Fowler unites
When Fox News, NPR and the Huffington Post agree on something then you have a real uniter:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/21/stephen-foster-san-franci_n_168787.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100953688
Make sure that you click on the "recommend" or "I like it"buttons.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/21/stephen-foster-san-franci_n_168787.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100953688
Make sure that you click on the "recommend" or "I like it"buttons.
MADE THE UK PAPER
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4743304/US-Wife-Swap-Briton-becomes-hate-figure-after-calling-woman-redneck.html
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I have an acquaintance, the journalist Toby Young, who's been described by many as the most boorish Brit they've ever met. But compared to Stephen Fowler, Toby is the Earl of Beaconsfield. Now that this story's made it to the shores of Fowler's motherland, I'm looking forward to fresh and insightful commentary from the UK.
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When I first heard of this blog, I e-mailed several Brit papers about it including the Telegraph. I'm sure that I wasn't te only one and that my was not the call which made a difference BUT I will tell you this, British press is MUCH harsher than the US one. While we may hear some interesting anti-US rhetoric, once the You Tube clips are seen and there will be some rather nifty reacs on this site.
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The responces ferom this guy are really what the world think or when the hear the word American,
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Joe,
Do you think you speak for the world? Come on..does "the world" subscribe to every sterotype according to Joe? Get real.
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You are not the world. You are one person. And if you are foolish enough to condone Fowlers horrible behavior then you are the lowest of the low.
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The world doesn't think about Canada, Eh.
Take off, hoser.
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Well, Joe, then perhaps that it's best that your world pulls back the hand which it constantly reaches out to USA for help. While at it, please take the useless organizations with you, like the wet noodle known as the UN.
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To Victoriaipb
You may have a few things wrong, like being as arrogant as good old Stephen. That "wet noodle known as the UN" has made sure that the major powers of the world have held back from all out war and has contributed the lives of thousands of its soldiers slain alongside their US counterparts in the name of peace (Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, Somalia, Lebanon, Korea).
Personally I find your argument for taking the UN away from the US strange. For one thing the billions of dollars having it based in New York as opposed to say London contributes to the US economy, or the prestige that it gives the US. Why would you want it to leave the US, do you think the US should get less prestige or money because that sounds very unpatriotic. Do you really think the US should have less influence on the world stage?
You may dislike the US so much as to post that up on this message board but I am sure there are better venues to post your anti-American sentiment, an al-jazeera forum maybe?
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Dear 'normal from norfolk' - you clearly lack the depth necessary to write a literate comment. I am a naturalized US citizen with nothing but the highest regard for the country my family for which we left everything behind. 'Sounds like unpatriotic' quote speaks to your ignorance. I find UN hardly a prestigious and, and barely effective serving the purpose for which it was designed. My sentimet, as a conservative, is hardly un-American unless you consider hosting an ineffective organization on my soil and continuing to foot the bill unpatriotic. UN is not USA, get it? I stand with Vaclav Havel on my position - look it up, it may do you good. UN does NOT define US position nor has it been as beneficial to the US economy as you claim. It is based here because US continues to be the safest, most generous and the most rational country to host an organization which has been frought with corruption and fund mis-appropriation of funding which you dismiss a minor indiscretion. If you are in Norfolk, you may be a part of the miltary based there and I pray to god that you have a firmer grasp on your bizzarre reality than this. How my (and many others') disapproval of UN's performance and internal works translates into being unpatriotic or disliking my naturalized home of over 30 years is not just flawed but borderlines on irrational.
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If one person reads this it will be worth it. People, we have just seen the face of modern liberalism unmasked! The pure hatred for unhealthy uneducated rednecks is something they won't admit to, to your face like this moron but most think this way. Put John Kerry's face on this guy and you can see a natural fit. Put Barrack Obama's face on this guy and it's a natural fit. Put Rahm Emmanuel's face on this guy and it's a natureal fit.
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And Anne Coulter doesn't do the same on the other side ?
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Anne Coulter yelled at Gayla Long, too?
Dude, there's a huge difference between standing on a public political platform and insulting an innocent woman one on one for no reason other than to be cruel. I really wish people would stop bringing Anne Coulter's name into this. The comparison does not apply.
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Good thing even Indiana voted for Obama in order to prove you wrong. Kthxbye!
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It brings me pleasure that the next 4 years will be so frustrating for you
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Oh please George, this isn't about liberal or conservative. If you think everyone with a certain political bend (which is obivously not shared by you) is just like this asshole Fowler you're as big an idiot as he is.
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Indeed Stephen Fowler SUCKS. What I want to know is why I can't find any information on how Gayla Long is doing since the episode aired? The WifeSwap videos on YouTube were shocking. I'd love to be able to post a message to Gayla and let her know that I, for one, have high regard for her and the way she conducted herself after being abused and mistreated. The Long family was sweet, happy and committed to having a fun and loving household. Gayla even mentioned she works graveyard in order to spend time with her boys during the day. I want Gayla Long and family to know that I admire their loving household and ANY KID would be lucky to have such wonderful support system and the happiness at home that they have shown. GAYLA LONG .... WE LOVE YOU!
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I just posted many links to supporters and articles about Gayla Long at my site. Apparently she is being more tightly lipped about the show aftermath that Mr Fowler. Seems fine.
Looks like most of the major media outlets in the UK have now picked up this story too. The fun continues.
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Michelle Malkin is the Stephen Fowler of the right.
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Nice try, but M. Malkin has never been as condescending or mean as this Fowler character was.
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Malkin in one of her books justified Executive Order 9066 (the roundup and imprisoning in concentration camps of Japanese-Americans in WWII). I realize this subject can get certain people "het up"--my own mother suffered greatly during the Japanese occupation of Manila during the war. She, however, bore no animosity toward the nisei.
But Malkin--sheesh! She gives a bad name to filipinas everywhere.
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What irony...for all Fowler's alleged intelligence, he isn't smart enough to know when he's being an elitist a**hole.
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Anyone else notice how those who agree with Fowlers politics are not in the least bit outraged by his actions but try to justify them by pointing at Malkin and Coulter. Two women. Something about Liberals, they love attacking women. Probably because they are afraid to play with the other boys.
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I'm a liberal, and I in no way condone Fowler.
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Dream on. Cons want to make sure women don't have a choice with their bodies. Heh, now I get it, you're a troll.
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Let's start war with England over this.
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Please tell me you are joking. Not all English are like Fowler. I am English, I live in America, and I am very thankful of all the friends I have here. I love them all. I would never condemn them the way Fowler did.
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kidding
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Actually, though, your thinking I possibly wasn't kidding actually shows your inner-elite coming through; thinking Americans were so short-circuited.
But come to think about it, in my view, the last worthwhile war America had was against the Brits. Unfortunately the "elite Brits" have taken over my country in the form of International Banking and compulsive schooling, (with the help of Prussia) etc.
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not all the English ,but im my opinion a large percentage !!!His character ,I'm afraid was all too familiar to me -the smugness that comes with being born in the epi-centre of the world -london!!As a professional working in London I was asked when was I going to lose "that accent" !I must point out its not a strong accent at all !So sadly while he was fowl in the extreme ,I recognise certain traits which I have personally witnessed before.Being scottish we are well -used to those kinds of comments and slights that happen on a regular basis like a recent well-known tv presenter calling the prime-minister of Britain a one -eye scottish idiot and Prince harry calling a peer a Paki.What the rest of the world fails to see is that being English confers immediate superiority and to those who are confused scotland and england are most definately not the same country!!!!!!think Canada/usa
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That would take like five minutes.
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Fowler you need to go back to your country since ours is not up to your standards. I hope when all is said and done your wife divorces you for being such a jerk and because she cant stand the negative attention this has caused your family. I'm sure she will because in her circles the other wives are going to shun her...you know this to be true. soon your kids will probably get beat up (although they are sadly victims to be caught with parents like both of you.) I feel sorry for them, their future will not be too bright. I was totally appalled at how you treated gayla. Thank goodness she is a strong women. Your parents did a horrible job at raising you!! go hang yourself!
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Oh My God- Fowler doesn't belong here but back in his elitist country of England- he seems to think he is KING! He is ABUSIVE!!! This is a country of tolerance - why did he come here??? George= no way no how is this liberalism UNMASKED it is actually the rich self-involved self-perpetuated INTOLERANT Republican face that came out- Why is he sooooo threatened by Gayla - perfect she isn't but good hearted yes. HE IS AN ABUSIVE KING LOST IN THE WRONG CENTURY GO BACK TO GB!!
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Here is my real problem with this - I agree with much of what D-bag Fowler had to say, most of middle IS undereducated, overweight, militaristic and basically stupid - that being said, there was nothing confrontational about the poor wife sent to the Fowler home. Stephen Fowler claims to be a progressive, and environmentalist, and yet he portrayed himself as the WORST caricature of what the progressive/environmental movement is and has to offer, he was no doubt assisted by the daft editing of the ABC network who have a vested interest in the "cultural horse-race" now that there is not an electoral horse-race to salivate over.
The ABC network has ONE agenda, divide and conquer - fixate people upon their network with outrage at the "cultural differences" of people in our country, in order to facilitate advertising revenue.
I'm a liberal, progressive, environmentalist. I want EVERYONE to have a well paying job, regardless of education level, I SUPPORT OUR TROOPS in their heroic efforts to carry out the orders of a civilian government and a scared populace.
People like Mr. Fowler should frankly know better and it is telling that he resigned from the boards of the charitable organizations that he was a part of. To think that a person could have any sort of social consciousness and treat another human being as he did on Wife-Swap is plain laughable. Stephen Fowler is a tool of everything he has devoted his life to disproving and standing against, he is their BEST ally. Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly could have never asked for a better sucker than Stephen Fowler.
If the man comes to Austin, Texas - a REAL progressive city in the heart of dreary red state desert, he has a good ol' Texas Asswhipping coming. I am NOT kidding. Come down to Austin Steve, we'll treat you right. Asshat
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Billy D
You are absolutely spot on with your assessment. In fact, I think Fowler is a Bill O'Reilly plant.
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Or a fruit.
Just saying.
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Nobody is supporting his meanness, so please don't politicize it. Elitist behavior exists in all political circles. Give it a rest.
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I was originally going to come here and say "don't you guys think you're kind of overreacting?", but I hadn't actually seen the episode. I just watched it, and oh my god. This guy is a fucking douche. If I was that woman, I probably would have been later arrested for homocide.
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I found it amusing that Fowler tries to portray himself one way and acts another. He would like people to think he's upper class, yet he has a working class English accent. This is probably the reason he lives in America. In the UK he would be sniffed out for faker he is. He needs to go back to the UK where he would have his face rearranged by the husband of any woman he spoke to like he spoke to the lady on the show. The husband may not get the chance mind you, the wife may just deal with him herself.
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Hah, I'm struck by the thought that Mr. Fowler would not do well being "dropped off" in any part of the vast majority of the world. He berated Ms. Long for her education level, but her education level is pretty high in comparison to the entire world's population, and good heavens the Longs displayed such fantastically good manners throughout the entire thing. They responded so maturely to the entire thing. There's more than one kind of education that one receives as one ages -- I'm firmly of the conviction that what one learns in formal education is only a small fraction of what makes someone grow up into a "good" (not in the moral sense) human, and I think the Longs have learned that much, much more thoroughly than Mr. Fowler has.
I've discovered something interesting in the past couple years -- I'm in my mid-twenties now; I've been "in the working world" a few years at this point. When I was a kid (and later as a teenager) I had it vaguely in the back of my mind that becoming "an adult" was something that just happened to everybody after a certain age -- you just learn how to deal with life, with other people, situations, etc. with maturity and wisdom. That's not true, though; all that happens is your body gets bigger (asymptotically) and older, but there's no force that makes you mature. I seems that there are a lot of people who are just kids in a bigger, older body. Mr. Fowler, with all due respect (because everyone is due respect by simply living) (no irony intended in that statement, but I guess there it is, huh?) ... with all due respect, sir, you need to re-watch those videos and make a note of how that couple reacted to your violent and unwarranted attacks. Ms. Long gave you the benefit of the doubt in her posturing and verbal responses time and again. She took the mature approach to a confrontation, which is to try to calmly communicate with the other party, to "keep the channels open," and to choose a tone and words that deescalate rather than provoke. Gosh even at the end when she "let you have it" at the final table discussion she was well-mannered. The fantastic and interesting thing, of course, is that she treated you with the respect due another human being which you seemed incapable of displaying yourself. It sort of reminds me of that first paragraph in "Preliminary Expectoration" in Fear and Trembling, about working and getting the bread. The sun shines on Ms. Long "in the world of spirit." She's put in the work, and it shows. With due respect, Mr. Fowler, you should take note.
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I suggest that you all recommend these stories if there is a button available. For example, at NPR, you can recommend a story. There is only one recommendation so far. People, go to the end of the article and recommend. If everyone here did that, we can have several hundred recommendations by the end of the night. The same goes with Yahoo articles. Keep this story on their front page.
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Ordinarily, I enjoy unabashedly saying how much I dislike Stephen Fowler. But since this blog has gotte wider recognition, two factors are troubling me more and more.
First, we're getting jokers that come on the blog and say stupid things about fat people and rednecks just to poke people with a stick. That's bothersome. Those idiots and adolescants are taking away from Stephen Fowler's actions by making a joke out of it. The more people come on here and grandstand for attention, the less people are looking at Stephen Fowler's abusive actions. Let's keep the focus here, people. Stop grandstanding. You might think you're funny making jokes and trying to hog up whatever attention you can get, but all you're doing is making yourself look like an idiot. Go away.
The second thing that bothers me is that so many people blame Stephen Fowler's actions on the fact that he's British. By blaming the country he happens to have been born in for his actions takes away his personal responsibility. He didn't act that way because he's British. He acted that way because he's an ass. It doesn't matter where he was born. I'd really like to see people stop blaming a country for what he did and put the responsibility right where it belongs. Squarely on Stephen Fowler the sociopathic sh*thead. Not Stephen Fowler the expat Brit or San Fransiscan. He's a horrible human being, no matter where he was born or where he lives. Let's stop putting the blame on a place and keep the blame where it belongs. On the man.
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i don't like this guy at all .
i can't believe the woman put up with his verbal abusive.
if i was her i have beat him up.
what a loser and his wife is just like him.
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Steven Flower is a pollution to the human gene pool.
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FROM SF GATE READER COMMENTS:
omnipotent12/17/2009 8:54:45 PM
Someone in my office just advised me that Mr. Fowler is in fact filing personal bankruptcy as we speak... Kind of funny that the Missouri woman will end up with more assets than Fowler in the final analysis.
CAN YOU FIND OUT IF THIS IS TRUE? THX!
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Strange that so many people are still in a lather about this.
[ Editor: UK newspapers just picked up the story. A lot of people hear about the story for the first time. And you seem to be fascinated by this story as well, otherwise you would not come back here repeatedly.
see http://blog.stephenfowlersucks.com/2009/02/24/the-brits-are-not-pleased-with-him-either.aspx ]
Stephen called Gayla undereducated - fact.
He called her overweight - fact.
(Odd that nobody seems outraged over parents who allow their fifteen year old son to balloon to 280 pounds.)
He called her a dumb redneck - a straightforward and fairly mild insult and also not far from being a fact.
What REALLY upset so many Americans about Stephen? How different would it have been if Stephen had spoken in an American accent? To what extent has this absurd reaction been fuelled by xenophobia and ugly nationalism?
Cruelty used to be letting off firecrackers in a dog's ears, not saying a few words to another adult (in the presence of an eight person film crew). Ugh! How pitiful the victim culture (sic).
Saul Bellow once said (talking about growing up in Chicago with its mix of communities, Jewish, Italian, Black and so on), "We paid for our freedom in insults."
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To Damo Kawasaki - Fowler's behavior in front of his children was reprehesible and unimaginable - Fact.
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Saul Bellow also said that: "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Look that one up.
Stating those "facts" to Gayla the way he did served Stephen no purpose but to be cruel. And to teach his children to be cruel. He obviously feels the need to set forth the illusion that he's better than other people because he's either extremely insecure or he's well aware of the fact that neither his life nor his supposed intellect boast any real substance, so whatever intelligence he does have goes into justifying his delusional superiority complex.
In other words, the only way he can build himself up is to tear other people down.
He's a pathetic asshat - fact.
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Biding - as always, a literate voice of reason.
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Saul Bellow also said "Damo Kawasaki is Stephen Fowler"
hahaha
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"How different would it have been if Stephen had spoken in an American accent?"
ANSWER- PEOLE WILL STILL BE OUTRAGED by it. It's simple. No one has the right to put down/step down on anybody- NO ONE!
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I believe the Longs are not allowed to comment because they have an exclusivity contract.
A show like Wife Swap wouldn’t work if you had two sets of sensible adults who can work things out maturely – you need at least one graceless, socially inept twerp in the mix and Fowler was pure TV gold. The programme makers must be thrilled with all the publicity.
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Dude, if Stephen Fowler were sensible in the first place, there wouldn't be anything to work out.
Graceless and socially inept are forgivable. Fowler is much worse than that. He's cruel, and his behavior toward his children is criminal. Keeping them up late to do homework then waking them up at 4am to work out deprives them of a good night's sleep, and that's criminal.
I agree that the Wife Swap show is delighted with the publicity. Moreso, however, Stephen Fowler deserves every bit of attention that he's getting. Tho somehow I doubt that he's thrilled about it.
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It’s interesting that neither the Fowlers nor Longs are allowed to talk to the press – that probably means ABC wants to keep under wraps what a set-up the whole show is.
I’ve been listening carefully to Fowler’s voice and he’s no toff, he’s a working class man who’s gone abroad, reinvented himself and stuck on a faux posh accent. This program will expose him and knock him back a few rungs down the social ladder he’s been crawling up.
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That's precisely why so many people have taken such an offense to how he behaved. Anyone who's seen this show knows that it's built around contrast and conflict, but this awkward and vapid narcissist took it to a new low. The British accent gave him a nice mask and he rode that fake train of superiority all the way to the bank but his arrogance (and social ignorance) has been his undoing. If it were not for the damage done to his children, I would delight in his demise. I would not be surprised to find out at one point that he was a chubby kid - his absolute blind hate for things he dislikes borders on pathological, like self loathing. Wouldn't be too shocked if now that the Brit press touched on it (but briefly) that his old life will really come out in the open. His own arrogance has been his and his family's undoing. I would suspect that the contracts for any immediate follow up are iron clad and there is nothing he may do about it.
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Exactly. Fowler was a commoner in England so he bailed on his own country and came to America where he could pretend to be higher on the social ladder than he really is. He found an American woman with self esteem issues that he could manipulate. Renee used to be fat, remember? She believed his brainwashing about how he's superior, so she thinks that being with him makes her superior, too. I'd bet a million bucks that she never said (never THOUGHT) that being American is no great gift and that she only had the misfortune to be born on American soil before she met Stephen.
Stephen's a common con man. He might have had his wife and neighbors fooled for awhile, but now he has exposed himself for the grasping, abusive fraud that he is.
Sorry Stephen. You're busted.
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Why did she choose not to use his last name when they married? It could be for her professional benefit, its just odd that such a controlling jackass didn't insist on that. Ah, but perhaps her father allowed the marriage but straightened him out from the get go.
Either way, the more I see or hear of this guy, the more I feel he deserves to shit in a coffee can and sleep under the freeway.
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Bonzo, 99% of us dispise this man but the last name comment is silly. Many of us are devoted to our spouses and families but keep our maiden name or hyphenate it, often for a professional reson when our careers are well established enough - which does not mean that their holiday cards are not addressed to Mr. & Mrs. ___________. Aside from that, they may have seen it as a 'progressive' thing to check off on list of 'look how progressive we are. ' It may have also been Renee's attempt to create an image of a successful therapist under her own name.
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Perhaps Stephen would not allow her to take his name. Possibly she wasn't good enough to be known socially as "Mrs Stephen Fowler". With his attitude I could see him saying something like that!
I mean she IS an American after all.
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