Dad Whose Sons Were Internationally Abducted by Mom Wins in Maryland's Highest Court

"The decision was closure to six years of criminal and civil court dates. Throughout, [I] have yet to be once on the ‘losing’ side of any judge or jury’s outcome. Yet the changes in the state and federal law have done nothing for my family or sons. [The] only solace is they all know – or will someday know the extraordinary efforts gone to recover the boys, and that we have never stopped thinking of them."--Michael Shannon

According to the Associated Press story Court upholds jury award in international custody battle (4/10/08):

"Maryland's highest court has upheld a $3 million dollar jury award in favor of an Anne Arundel County man whose two sons were illegally taken out of the country by his ex-wife and mother-in-law.

"The Court of Appeals upheld Michael Shannon's right to seek civil damages and denied claims by Nermeen Khalifa Shannon and her mother, Afaf Khalifa, that the award was excessive.

"The court opinion says the women knowingly deprived Shannon of the love and comfort of his two children. The boys were taken to Egypt nearly seven years ago, when one was 4 and the other was less than a year old. They are believed to be living in Cairo."

This is a nice legal victory for Jeff Leving on behalf of a father whose two sons were internationally abducted. The sons are pictured above, on a poster Shannon keeps in his home.

Leving's press release on the court decision is excerpted below:

"A Maryland Court of Appeals upheld a jury’s decision on Wednesday, granting Michael Shannon over 3 million dollars in punitive and compensatory damages. The decision is stemming from visitation interference against Shannon’s ex-wife and mother-in-law, after they abducted their two sons to Egypt. This is a groundbreaking case and is the first successful case in the US filed over an international kidnapping and is precedent setting.
 
"International fathers’ rights attorney Jeffery M. Leving, who is coordinating all litigation in the US and Egypt for the father, said this verdict is part of his strategy to put pressure on the mother to return the children. Leving has also retained Egyptian counsel to persuade the Egyptian court in Cairo to recognize and enforce Mr. Shannon’s custody orders entered in a US court.
 
“'The decision was closure to six years of criminal and civil court dates. Throughout, [I] have yet to be once on the ‘losing’ side of any judge or jury’s outcome. Yet the changes in the state and federal law have done nothing for my family or sons. [The] only solace is they all know – or will someday know the extraordinary efforts gone to recover the boys, and that we have never stopped thinking of them…' says Mr. Shannon.
 
"The court opinion, written by Judge Lynne A. Battaglia, says the Khalifas 'Consciously and knowingly have deprived a father of the love and comfort of his two children for an extended period of time.' The opinion also stated that Mr. Shannon will never be fully compensated for the time he has lost with his children.

"Shannon's legal team is trying to convince the Egyptian court to order the mother to return the boys to the US. The boy’s mother, who has dual citizenship in Egypt and the US, will face criminal charges if she returns to the US. The ex-wife’s mother was convicted of kidnapping and incarcerated in Maryland, but was recently deported to Egypt.

"According to Leving:

"Shannon v. Khalifa will have a significant effect on the future of parental rights. Not only is this case a victory for Mr. Shannon, but it’s a victory for parents who have had their children abducted and taken out of the United States."

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.  

The Feminist Dissident: We’re Still Far Away from Eliminating the Patriarchy & the Widespread Oppression of Women by Men

"I’d rather argue...within the subset of people who believe that women have been and continue to be oppressed by men...than to try to convince those who deny these statements...We’re still much further away from eliminating the patriarchy, from reducing the widespread oppression of women by men to a memory. I hope to see that change in my lifetime, and to channel my own guilt and responsibility into productive action."--Jamie Berger, The Feminist Dissident

The purpose of "The Feminist Dissident" is to give feminists a chance to speak directly to my audience, and my audience to debate the issues with them in a civil manner. To read previous entries, click here.

The first two contributors to this are male feminist bloggers Dan Oppenheimer and Jamie Berger of the blog Masculinity and its Discontents. If you are a feminist and are interested in submitting a blog post, please email me at glenn@glennsacks.com.

We’re Still Far Away from Eliminating the Patriarchy & the Widespread Oppression of Women by Men
By Jamie Berger

This will be my last post on Glenn’s site. (I write for myself, here, not Dan.) After reading Glenn’s post about the “What a Feminist Looks Like” video, especially his comment that “The views of what feminism is sound a lot more like what feminism is supposed to be than what it really is,” I realized this is not the place for me. Nothing like a man deciding what feminism is supposed to be and claiming there’s no patriarchy to send me packin’.

The second thing that made me realize I really don’t have much to say here happened last Sunday. I interviewed, or, rather, sat down and had a conversation with, Robert Jensen, a radical feminist man whose recent anti-pornography book, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity proposes not a kinder, gentler manliness, but an end to masculinity altogether.

Jensen argues that the positive attributes that have long been associated with men (strength, perseverance, etc.) are positive characteristics of human beings of both (or should I say “all,” in this brave new world of pregnant men) genders, and that the negatives of masculinity – objectification, violence, oppression – are facets of society best eliminated altogether.

I had planned to take Jensen to task for his rather thought-police-like take on porn and fantasy – he believes that not only should porn be illegal but that one should police one’s fantasies as well. I also planned to take him to task for essentially preaching to the converted. But by the time I’d left him, I believed not only that he is sincere, but that he is for the most part on the right track. It’s one thing to preach to the converted, but he wants more than conversion. He wants to bring together and forge a movement out of the people who are willing to begin to start a radical gender/racial/ecological revolution.

He also addressed, and addresses in his book, the difference between guilt and shame and which is appropriate for men to feel in a section entitled “Men Don’t Always Feel Powerful, But Men Are Not Oppressed”:

"This distinction between shame and guilt [shame is when you feel you are bad; guilt is when you feel you’ve done something bad. J. believes that the former is useless but the latter is perfectly appropriate for men to feel based on patriarchal societies’ treatment of women.] can help us negotiate another important emotional reality for men . . . a sense of powerlessness. Just as we have to distinguish between shame and guilt, it’s important here to distinguish between an individual man’s experience of powerlessness and the claim that men are oppressed. Men often feel powerless, sometimes for reasons that are justified, and others for reasons that are self-indulgent, but it’s important to be clear that men are not oppressed as men."

Jensen goes on to use another feminist scholar’s definition of oppression as “a system of interrelated barriers and forces which reduce, immobilize and mold people who belong to a certain group, and effect their subordination to another group.”

I’m rambling here a bit, but I guess what I want to say is that I’d rather argue with the extremists within the subset of people who believe that women have been and continue to be oppressed by men (and that people of color have and continue to be oppressed by white people) than to try to convince those who deny these statements. I am happy to be living in a world (or at least a country) in which race is pretty quickly disappearing, as people of all the different cultures in America are starting families together and making racial distinctions moot, the territory for fringe groups, no longer the dominant paradigm. But we’re still much further away from eliminating the patriarchy, from reducing the widespread oppression of women by men to a memory. I hope to see that change in my lifetime, and to channel my own guilt and responsibility into productive action...

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

Dad Struggling to Pay His Child Support Finds $140,000 in Cash and...

...turns it in. According to the story Man finds $140,000, then his conscience (Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08):

"Last month, Eli Estrada found $140,000 cash in the street on his way to work. The $20 bills were unmarked, bundled into wads of $20,000 and in a bag in the middle of Gridley Road in Cerritos. The 40-year-old Highland Park man's first thought was: 'I'm rich.'

"But he immediately decided to turn in his find. The money would go a long way, he thought, but keeping it would be wrong.

"'That's just your first reaction,' Estrada said, 'but it's not yours and you feel nervous and you feel like you did something wrong, even though you didn't.'

"It's not that he didn't need it.

"About six months ago, Estrada opened a landscaping and artificial-grass business, Tuff Turf, and is in debt. He said his child support payments are tough to make and he supports his mother, who moved in with him last year after she lost her house to a fumbled refinancing plan and declared bankruptcy."

What is probably happening regarding the child support is this--Estrada's income has dipped because he launched his new business. However, he can't get his child support payments lowered based on the new income. He may not have even tried, since he would have to pay a lawyer and might not be successful with the downward modification.

If Estrada's business is successful and he earns more money, he'll immediately be hit up for more child support.

Given how hard it is for child support obligors to get downward modifications when they experience a drop in income, if Estrada's business fails, he may well become a "deadbeat dad," with fake child support arrearages piling up. In my recent co-authored column New LA County Campaign Against ‘Deadbeat Dads’ Unfairly Targets Low-Income Fathers (Los Angeles Daily News, 3/26/08) I explained:

"According to the California Department of Child Support Services, there are four primary factors creating child support arrearages in California: 'high child support orders established for low-income obligors'; 'a limited number of child support orders adjusted downward'; 'establishment of retroactive child support orders'; and 'accrual of 10 percent interest on child support debt.' Over a quarter of these arrears is interest.

"The report was based on a study CDCSS contracted from the Urban Institute. According to the study, 'assuming every effort was made to increase child support collections and reduce future arrears…only a quarter of the existing debt is collectible.'

"The study found that California is particularly prone to turning dads into 'deadbeats'—California arrearages are piling up 'much faster' than those in the rest of the country. With only 12% of the US’ population, California’s arrearages represent 20% of the nation’s whole."

The full Los Angeles Times story is here--thanks to Kelly, a reader, for sending it.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Scary Story--Girl Tries to Frame Boy on Rape Charge, Has FOUR Friends Corroborate False Tale

"Review of statements and video surveillance vindicated students accused of assaulting a 13-year-old student at Athens Middle School, said Athens Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Fred Hayes. The female student will be charged by Athens District Police for making a false report, he said.

"The incident began as part of a history class assignment on Friday. She and the other students were asked to create 'protest signs' dealing with current and past topics. 'If you love your nation, stop illegal immigration,' her sign read. She claimed a group of 21 students, many of them Hispanic, assaulted her by pushing her into a brick wall and scraping her face down the wall, and that males in the group attempted to drag her into the bathroom while telling her they would rape and kill her.

"Hayes said, while he is disappointed that she will be charged for filing a false report, he is relieved that an assault like the one she described did not occur on campus. He said questions about the validity of her claim were raised earlier in the investigation because of conflicting stories, but that video from inside the school provided the most important evidence in the case....

"He said the female student can be seen in the hallway walking down the hallway with a sign from her history class in her hands as if she was displaying it. Hayes said a male student approached her from behind and took the sign away from her and ran, ducking into the gymnasium and away from her. Moments later, she walked by several teachers and never indicated to them that she was under duress, the video showed.

"Hayes said she then approached Assistant Principal Mark Castleberry and told him someone had taken her assignment away from her. He told her to go to class and that the matter would be investigated later, Hayes said. Videotape then shows the female student scratching her arm and neck area, wounds she would later claim were inflicted by a group of attackers."

Readers send me stories of false rape claims every day--false claims are common--but this one was particularly disturbing. Many rape cases are "he said/she said" issues, so when the woman has witnesses or outside corroboration for her claims, her claims are understandably given much more legitimacy.

In this case, a false accuser had four separate friends corroborate her lie. The accused were saved only by the fact that there was a videotape of the (non) incident. The tape even showed the false accuser inflicting on herself the injuries she claimed male assailants caused.

I also love the school Superintendent's comment that "he is disappointed that she will be charged for filing a false report." Why would he be "disappointed"?

The full story is Video Shows No Evidence Of Attack On Student--thanks to Tim, a reader, for sending it.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Men, Women & the Male Birth Control Pill

Adam Voiland reports the latest about the make birth control pill in his recent U.S. News & World Report article Should Men Care That Male Birth Control Options Are Languishing? (3/28/08)Voiland quotes Warren Farrell and cites one of my articles, as well as some feminist arguments. Voiland writes:

"...Elaine Lissner, director of the Male Contraception Information Project...has high hopes for two nonhormonal options that have been making strides recently. An injectable compound called RISUG has completed phase II clinical trials in India, she says, and it seems to prevent a man from fathering a child for up to 10 years—although it is readily reversible during that interval. Likewise, the Shepherd Medical Co. has received FDA clearance to perform a clinical trial on a type of implant that would function much like a vasectomy. Theoretically these 'intra vas devices,' which are sutured to the vas deferens (the tube that helps transport semen from the testes to the urethra), are removable. However, humans tests are required to see whether fertility can be restored after long-term use.

"Both female and male activists for male contraception say there are ample reasons that men should start agitating for better contraception options. Lissner lays out a slew of reasons why men—and society, too—would benefit, including the fact that the current options for men are relatively unreliable. Two of the three options available to American men—condoms and withdrawal—have failure rates of 15 percent and 27 percent, respectively, after a year among couples who use them, according to the Mayo Clinic. The third option, vasectomy, is much more reliable, but its potential irreversibility is a serious drawback."

My column that Voiland cites is Do Women Really Want a Male Birth Control Pill? (Newsday, 4/11/05). He writes, that I "argue that women enjoy the power over the timing of reproduction" and that I'm "egg[ing feminists] on." My argument is that while some women will be happy about the male birth control because it takes the burden of contraception off of them, others may not be so happy because it eliminates their current near-monopoly on reproductive choice.

Read the full U.S. News & World Report article here. My column is below.

Do Women Really Want a Male Birth Control Pill?
By Glenn Sacks
Newsday, 4/11/05

Women have long lamented the unequal burden they shoulder in the area of contraception. Today researchers are reportedly moving closer to perfecting a male contraceptive that is free of side effects, easy to take, and reversible. But do women really want a male birth control pill?

Power is the reward which comes with responsibility. For example, during the Cold War Americans complained about the money and manpower spent protecting a reputedly ungrateful world from communism. Yet these sacrifices also helped give the United States great geopolitical power, with its attendant perks and privileges.

Similarly, while women legitimately complain that biology has condemned them to bear the burden of contraception, this burden also gives women control over one of the most important parts of any human being’s life--reproduction. The male birth control pill will shift much of that control from women to men. Is the following conversation far away?

Woman #1: “My [husband, boyfriend, significant other] is selfish. He's on the pill and won’t get off. I’ve asked him to stop taking it but he always says he’s not ready. He just won’t grow up. I don’t know what to do.”

Woman #2: “That’s what the pill has given men—a right to be perpetual adolescents. It’s given them veto power over women who want to have children."

Despite the stigma that will develop against men who take the pill, the pill will be a success. While most women are responsible and want to have children with a willing, committed partner, studies show that lack of reproductive control can be a major problem for men today. For example, the National Scruples and Lies Survey 2004 polled 5,000 women in the United Kingdom for That’s Life! magazine. According to that survey, 42% of women claim they would lie about contraception in order to get pregnant, regardless of the wishes of their partners.

Jo Checkley, the editor of That’s Life!, is correct when she says “to deliberately get pregnant when your partner doesn’t want a baby is playing Russian roulette with other people’s lives"...

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

F4J UK vs. F4J US

There is a war of words between Matt O'Connor (pictured) and Jenny Bostock of Fathers 4 Justice UK and Jamil Jabr of Fathers 4 Justice US. I reprint the various publicly-distributed letters below.

In letter #1, O'Connor criticizes F4J US. In letter 2, Jabr responds. Letter 3 is Bostock's response to Jamil.

Letter #1, O'Connor criticizes F4J US

Dear all,

It has been three years and thousands of pounds later since we first tried to get a campaigning branch of F4J in the US off the ground by doing high-profile protests.

Last year it took to brave Brits, Jolly Stanesby and Mike Downes to blaze the way at the Lincoln Memorial. People have been doing bike rides etc and making brave sacrifices.

And who followed in F4J? Nobody.

Yesterday protestors took to the Golden Gate Bridge in an action designed to highlight the plight of the people of Tibet. This was something long discussed by me with the apparatchiks in what quickly became the bastardised US version of F4J. What did we do? Nothing.

Where F4J in the UK, Canada and Holland were men and women of action, in the US the mission was perverted to become some impotent, sterilised charity vehicle. Only we didn’t need charity.

We needed action to raise awareness.

Either through fear or cowardice, people took the idea of F4J, and pirated and disfigured it because F4J is more than a name or badge, it is an idea carried by the very people who created it, understand it and believe in it.

Taking a badge from a campaign Ferrari and sticking it on a charity milk float ain’t gonna make the milk float go any faster.

I’m not going to apportion blame as it’s now all on record, however even last year the bitching and back biting from a tiny handful continued and went on and on and on and on...

If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought that the FBI were trying to run us into the ground before we had even taken off.

Whoever is left running F4J in the US should resign immediately if not through shame that they have failed to deliver in raising awareness in this election year, but that they recognise they are not cut out for the job. Where people looked to F4J for hope, they have delivered hopelessness.

They should do so before they inflict any further damage on the movement and deepen the stain left on the F4J name in the US...

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

Ned Holstein: Anti-Father Bias in Wall Street Journal's Alimony Piece

From Ned Holstein, MD, MS, Executive Director of Fathers & Families:

Ned Holstein:  What the Wall Street Journal Didn't Get

Boston, MA--The April 1 edition of the Wall Street Journal ran two articles on divorce and missed the real meaning of each. Tell us your opinion on our blog.

Page 1 noted that 33 percent of higher-earning spouses, but only 3.8 percent of alimony-payers, are women (Men Receiving Alimony Want a Little Respect). A male weakness is asserted as the reason for this discrepancy: it’s all due to male shame, according to the article.

A better explanation is that family courts will rarely order women to pay men, as they are still stuck in old stereotyped gender roles. Also, men trade away alimony for more time with their children, another prize that family courts often refuse them.

Here’s an interesting sidelight. A top-ranking New York family court judge says that women ordered to pay alimony are angrier about it than men. (This clip can be viewed here.) So much for the mad-dad stereotype.

On page D9 of the same edition, the Journal reported that almost twice as many women with professional degrees are separated or divorced compared to men with these degrees (Women MBA’s More Liable to Divorce than Men). Again, the asserted reason is an alleged male character flaw—fragile ego’s causing them to leave successful wives.

But since women seek 70 percent of divorces, the real story is that wives are the ones doing the leaving. So yet another male character flaw is offered— the fast-track wives are leaving because men allegedly don’t give them enough TLC. But maybe a better reason is back on page 1—the professional wives leave more often because they know they won’t have to pay alimony. And they will get the kids, house and child support.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Remember, Family Breakdown Is All Men's Fault...

"Sholonda" searched for 3 1/2 years for the father of her daughter. She pointed the finger at every one of the 16 men pictured--that's sixteen different men--as the possible father of her daughter.

In this video, we see what happens with the paternity test with man #17.

To watch the video, click here.

As a follow up, according to Wikipedia:

"Sholonda, a recurring guest on the Maury show, has given 18 men a paternity test for her daughter. The eighteenth man, her husband, turned out to be the father. She later appeared to confess to her husband that she cheated and that she didn't know if he was the father of another child..."

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

His Side with Glenn Sacks Radio Commentary: A Victory for Military Parents

My recent His Side with Glenn Sacks radio commentary for KLAA AM 830 in Los Angeles discusses a recent victory for the rights of military parents. The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003 (SCRA) (formerly known as the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act) protects deployed soldiers against civil legal actions. Perhaps the biggest problem deployed parents face is that judges often do not interpret the SCRA as applying to family law proceedings.

Recently Mike Robinson of the California Alliance for Families and Children announced that a new federal law will specifically extend the protections of the SCRA to family law proceedings and eliminate default judgments for deployed service personnel.

To listen to the commentary, click here or on the audio button below.

To learn more, see my blog post A Victory for Military Parents.

His Side with Glenn Sacks radio commentaries are broadcast daily on KLAA AM 830, a 50,000 watt talk station in Los Angeles and Orange County. KLAA AM 830 is owned by Arte Moreno, owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

From 2003-2005, His Side with Glenn Sacks ran in a syndicated talk show format in Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Seattle, and other cities. To listen to show archives, click here.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Adult Woman Seeking Child Support Payments from Mom Should've Gone After a Politically Easier Target--Dad

From Newsday's Court: No child support for LI woman who sued her strict mother (4/10/08):

"A woman who claimed her mother was too strict to live with is not entitled to collect child support from her, a state appeals court has ruled.

"The state Court of Appeals concluded that Maria Guevara moved out of her mother's Bellerose Terrace home voluntarily, so her mother was no longer obliged to support her.

"Guevara moved out at 18 and sued her mother, Gina Ubillus, in 2005. Under state law, people between 18 and 21 can be eligible for child support if their parents throw them out or physically abuse them, according to the appeals court's recent decision.

"Guevara, now 21, contended in court papers that she left 'to escape an abusive, unloving and unsupportive environment.' She has said her mother set her curfew too early and refused to give her money for restaurants and fashionable clothing.

"A Nassau County support magistrate found no evidence the daughter had been physically abused, and the appeals court upheld the magistrate's ruling."

Mom's crime is that she "set her curfew too early and refused to give her money for restaurants and fashionable clothing"? Mom sounds fine to me--if anything, Gina Ubillus seems like a good parent, not a bad one.

One questions whether Maria Guevara got good legal advice--suing dad for child support would've been far easier politically. Maybe mom was the deeper pocket or her assets were easier to ascertain.

Mom's lawyer said, "The government cannot tell a person how to discipline their child." Well said.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Global Warming Is Now Officially Serious--It Could Negatively Impact Beer

"Either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up."

Important news out of Australia--Global Warming could negatively impact beer:

"Beer will be short supply, more expensive and may taste different as climate change affects barley production, a scientist says.

"Drought conditions in parts of Australia where malting barley was grown was likely to get worse, according to Jim Salinger of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

"Barley production in the main growing region of Canterbury in New Zealand - where brewing giant Lion Nathan gets about 70 per cent of its malted barley - would also be affected, the New Zealand Press Association said.

"'It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up,' he said.

"Malting barley production in Australia was likely to be hit hard in parts of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and NSW.

"The dry areas of Australia would become drier and water shortages would get worse.

"'It will provide a lot of challenges for the brewing industry,' Dr Salinger said.

"He said breweries could be forced to look at new varieties of malt.

"Dr Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention in Auckland today that by 2100,  the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases - measured in equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide - would be double, and possibly four times pre-industrial levels, leading to further climate warming.

"'Most areas in Australia where malting barley is cropped are likely to experience producing declines,' he said."

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Embattled Man in Texas Frozen Embryo Case Is Finally Free of Ex's Legal Harassment

In the highly-publicized Roman v. Roman Texas frozen embryo case, Augusta Roman and her then-husband Randy Roman had tried for several