Men’s Interests

I enjoy Beliefnet.com because it respects all religions, as I do. I came across a section called Preachers & Teachers, “nuggets of wisdom, inspiration, and advice,” and it sure is.

from DivorceWizards:

Free shared parenting plans are available on SharedParentingWorks.org.

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http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=76904

Parent Activist Murtari to Be Released From Prison; Protesting Father to Have First Meal in Four Months

11/30/2006 10:58:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Teri Stoddard of AKidsRight.Org, 925-628-1206 or teri@akidsright.org

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Nov. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ — Family rights activist and AKidsRight.Org’s founder John Murtari will be released from prison Friday after spending four months incarcerated for “willful” failure to pay child support. Murtari denies the charge, saying support was calculated with a salary he no longer had, and travel expenses to see his son exceed the amount ordered after the courts allowed his ex-wife to move their son across the country.

Inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Murtari embarked on a peaceful protest July 31, the day he reported to serve his 6- month sentence. For 10 days Murtari had no food or water. Medical personnel tried to tempt him with candy, and threatened not to intervene. He lost 27 pounds and suffered dehydration, low blood sugar, low blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat before prison officials gave him a feeding tube.

Murtari’s pleased he’s been able to expose the need for family law reform on television, radio and in newspapers. He says he’s received over 100 letters while in jail. A rally was held in Syracuse with attendees from as far away as Canada, and he was interviewed for the documentary Support? System Down.

Members of AKidsRight.Org are asking for Congressional hearings and passage of a Family Rights Act. “Mothers, fathers, grandparents, families dealing with Children’s Protective Services, they all describe the same problems with family courts,” says Teri Stoddard, blogger on the worldwide family law reform movement. “There is no due process; parents are losing custody without proof of wrongdoing, without even a trial by jury. And the whole child support system is a disgrace, driving some parents into poverty and others out of their children’s lives.”

Murtari will continue his attempts to get a meeting with Sen. Hillary Clinton for local parents. When asked what comes next he replied, “We’re planning another rally, in front of the Federal Building in Syracuse, for mid-February. Every family that’s been hurt by current family law, every parent or grandparent who grieves for a child ’stolen’ by the family courts, should attend.”

Murtari says he plans on doing some “restaurant hopping” when he’s released, and will be on a plane to see his son within days.

——

For more information visit http://www.akidsright.org

http://www.usnewswire.com/

-0-

/© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

Press Release

28th November 2006, 7.45am

A protesting roof top Father Christmas is being threatened by a Judge toting gun after scaling the mans house at Glebe Lodge, Farringdon, near Exeter.

Jolly Stanesby, a high-profile Fathers 4 Justice activist scaled the Judge’s roof in a Father Christmas outfit and has unfurled a banner that reads ‘Put the Father back into Xmas.’

Mr Stanesby, aged 37, from Ivybridge, Devon said he has supplies to last several days and plans to spend a week on the roof of Judge Tyzack who sits at Plymouth County Court on Family Cases.

A Fathers 4 Justice spokesman said, “Judge Tyzack is one of the UK’s worst judicial offenders when it comes to refusing fathers contact with their children. This protest marks a renewal in a campaign of direct action against judges who deliberately block contact between children and their fathers, especially at a time of year when families should be together.�?

Further protests are planned at the home of former President of the Family Division, Dame Elizabeth Butler Sloss at Marsh Green, Exeter and Mrs. Justice Bracewell who owns the Lynch Country Hotel, Behind Berry, Somerton, Somerset.

ENDS

For further information contact Richard on 07875 7748 807 or Matt on 07795 341 110
www.fathers-4-justice.org

fathers4justice protest divorce child custody fathersrights parentsrights

From: A Come-on For Hire

On a recent Thursday night, a young, green-eyed model named Cheryl Cosenza was sizing up a married lawyer at a Manhattan bar. Although she had never met him before, she knew the name of his favorite drink and could murmur the songs of his favorite band. For that night, she dressed conservatively, just the way he liked. She glanced at him and ordered a glass of wine. He nonchalantly paid for it, walked up and sat down beside her.

“Honey, would you go with me to my yacht in Florida?�? he asked after they had cozied up together. �?I also have a house in the Hamptons if you don’t like to travel too far.�?

A microphone picked up every word and transmitted the conversation to the man’s wife. Until then, she didn’t even know her husband of 10 years traveled to Florida. And she had no idea he had a house. The last time they spoke, he was filing for bankruptcy.

Cosenza helped the wife obtain proof that her husband was willing to cheat and had the money for a generous divorce settlement.

John Murtari on News10Now. Watch video HERE.

See trailers for “Support? System Down”, the full-length documentary John will be in. Visit Murtari’s Website AKidsRight.org Learn more about Murtari and the Family Law Reform Movement

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John Murtari maintains his faith, 109 days after giving up solid food to highlight the need for family law reform. This week that faith paid-off. Yesterday Murtari was interviewed by film producer Angelo Lobo for the documentary “Support? System Down,” as well as a local television crew and newspaper reporter. Today his story appeared in the Associated Press.

See trailers for “Support? System Down”
Visit Murtari’s Website AKidsRight.org
Learn more about Murtari and the Family Law Reform Movement
Read the Press Release

More media coverage…
Fasting inmate to be subject of film on reforming family court
A fasting jail inmate to be film’s subject
Fasting inmate to be subject of film on reforming family court

Has the family law system hurt your family? Have you faced injustice or corruption? Leave a comment below.

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Photo from Courier-Journal

This Courier-Journal article describes Kentucky parents telling the Blue Ribbon Panel on Adoption that the state takes their children unnecessarily and doesn’t return them in a timely manner. They also say foster homes are chosen over relatives’ homes, causing extra distress to children.

These complaints mirror comments made by parents nationwide. Groups have sprung up across America and around the world to fight CPS’s irresponsible actions. A study done in California showed that half the children removed from their parents and put in foster care should have been allowed to stay with their parents.

In this Contra Costa Times article Separated But Equal McVal Osborne interviewed local teens whose parents chose collaborative divorce and/or shared parenting. Osborne is a junior at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek [California] and a member of the Times’ Life in Perspective, a board made up of local high school journalists.

Says Michael Saarela, a junior who rotates weekly among three households, his mother’s, his stepmother’s, and his father’s:

“I feel that kids who go through divorce are more vivacious and vibrant. I’ve been moving from house to house all my life and it’s taught me a lot. It’s taught me how to be patient.”

Sydney Koliha, a junior who transfers weekly from Walnut Creek to Berkeley and back says:

“Nobody could give me a greater gift than the struggle I had when I was growing up. It allowed me to be independent and learn to take care of myself.”

Sounding like a typical teen from an intact family, Max Nied complained:

“It’s kind of a pain. If I want to go out Saturday night I have to get permission from my dad, and then I have to get permission from my mom to get picked up.”

Then went on:

“I would have to say my family situation is good and bad. I get to see both of my parents every week while my stepsister Aimee only gets to see her dad about once every month…”

More about collaborative divorce:

“The biggest difference between collaborative divorce and litigation is that the parents must agree to try to do what is best for the kids,” says attorney Michael Carter, a member of the Collaborative Practice Group of Contra Costa.

Peggy Thompson, also a member of the CPGCC, believes strongly that children should have the right to influence how the divorce is resolved.

“The most important thing is that the children have their own person to talk to,” says Thompson, a family psychologist and co-author of ‘Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move on with Your Life.’ “Very often their ideas are not taken into consideration.”

According to Thompson, questions of child custody should not be set in stone. As families change and the children mature, it may become obvious that child visitations should be modified.

“In collaborative practice, we use a whole different vocabulary because we aren’t dealing with court cases; we’re dealing with human beings,” Thompson says. “Think of the word ‘custody’ — we take criminals into custody. I prefer to think of it as a plan for parenting.”

Thompson says that with the right amount of guidance from child specialists, teens can often create their own schedules that support their developmental needs.

“When teenagers are able to make their calendar, they seem to have much better relationships with their parents,” Thompson says. “Kids that have no say in where they go often become depressed because they lose control over their own lives.”

Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move on with Your Life

The Collaborative Way to Divorce: The Revolutionary Method that Results in Less Stress, Lower Costs, and Happier Kids–Without Going to Court

divorce, child custody, shared parenting, collaborative divorce

MISANDRY
American Heritage Dictionary
mi·san·dry
n.
Hatred of men.

I’m a woman and I used to believe what the media said about men. Now I know better.

The media constantly exposes us to inaccurate, negative impressions of and statements about men. In looking for the root of the problem I found a network of people who benefit from misandry. Many of these people work for or with the family courts or domestic violence services, often both. I wonder if the Violence Against Women Act funds misandry. As I wrote in It’s Not Your Mother’s Fathers Movement Anymore, I watched as representatives from domestic violence and feminist organizations slandered fathers to defeat California’s 2005 Shared Parenting bill:

“Fathers who seek custody, they’re not all great fathers.�? That was the truth according to Mira Fox, who runs Child Abuse Solutions, Inc…Fox said, “Children are often given into the custody of abusive fathers�?…

Fox’s organization, by her own testimony that day, trains people in the family court system how to litigate and adjudicate child sexual abuse cases. Is Fox guilty of misandry or ignorance? The January 2005 Male Perpetrators of Child Maltreatment states:

…fathers are, “less likely than other male perpetrators to be involved in sexual abuse.�?

The Administration for Children and Families says:

In 2004, 45.6% of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone or with other and only 19.5 percent were maltreated by their fathers acting alone or with other.

Last week I came across a pamplet by the California Women’s Law Center called Teen Dating Violence. Teen dating violence is indeed a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Is it acceptable that their brochure is only about males who abuse and female victims? Is this misandry? Studies show not only are female teens increasingly violent, girls are more likely to victimize their partner than boys are.

Today I read an opinion piece called Murderously self-pitying fathers by India Knight, where she laid out the horrifying details of four fathers who murdered their families, yet writes nothing of murderous moms. She starts by suggesting she reads about murderous fathers weekly:

Another week, another horrifying story about men’s frequent and calamitous inability to cope with crisis. Gavin Hall, 33, was jailed for life last week after drugging then suffocating his three-year-old daughter Millie as “revenge�? for his wife’s infidelity…Stories such as these crop up with depressing regularity.

To come up with the four stories she had to go back three years. Is Knight guilty of misandry or just ignorance?

According to this graph by the Administration for Children and Families:

In 2004 “Mother Only and Mother and Other�? was reported as perpetrator for 40.6 percent of child deaths and “Father Only and Father and Other�? accounted for only 15.6 percent.

Is misandry protecting moms who murder and maim?

These videos might interest you. Learn more about one issue of the Worldwide Men’s Movement.

For more information visit AntiMisandry and MediaRADAR.

Original post: Mens News Daily

misandry, men, women, fathers, mothers, domestic violence, children, abuse

I just have to share this cartoon video with you!

The founders and members of Real Fathers For Justice are friends of mine. They are loving parents who’ve had their children removed from their lives for no reason, except they got divorced. Worried about the impact of fatherlessness on children, they’re doing everything they can to change laws to prevent this tragedy from continuining.

Even though Real F4J is based in the UK, this tragedy is happening right here in our own backyard too. In fact, it’s happening all over the world.

If you live in North Dakota, vote YES on MEASURE 3!

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