http://www.viciousbabushka.com/2012/05/h appy-shavu ot-from-scary-jew-shadow.html
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in silhouette as they talk about harvesting wheat in the shade near a wheat field outside Sha'alvim in central Israel, 17 May 2012, after they cut the wheat with hand sickles. The wheat is then processed, all by hand-made Kosher means, to bake unleavened Matzah, to be eaten during the next high holiday of Passover, in April 2013. The wheat is harvested just before the holiday of Shavuot, which comes seven weeks after Passover, and marks when God gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. EPA/JIM HOLLANDER
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men use a small fan attached to a car engine to provide some breeze as they separate wheat grain from the hay under a shade outside Sha'alvim in central Israel, 17 May 2012, after they cut the wheat with hand sickles. The wheat is then processed, all by hand-made Kosher means, to bake unleavened Matzah, to be eaten during the next high holiday of Passover, in April 2013. The wheat is harvested just before the holiday of Shavuot, which comes seven weeks after Passover, and marks when God gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Credit: EPA
[Link: blogs.smartmoney.com...]
By Quentin Fottrell
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed his status to 'married' Saturday and received over one million 'likes' from his followers. But the site he founded isn't always so marriage-friendly. In fact, lawyers say the social network contributes to an increasing number of marriage breakups.
More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a legal services firm. And over 80% of U.S. divorce attorneys say they've seen a rise in the number of cases using social networking, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. 'I see Facebook issues breaking up marriages all the time,' says Gary Traystman, a divorce attorney in New London, Conn. Of the 15 cases he handles per year where computer history, texts and emails are admitted as evidence, 60% exclusively involve Facebook.
'Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook,' says K. Jason Krafsky, who authored the book 'Facebook and Your Marriage' with his wife Kelli. In the real world, he says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop. 'On Facebook,' he says, 'they happen in just a few clicks.'
Yeah, because nobody ever got divorced or had an affair with somebody they met online before Facebook.
[Link: news.yahoo.com...]
A nearly three-month-long tussle between two states over President Obama's birth records may be at an end.
The state of Hawaii said late Tuesday it has provided verification of the president's birth to Arizona's secretary of state, who claimed he needed proof of Obama's citizenship before he could place his name on the state's November ballot.
Joshua Wisch, special assistant to Hawaii Attorney General David Louie, told The Associated Press that the matter is now resolved.
Hawaii didn't give in to the request quickly or easily, pressing Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett for proof that the records were needed as part of normal business.
Wisch said Hawaii got the necessary proof, so it sent Bennett's office the verification.
A spokesman for Bennett said he received Hawaii's verification and will comment Wednesday. It was not clear if the new information would satisfy Bennett or bring the dispute to a close.
[Link: www.vosizneias.com...]
Anti-Internet Protest photos on the Internet!
Queens, NY - More than 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men plan are packed at this hour at Citi Field for a gathering on the dangers of the Internet, and organizers have also rented the nearby Arthur Ashe Stadium for the overflow crowd.
"It's going to be inspiration and education about using technology responsibly in accordance with Jewish values," said Eytan Kobre, a lawyer who is the spokesman for the event's organizers.
Kobre said the rally's purpose is not to ban the Internet but to learn how to harness it.
"There is a very significant downside to the Internet," he said. "It does pose a challenge to us in various aspects of our lives."
He cited online pornography and gambling as well as the risk of social media undermining "our ability to pray uninterruptedly, to focus and to concentrate."
No women at this event. They're all on Teh Intertubez.
[Link: www.viciousbabushka.com...]
First Amish President?
By Oliver Knox
President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that daughters Malia and Sasha can use their cell phones only on weekends, are banned from Facebook, can't watch TV and are only allowed on the computer during the week when they have to do their homework. He also said he was "too long-winded" to use Twitter and that he likes to "tape" things on "this—what's it called, DVR."
It's almost enough for a national newsweekly to dub him "America's First Amish President."
Obama's wide-ranging interview with ABC's "The View," recorded in New York on Monday, included a pop culture quiz and a predictable election prediction ("I'm gonna win"). The president cautiously gave himself an "incomplete" rather than a letter grade on the still-sour economy, and publicly forgave Vice President Joe Biden for forcing his hand on same-sex marriage last week.
And he revealed that First Lady Michelle Obama is "merciless" in mocking him—to the delight of his staff.Her repertoire includes "big ear jokes ... big nose joke, all my funny little habits," said the president.
"She just is relentless," Obama said. "But it is good for you. Especially in the White House, you know, you've got a bunch of people around who are always laughing at your jokes and thinking you're funny. And Michelle's like 'this guy? Really?'"
The President doesn't allow his daughters to use Facebook or watch TV, so maybe he is also the First Haredi President?
[Link: www.ynetnews.com...]
the "Large Nostrils" are the giveaway!
Turkish authorities believe that they have found a bird used for espionage purposes by Israel, the country's media reported.
According to a Tuesday report in Yedioth Ahronoth, an investigation to that effect was launched in Ankara several days ago, after a farmer discovered a dead Merops Apiaster, commonly known as the European Bee-Eater, in his field. The bird had a ring reading "Israel" on one of its legs.
Bird-banding is a common practice in ornithology, meant to help scientists track bird migration routes.
The band, however, was not the most damning piece of evidence against the bee-eater: Its nostrils were.
The bird-beak in question reportedly sported "unusually large nostrils," which – combined with the identification ring – raised suspicions that the bird was "implanted with a surveillance device" and that it arrived in Turkey as part of an espionage mission.
The bird's remains were originally handed over to the Turkish Agriculture Ministry, which then turned in over to Ankara's security services.
[Link: www.huffingtonpost.com...]
Are you Mom enough?
In the provocative new cover story of its May 21 issue, TIME Magazine taps into a two-decade-long parenting conversation that has boiled over in recent months. Journalist Kate Pickert reports on the rise of attachment parenting, a set of techniques popularized by Dr. William (Bill) Sears in "The Baby Book," his 767-page treatise published in 1992.
In the article, Pickert explores who Sears is and why controversy surrounds his theories -- specifically baby-wearing, extended breastfeeding and co-sleeping -- but it's TIME's photographs of real mothers breastfeeding their toddlers that has everyone talking.
The cover shows Jamie Lynne Grumet, a slim blonde 26-year-old California mom, breastfeeding her 3-year-old son. TIME photographer Martin Schoeller also shot three other families on the same day.
I'm a mother, I have nursed all my children, and my daughters have nursed all their children, and I can't begin to describe how disturbing this Time photo is. The choice of an older child, and provocative hand-on-hip pose and the mom facing the camera instead of her child as if to say "Look at how HIP and HOT and THIN I am! Better than all of you!"
I've been following the discussion on this Time cover photo on several other blogs, and there seems to be a notion that, if you're uncomfortable with this particular photo (which is not natural at all, IMO) then you must be against breastfeeding which is perfectly normal and natural!
I can proclaim myself an expert on child rearing--hey, I raised 9 kids and they are all educated and self-supporting! And I think this "attachment parenting" thing is complete horseshit, just something to make like 99% of the parents who read this article feel inadequate about themselves.
[Link: news.daylife.com...]
Ultra-Orthodox Jews stand next to bonfires during Lag Ba'Omer celebrations to commemorate the end of a plague said to have decimated Jews in Roman times, in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, May 9, 2012.
[Link: news.yahoo.com...]
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) -- An Indiana man accused of driving three blocks with four children strapped to the hood of his car was being held in jail Tuesday on charges of drunken driving and neglect, police said.
Fort Wayne police said the mother of three of those children also was being held on neglect charges. The other child belonged to the man. None of the children -- aged 4, 5, 6 and 7 -- was injured, police spokeswoman Raquel Foster said.
A witness called police Monday evening after seeing a man and woman using a tow strap to tie the children to the car in a liquor store parking lot and then drive away, Foster said.
"Apparently they were traveling a short distance, and he believed they would enjoy it," Foster said.
She said a U.S. marshal overheard the police radio traffic, spotted the car and pulled it over.
Foster said she had no information about the children's reaction to the ride.
The man had a blood alcohol content of .17, more than twice Indiana's legal limit for driving, Foster said. Police said the woman also appeared to be intoxicated. The man and woman's relationship was unclear.
Apparently Mitt Romney is a role model.
[Link: www.viciousbabushka.com...]
Yaron London writes the following in YNet:
Almost all our political parties expressed their views on the proper way to draft the haredim into the IDF. The freshest proposal is the one presented by Yair Lapid. The main innovation inherent in it is the undoing of the Gordian knot that forces ultra-Orthodox youngsters to study at the yeshiva and prevents them from working for a living.
Haredi officials rushed to slam the rookie politician and accused him of holding hatred towards members of their sector. This is a regular pattern: Anyone who attempts to impose any kind of change on the haredim is accused of hating them and often also of anti-Semitism. Those who view themselves as the guardians of real Judaism apparently cannot address criticism against them in any other way.
Yet don't conclude from the above that I endorse Lapid's proposal. The forced enlistment of thousands of youngsters lacking any professional training guarantees a huge waste of money and immense corruption. So what should we do?
I've heard all the prevailing views and none of them convinced me. When a question has no answer for a long period of time, we must realize that no answer exists and come up with another question. Hence, the correct question is not how to draft the haredim and draw them into the job market, but rather, what should be done in order to minimize their rate within Israeli society.
OF COURSE Haredim should be drafted into the IDF or National Service like everyone else, and support their families with dignity. But Yaron London does not want that. He does not want Haredim in IDF uniforms carrying guns, or empowered Haredim working in professional careers. He wants them reduced, shrunken, dwindled, minimized...without saying exactly how he proposes to go about shrinking an entire population, but his words do conjure up images from history as to how similar objectives of shrinking a population were carried out in the past.
