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Sale of 13-14 year old Muslim Roma brides for 3,000 euros!

Saudi gang-rape victim gets 90 lashes for International Women’s Day

In other news: Western patriarchy still the number one concern of feminists.

South Park has never lost it’s edge in its ten-year run. This is a clip from the episode "With apologies to Jesse Jackson" which aired this week. Wow.

PBS aired the excellent documentary "Hip Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes" by Byron Hurt a few weeks ago. The documentary addresses issues of hyper-masculinity, violence, homophobia and sexism rampant in mainstream hip hop over the last few years. While it aired on PBS the one time, more resourceful folks can watch it by other means.

I became aware of it through one of the blogs I read regularly Afro Nerd. Afro Nerd also has a two-part podcast that address the issues around the documentary. For a person who listened to almost nothing but hip hop during the late-eighties and early-nineties this definitely strikes a chord with me because I miss the days when hip hop was positive and well… fun.

Geez! Between my Pro-Israeli stance and the following human interest story, one would think I’m turning into a Judeophile. Anyhow, this story about Chinese orphans adopted by Jewish families will touch your heart. Failing that, the ying-yang yarmulkes will.

Of the 613 laws in the Torah, the one that appears most often is the directive to welcome strangers. The girl once known as Fu Qian has been thinking about that a lot lately.

Three weeks ago, she stood at the altar of her synagogue on the Upper West Side and gave a speech about it.

Fu Qian, renamed Cecelia Nealon-Shapiro at 3 months, was one of the first Chinese children — most of them girls — taken in by American families after China opened its doors to international adoption in the early 1990s. Now, at 13, she is one of the first to complete the rite of passage into Jewish womanhood known as bat mitzvah.

One more reason to get up in the morning.

Michael Jackson beatboxing on Oprah. Surprisingly good at it amongst other things. And by other things I mean kid-touching. Hee! Hee!

One of the more interesting uses of Google maps I’ve seen. A real-time map of terrorist activities around the world. I guess it helps making travel plans easier.

According to the Wikipedia entry on Beer Consumption by country Canada places at number 13. Surprisingly, the Czech Republic has a healthy lead over stereotypical front-runners Ireland and Germany.