using the phrase 'tar baby'.

Taylor, to his credit, has been traveling around confronting candidates' on fathers' issues, and has been a thorn in their side. He told me that he has yet to receive a meaningful, positive response to his questions from any candidate.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

In John McCain Testily Dismisses Fathers' Rights at Iowa Town Hall Meeting--Video Available, I discussed the incident Friday when aspiring Republican presidential candidate John McCain contemptuously dismissed fathers' concerns over family law at a mid-day town hall meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Shared parenting activist Tony Taylor asked McCain if he "would be bold enough to address the issue of equal access to children for fathers that have gone through divorce," and McCain testily replied, in essence, that he wasn't going to do a damn thing. To learn more, click here.

What hasn't been mentioned is that Taylor's question was framed in the context of the rights of military parents. As I noted in my co-authored Veterans Day 2006 column Protect Deployed Parents' Rights:

"Divorced or separated military parents often lose custody of their children--and sometimes permanently forfeit any meaningful role in their lives--simply because they have served their country. Many married parents deploy overseas, never suspecting that their parenthood essentially ended the day they left home."

This is a major issue for deployed service personnel--I often receive letters from men in Iraq or Afghanistan who are losing their children or being put through the wringer by the child support system, and who are unable to defend themselves. There have been a few--but only a few--legislative efforts to solve this problem. To learn more, click here. It's bad enough that McCain dismissed fathers' concerns--it's even worse that he dismissed the concerns of deployed fathers (and mothers). To read the full column detailing deployed parents' problems, go to Protect Deployed Parents' Rights (Tucson Citizen, Trenton Times, Macon Telegraph and others, 11/11/06).
 
To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

I hate to sound PC, or whatever, but most of the women in the widely distributed "America's Next Top Model" ad below are just too damn thin for my tastes and, I think, for most men's. The blonde lady in green near the bottom (who looks like she was just liberated from Buchenwald), the blonde lady in the upper left corner and the black lady in blue at the top right are the worst of the lot, IMHO.

TOO THIN

As a service to my readers, below I have a few pictures of a woman who I think is beautiful and is not too thin. If readers have other suggestions, feel free to email me the URLs or pictures at glenn@glennsacks.com.

NOT TOO THIN

Lisa Scott Lee, 31, a Welsh singer popular in the UK:

To read more and discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

I'm surprised and impressed with the progress that the Parental Alienation Awareness Organization/ www.Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com has made in gaining recognition of April 25 as "Parental Alienation Awareness Day." They have gotten the governors of three states to officially recognize April 25 as PAAD, and are working on more. As I've noted on many occasions (click here and here), Parental Alienation is a vile scourge, and I fully endorse these activists' efforts.

Last spring syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker wrote a nice column about PAAD called "Parental alienation gets a day" (5/12/06). Parker also discussed our Campaign Against PBS's Father-Bashing Breaking the Silence, which revolved around the issue of Parental Alienation.

The PAAO's most recent press release on Parental Alienation Awareness Day-2007 is below:

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization launches Parental Alienation Awareness Day-2007

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization (PAAO) is planning exciting events to commemorate Parental Alienation Awareness Day-2007. We are proud to co-sponsor with PsyCare, Inc., Workshop 2007 on April 14-15 in Palmetto, FL. The workshop will cover legal, psychological, social, and familial aspects of Parental Alienation, child abduction, child abuse, and custody and divorce issues. Renown speaker, television guest, researcher, and author of 'Jeopardy in the Courtroom,' Dr. Stephen Ceci, will be the featured guest.  Dr. Ceci will be joined by other giants in the field.

Continuing Education hours for professionals and discount prices for parents will be offered.

PAAO is launching a Governor's Campaign as part of Parental Alienation Awareness Day in the hopes of getting as many governors as possible to issue Proclamations declaring April 25th as Parental Alienation Awareness Day.  PAAO is hoping to get Parental Alienation recognized on a state-wide level.

Parental Alienation Awareness Organization has prepared brochures and flyers and suggested they be distributed to school personnel, youth leaders, clergy, Scout leaders, coaches, judges, family law attorneys, legislators, and media.

PAAO is urging everyone to participate, in some way, to commemorate April 25th, Parental Alienation Awareness Day. Let's get NOTICED and ensure the right of every child to give and receive all of the love they deserve.

For more information on Parental Alienation, Hostile Aggressive Parenting, Parental Alienation Awareness Day, and Workshop 2007, please visit us at: www.parental-alienation-awareness.com. Contact: Sarvy Emo at Tel: 416-840-5654, Fax: 866-232-8134 or at info@parental-alienation-awareness.com.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

"You're all just pissin' in the wind/You don't know it but you are. And there ain't nothin' like a friend/Who can tell you you're just pissin' in the wind."--Neil Young, from "Ambulance Blues"

Because feminism is such a driving force in the political left, it is very difficult to get liberals and leftists to listen to our issues. When you say "fathers' rights" they hear "male patriarchy," even though "fathers' rights" is simply an attempt to protect children's relationships with their fathers and to bring some equity to the system.

Much of the left's political strength comes from the labor unions and the African-American community. Yet the left is schizophrenic here, contending that blue collar men and black men are victims of rapacious capitalism, etc., until the moment that they have a child support obligation, upon which time they immediately morph into highflying "deadbeat dads" who stiff their kids and shaft their oppressed ex-wives.

The left wrings its hands--appropriately--over layoffs, givebacks and wage cuts, but completely forgets this when it comes to the financial obligations courts place upon fathers. The working man and the black man are oppressed, they note, yet at the same time are part of the privileged male class which rules over the oppressed female class.

One can often find this schizophrenia in Michael Moore. In my column Michael Moore, You Used to Be My Hero (Cybercast News Service, 2/17/04) I wrote:

"While you have so often emphasized a class based analysis of society, you seem happy to chuck all that stuff overboard when speaking about men. In your words and writing the men who run a Fortune 500 company are indistinguishable from the common blue collar worker. They're all men, so they're all 'in control,' have all the power, and are united in one large, extremely profitable conspiracy against women. Michael, you're the socialist, not me, but even I know that Marx, Lenin, Trotsky & Co. always held social class to be a vastly greater determinant of privilege in capitalist society than gender."

I agree with some but not all traditionally 'left' views. As a general rule, I'm more or less with the left on issues such as labor unions, race, climate change/global warming, gay rights, and others. But trying to talk sense into the left on gender issues is often like spitting in the wind. I was reminded of this recently when one of my readers--who understands my work far better than most--wrote a letter to the leftwing web publication Salon asking them to take a hard, fair look at fathers' issues.

His letter comes in the context of the controversy over feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte. To learn more about that controversy, click here.

Salon: Write about the Fathers' Rights Movement. Write about Glenn Sacks

One of Amanda's favorite whipping boys is the Fathers' Rights Movement.

Amanda says the people in this movement are out for one thing: to reduce their child support. She says they are batterers. She says they abandoned their families. She says they are misogynists. She says they are liars. She says they are bitter used up men.

To read more and discuss this issue on my blog, click  here.

(Above) Tennis ace Maria Sharapova

The tennis pay fiasco is a classic example of how feminism, political correctness and male chivalry so often bulldoze common sense and fairness. According to the Associated Press article "French Open extends equal pay to women":

"The French Open will award equal prize money to male and female players throughout the tournament, falling in line with the three other Grand Slam tournaments.

"The announcement Friday by the French Tennis Federation extends last year's decision.

"The French Open paid the men's and women's singles champions the same for the first time, although the overall prize fund remained larger for men.

"'In 2007, the parity will be total,' federation president Christian Bimes said."

The article intentionally ignores the decisive fact that in the French Open the men play a best of five series while the women play only best of three. Men play 67% more sets than women do. Some "equal pay for equal work"!

As I noted here a couple of weeks ago, Wimbledon recently made the same decision based on the same feminist strong-arming/shaming tactics.

In the AP article feminist ex-tennis player Billie Jean King saluted this pay "equity." In 1973 King, at age 29, struck what for some reason is considered a great blow for feminism and women's equality by beating 55 year-old Bobby Riggs in a famous match in the Astrodome. King was in the prime of her career in 1973. By contrast, Riggs (see below) had made the cover of Newsweek magazine for his play in...1939.

To be fair, I will say that I often find the women's tennis matches more interesting than the men's. The men's game just seems so power-oriented to the point where I lose interest. The women's game seems more varied and creative. I used to be a decent tennis player but have been shelved for the past couple years by vertigo, which has been a real drag.

Riggs on the cover of a 1939  Newsweek magazine

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

A tiny bit of vindication. For years I've been telling skeptical reporters two rarely-mentioned things about paternity fraud:

1) Many male victims of marital paternity fraud want to raise "their" children, but are thwarted by the family law system.

2) Many misguided women's advocates portray "duped dads" who do try to terminate their parental rights as coldhearted brutes turning their backs on the children who love them. However, I've pointed out that many of these "duped dads" try to terminate their parental rights because the children's mothers have already unofficially "terminated" their parental rights.

In my co-authored column 'Duped Dad' Bill Could Foster Closer Ties (Denver Rocky Mountain News, 2/7/07) I wrote:

"In many cases, however, paternity fraud claims arise after the duped dad has been pushed to the margins of the children's lives during a divorce or separation. Sometimes the mother even attempts to use the fact that the man is not the biological father as a way to get the family court to limit or deny him visitation time, while still demanding that he pay child support. Perhaps a Gandhi or a Saint Joseph might be content to pay their exes a large portion of their income in such situations, but they may be the only ones.

"[Journalists who write] about paternity fraud, misses an important point--many duped dads still want to parent their nonbiological children, provided they are allowed a meaningful role in their lives. Some duped dads even wage long, expensive legal battles to remain in the lives of the children with whom they have bonded. Paternity fraud receives substantial media coverage, but these men rarely make the news stories."

Regarding my first point above, the new Louisville Courier-Journal article Ky. cases pose question: What defines a father? Lawsuits test extent of rights (3/18/07) discusses the case of Ren Hinshaw. Hinshaw is "fighting to retain joint custody of a child he helped raised and loves as his own, even after finding out the boy is not his biological child." According to the article:

"'He is my son, and I am his dad,' Hinshaw said in an e-mail to the newspaper.

"The child's mother says Hinshaw should have no right to custody...

"Hinshaw was in the delivery room when the boy he thought was his son was born in 1999.

"He cut the umbilical cord and later changed the boy's diapers, taught him to talk and volunteered at his school, according to court records.

"Hinshaw, a technology consultant at the University of Louisville's Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, described the boy in court records as the most important thing in his life.

"But when the child's mother, Jacqueline, divorced Hinshaw in 2003, she disclosed he wasn't the biological father and asked Jefferson Family Court to deny him custody.

"Judge Virginia Whittinghill ordered a counselor to meet with the child. She concluded he had bonded with Hinshaw and that it would be 'very devastating to him if he was not in his life.' She described Hinshaw as the boy's 'psychological father.'

"Whittinghill not only granted Hinshaw's motion for joint custody, she also made his home the boy's primary residence and ordered his ex-wife to pay him $25,000 in attorney's fees.

"The Court of Appeals last September affirmed the decision, saying the case wasn't about paternity but 'the custody rights between a husband and wife as they relate to a child born and raised within the confines of the marriage.'

"Hinshaw's ex-wife, who has since remarried, is now asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case. She and her lawyer, Peter Ostermiller, declined comment, but in court papers they say that DNA should rule, even if the decision is not in the child's best interests.

"They also contend that Hinshaw had no standing to seek custody, just as the state Supreme Court held last year when it denied such rights to a lesbian partner who was not a child's legal parent.

"After two years as the boy's primary parent, Hinshaw said in court papers that his bond with the child has grown even stronger and that it would 'take a chunk' out of his heart if the child was taken away."

"'This is a bond that no person should put asunder,' he said."

Regarding my second point above, according to the article:

"For 11 years, Gary Denzik paid child support for the girl he loved and thought was his daughter. Then his ex-wife sent him a DNA test showing he wasn't the father after all.

"'It killed me,' said Denzik of Bowling Green. 'It was like hearing your child had died in a car accident.'

"Denzik got a court order stopping his payments and sued his ex-wife for fraud. A jury later found she knew all along he wasn't the father -- that he was a so-called duped dad -- and awarded him $54,770 in damages, the amount he paid in child support the past five years.

"The Kentucky Supreme Court narrowly upheld that verdict last June..."

Denzik's motivations?

"[Denzik] said he loved his daughter and visited her sporadically through the years as she moved from state to state with her mother.

"Then, in 2000, she turned 13 and her mother, Candy Blazar, told Denzik that the girl was the product of an extramarital affair with a former boyfriend.

"He said he decided to sue in part because she wouldn't let him see the girl anymore. He also said he wanted to 'draw a line in the sand -- to say a woman can't do this.'"

To read more and discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

This CNN video depicts what is being called a hate crime. In it a drunken woman and her idiot chivalrous male companion have a conflict with Seattle convenience store owner Steven Saleh, who is Arab. The woman verbally abuses Saleh, calls him racial names, and then her idiot male companion comes to her aid and attacks Saleh. I can't say I think the woman should be charged with a hate crime because I don't think she was targeting Saleh because he is Arab. She was drunk, wanted more booze, and Saleh (rightly) booted her out of his store instead.

The highlight of the video comes when the woman's idiot male companion grabs the Arab shopkeeper. In the scuffle Saleh gives him several whacks with a steel rod and appears to spear him in the neck with it. The attacker is lucky to be alive--Saleh didn't have (or didn't use) a pistol, but he might have.

Two more comments, one lighter, one serious:

1) On a lighter note, it reminds me of the infamous Carlos Mencia routine where he plays an Indian 7-11 store clerk. It's a funny routine, but what I really like about the Mencia bit is that, instead of an American comic making fun of Indian shopkeepers, as is common, here Mencia is the Indian shopkeeper slicing and dicing the Americans who disrespect him. To watch the Mencia clip, click here.

2) I'm a big believer in the right of embattled minorities to armed self-defense. I detailed this in my column Attacks on American Muslims Reaffirm Wisdom of 2nd Amendment (Pasadena Star-News & Affiliated Papers, 9/19/01), which was written right after the attacks of September 11, 2001. I wrote:

"There are many instances in American history of besieged ethnic or religious groups successfully using the second amendment right of armed self-defense. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, for example, armed Korean merchants and residents brandished weapons to defend their homes and businesses from the angry mobs that had specifically targeted them.

"In the late 1950s, Civil Rights leader Robert F. Williams led the black community of Monroe, North Carolina in its struggle to defend itself against the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Inspired by armed Native Americans who had recently repelled a white supremacist attack on their reservation, Williams organized armed self-defense patrols which successfully defended the black community against marauding racist vigilantes.

"One hundred and fifty years ago this month besieged free blacks, escaped slaves, and abolitionists also made good use of the right of armed self-defense. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, which gave Southerners the right to send slave catchers into the North to capture and re-enslave escaped slaves, the legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass recommended that fugitive slaves and their allies organize armed self-defense. There followed many instances, including the famous Battle of Christiana, Pennsylvania in September of 1851, where white abolitionists, free blacks, and escaped slaves united, took up arms, and fought off slave catchers."

To read more and discuss this issue on my blog, click here.
 

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