The cause of most social problems today

The Wash. Times has a Xmas story on the decline of dads:

Fathers disappear from households across America
Big increase in single mothers ...

In her neighborhood in Southeast Washington, 1 in 10 children live with both parents, and 84 percent live with only their mother.

In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.

America is awash in poverty, crime, drugs and other problems, but more than perhaps anything else, it all comes down to this, said Vincent DiCaro, vice president of the National Fatherhood Initiative: Deal with absent fathers, and the rest follows.

So what does he want to do about it? His web site says:

National Fatherhood Initiative focuses on raising awareness about the importance of fathers, producing skill-building resources, and engaging all sectors of society around father involvement. While fathers' legal and custodial rights are important, they are not NFI's main focus. National Fatherhood Initiative does not provide advice on legal matters related to the family court system. ...

National Fatherhood Initiative is supported by a variety of funding sources. Individual donors, corporations, private foundations and government grants support NFI's various efforts.

I hate to say it, but he is only telling part of the story, and just raising awareness will not help much. And I very much doubt that his funding agencies will permit him to tell the whole truth.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan once privately told this joke:

Two Irish ladies were at the wake for their dear friend. "Poor Mollie," said the first woman, looking down at the body, "she had such a hard life. First she married Mike, who gave her five crying children in six years. He beat her and never worked a day in his life. Then Mike up and died, and she married Johnny, who was even worse, giving her seven more children and not a penny of support. He was drunk all the time until he died, too. And now Mollie is gone, worked to death taking care of those 12 kids."

"Well, at least they are together at last," replied the second woman.

"You mean together in Heaven?" asked the first woman. "But is Mollie together with Mike or with Johnny?"

"I was referring to her legs."