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The National Organization for Women's recently released Family Court Report 2002 claims that family courts are "wrought with gender bias" against women. However, the respondents to the survey upon which the report is based were not chosen at random, but were instead self-selected from among those whom NOW calls its "constituents." If one selects a survey's respondents, one can make the survey show almost anything. For this reason, these types of Self-selected Listener Opinion Polls, commonly known as SLOPs, are viewed as junk social science by serious researchers. NOW's report sounds the alarm on women's "loss of custody through gender...

TACOMA, Wash. (Oct. 28) - A seriously wounded 8-year-old boy calmly described his father's deadly knife rampage during a call for help to 911. "My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone," the boy told a dispatcher. "Can you please send the Army men or the ambulance?" The soft-spoken child gave a wrong address and then hung up. But a second dispatcher called back, keeping him on the line while a frantic search was under way. On Wednesday, authorities released the remarkable tape of Anthony Sukto's calm courage during the Oct. 22 ordeal, and the frantic efforts to...

In anticipation of the unsealing of John Kerry’s divorce and child custody papers, we decided to re-post our “Deadbeat Dad” story. If this is what we have gleaned from the available public record, just wait until the court documents are opened …   When John Kerry got his first marriage annulled, he told reporters annulment was “one of this special Catholic things.” “75 percent of all annulments in the world take place in the United States,” he joked. “I guess that figure drops to 50 percent if you take out all Massachusetts politicians.” His first wife, Julia Thorne wasn’t...

The Child Support Scam April 24, 2004 by Roger F. Gay Since the creation of the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement in 1975, government workers and lobbyists for private child support collection companies have been relentless in their efforts to misinform the public about child support payments and collections. A recent article published by WRAL.com in North Carolina provides a typical look at the propaganda effort. The long title explains the impression that the article is intended to give: "Wake County Child-Support Workers Well-Intentioned But Overburdened; Child-Support Enforcement Needs Short-Changed By County Budget." Before going into detail, let...

Child Support Propaganda in an Election YearApril 22, 2004 by Roger F. Gay It's that season again! This is an election year, so every half-witted politician and bureaucrat is out to maintain or sweeten if possible their share of pork from the taxpayers' pocket. Nowhere is the special-interest machinery more worn than in delivery of child support propaganda. I don't suppose child support system promoters will tire of telling the same old lies until editors tire of publishing them. In Iowa, the Department of Human Services says it's "turning up the heat on parents delinquent in child support payments,...

On the campaign trail the Kerry's look like a devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky brood. But like many upper crust families, the Kerry's too have a dark history; one swirling in a shadowy fog of divorce, depression, thoughts of suicide, and perhaps even deadbeat parenting. It all started in 1971 when Julia Thorne met a young Yale grad and Navy boy named John Kerry. We have covered this early part of the story in some detail before. What is clear is that Thorne suffered from severe depression. She was also so lonely during her life with the ambitious Kerry, she contemplated suicide more...

<p>You could tell that the people in the courtroom would rather have been somewhere else -- anywhere else.</p> <p>The topic of the hour was children; yet there were practically none around to hear discussions that would greatly affect their lives.</p>

TREASURE ISLAND -- Former tennis star Roscoe Tanner was extradited from Germany to this town near Tampa on charges of writing a bad check worth $35,000 and failing to pay child support. Tanner was being held in the Pinellas County Jail without bail Tuesday, one day after being extradited. Tanner bounced a check for $35,595 to buy a 32-foot boat three years ago while working as a tennis instructor at the Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club, the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office said. He used the boat's title as collateral for a $10,000 loan, and bounced a check to...

Man Threatened With Prison Time LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Louisville man agreed Tuesday to abstain from sex until his child support has been paid in full. Louisville station WLKY-TV reported that Luther Crawford was given the choice of abstaining from sex or facing one to five years in the penitentiary. Crawford, 50, owes $33,000 in child support, WLKY reported. Crawford admitted that he's fathered 12 children with 11 women, but he said that he's now learned to use contraception. quot;I thought about it and thought about it,quot; Crawford said. quot;I want to get out of jail. I don't want to...