Category: NPO in the media

this is a test

March 7, 2012
By Ned Holstein, MD, MS, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Spud McConnell, a well-known movie actor, also hosts a popular New Orleans talk radio show, Talk Gumbo on New Orleans radio station WWL-AM 870/FM105.3. On February 28, 2012, Fathers and Families’ Chairman of the Board Ned Holstein, MD, appeared on the show to discuss new child support rules promulgated by the federal government.
Listen to interview.

In yet another measure that will harm children instead of helping them, the new rule effects how much money can be seized for payment of child support arrearages from people who receive federal benefits, such as social security, disability and veterans’ payments.

Currently, the states can ask the federal government to “garnish” money from checks the federal government is writing to those who receive benefits for the purpose of paying child support arrearages. In other words, money can be taken out of the check before it is ever written. The states can receive that money, and the individual gets a smaller check. The federal government limits the “garnish” to 65% of the check.

Under new rules that are slated to go into effect in March, 2013, the federal government will pay such benefits electronically. There will be no checks. The money will simply appear in the bank account of the recipient. And that’s where the problem lies. Because there is no limit on how much money the states can seize from the bank account of the people who owe child support. They can — and will — take it all, leaving the recipient of federal benefits no funds to live on.

This will cause tens of thousands of elderly, disabled, and veterans to become homeless. It is even worse, because most of the money collected will be kept by the states for their own purposes; it will never go to a mother or child. In many cases, the arrearages are very, very old. The children for whom the child support is allegedly being collected are grown. And much of the money owed is accumulated interest and fees. These accumulate during the long years that poor people are unable to pay their child support order, or have been disabled or laid off.

Internal memos show that the treasury department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the state child support collection agencies are all aware of what will happen next March. Apparently, they just don’t care.

Here is what our readers need to understand. No one is going to save us from these abuses. There is no wise judge, dedicated advocate for the poor, or civil rights advocate who is going to save us. We will overcome these abuses, and dozens more like them, by banding together and demanding change. Americans have overthrown injustice over and over again in our history.

We will do it again.

October 26, 2011

In Hey ladies, want a hit song? Bash a man!, Today show contributor Tony Sclafani discusses what he calls a modern music trend towards”pro-female, anti-male anthems.”
In Hey ladies, want a hit song? Bash a man!, Today show contributor Tony Sclafani discusses what he calls a modern music trend towards”pro-female, anti-male anthems.” He explains:

[T]his mini-genre has become fashionable among female artists, with songs like Pink”s “U and Ur Hand,’ Orianthi”s “According to You’ and Britney Spears” “Womanizer’ all becoming big hits in the past few years. Vibe Magazine“s female arm, Vibe Vixen, even put together a list of “The 45 Greatest Male-Bashing Anthems’ — and that list didn”t even include any country songs (like Carrie Underwood”s “Before He Cheats’).

Although these types of songs had precursors, like Carly Simon”s “You”re So Vain,’ their widespread popularity today can be traced back to the riot grrrl feminist punk movement of the early 1990s, said Marisa Meltzer, author of the book Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music.

[Leltzer says] “[S]uddenly angry women were kind of fashionable, and what happens with fashionable music is we tend to see many generations of it’…

But according to Glenn Sacks, a men”s issues expert, the lyrics of songs by Clarkson and others are indicative of anti-male stereotypes found today in sitcoms, movies, and commercials, where men are seen as inept and foolish.

“I think it speaks to something larger in the culture,’ Sacks said. “Where the man”s always wrong the woman”s behavior is never examined. I always found ‘Womanizer” to be ironic because Britney had been married and divorced multiple times [and allegedly had many affairs] and is nobody to be pointing fingers about womanizing or being promiscuous.’

To comment on the article, click here.

October 8, 2011

Fathers and Families Board Chairman Ned Holstein, MD, MS discussed president Obama’s new Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation on the Dr. Laura Show Friday. To listen to the audio, click here. Dr. Laura clearly enjoyed the interview, telling her listeners afterward “That was fabulous—I loved talking to him.” To join the vigorous discussion of the issue on Dr. Laura’s Facebook page, click here. Dr. Holstein explains that Obama”s new proclamation misstates several key facts on men, women, and domestic violence:

“Obama tells us that ‘One in four women and one in thirteen men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.” In reality, over 200 studies have found that women initiate at least as much violence against their male partners as vice versa. Obama”s 3.25 ratio is actually 1-1. And men comprise about a third of domestic violence injuries and deaths.’

During the half hour interview, Dr. Holstein noted that this isn’t just a quibble over statistics. In a recent release he asserted:

“The myth that ‘only men do it” has crept into family courts, leading judges to put children into the custody of dangerous mothers whose violence is ignored because of the pervasive myth that women do not injure or kill.’

The controversial Dr. Laura has been a longtime supporter of family court reform. For example, in 2004 in the wake of the California Supreme Court’s move-away decision in In re Marriage of LaMusga, Dr. Laura helped our campaign to defeat legislation sponsored by the president of the California Senate which would have abrogated LaMusga and given custodial parents the right to arbitrarily move their children whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted. To learn more about LaMusga, see our column Is a Pool More Important than a Dad? (San Francisco Chronicle, 5/4/04).

September 29, 2011

Fathers and Families founder and Board Chairman Ned Holstein, MD, MS discussed the new Massachusetts alimony law on the Jeff Katz Show on AM WXKS 1200 in Boston this morning. To listen to the interview, click here. The bill, signed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick yesterday, will largely end the lifetime alimony burden that family courts have placed on many Massachusetts obligors. Dr. Holstein cautioned that the new law, while a big step forward, could still be undermined by the gender bias pervasive in family courts. He explained:

“Whatever people think is the right and fair solution [on alimony], it should be the same for men and for women.”

Dr. Holstein criticized Patrick for his judicial selections, some of which he called “awful.” He explained:

“One of his appointments was a woman whose law practice in Cambridge had been called the ‘Women’s Law Center’ and he appointed her to be a family court judge. She had never represented a man because she didn’t believe in it, and now she’s adjudicating cases between men and women.”

August 18, 2011

Fathers and Families Board Chairman Ned Holstein, MD, MS was quoted in the Indianapolis Star concerning new child support enforcement policies. In the piece, Holstein explains that state laws on delinquent parents are counterproductive and unfairly punish poor parents.

He says:

It turns poor fathers into fugitives who have to work in the underground economy and keep moving, and Mom doesn’t get anything because of it. They’ll go after a guy who is making minimum wage, trying his best but only making 80 percent of the payment.

To comment on the piece, click here. To write a Letter to the Editor of the Indianapolis Star, Indiana’s largest newspaper, click here.

In Those who owe child support get a break (Indianapolis Star, 8/18/11), reporter John Tuohy highlights the Eric Wilborn case, writing:

Out of work, broke and drinking too much, Eric Wilborn was sent to jail three times.

The 41-year-old Indianapolis mechanic wasn’t robbing people or getting into bar fights; he’d fallen behind on child support payments.

Wilborn now has a full-time job and is making his regular $170-a-week payments, but he’s an example of how seriously authorities take delinquent parents and how much discretion they have in prosecuting them.

“Thirty days in jail three times,” he said, “makes it hard to keep a job”…

Wilborn, who is about $50,000 behind in child support payments, said he got divorced 12 years ago when his daughter was about 3.

Wilborn struggled for years to keep up with payments while abusing alcohol and having trouble finding jobs. He did three 30-day sentences in jail for failure to pay and had his driver’s license suspended. The latter nearly cost him a job offer…

Wilborn said he makes $15 an hour now and brings home $300 a week after his support payments are deducted.

Granted that Wilborn’s problems were partly caused by alcohol abuse, he’s been severely punished and is happy to now be in a situation where, for one child, he’s losing half his paycheck to child support and taxes, and he probably will do so for at least 15 more years.