Sex offenders barred from places of Worship

Time

North Carolina is a proud member of the so-called Bible Belt of states that take their religion seriously. So some eyebrows were raised when James Nichols was arrested for attending church.

His offense? Nichols, a convicted sex offender, had chosen to worship at a church that has a nursery where kids play while their parents pray. Now Nichols, 31, who only recently got out of prison, is fighting back, challenging the legality of a new law that took effect in December prohibiting registered sex offenders from coming within 300 ft. — nearly a football field's length — of any facility devoted to the use, care or supervision of minors. (See pictures of John 3:16 in pop culture.)

As more states have adopted laws regulating where sex offenders can go, it was only a matter of time before the noble goal of protecting children butted heads with the sacrosanct First Amendment right to worship where and when you choose. Which takes precedence? [...]

Change in the Arab Middle-East

CNN

The Arab Middle East teaches minorities some tough life lessons and shapes them in ways that might surprise you. While the effect of a conservative patriarchal society is expected to keep people under the thumb of tradition, culture and tribal and religious beliefs — sometimes too much oppression and control yields opposite results.

Having lived in several parts of the Middle East as a child, I learned that a woman doesn't exist except as someone's daughter, sister, wife or mother. Her opinion is not required, her emotions don't count and she has no rights whatsoever – except those granted to her by a male.

With a few recent exceptions, an Arab woman's testimony is not accepted in court. Most Arab women can't travel outside their countries without permission from a male guardian, and most Arab women still can't give nationality to their children. In Saudi Arabia women are not even allowed to drive cars. A popular Arabic saying describes it best: a good woman "has a mouth that eats but not one that speaks." [...]

Gra: Torah comes from the poor - not the rich

כתר ראש אורחות חיים

סח] הזהרו בבני עניים שמהם תצא תורה' [נדרים פא.], והיינו שבני עניים מקבלים פעולה בהישיבה יותר מבני העשירים, מפני שאבותיהם לא הרבו עליהם בהוצאות שכר למוד ונשאר אצלם הכל בכח ובהישיבה מוציאים מכח אל הפועל, ולא כן בני חעשירים. שכבר הוציאו עליהם למלמדים מופלגים כו׳ כל מה שהיה בכוחם הוציאו אל הפועל, ומזה תקיש לשאר אופניםל פ ):

לט)להתחבר עם עניים והמתנהגים בשפלות, ולישב עמהם בכדי שיסתפק במה שימצא את עצמו (באור רבינו משלי ט״ז ייט) < וכמו מעשה דר״ע שמצא הצשיר יושב בין הנגניים.

Shabbos Elevators - view of Tzomet Institute

Shabbos Elevators Tzomet Oct 11 2009

Muslim Anti-Semite - formerly an Orthodox Jew

Fox News

A New York bicycle cabbie who last year used his Web site to mock the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl posted a prayer calling for the murder of Jews and exhorting Muslims to "throw liquid drain cleaner in their faces." And there's nothing authorities can do about it.

Yousef al-Khattab, who runs RevolutionMuslim.com and pedals a pedicab in New York City, insists the words he has posted on his Web site are a prayer, and not a threat — and that his hatred is protected by the First Amendment.

"If it was a threat, I'd be in jail," the 41-year-old al-Khattab told Foxnews.com from his home in Queens. "I'm asking my God, that's what it is. Every supporter of Israel is an enemy combatant and the immune system is not anti-Semitic for resisting disease."

Al-Khattab removed the Oct. 7 post a "few days ago" and replaced it with a post about a mosque in Jerusalem.

An American-born Jew formerly known as Joseph Cohen who converted to Islam after attending an Orthodox rabbinical school — al-Khattab called on Allah to carry out "wrath on the Jewish occupiers of Palestine & their supporters." [...]

Reporting abuse is becoming more acceptable

NYTimes (hat tip to Joseph & Efraim)


For decades, prosecutors in Brooklyn routinely pursued child molesters from every major ethnic and religious segment of the borough’s diverse population. Except one.

Of some 700 child sexual abuse cases brought in an average year, few involved members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community — about 180,000 followers of Hasidic and other sects who make up the largest such cluster outside Israel. Some years, there were one or two arrests, or none.

But in the past year, there have been 26. District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has brought charges against a variety of men — yeshiva teachers, rabbis, camp counselors, merchants and relatives of children. Eight have been convicted; 18 await trial. [...]

Virus might cause Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

NYTimes

Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome are infected with a little known virus that may cause or at least contribute to their illness, researchers are reporting.

The syndrome, which causes prolonged and severe fatigue, body aches and other symptoms, has long been a mystery ailment, and patients have sometimes been suspected of malingering or having psychiatric problems rather than genuine physical ones. Worldwide, 17 million people have the syndrome, including at least one million Americans.

An article published online Thursday in the journal Science reports that 68 of 101 patients with the syndrome, or 67 percent, were infected with an infectious virus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV. By contrast, only 3.7 percent of 218 healthy people were infected. Continuing work after the paper was published has found the virus in nearly 98 percent of about 300 patients with the syndrome, said Dr. Judy A. Mikovits, the lead author of the paper. [...]