BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

...and I think its a good thing! by Hillary Clinton Marian Wright Edelman, my friend and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, says it best: "If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much." In my 35 years as an advocate for children and families, I have never met a child without potential. But I've met plenty of children growing up in extraordinary hardship and lacking the basic tools they need to succeed. Even in the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, 13 million children still live in poverty and 5 million live in extreme poverty. Too many children are expected to overcome these hurdles, become productive citizens, and compete in a modern global economy without the benefit of sound schooling, decent housing, proper nutrition, and adequate health care. This is not just an economic problem. It's a moral outrage. I've been working to better the lives of children for 35 years, and the future of America's children wi...

I posted quite a bit about the stigma of mental illness since the Virginia Tech tragedy and will do some more as the sentencing of the lunatic who brutally murdered my therapist comes. I will continue to the carry the banner of Paul Wellstone, of blessed memory, and those who seek to remove the shame of having a brain disease and to seek fair medical and social treatment for those who need it -- before we loose more valuable lives because we want to continue to stick our heads in the global sand. Here's Israel's take on the mental health crisis: By Amir Tal An amendment to the Planning and Construction Law that was submitted to the Knesset on December 18, 2006 proposes restricting "the establishment of hostels for protected persons, including people with mental disabilities and drug users, in any area zoned for residence." It would, among other measures, limit residences for protected persons to three per building, or restrict the "increase of protected persons...

Desires - the Engine of Change Rav Michael Laitman ReligionAndSpirituality.com Desires don't just pop out of the blue. They form unconsciously within us and surface only when they become something definable, such as " I want a pizza ." Before that, desires are either not felt, or at most, felt as general restlessness. We've all experienced that sense of wanting something but not quite knowing what it is. Well, it is a desire that has not yet ripened. Plato once said, " Necessity is the mother of invention ," and he was right. Similarly, Kabbalah teaches us that the only way we can learn anything is by first wanting to learn it. It's a very simple formula: When we want something, we do what it takes to get it. We make the time, muster the energy and develop the necessary skills. It turns out that the engine of change is desire. The way our desires evolve both defines and designs the entire history of humanity. As humankind's desires developed, they ur...

A 1939 Photograph of Peter Schiff Is Discovered, Ending a Decades-Old Mystery By MAEVA BAMBUCK On Jan. 6, 1944, Anne Frank wrote in her diary that her image of him was so vivid she didn't need a photograph to remember him. Indeed, more than 60 years later, no photograph had been found of Anne Frank's childhood sweetheart, leaving hundreds of readers around the world curious for a glimpse. But now, 81-year-old Earnst Michaelis has identified his dearest childhood friend, Peter Schiff, as the "Petel" or "Peter" from the diary & the mysterious boy who stole Anne Frank's heart. Despite "Anne Frank's Diary" becoming one of the world's most-read journals, selling an estimated 35 million copies, what Peter Schiff might have looked like was an enduring mystery. He met Anne Frank at school in Amsterdam in 1940, and they were inseparable for one summer. In her diary, Anne Frank affectionately called him "Petel," and she was '...

The first time I heard this song was a little over 4 years ago while I was in the hospital. Sorry to be like a teenager posting lyrics on my blog - but this is one of my favorite songs, Amy Lee has a great voice and it really does say it all about trauma, soul-rape & emotional pain and yes, PTSD. Hey, it is MY blog! by Evanesence I'm so tired of being here Suppressed by all my childish fears And if you have to leave I wish that you would just leave 'Cause your presence still lingers here And it won't leave me alone These wounds won't seem to heal This pain is just too real There's just too much that time cannot erase When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears And I held your hand through all of these years But you still have All of me You used to captivate me By your resonating mind Now I'm bound by the life you left behind Your face it haunts My once pleasant dreams Your voice it chased awa...

A cute little piece from commentator, pundit Rachel Maddow. Or, CLICK HERE to View

I am flabbergasted. I actually agree with Roseanne. Yeah, I'm shocked too. But this actually makes sense. (And, btw - my inside track told me Roseanne had a pretty hefty non-disclosure agreement for her employees too) by Roseanne Barr When I fly in an airplane I want the pilot with the most experience, not the one who can inspire hope in me that I get to where I am going. When I pay my taxes, I want the person filing them to be experienced, not the new person who inspires hope in me that he can do the job. When I hire someone to fix my washing machine, I want the tried and true experienced person, not the one who inspires me to hope that he can fix it. When I go to the doctor I do not want to get the one who inspires hope in me that s/he can cure what's wrong, but the one who knows what the hell to do the minute I call. It's not really the job of a public servant to inspire, but to get the job that the people demand done. The democrats think that if they have hope and ar...

Barack Hussein Obama troubles me deeply. What really troubles me is his lack of cohesive plans to help the ills of the U.S. and his cult-figure like sweep through the youth and ultra-liberal/ sick of Republicans people of the U.S. I am sick of the Neocons too but I also know, Obama ain't the answer - at least this election cycle. And unfortunately, the people of the United States and Superdelegates aren't engaging their brains but falling it lock step with the Cult of Obama. Scary. I am not quite sure who I am going to get behind but it ain't Obama, that's for sure. And I always say, if you want to know a man - check out his wife. Well, Michele Obama's Princeton thesis is now available... and it's verrrryyyy innnntterrrressttttingggg! Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide By: Jeffrey Ressner Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with ...

Truth or convenient excuse? Only Hasbro P.R. & Marketing knows for sure! A mid-level employee with Hasbro Inc. decided on her own to eliminate the word ''Israel'' after the name ''Jerusalem'' in an online contest to select names for a new, global Monopoly board game after pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers complained, the company said Thursday. Her decision sparked even more protests - this time from the other side - prompting the company to apologize a day later and pull all country names from cities listed on the site. ''It was a bad decision, one that we rectified relatively quickly,'' Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness said. ''This is a game. We never wanted to enter into any political debate. We apologize to our Monopoly fans.'' The issue has been a sensitive one for decades: Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem _ home to Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites _ in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. The...

Portugal rights long-standing wrong by launching virtual museum in honor of diplomat who helped save thousands of Jews during World War II and was consequently fired in disgrace by government Portugal made good Tuesday on a promise to help restore the reputation of one of its diplomats who saved thousands of Jews during World War II, only to be fired in disgrace by his neutral government over fears of angering Nazi Germany. Parliament Speaker Jaime Gama presided at the official launch of a website chronicling the life and work of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a career diplomat who died in poverty and obscurity more than 50 years ago. "This is a gratifying day," Gama said. "Aristides de Sousa Mendes is a symbol for us all." The government-sponsored virtual museum — a database of photographs, videos and historic documents — meets the family's demands for authorities to right a long-standing wrong, said one of the diplomat's grandchildren, Alvaro de Sousa Mendes. ...

by Kathy Krajco It seems to me that a malignant narcissist can't help his or her temptations, predatory urges. Maybe they are the fruit of a lifetime of twisted thinking and therefore the narcissist's own fault ultimately. Maybe not. For example, if you are addicted to heroin, your desire for it today is the end of a path you chose to take and never repented from. We should understand how strong your temptation is, and we have no right getting up on a moral high horse with respect to you, because we don't have to resist such a strong temptation. But that's where understanding ends. You COULD quit. Many people do! Look how many people quit smoking for the minor reason that it became politically incorrect. Millions quit drinking annually. Multitudes give up a drug habit. Often without treatment or any 12-step program. So your addiction is your fault. Moreover, if for the money to get your next hit of heroin you murder somebody for the cash in their wallet, your temp...

The adage that laughter is the best medicine has been backed by an unusual investigation which says that people who seethe with anger take longer to recover from injury. Previous studies have linked ill tempered behaviour, whether brow-beating or road rage, with higher incidence of coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke, especially among men. But the new study, published on Wednesday in the British journal Brain, Behaviour, Immunity, is the first controlled experiment that directly measures the impact of ire on the healing process. Researchers at the University of Ohio inflicted minor burns on the forearms of 98 volunteers who were then monitored over eight days to see how quickly the skin repaired itself. The subjects had each taken a battery of psychological tests beforehand to assess how easily and often they felt and expressed wrath, and were then ranked on an "anger scale." Persons who took certain pharmaceutical drugs, smoked cigarettes or drank excessive quant...

Looks like the New York Slimes is more than an anti-semitic mouthpiece. It's a bully who runs from big guns like the Neocons and beats up on nice guys like Israel. NY Times Holds Stories Because They're Afraid of Conservatives By Cenk Uygur The John McCain-Vicki Iseman story is not the first article the New York Times has held back for political reasons. They have now done this on at least three occasions: 1. The original FISA story on how the Bush administration was not getting warrants for wiretaps inside the United States. 2. The original story in 2004 that showed Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. 3. The McCain-Iseman story. We had James Risen, the writer of the first two stories on our show [1] back in 2005 and he admitted that they held the Bin Laden story until after the 2004 election because the New York Times didn't want to "get caught up in the politics of it." [2] Another way of stating that is that they were afraid of being calle...

By Frank J Ranelli Within weeks of the nation’s first postal service delivery, somebody must have uttered the now infamous and proverbial lie, “The check is in the mail”. Richard Nixon’s, “I am not a crook”, and Bill Clinton’s, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, all certainly conjure up images of famous falsehoods. George W. Bush’s, “Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program”, proved to be a toweringly tall tale. Have we become a nation of liars? Lying, it would seem these days, is fashionable. Sure, politicians have always lied, but with each passing generation, they lie more and the lies become larger. Have once stately statesmen, who now fib with every breath and word, become the replica for our own deceitful deeds? Is this finally the generation that embraces pious propaganda, haughty half-truths and marvelous mendacities as the measure of morality? Fibbing, it would seem, is no longer faux. Some have made a living off of lying in order to enlighten us with...

In 1995, when my Atypical M.S. became symptomatic I learned more about the disability process in the U.S. than I ever wanted to know. I had to fight for my benefits with little energy or support. I had to fight for a diagnosis and to prove empirically what my body was screaming to me. To this day, I am fighting for E.R.I.S.A. reform and disability fairness against one of the biggest lobbies in Washington, the Health Insurance Lobby - which has a stranglehood on the benefits & welfare of too many people in the U.S. who paid their premiums in good faith. In light of the murder of my beloved counselor, Kathryn Faughey, I remain undeterred - and in fact, reinvigorated. Those of you who still work, go ask for a copy of your policy from your Benefits Office. No, not the copy of the sanitized handbook they give you - a copy of the ACTUAL policy signed between your employer and their insurer. Don't stop asking until you get it - you are entitled by law to see it. Now ask yourse...

"What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man." — Hillel (ca. 50 BCE-10 CE) Are you for or against a blogging code of conduct and why? I am open to all arguments though I am leaning toward "for" a code of conduct right now. Though I have been accused of hate speech, I don't condone it, I don't condone lashon hara and I don't condone anything not backed up by fact. And even then it needs to be said tactfully or done for the right reasons. We live in a world of blog-voyeurs these days where anyone can say anything and pretty much get away with it. Ethics of Reciprocity are bent, twisted and spun to the needs of the verbal pornographer or harrasser, in my opinion What are your views? SOME RECENT STORIES I FEEL HIGHLIGHT THE NEED FOR A BLOGGING CODE OF CONDUCT: HARRASSED ONLINE! ORTHOMOM SUED BY GREENBAUM SET UP BY HER BOYFRIEND ON MATCH.COM DEATH THREATS AGAINST BLOGGERS NOT PROTECTED SPEECH CHEATER HUSBAND SETS UP GIRLFRIEND TO BE RAPED MAN CHARG...