BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Maybe if the courts and government refuse to see the danger here, we need to start an Underground Railroad for these girls! A 17-year old girl who fled from her home, fearing her Muslim parents would kill her for converting to Christianity, must go back to Ohio, a Florida judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Daniel Dawson ruled Ohio has jurisdiction over the case involving the teen, Rifqa Bary. Before the girl gets sent back, the judge says he needs immigration papers proving her status in the U.S. and proof from the state of Florida that she can continue her virtual schooling and receive credit in Ohio. She is expected to be placed in foster care when she returns and will also be provided with psychiatric evaluations. Her parents will also receive psychiatric evaluations. Rifqa can be back in Ohio as early as this week, or by an Oct. 23 follow-up hearing. Rifqa fled to Florida after her parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, learned that she was baptized earlier this year without their knowledge. The...

Taxpayers to get rude surprise Millions of couples, retirees may have to repay some of Obama tax credit by Stephen Ohlemacher Millions of Americans enjoying their small windfall from President Barack Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit are in for an unpleasant surprise next spring. The government is going to want some of that money back. The tax credit is supposed to provide up to $400 to individuals and $800 to married couples as part of the massive economic recovery package enacted in February. Most workers started receiving the credit through small increases in their paychecks in the past month. But new tax withholding tables issued by the IRS could cause millions of taxpayers to get hundreds of dollars more than they are entitled to under the credit, money that will have to be repaid at tax time. At-risk taxpayers include a broad swath of the public: married couples in which both spouses work; workers with more than one job; retirees who have federal income taxes wit...

By Arnie Gotfryd Imagine if you could turn your very worst liabilities into your most precious assets. Nice dream, isn't it? Well, as it turns out, this is no wistful fancy but a daily reality, according to both cutting edge science and state-of-the-art religion, i.e., Judaism. To explain, let's peer into the subatomic world of the quantum and explore an amazing property of nature, a weird, almost quirky kind of fact: Wave-particle duality. The idea is that things are what you choose them to be, literally. For example, when photons pass through a barrier with two slits, you can choose to observe them as waves, in which case they necessarily went through both slits, or as particles, in which case they went through only one. You determine the reality. But it gets even stranger. An implication of this "observer power" is that once you choose to see the photon as a wave, it was a wave all the way back to when it was emitted. Similarly if you choose to observe it as a part...

Existing In Bodies The physical self can seem like an encumbrance at times. We have little control over its demands, we must monitor it consistently, and its relative fragility can be discomfiting. Many people, therefore, unconsciously long to escape the confinement of their bodies, and this longing can manifest itself as physical discomfort, difficulty adjusting to the rigors of day-to-day existence, or a tendency to shy away from all that is associated with the human earthly experience. Yet the lifetime of physical existence we each must endure represents a vital plateau in our progression as enlightened beings. We inhabit our bodies for a reason. There is much we can learn while coping with the challenges, sensations, and sensitivities of the human body that we could not have grasped had we remained in spirit form. When we leave our physical selves behind to return to our original state, we will enjoy a supreme sense of freedom-yet we will always value the time we spent on earth. Be...

WHAT'S THE RETURN POLICY ON -- CHILDREN? I was SICKENED when I read this. How come the news is just full of these sorts of sub-humans and their despicable behavior lately? As someone who dealt with 12 1/2 years of infertility treatment to have my beloved children, and aunt to two adopted children I want to say this: - I will ALWAYS feel like LESS of a woman because of it - I will ALWAYS be infertile. I had to be poked, prodded and cut up to conceive. That will NEVER go away - Infertility is a very degrading process. The longer it goes on the more depressed you get and the more depressed you stay - I have given up ever feeling sexy again. EVER. Let me get in a plug here for RESOLVE who gave me so much support in those 12 1/2 years. And please, no one write me and tell me I am wrong for feeling that way. It's how I FEEL. It just is. No platitudes please. Children are NOT returnable. People are NOT disposable. You don't USE a human being like a tissue then discard...