BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

From NO QUARTER A couple of staff members at the Baltimore office of ACORN know an awful lot about helping people with very special housing needs. You’ve already no doubt seen how they helped cook up multiple schemes as to how a couple they believed to be a prostitute and her partner could set up a brothel and violate all sorts of tax laws. That made me mad. But that’s not what made me furious enough to spit nails. Without so much as a blink or facial twitch, the ACORN staffers freely, even enthusiastically, offered advice about how to handle the 15 underage El Salvadorian girls the couple claimed to be illegally bringing into the country to service the Johns. Their advice as to how to handle an abusive pimp? “Be careful. Train them [14 year olds] to keep their mouths shut.” How to get away with not reporting the money the girls brought in? No problem because as long as they are under 16, “they don’t even exist.” Indeed, handy tips flowed about how this illegal operation could safely a...

by Kathy Krajco I am death on people telling the victim that it's a sin to fight back. They are pressuring the victim to do the very thing that causes victims to suffer terrible shame in the aftermath of abuse -- give themselves up to it. That shame we feel at doing so is an infallible indicator that it's wrong. No one needs a book or a preacher to tell them what's right and wrong. We KNOW that's wrong. Deep down inside we feel how wrong it is to give ourselves up to abuse. Doing so makes us feel like a worm. A doormat. We know it's lack of backbone. We sense the prostitution in it. We feel utterly degraded by it. The only excuse for it is being subjected to overwhelming force so that we haven't the power to resist. Which is rape. Which is why we feel deeply violated by it. Whether it's sexual rape or any other kind. So, we know that we must resist when we can. If only for the sake of our self respect. And anyone who tells us that we shouldn't fight the ...

Incredibly powerful, must-read piece from COVER GIRLS: If mainstream headlines continue to favor stories of women in danger based on the subjects' attractiveness and social status, then the strength of Jessica Lenahan (formerly Gonzalez) and the international legal ramifications of her case are sure to be ignored. But where commercial journalism fails, the need for publicity can be met by activists, bloggers, and groups such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. [In October, 2008], Lenahan will testify before the continental commission in a case which she has been battling the U.S. criminal justice system on for nearly a decade, and with no success. It all started when Colorado local police refused to enforce a restraining order against her husband, who had kidnapped her three daughters. Any faith in the authorities of America protecting her and her family dwindled even further when the Supreme Court held that the state of Colorado was not responsible for responding to ...

YAHOO GETS DHIMMITUDE On April 10, Yahoo took Join the Boycott offline without notice and without explanation. Join the Boycott is a Yahoo Geocities site which advocates responsible consumer protest as a means to combat anti-Israel bias. Yahoo has violated Join the Boycott ’s fundamental Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech. Only after many angry emails were sent to Yahoo management was JOIN THE BOYCOTT recently restored. JOIN THE BOYCOTT'S LETTER REGARDING THE TRASHING OF THEIR CIVIL LIBERTIES: May 4, 2007 Join the Boycott , an initiative of the Friends of Israel Community, is a Yahoo Geocities website addressing the serious problem of anti-Israel propaganda in the Los Angeles Times, and anti-Israel bias in general. Join the Boycott has been providing ongoing commentary on this subject for over 5 years. Join the Boycott advocates responsible consumer protest as a means to combat anti-Israel bias. Join the Boycott 's activities are an exercise of the First A...