BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

This study doesn't surprise me at all. There are far too many smart, independent, college-educated women in the workforce and public life these days for this not to be the case. Bullies always threaten what scares them. Usually its someone who is more competent, perhaps perceived as being smarter, and even people whistleblowers. And when you can't find some character flaw to pick on - pick on their gender. Bullies also hate truth tellers. Truth tellers must be eliminated, defamed and silenced at all cost! When I was working I had this happen to me more times than I could count. I would end up working for someone (sometimes another woman) when it became apparent they weren't as intelligent or intuitive as me. And if I tried to better my position, they'd pick on me as a woman. I've been called a lesbian, a castrator, a man-hater, overwrought female, and asked if I 'had PMS' because of a management decision someone else didn't agree with. I am going...

In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me — and by that time no one was left to speak up. - Pastor Martin Niemöller I am a disabled - woman - over 50. Three strikes? Are they coming for me? then you? Why everyone in the heath care fight—including Obama—plays on the anxieties of the elderly. By Christopher Beam First came the "birthers." Now, as President Obama makes a final push for health care reform, we have the deathers. Many senior citizens are concerned that health care reform would mean cuts to Medicare. That much was clear at a town-hall meeting hosted Tuesday by the American Association of Retired Persons at wh...

I hate, really really HATE reality shows. They show a complete and utter lack of imagination and encourage total Destructive Narcissism. The only one I enjoy is BIGGEST LOSER. I recently lost some weight and I have more to go, but it's being done with medical supervision because MY EATING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY WEIGHT. Let's just say 41 years of PCOS , numerous surgeries, disability and medication helped that. I am still taking care of myself, well dressed, my doctors have commented on how clean I keep myself and being a good role model for my kids. The only other 'reality-type' shows I enjoy are CLEAN HOUSE and my friend, RUBY . That's it. Most of the time it's CSI, Law & Order or Medium. Shows that ENGAGE YOUR BRAIN! Then reality TV has to screw it all up again! From Intellectual Babe It's weird - for whatever reason this particular week I became acutely aware of just how much out-and-out hatred is leveled at fat people. Or, at the very lea...

Before digesting the below, take a couple minutes to read Chaim's great post on "Obamacare" - Here. by Bronwyn's Harbor At the top of PBS’s latest Bill Moyers Journal , Moyers chose clips of the “usual suspects” opposed to Obama’s health care proposal - a Republican legislator shouting “socialism,” Glenn Beck, Michael Steele, and Bill Kristol, who worked to “drive a stake through” the heart of health care reform in 1993 and 2009. The problem with the GOP’s stock opposition language is that it inaccurately describes what’s really wrong with Obama’s plan, which enriches the profit-motivated private sector and strengthens its controls over policies, at the expense of average Americans forced to sign up. The real reason insurance companies brought back “Harry & Louise” ads: Obama’s plan rewards private health insurance companies with expanded enrollments but little reward for the Americans “mandated” (forced) to buy these plans. (See Paul Krugman’s blog post, “ Why m...

The Effect of Narcissism's Twisted Thinking on the Mind by Kathy Krajco Ideas don't just enter the mind and sit there, isolated. Information is an interesting word. It was a verb long before it acquired a noun form. "To inform" people meant to "in-form" their minds. To form, shape their minds with the ideas you fed them. Information does that. That's because the brain is essentially a biological computer. It's tremendously more sophisticated than any human-made computers we yet have, because it can learn and because it isn't limited to making a random choice whenever no other criteria direct the choice to be made. But we already have software that can learn, too. And the science of artificial intelligence is well on the road to doing astonishing things in the development of artificial "mind." No, you aren't going to see R2D2 rolling around the corner anytime soon, but something like that day is indeed coming. Yes, we are going to b...

AN OPEN LETTER TO JON STEWART by Ron Rosenbaum Dear Jon Stewart, You probably don't recall, but I was one of your earliest, most enthusiastic media admirers. I wrote a column nearly a decade ago, shortly after you took over The Daily Show, when you were still struggling for recognition of your genius, before the massive media love-in that took a while to develop. My column then took the form of an open letter to David Letterman, about how his show was getting tired and how he ought to get Jon Stewart to replace him. (I like open letters.) I talked about how much I loved the perfect pitch of your TV "newsmagazine" parodies but most of all how I was blown away by your astonishing quickness of wit, most evident in the unscripted interviews. I called you "an idiot savant" of comedy. (That was a compliment—ignore the idiot part, focus on the savant.) So please know I'm writing as an admirer, someone who thinks you have the courage as well as comedic smarts to tak...

In 1981, I applied for a U.S. Passport. I needed to get a copy of my birth certificate, which my mother gave me. However, it wasn't the one issued by the city and state of my birth - the only one she had was notification of my Baptism - just a couple weeks after I was born. Wait a second... nothing in my life has really ever been that simple... I wrote the Health Dept. of the city where I was born and obtained a State-Certified copy... along with a note... that my original birth certificate had not been 'stamped' (i.e. that the official seal of the State had not been embossed onto it) and that they had redone that for me. Now everything was all nice and legal. I looked into and found that the city of my birth had 'forgotten' to 'stamp' over 500 birth certificates the year I was born (a baby-boomer year)... so that means for over 20 years I wasn't official. However, I undertook every means to clear it up, make it official and subsequently - got my Pa...