BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Tonight went well. The kids raced through my lovingly made dinner to get to their costumes and start trick or treating. I feel they are still too young to go alone so I accompanied them. It's hard for me because in the small rural town I grew up in, I was the town pariah. I remember going out one Halloween and coming home with huge bruises and goose eggs - one over my eye, one on the back of my head and my costume covered with eggs. I was the town bully target at the time. I rarely left the house and spent a lot of time in my room, just like I do now. This morning, when I walked my kids to the school bus, overhead were 3 traffic copters. Probably reporting on the nearby Grand Central Parkway, LaGuardia Airport situation. One of the kids was fascinated, she said the copter noise made her feel safe. I am glad to know she doesn't remember 9/11 that well. I was hoping it didn't mean something bad had happened on the GCP or bode badly for the day. Along...

The New Right-Wing Smear Machine by CHRISTOPHER HAYES On February 27, 2001, two members of the American Gold Star Mothers, an organization of women who've lost sons or daughters in combat, dropped by the temporary basement offices of the new junior senator from New York, Hillary Clinton. They didn't have an appointment, and the office, which had been up and running for barely a month, was a bit discombobulated. The two women wanted to talk to the senator about a bill pending in the Senate that would provide annuities for the parents of those killed, but they were told that Clinton wasn't in the office and that the relevant staff members were otherwise engaged. The organization later submitted a formal request in writing for a meeting, which Clinton granted, meeting and posing for pictures with four members of the group. But the story doesn't end there. In May of that year, the right-wing website NewsMax, a clearinghouse for innuendo and rumor, ran a short item with the ...

THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE HIM AWAY! Since 2000, I have been telling people something is seriously wrong with George W. Bush. At first he just seemed stupid. A man running the country who can't string a coherent sentence together or conjugate a verb. Then he seemed narcissistic. Well, he still does. Dr. Justin Frank in BUSH ON THE COUCH would agree with me. My choice would be something on the Cluster B spectrum. Dr. Frank even goes so far as to say that Bush suffers from ADHD. I have an ADD child so frankly, I question that. While I am not a doctor, I think Bush suffers from carte blanche-itis, getting away with it and too much overgrown frat-boy who put a heck of a lot of liquor down his throat and probably white stuff up his nose. Can't you just see the guy leaning out of a pick-up truck with steer horn on the hood screaming "yeeeee haaaaawwww"? Even Laura's gone batty, though I can't see how she was supposed to hold it together married to The Shrub...

Why Those Who Love America Are Feeling Brokenhearted by Andrew Greeley I am ashamed for America. Note carefully that I do not say I am ashamed of America. Despite all its inherent flaws and all its tragic mistakes, the United States stands, however incompletely and with whatever imperfections, for the highest standards of freedom and democracy that the world has yet known. I am ashamed for America because all the evil done in the nation’s name in recent years is turning off the light on the mountaintop. 1. The president urges Congress in effect to accept the Turkish protest against the attribution of Armenian genocide because it might interfere with Turkish logistic cooperation in the ill-starred and foolish Iraq war. That’s like silencing all congressional action on the Holocaust because we need Germany on our side. If Turks expect to become part of Europe and the West, they must acknowledge what their ancestors did. They could pass a resolution of their own accusing us of genocide ...

INSTANT KARMA Let me be very clear that I am in NO WAY implying that PM Olmert deserved prostate cancer. I do believe that perhaps this illness is a wake up call. Hashem does that - send us little wake up calls all along the way in our lives. Sometimes our pure God-center (that part of us that is always connected to the Divine), I believe, sends them to us too. Sometimes we can be the wake-up call or 'accountability moment' for someone else. I've been reading about Olmert's antics for the last few months. I haven't blogged about it because I truly feel others at JBlogs have done a much better and thorough job. But I am disheartened. The trust of the people of Israel, I feel, has been slapped by Olmert - who seems content to give away pieces of Hashem's promise to the Jewish people to anyone who bullies him enough. Whatever it is I will pray for Mr. Olmert's healing. I will also pray that Hashem changes his heart about isses like the division of Je...

WRAP week sheds light on porn blight The 20th annual White Ribbons Against Pornography (WRAP) Week begins Sunday to raise awareness of the harmful affects of pornography. Concerned Women for America (CWA) joins the national campaign to provide opportunities to fight pornography and sexual addictions and call for a respect for sexual virtue. Wendy Wright, president of CWA, notes that "75 percent of convicted rapists admit they were acting out what they had seen in pornography, and 80 percent of child molesters admit their spiral down began with pornography." WRAP Week began in 1987 as a result of one woman, Norma Norris , who sought to sensitize the public to the magnitude of the pornography problem in everyday life. For one week, people are asked to wear or display a white ribbon in solidarity against pornography. The Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that the First Amendment does not protect "obscene material" (hardcore pornography). People can complain to busine...

WHO IS LILITH? Lilith is a character who appears in passing in the Talmud and in rabbinical folklore . She is a figure of evil, a female demon who seduces men and threatens babies and women in childbirth. She is described as having long hair and wings (Erub. 100b; Nid. 24b). It is said that she seizes men who sleep in a house alone, like a succubus (Shab. 151b). She is also mentioned in midrashim and kabbalistic works, in which she is considered to be the mother of demons. Her name probably comes from the Hebrew word for night (laila). She is similar to and probably based on a pagan demon named Lulu or Lilu that appears in Gilgamesh and other Sumerian and Babylonian folklore. In recent years, some women have tried to reinvent Lilith, turning her into a role model for women who do not accept male domination or a rival goddess to the traditions that they think are too male-biased. For example, a number of female musical artists participated a concert tour called "Lilith Fair" a...

But WHY Are Dem Leaders Such Timid Wimps? Since I was one, and in many ways agree with some of what Dems now have to say, I feel comfortable criticizing those who are political wet-noodles. GROW A SPINE!!! by Bernard Weiner When I was in Germany recently, addressing the Democrats Abroad chapter in Munich, most of us in the meeting hall were perplexed by the behavior of Democratic Party officials in Washington, D.C. What is behind those leaders' ongoing timidity that in some cases is making them enablers of the worst of CheneyBush policies, especially with regard to the Iraq Occupation, excessive presidential powers, and the trashing of the Constitution? With those topics in mind, let's spend a bit of time here trying to figure out the possible genesis of this Democratic wimpiness, and what can be done about it. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid appear to be saying: "Given our relatively slim margins in both the House and Senate, and Bush's newfound desire to us...

A DEADLY MIX I was privileged to read Constantine's Sword about 5 years ago and I highly recommend it!! It's now a movie and I hope to get to see it. For those of us who love history, politics and insightful writing - it's a must. American Exceptionalism Meets Team Jesus: Interview with James Carroll By Tom Engelhardt He's a man who knows something about the dangers of mixing religious fervor, war, and the crusading spirit, a subject he dealt with eloquently in his book Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews . A former Catholic priest turned antiwar activist in the Vietnam era, James Carroll also wrote a moving memoir about his relationship to his father, the founding director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. Carroll essentially grew up in that five-sided monument to American imperial power. For him, as a boy, the Pentagon was "the largest playhouse in the world" and he can still remember sliding down its ramps in his stocking fe...