US Criminal Justice Population Tops 7 Million

Washington, DC: A record 7 million citizens approximately one out of every 32 American adults is either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, according to statistics released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) this week.

The DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that 2.2 million Americans are behind bars and more than 4.1 million Americans are on probation. Nearly 800,000 citizens are on parole.

The report states that the incarceration of drug offenders is primarily responsible for the record growth of America’s prison population, noting that from 1995 to 2003, federal drug inmates accounted for almost 50 percent of the total federal prison population growth. Drug offenders also represent the largest source of jail population growth, up nearly 40 percent since 1996.

Among state prisoners, approximately 21 percent are behind bars for drug violations.

In October, the BJS released data indicating that nearly one in eight drug prisoners in America are behind bars for marijuana-related offenses.

-norml

DONMEH WEST Neo-Sabbatian Quote of the Day

“If you’re looking for a spiritual teacher who is holier than you are, less sinful than you are, more pious than you are, smarter than you are, better read than you are, more ‘loving’ than you are, less crazy than you are — one who will  ‘empower’ your life (which really means to pump up your already bloated ego),  then I tell you emphatically that you’ve come to the wrong teacher by coming to me.

“I tell you this because some people can and do get seriously bent out of shape when they discover that I am exactly what I say I am — which ain’t no saint. For both our sakes, then, leave before you make the same mistake as they, and begin wearing yourself out by casting stones.”

-Reb Yakov Leib  HaKohen

PHARAOH’s DAUGHTER: CD pre-release party

PHARAOH’s DAUGHTER

CD pre-release party
We are almost finished! After a year of performing new songs, and working out
the arrangements
we are almost there…, thank you for all your support,

****Wednesday, November 29th, 7p.m., JOE’s PUB ****
BUY TICKETS NOW!!
$12 advance $15 at the door. (425 Lafayette St. Near Astor Place)
9 piece band-basya, (oud) daphna, (ney, recorders)  meg (violin, erhu)

mathias (percussion)  jason (keys)  yuval, (drums) uri (accordian) shanir (bass) 

 SPECIAL GUEST:
Adam Levy (electric guitar) of Norah Jones’ band

Www.myspace.com/pharaohsdaughter
Www.pharaohsdaughter.com

Rabbinic supervision.

B”H
I have recently asked the author of Jewish Polygamy blog who is an Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi and a Dayan (Rabbinic Judge) in Jerusalem specializing in matters of marriage and divorce who is also a member of the new Sanhedrin to oversee this blog and answer my questions regarding various practical halachik issues related to pilagshut relationships.
Thus far we discussed various questions such as determining the Jewishness of a prospective pilegesh (something important for pilegesh contracts should be recommended for people willing to enter a pilegesh relationship.
Check back soon for posts personals online as well as any Jewish personals site)
We also discussed what on these and other issues which are often ignored in most other recent articles published about pilegesh relationships.
PS:Please also read this post http://pilegesh.blogspot.com/2006/11/pilegesh-personals.html about the pilegesh personals/shiduchim service.

-pilegesh 

Jews for Christmas : Paradox, Propaganda or Perhaps a Legitimate Choice?

by Moishe Rosen

It was September of 2006. Jews for Jesus had just finished their largest-ever effort to proclaim to the people of New York that Jesus is the Messiah. They’d written many new pamphlets to draw attention to their message, using various icons from popular culture as the theme. They distributed the pamphlets in public venues throughout July, and were surprised to find a lawsuit filed against them in September from, of all people, Jackie Mason, the subject of one the pamphlets. To so many he was like their own Zeyde with such a superb and canny ability to see what is so funny in what is so ordinary.
Perhaps the pamphlet writers were naive. They had not been pro-choice, there would be no Jewish people thought Jackie would appreciate the tribute to his humor when they satirized his “difference between Jews and Gentiles” shtick. After all, if a comedian doesn’t understand satire, then who should? And, the group had reason to believe that Mr. Mason was in possession of a particularly tolerant nature. After all, who else in the Jewish community set out to encourage Christians to be public in celebrating the birth of Y’shua (Jesus)?

Last December 15, WorldNetDaily reported that Jackie Mason is a founding member of a group called “Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation.” As such he planned to “ride down 5th Avenue…in a 15-foot Ford Excursion with banners proclaiming, ‘Jews for, “It’s okay to say Merry Christmas.”‘

Jackie’s courage and his activist stand on reversing the secularization of Christ were impressive. He certainly challenged people to live up to their ideals of openmindedness and tolerance.

Yet it seems such open-mindedness only goes so far. Perhaps Jackie and others meant that it was all perfectly fine for Jews to say “Merry Christmas” to Christians, out of respect for their religion…or for Christians to say it to one another. But, what about Jews who actually believe that the birth of Jesus should bring joy to all because he is the Jewish Messiah? How might Jackie feel about them? If it’s not okay for Jews to celebrate the Christ of Christmas, then Jackie and others still miss the mark when it comes to religious freedom because apparently they are not pro-choice!

to continue. click on the holy letters below

-jewsforjesus

Anti-Zionist Jews Condemn Attack on Muslim, Mr. Shahid Amber

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman for Neturei Karta International, fervently condemned today the assault on Shahid Amber by a gang of Jewish youths in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He described the attack as “an affont to basic human decency.” The Rabbi noted that, “It is especially repugnant to an Orthodox Torah Jew who has been schooled in kindness to have to witness this type of behavior in our own community.”

The Rabbi pointed out that, “From the perspective of history it is particularly tragic that this has occurred. Jews and Moslims have generally lived in peace and harmony with each other. Here in the New York area this has always been the case. We fear that the youths, accused of this attack may well have had these ugly passions needlessly inflamed by the pernicious doctrines of Zionism.”

Addressing the victim and his friends and family, he continued, “May Mr. Amber be sent a speedy and complete recovery from the Almighty and may his loved ones experience no further suffering.”

Expressing his hopes for the future the Rabbi said, “We will do all in our power with the help of the Almighty to eradicate the causes of this incident from our midst by educating our communities and our children in particular in the true spirit of Torah harmony and peace.”

-nuturai karta (nkusa.org)

 

 

Al qaida’s BEST PLAN EVER!!!!!

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) — Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

“The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It’s very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. … And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don’t dodge in and out of those marijuana forests,” he said in a speech in Ottawa, Canada.

“We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said.

Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.

“A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those [forests] did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hiller said dryly.

One soldier told him later: “Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I’d say ‘That damn marijuana’.”

(care of Ivory Power)

shluchim conference

Recap of my weekend and random notes

Fighting corporate power with state power is like fighting fire with gasoline. -William Gillis
——-
The annual conference of the missionaries (Kinus Hashluchim) took place in Crown Heights this past weekend, accompanied by the requisite infighting. Tzemach Atlas reports and I respond.
The bench-throwers of today didn’t merely spring up from the ground. Like it or not, every Meshichist is fundamentally brainwashed with the Lubavitch ideology. If I may paraphrase Heinrich Heine: in a place where one throws kugel, one will end up throwing benches.
I, on the other hand, sit here and laugh my ass off. Like Pilate, I wash my hands of the matter. Christian or anti-Christian, all of Lubavitch is a fucking cult. Let them all kill each other, this is the flood that HRH the GGC MHSHF wanted. ומלאו רחובות כתר עליון דם כמים לים מכסים.
…Or in the words of an anonymous commenter on Vos Iz Neias – Listen: the meshichisten were not created in a vacuum; YOU and your leaders have created them!

This is not anarchy, this is forces of the state and centralized control vs. forces of religious theocracy. The Piss-Yellow-Flag freaks are the expected outcome of the teachings of HRH the GGC MHSHF. He placed himself on a pedestal and paved the way for his own deification, and he ended up as a god and a master. He got it his way, an entire fucking population crowned him as king. As king, he had two realms over which he proclaimed his dominion, the political and the spiritual. In both realms, he sold out core principles of Judaism in exchange for power. He exerted his authority and twisted the facts in order to suit his corrupt agenda. After his death, his sheeple grabbed the kingdom – in a manner of שניים אוחזים בטלית. Krinsky and crew got the political realm, while the freakazoids claimed the spiritual.
And thus it continues to this day, זה אומר כולה שלי וזה אומר כולה שלי. The smart ones, however, leave while yet young. They are the ones who, though they may not have understood it then, sensed what was forecoming back when the kugel would fly. So go on, Lubavitcher fucks, kill each other over who gets to control the legacy of an עבודה זרה. If anyone needs me, I’ll be sitting here laughing my ass off and being glad that I left your bullshit cult six years ago.
ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו חי העולמים שפטרני מעונש הלזה
ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו חי העולמים הגומל לחייבים טובות שגמלני טוב
——-
In other news, a bunch of robot-sheep-clone types took a break from circle-jerking each other to the tune of “Chabad Is So Fucking Amazing” in order to pose for a photo-op.
                                                                         Baaaaaaaa!

to continue at anarchistrabbi.blogspot.com

-sholomanarchy

Maybe it’s time to re-examine Neturei Karta?

Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post reported this past week on perhaps one of the most chilling pieces of legislation perhaps to pass the desks of the Knesset.

The office of the Sephardi Chief Rabbinate has proposed a bill amending the Law of Return, the chok ha’shuvah which allows all Jews a place in Israel. Under the new terms of the law:

“This draft legislation proposes… that conversions – Orthodox, Conservative or Reform – will no longer give the convert an automatic right to citizenship. Rather, the convert will be allowed to naturalize in accordance with objective criteria of citizenship.”

And what of the Law of Return itself?

The main element in the bill is a change in the clause defining a Jew for the purposes of the Law of Return.

At present the clause defines a Jew as a person born to a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism.

The bill proposes that an the only individuals recognized as Jewish by the Law of return will be those born to a Jewish mother.

So I can be totally frum, with more hechsherim on me than a bottle of Israeli mehadrin wine, go to Israel and be told I’m “not a Jew”?

Wow! I feel totally Ethiopian now!

So now everyone from Avraham ben Avraham (the “Righteous Convert” of Vilna Ga’on fame) to Onkelos, the prophet Ovadia, Shemaya and Avtalyon — under the new legislation, none of them Jews. Whereas previously, non-Orthodox conversions were unrecognized due to halachic violations and other Judaism-based reasons, this is to “close the loophole” in the Law of Return that “allowed foreign workers to convert in order to receive Israeli citizenship.”

This bill was supported by the National Religious Party.

My mashgiach from Ohr Somayach in Israel, when encountered by Ashkenazi-on-Sephardi racism in yeshiva, screamed at a bochur who was saying racist slurs against Sephardim, “The only reason you have blonde hair and blue eyes is because a Kossack raped your great-grandmother!”. While extreme, it was meant to bring out a point: much of the Ashkenazi elite of Israel are descendents of gerim. (Hence the expression, “pure Sephardi”.)

(And let’s not forget that in September 2005, a beit din was sent to India to convert many of the B’nei Menashe of India — under the authority of the Chief Sephardi Rabbi’s office.)

The Brooklyn Syrian-Jewish community has gained notariety — or perhaps infamy in some circles — for its across-the-board disallowance of gerut and non-recognition of gerim. One notable example of this was a chastisement given by R’ Ovadia to the community for refusing to marry a couple because they were both converts. (R’ Ovadia himself was mesader kiddushin.) And, of course, the Torah says, “There shall be one Torah for the convert and for the native-born of Israel.”

A convert would have to immigrate as any non-Jew would, and would most likely, as the bill places “the Chief Rabbinate” (and let us not forget that this is a political office — chosen by election) “sole authority over conversions”, have to convert under Rabbanut auspices. Not Bada”tz, not the thousands of other Torah authorities in Israel, no one except the Rabbanut.

I’m simultaneously fuming angry and depressed. I gave 13 months of my life to convert, and years of Torah learning both before and after, to feel part of the Jewish people. In Europe, a convert can learn for five to eight years before seeing a mikva. In London and Amsterdam, the beit din requires prominent families to vouch for a prospective convert, which requires the convert to integrate himself into the Jewish community, and can take years on top of the actual conversion process. The halachic convert to Judaism has to affirm — repeatedly — his loyalty to the Jewish people. Ostensibly, this would also mean to Israel.

Such a divorce from the foundations of Judaism and the Jewish people — as the Talmud says that the only reason Jewish people are displaced throughout the nations is so “converts could be added on to them” — would be impossible to deal with for the hundreds of thousands of gerim in the world and should be impossible to deal with for religious Israeli Jews in general.

Were a bill like this to pass, I would find it hard to see a case against Neturei Karta or some similar organization’s ideals. (Obviously, sitting with terrorists is disgusting. I’m talking in principle.) If Israel isn’t a Jewish “homeland”, then what is it? And why is it, in effect, making thousands of Jews home-less?

DONMEH WEST: Neo-Sabbatian Quote of the Day

B”H

“In all spiritual work, and especially our own, it’s essential to remain grounded — to keep our feet firmly on the floor so that we don’t bump our heads on the ceiling — to honor and accept the Holy Spirit while keeping a firm hold on ourselves and a respectful distance from Her.

“We must encounter God, but not allow ourselves to be carried away in the encounter — otherwise we are useless to Him in His struggle for stability and sanity.

“We must keep a firm hold on ourselves. We must maintain our stability to return God to His — our sanity to return Him to His.

“We must be an anchor for God.”

-Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain  

Jewish week notices bright colors!

Pretty thorough and charming piece about Levi Okunov, and his fabulous “redheaded publicist.”

I didn’t know Berel had a last name!

The Jewish Week can actually be a pretty good paper sometimes. I’ve liked Jonathan Mark’s trip for a while, and it really feels like they’re taking a mainstream jewish community and trying to genuine keep them informed of What Is that they would not otherwise know. the last line of the piece illustrates Avreml’s theory of Chabad Antinomianist tolerance, because of the inevitability of the return to the truest god.

gay sex in the mikva: holy?

http://ashejournal.com/eleven/51_michaelson.pdf

Jay Michaelson is the most inisightful writer of our generation re: the religious impulse, Judaism, buddism and their limitations, and queer spirituality. Here’s an amazing piece about his life, growing up religious and fellating a young man at a mikvah, in the sweetesrt least sleazy way possible.

He publishes and edits zeek (www.zeek.net) and had me write a piece for it called Tree of Life largely about chassidis and psychedelics in prehistory. Read his writings, and become a better person for it.

And check out

http://ashejournal.com/ The journal of experimental spirituality, which this piece is from. Some amazing stuff here.

http://www.metatronics.net/words/aa.htm

A great piece on the origins of philosphical anti-semitism, and the problem with law that the whole world associated with Us.

http://www.blithe.com/10.2/10.2.02.html

What if the pasuk forbidding homosexualiy vanished from every chumash and sefer Torah? would it solve the problem?

-yo

An ultra-left wing Israeli Election Ad, But…

An ad for the pro-Communist Chadash party in Israel, which I think should be examined (working knowledge of Hebrew is a plus):

The girl opens up by saying: “This country is shayach to 18 families, and I’m not one of them.” Which is quickly expounded upon by Dr. Dov Chanin, “This country could be a great place to live in”, but the country unfortunately is tied down by an elite who ruin everything for everyone else. (Granted, if they didn’t hard sell and press this concept of “rich man is keeping you down”, the Communism part would never fly with many voters.)

Who are these “18 families”? These 18 families. These 18. Of those 18, 7 are close to Olmert.

Israel does not have that long of a history to have the same type of “old money” that keeps oppression running in America. Did this originate in Europe? Most of the names sound Ashkenazi. How bad is it? Oh — 77% of the entire country’s budget. Put Walmart and Microsoft and AOLTimeWarner together, as a frame of reference and that’s still not it.

Would Israel benefit from a class upheaval? To do so would unite secular and religious, Israeli and Palestinian, Jew and non-Jew. However, the nature of Israel is different — would doing so turn Israel into a 3rd world country with worse bloodshed than it has ever had?

Your thoughts? Your opinions?
Hal mustaqbal’naa maa’ al’Jib’haa? Is the future with parties like the above, Chadash? Or is the future against them? A question to provoke thought. From Y-Love.

god, can you stop the concert for me?

be my father like a father should be

dear god

sometimes I’m thinking why I hade to be born as a Jewish girl? to be with you, and suffering from feeling the I’m bad, this is a Avera, this is to, I should do that, not that, don’t go there, I should go there, why can’t you leave us alone what’s wrong to do what the whole world does? I cant open TV in Sabbath? why not? But you see, I forget, I cant watch TV at all… its Tuma.. really? why is like that why you not letting us to just love you, and to be free? why I have to do things because I have to? why I cant do it cause I love you? why you have to tell me what to do to you, I want to do whatever in my heart, I don’t like to pray from the Sidur, I want my own words, my own heart, I don’t need anyone to tell me what to ask from you, only you, we know each other, from my little heart, you in my heart!!!!
ok, so I was trying at one point to do what you want, but you just smack me in my face, why is that? what did I do wrong? why when I was by age of 13 I hade to sleep with guys to be able to eat in the morning? you said you do all the Mitzvoth too, no? so in your Torah you talking about Chesed, Tsedoko, how about Chesed to your own girl? I’m you girl, where is the Chesed? you should be a good father to me, not like my other father, you can be a great father, but you left me in the streets, starving begging for little Shekel to have what to eat, I was only 13, how can you do that to me? can you understand now why I’m like that now?

but I love you Tate, you did gave me nice sexy body, you did made me with amazing smile, you are a good artist, I know to say thank you for the good things you did to me, you opened the world for me, thank you, you gave me money, house, car, everything I need, thank you, but why I don’t feel that you opened my heart to myself, why I feel so empty? why you not giving me what my soul Neshomo needs, why I’m not happy? why as long that my heart is broken, I give a shit about the other things you gave me, can you try to understand me and to put my heart pieces together? Can you make me happy? please just be with me, I will do anything for you, I even will stop watching TV, I will stop doing shows, I will stop you other kids from making Averot with me, but please I beg you, be my father like a father should be, don’t just stay up there and watch me crying every night, when I think of you, if I will stop thinking of you I will be so happy, I have everything I need, but I need you, how can I stop thinking of you? Tate, you want me to stop thinking of you? maybe you do, but I cant, I’m with you, I love you, don’t do this to me, please…. are you having fun up there? you have your Angels, but I’m your girl, stop playing around with them, you like how they sing? you having a concert every morning, but I’m crying, how can you listen to them singing when I’m your girl, full of tears? who is better? me or them? I’m in pain only because I miss you, so please, be with me Tate I need you, you are my father my husband, yes, you are my lover,

I love you Hashem,
don’t let me down

can you let me kiss you?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
your little girl
michal

no tanah or amoirah ever found the g=spot

the g=spot was discovered by a jew named grafenberg in the 1950’s.

i spent years involved in the study of the talmud.  i love it still.  its the world’s first encyclopedia,  written in a shtiebel. full of arguing and fighting and kugel-throwing. its wild.

but for all of its information and legal formulation, it has its shortcoming: hairsplitting

thats when you apply a logical process when its absolutely unnecessary and/or unapplicable.

this problem has grown with the passing of time. its self-destructive. like weeds that choke out new trees, hair-splitting has stifled the evolution of jewish thinking

 today, the average yeshiva student will never ever ever learn the entire shas.  he can’t. he is too busy hairsplitting the first mishna of every mesechta for a solid three months. that’s tragic

im writing this because of a certain issue thats been bothering me. we know that the world is ying and yang. male and female. but the gemara already discovered that this isnt always black and white.

there are people who form a middle category. the gemara calls them androgynous and tumtum. today, we have a term called queer. this is much more scientifically accurate. it includes all those people who have a unique ying and yang/ male and female configuration.

many of these people are the most special humans you will ever meet. they have an exciting and unique perspective. many are artists and muscicans flowing with talent. some are downright brilliant.

but this is where the talmud goes wrong. it tries solving all the mysteries of the world all at once, having no faith in the unraveling passage of time. they perceived their position in history as the peak of the mountain, not just another rolling hilltop in the  majestic landscape of human development

 just like the peculiar medical remedies prescribed in the talmud, this subject of human sexuality is also prematurely resolved

and just like the talmud’s medical remedies were proven to be ridiculous, much of the conversations recorded in the gemara on the topic regarding queers are ridiculous as well.

dont get me wrong: i am a proud jew. i am specifically proud of the talmud. it shows how inquisitive and connected our ancestors were! but brilliance mustnt be confused with authority

we mustnt forego the curious findings of our own experience. we musnt allow our own brilliance to be shadowed by the authority we have given to people who lived two thousand years ago.

we stand on giants’ shoulders. but we stand tall and proud. we arent little retarded midgets clinging to their knees.

the gemara goes on a hairsplitting campaign: how do we know if the androgynous/tumtum/queer is a man or a woman? when can they marry a man? when can they marry a woman?

the answer is very simple. but it evaded our ancestors. that  lomdishe need to have absolute solutions and universal resolutions got the better of them.  the answer isnt in tosfos or the rosh, or the rashba

the answer is: let them decide.
allow each person to follow their own heart.

love is personal.

love is awesome.

love is divine.

and so is our neshama.

each person knows their own truth, who they really are.

let the queers be. let them decide whom and how to love.

thats what i wanted to say.

with that said, consider this: say a man is really a woman. in all aspects of life he is a woman, except he has a male body. what pain! what torture that must be!

for those of us who have led ambigiuous lives within the frum community, surely we must be able to relate somewhat to that pain!

but today we arent living in pupadisa. there are countless medical procedures and treatments that werent available to mankind 2000 years ago

today, the city of san fransisco pays for sex -change operations in certain situations. i have deep respect for that city. the scholars of the talmud would be proud to know