BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Why is it whenever a woman stands up, speaks out or speaks up she is hushed up by the 'powers that be' as quickly as possible? If that doesn't work her capabilities as a wife (i.e. Hillary Clinton) or mother (i.e. Sarah Palin) are called into question. (I have had that done to me - I won't link to it here but if you want to know you'll have to write me). No one would dare question a man's ability to be a father and a politician or advocate. Hmmm.... Another great post from another blogger I admire: Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy : Huh - I Guess It WAS Sexism After All… When Gov. Rendell made his obnoxious comment about Gov. Janet Napolitano. You may remember it from this Campbell Brown video: If you're on an aggregator - CLICK HERE For this video Well, despite his protestations to the contrary, when Gov. Rendell decided to endorse CHRIS MATTHEWS in his run for the 2010 US Senate run in PA, he pretty much sealed his own place in the Sexist Hall of Fame. I mea...

Don't get me wrong. I can't stand President Bush. But I think many Americans miss the point of what a massive insult shoes being thrown at him was in Iraqi culture. During a Sunday press conference in Baghdad, an angry Iraqi journa list hurled insults, and his shoes, at President Bush. According to the New York Times, "Hitting someone with a shoe is considered the supreme insult in Iraq." Why is that? Because they're so dirty. The degree of insult seems to be an idiosyncratic cultural development, as opposed to one that derives from clear textual sources. There's no particular mention in the Quran or any of the Hadith of shoe-throwing or debasement of enemies by exposing them to feet. And historical origins for the tradition are not easily found. However it started, Arabs—and perhaps Iraqis in particular—throw their shoes to indicate that the target is no better than dirt. The foot has special meaning in many societies. Most cultures see the act of subjecti...

from the always AWESOME Uppity Woman : As the Grand Enabler takes office, here’s your Christmas present. CNN, you cavalierly report what you enabled more of as you participated in the celebration of escalating abuse and hatred of women during this election season. And don’t think you are safe from this yourself, Campbell. This is blood on your hands and on the hands of all women who take sexism and misogyny with a grain of salt. You didn’t fight the fight and you think your rights will always be there. You are Wrong. Those of us who Fought the Fight for you recognize all the signs. Your reward for your complacency and viciousness awaits all of you who do not want to See how little steps grow into bigger steps. You will recognize what you have done nothing about when you see it all slip away from you by degrees instead of from others who mean nothing to you. And those of us who incurred the battle scars for ungrateful you won’t lift a finger for you either. You gave it up. Soon y...

Then there's the Obama Mug, Obama Cap, Obama Plate... I am waiting for the ObamaSoap on a Rope! This is so cheap & trashy, I feel ill and afraid for all Americans. This is just a click above the Walmart Stampede in my mind. Barack Obama coins are everywhere but worth little By Jessica Troiano Many Americans hope that President-elect Barack Obama will solve our nation’s financial woes, but experts caution that coins featuring the next president’s face are not a sound investment decision. Within days of Obama’s victory, television ads offering commemorative presidential coins popped up all over the airwaves. Most offer a real U.S. coin with a plastic or metal overlay with the president-elect’s image on it for a price that is many times the face value of the coin: About $10 for a $1 coin. Coin experts, or numismatists, warn buyers that these defaced coins have virtually no resale value. “If it’s a silver coin, it will be worth the price of the silver,” said Jim McNamara, professi...

by Judith Orloff, MD You can't heal your body unless you're in it. Sounds reasonable, right? Then how come the instant most of us get sick we check out, the sooner the better? We feel pain or discomfort, we get scared, we withdraw. We're out of our bodies so fast, the last thing on our minds is to rally every iota of awareness and energy to the part of us that most needs attention. You might ask, How would this help? Let me explain. Intuitive truth 1: The more love and consciousness you bring to your body when it is ill, the better chance you'll have of mending it. Intuitive truth 2: If you resist discomfort, it will persist. If you soften around it, it will lessen. Let's get specific. You have what you're going to discover is appendicitis. First signs? You're in agony, curled in the fetal position on your bed. Your body is sending out a frantic SOS. Something's really wrong. You have no choice but to listen. You head for the emergency room. You need sur...

From THE AWARENESS CENTER Regarding New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind By Vicki Polin Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16). It saddens me a great deal to see how a few Jewish leaders in the orthodox world appear to be manipulating community members into believing they do not have to report heinous crimes to child protective services. Orthodox children deserve the same rights and protection as other children in the Unitied States of America. I personally believe that Assemblyman Dov Hikind is wrong and is violating the civil rights of children from Torah observant homes. Each day that goes by that he refuses to work with law enforcement officials means another child is being sexually victimized. One has to realize that turning over the names of alleged sex offenders and also those who were allegedly sexually abused to child protection workers does not mean that the names will be...

Major Hat Tip: MacRanger: Rahm Emanuel - Count Down To Under the Bus***UPDATE: Emanuel Spoke to Blago “Several Times”***Video Report Added Possibly within the next week? “President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate. Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama’s news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the lobby of Chicago’s City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school, Anshe Emet. A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint. “You’re wasting your time,” Ema...

Ellis Henican has always been a favorite reporter & columnist of mine. In this editorial he refers to the "Bathrobe Boys" - which is his term for Bloggers. I have to agree with him. I know of far too many bloggers who pinch articles without credit, bloggers who post stuff that has nothing to do with their blog (like revealing or sexual pics on a political blog that has NOTHING to do with the story) just to drive gawkers to their site or those plain out plaguarize others... or even themselves. (I had a professor in undergrad school who would do one production a year and put her name up on top - example: "PROFESSOR'S NAME PRESENTS" - HAMLET - in teeny tiny print: by William Shakespeare.) Then there's those who beg for money to go to blogging conferences or some event that they have plenty of money to pay their own way for, so they can share their oh-so-very-special viewpoint with " their readers ." These people believe they are so import...

The inscrutable Uppity Woman pointed her readers towards this thread. Great find and excellent enough for a cross post: From Deadenders : The news story below no longer exists. It has been Obamatized, that means it is something that happened, was reported on, is damaging to barry and he denied that it happened there for it must disappear. The OMG is working their collective butts off trying to protect their chosen one. From FOX to CNN they are in full denial mode, nothing may damage barry. By Carol Sowers Wednesday, November 05, 2008 at 10:39 a.m. CHICAGO, ILL. — Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled. That’s one of Obama’s first priorities today. He’s meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich this afternoon in Chicago to discuss it. Illinois law states that the governor chooses that replacement. There’s already been speculation about his selection… from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. of ...

One of the things Adult Children of Narcissists (ACONS) have to deal with is the 'WTF' moments. In retrospect I see how I was literally TRAINED to 'accept the unacceptable.' Some of the incidents I remember: My Nmother screaming at me when I was deathly ill and had thrown up blood: "My rug, my rug - you have DESTROYED my beautiful rug." WTF? My Nmother raging at me for weeks when I finally broke it off with a Psychopathic boyfriend who'd been abusing and even beating me (nearly to death) after 3 years of on & off hell. She was angry that I dumped him because "his family has money." WTF? When I was first disabled I was shaking & feverish for 2 days. She asked if she could lay down in bed next to me and I said that was fine. Then she said "are you sick because you are afraid I am going to die soon?" WTF? When I came home from college for a couple months before moving to NYC - I had acquired a small wardrobe purchased with ...

Gov. Blagojevich is not just one bad apple, the whole orchard is toxic By Lora Chamberlain The culture of corruption in Illinois is so rampant that the indictment today of Gov Blagojevich is just the tip of the iceberg!!! Please do not be fooled by the media coverage of this event! It is important for you to understand the culture in which Obama was weened and schooled; the big money, wheeling dealing, hard knock school of Illinois politics! Gov. Blagojevich is just particularly open and crass in his selling of favors and gov. jobs for campaign donations but it is and has been going on at all levels of our government; city, county and state, here in Illinois since Abe Lincoln walked the land! Why is Illinois so dang corrupt? There are several reasons, one is that there has been a dynastic maintenance of power and control in the political institutions for decades which has not allowed for reform at any level; the Daleys and Madigans out there, very similar to the situation in Alaska...

From THE REAL BARACK OBAMA: Claiming President-elect Barack Obama has roots in the Islamic religion, Egyptian cleric Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal (left) has broadcast a plea urging Obama to convert to Islam while warning if the U.S. doesn’t withdraw its troops from the Middle East and provide aid to Muslims, those “eager for [death]” will attack America, Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for World Net Daily, reported December 7, 2008. Claiming President-elect Barack Obama has roots in the Islamic religion, an Egyptian cleric has broadcast a plea ( video clip ) urging Obama to convert to Islam while warning if the U.S. doesn’t withdraw its troops from the Middle East and provide aid to Muslims, those “eager for [death]” will attack America. “My message to [Obama] is threefold. First, I invite him to convert to Islam. This is the call of the Prophet and of Allah. Oh Obama - convert to Islam, and you will be saved,” began Egyptian cleric Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal speaking last week on the state-f...

cross posted from PumaPac -- Profound Question of the Day : And This One? Now this one’s a bit tricky. Be sure to tie your thinking caps on nice and tight before attempting to answer why THIS picture IS okay: Note from the great UppityWoman : Murphy [PumaPac] also has this one in a previous post. It must be ok. Right? ... Right?... I thought so. DISCUSS...

"It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater luster to 0ur colors, a richer resonance to our words. That is, IF it doesn’t destroy us, IF it doesn't burn away the optimism and the spirit, the capacity for visions, and the respect for simple yet indispensable things." -- Anne Rice PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

Durban II mixes the same old Israel-bashing with new attacks on free speech. One of Colin Powell's best moves as Secretary of State was to pull out of the 2001 United Nations Durban confab against racism once it became an anti-Semitic rant. One of the best moves the new U.S. administration and Europe could make is to stay away from the follow-up meeting altogether. "Durban II," planned for April in Geneva, promises to be an encore of the same old Israel-bashing. The draft declaration says Israel's policy toward the Palestinians amounts to no less than "a new kind of apartheid, a crime against humanity, a form of genocide and a serious threat to international peace and security." We'll spare you the rest of the diatribe. Israel will be the conference's main object of obsession, but it's not the only target. The draft declaration also goes after the West's freedom of speech and antiterror laws under the guise of protecting religion -- read: Isl...