Sunday, May 15, 2011
It is hate speech in Denmark to comment on child abuse and violence against women in Muslim culture
Spectator
Another bad blow against freedom in the west. Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society and The International Free Press Society, was yesterday found guilty of hate speech under the Danish penal code. His crime – as I wrote previously here, here and here – was to draw attention to child abuse and violence against women in Muslim culture. The day after the interview, he stressed that his opinions were about Islam and not intended to refer to all Muslims. [....]
Fairfax teacher still suffering from false molestation allegations
Washington Post
Sean Lanigan’s nightmare began in January 2010, when the principal at Centre Ridge Elementary School pulled him out of the physical education class he was teaching and quietly walked him into an interrogation with two Fairfax County police detectives.
He had no warning that a 12-year-old girl at the Centreville school had accused him of groping and molesting her in the gym.
The girl, angry at Lanigan about something else entirely, had made the whole thing up. But her accusations launched a soul-sapping rollercoaster ride that still hasn’t ended.
“Emotionally, a part of me has died inside,” Lanigan said in a recent interview. “I’m physically and mentally exhausted all the time, how the whole process has been dragged out to this date. It certainly has affected the quality of life for me and my family at home.”
Lanigan remains in limbo, nearly a year after a jury’s acquittal. The Fairfax School District transferred him from Centre Ridge in a move that ultimately forced his wife to quit her job. School officials are now transferring him again. And the district has refused to pay his $125,000 in legal fees, even though Virginia law allows reimbursement for employees who are cleared of wrongdoing on the job. [...]
Sean Lanigan’s nightmare began in January 2010, when the principal at Centre Ridge Elementary School pulled him out of the physical education class he was teaching and quietly walked him into an interrogation with two Fairfax County police detectives.
He had no warning that a 12-year-old girl at the Centreville school had accused him of groping and molesting her in the gym.
The girl, angry at Lanigan about something else entirely, had made the whole thing up. But her accusations launched a soul-sapping rollercoaster ride that still hasn’t ended.
“Emotionally, a part of me has died inside,” Lanigan said in a recent interview. “I’m physically and mentally exhausted all the time, how the whole process has been dragged out to this date. It certainly has affected the quality of life for me and my family at home.”
Lanigan remains in limbo, nearly a year after a jury’s acquittal. The Fairfax School District transferred him from Centre Ridge in a move that ultimately forced his wife to quit her job. School officials are now transferring him again. And the district has refused to pay his $125,000 in legal fees, even though Virginia law allows reimbursement for employees who are cleared of wrongdoing on the job. [...]
Reb Amos Bunim Zatzal - A Tribute
5tjt by Rabbi Yair Hoffmann
Unfortunately, this past Shabbos, Reb Amos Bunim a”h passed away in Mount Sinai hospital.
There is a TaZ in Hilchos Aveilus that states that one can lie a little bit when one is eulogizing a deceased individual. The TaZ explains that it is permitted to do so, because it could be true. There is no need to do so here. If anything, we are dealing with a man – who not enough could be said about.
To say that Rabbi Amos Bunim zt”l was an Askan for Klal Yisroel would be an understatement. He lived and breathed doing for Klal Yisroel. His exuberance and energy infused and enlivened each and every project that he touched. The world would have been a different place without him. And the world will now be a vastly different place without him.
Reb Amos had a remarkable sense of right and wrong, combined with a Temimus – a gentleness combined with compassion and concern. He possessed a moral clarity - rare among people. Yidden loved him. Goyim loved him. Politicians and businessmen knew that here was a man who was sincere and passionate in his beliefs. A man whose unimpeachable honesty was genuine and indisputably authentic. Reb Amos’ moral convictions and determination to face and confront evil and apathy was legendary.
It was also inspiring.
Which is probably how he got others to do things with him. Somehow, one never felt alone when Reb Amos was standing with you on a project. He also made everyone else feel good about what they did. [...]
Unfortunately, this past Shabbos, Reb Amos Bunim a”h passed away in Mount Sinai hospital.
There is a TaZ in Hilchos Aveilus that states that one can lie a little bit when one is eulogizing a deceased individual. The TaZ explains that it is permitted to do so, because it could be true. There is no need to do so here. If anything, we are dealing with a man – who not enough could be said about.
To say that Rabbi Amos Bunim zt”l was an Askan for Klal Yisroel would be an understatement. He lived and breathed doing for Klal Yisroel. His exuberance and energy infused and enlivened each and every project that he touched. The world would have been a different place without him. And the world will now be a vastly different place without him.
Reb Amos had a remarkable sense of right and wrong, combined with a Temimus – a gentleness combined with compassion and concern. He possessed a moral clarity - rare among people. Yidden loved him. Goyim loved him. Politicians and businessmen knew that here was a man who was sincere and passionate in his beliefs. A man whose unimpeachable honesty was genuine and indisputably authentic. Reb Amos’ moral convictions and determination to face and confront evil and apathy was legendary.
It was also inspiring.
Which is probably how he got others to do things with him. Somehow, one never felt alone when Reb Amos was standing with you on a project. He also made everyone else feel good about what they did. [...]
Friday, May 13, 2011
Mystics & psychics are good at taking your money
NYTimes
"The scam is tremendous," said Lt. Manny Hernandez, of the detective
squad at the Sixth Precinct, in Manhattan. Adam Brown, a lawyer suing
Ms. Mitchell, called the business "organized psychic crime."
Grand larceny is historically a clear-cut crime, like stealing a purse
in a bar. Some psychic cases would seem harder to prosecute: The squad
is also looking for a psychic named Angela from a West 18th Street
parlor who they say persuaded a client to give her $9,000 for some magic
coins that the two, in a cleansing ritual, later threw into an upstate
lake.
Is Israel Using Gay Rights to Excuse Its Policy on Palestine?
Time
Next month is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride month, an international season of parades, cultural festivals and street parties celebrating gay rights. But amid all the good cheer, tensions are rising over a controversial issue that is splintering LGBT communities. Around the world, major Pride events are being used as battle grounds to combat what some pro-Palestinian, progay activists are calling pink washing: Israel's promotion of its progressive gay-rights record as a way to cover up ongoing human-rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza.
The accusations stem from efforts over the past half-decade by the Israeli government to weave the country's gay-friendly policies — including national hate-crime laws, employment protection for LGBT workers and openly gay military service — into its larger national-rebranding strategy, in the hopes of redirecting its global image away from politics, terrorism and the occupied territories. "The Israeli government and its propaganda organs ... insist on advertising and exaggerating its recent record on LGBT rights ... to fend off international condemnation of its violations of the rights of the Palestinian people," says Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York City.
The accusations stem from efforts over the past half-decade by the Israeli government to weave the country's gay-friendly policies — including national hate-crime laws, employment protection for LGBT workers and openly gay military service — into its larger national-rebranding strategy, in the hopes of redirecting its global image away from politics, terrorism and the occupied territories. "The Israeli government and its propaganda organs ... insist on advertising and exaggerating its recent record on LGBT rights ... to fend off international condemnation of its violations of the rights of the Palestinian people," says Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York City.
Prestigious school sued: A school psychologist is accused of affair with client's mother
NYTimes
The father of a kindergartner at Sidwell Friends, one of the most prestigious private schools in Washington, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the school and its former psychologist, claiming that the psychologist had an affair with his wife while treating his daughter.
The psychologist, James F. Huntington, was fired from Sidwell in February, the complaint says, nearly a year after the kindergartner’s father, Arthur G. Newmyer, raised his concern about the matter with the school’s chairman, who then notified the school’s lawyer.
At the time of the firing, the principal of the middle school e-mailed parents saying that Dr. Huntington had “served the school community with distinction and warmth for 10 years, and we are grateful for his many contributions,” according to the lawsuit. [....]
The father of a kindergartner at Sidwell Friends, one of the most prestigious private schools in Washington, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the school and its former psychologist, claiming that the psychologist had an affair with his wife while treating his daughter.
The psychologist, James F. Huntington, was fired from Sidwell in February, the complaint says, nearly a year after the kindergartner’s father, Arthur G. Newmyer, raised his concern about the matter with the school’s chairman, who then notified the school’s lawyer.
At the time of the firing, the principal of the middle school e-mailed parents saying that Dr. Huntington had “served the school community with distinction and warmth for 10 years, and we are grateful for his many contributions,” according to the lawsuit. [....]
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