BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

by Kelli Morgan They may call it the "Land of the Pure," but Pakistan turns out to be anything but. The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world's leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned. “You won’t find strip clubs in Islamic countries. Most Islamic countries have certain dress codes,” said Gabriel Said Reynolds, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. “It would be an irony if they haven’t shown the same vigilance to pornography.” So here's the irony: Google ranks Pakistan No. 1 in the world in searches for pornographic terms, outranking every other country in the world in searches per person for certain sex-related content. Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for:  "horse sex" since 2004,  "donkey sex" since 2007, "rape pictures" between 2004 and 2009, "rape sex" since ...

by Johann Hari This is a column condemning cowardice – including my own. It begins with the story of a novel you cannot read. The Jewel of Medina was written by a journalist called Sherry Jones. It recounts the life of Aisha, a girl who was married off at the age of six to a 50-year-old man called Mohamed ibn Abdallah. On her wedding day, Aisha was playing on a see-saw outside her home. Inside, she was being betrothed. The first she knew of it was when she was banned from playing out in the street with the other children. When she was nine, she was taken to live with her husband, now 53. He had sex with her. When she was 14, she was accused of adultery with a man closer to her own age. Not long after, Mohamed decreed that his wives must cover their faces and bodies, even though no other women in Arabia did. You cannot read this story today – except in the Koran and the Hadith. The man Mohamed ibn Abdallah became known to Muslims as "the Prophet Mohamed", so our ability t...

When I do Domestic Violence counseling I concentrate on the non-physical aspects. The verbal, emotional, financial & spiritual abuse that's done. Majority of the time its covert and chips away at you little by little. I have had it done to me.8  years ago someone I thought was a friend and thought I could trust used it on me . It took a long time to completely untangle the mental pretzel I'd become, as well as professional help. I am still dealing with permanent PTSD and some of the aftermath problems have completely shut down parts of myself that I know are gone forever. Any psychology professional will tell you - you don't just "move on" or "get over it." No one is immune from this. No one. You are done in before you even know it. "Moral principles are a person’s sense of right and wrong. The women we spoke to had very high moral principles and an internal moral compass of right and wrong. Their moral sense and its relationship...

An EXCELLENT piece that needs no additional comments from me - I agree with every word. Been there, done that. By Patricia Lefave, ex mental patient At first, that may seem to ‘make no sense’. It is nevertheless true. What we experience in isolation and which is judged to be our ‘imagination’ is the reality of a semi distant relationship with a group or mob, acting it all out from a few feet away, while the individuals who make up the numbers of that mob perceive themselves as ‘hidden’ from an ‘inferior.’ That role definition, as defined by one of the group members as the starting point of the whole thing, is the original ‘switch’ that gets it all going. If it is not seen or questioned, it is kept going indefinitely. This is one of the most difficult realizations I had to have in this in order to make some sort of ‘sense’ of the experience as a whole. It is especially hard when virtually everyone involved in it fights AGAINST any revelation that would in any way implicate an...

The more I learn about psychology and destructive narcissism (as opposed to healthy narcissism) the more I understand how terrorists, how sexual and emotional predators, religious and spiritual cults, those who exploit the vulnerable, outright abusers -- do it. And continue to. Some people feel America has been "dumbed down." I believe its societal. To use my favorite movie series: The Matrix , only a few of us have taken the red pill . I call this the "Lemming Effect." In my observation, a sadly large proportion of society either won't or don't want to think for themselves. They will go along with the prevailing tide. Heaven forbid they be independent thinkers sending their brains outside the box! They will be shunned by everyone. So, they choose "The Lemming Effect." Or, as I said above, you have the exploiters, who wait until people are filled with fear, beaten down, vulnerable or unknowledgable - and then they throw the power of sugg...

Pain IS a four letter word. I have been struggling with chronic and escalating pain for the last 14+ years. Pain that cut my career short, made me dependent on others (which I hate), caused me to make poor decisions and stopped me from interacting with life the way I'd like. Dworkin came to a conclusion about pain long before medical science proved her right. Something I know too well - chronic emotional, mental and verbal abuse leads to conditions which cause pain. Non-stop, unrelenting fatigue. A personal trauma 5 years ago gave me a near heart attack and landed me in the hospital more times than I could count. The reminder of it is with me every day, every month when I take my medications for PTSD. My abuser from that incident goes on without any remorse towards me, reassuring me that I am nothing and blaming me for telling the truth. My own late mother called me "useless" once I was sick and said things to me about my pain and disability too painful for...

Speaking out about the wrongdoings of people who abuse others, politicians and about my government has earned me some accusations of performing LASHON HARA . A wonderful commentary from Radical Torah however, throws it into a whole new light for me: (excerpts) Well, who do I know who loves rebuke? Let’s see. There’s — no, well, how about — no. Hmm. I think , didn’t — …uh, nope, not her either. Maybe..? No, nope. Well, I can’t really think of anyone I know who loves rebuke. But rebuking, that’s another story. I’m sure we can all think of lots of folks who are pretty into it. They swoop into your office on an already unpleasant Monday to let you know about some trivial thing that no one but them noticed. Or they call you up and sweetly tell you they told you so. Or — Hey, Mom, do I have to hear about that again? But surely, that’s not what the Torah is speaking of when it tells us this week, Leviticus 19:17: You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke...