Author Archive

Behind the Anna Nicole Smith circus lies an important truth about fathers’ rights. The long line of opportunistic men who have lined up to be Smith’s baby’s dad since Smith’s death has diverted attention from the case’s key fact: photographer Larry Birkhead, Smith’s ex-boyfriend, has a legitimate claim to paternity. He has been thwarted... »

A successful married man with young children at home pursues a romantic liaison with a co-worker. When the co-worker doesn’t sufficiently reciprocate his affections, he stalks her boyfriend for two months, and devises a plan to kill him. He collects weapons, disguises himself, packs up some garbage bags to dispose of the body, and... »

The recent census data finding that for the first time the majority of American women are unmarried is being greeted in a largely celebratory tone. One metro daily explains, “Who needs a man? Not most women.” MSNBC warns, “Watch out, men! More women opt to live alone.” CBS says, “More Women Saying ‘I Don’t.’”... »

  The television station shows three general laborers, three construction laborers, a landscaper, a salesman and two tradesmen, most of them Latino men with dour expressions on their faces. Are they the featured men in a report about hard times for blue-collar workers in the state of Texas? The hopefuls for a local job training... »

The recent announcement from the National Center for Health Statistics that the out-of-wedlock birth rate is at an all-time high is bad news for America’s children. It would be easier to understand, perhaps, if it were naive teenage mothers who were creating this trend. However, according to the new NCHS study, the trend–which is... »

By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks The OJ Simpson 1994-1995 double murder trial and the recent controversy over Simpson’s book mean different things to different people. For some, they are a symbol of America’s racial divide. For others, they reflect the problems in our judicial system. Yet the most important and enduring aspect of... »

Bob and Jane live together and, like many young couples, they sometimes argue. There never seems to be enough money, and while they both want to go to college, neither has yet been able to do so. Jane recently discovered that she is pregnant. Jane is ambivalent about the pregnancy, and her friends think she... »

Are Single Mothers the ‘New American Family?’ By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks Call it the backlash against the backlash. Over the past decade, Americans have increasingly understood that the divorce revolution, fatherlessness and single parent households are harming our children. Now those who view the traditional family as disadvantageous to women are firing back,... »

In Kai Ma’s recent AlterNet column “The Difference Between a Womb and a Wallet” (7/26/06) she applauds a U.S. District Court judge’s quick, contemptuous dismissal of Matt Dubay’s “Roe v. Wade for Men” lawsuit. Dubay sought to wipe out the child support payments he is obligated to make to an ex-girlfriend who, he says,... »

Child support debtors are everybody’s favorite punching bag. The Daily News is apparently no exception, as reporter Dana DiFillippo recently penned two ill-advised, one-sided critiques of divorced and separated fathers. In Jail Threat Springs $$, DiFillippo highlights the story of a local “deadbeat” who offered a judge a “list of reasons why he had... »

Few family law cases are as heartbreaking as those involving Parental Alienation Syndrome. In PAS cases one parent has turned his or her children against the other parent, destroying the loving bonds the children and the target parent once enjoyed. Unfortunately, women’s advocate Rev. Anne Grant misunderstands PAS, portraying it as a nonexistent... »