Resolutions for the new year for father’s rights.

1. An organized fight for shared custody. Even though North Dakota’s amendment went down to defeat, that does not mean that the battle is over. We need to organize both state-to-state and nationally in order to push this arrangement as the default model. state-to-state in order to actually implement it, and nationally, in writing legislation that will not punish states for opting to go with more shared custody by withholding of federal funds. This will require an organized attack by father’s/ncp rights groups.
2. Acknowledge the “abuse excuse” and write in language in these amendments to neutralize it. One of the biggest weapons our opponents have is the infamous “abuse excuse”, that shared partenting will force kids into abusive arrangements. This can be stopped in my opinion by specifically putting in language that states that a judge has the power, upon proven facts, to deviate where the child would be put in a situation hazardous to his/her study. Realize that they will not stop using this excuse as long as they can, so we will have to accomodate it somewhat.
3. Limitation of imputed and retroactive incomes. In certain states, child support can be established all the way to the child’s birth. This needs to stop. The purpose of child support is to make sure that both parents support their biological kids, and a parent cannot support a child that he does not know exists or is his, or where efforts to find out are hampered by the custodial parents own actions. This creates unreasonable debts where a person has no realistic expectation to get out from underneath, and a child is not benefitted by a parent impovrished beyond any hope of recovery. Child support should be limited to only the time where the parent knows of the child and knows that they are the child’s parent.
4. A “turnabout is fair play” rule. Right now, even if a person proves that they are not the parent, there is no systematic way that they can regain that money from the custodial parent. Statute of limitations need to be abolished in favor of a “once in a lifetime” shot for a person to prove that the child is or is not his. If the parent finds out the child is not his, when the court receives the documents, immediate notice should be given to stop any refund intercepts or wage assignments. Any licenses that have been suspended should be reinstated immediately with no cost to the defrauded person.  The state should immediately refund any money that they collected from the other parent, and should assist that parent in recovering whatever money that the custodial parent collected, either through the location of the true biological parent or through that custodial parent themselves. That debt, like child support, should be nonforgivable and nondischargable except by the other parent.  Also, the same enforcement methods availible to the state in pursuing “dead beats” can and should be availible for a person who commits grand fraud.    Fraud is not nor can not be justified by hiding behind an innocent person.
5. A “fair notice” rule. If the above rule is impossible, then at the very least any chlid support subpoena should include a document, signed by the custodial parent upon pain of perjury, that the child either may not be theirs or may be theirs. A parent who lies on this document should not only be punished to the full extent of the law, but also should be not allowed to use governmental aid for themselves.

A mathetmatical approach to “dead beats”

KXAN.com – Austinite On List Of Top Child Support Evaders

You may have seen this list in your own town with different names, but each with enormous amounts of debt listed in their name and with a bullseye on their head.  These men are wanted deadbeats and should be picked up at any cost.  But really, do you know what the amount that you are looking at really is?

From the article:

The number one offender, John Vines, owes his ex-wife, Dolly, $130,000. She lives here in Austin, and their son needs help with his tuition at Texas State University.

Attorney General Greg Abbott says these criminals continue to make their situations worse month by month.

"When they are initially ordered to pay child support, for John (Vines) and these other people, it’s a couple hundred dollars a month," Abbott said. "[That’s] an amount of money that, if they’re out of jail, if they have a job, they should be able to come up with that amount of money."

 

First off a sidebar:  hopefully these men have actually been "convicted", else this station faces a defamation case.  And a conviction can only be done by a judge.  They may be wanted on suspicion of contempt to pay child support, but unless they actually have a conviction, that is false.

But onto Abbot’s wildly inaccurate claim that these men are ordered to pay "only a couple of hundred dollars a month".  Okay, let’s look at John Vines, who owes 130796 to his wife.  Note: she has said that her son is about to enter college.

Taking that 130,796 and dividing it by 200, we come up to a total of 654.88 months, or approximately 54.57333333333333333 years.  That’s right, if John’s son can wait a little more than 11 years, he can collect social security.  Now some may accuse me of being a little too literal with the DA, but even if you double the amount, $400, it comes to about 28 years.  Now, he could have waited around about ten years to enter college, but I don’t think they mean that.

Now, let’s look at what would happen if we calculated the other way.  John’s son is entering high school, so that approximates 18 years.  Giving the custodial parent and the DA the benefit of the doubt and saying that the debt was accumulating for 18 years, it comes out to approximately $605.53.  The last time I checked, a "couple" meant two, three if you were stretching, not six.  Minimum wage (and again, we’re being real generous with the DA and the CP by assuming that the current federal standard existed all those years) comes out to approximately  $892.67.  Two thirds of a minimum wage job is eaten up by child support, and the costs that child support is intended to pay that could have been covered with the NCP’s own costs (such as heating, utilities, and some food which can be shared) must now be doubled.

But the real world rarely goes all one persons way.  The DA is being fundamentally dishonest with the public.  Child support has several factors that some people may not know about and would sway a public towards some if not total sympathy with the parent that is behind on debt.

• Child support can be figured retroactively, in some states back to the birth date of the child, whether or not a person knew of or should have known of the existence of the child of if the custodial parent blocked the other parent from participating in the child’s life by denying DNA tests.
• Child support can be "imputed", or set upon an amount that the courts think the non custodial parent should make if they think that ncp is "voluntarily underemployed".  This can go on even when the parent in question was dismissed for whistle blowing (as with John Mutari), or the non custodial parent has a terminal disease (William Street, who died on his second day in jail for failure to pay the child support).
• Child support has an interest rate which the states are free to use for as long as the debt remains.
• Child support cannot be reduced or forgiven retroactively by the courts, even when the debt stays where it is because the courts have not acted speedily on the modification in order to avoid future harm to a parent in financial straights.
• Custodial parents can often become "stay at home moms" or "stay at home dads" with no requirement to do anything but sit back and collect the child support.

So the next time you look at one of those debts, think about exactly how it is being calculated.  That "couple of hundred a month" the DA freely talks about seems to occur several times in that month.

Promotions: should you take them?

One of the oddest anxieties that faces an NCP is when their boss wants to offer them a promotion. It’s the happiest day in your life, isn’t it? Your income is going to go up, maybe you can afford a night out every once in a while, right?

Not necessarily. It also may mean an increase in child support as well. And who wants to pay more of a debt? These questions plague NCPs, many of whom are straddled in debt and want a way out. A wage increase may help, but not if it’s going to be eaten up by child support.

The counter-arguement to that is: unless and until the cs rises to 100 percent, taking a promotion is always a good idea.  It means more money, ka-ching (I hated when people used to use those words, or something like it; it made me feel like a whore).  It allows you to provide a better life for your children.

However, we know that cs can increse dramatically when you hit particular lines in the income wage level.

I guess the best advice is to sit down with your child support worksheet and factor in what a raise would cost you.  If it ends up leaving you with less income, then by all means don’t do it.  Tell your boss it would be too much work, or something like that.

But let’s assume it would leave you financially better, even if there is an uptick on the child support.  So, here’s my advice:  until you are sure the CP will not go for child support, stick the difference between what you are paying and what you would pay in that account.  If you have arrears, pay them down.  That way, if they do try to do some sort of retroactive judgement, you can count on that money to support you for those arrears.

FlyingWindows and KDE, they really can get along

One of the keys now common on any PC keyboard is the “Win” key, also known as FlyingWindows or OpenWindows.  If you’ve used it in Windows, you know how handy it is.  From opening the start menu to  starting the find or explorer without having to click on the mouse, it can be used for several things.

Recently, KDE took out support for the Win key, but you can add it with just a few steps

1.  From the command line, start xev (it’s a little program that captures events.  Press down the Windows key and  note which keycode it is.)

2.  Create a file called $HOME/.kde/env/win-key.sh  In that file, put one line. xmodmap -e ‘keycode n=Menu’  replacing n with the keycode you wrote down.

3.  Execute that command from the command line as well.

4.  From  KDE, go to ConfigureDesktop->Regions and Accessibility->Keyboard shortcuts.  Down in the global section, there should be a “Popup Launch Panel” under Panel. Change that to the win key, which will now show up as menu.

5.  Your set.  The file you created ensures that command is launched each time you start up KDE, so you don’t have to manually complete that task every time you log on.  Enjoy.

If there’s a case from the prosecution, I can’t wait to hear it.

SI.com – More Sports – Defense: Duke accuser misidentified attackers – Thursday December 14, 2006 7:35PM

I guess the third time is the charm for the prosecutors and the police, especially if you make sure that everybody in the lineup was there.

 

10.2 is out, and I’m more than pleased.

Overall, a good ending to the year in terms of OpenSuse, as 10.2 was released with some fanfare.  A bit displeased that Amarok didn’t make it in, but other than that, it’s one hell of a release.

Proof that Americans are smarter than their leaders

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/christmas_greetings_poll_dc

In other words, Americans know the difference between a greeting and forcing religion down a person’s throat.  Too bad we can’t say the same for commentators on either side of the political spectrum.

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Divorce Parties

<p><a href=”http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=739&#8243;
rel=”bookmark” title=”Permalink”>
‘Tis the divorce season? Holidays’ dark side</a> by <a
href=”http://zdnet.com”>ZDNet</a>’s Donna Bogatin — Tis’ the
season? Along with ‘stocking stuffers,’ ‘divorce parties’ is among the
top six searches today. No need for divorce to dampen a festive
mood!</p>

Wonder if this would be acceptable if was male oriented.

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