BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

(a powerful piece for and about women... everywhere) by Michele Toomey, PhD They said not a word, yet their deafening silence blocked out any sound. They did not stir, but their immobility stopped all movement. They were invisible, but in their view, nothing could be seen. They were the shamed. Piled each on top of each. They lay there face to face. A fitting way for shamed and shame to meet. Across the continents they reached. They covered all the earth. Their suffocating presence sucking out all the air. No one could breathe. No one could move. Life stopped and time stood still. Only their mind's eye could look. Only their inner voice could speak. But what to see or what to say? Better to stay asleep. For years they slept and never moved, frozen in time and space. For years their blank forgetfulness hid them from the shame. Exposure could not catch them as long as they weren't awake. Who would desire to know such shame? Better to stay asleep. Years passed and buried them in t...

from the astute and on-point Deadenders: Here’s a guest post by Out of Hand Mary to tide you over till I get pissed off at something besides the driver in front of us. As deadenders has told us many times, “Both parties suck.” I certainly can’t argue with that. But, as Uppity Woman told us disenfranchised Dems after May 31, 2008, when many wanted to run Hillary on a third party ticket, there has never been a successful third-party bid for the White House. And that includes Theodore Roosevelt even after he’d already been president and ran on the Bullmoose Party.. Further, there is no national Independent Party. “Independent” designates something different in CA than it does in NY or FL. There is no Constitution Party. There is no We The People Party. And there is no national Woman’s Party. Maybe we can make these parties a reality in the future, but establishing a new political party takes tons more time and money than we have now. With obama and his Congress, our backs are up again...

Stop the presses!! Didn't Chimpy just give a brilliant speech (written for him of course - kudos to the writer!) about appeasement on the floor of the Knesset? (yes don't faint, readers - his speech was brilliant and yes I mean President Bush) And its less than 48 hours? and he turns around and APPEASES the very entities attempting to annihilate Israel? He is living on opposite planet isn't he? US President George W. Bush on Saturday pledged to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas that he was determined to help achieve the "dream" of establishing an independent Palestinian state. "I commit to you once again that my government will help achieve a dream, a dream that you have, and the truth of matter is, a dream that the Israelis have, which is two states (Israel and Palestine) living side by side in peace," Bush told Abbas. Earlier Bush told reporters he was confident about a Middle East peace deal being reached before his term ends in January. Bush was spea...

WHO IS LILITH? Lilith is a character who appears in passing in the Talmud and in rabbinical folklore . She is a figure of evil, a female demon who seduces men and threatens babies and women in childbirth. She is described as having long hair and wings (Erub. 100b; Nid. 24b). It is said that she seizes men who sleep in a house alone, like a succubus (Shab. 151b). She is also mentioned in midrashim and kabbalistic works, in which she is considered to be the mother of demons. Her name probably comes from the Hebrew word for night (laila). She is similar to and probably based on a pagan demon named Lulu or Lilu that appears in Gilgamesh and other Sumerian and Babylonian folklore. In recent years, some women have tried to reinvent Lilith, turning her into a role model for women who do not accept male domination or a rival goddess to the traditions that they think are too male-biased. For example, a number of female musical artists participated a concert tour called "Lilith Fair" a...