That list is hysterical, even for Yankees! They got one minor thing wrong, though.

Plano Barbie

Workaholic ex-husband Ken comes with a Porsche.

Not after Plano Barbie's lawyer got through with him in court!

Ex-husband Ken drives a second-hand Subaru he bought from "Honest John's Used Car Lot (No Credit, No Problem!)". He works at Wal-Mart 6:30pm-12am and sometimes forgets to take off his ID badge from his day job. After Wal-Mart, he's a night clerk at 7-11. Weekends, he's pushing shopping carriages in the local supermarket's parking lot.

Ex-husband Ken sees his children when Plano Barbie decides to go off for the weekend with her health-instructor boyfriend. Then he gets to baby-sit. Sometimes they slip and call the health-instructor "Daddy" in front of him. These visits are bittersweet since Ken's children tell him all about the health-instructor who sleeps in their mother's bedroom and makes so much noise with her.

Ex-husband Ken is still behind in his alimony and child-support, four jobs not withstanding. Right now, his greatest fear is that Plano Barbie will have him arrested as a "Deadbeat Dad". His greatest hope is that he'll get shot during a hold-up at 7-11.

Um, something you want to get off your chest, Mr. Freen? ;-)

Personally? Nope, not me.

It's not going to happen, either.

I've seen it happen often enough to friends, though, and I've benefitted from their emotional and financial tragedies without having to experience them first-hand. Eventually, I started researching the subject and "took my first step into a larger universe" (guess which movie).

The divorce rate in this country is around 50%. That's one out of two. There's an entire divorce industry and no matter what women's groups say, it isn't aimed at "benefitting men". When was the last time anyone heard of a man being awarded alimony and child support, custody and most of the marital assets?

Doesn't happen.

I actually have most of these books and they make for some downright terrifying reading. I kid you not. I've never read a horror novel that's ever frightened me. But when I want the shivers, I've got a whole library of nightmares waiting.

"By hearing the screams inside the well, we can avoid falling in ourselves."

Don't Settle for Less : A Woman's Guide to Getting a Fair Divorce & Custody Settlement by Beverly Pekala

What Every Woman Needs to Know Before Entering a Relationship by Judge Lois G. Forer
This book's title has an interesting history. It was originally (and more accurately) called "What Every Woman Needs To Know Before (and After) She Gets Involved With Men And Money. Given the book's tone, I can only imagine the sort of rulings Judge Forer handed down from the bench in divorce court.

Getting Your Share: A Woman's Guide To Successful Divorce Strategies by Lois Brenner

The Woman's Book of Divorce: 101 Ways to Make Him Suffer Forever and Ever by Christine Gallagher
This book is actually the sequel to the one below! Both books have become so popular they spawned a web site: www.RevengeLady.com

The Woman's Book of Revenge: Tips on Getting Even When 'Mr. Right' Turns Out to Be All Wrong by Christine Gallagher
The hits keep coming! If these books aren't about "pranks", either. These books are about causing "him" thousands of dollars worth of damage and getting away with it.

Divorce War! 50 Strategies Every Woman Needs To Know To Win by Bradley A. Pistotnik, Esq.

What Every Woman Should Know About Divorce and Custody: Judges, Lawyers, and Therapists Share Winning Strategies on How to Keep the Kids, the Cash, and Your Sanity by Gayle Rosenwald Smith, Sally Abrahms

Winning Custody : A Woman's Guide to Retaining Custody of Her Children by Deedra Hunter
Love that title. "Her" children. Scary part is, that in most cases the courts will agree.

Beat Him at His Own Divorce! by Ted Knight

While I realize that (a) there's always two sides to every story...and every divorce, and (b) there is no doubt a thriving cottage industry dedicated to taking husbands to the cleaners, my own personal perceptions through the years are that 90% of the time, the guy has been a creep beyond belief, and has bailed on a wife and kids who deserved much, much better.

I'm not saying that it doesn't happen the other way around... just that I haven't seen it very often.

So that's where all the decent women ended up.

Texas!

Everybody's personal experiences are different, I guess. Maybe it's the circles a person travels in.

When it comes to taking husbands to the cleaners, though, divorce is anything but a cottage industry. The judge's "ruling" can be as arbitrary and as lopsided as they like, appeals are notoriously difficult. Hearsay is fully admissable. So is the uncorroborated testimony of misandritist friends one's ex calls as "witnesses". From what I've heard, the practical reality is that divorce hearings are a sham and the judge's ruling is entirely according to personal bias.

There's a big reason there's so many "deadbeat dads". A "deadbeat dad" is a man who doesn't pay his assigned alimony and child support payments. It doesn't matter if he can't pay because the judge assigned an excessive amount, or that he's already living out of his car when he's not at his fourth job. If the guy doesn't pay, he's a "deadbeat dad". Then he goes to jail which today is a modern equivalent of "debtor's prison". Of course, there's "work release" with court-ordered full garnishment of wages to pay off his alimony and child support, but hubby is still looking at a jail cell if he falls behind again.

Even worse, the distribution of child-support is completely unaudited. If one's darling ex decides to buy her new boyfriend a Harley with the money the court awarded for the maintenance of her children, that's just too bad. If she decides to spend it on baby sitters while she hits the bars on the weekend, too bad.

When was the last time anyone heard of a woman going to jail for falling behind on her alimony and child support payments to her husband, eh?

It's impossible to say which side "causes" a divorce, but for every one divorce guide written for men (usually second-rate, no less), there's at least ten written for women.

That tells me there's a market for "winning strategies on how to keep the kids, the cash, and your sanity" and the market isn't men. If men were as interested in "getting a fair divorce and custody settlement" there would be just as many books written for them.

There isn't.