Increasing numbers of prime-aged men have neither full-time jobs, wives, nor children, and pose a threat to society, according to a senior labour market economist. Sue Richardson, of the National Institute of Labour Studies, at Flinders University, said Australia was re-creating an underclass "of the excluded and the dangerous" not seen since the late 19th century. "Back then large numbers of men were excluded from secure jobs, never got to be fathers - at least, officially - and were a menace to society," she said. Speaking at the 32nd Conference of Economists in Canberra yesterday, the professor said labour-market changes accounted for the rise of single or divorced men who were poor marriage prospects. They were unemployed, out of the labour force, or reliant on part-time or casual jobs. As a result, many were foregoing fatherhood.

[Gov.] Freudenthal also announced how $19.8 million in federal welfare reform bonus money will be distributed to 23 non-profit agencies statewide. The state received the money from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for reducing the rate of out-of-wedlock births. The one-time money will be spent on programs such as family counseling, parenting, fatherhood and reduced teen pregnancy rates.

... the two men who have withdrawn permission for eggs fertilised by their sperm to be used, despite the desperate wishes of the two women involved to use the embryos to bear children, even though their respective relationships have broken up.

The Catholic Church in Chile has bowed to pressure and scrapped the most controversial of its anti-divorce television advertisements. The ad relied on seven-year-old statistics to claim children of divorced parents were more likely to be drug and alcohol abusers. After two weeks of outrage the Catholic Church has apologised, admitted it was wrong, and overhauled its anti-divorce television campaign.

The federal program that awards bonus money to states and territories showing the biggest reductions in illegitimate births would be replaced with a non-competitive program stressing marriage, if the Bush administration's Healthy Marriage Initiative becomes law ... "We have suggested in this TANF reauthorization debate that this $100 million bonus be turned into a $100 million demonstration program that would actually provide services to states to innovate in the area of healthy marriages," Horn said.

Italy's love affair with text messaging is having an unexpected consequence: Cell phones have become a leading giveaway of affairs.

Snooping spouses are finding amorous messages, as well as inexplicable phone numbers, stored in the memory of mobile phones.
�
Antonella, a 19-year-old art student who declined to give her last name, recounted an ugly experience involving a boyfriend and a mobile.

"We were looking at the cell phone together because he was expecting a message from a relative," she said. "Instead, it was from a girl saying she'd had a lovely time with him last night and sending him lots of kisses."

Their breakup came soon after.

In the United States, the parents of a girl are nearly 5 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of a boy. The more daughters, the bigger the effect: The parents of three girls are almost 10 percent more likely to divorce than the parents of three boys. In Mexico and Colombia the gap is wider; in Kenya it's wider still. In Vietnam, it's huge: Parents of a girl are 25 percent more likely to divorce than parents of a boy�.

Children of divorce usually stay with the mother, so the question comes down to this: Why do fathers stick around for sons when they won't stick around for daughters? (Or alternatively, why do mothers stay married so their sons can have a father when they won't do the same for their daughters?) Do fathers prefer the company of sons? Do parents think a boy needs a male role model? Do they worry that boys cope less successfully with the emotional consequences of divorce? Or do they believe that an emotionally devastated daughter is somehow less of a tragedy than an emotionally devastated son?

To me, this sort of thing indicates a badly brought-up girl. Pre-1965, there was a female brigade of mothers, aunts, neighbors, church ladies etc. that sought to break girls' macho man fantasies by teaching them to see the less sexy, but ultimately more valuable, manifestations of masculinity, such as being a good father. This network of ushering girls into the world of men has largely collapsed. Not to say that all women have stopped advising young girls on what to look for in a man, but the cultural priority is no longer there. As is the case with many moral and pedagogical vacuums, Hollywood has stepped in to fill the void, with all the farsighted emotional depth that one would expect. Ergo, America is crawling with immature, shortsighted young women who are confused, unrealistic, and self-defeating about deciding what they want in a man.

As for this particular couple, I hear such stories and always wonder when the problem arose. Was the husband a strapping stud who underwent a complete personality overhaul post-wedding, or was he always rather passive and she just decided too late that she wanted a Marlon Brando type? Actually, one tactic I've noticed among the most skillfully manipulative women is that they constantly, yet subtlely undermine their men's confidence until the poor blokes cower at their feet. Then they twist the knife in a little further by fuming that these self-same men are no longer manly enough to attract them.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: So, tell me: What's a man like you doing writing about a "women's issue" like this?

Brian C. Robertson: It's funny that so many of the most important social issues � [such as] how our children should be raised � have become "women's issues" according to media etiquette. I suppose that's a testimony to the influence of radical feminism among opinion makers and in the culture at large.

Men and women are just too much alike stylistically now for much erotic energy to arise from their conjunction ... Men in their 20s -- well, the Ivy League, professional sorts I meet, with their yoga classes and exquisite sensitivity about treating a woman any differently from a man -- just aren't masculine enough to be bedable ... What's often lost in the insistence on equality is quality -- how the people feel about each other, how much love they can give each other. We now feel queasy about the romantic language of our ancestors, who used the metaphors of slavery and devotion unabashedly. But is there another language with which to speak of love? Love does involve two people putting themselves in the power of each other. We've forgotten that what we are looking for between men and women is fairness and compassion, not identity, and there can be justice between people who acknowledge that their balance of power is unequal. The heterosexual act of love does involve women putting themselves literally in the power of men. And we no longer trust enough to do so.

U.S. data shows that fatherless children are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of school, 10 times more likely to abuse drugs, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.

We are living in the anti-male age, where men are the new scapegoats for all of society's evils.

While both the judge and the attorney appointed by the court to represent Harris' two sons saw value in preserving the bond between the children and a mother who is a convicted murderer, many courts are unable to see the value of the bonds between children and decent, law-abiding fathers. Studies show that visitation interference and move-aways are a major problem for divorced fathers, yet courts are indifferent at best to enforcing fathers' visitation rights, and generally permit divorced mothers to move children hundreds or thousands of miles away from their fathers. This is despite the fact that the rates of school dropouts, teenage pregnancy, juvenile crime, and teen drug abuse are more tightly correlated with fatherlessness than with any other major socioeconomic factor, including income and race.

"Domestic Violence Campaign Not About Helping Women"
October 1 is the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. But don't be fooled -- this feminist-driven campaign is not about stopping partner violence, or even helping women in abusive relationships.

I address myself here to the 'good guys', the men who work hard, who treat women nicely, act responsible then get turned over by women who call them 'boring' and prefer to date the b*stards. ... [A]ny serious young guy knows: Western women are sabotaging the [courtship] game. They have become indifferent towards men and scathing towards good men.

I find it quite significant that one of the four debaters has already moved into this direction [of ad hominem attacks], describing the two "father's rights" advocates as being such, in a condescending manner.

I truly intend reading the debate with an open mind, however the position of the "responsible fatherhood" lobbyist has already been weakened. Let's hope the standard of debate improves.

Fathers� rights advocates see anti-father judicial bias and the �divorce industry� as the root cause of widespread fatherlessness. I�ll defer to Stephen Baskerville and Roger Gay for a more detailed description, since they are, well, prominent fathers� rights advocates.

In great contrast equal custody is one parent is the decisionmaker for a set period of time, say for a year, and this then switches to the other for a substantially equal amount of time. The time periods can also be multi-year blocks, or once when the child is halfway to reaching majority.

The marriage movement has neglected and even impeded the fatherhood movement ... There's another option besides "joint custody", and it's called "equal custody". This hasn't yet gotten nationwide attention even though it's been in Tennessee's two largest papers, and we have a pending bill which is expected to be voted on in the 2004 session. If you are familiar with joint custody, in many or all states it's an undefined and essentially meaningless legal term, which for practical purposes is sole mother custody. In great contrast equal custody is one parent is the decisionmaker for a set period of time, say for a year, and this then switches to the other for a substantially equal amount of time. The time periods can also be multi-year blocks, or once when the child is halfway to reaching majority.

This is one of those points those in the marriage movement have yet to grasp. The present system pits the parents against each other in a fight for the primary decisionmaker designation (even if labeled joint custody), and the control and financial rewards ("child support" typically is multiples of the cost of raising a child, creating an incentive to divorce and have children out of wedlock) that go along with that. Equal custody doesn't impose any obligations on parents as it's an option either can request, and since one can get it by asking there's no fighting. Less conflict equals more reconciled families, and equal custody by removing incentives for divorce and out of wedlock children means a higher marriage rate.

Once the discussion gets to the point the father can request that he fully remain a parent to his child, the public policy question becomes why is this an option? The law today is that parents have an equal duty to support their children, and yet judicial practices are to explicitly go against this when it's not necessary.

By accident or design, you've been part of the creating of a fatherless America.

As many as 18 species of animals - snake, fish, garden lizard, monitor lizard, crab, crow, duck, parrot, dog, donkey, monkey, cow and horse - were married off on Sunday at the premises of the multi-Vinayagar temple at KK Nagar. Along with them, a human couple tied the knot and another couple celebrated their Sadaabisegam. ��We are doing this for world peace and integrity. Also, we want the rain god to show his mercy,�� said vaastu expert R K Bhagavathiraj, who organised the marriage ceremony.

While they agree that fatherless families are a problem, fathers� rights advocates and �pro-marriage� advocates are not allies. In fact, the marriage movement should steer clear of fathers� rights advocacy. The fathers� rights argument is fundamentally flawed.