Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Discrimination is discrimination

It never occurred to me, even though I was a feminist, to report my co-worker for propositioning me practically every other workday when I was in my mid-twenties.  That may seem surprising, but what's even more so is the reason--not only was sexual harassment not illegal some 45 years ago, the concept of sexual harassment did not yet exist.  There was no name for what that low-life was doing to me.  Being pestered by a heterosexual male co-worker just because one was a woman was considered normal--that was just the price a woman paid for "being employed while female."*

And that's why I support the football players who are kneeling during the U.S. national anthem.  Decades ago, segregation was considered normal, too.  It should not still be the case that anyone who's not a white Christian U.S.-born heterosexual male who speaks English as his first language is fair game for discrimination in the United States.  "Liberty and justice for all" should not be an empty slogan.

As for the notion that kneeling during the national anthem is an insult to our military, what are they defending if not American values such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Aren't our constitutional rights what our troops are defending?


*See "Driving While Black."

Related:  My Thursday, May 16, 2019 post, "Re abortion-rights abolition quest: Only "dominant-class" males have permanent rights :( :( :("

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Friday, November 24, 2017

Vayetze: How could Jacob have mistaken Leah for Rachel?

TheTorah.com does it again:  This is the most logical explanation I've ever read.  Avoiding a 21st- century perspective is the key to understanding this mix-up.

Here's a link to some older Vayetze posts by me and others.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Toldot: I missed something

Many thanks to the fine folks at TheTorah.com for showing me that, despite having read the weekly Torah reading every week for roughly 45 years, I'd somehow not noticed an inconsistency in the text of Parashat Toldot.  I strongly recommend that you read The Source of Jacob's Two Blessings.

I was surprised and delighted that the authors used the same word--seam--that I had used to describe the same process in one of my earliest posts.


Here's one of my older posts regarding Parashat Toldot, with links to others.

Thursday, November 09, 2017

I'm shocked, but not surprised, by this preventable tragedy

Three-year-old dies after being fed something to which he was severely allergic.


My guess:  The daycare center knew that he was allergic to dairy products, but it didn't occur to them that cheese was a dairy product.


In my opinion, the problem is that many of us in the so-called "developed countries" are so divorced from agriculture that we quite literally don't know what our food is made of.  By way of illustration, I was once served, from a restaurant's official gluten-free menu, a plate of gluten-free pasta topped with bread crumbs.  Somehow, the fact that bread crumbs are just as gluten-containing as wheat-based pasta didn't occur to anyone in the kitchen.  Then there's the friend of ours who's severely allergic to gluten who was served gluten-based cereal in a hospital.  Even the hospital's dietitian didn't get it.  That reminds me of the old joke about city-raised kids thinking that milk comes from a carton, rather than from a cow.  Somehow, that joke isn't so funny at the moment.


My heart goes out to this poor family.  They lost their child because of ignorance.

Sunday, November 05, 2017

Rest in peace to the victims of New York City's most recent terrorist attack

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