BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

CHRISTIAN NATION... OF IGNORANCE With a presidential election coming in about a year, there's been much chatter in the blogosphere about the candidates. Some even on this blog. I have lamented with other bloggers that there are no real leaders anywhere in either party. To me, it all seems very homogenized. I love politics and history. Always have. My late mother, however, would draw me into a political discussion with her other adult friends then chastize me severely for having strong opinions as well being able to argue point for point with her friends. She didn't like it and made me believe I was being 'uppity.' My trauma counselors believe she was jealous. I learned to keep my mouth closed and just shut down that part of me until recently. Another family member is a big politics-junkie too. And that got me going again as well as into blogging in 2003. Additionally, if I hadn't been so good with English Literature and Writing in undergrad school, I wou...

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...

STUPID IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Does anyone know of any statement issued by Orthodox or Conservative leadership condemning Rabbi Eliyahu's statement? Remember, Rabbi Eliyahu is the former chief Rabbi of Israel. This is the same guy who said that God sent Hurricane Katrina because the people of New Orleans didn't study Torah enough. He was asked if he knew that the population of New Orleans was primarily black and non-Jewish, he said that was exactly what he meant. Oy! I'm truly ashamed. Reform files complaint against former chief rabbi by Neta Sela Movement files complaint with police against former Chief Rabbi Eliyahu, who said in radio interview establishment of Reform Judaism in Germany angered God, prompted Holocaust Members of the Reform movement, including Holocaust survivors, filed a complaint for libel with the police against former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Wednesday, following his statements linking the Reform movement and the Holocaust. In a radio int...