BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Israeli Forest Honors Coretta Scott King Israel will name a forest in northern Galilee after Coretta Scott King as the country replants thousands of trees destroyed during last year's war with Hezbollah. The Coretta Scott King Forest, comprised of at least 10,000 trees, will be a living memorial to King's legacy of peace and justice, Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor said Thursday at a Washington ceremony launching the initiative. Two members of the Congressional Black Caucus said the initiative, which includes a fundraising partnership with black churches in the United States, would strengthen ties between blacks and Jews fostered during the early Civil Rights Movement. "Jews and blacks share a common historical bond of persecution and perseverance," Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., said as he and Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., helped plant a ceremonial cherry tree at Faith Tabernacle United Holy Church near the Capitol. The fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Is...

MODESTY BUSES IN ISRAEL UNDER FIRE FOR DISCRIMINATION Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat By Daphna Berman A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses. Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women's organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers. In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women. The bus drive...

Religious rhetoric isn’t bad; hypocrisy is I've been told I am a fairly tolerant person - in fact, sometimes too tolerant. Aside from not suffering fools gladly there is one sort of person I can't abide. The liar and hypocrite. When your words and your actions don't jive, when you say one thing and do another - you lie not only to the very people whose support you need - you lie to Hashem. You can't fool Hashem - he sees everything - and so does a good mirror. By Andrew Hammond President Bush’s inaugural speech was like all of his other presidential speeches: It was filled with religious rhetoric. Bush’s speechwriter, Michael Gerson, has unabashedly admitted to intentionally employing that tradition in presidential addresses. Many liberals believe that this practice is disrespectful to those Americans who are not part of a particular religious affiliation. They believe that it is one more example that Bush is pandering to the religious right, that he is making a dis...

The Facts According to Fundamentalism (from 2005, still timely!) By Jeff Sharlet The New York Times is filled with ups-and-downs for Christian conservatives -- Ralph Reed lost his primary race for Lt. governor of Georgia, Bush vetoed stem cell research, and the Kaczynski twins, darlings of American Christian Right activists (though you wouldn't know it from the Times' coverage) are twisting Poland's crank rightward. But the Times seems most fascinated -- and confused -- by the Christian activists' imperviousness to research undertaken on its own behalf. First, there was last week's Department of Education study that revealed that private schools do no better than public schools, and that in most cases Christian conservative schools do worse. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings vigorously denounced the report, produced by her own department -- perhaps in an attempt to build a justification for vouchers -- and then boasted that she hadn't even read it, despite...

BECOME REPUBLICAN The JIBs are hacked, Virginia Tech, Jewish Scholar Jumps of Empire State Building, I'm hacked, my child missing their bus today.... Here's a needed laugh break for EVERYONE. CLICK HERE FOR "BECOME REPUBLICAN" PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

JIBS and OTHERS - HACKED Owning a computer used to be a big deal, just like having a color TV was a WOW factor for a family. Now everyone has them. Even keyboard terrorists and loonies of all stripe. We all know about the "online disinhibition effect." No one can see you or hear you so you can be big and bad behind a keyboard, right? You can imply, smear or hack up someone's hard work and just laugh about it right? In my opinion, WRONG. Click BagelBlogger and Walking on Fire for their posts already covering the JIB awards site being hacked. Today I got home after dropping my kids at school and doing some important errands and sat down to take a look at my RSS readers. I saw something I found important I went to blog about it - but discovered that my blog had been hacked. At first I blamed myself - thought in my stupidity I'd inserted some bad code. But no, there was a black box and then in my template, literally chunks of the code that make up my blog were g...

SECRETS OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT'S RECRUITING TACTICS This is an IMPORTANT read! These are the SAME tactics used by online predators , politicians, cyberpaths , players , terrorist organizations, sex addicts, salespeople... so why does this not surprise me that the Christian Right would use these same cultic NLP tactics ? Never forget: PREDATORS HUNT THE WOUNDED! - Barbara There is a false, but effective, fiction that one has to be born again to be a Christian. The Christian right refuses to acknowledge the worth of anyone's religious experience unless -- in the words of the tired and opaque cliché -- one has accepted " Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior ." The meltdown, often skillfully manipulated by preachers and teams of evangelists, is one of the most pernicious tools of the movement. Through conversion one surrenders to a higher authority. And the higher authority, rather than God, is the preacher who steps in to take over your life. Being born aga...

IMUS = FIRED, LIMBAUGH = GETS A PASS Don't get me wrong - Imus was never my cup of tea. And I am not sold on Obama for President either. However, fair is fair - how is it that he got canned and yet Pumpkin Head goes on & on with impugnity? From Storm Bear at Daily Kos: This is a head-shaker. Imus gets canned for calling some college women basketball players "nappy-headed hos" and yet Rush Limbaugh plays "Barack The Magic Negro" on his show and he is still on the air? How is that even possible? To hear the song yourself, click here to watch the video It is a parody by Paul Shanklin impersonating Al Sharpton and based on the Peter, Paul, and Mary hit song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". I am really at a loss for words. I heard it for the first time yesterday on the radio and was sickened. Again, how is this man on the air? CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

BLANK NOISE PROJECT: THE WOMEN OF INDIA NEED HELP! CALLING ALL WOMEN WHO HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED STREET HARRASSMENT AND THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT THEM Take a look at this new blog BLANK NOISE PROJECT: Blank - that which is not allowed meaning, form or articulation. Noise - that which heightens, builds itself. Eve Teasing, as the name suggests,is considered a joke, a prank. Eve Teasing is street sexual harassment of women in India. Blank Noise seeks to recognize eve teasing as street sexual harassment and establish it as an issue. Eve teasing may be normal, but is it acceptable? Blank Noise is a public and participatory art project working both online and on the streets of Bangalore, Mumbai , Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. We invite you to come along! To understand more about 'Eve Teasing' CLICK HERE TO READ about it Dear Blogger/ Reader/ Supporter Thank you for being part of the Blank Noise community. Blank Noise is volunteer led, and volunteer run. With this post we open ourselves ...

THINKING OF ISRAEL "We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours" - Golda Meir (to Anwar Saddat just before peace talks) The neighborhood bully just lives to survive, He's criticized and condemned for being alive. He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin, He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in. He's the neighborhood bully. -- Neighborhood Bully, song about Israel's struggle written by friend of Israel and Jew : Bob Dylan CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

LISTEN UP MY SISTAHS!! Ms. Rice, Ms. Pelosi? Has the Jimmy Carter Kool-Aid worn off yet? Knock knock? Has your sanity returned? You think so? Alrighty then - check it the article below. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE YOU THINK WE CAN NEGOTIATE PEACE WITH!!! Their span of attention to PEACE is smaller than that of a common housefly. And what do you do with pesky flies? hhmmmmmm? (the Clue Phone keeps ringing girls. For gosh sake, ANSWER IT!!) Hamas militants declare end to Israel truce Armed wing lets off barrage of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells toward Israel on Tuesday and said they considered a five-month truce with Israel to have come to an end. Also in Gaza, an angry clan stormed the parliament building, carrying the body of a slain family member, to demand the killers be brought to justice. Tuesday’s rocket attack, which came on Israel’s 59th Independence Day, did not cause any damage o...

PLEASE GET OUT OF MY CITY! ... and find somewhere else to be impotent, antisemitic, lame, rude and blind! Check out what these self-involved narcissistic "diplomats" actually DO spend their time on. THEMSELVES!! UN Seeks Immunity From NYC Lawsuit. New York, NY - First, it was parking tickets. Now, the dispute between New York City and United Nations diplomats centers on whether foreign countries should pay taxes on the high-rise apartments where they house their diplomatic workers. The Supreme Court was to hear arguments Tuesday from lawyers representing India and Mongolia, which are fighting New York's effort to collect property taxes from nations that operate diplomatic offices and house their employees in the same buildings. The two countries -- and the State Department -- want the court to declare that foreign missions have immunity from such a lawsuit. Under U.S. treaties, embassies and other diplomatic buildings are generally tax-exempt, but the city claim...

MENTAL ILLNESS TAKES ANOTHER VALUABLE LIFE Rabbi's despair ended in Empire State Building jump All I can do is ask why? Why are those with mental illness and low funds put in this situation? This man wanted help, asked for help and got poor, substandard help. His death is the result a seriously flawed and failed system, greed and the sad stigma of mental illness which must end in this country if we are to save valuable lives. BY RICH SCHAPIRO - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Jewish scholar Moshe Kanovsky jumped from the Empire State Building. He was a scholar among scholars, a young man with an impressive mind and seemingly limitless potential. Those who knew Moshe Kanovsky, one of six children in a family split between Maryland and Brooklyn, expected him to become one of the great minds in modern Jewish teachings. As a boy, he mesmerized his fellow classmates with his grasp of the Torah. And his reputation for brilliance continued as he blazed through the yeshiva equivalents of middle ...

THE BIG QUESTION: WHY WAS CHO FREE? Now comes news that a court in 2005 found Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui to be "mentally ill" and an "imminent danger to others" - but then let him go. Anyone who doubts that the court's diagnosis was correct need only reference the video diatribe Cho mailed to NBC news, which aired the clip last night. That Cho was free is an outrage. But it's not exactly news that American courts regularly elevate abstract personal rights above those of the public. Certainly, many questions remain in the the Virginia Tech massacre. But it's not too soon to wonder why in hell Cho was left to wander freely after that sort of a court finding - and numerous other warnings as well. Were authorities so concerned with Cho's rights that they declined not only to commit him to a secure hospital, but even allowed him to stay in school? Most perplexing: How on earth was Cho able legally to purchase a gun, given his history ...

HAVEIL HAVALIM #113 ("Vanity of Vanities") Soccer Dad kicks another goal! CLICK HERE SCCOOOOOOORRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE! Despite restraints on time, he did a truly fantastic job. (thanks for the link too, SD!) A weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, hosted by a Jewish blogger each week, coordinated by "Because I'm Soccer Dad!" Perhaps there's a virtual cape and tights in there somewhere! Soccer Dad will be hosting next week as well. Entries should be submitted through the Blog Carnival form. Please be sure your entries have something to do with Judaism or Israel and have fun! JBLOG ME

GREED LEADS TO ABUSE OF THE LAW... AND FAMILIES This is a must read. One very greedy judge allowed wealthy litigants in divorce cases to pay him off with no regard for the welfare of the children, the other parent or the families involved. I feel compelled to post this to show how horrific some judges can be in divorce cases and how money rather than truth often talks when it comes to the law. This digusting man should rot in prison and all his cases should be re-evaluated and the children given therapy to help them cope with the greedy and unfair decisions in these cases. My prayers for these mothers today. Mothers tell how crooked judge ruined their lives BY NANCIE L. KATZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Crooked judge Gerald Garson faces up to 15 years in prison for taking bribes to fix divorce cases. But the Brooklyn parents whose lives were ruined in his courtroom say no penalty could make up for the pain he caused. Here are some of their stories: Frieda Hanimov The Israeli-born mother of...

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE VIRGINIA TECH TRAGEDY This week, like many people, I have been following the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy. This evoked a lot of strong emotions & reactions in a lot of people. Some good, some bad - yet all we can do is pray. Pray for the families, students & administration left behind and pray for the souls of the senselessly murdered. There's been a lot of talk and a lot of hindsight. I for one, am getting sick of the woulda, coulda, shoulda talkers. I do hope this incident shines a light on the need for mental health care in this country to be taken more seriously. For the insurance industry to start paying to treat the brain and its disorders, and for the mental illness to come out of the dark, unspeakable shadows and the stigma of depression, schizophrenia and other disorders to be lifted so that sufferers wanting help get it. That said, was there anything we could have done to prevent this? The U.S. learned on 9/11 it isn't im...