Thursday, May 03, 2007

Bad father! You complained! No kids for you!

California NOW has issued a press release blasting Alec Baldwin for daring to speak up about his ex-wife's manipulation tactics:
Baldwin’s violent outburst is also not an isolated incident, as there have been many other public displays of hostility and poor judgment, just like this talk of “parental alienation” is not an isolated issue but part of a larger agenda of the misnamed Fathers’ Rights movement. The Fathers’ Rights groups who promote junk science like Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) expressly believe in the abolition of child support, the protection of patriarchal family structures, and even repealing women’s right to vote. Leaders of the movement, like Wade Horn who recently resigned from the Department of Health and Human Services, promote the use of legal strategies disguised as psychological disorders to take custody away from perfectly fit mothers and put children in the custody of abusive men. Horn used his position in the federal government to allocate millions of dollars in federal funding to so called Responsible Fatherhood programs, a move that NOW has demanded be investigated. Not only are these programs expressly discriminatory against women, they are also poorly monitored, and many are potentially illegal in how they spend federal dollars.

Notice a few things here? First, Parental Alienation is "junk science?" Tell that to these people. I wonder if it's still junk science in cases where the man is doing it.

And this little gem:
The Fathers’ Rights groups... expressly believe in the abolition of child support, the protection of patriarchal family structures, and even repealing women’s right to vote.

Well, no. Actually, we believe in making child support fair and honest, and that intact families are a good thing. Which to the C[an]OWs is potayto-potahto. What's good for men (and children) is bad for women. As for voting rights, well, I've never really advocated repealing the nineteenth amendment, but these harpies could make me reconsider my position.

Sure enough, the uterofascist chorus is chiming in as one. Say it again: fathers bad, mothers good.

OK, the message he left was a rotten thing to say to a kid. Show me a parent who's never said something rotten to their kid, and I'll call you a liar. Especially, God help us, an adolescent girl. I've raised three of them so far (the fourth isn't to that age yet), and if you can keep your sweet disposition through it, you're simply not paying attention. My daughters would be the first to agree with me on that, in unison.

I also don't know what Ireland has said to him (or rather, what Kim said to him through Ireland). He's only allowed to spend half an hour with her, twice a week? I suppose that would look excessive to people who think "abusive father" is one word.

I don't care for his TV show, and I've never been much of a fan in general, but I'll buy his book when it comes out. New, and in hardcover, at full price. I hope Ireland will be allowed to read it, but I wouldn't bet on it.

A/T to Glenn Sacks.

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