Friend in the "heartland" just IM'd me -- his rightwing brother-in-law bailed on his wife & kids

[villager]

...and now wants little or nothing to do with the children.

B-i-L always defended the Bushco party line, and my friend had to give up arguing with him at family events.

Gotta love those heartfelt "family values," eh?

[Buzz Clik]

1. I think family problems are non-partisan.

[villager]

4. Indeed, but only side tries to legislate them.

Hey, leftie me is from a broken marriage. Ex didn't want to stay hitched, but I stayed involved with my kids' lives, and have been, ever since...

[raccoon]

2. Is BIL drinking now? Or has he taken up with a teenager girl? nt

[RubyDuby in GA]

7. Or a teenage boy?

I'm just sayin'...

[Mojambo]

3. It's because of the gays marrying obviously. n/t

[SallyMander]

5. sad for the kids

regardless of the politics of their dad -- he's still their dad.

[musette_sf]

6. just wait till the ex goes after

the part of the joint assets that are rightfully hers. THEN he'll be all about "Father's Rights" and he'll want full custody. not because he wants the kids. just because it's a way to fvck with the ex-wife and to try and keep "his money". after that fails, then he'll try for joint custody to try and get out of paying child support. it's like a bad book with a bad plot, it's just what winger "men" do.

[BonnieJW]

8. I've heard of that before.

If I were the ex-wife, I would LET him have the kids without any fight at all. Then I would call child welfare as soon as he started neglecting them.

[klook]

9. Kids should *never* be pawns in a divorce

You stop being the other parent's spouse, but you never stop being a parent to those kids. Or should never stop being their parent. There is no justification for just disappearing from their lives.

[melody]

10. Sounds like my right-wing fundie neighbor

He always called me an "idiot liberal" and talked up "family values", but he took off
a year ago on his wife and two kids. He's now evading child support by living off his
girlfriend. He has grown his hair long and is talking like a 60s radical. This is the
same man who had a "Bush Country" bumpersticker on his car.

Extremists are extremists, no matter their denomination.