BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

by Amy Siskind It's not been a particularly good press week for two well known misogynists: Rick Warren and Larry Summers. Both men were early selections of President Obama. If we are to judge our president by whom he surrounds himself with, then what do Obama's selections of Warren and Summers tell us? That Obama's version of diversity does not include gay and women's rights. And in fact, the selection of Warren and Summers will likely be a continual source of salt on the wound of inequality. President Obama's Inauguration was presided over by Rick Warren. Although Warren is perhaps best known for his opposition to gay rights, he also believes that women are second class citizens. Specifically, Warren's Saddleback Church has encouraged battered wives to stay in their abusive relationships. Hundreds of viewers wrote on our blog about their personal experiences at the hand of Rick Warren's church. Saddleback Church's advice to abused wives: "she...

I had a chance to participate in a mini-conference on victims of cybercrime recently. The over-riding complaint was the unwillingness and inability of police to take victims of cybercrime seriously. Particularly female victims; who are often portrayed as 'just women out for revenge.' Some of these women were subsequently physically attacked and only then did law enforcement take them seriously. Cybercrime is progressing faster than the law and the police know how to deal with it. So often rather than admit they 'don't know what to do' - police blow-off the victims. This is dangerous. I don't know what the solution is but if you're a victim of any crime, including cybercrime - go to the police and demand that they make a report. Ask to see the supervisor until you find someone willing to make a report and GIVE YOU A COPY OF THE REPORT. Maybe the shooter in Pittsburgh could have been stopped if someone had taken his online threats more seriously... IF Y...

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...

First - I believe Global Warming is real. WHY? Because I love to garden. And that puts me in direct contact with plants, growth cycles, the soil - and I can see FOR MYSELF what is happening because of changes in the weather. Second, I have talked a lot on this blog that I am obese. I recently learned that I have to have major surgery at the end of May for the removal of PCOS related growths that I have had for a number of years which have caused my belly to distend and make me appear fatter than I am. So there ARE reasons other than being a food addict for being fat. Third, all this fat-hatred , the 'better dead than fat' attitude of society and the centerfold syndrome that most males suffer from disgusts me. What ever happened to seeing a person as a PERSON? Not a body, or parts, or pictures, or words on a screen - a HUMAN BEING. To me, seeing someone as an object makes the beholder THE PROBLEM - not the person being judged and criticized. OBESITY, CAUSE OF GLOBAL W...

Obama's Charm Offensive and the Global Jihad By Jeff Jacoby EARLY IN HIS presidency, Jimmy Carter set about to a letter US policy toward the Soviet Union. Six days after his inauguration he sent a letter to Soviet ruler Leonid Brezhnev, hailing the two countries' "common efforts towards formation of a more peaceful, just, and humane world" and saluting Brezhnev's supposed "aspiration for strengthening and preserving. . . peace." In a commencement address at Notre Dame, he declared that Americans had shed their "inordinate fear of communism." In the months that followed, Carter slashed the defense budget, scrapped the B-1 bomber, welcomed the Sandinista coup in Nicaragua, and launched diplomatic relations with Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro. It wasn't until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 that Carter finally woke up to his naiveté. Moscow's brutal aggression "made a more dramatic change in my opinion of what the Soviets...

A must read in a series from Echidne of the Snakes' blog : ...Oh, With Gals, Too, Naturally. This is the second post in my series about the very simple and basic reasons why I became a feminist and why I still see lots of work for feminism. You can read the first post here. There will be more posts and they are not in any particular ranking by value of importance. This series differs from my usual writing style. I'm trying to let the immediate response come through and to use other parts of my mind and memory more than the analytical machine I mostly employ. I'm trying to view this planet from the outside, to ask questions about the taste of the water we drink and the color of the air we breathe. This is hard to do, because each and everyone of us is immersed in the systems in which we live and we don't see them as systems. Please remember that, especially if you start feeling that I'm accusing individual men or women of what I discuss here. Let us begin by looking ...

Why is it whenever a woman stands up, speaks out or speaks up she is hushed up by the 'powers that be' as quickly as possible? If that doesn't work her capabilities as a wife (i.e. Hillary Clinton) or mother (i.e. Sarah Palin) are called into question. (I have had that done to me - I won't link to it here but if you want to know you'll have to write me). No one would dare question a man's ability to be a father and a politician or advocate. Hmmm.... Another great post from another blogger I admire: Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy : Huh - I Guess It WAS Sexism After All… When Gov. Rendell made his obnoxious comment about Gov. Janet Napolitano. You may remember it from this Campbell Brown video: If you're on an aggregator - CLICK HERE For this video Well, despite his protestations to the contrary, when Gov. Rendell decided to endorse CHRIS MATTHEWS in his run for the 2010 US Senate run in PA, he pretty much sealed his own place in the Sexist Hall of Fame. I mea...

from the always AWESOME Uppity Woman : As the Grand Enabler takes office, here’s your Christmas present. CNN, you cavalierly report what you enabled more of as you participated in the celebration of escalating abuse and hatred of women during this election season. And don’t think you are safe from this yourself, Campbell. This is blood on your hands and on the hands of all women who take sexism and misogyny with a grain of salt. You didn’t fight the fight and you think your rights will always be there. You are Wrong. Those of us who Fought the Fight for you recognize all the signs. Your reward for your complacency and viciousness awaits all of you who do not want to See how little steps grow into bigger steps. You will recognize what you have done nothing about when you see it all slip away from you by degrees instead of from others who mean nothing to you. And those of us who incurred the battle scars for ungrateful you won’t lift a finger for you either. You gave it up. Soon y...