Major Academic Review of Taken Into Custody

This is good news, indeed!

God bless!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stephen Baskerville
Date: Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 7:28 AM

A major academic review of Taken Into Custody has just been published by the American Psychological Association.  PsycCRITIQUES is the APA's principal book review and the biggest review in the field of academic psychology.  This is major respectability in the academic world.

 

Though the APA is often pervaded by feminist bias, the review is entirely positive.

 

Copyright restrictions prevent circulating the full review, but excerpts are below.  It is online here but only for a fee (though more excerpts are in a free abstract).  Those with access to universities or other institutions may be able to gain access.  In fact, some local public libraries subscribe to these research databases. 

 

Stephen Baskerville

 

 

Stephen Baskerville, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Government
Patrick Henry College
1 Patrick Henry Circle
Purcellville, Virginia  20132

 

 

 

Parental Rights: An Endangered Species?

 

A review of

 

Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family by Stephen Baskerville

Highlights:

 

"...the state and its agents increasingly are acting as if they are the superior parents while the biological parents are subject to review and removal by the state at will."

"Stephen Baskerville's masterful new book...explains in detail how a man's (or woman's) home no longer is his or her castle, that parents no longer have the right to determine how and under what conditions they may rear their children. Rather, these rights have been usurped by the state acting through an extraordinarily complex and interlocking nested set of professionals (including psychologists, social workers, lawyers, and judges), and enforced by civil bureaucrats (often armed) with police powers."

"...these agents and agencies have placed America's children and families at the mercy of a state acting much like that envisioned by George Orwell in Animal Farm (Orwell, 1945) and Franz Kafka in The Trial (Kafka, 1925)."

"...this is happening behind a fog of legal terminology and process that hides from the general public the sinister nature of this covert seizure of the children by the state—until it happens to them. Even those going through the process hardly understand how this could be occurring and think they are simply suffering some unusual misfortune. Arguably, Baskerville's greatest contribution to the social good is his bringing to public light that which otherwise is practiced only in the secret shadows of family law."

"The powerful effect the book has on readers…comes from the clear presentation of well-documented…social science research, media reports, and case studies."

"...family courts, judicial retainers, and ideologically driven government bureaucrats (at taxpayer expense) have taken virtually complete control of anyone who is in any way related to a child."

"The state creates powerful perverse incentives and easy mechanisms for mothers to divorce fathers.  These include a near guarantee of physical custody of children to the moms [and] child support awards set far above the actual cost of rearing a child."

"Once driven from his home and separated from his children, any distraught father who pursues custody becomes a 'cash cow' for the state and its hanger-on's (custody evaluators, psychologists, social workers, divorce lawyers, judges, guardians ad litem, supervised visitation centers, etc.)."

"Baskerville discusses in detail the mechanisms through which dead-broke dads are turned into deadbeat dads by the state."

"…the state has succeeded in gaining sway over all the members of the postdivorce or never-married family, and only the lawyers and state actors win. The parents and children lose, and society as a whole suffers greatly from the social consequences that accompany high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births."

"Baskerville recommends…(a) setting reasonable limits on unilateral divorce when children are involved; (b) establishing a rebuttable presumption of equally shared parenting for children of divorce or separation; and (c) restoring and enforcing the fundamental rights of parents to the care, custody, and companionship of their children."

"Taken Into Custody makes a major social contribution by exposing a massive, yet heretofore hidden, divorce and 'child protection' industry with its negative impact on children, mothers, fathers, and society. If read widely, it has the potential to become a powerfully paradigm-shifting work with an impact on both public opinion and public policy."

 

************************************************

 

Stephen Baskerville, PhD
Associate Professor of Government
Patrick Henry College
1 Patrick Henry Circle
Purcellville, Virginia  20132

 

 

From Cumberland House Publishing:

 

Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family

STEPHEN BASKERVILLE, PhD

 

"This book is a tremendous and much-needed report on how family courts and government policies are harming children."     -- Phyllis Schlafly, President, Eagle Forum

 

 

Order today at Amazon's special price of $16.47 (regular price $24.95).

For more than 80 articles and studies in mainstream publications on the abuses of the divorce industry, see www.stephenbaskerville.net.

Need prayer for Grandson

I am only up to ask for prayer for Alex, my grandson, who was taken by ambulance to the hospital after a bike accident. I don't know anymore than that, right now. My daughter called a little while ago.

She said he fell off his bike really bad, whatever that means. Not sure why he fell, or what really bad means right now.

AJ is 12. He is also the one with the bleeding problem (prolonged bleeding time) that no longer has a diagnosis.

Thank you, and God bless!

Addendum @ 5:02 pm

I guess I am not getting much sleep today, but I wanted Erin to call.

She was driving with her daughter, Raquel, on their way home when she turned on the street near her home, and saw two squad cars, an ambulance, and a school bus. The School bus was blocking her passage, and finally moved so she could ease around it. She needed to get home to get ready for work, and as she was driving past the scene, she saw what looked like AJ's shoe, then the bike, and said "That's your brother's bike!!"

She stopped the car, and saw Alex standing, and ran back saying "Alex, what happened??" He was dazed and sluggish. The police asked her if she knew him, and she said "I'm his Mom"...they told her that someone had called 911 and said that there was a youth lying unconscious in the street, so the ambulance and 'cops' were dispatched. When they got there, he was coming to, but did not know his name, where he lived, etc.

Erin and Raquel followed him to the hospital, and they did a CT Scan, and other tests. They THINK that he had a seizure (last yr on a hot day he had one while on a vacation with his friend, out of State... not sure if you remember that I had asked for prayers then, as well). He had a cut on his tongue, and the other symptoms fit (the state after a seizure could also be a severe head injury, however). He has to go for an EEG on Tues and then see his family doctor on Friday. They said he could go home, take it easy, as he has a concussion, also (No helmet).

He is home, in bed, room dark, and has a headache. She has to wake him every hour or two and check level of consciousness, etc.

Thank you to all who are praying, and please keep him in prayer for awhile. They need to check out the seizures, since this is the second one he has had, if it really was a seizure before the fall, as they suspect.


Thanks! Going back to bed one more time....

Tony Snow -- How to Be Sick and Cancer's Unexpected Blessings

Long ago, I read Tony Snow's column "How to Be Sick", written after his first diagnosis of Cancer in 2005.

More recently, I read his article, Cancer's Unexpected Blessings,  in Christianity Today (quoted in full by others, without giving sources!!).

Both are thought-provoking, especially if one has also shared his diagnosis... watching him over the years since his first diagnosis can teach us a lot about LIVING with illness. He gave us a good example.

May he rest in peace. Praying for his family and friends, and those of us who loved him.

God bless!

Two Catholic Men--Tim Russert and Tony Snow

Raymond Arroyo has written two separate articles on the deaths of Tim Russert and Tony Snow.

I have been wondering why the only references to Tony Snow's faith has been as 'Christian', not as 'Catholic', and Raymond has expressed that same thought. And he references quotes from Tony Snow's commencement address at the recent Catholic University of America's graduation. Tony's  very wording not only sounds Catholic, but IS Catholic. It is EXCELLENT, and very much worth reading.

Tony Snow, Requiescat In Pace

Over the last few weeks another Sunday morning Washington institution, Tim Russert was saluted from all quarters for his civility and faith. Russert's Catholicism was highlighted in nearly every televised memorial. Not so with Tony Snow. And this is unfortunate.

Tony was not only a convert to Catholicism, but he publically stood with the Church on all those issues that separate the goats from the sheep. He was pro-life, an advocate for the less fortunate, and committed to the common good. Still, near as I can tell, no Cardinals came rushing forward to minister to his co-workers or are tripping over one another to celebrate his funeral Mass. As a friend observed recently, "When you do what you're supposed to do the praise comes in heaven."

Tony Snow's funeral will be held at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC. I would have been able to attempt to 'be there' had I still been visiting my sister. I probably would not have been able to actually be in the Church at the time of the funeral, because I am sure that there will be MANY who attend. But I would have 'been there' in a more intimate way than I can from where I live.

May he rest in peace. May his wife and children and family/friends be comforted.
Numbers 6:24-26.

God bless

Bush will attend Tony Snow's funeral Thursday

AP

Posted: 2008-07-14 14:41:05

WASHINGTON (AP) -President Bush and his wife, Laura, visited on Monday with the family of the former White House press secretary Tony Snow, who died of colon cancer at age 53.

Snow was survived by his wife, Jill, and their three children. The Bushes went to Snow's home in Alexandria, Va., and hugged family members on the porch before going inside.

The Bushes will attend Snow's funeral Thursday at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Snow was the White House press secretary from May 2006 until last September. He long was a member of Washington's power circles, and a familiar face across the country, as a conservative commentator and an interviewer on TV and radio for Fox News.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

07/14/08 14:40 ED