BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

NONE SO BLIND... The piece below is pure satire ( just in case after reading it, it wasn't obvious to you. ) But it does lampoon something that is pure stupidity. The U.S. thinking that being so politically correct to Islamofascists is going to make them play nice. I posted an article here the other day about the Sickness Inside an Abusive Marriage. It was right on point. Believe me. I've lived it. Not just with my ex but with friends and guys I dated for a nano-second. At first everything is hunky dory. They may even actually care about you for a second. Then they get tired, bored or just plain cruel and nothing you say or do is right. Nothing you try is enough for them. NOTHING. Everything you say and do is wrong. You are wrong for breathing and you are even MORE wrong for having feelings. They should be able to tap dance all over you with stilletos and you should get up and smile about it. They blame you for everything from global warming to telling you the p

The Stone of 'Amaleq and Hatred in the Arab World Written by Ruvy in Jerusalem (from a great site - Blogcritics - worth giving it some space on my blog) When I was still a university student thirty-six years ago, I lived in the North Bronx in an apartment covered with a giant Israeli flag on one wall, and a huge map of the country on the other. My fellow roommates and I dreamt of moving to a kibbutz in the Arava valley, known today as Yotvata. We immersed ourselves in the politics of the country and of the region as much as we were able with the books and radio broadcasts available and discussed the security of the country, and what it needed to do to make it truly secure, and how the Arabs could possibly defeat the country. While we ate Halvah bought in Arab stores on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, we conjured up scenarios that Anwar el-Sadat could use in attacking Israel and posssibly defeating it. Scenarios in hand, we tried to figure out counter-strategies that would stop him...

Women protest plan to expand power of rabbinical courts During a recent trip to one of the conferences held across the U.S. and Canada recently on tackling domestic violence, I had an interesting dialogue with some Jewish women about the problem of Agunah - or "a chained woman." It came down to some feeling that the male-dominated religious leaders in Judaism were furthering the abuse by invalidating the women asking to leave the marriage. Almost all said rabbis they knew would minimize the man's abuse or cheating and tell the women they had to stay & "work it out." Of course it only got worse. The answer to this problem lies in our leadership taking a hard, long and honest look at the needs of these women. Keeping the family together is good - but not when one member puts their needs above the family or has a personality disorder that is making that impossible. Indeed, it hurts the family more when a civil break would help heal wounds and restore sanit

SADNESS & SMARTS HOLD HANDS I read this and thought, I am far from being a genius - but still in all, I do see its validity. Besides, now that I am Jewish doesn't that automatically send my I.Q. up by 10 points? DEPRESSION AND INTELLIGENCE Over the millennia, the human mind became increasingly self-analytical. We, as human beings, became accustomed to sitting around and just thinking about things. We could plan our aggression, for instance, perhaps delaying it to a later time. Or, in situations where we had to submit, we could sit around and brood and worry. We could wish evil things on our opponents, and increasingly, heap scorn and ridicule on ourselves for our weakness. So what was happening? We were taking something that was formerly very behavior-oriented, very action-oriented, and starting to intellectualize it. Whereas thousands of years ago we spent little time analyzing our problems usually because we were too busy with the problems of mere survival we eventually beg

AN APPEAL FOR TRUTH The Cry of a Wolf By Monica Benderman We can say with little doubt that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were part of a greater conspiracy to strike fear in the hearts and minds of the American public; enough fear to set off a reaction of anger and rage which was destined to initiate a war we had no business fighting. We can say with little doubt that it was a group of terrorists who established the organization which planned and executed an attack on our country leaving over 3,000 American civilians dead, thousands more seriously injured and divided this country in ways we could not see coming. We can say with little doubt that the acts of terror continue, both on our soil and against American citizens now wearing our nation’s uniform in countries half a world away. We can say with little doubt that the acts of terror were like a universal fuse for the grand finale of a massive fireworks display, setting off a reactionary anger which began with sparks over a tiny

INFLAMMATORY BREAST CANCER IN SUPPORT OF WHYMOMMY Calling all moms, bloggers and people who care! Tehillim and good wishes request for WhyMommy, a young mother recently diagnosed and battling Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Click here to read more from WhyMommy about her fight. More on Inflammatory Breast Cancer: What is Inflammatory Breast Cancer? INFLAMMATORY BREAST CANCER (IBC) is an advanced and accelerated form of breast cancer usually not detected by mammograms or ultrasounds. Inflammatory breast cancer requires immediate aggressive treatment with chemotherapy prior to surgery and is treated differently than more common types of breast cancer. One or more of the following are Typical Symptoms of IBC: Swelling, usually sudden, sometimes a cup size in a few days Itching Pink, red, or dark colored area (called erythema) sometimes with texture similar to the skin of an orange (called peau d'orange) Ridges and thickened areas of the skin What appears to be a bruise

OVERHEARD IN... (SITE FINDS) It's nice to share, especially if you need a good laugh OVERHEARD IN THE OFFICE ONE SAMPLING: Coworker angrily hanging up: Geez! What is wrong with these customers?! I'm trying to watch a colo-rectal comedy on UTUBE! 2600 Van Buren Street, Norman, Oklahoma OVERHEARD IN NEW YORK Overheard in New York PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

THE ANN COULTER TRAIN WRECK This week while I was waiting for my muscle conductivity pain test to start (don't ask - let's just say it involved needles, electrodes and me yelling "stop!! AAARRRRRGGGG!!!") I picked up the paper and read Ann Coulter. Oh there's plenty of female train wrecks in the news. Brittney Spears and Lindsey Lohan. There's the Deborah "How many politicos paid my escort service for sex countdown" Paltrey. There's Victoria Beckham, who'd look a lot sexier if she wore an outfit that actually had a bottom-half. Rosie O'Donnell can't seem to keep her mouth shut long enough for the oxygen to return to the planet. Hillary gave Obama a smack-down at the debates. The list goes on and on. Why are people still listening to Coulter? She looks like Skeletor with big boobs. She's nasty and foul-mouthed. She's a hypocrite and a shill for the neo-cons. When her ex-boyfriend, Bob Guccione, Jr. told the world the

BE AN ANGEL TO A SOLDIER As I have said many times on this blog, whether or not you agree with the War - our men & women in the military deserve and need our support. To that end I am sharing a great site that has a variety of ways you can support our soldiers while they are serving our great country: Soldiers' Angels was started by a self-described ordinary mother of an ordinary young man turned hero, Sgt. Brandon Varn. Brandon was deployed in Iraq and has since honorably completed his mission and has returned back to his proud and loving family. In the summer of 2003, he wrote home expressing his concern that some soldiers did not receive any mail or support from home. Being a caring and loving mother, she decided not to allow a situation like that to continue. She contacted a few friends and extended family to ask if they would write to a soldier or two. Within a few short months, Soldiers' Angels went from a mother writing a few extra letters to an Internet Community

YOU MEAN, I'M NOT THE ONLY PRO-ISRAEL LEFTY? I actually read this in THE FORWARD with some relief. I knew of only one other left learning Jew who is also pro-Israel. Herewith, the letter, answered by the inestimable Alan Dershowitz: Dear Prof. Dershowitz, I am a very politically liberal Jew. However, I find great discomfort with liberal activist organizations when it comes to Israel. Their messages are frequently strident and are often indistinguishable between being anti-Israel and antisemitic . Equally problematic is finding myself in the camp of the neo-cons and other right-wing groups in their support of Israel. Is there no place for a liberal Jew who supports Israel? LONELY LIBERAL Alan Dershowitz replies: I, too, am a politically liberal Jew who supports Israel, though I am critical of some of its policies (as I am of some policies of every country). You are absolutely right that the hard left has made it politically incorrect to show any support for Israel. Indee

CARNIVAL AGAINST CHILD ABUSE Summer, over at Wired For Noise did a great job . Carnivals are a lot of work and those who do them regularly are to be applauded. Summer's i ncluded some terrific posts (including mine) so go g ive her a read and pass it on! PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

B"H Fragments --------- We are all fragments of greater souls, and those souls fragments of even more lofty ones, and so on with those--until we all link back to the one primordial soul: The soul of Adam. None of us is complete. No one can stand on his or her own. What one is lacking the other fulfills, where one excels, another is wanting. Only together can we find oneness in our own selves. Only together can we be a fit vessel for the One Above to be revealed. True Love --------- The souls are all one. Only the bodies divide us. Therefore , one who places the body before the spirit can never experience true love or friendship . PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

ED KOCH SEES THE LIGHT! Unfortunately it may just be a flashlight held by Tom (sociopathic pundit) Friedman. "Highly regarded?" By who, Ed? Garbagemen and Flat Earth sychophants? But he gets the rest of it right!! Good job, Ed! I'm Done Defending the Iraq Policy By Ed Koch I'm bailing out. I will no longer defend the policy of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq to assist the Iraqi central government in the ongoing civil war. While our men and women in the military suffer casualties daily, the Iraqi government refuses to take the major political actions required to end the civil war. The U.S. government told the Iraqi leaders that it needed to achieve 18 goals. Our administration's recent report to the U.S. Congress on how close the Iraqis have come to achieving those goals states that eight have been achieved, no progress has been made on eight others, and two have had mixed results. With regard to the most important goals, which include bringing the Sunni population

CONDI RICE? COME ON DOWN! Now that Bob Barker is leaving THE PRICE IS RIGHT, maybe Condi wants his job? She'll be free in another year or so... Wait! Occupation? Who is occupying who here? And if Condi gets this one does she get free gas for a year from her Arab buddies? It is with some relief and a lot of anger that I am watching the Bush Administration finally show its true colors. Relief because I have been saying this and sticking to my guns about this since 2000! Angry because despite the facts that the American people (their EMPLOYERS!) have shown the Bushites that they are not happy with what's going on, people like Condi just keep doling out the Neocon-Kool-Aid view of things. In this case its Israel. But, there is no Palestine! Why are we giving MORE land to people who want the Jews dead and annihiliated? Do you feed a rabid dog and invite it to play with your children. You mean Bush just said all those things about standing by Israel to get votes? You mean,

The Deniers’ Club What good is the bipartisan commission’s new, last-ditch plan for Iraq if President Bush still has his heart set on victory? One big reason so much of the debate over the war has been reduced to semantics—civil war versus sectarian violence, benchmarks versus timelines versus milestones, withdrawal versus redeployment versus “speeding transfer” to the Iraqis—is that it’s easier to bicker about the meaning of words than it is to argue with conviction for a particular course of action in Iraq. General Abizaid, the U.S. commander for the Middle East, says we can neither decrease nor significantly increase troop levels. The incoming secretary of Defense conceded last week that we aren’t winning—his most positive spin was that we’re “not losing,” either. There are no attractive policy options, a fact that Americans understand: Only small minorities think we ought to pull out right away (16 percent) or send more troops (17 percent). We know we owe it to the Iraqis to keep t