BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

THE PA IS NEVER READY TO MAKE NICE How many times in just the last couple weeks has the clue phone rung and our leaders are deaf to it? I am fairly liberal but when the evidence is right in my face - the hard cold evidence - how ignorant can someone be? How can Israel continue to be smeared when the evidence of the need for them to defend themselves and for the U.S. to get behind their efforts 110% is right there out of the PA's own mouth? Here it is again - the PA calling not only for the destruction of all Jews... but AMERICANS too. How many times are we going to "talk" to people who have us in their crosshairs? They aren't walking the walk. So Condi, Nancy and all my other lefty friends - this is one place we can't be a bleeding heart. Its one thing to have compassion and understanding but when concrete evidence that someone's trying to kill us is right there, how can you be so blind? Would you put your child in front of a rabid, aggressive dog? W

HE'S OUT - BUT THANK GOODNESS HE'S ON THE LEFT COAST! The guy is the same age as me and can't seem to grow up long enough to stay away from underage girls, prostitutes, guns, insurance fraud, ammunition and other stuff that might sound fun when you're 11. He did time for statutory rape, Baruch Hashem. He denied everything (typical). Grow up Joey! Unless you feel like joining that other paragon of honesty and manhood - Scott Peterson . Let's just hope, ladies - he didn't learn new tricks in jail. Let's really hope. And if you have a daughter under the age of 23 - make sure she reads this: SAN FERNANDO, Calif. -- Joey Buttafuoco, whose 17-year-old lover shot his wife in the face more than a decade ago, was released from jail after serving three months for illegally possessing ammunition, authorities said. Buttafuoco, 50, walked out of Los Angeles County Jail just before 9 a.m. Saturday, according to the Sheriff's Department Web site. His release was

OOPS! THERE IT IS!! One of the hardest, nearly impossible thing for these failed politicans to do? Admit failure. Oh they will say things to the effect: the information I got was faulty, I made an error in judgement and so on. We have all heard it before. But one thing I tell the women I counsel is that to truly take ownership for their mistakes and failures - people must never ever include the word (actual or implied) "BUT. " BUT is an obvious sign that they are about to project and blame-shift their failures, mistakes, errors or abuse onto someone or something else. Yes, there are reasons that these mistakes are made - most of them being human error. However, a true adult and true teshuva involves NO BUTS. Olmert is backed into a corner... let's just hope he makes the right decision this time. If past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior? He needs to step down and make room for someone more capable than he has shown himself to be. CALLS FOR OLMERT TO

HEZBOLLAH CRIES VICTIM - BUT THEY ARE THE ABUSERS One thing I have come to understand in the last 2 1/2 years I have been doing Domestic Violence advocacy work is how abusers operate and think. One thing they do is create their own "reality" and heaven help you if you know the truth or have the 'goods' on them. The first thing they do if you know them for who they really are - is blame shift and project: "it's their fault too", "they are abusing me", "they did it too", "never happened" and one of the all time favorites - "No, I AM THE VICTIM HERE." And that's what Hezbollah and their ilk are doing. Crying victim. Putting up a poster to say "we did this because Israel hates us and we HAD to do it." And the more Israel digs in its heels (just like victims in every day life) and refuses to buy the bull and stand its ground - the more Hezbollah will escalate. The Condis, Pelosis and U.N. naysayers o

Instability, Chaos, Violence Born of Unstable, Irresponsible, and Dangerous Leaders In light of current events I felt these to articles went together... like peas in an 'article' pod. And one of the most profound quotes I have read recently is in the second article. It refers to physical wounds but I know for a fact it applies to mental & emotional wounds as well: Your body forms a cocoon, so it will always be part of you, but it won't hurt. Yes, whatever has happened to us and to them - will always be a part of all of us. by Christopher Brauchli Blessings are upon the head of the just; but violence Covereth the mouth of the wicked. -The Proverbs In his April 21 radio address to the nation (inspired by the violence at Virginia Tech earlier in the week) George Bush announced that he has directed federal officials to conduct a national inquiry into how to prevent violence by dangerously unstable people. It is a worthy endeavor. The news from Darfur (as well as

Global Darfur Day As those closest to this issue work hard to try to stop the horrors happening in Darfur there are also those who are trying to help "clean up" the physical and emotional scars left there. Let us continue to pray for the healing of Darfur. American-Jewish group treats trauma in Chad refugee camp : Trying to ensure 'Never again' By Assaf Uni Goz Amir/Goz Beida, CHAD - When Mohammad Yihya Ahmad, 15, draws the moment the Janjaweed raided his village he cannot help giving the attack a different, better ending. He shows two figures - a boy holding a large dog, and an elderly handicapped man - against the backdrop of the Janjaweed as black shadows, shooting in all directions. "Just when the Janjaweed arrive," the boy says, "the boy lets his dog go and manages to find an old man and save him." "Did you have a dog?" we ask him. "Yes," he says. "Was your father paralyzed?" "Yes." "Did someone ma

Disability Blog Carnival #13: What Box? Disability Blog Carnival #13: What Box? is up and can be read by clicking HERE Ballastexistenz did a great job! And a great analogy for those of us who are disabled and live, quite literally at times, in a "box" created by our limitations.

For God’s Sake One of the reasons I blog is to vent. Yes, I will admit it - to VENT. And one of the biggest boils on the face of American culture and politics is THEOCRACY and THE RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT (emphasis on RADICAL). Extremism is bad in my opinion. It precludes anyone else from having a difference of opinion. And I feel its just a hop, skip & small jump to ANY differences - different religion, different sect or division of religion, different skin color, different sexual orientation - all things that are neither our business nor our call. Hashem's garden has many many different flowers, and was made to be that way for a reason. The Radical Christian Right's infiltration via the Bush Administration is deeply troubling. They won't stop with Bush either. A spiritual leader is one thing but a leader who wants to homogenize all Americans into Bible thumping Christians - that's scary. I don't shove my beliefs down anyone's throat. In fact,

Parshat Acharei-Kedoshim ------------------------ Responsibility for Others "Do not stand by the blood of your neighbor", states the Torah in the second section of the double Parshah [4]. This command appears among a number of laws which are all fundamentally important in our lives as human beings and as Jews. We are responsible for each other. If someone has fallen into serious difficulty, we have to try to rescue him or her. Rashi gives the example of a person drowning, or being attacked by a wild animal or by bandits. To attempt to save the person in such a situation involves danger and risk. Despite this, if we feel that we could be successful we have to take that risk in order to help another person. For that person was created in the image of the Divine. If one succeeds in saving that one individual, the Sages say it is as if one has saved the entire world [5]. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

HELP PASS THE WELLSTONE BILL FOR MENTAL HEALTH PARITY What is the Wellstone Bill? The bill we now refer to as the Wellstone bill is one that Paul Wellstone championed for years in the U.S. Senate. The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act is legislation that would end the practice of insurance companies discriminating against people suffering from mental illness. Sponsored by Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Wellstone's friend Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), the bill would compel insurance companies to treat mental illness the same as physical illness, given the overwhelming scientific evidence that mental illness is a disease every bit as real and serious as physical illness. This practice is often referred to as "mental health parity." Wellstone worked on mental health illnesses extensively in the Senate, and collaborated for a decade with his colleague Senator Pete Domenici (R-MN) on parity legislation. Despite differing political views, t

The New German Nazism I'm not Jewish. No one in my family died in the Holocaust. For me, anti-Semitism has always been one of those phenomena that doesn't really register on my radar, like tribal genocide in Rwanda, a horrible thing that happens to someone else. But I live in a small town outside of Munich on a street that until May of 1945 was named Adolf Hitler Strasse. I work in Munich, a pleasant metropolitan city of a little over a million inhabitants whose Bavarian charm tends to obscure the fact that this city was the birthplace and capital of the Nazi movement. Every day when I go to work I pass by the sites of apartments Hitler lived in, extant buildings in which decisions were made to murder millions of innocent people, and plazas in which book burnings took place, SS troops paraded and people were executed. The proximity to evil has a way of concentrating one's attention, of putting a physical reality to the textbook narratives of the horrors perpetrated

What Jewish Book Changed Your Life? For me it was two books, years apart. First THE CHOSEN - which was required reading for my advanced English Literature & Writing class in High School (I got my B.A. in English Lit and Writing Arts). I have always been a voracious reader - even my bedroom is full of books at various stages of being read. That book was my first glimpse at Judaism and Jewish Culture. I was unaware at the time, that my great grandfather was probably Jewish and that my mother's family took great care to hide the fact despite the Yiddish terms that peppered my Nana's vocabulary. Where we lived was a very Bible Thumping area of Central New York and Jews were Christ Killers and Money Lenders. I went to college 2 years later and learned that guess what? They looked just like everyone else! (for the most part). THE CHOSEN fascinated me and I re-read the book 3 times. The second, and most recent, was THE RED TENT. I read it 5 years ago when my crumbling marri

My Long March in the Yid Army (posting this for my beloved Jewish friend in England - a country I never tire of visting - who along with all Jews in the U.K. need our support more than ever in the current political climate in that country. About the Tottenham Hotspur and Jewish identity) By JONATHAN WILSON Tottenham Hotspur, the North London English Premier League football—that’s “soccer” to you—team that I have supported body and soul through five decades of glory and abject misery, also go under another name: the Yids. This wasn’t always the case, and let me say at the outset that the nickname is not derogatory, or, rather, it isn’t only derogatory, but also celebratory. But let me backtrack before I explain. The Jewish population of Greater London, currently estimated at 283,000, has, since the Second World War, largely been concentrated in North West London, a shift away from both the East End, where the community has its origins, and North London, first stop on the move o