BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

WHEREAS, the freedom to read is essential to our democracy, and reading is among our greatest freedoms; and WHEREAS, privacy is essential to the exercise of that freedom, and the right to privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one's interest examined or scrutinized by others; and WHEREAS, the freedom to read is protected by our Constitution; and WHEREAS some individuals, groups, and public authorities work to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries of materials reflecting the diversity of society; and WHEREAS, both governmental intimidation and the fear of censorship cause authors who seek to avoid controversy to practice self-censorship, thus limiting our access to new ideas; and WHEREAS, every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilienc...

AWWW....SHUCKS!! I am always a bit embarrassed when someone thanks me for, I guess... being me. I enjoy helping people because I know what its like to be alone, abused, maligned or made to feel less than. Or to work hard on something and then have it ignored like your contribution was nothing. Believe me I have supported the wrong people sometimes and with others I have led with my heart and not my head, consequently being 'kicked in the teeth' for doing so in both cases. So I don't do this stuff expecting a thanks, a link back, shameless self-promotion or anything more than... because I want to. I am a non-competitive person and I lost what was left of my ego due to abuse years ago. I do it because I believe they its the right things to do. My personal belief is that life is much too hard without being helpful and compassionate towards others. Maybe I am stupid but I don't get angry at too many people (Olmert, you are an exception) . Sometimes I just feel indiffe...

HEADS UP ON ANNAPOLIS FROM THINK-ISRAEL & THE BLOGSPHERE A few days ago I got an email from Dr. Lipkin at Think-Israel who asked bloggers to contribute their postings about Annapolis to be consolidated and publicized. Here are the results. Scroll over the posts and click for embedded links: ------------------------------------------- "An invitation to Annapolis," by Ellen W. Horowitz. EllenWrite@bezeqint.net "Munich 1938, Annapolis 2007" by Chaim Szmidt. Read it at Freedom's Cost . [Submitted by me - Chaim's always worth a read!] "The Libel Tourist video", Rachel Ehrenfeld speaking. See this documentary at The Libel Tourist blog . Also viewable at astuteblogger.blogspot.com . [Saudis fund terrorists; ultimate objective -- to impose Sharia (Muslim Law) on everyone.] "Mandate for Palestine: The Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights" by Eli E. Hertz. Download it at Myths and Facts website . Or download it directly by clicking here. A Hebrew ...

Dangerous Message - Date From Hell? Again, the don't tell monster comes up. As I said before, telling may well save your life and be the first step to healing! Telling is crucial to surmount PTSD and your own validation. (October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month) by Vicki Polin, MA, NCC, LCPC, ATR-BC Click here to watch the video: Date From Hell A few weeks ago a rabbi sent the following link out to his mailing list promoting an online video, "Date From Hell" , which is produced by Rebbetzin Lori Palatnik. The short film revolved around the fact that everyone has an opinion and how important it is to keep your opinion to yourself or that you need to be extremely careful before offering it. Palatnik went on to say that: "You need to know the difference between fact and opinion". She goes on telling the story about a young male Baal Teshuva, who was learning with her husband, Rabbi Yaakov Palatnik. As time progressed Rabbi Palatnik felt the man had "pu...

A LITTLE LIBERAL READING Many thanks to THE RICHMOND DEMOCRAT for giving me a mention in the 44th Edition of the Carnival of the Liberals. I love this quote from Moral Courage on this carnival: In order to be morally courageous, you have to honor each of these three components. You have to have principles, and really value them, and be astute enough to apply them and prioritize them in the ambiguous real world. You have to recognize the risks, and look honestly at the consequences of action and inaction. And you have to draw on your character and your experience to give you the faith that allows you to take risks for your principles. Some good finds on this carnival. CLICK HERE TO GIVE IT A READ I love these blog carnivals because I always find fresh views, new blogs & resources. Just about as much as I love a decent aggregator! CARNIVAL OF THE LIBERALS PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

THE ANN COULTER TRAIN WRECK This week while I was waiting for my muscle conductivity pain test to start (don't ask - let's just say it involved needles, electrodes and me yelling "stop!! AAARRRRRGGGG!!!") I picked up the paper and read Ann Coulter. Oh there's plenty of female train wrecks in the news. Brittney Spears and Lindsey Lohan. There's the Deborah "How many politicos paid my escort service for sex countdown" Paltrey. There's Victoria Beckham, who'd look a lot sexier if she wore an outfit that actually had a bottom-half. Rosie O'Donnell can't seem to keep her mouth shut long enough for the oxygen to return to the planet. Hillary gave Obama a smack-down at the debates. The list goes on and on. Why are people still listening to Coulter? She looks like Skeletor with big boobs. She's nasty and foul-mouthed. She's a hypocrite and a shill for the neo-cons. When her ex-boyfriend, Bob Guccione, Jr. told the world the ...

IF NO ONE READS YOUR BLOG, DOES IT REALLY EXIST? One thing about blogging is how selfish it is. You assume people are genuinely interested in you, what you have to say or what you are interested in. Yeah, yeah - we all want to "educate & enlighten." We also ask our friends, family, coworkers and people we brush on the street to read our blog. We sign them up for blog catalogs, lists, aggregators, Technorati ... ad infinitum. We check our Sitemeters . We cajole people to get on our mailing list or subscribe to our feed. We look to see our latest position on the TTLB Ecosystem . I have been blogging for 4 years. Until this year I was very quiet about it. Just for fun. The majority of my energy went into my children and my anti-abuse work. I didn't want to think about myself. But as I am working on healing from years of mental & emotional abuse - my therapist told me to start taking my strong opinions to the web. I was systematically taught to squelch th...