Sigrid Weidenweber's Blog, page 3

The Wall Street Journal Induces Me to Think About Orthodoxy and Islam

I have not been blogging much lately. I am re-writing a book, giving lectures and that keeps me focused on these projects. However, occasionally one must stray from the well-trodden road, which becomes boring after a while and indulge in flights of critique.

And so, on Thursday, January 5, 2012 an article by Joshua Mitnick caught my attention. (No, I am not critiquing Mr. Mitnick, I am lauding him.)  The article was entitled Israeli Women Fight Bus Segregation by Ultra-Orthodox. My eyes popped! Am I reading this right? Women in Israel fighting segregation? I have been to Israel—twice—and have enjoyed myself enormously. Nowhere did I notice segregation!

So imagine my horror and surprise when, upon reading Mr. Mitnick’s article, I find that the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, those with the large, black hats, the beards and the peyes, the curled side burns, have, for years been given the privilege of special public busses catering to the needs of the Hasidic Jews. On those designated buses, women must retreat to the back of the bus like American black citizens of yore.

Ye Gods! Is this real? Yes it is, and no one would know about this indignity in our country if Mr. Mitnick, a blessing on his head, had not brought this outrage to our attention. Women in Israel are incensed with this treatment, which has become more frequent as more of the very fertile Orthodox community is branching out ever more into the secular community. Women have been spat on and were subjugated to outrageous critiques and attacks.

An eight-year-old girl was harassed by ultra-Orthodox men in Jerusalem. She was spat at and called a prostitute for wearing immodest apparel. This act, shown on TV, brought thousand into the streets in protest, and women have defied the Haredi rabbis, sitting on the buses wherever they please.

Once again this drama illuminates Orthodoxy in all religions for us. One in all, whether Muslim, Judaic, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist they are united in their wish and belief that women are inferior and can be treated as second—or third-class—citizens or slaves.

In all of the Orthodox belief-systems women are often the only means of support for a family and most of their rights to freely choose education, dress, behavior and place in the family order are curtailed. I have been restrained in Buddhist countries to visit places deemed male appropriate only, for the simple reason—the reason given me—that women menstruate and therefore are unclean. To which I always replied, without your mother’s menstruation you would not be on this earth. I have been treated like a wanton in Pakistan because I did not cover my hair or face. Imagine, a woman’s hair is the most erotic thing and must be covered in Islamic countries. Islam still keeps most of its women in an inferior, slave-like position.

So, why is Orthodoxy so toxic to women? Because the antecedents for the entire belief-system of all orthodox religions, is rooted in cultures dating back 2000 years and more. Orthodox religion has never been reformed to fit the strides and discoveries man-kind has made in science, social science, psychology and a new understanding of religion. And for that, women will have to fight for their rights wherever they encounter this discrimination.

Dear Readers!

Dear Readers,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I took a few days to concentrate on my family. During discussions around the dinner table the computer aces brought up a subject I had paid no attention to—the ratings of blogs.

They are right these critical voices. It is hard to know from most comments whether the blog has been read or just attached to. I am amazed that few of you have rated my material. I would be delighted if you would take the seconds it takes to rate my blog.

This blog cannot compete with others if does not show ratings. Good ratings would allow us to be placed in more prominent positions.

My thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave me helpful critiques and kind encouragements.  So, perhaps, you would also take the time to rate the blogs.

Thanks, Sig

The Europen Voice of the Wall Street Journal

Regular readers of this blog know by now that the WSJ inspires me to post, because the articles and essays of this newspaper bring up issues that have been residing within my ken, but were suppressed by often mundane problems that had to be solved immediately. So, in the November 10, 2011 edition my eye was caught by Anne Jolis headline, A French Lesson in Free Speech. After political correctness has become the junk-yard-dog, barking on our heels whenever we truly say what is on minds, thereby imposing the new slavery of the left on us, with which it keeps us from criticizing what is wrong in politics, culture and religion. As long as we allow ourselves to be labeled and our voices to be silenced, certain politicians can get away with murder.

One such politically correct subject that no one is allowed to touch is Islam. You cannot point out that the religion needs serious reformation, bringing Islam into this century—reformations that other religions have undergone--without receiving reprimand. Most of the cultural practices of Islam are rooted back in the seven hundreds. So, one should not bring up FGM, for example, the pharaonic method of mutilating women’s vaginas. Do not dare make fun of Mohammed or a fatwa will be on your head. Why not—for God’s sake—I ask? He was, after all, just a man. Holy-yes, he founded a religion and dictated the Qur’an. But, if having thirteen wives, of whom the last was a little girl, makes you more holy than the rest of men, then critiques will follow.

With that introduction we arrived at the heart of Ms. Solis article. The subject is Charlie Hedbo a cartoonist who publishes a satirical weekly in France. His paper’s offices were firebombed just as he was ready to print a “Shariah Weekly” edition. “The cover featured Muhammad as “guest editor,” assuring readers “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing!” so writes Ms. Solis. She further writes that the French police, so far, has not discovered the suspects of the fire-bomb-crime, but she mentions that Turkish Muslims claim to have hacked Charlie’s web-site. Pretty bad that someone cannot go and blaspheme unhindered. What the heck has happened to all the good free speech we are all guaranteed?

Well, here we see the difference in the way the French and our American papers view the subject. Ms. Solis tells us that the Bruce Crumley, bureau chief for Time Magazine in Paris, “did nothing to hide his contempt—not for the attacker, but for the magazine itself.” He goes on to lecture: “Not only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses their author’s claim to proudly defy in the name of common good.”

Oh, Lord! A blasted sermon from Time Magazine. NPR, too, voiced disapproval. And this supposed “public voice of freedom” sounds as if they, too, would like to dispense with freedom of speech if it concerns Muslims. What is one to do? Allow Islam a special place among all other religions? One is not talk about unpleasant truth? Well the French, thank god, will have nothing of the sort. Interior Minister Claude Gueant proclaimed, “All the world, all Frenchmen, must feel solidarity with this newspaper that, with its very existence and way of being expresses the liberty of the press.”

So what did Charlie the blasphemer do? He put out a cover of the magazine showing a Muslim man French-kissing one of the male cartoonists. The caption read: Love is Stronger Than Hate.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Teacup Liar! Krakauer's Expose` "Three Cups of Deceit"

A while ago I wrote a book, “Escaping the Twilight.” It is a book that most publishers did not want to publish because it dealt with the very daunting aspects of Female Genital Mutilation. In this book, I describe the life of woman living under the twin scourges of ancient culture and Islam’s protection and continuation of the culture. I will talk about this subject in the future on this blog. Let me just say for now, that I am steeped in knowledge of Islamic customs, culture and religion. Furthermore, because my husband and I worked for ten years with Afghans in exile in Pakistan during the Russian invasion, I know a few things about the people, the customs and workings of the countries.

Well, my book got published in the end anyway, and has made its way through book-clubs and a few universities, dealing with the subject of Medical Anthropology. Whenever I spoke in the past on the subject, well-meaning ladies would pipe up at the end and flute, “did you read “Three Cups of Tea” and what do think about this wonderful book and all the achievements of Mr. Mortenson. In every case I had to answer that I believed many passages of the book to be sheer fantasy, and then I would state my reasons why I believed that to be so. It never failed but that the dear ladies would be angry and dismayed with me for my critique of “this wonderful book!”

I must have explained at least twenty times that, for example, Mortenson’s kidnapping scene by Pathans with its subsequent strange and outlandish reversal is a totally manufactured set out of Hollywood. First off, the Mujahedeen responsible for my husband’s and my safety would have never allowed us any contact with elements unapproved by them personally. We could not have contacted anyone without their approval. Because they, our guides and interpreters, were personally held responsible for our persons by their superiors and they covered our wherewithal minute by minute for that very reason.

One of the young men guarding us from attacks by the KGB and Al Qaeda once told me: “We will die three times over before anyone will get to you.” We trusted these men totally with lives and our possessions. The right people in the Afghan culture live by an ancient code that proscribes that the guest who comes on friendship to their home lives under the protection of the entire clan.

Having said all that, you must realize that Mr. Mortenson would have never been left in a vulnerable position as he claims in his book. But this was not the only instance that I found to be untruthful. There were other things that did not ring true. The way he described building his schools for girls in Swat Valley and other places sounded impossible without the help of government officials and local infrastructure. It galled me for many years that he should have gotten away with telling so many lies, basking in the adulation of decent Americans who blindly believed a man whom they thought to be good to the core.

Well, a while ago a book by Jon Krakauerby was released. The name Krakauer will be very familiar to those of you who read books of fiction and popular subjects. Mr. Krakauer’s book is entitled “Three Cups of Deceit,” and he has done what I could not, namely with the help of a research team gone into the Pakistany regions, where Mortenson claimed he worked his magic. His book is an amazing work of detective discovery. Minute by minute he points out the mountains of lies concocted by this “wonderful” educator of Islamic girls.

Why would Mr. Krakauer have become so passionate about this book and Mortenson’s organization the Central Asia Institute, become so intent of uncovering Mortenson’s secret? Five millions of copies of the Three Cups of Tea are in print and countless people have send millions to the CAI institute so that Holy Man Mortenson could build more schools and counter radical Islam through education. The people who come to his talks adore him with a passion reserved for saints.

Well here is the reason: Mr. Krakauer was taken in by the charlatan himself. Together with President Obama, Krakauer sent large amounts of money to the Institute, only to find out that very little of the largess ever reached the little girls in Pakistan. I, who was never taken in by Mortensen, lost no money but was dealt with angrily when I tried to point out the incongruities in this book of fiction, was furious, but Krakauer, a believer and disciple for a while, was struck to the core by the amount of lies and the deception.

Krakauer’s book is a superb blow by blow account as he dismantles the Mortenson the liar. I highly recommend it.

 

 

 

Music--The Art that lifts our Heart

Today I am having a sad day. I don’t know why—I am just a bit depressed. Could be the rain and the sky hung with dark clouds—could be the in-attention by a friend. Whatever might have caused the dark mood matters little, because I know the antidote to the darkness. Music! I am lucky, because in a few hours I will go and submerge myself in great uplifting music. Debussy’s La Mer and Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird will be performed by the New West Symphony, and I know whatever gloom hovers over me will be dispelled.

Music has this wonderful quality of transforming and lifting mood. This is not to say that certain sad composition cannot have the opposite effect and lead you to feel the troubles of the composer. The amazing thing is that every genre of music from Folk Songs, Country Western, Jazz through Pop and Classic Music has the ability to take us to happy, sad and even ecstatic places.

We can be thankful that we live in an astonishingly wonderful time, for never before did we have the ability to own in hundreds of forms, stored in wondrous devices, the songs, symphonies and concertos we love. I doubt that any of us would like to go back to the time of the old black records. Reflecting on our bliss—I will access my i-Tunes library and listen to David Garrett. Knowing this I feel already happy.

Multiple Myeloma--A Blood Cancer

Let me preface this article by saying that it is not a scientific writ but just an informative report of treatment options and hope. Way back in January I wrote about my husband’s blood-cancer, the treatment with chemo-therapy, steroids and support meds like calcium treatments. Since then great things have happened. I want to write about the developments because they are a cause for hope of those diagnosed with this illness.

First I want to mention that men and women in their mid-fifties who suddenly experience tiredness and shortness of breaths from ordinary energy expenditure without symptoms of a flu, cold or other easily explainable cause, should seek out their doctors immediately and ask for a total blood and urine work-up. The proteins produced by the illness show up in the urine quickly. The blood-picture will show Anemia, Leukopenia and or Thrombocytopenia—all are shortage of red and white blood-cells and thrombocytes, the cells that help clot your blood.

As the illness, untreated, can progress fairly fast, early diagnosis is of the essence. A diagnosis of stage one development of myeloma can result in containing the illness with the least amount chemo—perhaps none at all. By the time stage three is reached, serious chemo is needed to stop progression. There is a bevy of drugs available for treatment; a doctor will find what works best for the particular case.

Don was treated with valcade, which helped contain the illness for a while but then stopped working. He went on to take revlimide, a thalidomide, together with dexamethasone and, for a while, went into remission. He did great. He was once again playing tennis and going on hikes. However, this idyll did not last long. His doctors decided his best chance would be a stem-cell-transplant. A very serious treatment that is best undertaken while the patient is still in good physical condition.

If one waits too long the chance for the transplant passes and it is too late. Don went through the transplant. It was difficult. For a week he did not care whether he lived or died. But, oh, the results were amazing. And his quality of life is great! You should see him playing ball with his grandsons.

I felt that I should give you this update, for I talked about the men and women stricken with the illness and their amazing attitude. I also should tell you, by the way, that I have met quite a few people who have held the illness at bay for fifteen years and more.

Good health to all of you!

 

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Cheryl Christensen

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Review of another Wall Street Journal Article, Wednesday, October 12, 2011

“Sig, here is another article for your blog,” wrote my friend David and attached an article by Peter J. Wallison from the WSJ. I do not believe that many of you have the time to read the Wall Street Journal for two hours each morning the way I do. Therefore, a monumental amount of very important information about the economy, the politics and the cultural changes in our country is lost to you. I will try to sum-up many of the topics and try to present them in condensed form. Perhaps those of you with some spare time in the evening, and an interest in the country will be able to follow along.

Peter Wallis postulates in his opinion piece that the protesters in their tent enclaves have been sold a bill of goods. Now we all know that the Thesaurus defines a bill of goods as deception, misrepresentation, falsehood and deceit. So, what would make Mr. Wallis say something so strong and accusatory? It is simply the fact that he, and many others, believe that the government was responsible for the housing crisis that brought on our economic downturn.

Instead of protesting Wall Street, he thinks it would be more appropriate to put up tent in front of the White House or the House of Congress. It was the Dodd-Frank Act that allowed Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac to lend money to people who had neither down-payment for a house, nor did they have the means to later make the monthly payments on their loans.

Now let us be quite clear, this feat of pushing the housing market over the brink, accomplished through the flawed Department of Housing and Urban Development, an agency with a long-time reputation of mismanagement, was the piece the resistance served up by the Bill Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations.

In conclusion let me say that anyone who lost their house should protest HUD and the offices of Mr. Dodd and Frank. It was their brain-child and they should be fully credited with the results. That is not to say that there were not plenty other suspects involved in the crisis—and yes, Wall Street was in on it too. In my opinion like a kid discovering an open candy-jar.                                                           

                            Mr. Wallison is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He was also a member of theFinancial Crisis Inquiry Commission and dissented from the majority's report.

 

I N E P T O C R A C Y

Hello, dear readers,

Today we immerse ourselves in the intricacies of language. We all know the word cleptocracy and the meaning entailed therein. It is a democracy or any other form of oligarchic government in which the ruling body has discovered how to rob the governmental till, using the funds for their enrichment and the continuation of their political power. In short, paying their constituency for votes. Cleptocrats have been a persistent component of most governments since antiquity.

So, today we learn a new word that so aptly describes, for example, the Solyndra debacle, the high cost of turning good food corn into car fuel and assorted mass transit projects. Here it is! The word is:  Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Unfortunately, as I have observed in European countries, the diminishing number of producers becomes obstinate. They begin to hide their profits, work less and less and begin to do business by trading service for service. I have known doctors in Europe who traded medicine for plumbing. No money changed hands, no taxes were paid, yet, people were happy.

 

Another Wall Street Journal Special

It must be well known by now that I have a pathological aversion to anything Communist. Having lived under a Communist regime has cured me of every idealistic thought about Socialism, Communism and any other ism as in National Socialism. Nothing contained in those benign sounding appellations is ever congruent with the reality applied by the ruling system.

Knowing this, you can imagine the extent of my hilarity, when I read the Notable & Quotable section of the WSJ of Saturday, October 29, 2011. The piece was an excerpt from Michael Cain’s autobiography. To those of you, who do not Michael Cain I highly recommend the pursuit of some of his movies. Superb, most of them.

Well Michael, in his inimical pithy way gave a hysterically funny account of his brush and introduction to the Communist party of England. His account, better than anything I could present you with, explains communism and its ways. Here is a concentrated version of his account.

Coming home one evening in the 1950s from his club he found himself surrounded by a bevy of very attractive… “older women, about twenty or twenty-two years old. They were offering leaflets. I took one and one of the girls said mysteriously: “Read it and let us know if you are interested. We will be back tomorrow night. What exciting proposition could this be, I thought as I walked home reading the leaflet.”

Does that not sound as if Michael was about eighteen-years-old? Well he read and found that he was asked to join the Young Communists. He thought he was really sophisticated because he knew that the Communists were a political party, “very keen on Russia and that it had been invented by someone called Marx.”

Dear Michael knew the Marx Brothers from the movies and so he thought the thing might be amusing. As the leaflet told about the redistribution of wealth, he thought: “What luck my family and I would have to come out ahead. The clincher for me was that the Communists believed in free love.” Assured of the two most pressing passions of his life—wealth and free love, he could not wait to meet the group of girls again. They came! He picked the one he wanted to have the free love with the most.

She dragged him off to a small dingy office where she deposited him with four men, “all doing smiling impersonations.” Although very young, Michael Cain was instantly suspicious. According to dictates of his father, he was surrounded by untrustworthy men. The object of his free love had disappeared, and the men milling about had obviously not done well in the redistribution scheme of wealth. One of them shoved a paper in front of him and told him to sign up and pay the subscription of five shillings. That’s when it dawned on him that the distribution of wealth was to be from him to them. Being a smart young man—he fled. Of course, without paying. He ended by saying: “A lingering suspicion of Communism has remained planted in my mind forever.”

You can imagine that having lived the thing leaves me with a thousand times stronger suspicions—nay, aversions and disgust, which can never be changed.