"Come on, kids, bring your backpacks in and I'll show you the place," Alberto called out. They piled their stuff in the living room and Alberto gave them a tour. The living room was spacious, lavishly decorated with cream-colored walls and burnt-orange carpeting. Dramatic black drapes closed off the outside world, giving the house a cave-like feeling. The spotless kitchen looked like it had never been used to prepare a meal. The guest bedrooms were immaculate and color-coordinated – one in shades of pink and one in golden yellows. A large outdoor pool surrounded by a high wooden fence could be seen just behind the glass sliding doors of the blue bedroom in the back. Uncomfortable with the opulent surroundings, the four young people sat on the floor around a low coffee table, unsure of what would happen next.
he liked her story. "Hey, good idea. I've got some coke in the fridge. Shall I cut us a few lines?"Perceptions of fathering have shifted, and the image of the nurturant and involved father now exerts a powerful influence on popular perceptions. However, the culture of fatherhood has changed much faster than the conduct. Fathers share physical care of children equally in only 1-2 per cent of families, and are highly involved in day-to-day care in only 5-10 per cent of families. Many fathers aspire to do more fathering than they actually perform, yet they face important economic, policy and cultural constraints to their involvement.I mean, think about it...even if a father is relegated to weekend duty and summer visitation, how much "business" does he have to take care of, regarding the child, during those times? Biodad gets to have all the fun times designated to him, while the real caretaking remains with the mother. Heaven forbid if he has a second wife.
While ‘responsible fatherhood’ policies, for example in the US, have been based on the assumption that the effects of fathers’ presence are uniform across families, recent research finds instead that fathers’ presence has diverse effects on children, and that in some cases these are negative. Some fathers, particularly some unmarried and non-resident fathers, have difficulty in providing positive parenting experiences for their children. In addition, a minority of fathers engage in high levels of antisocial behaviour, and to the extent that they are present in their children’s lives, their children’s well-being suffers in significant ways. In other words, in the case of some fathers their presence in fact has a harmful effect on children while their absence is beneficial.
Both points suggest that the uncritical promotion of father presence can have unintended negative effects on women, children and families. Despite this, on the basis of the finding that children of two-biological-parent families do better in general than children in single-parent families, some researchers and policymakers in the US have come to the conclusion that children will benefit if their parents are encouraged to get married and stay married (Jaffee et al. 2003, p. 110). They emphasise marriage rather than mere cohabitation and have enacted a series of pro-marriage policies via welfare reform especially. These include removing regulations that potentially discourage marriage, funding programs to promote marriage, and providing further incentives such as cash rewards to couples who get married.
However, among the American parents and families typically addressed in such policies, a substantial share of the targeted fathers exhibit characteristics which are not conducive to increased engagement with families including negative behaviours such as violence, drug abuse and other criminal activity (Waller and Bailey 2002, p. 1). Moreover, such negative characteristics were also displayed by fathers who were married either at or after the birth, so marriage may not encourage men to change their behaviours (Waller and Bailey 2002, p. 37). American research also finds that while the economic benefits of marriage are especially strong among women from disadvantaged families, among women who marry but later divorce, poverty rates exceed those of never-married women (Lichter et al. 2003, p. 60). The authors emphasise that, ‘Marriage alone will not offset the long-term deleterious effects associated with unwed childbearing, nor will it eliminate the existing disparity in poverty and welfare receipt among various racial and ethnic groups.’ (Lichter et al. 2003, p. 60)
The US Fragile Families Study follows a birth cohort of 4700 children, three quarters of whom were born to unmarried parents. Compared to married fathers, unmarried fathers had higher rates of illicit drug use, partner violence and depression (Jaffee et al. 2003, p. 111). Compared to resident young fathers (and controlling for marital status), non-resident young fathers were poorer, more likely to be unemployed, revealed lower thresholds for fear, anxiety and anger, had more drug and alcohol problems, and engaged in more crime and abusive behaviour towards women. These involvements compromise such men’s ability to be reliable sources of emotional and financial support. As to whether unwed fathers’ social, economic and psychological prospects would improve if they were married to the mothers of their children, the evidence is inconclusive (Jaffee et al. 2003, p. 111).
There are good reasons, therefore, to be wary of the simplistic promotion of father presence and marriage as ways to improve children’s well-being. It is dangerous to advocate that all non-resident fathers be enticed or pushed into residing with their
children and that unmarried fathers marry the mothers of their children without addressing such issues. Efforts at marriage promotion must consider the real and legitimate concerns which inform some low-income single mothers’ perceptions of non-marriage as a better alternative to marriage (Jaffee et al. 2003, p. 121). Some fathers (and mothers) are in no position to provide quality parenting and their presence in families will, in fact, do more harm than good. Of course this does not mean that such people should be abandoned. Fathers dealing with issues of drug abuse and violence, mental health, and unemployment and poverty must be supported. But the promotion of their involvement in families should not be at the expense of children or women.
The Seven Mile Bridge was a marvel of engineering. With its long uninterrupted expanse of steel and concrete, the pilings were imbedded deeply in the ocean floor to withstand the brutal riptides. Often a traveler could see sandblasting crews hanging precariously over the edges of the bridge on scaffolding. Nets underneath protected them from the sweeping currents of the shark-infested waters. 
In the dim starlight, she could make out the white curling edges of the waves lapping the shore, molding and shaping the beach as they'd done from the dawn of time. Alexis drifted into sleep and dreamed about ancient sea creatures and the evolution that caused the first proto-amphibians to brave the dry land. One by one they had crawled from the warm womb of salt water and taken the first breath of air, which must have seared their new lungs like fire...
Alexis left Grassy Key early the following morning and arrived at Coconut Grove a few hours later. There were hundreds of beautiful sailboats in the marina at Dinner Key, and she heard the halyards slapping on their masts as they rocked gently at their moorings. It was a familiar sound, sad and nostalgic, reminiscent of Paul. ( She walked through Love Park, watching the sunlight streaming through the banyan trees for which the park was famous. The ancient trees grew aerial roots which, upon contact with the ground, became rooted. 
"He was going through some type of marital problems, and we believe that this residence is a relative's residence,"
"I'm heading north on an eastern seacoast. A strong breeze is blowing. The sky is ugly and gray and so is the ocean. The seaweed and sand are cold and wet under my bare feet. I feel an aching grief, too heavy to bear. There's a hopeless desperation, one that nothing can resolve. It's as though I've lost something terribly important and I don't know what it is. The wind has an evil sound. It accuses me over and over saying the words `unworthy, unworthy.' I keep walking and walking. It's terrifying. What do you think it means?"
Because hate is legislated, written into the primer and testament, shot into our blood and brain like a vaccine or vitamin; because our day is of time, of hours, and the clock-hands turn; closes the circle upon us; and black timeless night sucks us in like quicksand, and leaves us totally without a parachute, a key to heaven, or a long last look. Because a slow negative death withers the world and only ‘yes’ can turn the tide, we need love more than ever. We need love more than hope, money, wisdom, or a drink, because love has your face and your body and God has made no other eyes like yours. As much as we all try to figure out why these perpetrators -- male and female -- behave abusively toward those they are supposed to love ... the fact remains the same: They choose to abuse physically, sexually and emotionally.
Economic woes add pressure to situations, Goelz said, but it doesn't make people who aren't batterers beat their wives or girlfriends. "Batterers who are predisposed to violence are going to commit violent acts...
...a lot of times that homicide is the first time that we in law enforcement are aware that there's a problem with that family.
One evening just after sunset, Alexis passed by the Anchor Inn and saw an old East Indian man standing outside. With a long black beard and nut-brown skin, he noticed her, and broke into a toothy grin. Behind his bald pate, long frizzy hair extended half way down his back. He was tiny, lean and spry, weighing less than a hundred and twenty pounds. As she returned his smile, she saw Marcy walk up to him and kiss him on the cheek.
The traveler saw a vision of rolling green fields before him, as if freshly washed by the summer rain. The sky, in a gentle overcast gray, intensified the grass green hue. Then people appeared, all dressed in shining white robes, standing there in the fields, as though also washed in the summer rain. There were thousands upon thousands of them, as if all the people who had ever lived and all those yet to be born were there before him. He saw faces of all colors, bodies of all stature, people of all ages and eras, from every part of the world. Each looked into the sky with the light of their inner spirit glowing in anticipation. They stood there waiting. Then, before his eyes, each person began to melt like a bright candle until, of each one, there remained only a small nugget of gold. The alienation of affection cause of action was a creation of United States courts derived from the early common-law action for abduction of the wife. In its earlier form, the mere removal of the wife gave rise to the presumption that a causal connection existed between the wife's abduction and the alienation of her affection because the wife was the husband's property and thus she could not consent to her own removal.
In time, the removal requirement was eliminated in the alienation of affection action; thus, in order to recover damages, the plaintiff was required to show the causal connection between the defendant's acts and the alienation. Courts recognized that factors other than the defendant's conduct could contribute to the alienation of a spouse's affection. Consequently, courts in different jurisdictions applied various causation standards to actions for alienation of affection--attesting to the difficulty in sorting out causation and basing liability thereon. At one end of the spectrum, a few jurisdictions adopted a "contributory cause" standard whereby a defendant would be liable if his or her conduct merely contributed to the alienation. This standard was particularly tough on the defendant because any wrongful conduct on the defendant's part would render the defendant liable. The other end of the spectrum espoused the "sole cause" standard--the plaintiff had to show that the defendant was the only cause of the alienation--which made the burden of proof nearly impossible for the plaintiff to meet. The majority of jurisdictions applied the "controlling cause" approach. Controlling cause "means that the causal effect of the defendant's conduct must have outweighed the combined effect of all other causes, including the conduct of the plaintiff spouse and the alienated spouse." Leading to the abolition or restriction of the alienation of affection cause of action in a majority of states was the view that this standard was "simplistic and inadequate to help the trier of fact sort out causation in an area where psychologists have asserted that causation cannot be sorted out." Thus, the potential for abuse existed in that the trier of fact could hold a defendant responsible "because his or her conduct had been 'wrongful' or morally reprehensible."
The same problem is inherent in parental alienation cases. Where causation is difficult--if not impossible--to sort out, the trier of fact may erroneously assign responsibility for the alienated affections of a child solely to the child's mother...
Dogs and fathers. Dogs and fathers. Dogs and fathers...hmmmmm.
There were green turtles and loggerheads, leopard rays, moray eels, and evil-looking barracuda. Formations of brain coral, stag horn coral, and sea fans were everywhere. As a penal colony, Fort Jefferson consisted of perimeter walls containing the individual prison cells and a large central yard area for exercising the inmates. Once they made landfall, Paul started searching for a particular cell. 
Two days later the radio announcer spoke of a freak explosion. Paul Halliday and Lukas Howe were both killed when their two-man hydroplane had flipped over backwards and spontaneously ignited. They had died instantly.
The intelligent creature looked up at her sideways and chattered happily; staying topside and maintaining the same speed as the sailboat, it was obviously enjoying itself. Greek mythology told of a dolphin who rescued a drowning sailor, and Paul had mentioned that swimmers were safe from sharks whenever a school of dolphins was nearby. 
"Have you ever heard of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha?" Paul asked. 
pieces of eight, gold doubloons, pearls, jewels, and riches beyond imagination. My uncle is second in command of the Mel Fisher expedition. They've got her narrowed down to one square mile of ocean and expect to find the Atocha within a year."
Police have confirmed that Cook had taken out an apprehended violence order against her estranged husband, from whom she was separated and in the process of divorcing.
A spokesman last night said "domestic violence issues" had come to the attention of police in the past.
"...the two were in a process of getting a divorce, but the husband had been calling his wife at the store frequently."
“We can try to find blame with the economy, or because of the holidays and the stress and gaps in the system, but ultimately it's the guys, the abusers, the batterers … that are doing the damage.”
A 35-year-old man struck his ex-wife with an SUV, then ran over her current husband, beat him with a fence post and stabbed him with a knife in Severn this morning, Anne Arundel County police said.
She could see over long distances with the eyes of an eagle. Soaring with arms outstretched, she saw a recurring vision of a faraway land. Could it be that the dreams were actually premonitions? For years Alexis dreamed about a particular river, a secret place with a green snake of water threading its way northward through a shaded tropical forest. At times she saw the river from a different perspective, wherein it seemed to flow from the east instead of the south, and was blue, rather than green.
of mangroves and palm trees, a thin rind of white sand edging the beach. Large patches of purple sea grass patterned the ocean floor near the shore. Turquoise in the shallows changed to deep sapphire where the ocean dropped into the deep. A soft breeze textured the surface of the water, creating flickering reflections of light. Sky and sea met on a pure and perfect horizon, touched only by God's hand. 
and they sipped the last of the wine. It was late, and the conversation had turned philosophical. Luke had long retired to his quarters, uninterested in anything that didn't directly relate to sex and women. Paul reclined next to Alexis on the deck. They were intensely aware of each other, feeling the effects of the wine and weed. The breeze was cool now.
Young women wore homemade clothes, flowers, and beads, and were accompanied by their young men with Jesus-like hair and flowing beards. Most walked or rode bicycles to the wharf as befitted the tiny island community. Dancers, mimes, and acrobats entertained the crowds. Musicians came with their guitars, flutes, dulcimers, or banjos. Some played for free; others passed the hat in hopes of avoiding a real job a little longer. Colorful reptiles clung to the shirt of the lizard man, and conch salad was served in paper cups from a bicycle basket for a dollar each. The island, a long-time haven for pirates, wreckers, and ne'er-do-wells, now occupied by an array of artists, writers, homosexuals and wannabees, was as varied in charm and hue as the changing colors of the sunset sky.
Wanderer, moving towards the next horizon.Over the weeks that followed, she lived simply, reading poetry, listening to music, and writing in her journal. Visiting the Cuban section of Old Town Key West, Alexis made line drawings of the shabby frame houses, watched the seafaring birds, and walked the beaches. At night she went stargazing or took long walks along the quiet streets. Lining the sidewalk was a profusion of tropical exotics – colorful hibiscus, hedges of curly aralias, pink and white oleander, and rubber banyan trees. In some areas, whole fences of moonflowers came alive in the moonlight, their white petals opening so quickly that the movement was barely perceptible to the human eye.
Wonderer, how long shall I journey?
Listener, for the voice in song.
Watcher, for what someday may be.
Loner, until companionship comes.
Patience, a virtue absent from me.
Alexis had been ten years old in 1962 when she'd first heard of the little country then known as British Honduras. At that tender age she never dreamed that she would ever visit Belize, let alone live there for the greater part of her adult life. The least known country in Central America, it had only about 130,000 people nationwide, 30,000 of them in the former capital of Belize City. The official language was English. And for some reason, the nation seemed to have a conspicuous deficiency of common tropical exports such as bananas, rice, corn, or beef. Years later, Alexis would learn that Belize also had the largest area of unspoiled rainforest in Central America, a wealth of wilderness, waterfalls, rare colorful birds, exotic butterflies, and the ruins of countless Mayan temples, as well as the largest and longest living coral reef in the western hemisphere.
During the summer before college, Alexis became influenced by the cultural revolution that would impact all the years that followed. Dressed in a T-shirt and old patched jeans, she rejected the traditional values of her parents, school, and church, abandoning her nice clothes as well as her bra, wearing her hair long with a flower tucked behind her ear. 
