BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

KNOCK 3 TIMES ON THE STALL DOOR IF YOU WANT ME Come on! We all KNEW this was coming, right? Either this guy's really on someone's hit list or horror-of-horrors, he's a closeted man. Maybe its because I live in Sodom on the Hudson but what's so bad about being gay? But, Larry, the bathrooms at the airport? Gay escorts? Paying so no one would tell on you? The same guy as Rev. Ted Haggart? And Larry, couldn't you have found more savory ways to get your trim? Perhaps Larry's wife gave him a verbal beat down at home and has him a pretty short leash these days. Maybe Larry is in some sort of serious denial. I don't know. I do know where there's smoke there's fire. I know what its like finding out about someone you really care about and then having them deny and deny. And I know how awful going to the police about it all is too. And then of course, the person says whoever found out - in this case the Idaho Statesman newspaper - is scorned or on a w...

REVEREND, YOUR ACCOUNTABILITY MOMENT IS HERE My late mother was one of those people who clung to the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness and could be CURED. Even though science disproved this in her lifetime, she clung to it. Discomfort or her dogged dislike of change; I don't know why. She set up a number of 'blind dates' for me when I was busy with my career - every single one with an obviously gay man. Then she would rage at me about my gay friends, though I think she wanted to marry me off to the first breathing, carbon based life form and gay men weren't it. I wonder if she thought I could convert them? Though I had no intention of doing so. My brother and I have a friend who we both met in high school who is openly gay. He's also our family lawyer and works on GLBT issues in our state. My mother had problems with him being in the house when he was just my friend. When my brother befriended him though, she mellowed out without changing her sta...

SWEEPING UP THE FALWELL I have no love for religious extremists. I was raised staunchly Catholic and for a time in my teens, belonged to a local evangelical Christian group (there were no Jews where I grew up and whole lot of bad country music and shotguns). I wore my scapula even during college in the 70's, having been a pre-Vatican II kid. I have seen extreme Christianity, extreme Catholicism, extreme Fundamentalism and have no patience with it. Now - no patience with extremism in any faith. Maybe because I have always considered a relationship with the Almighty an extremely intimate and personal thing. Face it, God knows every single thing you do and think. God knows every skeleton in your closet by name and one day, you'll have to account for it all. You won't be able to bluff or finesse your way out of it. God is closer to you than your own skin. You are his creation. Your relationship to him is yours and God's alone. NO ONE has any right to tell you how t...

BUH-BYE REV. FALWELL I was going to write something about the deceased Jerry Falwell but then I stopped by one of my favorite sites, JSpot . Jeremy Burton did a much better job of sending off the Reverend so read it by CLICKING HERE: MOURNING JERRY FALWELL I wanted to try to say one nice thing about this guy but I couldn't think of anything except, he's dead. Have mercy on his soul, Hashem. He needs it. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

DON IMUS - A DISASTER BOUND TO HAPPEN I admit it, I have NEVER liked Don Imus. My friend from college Joe, used to swear up and down to me how great he was. I gave him a few chances on Joe's recommendation and I got such bad vibes from this guy. He just oozed misogyny and racism to me. I am pretty liberal about everything but this guy? No class - and I can't deal with crude people. Sorry. Yeah I know - I am a huge Howard Stern fan. But Howard for some reason, comes off to me as a guy who's just being honest about how a lot of men think of women. He's funny and he actually respects women - a bit too much LOL - in my opinion. (And no, I have no intention of going to Sirius and riding the sybian.) I could listen to Howard riff on the news all day. Even when I don't agree with him - he makes me laugh. A lot. Howard is no Imus. Baruch Hashem. Now Al Sharpton... well, calling for Imus' outster - o.k. I can see that. But Sharpton is so full of himself it ...