BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

My counselors and therapists told me this over and over and over 7 years ago: DON'T KEEP TOXIC SECRETS I fought and argued with them repeatedly about this for a good 18 months or more, until the stark truth came to me. They were right. Secret keeping is TOXIC. I am not talking about privacy here. Things like your personal information, your intimate life and so on aren't this topic. This is about things that people try to shut you up about. Or things that you learned to be in active denial or 'cognitive dissonance' about. I went on many spiritual learning quests over the last 15 years or so. I have been twice to Sedona, Arizona for meditation and retreats. I've seen healers and spiritual teachers. I went to lectures at the Kabbalah Center. Lectures at the Open Center. While each and every one of these experiences was restorative and instructional, not one touched on the sickness that was eating away at my (and many other people's) personal founda...

... Do It Only Out of LOVE The commandment to rebuke one another teaches the importance of mutual responsibility. by Rabbi Avraham Fischer Morality is not enough. As important as it is to build an ethical society in which no harm is tolerated, the Torah sets a higher standard: to create a holy society. Among the many mitzvot (commandments) in this part of Vayikra [Leviticus], the book of the sanctified society, we find: You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your friend, and you shall not bear sin upon him (Vayikra 19:17). Here, we are taught about the importance of mutual responsibility. In the sanctified society, each individual has a personal interest that everyone aspires to holiness. This sometimes requires constructive criticism. Many of the classic commentaries analyze the flow of ideas in this verse. Rashbam (Samuel ben Meir, 12th-century France), for example, says: If you feel wronged by him, do not pretend to love him. Correct him, rather than ...

OSAMA SAYS: "QUIT AFGHAN WAR", BARBARA SAYS: "SCREW YOU, OSAMA!" You know what I would take away from this? That the U.S. and our allies should not only get out of Iraq, but go BACK to Afghanistan and start STRAFING THE PLACE 24/7!! Whine away, Bin Laden. Bush may have forgotten but the people of NYC have NOT! Afghanistan, if you know what's good for you - drive this piece of pond scum out of your country before we do it for you! Europe - help us get rid of this sick **** once and for all. And his 'flying monkeys' too. And make sure there's a big ole' Magen David on the bombs you drop too. (Pardon my very unladylike talk as well. - Barbara) Al-Qaida chief: Nation shouldn't be punished for sheltering me after 9/11 Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on the Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast Thursday on Al-Jazeera television. Bin Laden said it was unj...