BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

There is a reason why you are asked in court to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It is because most of the time that is not what people do. Everyone lies sometime. There are many reasons to lie. Sometimes it is to not hurt someone's feelings. Sometimes a lie is for our own advantage. Some people lie in conducting business and in their personal lives. Most adults are aware of when they lie. Young children sometimes have problems telling fantasy from reality. When a 3-year-old insists that he flew to Mars this morning, he may not be lying on purpose. He may not even be aware that it is a lie. Children with good imaginations often take longer to learn what a lie really is. It is important to work with children to teach them about fantasy and reality, instead of punishing them for these kinds of beliefs. A pathological liar believes in the lies, at least at the time that she or he is talking. Their stories tend to be very dramatic. They often portray the ...

"Get over it", "It can't be that bad", "move on", "its all in your head", "you're nuts", "I would hope you've gotten past this by now", "just don't think about it", "you're like a broken record"... I've heard it all. Most chronically, invisibly disabled people have heard it. As if we could just make it all go away with willpower. Unfortunately for some of us, being Type A Personalities and using force of will helped put us in the positions we are now. People like me spend a lion's share of their day dealing with their symptoms and managing pain. Aside from the enormous amount of time I owe & dedicate to my children, my disability demands to be next on my list and won't take "NO" for any answer. I used to have a wonderful social life - but disability isolated me. Most of my friends now are people I have met online with whom I have a common bond. Thos...

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...

From RealClearPolitics.com By Rich Lowry on July 8, 2008: "A signature moment of Barack Obama's primary campaign came last November in Des Moines, Iowa. He gave a speech at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner that electrified the crowd and gave his campaign a kick that helped win the Iowa caucuses -- a victory without which he wouldn't be the Democratic nominee. Obama declared that "the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won't do." Deploring "triangulating and poll-driven positions," he said that "telling the American people what we think they want to hear instead of telling the American people what they need to hear just won't do." The Democratic Party had been at its best, he told the crowd, when "we led, not by polls, but by principles; not by calculation, but by conviction." "I run for the presidency of the United States of America because that's the party America needs us to be right now," he vowed, staki...

Make a Promise For generations, the Jewish people have fought bravely to end injustices inflicted on us by others. But we have also remained silent about the injustice of violence we inflict on each other. The ethical teachings of our tradition insist on certain values: B'tzelem Elokim, all human beings are created in the image of the divine; Shalom Bayit, safety and peace in the home; Tzedek, justice and accountability; Hesed and Rahamim, loving-kindness and compassion; and Teshuvah and Tikkun olam, healing and wholeness, on individual, communal and universal levels. And yet, domestic abuse remains a very real problem in the Jewish community. We call upon one other and all of the Jewish community to: Replace fear with courage by acknowledging that domestic violence does exist in the Jewish community. HEAR and BELIEVE those brave victims/ survivors who come forward with their stories. Think twice about those who accuse someone of Loshan Hara; are they an abuser who's really...