July 31, 2010
They call him the "Rabbah Rouser"
“There’s a tremendous amount of anxiety among religious traditionalists that when you take one step toward egalitarianism, the floodgates are open and everything that seemed self-evident will no longer be. Men go to work, and women raise children. If you undermine that, you have lost your whole universe.”
The Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism have been ordaining women as rabbis for decades, but the religion's most traditional sect, the Orthodox, remains a lone, minority holdout against egalitarianism. Last year, Orthodox Rabbi Avraham "Avi" Weiss (political activist and founder of the controversial, liberal, "Open Orthodox" Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Yeshiva in New York) tried to shake things up by ordaining the first female American Orthodox rabbi. [more inside]
The Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism have been ordaining women as rabbis for decades, but the religion's most traditional sect, the Orthodox, remains a lone, minority holdout against egalitarianism. Last year, Orthodox Rabbi Avraham "Avi" Weiss (political activist and founder of the controversial, liberal, "Open Orthodox" Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Yeshiva in New York) tried to shake things up by ordaining the first female American Orthodox rabbi. [more inside]
"This human rights abuse is universal, and no one should claim immunity from its reach or from the responsibility to confront it."
This year, for the first time ever, the U.S. included itself in the State Department's annual report on human trafficking. Most Americans associate human trafficking with sexually exploited women and children, but the definition includes guest laborers who have been trapped into indentured servitude as well. "More investigations and prosecutions have taken place for sex trafficking offenses than for labor trafficking offenses, but law enforcement identified a comparatively higher number of labor trafficking victims as such cases often involve more victims.” The full report--with victim stories, "TIP Heroes," methodology, definitions, etc.--is here.
Paul Madonna draws San Francisco.
"I never know what to call myself really. I call myself a cartoonist because it's what I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember, it's what I always return to, and it's how I think. But I don't really work in that field. I think I'm an artist and a writer, or more appropriately, an artist who writes." [more inside]
It's still Saturday, don't look at me.
Cat, cat, cats on a treadmill. Cats vs. a treadmill. Dog, dog, dog on a treadmill.
Ferret on a treadmill. Horse on a treadmill. More about horses on treadmills. Horsing around on a treadmill. Kiwi on a treadmill. Turtle, turtle, sea turtle on a treadmill. Vampire bat on a treadmill. Shrimp on a treadmill.
MOMS for the 21st Century
Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard introduced the Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services (MOMS) for the 21st Century Act on July 21st. This legislation proposed by Congresswoman Roybal-Allard of California is aimed at improving maternal and infant outcomes in the US. [more inside]
[State Name] Gurls
What's the easiest way to learn about a state? Watch the California Gurls parody made in that state's honor! [41LYT] [more inside]
Timing is everything?
With "support for the death penalty in excess of 85% [of the population]", there is normally little fuss in Japan each time the announcement is made that convicted murderers from death row have been hanged (such announcements are only made after each execution.) But last Wednesday, the disclosure that two executions had taken place early that morning did raise eyebrows - for two reasons. Justice Minister Keiko Chiba held a press conference to make the announcement, and added that - in a 'first' for a Japanese Justice Minister - she herself had attended the execution as a witness, after signing the authorization for it to proceed. But what has really caused a firestorm of protest is the fact that although she lost her Parliamentary seat in last month's election, she "has remained in her ministerial post at the request of Prime Minister Naoto Kan". She is a private citizen.
SMYT: Saturday Morning You Tube
Pop music in the '60s ran the gamut from Bobby Russell's "Saturday Morning Confusion" to "Come Saturday Morning" (from the soundtrack of "The Sterile Cuckoo"* and performed by the same guys who sang of "Guantanamo -mera"). And they still write songs today about "Saturday Morning" (with pancakes! and vampires!).
The first thing Disney did when it took over ABC was "One Saturday Morning"**. But then there are the "REAL Saturday Morning Watchmen" (remixed from previously on MeFi). (other Saturday Morning video posts)
*yes, that is a very young Liza Minnelli
**I'll never forgive them for canceling "Reboot" and "Bump in the Night", the only Saturday toons I still enjoyed, because they weren't produced by Disney
The first thing Disney did when it took over ABC was "One Saturday Morning"**. But then there are the "REAL Saturday Morning Watchmen" (remixed from previously on MeFi). (other Saturday Morning video posts)
*yes, that is a very young Liza Minnelli
**I'll never forgive them for canceling "Reboot" and "Bump in the Night", the only Saturday toons I still enjoyed, because they weren't produced by Disney
The wife of a once-popular singer (Gary Busey) is found dead.
A lawyer is secretly a stripper. Detectives look for a racist. Radiation kills a tormented scientist. Briscoe and Green search for lost customer. Homeless men are murdered. A complicated murder case.
These Are Their Stories: Art based on one-line summaries of Law & Order episodes. [more inside]
The Flower
The Flower contrasts a utopian society that freely farms and consumes a pleasure giving flower with a society where the same flower is illegal and its consumption is prohibited. The animation is a meditation on the social and economic costs of marijuana prohibition.
Puberty Blues
Puberty Blues - Hayley Smith started developing breasts when she was five. A year later, she had her first period. “It was awful,” her mother says. “There was so much ignorance. People treated her differently—Hayley didn’t really have a childhood. You just don’t expect to have to talk to your six-year-old daughter about having periods.” The evidence from Denmark suggests that Hayley’s experience could soon be commonplace. Most paediatric endocrinologists now agree that the age of puberty is falling fast in developed nations. But there is no consensus on why.
Anchorage, 1970s
The Internet Animal Orchestra (It's Caturday)
The Internet Animal Orchestra [SLYT Saturday]
95
Romania's Tirgsor Prison (for women), as photographed by six inmates. (mild nsfw content)
NOM NOM *MEEEEEW* NOM
F is for Cookie
I Am The Judge
Sisyphean box
Sisyphean box [SLYT]
One of the more persistent economic fallacies of our day.
The last 23 seconds of this video of a brick in a washing machine are worth the first 56
American railways
High-speed railroading
America's system of rail freight is the world's best. High-speed passenger trains could ruin it [more inside]
America's system of rail freight is the world's best. High-speed passenger trains could ruin it [more inside]
Normally I'd make fun of them, but it's actually pretty awesome
Stress
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