[Porsche-O-Phile]

It happens every day Rick - that's kind of the point here. A person can have a "bad hormone day" and REALLY screw up another's life for any reason or no reason at all at any time. Marriages have really turned into time bombs - enabled by a very greedy and predatory legal services industry. People change and people do some really crazy, weird and unexpected stuff sometimes. The laws we have enable a helluva lot of potential damage (directed almost solely at males). Heck, criminals get off easier than some guys I know that did nothing wrong other than having former spouses who got bored, wanted a change, didn't feel like standing by them through a difficult time, whatever. None of these are valid "fault" reasons for divorce but "no fault" laws don't require a reason other than "irreconcilable differences" and if one person says they want out and the other one says "WTF - I want to stay together and work at it" then guess what? That's an irreconcilable difference in the eyes of the courts and it's an automatic grant of motion and the guy gets shellacked - systematically and with machine-like precision. I've witnessed this first hand with two very close family members and a handful of friends. The system is shockingly automated and ruthlessly efficient at dismantling a man's life, income, assets and future. I never thought government could be so efficient until I saw it happen and heard the horror stories myself!

A lot of people on here (who probably didn't even read the original article) seem to get SO defensive about this to the point they try to deflect the discussion into personal attacks or assumptions about what other peoples' personal situations are (like they even matter). I get very amused at some of the assumptions FP and others here make about me - they're completely wrong and I often enjoy good laughs over their assumptions). Peoples personal situations have nothing to do with this original point is and remains that men are extremely vulnerable given the current state of laws surrounding this institution.

At the end of the day people just don't like being confronted with realities that they're not comfortable with (the "inconvenient truth" phenomenon - people will create vehement denials and elaboraterationalizations rather than waking up to basic realities, even when presented with overwhelming evidence). Humans are curious - they'd rather bury their heads in the sand, pretend everything is fine and that anybody who hasn't been as lucky as they are (up to now anyway) obviously did something wrong.

The reality on this particular issue is that people who do absolutely nothing wrong end up having their lives, retirements, incomes, savings and families destroyed every day simply to support a bunch of greedy lawyers and people who just want a free ride on someone else's back. It's truly shameful and IMHO one of the biggest embarrassments "American culture" presents.

Then again if you believe the vitriolic rants from FP (who repeatedly claims to "love men" yet oddly views them all as potential wife-beating ogres) it's fine for women to destroy mens' lives because, presumably, they deserve it and even if they don't, some other men in the past did and hey - that's good enough. I wonder who pays for all her nice shoes, cars and other stuff... Hmm... Puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place... I'll stop there.

To you and everyone else in wedded bliss - congrats and good luck. I really hope it works out well for you even though statistically it won't. I sincerely hope you beat the odds and that if you do get a "surprise" it happens early enough in your lives where you can possibly recover from it and eke out a semi-decent life and maybe even a retirement someday. I have a couple of people close to me who weren't so fortunate.