I appeared along with celebrity journalist Pat Lalama on CNN Headline News' Showbiz Tonight on Friday to discuss the Alec Baldwin case. To watch the video, click here.

While I absolutely condemn Baldwin's angry phone message to his daughter, I defend Baldwin's overall position in this case. I consider Kim Basinger's long, well-documented Parental Alienation campaign against Baldwin to be far more damaging to their daughter Ireland than Baldwin's angry outburst, and believe that Basinger has put Baldwin in an extremely difficult and painful position. On the show I said:

"Parental Alienation campaigns such as what Kim has done to Alec Baldwin are very common. This campaign that she has done for the past six years has been so bad that even Basinger's mother has come out and condemned her daughter, and said that Alec is a good father, that he loves his daughter, that she loves him, and that Kim has done everything she could to drive him out of her life.

"This tape, what he did is wrong, there's no question that it's wrong, he should apologize, he has apologized. He lost his temper but let's look at this tape in context--for six years his fatherhood has been hanging by a thread. He's been trying to stay in his daughter's life against every attempt by Basinger to drive him out."

Regarding Basinger's mother's description of the alienation

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This Albertsons/Shaw's supermarket commercial depicts a woman attacking and going out of her way to injure a man who took her lunch. Nice.

To learn more about the problems with anti-male advertising and violence against men in the media, see:

1) Campaign Against Anti-Male Advertising

2) Campaign Against Detroit News 'Get Her a Gift or She'll Give You a Black Eye' Ad

3) Campaign Against Anti-Father Verizon Commercial

Thanks also to www.fathersandhusbands.org.

To watch the video and discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

I Will Be Participating in the New 'Being a Better Dad' Teleseminar Series--Next Teleseminar is Tuesday, May 1

I am partnering with Parental Alienation expert J. Michael Bone, Ph.D., John Curtis, Ph.D., author of The Business of Love, and Debby Hirschhorn Ph.D., author of The Secret Marriage Killer: Eradicating Verbal and Emotional Abuse, in the new 'Being a Better Dad' Teleseminar series.

The seminar is a convenient way for men to learn vital information or gain new skills on being a better dad. Fathers can attend training from the privacy of their own homes via telephone.

A Certificate of Attendance will be awarded to fathers who complete all 4 hours of "Being a Better Dad," and can be used to help show judges, child custody evaluators, mediators, etc., your commitment to co-parenting after divorce or separation, and to being the best dad you can be.

The next Teleseminar is Tuesday, May 1 (9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT)--to sign up, go to www.beingabetterdad.com.

I love being a dad, but there are times when it can be trying, and parenting during divorce or separation must be 10 or 100 times more difficult. The Being a Better Dad seminars are designed to help. The Being a Better Dad seminars cover:

- The national perspective on the most significant parenting and men's issues of 2007
- How a father can respond to Parental Alienation (where one parent tries to turn a child against the other parent)
- Stopping verbal abuse in marital or post-marital conflict along with winning strategies to raising healthier children
- A new approach to healthy intimate relationships based on business strategies that will actually work in the 21st century especially among dual-income couples

The Teleseminar's presenters are:

J. Michael Bone, Ph.D. is a national expert on Parental Alienation and high conflict divorce. He has been an evaluator, expert witness and educator on Parental Alienation in courts throughout the United States.

Debby Hirschhorn Ph.D. is a marriage and family therapist and the author of The Secret Marriage Killer: Eradicating Verbal and Emotional Abuse and How to Get Your Kids to WANT to Do What YOU Want Them to.

John Curtis, Ph.D. is the author of The Business of Love: 9 Best Practices for Improving the Bottom Line of Your Relationship, a unique book which details a step-by-step approach to apply proven business strategies to a marriage. Curtis and The Business of Love have been covered by the Today Show, the New York Times, Bloomberg Financial and numerous others.

Glenn Sacks is a fathers' advocate and columnist, commentator, blogger and talk show host. His columns appear regularly in US newspapers, he has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances, and is often quoted on fathers' issues in newspapers and magazines.

The next Teleseminar is Tuesday, May 1 (9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT)--to sign up, go to www.beingabetterdad.com.

Cartoonist Jack Higgins of the Sun-Times Newsgroup portrays Larry Birkhead as a greedy opportunist who pursued paternity of his daughter Dannielynn only for money. I don't idealize Birkhead, but I sympathize with him, and Higgins ignores several important facts about the case. In my co-authored column Anna Nicole Dispute Shows System's Flaws (Chicago Sun-Times, 3/10/07) I explained:

"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.

"Long before Smith died and her estate became an issue, Birkhead had filed for a DNA test to determine the paternity of Smith's baby. In December he told the Associated Press, 'I am the father of Dannielynn and I think this is...a crime. I expect to be reunited with my daughter.' Birkhead says he and Smith had picked out baby names, shopped for items for the baby, and had put their thumb prints in a baby book as the child's parents. Nevertheless, the baby has lived at the home of Smith and her attorney/boyfriend Howard K. Stern in the Bahamas since birth...

"A father has the right to parent his own child. The Smith case demonstrates how easily mothers and their new partners are able to violate that right."

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Six States Have Proclaimed April 25th Parental Alienation Awareness Day

The Parental Alienation Awareness Organization has made great progress in gaining recognition of April 25 as "Parental Alienation Awareness Day." Six states have now officially recognized PAAD--Montana, Kentucky, Nebraska, Iowa, Maine and Nevada.

Parental Alienation and Hostile Aggressive Parenting involve a series of behaviors that can effectively alienate a child from a parent. They are often seen in the context of high-conflict divorce or custody cases and are done by a third party, such as a parent or extended family. Such behaviors interfere with the bond between a loving parent and child.

As I've noted on many occasions (click here and here), Parental Alienation is a vile scourge, and I fully endorse these activists' efforts.

To learn more, visit www.Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com.

John Stossel condemns Parental Alienation in his new book  Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel-Why Everything You Know is Wrong. Stossel interviewed Sanford Braver, author of Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths, and writes, "Braver's study showed that the majority of divorced dads do try to see their kids. In many cases, 'fathers were impeded in their efforts...The mother just simply said, 'No, you cant' see your kid.'"

Stossel says he filmed an example of Parental Alienation:

"We videotaped one such heartbreaking scene. A divorced father went to see his five kids for what he thought would be a full-day visit. He was entitled to that, under court order, and the court also ordered the mother not to discourage the children from spending time with their father. But she clearly had poisoned his children's minds against him. The father just stood outside his ex-wife's house and begged his children, 'would you like to go out with me today?' 'No,' said one kid after another. Then the mother ordered the kids back into her house.

"What comes through on the tape is the unbridled satisfaction of the mother and the helplessness of the father."

This type of scene is not uncommon. In my co-authored column PBS Declares War on Dads (World Net Daily, 10/20/05) I described a similar incident:

"A four year-old boy is jumping up and down with joy.

"'Daddy! Daddy!'

"Dad gets out of the car.

"'Daddy's here! Daddy's here!'

"The boy is behind a locked screen door. He tries to open it.

"'Daddy's here! Mommy, look, daddy's here!'

"Dad knows he shouldn't open the door. He waits for his ex-wife to open the door. She doesn't do it.

"'This is my visitation time,' Dad says, waving a court document.

"Mom still won't open the door.

"The boy jumps up and down, saying 'daddy, daddy.' He yanks on the screen door handle but still can't get it open.

"Dad looks at his little boy. He pauses, takes a deep breath, and walks back to his car.

"The little boy doesn't understand. Why won't daddy come? Why is daddy walking away from him?

"The little boy disappears inside the house.

"Dad calls the police. When the officers arrive he shows them his court documents. The officers go inside to investigate. They come out a few minutes later.

"'Your son says he doesn't want to see you,' the officer says. 'There's nothing I can do. You'll have to deal with it in the court. I can't make him go with you if he doesn't want to.'

"Dad finally gets to see his kids three months later. The children spit on both him and their grandmother. Almost in unison they repeat, 'I don't want to be here. I want to go home with mommy, I don't want to be here. I want to go home with mommy, I don't want to be here. I want to go home with mommy.'"

One more reason to support Parental Alienation Awareness Day--to learn more, go to www.Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com or click here.

Once again the advertising industry has struck back at our Campaign Against Anti-Male Advertising and, as usual, I'm the bad guy. This time I'm a "censor" costing the advertising industry hundreds of thousands of dollars with my crusades. Equally culpable, apparently, is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. As they say, politics makes strange bedfellows.

The piece is Let's Put Censorship in Its Place: Lighten Up: Advertising Is Not the Moral Compass of the 21st Century (Advertising Age, 4/16/07) by ad industry executive Bill Schwab, creative director at The Gate Worldwide. Schwab's complains that "censorship" (such as our campaign and GLAAD's) extract a "high" cost--"The average commercial costs $425,000, but can easily be twice that amount. Add another $50,000 for research, a couple hundred thousand for agency fees and top it off with tens of millions for the media placed behind the ad."

Schwab writes:

"While I believe we always need to be alert and mindful to the sensitivities of others, what are we to do when the sensitivity of others is claimed to be the sensitivities of everyone? If develop creative work based on who might be offended, as opposed to whether the work will help my clients' business, I do a disservice to the client with no assurance I've not injured a special-interest group."

This complaint doesn't apply to our campaign. Our gripe is not about "sensitivity" to this or that offensive commercial--it is about an entire industry which routinely denigrates men and fathers by portraying them as idiots, clowns, and incompetent parents. I think it is perfectly acceptable to poke fun at men and fathers sometimes--it is the fact that it's always the same group getting picked on which bothers me. And yes, if blacks, women, gays or Latinos were portrayed as negatively as men and fathers are, I would protest, too.

Schwab also seems annoyed at the attention our campaign gathered, writing:

"We know Glenn Sacks is a person concerned about men's issues. We found that out when Arnold CEO Fran Kelly felt obligated to respond to the blogger's protests concerning a Fidelity TV commercial that Arnold produced, an ad Mr. Sacks viewed as portraying men and fathers as idiots. Mr. Sacks subsequently was allowed to air his grievances in a trade-journal article that was considerably longer than any paid ad copy I've heard or seen in recent memory."

Over 3,000 of our campaign supporters called or wrote Volvo to protest against Arnold Worldwide's commercials--why isn't it entirely appropriate for the CEO of Arnold to be asked to respond?

The "trade-journal article" Schwab doesn't seem to think I should have been allowed to write was Father Knows Best (Adweek, 3/12/07). I've been writing newspaper columns for six years now, and have been published about 350 times--does Schwab really think that writing a column for Adweek is over my head?

Schwab and others are telling the advertising industry to stiffen its back against protesters, but I doubt this will affect their reaction to protests by any group except men and fathers. When it's any other group that's offended, I'm sure the industry will still be plenty sensitive.

Schwab's full column can be seen here.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Help for Midwest Fathers Cordell & Cordell is one of the largest domestic relations firms for men in the Midwest, representing fathers in Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Kansas, Indiana and Georgia. Men who come to Cordell & Cordell know that their interests and the interests of their children will be aggressively championed. www.cordellcordell.com Civil War - A Father's Guide to Winning Child Custody Joseph E. Cordell's Civil War - A Father's Guide to Winning Child Custody  gives fathers clear, easy-to-understand tips on how to achieve the best results possible in a divorce. Comprehensive chapters explain every step of the divorce process, the meaning of legal terms, how courts determine custody, and how to maximize chances of victory at every stage. Cordell is the founder of Cordell & Cordell.  Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com Stop Parental Alienation--a terrible form of Child Abuse. Six states have now officially recognized Parental Alienation Awareness Day. To learn more, go to Parental-Alienation-Awareness.com.

Background: Last month we launched our Campaign Against Anti-Male Advertising which focused on the competition for a $150 million advertising contract from Volvo. The agency which is the apparent favorite to win the contract is Arnold Worldwide, recently the creator of numerous anti-male commercials. We asked Volvo not to award the contract to Arnold Worldwide.

To read the press coverage of our campaign and to learn more about our efforts, click here. Also, see my Adweek column Fathers Knows Best (3/12/07), in which I outlined our reasons for the campaign.

During our Campaign Against Anti-Male Advertising many of my readers wrote to me to complain about an anti-male ad by PODS (Portable on Demand Storage). One reader described the commercial as follows:

"Last week a men's PGA Tour pro golf tournament was held near Tampa, FL. The title sponsor was PODS. During the telecasts on The Golf Channel and NBC PODS ran ads that depicted a woman violently assaulting a man because he was 'stupid.' I found these ads to be completely objectionable. I suggest organizing a campaign against PODS."

Another wrote:

"I just wanted to bring your attention to the new Pods commercial [in which] a wife is shown beating her husband for getting a job transfer that requires an additional move. How can they get away with that? If a husband was shown beating his wife all hell would break loose."

While I did not want to launch another campaign simultaneously, I encouraged my readers and campaign supporters to write to PODS and complain, and many of them did.

PODS has now decided to pull the anti-male ad. The statement from Peter S. Warhurst, President & CEO of PODS, which can be seen here, reads:

April 2007

"Dear Sir or Madam:

"I am in receipt of the comments you recently provided regarding our television commercial. Upon further consideration of the spot, and with the feelings of our customers as well as the general public in mind, I have decided to pull it from its rotation and no longer air it.

"While the commercial was created to be lighthearted and comical, I am sensitive to the fact that we have failed in that it has proven offensive to some people. This was never our intent and I am truly sorry for any discomfort or unpleasantness it has caused.

"Thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to us.

"Sincerely,

Peter S. Warhurst

President & CEO"

I commend Warhurst and PODS for their decision. Congratulations and thanks to all those who participated. Special thanks to John Dias of www.DontMakeHerMad.com, a website which deals with false accusations of domestic violence.

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

Online Dating Rights Online Dating Rights opposes the new federal International Marriage Broker Regulation Act, which requires Americans who seek to meet foreigners via the internet to have a criminal background check and an intrusive report about intimate details of one's life BEFORE any communication--the first time in US history that such checks have been required. www.onlinedatingrights.com SAMSONLAW--Divorce Lawyers for Michigan Men & Fathers If you're a Michigan man faced with divorce, you need SAMSONLAW on your side--SAMSONLAW defends men. Smart Advocacy Means Stopping Oppression Now. INeedSamson.com

I've spoken before of the massive moral failure of American conservatives during the Elian Gonzalez saga seven years ago. In that case, then five year-old Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives held him de facto hostage for six months and refused to give him back to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

Some of you may remember the nightmarish video released by the Miami relatives in which Elian defies his father and tells his father that he wants to stay in the United States, as a male voice was heard off-camera directing the boy. In a 2005 60 Minutes interview, Elian said that while in the U.S., the Miami relatives were "telling me bad things about [my father]", and "were also telling me to tell him that I did not want to go back to Cuba and I always told them I wanted to."

After putting up with six months of the Miami relatives' nonsense, on April 22, 2000 the federal government went in, got Elian out, and returned Elian to his father. The event is pictured above.

In case anybody could ever have any doubts on my stand on this, I stand with Juan Gonzalez, Janet Reno, Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro, against Miami relatives Lazaro Gonzalez and Marisleysis Gonzalez, Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas (who defied federal authorities), the Cuban-American National Foundation, and the Cuban exile community. I'm not interested in left or right on this issue--I support anybody who stood for reuniting Elian and his father, whether on the left or right.

As for those who shrieked that Clinton "used force," he only did so because he had no other choice. The force used was measured and appropriate, and the Miami relatives have nothing to complain about.

There were some prominent commentators who did stand up for Elian's right to be with his father, including feminist firebrand Martha Burk and conservative talk show hosts Mike Gallagher and Larry Elder. Both family law attorney Jeff Leving and Mike McCormick, Executive Director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, were involved in the case at the time and played an honorable role.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Do You Have a Post-Divorce Parenting Question? Ask Shared Parenting Expert Warren Farrell Background: Perhaps the best and most powerful presentation on shared parenting I've ever seen was made by Warren Farrell, author of Father & Child Reunion, at the American Coalition for Fathers and Children's Family Law Reform conference last September. Farrell detailed his research on children of divorce. Farrell's central findings include: children do best when the time spent with each parent is as close to 50% as practically possible; children of divorce do better with shared parenting than with any other structure, including living with their mother and a step dad; badmouthing behavior which can alienate the children from the other parent is very damaging; and children do best when the divorced parents live close to each other. To watch Farrell's speech at the conference, click here. Farrell has an excellent new DVD series called The Best Interests of the Child: How to Save Our Child When We Can't Save our Marriage which details his research on fathers and shared parenting--to learn more, click here. Do you have a post-divorce parenting question? Shared Parenting expert Warren Farrell will answer it on my blog and in my E-Newsletter. Send us your question at Glenn@GlennSacks.com. Please keep your questions at 50 words or less. The Business of Love 50% of 1st marriages fail, the rate of marriage has declined 48% in 40 years, single households now outnumber married households...if there ever was a time for a radical, new approach to marriage, it's NOW. The Business of Love, by Dr. John Curtis, an organizational development consultant and former marriage counselor, is the first book to show how to take the same "best practices" that build successful businesses and apply them to an intimate relationship. Learn more at www.TheBusinessofLove.org. Help for Michigan Dads Michigan family law attorney Mindy L. Hitchcock has experience fighting for noncustodial parents against Michigan's abusive FOC. Her holistic approach to divorce gets results for her clients while avoiding the scorched earth approach to law that leaves families emotionally and financially devastated. Lady4Justice.com Worldwide Press, Outrage over Spanish Judge Questioning Woman's Domestic Violence Claim According to the Associated Press story Judge Tosses Harassment Suit, Says Woman Too Smart to Have Been Abused (4/19/07): "A Spanish judge has thrown out a woman's harassment suit against her ex-husband on the grounds she has a good education, arguing that had she really suffered abuse during their 16-year marriage she would have reported it right away or sought counseling. "Women's advocacy groups voiced outrage over Wednesday's ruling by a judge in the northern city of Valladolid, and Spain's ruling Socialist party asked a judicial oversight board to review it. "The plaintiff, a high school teacher whose name has not been released, filed the suit last month arguing that her husband subjected her to psychological harassment throughout their 16-year marriage. They separated three years ago. "Judge Jose Luis Chamorro, who heads a court specializing in gender violence cases, cast doubt on the woman's claims. "He said he found it 'surprising' that a woman with her level of education would put up with that alleged treatment for so many years without reporting it or seeing a psychiatrist, and 'curious' that she is filing suit now, years after the marriage fell apart. "Rocio Mielgo, president of the Association of Victims of Sexual Aggression and Mistreatment, said the ruling is unacceptable because it suggests that only 'if you are from a lower class or have little education can you be mistreated.' "The ruling Socialist party's top official on sexual equality issues, Maribel Montano, called the judge's arguments 'worrisome' and asked a body that acts as watchdog for the Spanish judicial system to review the sentence." On a certain, reductionist level, of course feminist women's advocate Mielgo is absolutely correct--certainly it is untrue that only "if you are from a lower class or have little education can you be mistreated." On a larger level, though, Judge Chamorro has a point. Chamorro has to try to navigate through the he said/she said to try to figure out the truth, in a case which is apparently without substantial witnesses and physical evidence. In doing so the factors he mentions--that an educated woman had supposedly put up with the alleged abuse for many years without reporting it or seeking any help, and is only filing suit years later--are perfectly legitimate factors to consider. To discuss this issue on my blog, click here. New DVD set from Dr. Warren Farrell--The Best Interests of the Child In this new DVD set from Dr. Warren Farrell, one of the foremost experts on children of divorce, he summarizes over 200 studies, and finds that the research is clear: children do far better with near equal exposure to both parents with minimal conditions. The video can be submitted as evidence, and Dr. Farrell is available to testify as an expert witness. www.BestInterestofChildren.org Help for Los Angeles/Ventura County Dads Certified Family Law Specialist Peter M. Walzer was one of the key figures in our successful legislative struggle to preserve the LaMusga move-away decision. As Chair of the State Bar of California Family Law Section Executive Committee, Walzer lobbied the state legislature to improve California laws on child support and child custody. He's an American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Fellow who has authored numerous articles on custody issues, business valuation in marital dissolutions and spousal and child support.  www.California-Divorce.com

Dairy Queen's Kit Kat Blizzard ad depicts another Father of the Year candidate.

To watch the video and discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

"[Parts of the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA)] sound draconian. For example, the IMBRA requires American men who wish to correspond with foreign women through private for-profit matchmaking agencies to first provide those businesses with their police records and other personal information to be turned over to the women.

"Corresponding with a foreigner is legal. Marrying a foreigner is legal. Immigrating spouses and their husbands go through rigorous and lengthy screening before visas are issued. Mail-order brides in the U.S. are protected by laws against violence.

"Now American men who wish to pursue a legal activity must release their government files to a foreign business and foreign individuals...Contacting a woman for romantic purposes -- internationally or domestically -- is not a crime. Those who do so are not a priori criminals who must prove themselves innocent before being allowed an email exchange."--Fox News columnist Wendy McElroy, founder of iFeminists.com  

As usual, if men like it or it suits men, it must be wrong. Such is the case with brokered international dating.

As Wendy McElroy notes, one can debate the desirability of  international brokered marriages, but it's these men's personal prerogative to pursue international relationships if they prefer them to relationships with American women. The same goes, of course, for American women interested in international relationships. It's wrong for the government to violate these men's civil rights simply because they're an easy group to target for negative stereotypes and scare tactics.

A group has formed to protest the anti-male IMBRA--Online Dating Rights (ODR). The ODR describes themselves as follows:

"Online Dating Rights (ODR) is a group of men and a few women who believe that a new federal law called the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) is unconstitutional, immoral, and misandrist (man-hating). IMBRA criminalizes American men (and women) who meet foreign women (and men) via the internet. The law requires a man to have a criminal background check, a sex offender check and an intrusive report about intimate details of his life prepared and given to a foreign woman stranger (scammer?) BEFORE he can email or call her. This is the first time in US history criminal background checks have been required for two people to communicate."

To learn more about International Dating and IMBRA, go to onlinedatingrights.com, or contact Tristan Laurent at onlinedatingrights@yahoo.com.

To read McElroy's column and to discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Over the past few months I have written a column and several blog posts on the issue of the rights of lesbian "social mothers"--women who agreed to employ a sperm donor so that they could have children with their lesbian partners, who are the biological mothers.

I do believe that children fare best when they have both a mom and a dad, and that fathers offer much to children that mothers don't provide. However, this is not possible in lesbian couples. When two lesbians agree to have a child together, and when the child has bonded with both his or her biological mother and his or her social mother, I believe that the relationship between the child and the social mother should be protected. I also believe that the biological mother has a responsibility to her children and to her former partner to hold up her end of the deal with the partner with whom she created the child, and that courts should hold her to her commitment.

These cases are now becoming routine--when the relationship goes sour, the lesbian biological mom does to her ex exactly what heterosexual mothers so often do to their ex-husbands--drive her out of her child's life. When heterosexual women do this our society makes excuses for them and assumes that the ex-husband must have done something bad to merit it. With these lesbian breakups we can see the truth much clearer--many women (straight or gay) are vindictive, and this vindictiveness drives them to purge their exes from their children's lives.

The lesbian parent getting the dad treatment this time is Missy Wheeler and the perp is her ex, Sara Wheeler. Sara was a gay rights activist and advocate until she realized that rights for her former gay partner could interfere with her attempts to purge Missy from their son's lives. Now she's reversed herself and is trying to stamp out rights for gay parents. The Associated Press story Lesbian asks court to ban gay adoptions below explains it.

In case anybody has any doubts on my position on this, I'm 100% with Missy Wheeler, who deserves the chance to share in parenting her child. I hope the courts take a tough stand against Sara Wheeler's selfishness and vindictiveness, and enforce Missy's parenting rights and parenting time.

Lesbian asks court to ban gay adoptions
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press
March 25, 2007

ATLANTA - Sara Wheeler's life has become a contradiction. Once a proud lesbian, she's now a pariah in the gay community. Once in a committed relationship with a female partner, she's rethinking her sexuality. And now she's doing something she once would have considered unthinkable - arguing that gays don't have the legal right to adopt children.

Wheeler is coming to grips with the fact that she's become an outcast for taking this step in a custody fight for her child. But she says that isn't what her fight is about: "It's about motherly rights."

Wheeler, 36, and her partner, Missy, decided to start a family together and share the Wheeler last name. In 2000, Sara Wheeler gave birth to a son, Gavin, through artificial insemination. Two years later, they decided Missy Wheeler should adopt the child and legally become his second parent.

Georgia law doesn't specifically say whether gay parents can adopt a child, so the decision was up to a judge in the Atlanta area's DeKalb County. After an adoption investigator determined that both partners wanted it, the judge cleared the request.

The couple's relationship later soured. Missy Wheeler wouldn't comment for this story, but her attorney, Nora Bushfield, said Sara became involved with someone else and wouldn't let Missy and Gavin see each other. Sara Wheeler acknowledged the other relationship, saying "regardless of my action, it doesn't make me a bad mother."

Sara and Missy Wheeler had split by July 2004, and Missy was fighting for joint custody of the boy. The two sides do agree about one thing: The case is about a mother's rights.

"Everybody seems to forget we're not talking about lesbian rights," Missy Wheeler's attorney says. "We're talking about a child who's been bonded with a mother."

Sara Wheeler made the legal argument that, since nothing in Georgia law specifically allowed gay adoption, the adoption should be tossed out...

As the legal motions flew back and forth, the two women established a workable routine. The 7-year-old boy goes to Missy Wheeler's place every other weekend and on Tuesday nights. The rest of the time Sara Wheeler ferries him to karate practice, plays tag with him outside her apartment and takes him out for pizza every Friday.

The case has taken a toll on Sara.

"Before I'm anything - gay or lesbian - I'm a mother," she says. "And the most important thing is to make sure my son has a relationship with his biological mother."

(Added note: this justification is nonsense--nobody is trying to take Sara Wheeler's right to be a mother away from her. All Missy wants is a chance to parent her child, just as Sara Wheeler does.--GS)

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Background: Last month Ohio's Butler County Child Support Enforcement Agency launched a highly-publicized new campaign which puts mug shots of the County's "Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents" on pizza boxes. The idea was the brainchild of Agency Executive Director Cynthia Brown. I debated Brown on FOX News' nationally-syndicated Morning Show with Mike and Juliet--to watch the debate, click here. To learn more about the story, see my co-authored column Ohio Pizza Box/'Deadbeat Dad' Campaign Unfairly Stigmatizes Fathers (Cincinnati Post, 4/2/07), or click here.

A new 'deadbeat dad' wanted poster has been issued in Ohio, this time by Hamilton County. While "deadbeat dads" are always portrayed as high-flying, well-to-do guys with Porsches, BMWs and trophy wives, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of those behind on their child support are low-income men.

As usual, this list does not have a single man who makes a good steady income. We have two drivers, two construction workers, a lady who is a temp worker, an auto body shop worker and one unknown. The only individual with a seemingly good income potential is Theodore Nix, who is listed as a "football player." I don't follow football much, so feel free to educate me, but when I typed in "Theodore Nix" and "Ted Nix" and football or NFL on Google, nothing came up. If anybody knows where and for how long Nix played football, feel free to let me know.

To see the full poster, click here. To call the Hamilton County's Department of Job and Family Services' Tip Line and tell them your opinion of their new poster, dial 513-946-5350.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

Background: Boys and the Boy Crisis, the Third National Men's Equality Congress, will be held July 13-14 in Washington D.C. The speakers list is great--perhaps the best I've ever seen at a conference. Speakers include: Matt O'Connor, leader of the English fathers' group Fathers 4 Justice; Christina Hoff Sommers--author of Who Stole Feminism?; Warren Farrell; author of Father & Child Reunion; and Stephen Baskerville, president of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children. I will also be speaking.

There will also be three 2+ hour pre-conference workshops, one conducted by Matt O'Connor, one by Warren Farrell, and one by myself. The workshops will start Friday morning and conclude prior the conference opening that evening. To sign up for 'early bird' prices for these workshops and/or to register for the conference, click here.

One of the presentations I'm looking forward to is from Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young, co-authors of Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture and Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men. Their presentation is called "Coming of Age as a Villain: What Young Men Need to Know in a Misandric World." Here's a summary of what they will be discussing:

"We will begin by discussing coming-of-age as a cultural process that in other times and places fostered the transformation of boys into men. What happens in a society that provides not only fails to acknowledge the entry into manhood but also--and this is even more important--refuses to provide an acceptable view of manhood in the first place? The social-scientific evidence looks very grim, most obviously (but not only) the statistics on suicide and dropping out of school.

"What's going on? These are symptoms, we suggest, of a much deeper problem. By and large, people are either unaware of this problem or unwilling to do something about it. In that sense, it is analogous to what Betty Friedan called women's 'disease with no name.' But it has a name now: misandry."

To sign up for 'early bird' prices for these workshops and/or to register for the conference, click here. See you there.

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

What a wonderful ad for www.todayseducation.com. I'm not sure what the guy's sin is--I guess he should be awake and she should be sleeping. Maybe if he were up washing dishes and she were asleep then it would be OK, at least for a little while...

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.

From Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News

Those lazy men again. A quiz question:

1) Which gender is often portrayed in the media and in commercials as being lazy at work?

a) The gender which works the longest hours at the most dangerous demanding jobs.
b) The gender which doesn't.

Answer: A

2) When all work is considered--work inside the home and in the labor market--which statement below most accurately describes the relative workloads of men and women?

a) Women work more hours overall than men.
b) Men work more hours overall than women.
c) The overall hours men and women work to contribute to their households is equal.

Answer: C

To learn more, see my co-authored column Are American Husbands Slackers? (Tallahassee Democrat, 3/22/06).

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.
 

It's always the same story. According to Police allege molestation claim faked--Woman, teen daughter charged after accusing stepfather using diary (Akron Beacon Journal, 4/6/07):

"When a Medina woman spoke to a detective in late February, it appeared she was living a parent's worst fear.

"Cathleen M. Carpenter told Medina police Detective Mark Kollar that as she went through her 16-year-old daughter's room, she came across a diary page that described how the teen's stepfather had sexually molested her.

"But Kollar said what he found in his investigation was not a molester, but a woman out for revenge.

"Kollar said Carpenter, 37, of West Park Boulevard came to the police department on Feb. 28 with a diary page that appeared to have been written last fall. The page described how Carpenter's then-estranged husband forced her daughter to touch him sexually over his clothes. The couple have since divorced, Kollar said.

"In the investigation, Kollar said, Carpenter admitted that she had made her daughter falsify the diary entry on Feb. 28 -- the day her husband left the home."

"'There was some evidence that she was upset with him and was looking at ways to get back at him for the pain that he caused her," Kollar said."

So a woman did something terrible to a man--now it's time to undercharge and excuse.

Undercharge: For trying to destroy an innocent man's life, Carpenter will face charges of..."falsifying evidence" and "contributing to the unruliness of a minor"! In other words, a crime against the justice system (falsifying evidence) and a crime against her daughter (contributing to the unruliness of a minor) but nothing regarding her actual victim.

Excuse: Detective Mark Kollar says that Carpenter "There was some evidence that she was upset with [her ex-husband] and was looking at ways to get back at him for the pain that he caused her"! See, whatever she did that was naughty, it's his fault because he started it. Of course, we're not actually told of anything he did that was wrong, except that there were marital problems. And given what a wonderful woman Carpenter is, the marital problems must have been his fault...

To discuss this issue on my blog, click here.