You Can Take This Niqab And…

So here is the quote of the day (compliments of the Wall Street Journal)…

From a woman fleeing the inhumane treatment in Mosul by ISIS religious terrorists:

“I want to take this niqab and stuff it down the throat of ISIS.”

I’ve now read over and over again how one of the first things the women do, who get away from these ruthless fanatics, is to remove their confining “religious”-mandated garb that covers them so fully and put on normal clothes and be free human beings again.

While I certainly and highly respect women who freely and modestly cover up–especially in marriage–it is abhorrent to violently force women to dress a certain way or make them in any way lessor than or subservient to men. 

The women under ISIS are taught to be ashamed, when they have nothing to be ashamed about!

ISIS and these other radical Islamists that force their distorted version of religion on others goes like this when it comes to women:

“It is permitted to buy her, sell her, and give her away as a gift. They are just a possession and you can do whatever you want with them.”  In their FAQS, they even ask, “Can I have sex with a slave who hasn’t reached puberty?”

Yet, while they are having sex with abducted pubescent and pre-pubescent girls, they force women to stay at home, and they are not allowed to go out unless accompanied by a man (forget education, working, driving or traveling). 

Even at home, “Woman are cautioned to stay away from rooftops, balconies, and windows so they wouldn’t be seen by outsiders.”

And should a women be accused of sex outside of marriage–even when the women are the ones forcibly (gang) raped–they are the ones subject to death by public stoning for their being licentious. 

Are these “religious” fanatics with guns so weak that they fear sexual temptation more than they trust in the bonds of family, personal righteousness, and the ability of people to freely choose right from wrong?

Imagine…as they abduct and enslave women and children, rape them, sell them, and force them into bogus marriages, starve and torture them, these people actually think they are religious. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Help Find Missing Children

Coming out of the mall into the parking lot, I saw this poster lying on the ground. 

It was a flyer to help find a missing child. 

Every time, I see something like this, I just have to take a big gulp and deep breath, as this seems like one of the scariest things that can happen to a child and their parents.

A child is dependent on it’s parents, and when they go missing G-d forbid, the fear of in whose hands they might fall and what may be done to them is unthinkable. 

The goal is to get the word and pictures out to find the child as quickly as possible. 

From 2002, statistics show about 800,000 children go missing every year (or about 2,000 per day)–that is unbelievable!

Of those, about 204,000 were family abductions, 58,000 were non-family abductions, a 115 were taken by a stranger, and the rest were mostly run-aways.

About 1 in 5 runaways are considered likely victims of child sex trafficking. 

A 1997 study showed only 5% of non-family abductions even get reported to police and entered in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC)–many may not enter a report when a child is gone just a few days or it may get filed under other categories like homicides or sexual assaults. 

In the 1972 and 1981, there were tragic cases of missing children Etan Patz and Adam Walsh, both killed at age 6, with Etan’s remains supposedly thrown in the garbage in Soho (he was never found) and Adam’s located in a drainage canal in Florida. 

Etan was the first missing child whose pictures were put on the back of milk carton. 

In 1983, the anniversary of Etan’s disappearance, May 25, was designated National Missing Children’s Day.

In 1984, the Walshes and other child advocates established the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) “to help find missing children and prevent child victimization”–shockingly before this there was no coordinated federal and state mechanism for search efforts.

– NCMEC tip hotline (1-800-The Lost) has received over 4.3 million calls in the last 32 years and they have facilitated the return of 227,000 missing children.

In 1996, America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) was set up as a a child abduction emergency alert system; it was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year old abducted and murdered in Texas. 

– AMBER Alerts, between 1997 and 2015, were credited with the safe recovery of 723 children. 

My heart goes out to these children and their families! 

Anything that each of us can do to help with the desperate situation of missing children and their safe recovery is worth not only our attention, but our utmost vigilance and helpful tips. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Every Day Is Women’s Day

My mother taught me well, every day is women’s day!

Little did I know that March 8 is also designated International Women’s Day.

Today is the 10th, but I still saw a lady on the Metro carrying a balloon down the escalator celebrating this special time. 

Overall, even in the 21st century, it is appalling to say that women are not only still under-appreciated, but highly disrespected, and worse physically and emotionally abused around the world

Just this week, I read about another horrible rape in India of a 16-year old girl who was then set on fire and burned alive over 95% of her body–what crazies out there do this to women?

In Afghanistan, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head for being a girl and wanting to go to school.

In other places in the world, terror groups like ISIS and Boko Haram abduct and make sexual slaves of women. 

In Germany, migrants sexually assaulted literally hundreds of women on New Year’s Eve. 

And in Brooklyn, New York, 4 out of 5 suspects in a rape of an 18-year girl in the park go free without bail. 

This doesn’t even touch the more mundane matters of pay inequity and equal opportunity issues where women still only earn 84% of what men earn in the workplace.

As if any normal person should even need to be told this, I remember some progressive teacher in yeshiva telling us that women being disrespected or hurt could be your mother, sister, wife, or daughter, so DON’T do it or tolerate it!

While gender stereotypes still prevail about women being solely the homemaker and rearer of children, at least more men are now open to sharing or taking on these roles as well. 

I think for women, it’s still a grossly sick and inequitable world out there and it’s a true mark of shame on anyone who perpetuates these abuses. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Save Our Children

I was very taken by this ad yesterday for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 

NCMEC is primarily funded by the Justice Department for preventing and assisting with solving child abductions, child sexual abuse, and child pornography. 

It’s horrible when something bad happens to to an adult, but when it happens to a child–that is catastrophic. 

I remember my dad used to say when he went to the funeral for a child–“A child is supposed to bury his [/her] parents, and not the other way around!”

It is unthinkable the pain that a helpless child goes through when taken or abused.

And for the parents, who are responsible for and love that child, I don’t think they can ever rest or be at peace for a single moment, until the child is, please G-d, safe again. 

This reminds me of the tragedy this week, where a one-year old child was one of the victims in a terror car-ramming at a bus stop in Israel that wounded 11 people. 

Unfortunately, the baby’s leg that had been nearly severed by the terror attack, was unfortunately lost despite heroic attempts by the doctors to save his leg.

What did this kid do to deserve such a trauma and fate? 

As the NCMEC motto states, “Every child deserves a safe childhood.”

How can people be so cruel to others and especially to innocent children?  

Despite G-d’s love and caring in this world, evil still exists and every time a child goes missing, is exploited, or is hurt/killed is proof of this, and is a mandate for our need to fight for their good. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Stop Picking On ISIS!

ISIS is one of the most brutal and uncivilized enemies that we are now facing. 

Their tactics against their victims have included:

Beheading, burning, torturing, raping, crucifying, burying people alive, and abducting and selling children as sex slaves. 

Similar to Iran who threatens nuclear Armageddon on the West, and we seek to pacify them, make agreements, and unravel sanctions against them, with ISIS, our response again in the face of evil, has been tepid and now we are making excuses for their completely sick and immoral behavior.

At a National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, the President stated:

“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”

Yes, that is why those times in history are referred to as “The Dark Ages,” while in 2015, we are supposed to be a shining light of democracy, freedom and human rights.

The President also went on to cite Slavery and the Jim Crow [laws] as other examples. 

Hmm…interesting though, if you are going to cite examples already, why completely omit to mention the evils of the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jewish people in the most inhumane genocide of our times–just 70 years ago! 

Then again, what was the purpose of giving the examples that he did of other great historical misdeeds (and also leaving out other prominent ones) in the face of another great evil in our times. 

From the specific words, perhaps:

– It is to excuse it? (Get off your high horses)

– To give them some sort of pass?  (Other people have committed terrible deeds)

But should we be making excuses or giving a pass to ISIS and for that matter Iran (which has one of the world’s worst records of human right abuses and has threatened to annihilate Israel and attack America) for their ongoing brutality, immorality, threats and terror?

Maybe what is correct here is that we should “get off our high horses,” and INSTEAD finally consider putting some darn boots on the ground and some serious firepower with it to end this march of terror quickly, rather than excuse it, ever. 😉

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Tv9)

Panic, Technology To The Rescue

Who us panic?

– ISIS is threatening the West with “dangerous new extremism“

– Syria’s death toll tops 170,000 with more than 10,000 believed tortured to death. 

– Boko Haram is still abducting young girls (and boys).

– Iran says no deal on nukes. 

– Ebola is “out of control.”

– China is emergent as the U.S. pivots east and space becomes militarized with anti-satellite weapons. 

– Russia is resurgent (Crimea is history to Ukraine).

– The national deficit only hints at the true extent of our unfunded liabilities from entitelements.

– The economy is bubbling over the top again, warns Robert Shiller.

– Racial and income inequality continues to divide America (case in point, Ferguson MO).

– Nearly 1 in 3 American adults has an arrest record.

– Almost half the world–3 billion people–live in poverty on less then $2.50 a day. 

Ah, if only technology could solve all our global problems–and this is a big list and not by any means comprehensive.

It’s a race of the “world is exploding all over” with technology trying to make it better with more and better information, innovation, productivity, security, and cures.

Almost like the war of good over evil–we may lose the battle, but hopefully (let’s pray) in the end, we will win the war. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Two Lost Children

Often we hear about lost children with everything from Amber Alerts to our phones and billboards to advertisements on local TV and even on milk cartons–and it is completely frightening. 

 

Rarely though do we come into contact with lost children…but yesterday it happened to us. 

 

We were taking a nice quiet walk around the neighborhood, but something was different this time. 

 

I see 2 children running down the block, and as they get closer, I see they are not playing, but running scared. 

 

The taller, older girl is ahead of a smaller boy. 

 

As the girl is within speaking distance, her whole face breaks into tears and she starts sobbing loudly.

 

Not knowing if they were in some imminent danger, I asked quickly what was wrong and were they in danger. 

 

By now the little boy has caught up with his sister and they–taking turns–saying they are lost. 

 

We start asking more questions.

 

Are you from around here?  No, they are visiting from NY. 

 

What is the address of where they are staying?  Don’t know. 

 

What the name of the people they are staying at?  Don’t know. 

 

Where are their parents?  Don’t know–they told them to go out and run around the (strange) neighborhood.

 

How old are they? The girl is 7 and the boy is just 4.

 

We told these 2 little kids not to worry that we would help them find their way back and that we wouldn’t leave them until we did. 

 

Immediately, we headed back from where they had come from to backtrack and find their parents. 

 

The boy and girl took turns running ahead, crying, afraid they were not going to find the house they came from and saying the streets here are so curvy unlike the square blocks where they are from in NY. 

 

As we kept going around, I started to get leg pain, as I am still on a cane myself from recent surgery, and we were rushing to find their home in the midday Summer sun.

 

We made it down a long block, looking this way and that with the kids–turned the corner…then again the same thing…down another block…although we try to calm them, as we kept going, the kids get more panicky that they were just completely lost. 

 

Finally, thank G-d, a lady in the distance…the kids start running…they recognize her immediately…it’s their mother. 

 

The lady sees us behind them bringing them home to her…she picks up the little girl who makes it to her first…so glad to have her kids back.

 

She waves to us…a quick sort of thanks–and turns and walks away.

 

That was it…she didn’t say a word and was gone before we even caught up. 

 

The kids were really sweet–and were also fortunate–and I hope they are okay and never have to experience anything like that again. 

 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

 

Vigilance on a Wrist

I just wanted to share this product with readers of my blog.

It is the Vigilant Emergency Wrist Alarm.

At the press of a button, you activate a piercing alarm (up to 30 minutes) and flashing locator lights right from this wrist band.

While I am not endorsing any particular vendor or product, this type of self-defense product can really be important.

This could potentially save the lives of loved ones about to be violently attacked, abducted, or even raped, G-d forbid.

From the Amazon site, I was impressed also to see that a portion of each sale is even donated to missing children’s funds.

At a price of only $16.99 per wrist alarm, how much is there really to think about?

Stay safe out there!