Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Grumpyville, USA

This will make your blood BOIL:

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/phyllisschlafly/2005/09/05/155337.html

Gallant Americans are risking life and limb in Iraq to defend home and country. But they never dreamed they might lose their children, too.

When Army National Guard Spc. Joe McNeilly of Grand Ledge, Mich., came home after 15 months in Iraq, he found that a family court "referee" had taken away his joint custody of his 10-year-old son and given full custody and control to the boy's mother.

For five years, McNeilly had had a 50-50 no-problem custody arrangement with his ex-girlfriend Holly Erb. When called up to go to Iraq, he gave her temporary full custody while he was overseas.

While he was gone, Erb persuaded a family court to make her full custody permanent. When McNeilly protested, he was told that his year-long absence constituted abandonment and produced custody "points" against him.

"You want to make a soldier cry, you take his son away," McNeilly said. "It's devastating."
Michigan State Rep. Rick Jones became interested in this injustice. When he contacted the Judge Advocate General's office, he discovered that there are 15 to 20 similar cases in Michigan and it is a common problem all over the United States.

Jones has introduced legislation (HB 5100) providing that absences for military service cannot be used against a parent and that a permanent custody arrangement cannot be established while a parent is on active duty. He is hearing from legislators in other states who want to sponsor similar bills.

Since McNeilly's case was reported in the press, Erb's lawyer and the court's representative are trying to claim that depriving him of his father's rights wasn't because he was serving in Iraq, but because of his poor parenting skills.

The proof? McNeilly sent a couple of postcards to his son that showed soldiers training with a gun. Horrors! How un-politically correct to tell a son that soldiers in Iraq carry guns.
Erb's lawyer asserted that the postcards frightened the boy and showed that McNeilly is not a fit parent. But surely the boy had a right to know about his father's career and that soldiers who use guns are pursuing an honorable vocation.

The referee's report also justified deciding for mother custody because she was the "day-to-day caretaker and decision maker in the child's life" while McNeilly was deployed. But that's what mothers have always done when their men go off to war and it's no argument for taking the child away from his father upon return.

Day-to-day caretaker is feminist jargon to promote their ideology that the mother should have full custody and control because the father is not around to change diapers and do household chores. He is merely working a job, or sometimes two jobs, to support his family.

Follow the money to explain some of the motivation. When the mother was given full custody, the court ordered McNeilly to pay her $525 a month, which she would lose if they return to joint custody.

The real problem in this case is the arrogance of family courts, which claim the right to decide child custody based on their subjective personal opinions about the "best interest of the child." Family court judges, and the psychologists and referees they hire, routinely violate the fundamental right of parents to make their own decisions about the best interest of their own children.

Family courts are subjective and arbitrary, so unlucky divorced parents could get a judge or a referee who is anti-gun, or anti-military, or anti-spanking, or anti-homeschooling, or anti-religion, or a feminist who wants to transform the middle class into a matriarchal society as has already been done to the welfare class, with tragic results.

The notion that family court judges, psychologists and referees can impose personal views about what is "the best interest of the child" rather than a child's own parents is just another way of saying "it takes a village to raise a child." Thousands of good fathers have been deprived of their fundamental rights in the care and upbringing of their children by courts that treat fathers as good for nothing more than a paycheck.

The large number of fathers who have been the victims of family-court fatherphobia is no doubt the reason that one of the most popular songs on country music stations this year is Tim McGraw's "Do You Want Fries with That?" The lyrics are the cry of a father who is working a minimum-wage second job in a fast-food restaurant, living alone in a tent, after being ordered by a judge to support his children living in his house with his ex-wife and her boyfriend.

The father laments, "You took my wife, and you took my kids, and you stole the life that I used to live; my pride, the pool, the boat, my tools, my dreams, the dog, the cat."

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: W. Michigan

Rep. Rick Jones is a good guy. I predict wide support and swift action on his bill. Hopefully Jenny will sign it when the time comes.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Grumpyville, USA

The father's website:

http://www.joeysbill.com/

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Cow Town

That's disgusting!

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Registered: Sep 2004
Location: A very Blue state.....

Positively repulsive

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Registered: Jun 2005
Location: Nebraska

quote:

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Originally posted by Roddy
That's disgusting!

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A big +1

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Chicagos Suburbs

This is a sad state of affairs when our country is willing to allow this to happen. No father should be denied the right to see his son due to the fact he is serving in the military and carries a gun sometimes. I guess we forgot that the military needs guns.

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Registered: Jan 2004
Location: Southern IN

I have a feeling his 50-50 "no problem" arrangement with this "ex-girlfriend" is probably at the root of this new "problem."

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Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Cul Va

Can somebody make this easy for me and post the link to a local representative who matters?

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Registered: Jan 1999
Location: North Florida

****ing Feel Good Liberals... wouldn't know a good decision if you beat them to death with one.

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: NE NYS

quote:

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Originally posted by Nigel_C
****ing Feel Good Liberals... wouldn't know a good decision if you beat them to death with one.

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Exactly.

The 'do-gooders' have gotten absurdly powerful in the vacuum once occupied by people with the ability to actually think.

We get the society we deserve as we get the behavior we reward. I'd like to see this referee's credentials.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Land of the Rising Hun

The slut's custody of the kid should be immediately taken away since it's obvious she'll use her own child to hurt her ex. God only knows what she'll do next.. kill the kid probably. If she can't have it, nobody can.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Riverside, CA

Solution: Keep your package in your pants until you are married.

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Registered: Jan 2000
Location: In search of......

quote:

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Originally posted by The Pontificator
This will make your blood BOIL:

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Just hangin around

Slimeball lawyers can do this stuff. It is SO un-American. I hope the legislation passes. I'm going to let my Rep know so this doesn't happen here.
O-R-H

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Davie "Cowboy" , FL

{It is SO un-American}

the truth is , it is SO-American, Only in this country does this kinda of crapo happens.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Cherry Hill NJ USA

quote:

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Originally posted by srhoades
Solution: Keep your package in your pants until you are married.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: MT

That's seriously weak. I hope they fix it.

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Registered: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura County, CA

quote:
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Originally posted by srhoades
Solution: Keep your package in your pants until you are married.
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quote:

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Originally posted by Daver308
Or maybe not date a backstabber, with no sense of right and wrong.. JMHO

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Registered: Mar 2005
Location: United States

Isn't there already a federal law protecting soldiers at war from court actions while on active duty?

Incidentally, I live in the county in question and have participated in father's rights activities. Ingham County Friend of the Court (FOC)Director Don Reisig is well known for dishonesty and manipulating bureaucracy to make life difficult for fathers.

Michigan's courts screw mothers and fathers equally, but at the highest levels of this county's court system the "leadership" has lied, made up rules as they went, hidden or destroyed documents, and used delay tactics to increase the legal expenses of those they oppose.

This process will soon end up in front of a judge, especially if Dad files a "Motion to Modify Parenting Time" to restore his rights to pre-deployment status. Our FOC will have to provide a better reason than "points" or military service or they'll go down in flames. Antics like this pisses judges off. I can't imagine MY judge (Hon. Janelle Lawless) even listenting to the FOC and the ex for more than enough time than is required to give the appearance of politeness.

I wish that site had more info, like the name of the judge, Dad's attorney, and better contact info than just through the webmaster.

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Last edited by JellyBelly on 10-04-2005 at 05:27 PM

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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Arizona, USA

Ya now, I've written congressmen and other politicians before I was on this site, but never this much in so short a time. Here I am about to send another barrage off to both my state and federal congress people! Might even send a note to George....

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Hawaii

soldiers and sailor act probably doesnt have much sway over a feminist activist judge like this one.

That is why this quote

quote:

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Since McNeilly's case was reported in the press, Erb's lawyer and the court's representative are trying to claim that depriving him of his father's rights wasn't because he was serving in Iraq, but because of his poor parenting skills.

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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Arizona, USA

quote:

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Originally posted by JellyBelly
Isn't there already a federal law protecting soldiers at war from court actions while on active duty?

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Last edited by GraveroberA1 on 10-04-2005 at 05:32 PM

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Registered: Aug 2005
Location: Wyandotte, MI

quote:

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Originally posted by JellyBelly

I wish that site had more info, like the name of the judge, Dad's attorney, and better contact info than just through the webmaster.

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Registered: Mar 2005
Location: United States

quote:

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Originally posted by BLUEeyedBanshee
People don't stop and consider what they are doing to their children in cases like this. His ex (IMO) is not acting in the best interests of her son, and in the process is looking like a complete moron.

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