Glenn’s E-Newsletter/Week in Review, September 3, 2008
Los Angeles, CA–Are You a Divorced Dad Having a Hard Time Getting Your Kids’ School Records? If Yes, please fill out this out. I sometimes hear from divorced fathers who tell me that it is difficult for them to get their children’s school records from their kids’ schools. This can include: report cards; notices of parent-teacher conferences; notices of school events; or others. If you have had this problem, please fill out the form by clicking here. Noncustodial mothers are encouraged to respond, too. Penn. Supreme Court Study: Gender by Far #1 Indicator of Sentencing Disparity
I’ve often complained about the female sentencing discount, and recently reader Garrett Luttrell, a paralegal, sent in an interesting letter about a recent study on it. Luttrell writes:
A couple years back there was a huge study done by the Pennsylvania Commission on racial and gender discrimination in the courts, and the results were published in 2004 as the ‘Final Report of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System”. Most of the study was predictably biased and based on anecdotal ‘evidence”, but in the section on criminal sentencing, they had a large and seemingly well done study – performed specifically for the Commission – on sentencing disparity based on combinations of gender, race, and age. The section was called ‘Sentencing Disparities in the Criminal Justice System” and was published along with the Report in 2004. The study concluded that when the three criteria were considered together, there was a surprising pattern. Gender, more than race or age, was by far the number one indicator of sentencing disparity… Sadly, the Commission has declined to act on the study, instead attempting to get another study done that will not consider gender or age, and will only take capital crimes into account. The initial study is being buried, and I”ve been trying to get someone to give it some attention, so far without any luck.
To learn more, click here. Oprah Magazine: Female Teachers Who Have Sex with Students Are Misguided Poor Souls Looking for Love… 
“Sex with students is bad, but why should it be the case that for women it’s a case of ‘poor boundaries’ and for men it’s hardcore brutal predation of the most evil sort?” Jay, a reader, recently wrote me a letter about an article in Oprah magazine on the number of female teachers caught having sex with their students, such as Debra Lafave (pictured). The article is “Why Did the Teacher Have Sex With Her Student?”… To read more, click here. In Case Divorced Dads Ever Thought They Were Anything but a Wallet… Here’s another wonderful example of the absolute disregard our family law system has for fathers as anything but wallets. In this case, a distraught/disturbed man shot himself in the face and ended up disabled, perhaps crippled.Yet, according to the Associated Press, the man can’t get a reduction on his child support because the “Laconia Family Court had ruled that Calvin Dunn should be considered voluntarily underemployed because his injury was self-inflicted.”Yeah, smart judge there–Dunn shot himself in the face to try to get out of child support, but our clever jurist smoked out the deadbeat’s scam. Obama Panders to Women by Pushing ‘Wage Gap’ Myth in Acceptance Speech “And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.”In his acceptance speech last night Barack Obama pandered to women by pushing the “wage gap” myth. As we’ve discussed many times, men earn more than women on average for many legitimate reasons. These include:
- Men work longer hours at more demanding and hazardous jobs
- Men are more likely to travel, relocate or have long commutes for their jobs
- Men are more likely to have more years and more consecutive years of experience, because women are more likely to work part time or take years off of work to care for their children.
Given these factors, it would be very hard for men to not earn considerably more than women. When men and women of matched qualifications are working in matched jobs, women earn as much as men do. Obama has made these claims this many, many times. For example, in this interview he claims that women are paid only 78% as much as men are for the same job. He also discusses his new economic plan, which is oriented towards women. (Starts at 5:30, ends at 6:30) To be fair, Republican party presidential candidate John McCain to date hasn’t been any better. For one example, in this interview, McCain decries the mythical gap and pledges to eradicate it, saying, “We haven’t done enough. We have not done enough. And I’m committed to making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work. That there is equal opportunity in every aspect of our society. And that is my record and you can count on it.” ‘In the park a guy was sitting on the ground. My son asked him if he was his daddy…it is heartbreaking’ Syndicated advice columnist Amy Alkon sent me something touching and telling the other day. It’s an email she received from a heroic single mother who adopted the child of two neglectful, drug and alcohol-abusing parents. The mother wrote:
We were in the park the other day and there was a guy sitting on the ground. He walked right up and sat down by that man and asked him if he was his daddy… Men do not even have to be of the same race for him to ask if they are his daddy so he is not identifying with men who look like him. He is just identifying with men…This is a daily routine for us and it is heartbreaking.
Ouch. Read the full letter here. Appeal Court Overrules Family Court’s Shakedown of Dad “Where husband earned a fixed annual salary that was half of what husband had previously earned, with a possible discretionary bonus up to 150 percent of that amount, support agreement requiring husband to pay nearly all his take-home pay in support payments and borrow for living expenses…was a miscarriage of justice…” The recent decision by California’s Fourth Appellate District Division Three in re Marriage of Mosley (8/14/08) speaks volumes about the way the child support system manhandles fathers. A father had to fight a big, expensive case just to get the courts to set his child support obligation on what he earns as opposed to what the court feels he might be able to earn. To learn more, click here. Some of the other issues I’m covering this week include: NOW’s Position on Sarah Palin–an Appropriate Response? Obama’s Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act–Fair to Fathers? Women’s eNews Commentator Wants to Get Rid of Bikini Car Washes Labor Day: Bruce Springsteen & the Quiet Dignity of Blue-Collar Men He probably thought that we don’t imprison people for being poor or in debt. He was wrong. ‘I remarried with the understanding that I could never move away from my little girl’s dad…’ Kathleen Parker: ‘Fathers teach their girls how to live among men…a skill both useful and enjoyable’ New NOW Birth Control Campaign Might Be Worth Supporting Baskerville: ‘Many divorcing fathers innocently expect sympathy from feminists…They are soon disabused’ Program Helps Military Dads Stay Connected to Their Kids Joe Biden: An Admirable Single Father Author/Radio Host Shmuley Boteach: ‘Do We Even Need Dads?’ Steve Moxon: ‘Modern extreme feminism…[has] always been in the interests only of the elite of women’ If It’s Stupid or Lazy, It Must Be Male To comment on what I’ve written or to join the lively discussion on my website, simply click on the “comments” link below each blog post on my website. Best Wishes, Glenn Sacks www.GlennSacks.com