angiEmedia

In her book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, author Naomi Klein unveils her opinions on the perhaps not so surprising tactic of abusive governments everywhere: the use of coups, regime changes, and disasters to push radical agendas that could not be pursued during normal circumstances. She coins the phrase “disaster capitalism” to refer to this pattern of destruction or distraction paired with policies designed to transfer power or wealth to corporations.

Klein cites examples from regions and disasters across the world, including the United States and the 9/11/2001 terror attacks, the Southeast Asian tsunami, and the Hurricane Katrina destruction of New Orleans. She also covers examples of economic disasters created by government changes in countries all over the world, including Argentina, Chile, Poland, Russia, and China. Throughout her book, she lays the blame for nearly all of these messes used to spread bad government policies on economist Milton Friedman and his theories.
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Never in the history of the world has there been a situation so bad that the government can’t make it worse. — Unknown author

Ashley Gonis

Frank Gonis of Montreal, Canada, hasn’t seen his 10 year old daughter Ashley in two years. His ex, Araceli Bravo, illegally abducted her in January 2007 and took her to British Columbia to keep her from seeing her father despite court orders that required her to share custody of their daughter. An arrest warrant was issued for her in Quebec, but she wasn’t found until Ashley dialed 911 from a train station pay phone to get help after running away from her mother.
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If you’re about to embark in a child custody battle or in the middle of one, here is an overview of what’s involved and issues that you need to be aware of. These topics are addressed by Steve Carlson, The Custody Coach, in an e-book, How to Win Child Custody.

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Western societies value the lives of men less than those of women and more severely punish men than women for similar crimes. This constitutes a form of government institutionalized sexism against men. In the process, this sexism tends to legitimize and enable violence by women against men and children. It has been well-established for decades that partner violence is most often mutual, with both partners committing acts of violence upon each other. Pretending otherwise, as Western societies do, simply enables and encourages women to assault, victimize, and even murder their partners because they know the consequences to them for their crimes are often minimal. Sexism simply helps perpetuate the problem of partner violence and its related problems of child abuse, divorce, and mental illness.

Female DV Offenders Benefit from Gender Bias

Consider the March 2009 case of Surrey, British Columbia wife Ellie Cunningham whose violent assault against her husband Adam led to his death. Canadian authorities are likely to drop the charges against the wife because she managed to kill her husband, the only witness to the crime. They are doing this even though Statistics Canada government data shows very clearly that women are often abusing men and it is seldom reported. The message sent is that it’s OK for women to abuse and even kill men.
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The way that DV TROs are issued varies widely, with every state and nation having somewhat different protocols. This article focuses on how to file a DV TRO in California courts. The general ideas here should apply to most other locations in Western nations, but the rules and especially the forms are going to vary.

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Fink vs. Charney

The recent web site and web advertising campaigns citing Los Angeles lawyer Keith Fink for various alleged misconducts, improprieties, and court sanctions appears to be part of an ongoing battle between Fink and American Apparel and its CEO Dov Charney. Fink has represented client Mary Nelson in a law suit against American Apparel alleging sexually harassing conduct by American Apparel and Dov Charney. The alleged harassment includes weird claims about how Charney conducted business meetings in the nude.
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Toni Valentin, mother of a 5-year-old daughter, was unhappy with the child custody arrangement she had with her ex-husband. On February 17, 2009, she and her boyfriend Dante Quezada allegedly took the daughter to her father’s brother’s home in the 300 block of West 47th Street in Los Angeles, where she believed the father was located at the time, in a minivan allegedly driven by their friend Felipe Carias. Quezada then allegedly proceeded to shoot out the windows of the home with a semi-automatic pistol, in the process shooting the daughter’s 7-year-old cousin in the chest and arm as she was doing her homework. Apparently they were hoping to kill the 5-year-old’s father while she watched. Fortunately, her cousin is expected to fully recover.
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Child sexual abuse is a serious allegation, often destroying the lives of those accused even when they not convicted. The trauma of the investigation often damages the children, too. In the case of children who were not abused, the investigation can be far more abusive than anything that really did happen to them. Yet apparently the government of Santa Clara County behaves as if child sexual abuse allegations warrant hiding evidence to prevent a defense and possibly bullying children into getting the testimony the police and DA want for their cases.

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A friend once said “marriage is grand, divorce is one hundred grand”. In a high-conflict divorce, he might have been underestimating. High-conflict divorces generally involve extended litigation, potentially crossing over from the family law arena into civil and criminal cases involving parties besides the unhappy couple. Expenses mount quickly, $100,000+ in legal fees can be expended even by warring couples with relatively modest income and assets. Financial ruin and even bankruptcy is not unusual.

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In the back of my mind, I think of myself as a “real feminist”. I support equal opportunity for women, equal pay for equal work, and the rights of women to vote, be free from discrimination based upon their gender, and to enjoy self-determination of their lives. Unfortunately, the feminist movement of mainstream culture was subverted years ago by people who are not aiming for gender equality but instead seek superiority for women over men by any means they can. This presents a dilemma for people like me who genuinely want women and men to enjoy the same rights and responsibilities.

I’m a father, and I have daughters. How could I want anything less than equal opportunities and equal protection under the law for my daughters? Most fathers my age whom I know think similarly. Maybe men twenty or more years ago were not as egalitarian-minded, and even today in Muslim nations there is extensive inequality for women. But nearly all of the men I know today living in Western nations and sophisticated developing nations such as China are used to working with women and reporting to female supervisors. We’ve supported our female partner’s careers and educational goals. We love our children, both our sons and daughters, and want them to have the opportunities the deserve to have good and fulfulling lives pursuing their lives how they want to do so, whether that means as doctors, engineers, lawyers, scientists, librarians, soldiers, business managers, or stay-at-home parents if that’s what they chose.

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