BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

GELT MELTS by the LeeVees Gelt melts Gelt melts Gelt melts Just because it looks like funny money In your pocket it's chocolate runny Heat's the enemy, it's not your friend Golden coins melting in your hand Everyone knows chicks love chocolate Fires them up like a bottle rocket Rip the tin off right away I think you know what we're trying to say You gotta get it while you can 'Cause it won't last long We don't claim to understand But we're not wrong And your good thing will be gone Gelt melts Gelt melts Gelt melts Don't throw it at your baby brother Better run now, here comes your mother Comin' at you with a wooden spoon Still covered with her chicken soup Grandma's couch with the plastic coating Fifty coins later, stomach's bloating If goys can eat a chocolate bunny Why can't we eat chocolate money? You gotta get it while you can 'Cause it won't last long We don't claim to have the answer In this song But your good thing

What the ‘Left Behind’ Series Really Means Have we finally become the dumbest mofos on the planet? By Joe Bageant “Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again.” -- From Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins “The best thing about the Left Behind books is the way the non-Christians get their guts pulled out by God.” -- 15-year old fundamentalist fan of the Left Behind series ****** That is the sophisticated language and appeal of America’s all-time best selling adult novels celebrating the ethnic cleansing of non-Christians at the hands of Christ. If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of last book in the Left Behind series, Glorious Appearing, and publish it across the Middle East, Americans would go berserk. Yet tens of millions of Christians e

Chanukah's Universal Message Rabbi Michael Lerner Chanukah's Universal Message: When Hope Triumphs Over Cynical Realism Chanukah starts Sunday evening, Dec.25th and goes for 8 days. We light one Chanukah light the first night, two the second night, etc. Christmas and Chanukah share a spiritual message: that it is possible to bring light and hope in a world of darkness, oppression and despair. But whereas Christmas focuses on the birth of a single individual whose life and mission was itself supposed to bring liberation, Chanukah is about a national liberation struggle involving an entire people who seek to remake the world through struggle with an oppressive political and social order: the Greek conquerors (who ruled Judea from the time of Alexander in 325 B.C.E.) and the Hellenistic culture that they sought to impose. Though the holiday celebrated by lighting candles for 8 nights recalls the victory of the guerrilla struggle led by the Maccabees against the Syrian branch of th

The Christmas Wars: The Jews and Secularists Did NOT Steal Christmas But it WAS Stolen...by the Capitalist Marketplace Rabbi Michael Lerner 12.22.2004 Flush from their electoral victories in November, some leaders of the Christian Right have decided to make an issue of the secularization of Christmas. Objecting to the move by Macy's and some other retailers to wish their shoppers "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" instead of the traditional Merry Christmas, they have begun to accuse secularists in general, and, on some of the right-wing talk shows, Jews in particular, of undermining Christmas. It's easy to dismiss these Right-wingers as sore winners. They are well on their way to packing the judiciary with judges who may erode the division between church and state, make abortion more difficult or illegal, and support the pro-torture position of Bush's choice for Attorney General. Yet the 25% of Jews who voted for Bush in this past election may not

EIGHT EASY STEPS Alanis Morrisette How to stay paralyzed by fear of abandonment How to defer to men in solve-able predicaments How to control someone to be a carbon copy of you How to have that not work and have them run away from you How to keep people at arm's length and never get too close How to mistrust the ones you supposedly love the most How to pretend you're fine and don't need help from anyone How to feel worthless unless you're serving or helping someone I'll teach you all this in eight easy steps A course of a lifetime you'll never forget I'll show you how to in eight easy steps I'll show you how leadership looks when taught by the best How to hate women when you're supposed to be a feminist How to play all pious when you're really a hypocrite How to hate god when you're a pray-er and a spiritualist How to sabotage your fantasies by fears of success I'll teach you all this in eight easy steps A course of a lifetime you'll

THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS? How to Solve the December Dilemma An Orthodox rabbi maps out a peace plan to end the war on Christmas and put the miraculous back in Hanukkah. Interview by Alice Chasan Holiday season 2005 brings the convergence of Christmas and Hannukah, which begins on Christmas day this year for the first time since 1959. The unusual synchronicity highlights a perennial American debate about whether Christmas is under siege by the politically correct and the radical secularists. Jews, too, get caught in the seasonal crossfire: Do they need to deny the culture's near-saturation Christmas consciousness to celebrate their own winter holiday? Beliefnet senior editor Alice Chasan recently spoke to Bradley Hirschfield, an Orthodox rabbi and vice president of CLAL, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, about his road map for peace in the "Christmas Wars." Why is there more talk each year about this being a season where our holidays are "under sieg

FOR MY 'SISTER ' at her & her family's time of loss: What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. - Albert Pike I think it is safe to say this quote above applies to your loved one 110%. - B. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. - Matthew Arnold ("Magnified and sanctified be God's great name in the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom soon, in our lifetime. Let us say: Amen. "May His great name be praised to all eternity. "Hallowed and honored, extolled and exalted, adored and acclaimed be the name of the Holy One, though He is above all the praises, hymns, and songs of adoration which men can utter. Let us say: Amen. "May God grant abundant peace and life to us and to all Israel. Let us say: Amen. "May He who ordains harmony in the universe grant peace to us and to all Israel. Let us

BUT YOU DON'T LOOK SICK A must read story that I deeply relate to: THE SPOON THEORY (CLICK)

Reform Jewish Leader Blasts Religious Right's "Monopoly On God" The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, took his place alongside other "religious left" leaders, saying that "religious right" leaders preach that "unless you attend my church, accept my God and study my sacred text you cannot be a moral person." "What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God?" he said to a receptive audience during the movement's national assembly in Houston, which runs through today. He used particularly strong language to condemn conservative attitudes toward homosexuals. He said he understood that traditionalists have concluded gay marriage v

Your Blogging Type is Confident and Insightful You've got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into brilliant blog. Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights. A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time. You blog for yourself - and you don't care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is! What's Your Blogging Personality?

Women in Political Blogging Compiled by Jude Nagurney Camwell I am compiling a list of women who blog about political issues. I'm amazed at how many there are. (thanks Jude!! glad to know so many women are ON THE JOB!!) al-Muhajabah-Laura Poyneer Alarming News-Karol Karen Alston Ann Althouse An Old Soul-Shari The Anchoress Annika's Journal Apophenia-Danah Boyd Athena at Terrorism Unveiled Sapere Aude-I Am the Hermit Available Light-Lynda B Ayn Clouter Backup Brain-Dori's half Baghdad Burning-Riverbend Baldilocks-Juliette Ochieng Banana Republican-Rachel Jurado Barbara's Tchatzkahs LaShawn Barber Betsy's Page-Betsy Newmark Bitch. Ph.D. Bittershack-Brooke Biggs Black Feminism-Tiffany Blaugustine Blog Amy Blog or Not Blog Sisters Blogslut BlondeSense Body and Soul- Jeanne Book of Days-Chris Bouillabaisse-Dianne Maire Danah Boyd-Lakoff-Language of Politics Martha Bridegam-Demisemiblog Breaching the Web Summer Brooks Burningbird Marla Caldwell Elisa Camahort-WorkerBeesB

AN AMERICAN TUNE Paul Simon Many's the time i've been mistaken And many times confused Yes, and often felt forsaken And certainly misused Oh, but i'm alright, i'm alright I'm just weary to my bones Still, you don't expect to be Bright and bon vivant So far a-way from home, so far away from home I don't know a soul who's not been battered I don't have a friend who feels at ease I don't know a dream that's not been shattered Or driven to its knees Oh, but it's alright, it's alright For we lived so well so long Still, when i think of the Road we're traveling on I wonder what's gone wrong I can't help it, i wonder what's gone wrong And i dreamed i was dying I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly And looking back down at me Smiled reassuringly And i dreamed i was flying And high up above my eyes could clearly see The statue of liberty Sailing away to sea And i dreamed i was flying We come on the ship they call the mayflow

Are Jews Smarter? by Jennifer Senior Did Jewish intelligence evolve in tandem with Jewish diseases as a result of discrimination in the ghettos of medieval Europe? That’s the premise of a controversial new study that has some preening and others plotzing. What genetic science can tell us—and what it can’t. This story begins, as it inevitably must, in the Old Country. At some point during the tenth century, a group of Jews abandoned the lush hills of Lucca, Italy, and—at the invitation of Charlemagne—headed for the severer climes of the Rhineland and Northern France. These Jews didn’t have a name for themselves, at first. They were tied together mostly by kinship. But ultimately, they became known as Ashkenazim, a variation on the Hebrew word for one of Noah’s grandsons. In some ways, life was good for the Jews in this strange new place. They’d been lured there on favorable terms, with promises of physical protection, peaceful travel, and the ability to adjudicate their own quarrels. (T