BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

From the NY Times 7/19/08: A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a “gratuitous, unnecessary insult” to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Hillary Clinton: … joined family planning groups to condemn the proposal that defines abortion to include contraception such as birth control pills and intrauterine devices. It would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states where medical providers are obligated to offer legal abortion and contraception to women. “We will not put up with this radical, ideological agenda to turn the clock back on women’s rights, ” the New York senator told a joint news conference with New York Rep. Nita Lowey, also a Democrat, at Bellevue Hospital. “Women would watch their contraceptive coverage disappear overnight,” said Clinton. The planned rule is aimed at countering recent state laws enacted to ensure that women can get contraception when they want or need it. It...

Half a century on, Polish Jews rediscover religious heritage Great-grandfather Josef, (wielki dziadek) and Nana Magda -- wherever you are now - I hope you are reading this one! Ludmila Krzewska has decided it is finally safe to be Jewish ( ŻYDOWSKI ) in Poland again. She endured anti-Semitic taunts as a child. Her grandmother would have been killed by the Nazis had a Catholic family not taken her in. And her mother was too traumatized to practice Judaism after the war. That all caused her to bury her background as she grew to adulthood in Warsaw. But when the 25-year-old biology student ventured to recover her heritage five years ago, she met a different kind of rejection. She sought out Warsaw's Orthodox Jewish community, but was discouraged by one member because "I have a 'goyish' husband," she recalls. The message did not come from the rabbi - but it was enough. So she turned to Warsaw's fledgling Progressive Jewish community, her husband eventually conver...

O'Reilly: "[Y]ou're a moron ... [i]f you don't believe" the "secular progressive movement" is behind "war" on Christmas Summary: On The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly continued to warn of "a concentrated effort by the secular progressive movement to diminish any kind of spirituality in the public marketplace." O'Reilly was referring to the so-called "war" on Christmas, which he feels is part of a broader agenda to enact "secular progressive programs like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage." During the December 19, 2005 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly continued to warn of "a concentrated effort by the secular progressive movement to diminish any kind of spirituality in the public marketplace," a movement he has previously claimed is behind the so-called "war" on Christmas. O'Reilly feels this "...