Don't know why I'm surprised

So, Sociological Images decided, for Father's Day, to post a piece about how estrangement hurts fathers. First there were a few comments from people pointing out that wow, that piece is very one-sided and that, in fact, mentally healthy people do not generally cut themselves off from their parents for no reason whatsoever. And in that vein, I linked to Issendai's study of estranged parent forums - and if this is a subject that interests you, you'd do well to read it.

Well, they must've been linked somewhere, because they're now inundated with very sad parents who have no idea why their kids estranged them, and want all the commenters who are estranged from their parents to know that they're terrible people. I'm going on the record now - Rose Pernice's daughter is estranged because her mother is a highly unpleasant person. I only needed a few comments to glean that piece of information, not that she'd listen if I tried to explain it to her.

Things like this are useful to read. I look at these exchanges and go "Wow. No matter how annoyed I am at my family, at least I can say they aren't this bad."

Okay, so this is why I'm signed up to get emails from MoveOn

So... which cookout am I attending? (And why couldn't they have scheduled this better? How'm I gonna make both the Central Park potluck and the Central Park ice cream social?)