Hasidic widower given ultimatum: Remarry or lose your son

Large white man with jewish hat and wire rimmed glasses, a longish brown beard wearing a white collared button down shirt and black button vest his hand gesturing as he talks to someone to his right

Losing your wife is tough enough. Imagine losing your wife and subsequently being told you’re no longer fit to raise your son.

That’s the situation the title character faces in Menashe, an intimate story set in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Directed and co-written (in Yiddish) by Joshua Z. Weinstein, the film is said to be inspired by the real-life experiences of its star, Menashe Lustig.

We first meet Menashe, a clerk in a Hasidic grocery, nearly a year after his wife’s death. We learn he’s been forced to give up his adolescent son to his married brother-in-law, Eizik (Yoel Weisshaus). Why? Because according to his rabbi’s reading of the Torah, the boy is better off being raised in a two-parent household.

Menashe chafes against the order because he loves his son, Rieven (Ruben Niborski), and is lonely living on his own. However, there’s little he can do about it short of remarrying, which he seems unprepared to do. If Menashe tries to take Rieven back, he’s warned, the boy will be expelled from the local Hasidic school.

The DOJ wants your IP

Round official seal with gold braided outside rim and blue around the circle that has words Department of Justice and an eagle facing left with wings held high on top of a shield with flag colors red, white and blue,

I’ve written before about the importance of practicing good information security habits to the politically-minded who are also Good With Computers, but for the most part, it’s been just that – practice – to most of us unless we’re out actively protesting. We’ve been concerned about what a Department of Justice under the draconian hand of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the Third might look like, but all we could do was cover our tracks as best we could and wait for the DoJ to make a move.

Now they have, and just like the rest of this administration, it’s as bad as we could have feared.

In August, web hosting service DreamHost revealed a Department of Justice warrant requesting information about a site they hosted, disruptj20.org, that had organized protests of the inauguration of Donald Trump. But they didn’t only ask for information about the site’s owners. The warrant also requested emails, photos, and contact information for the site’s users as well as the IP addresses of the 1.3 million people who had visited the site.

Socially Just Dining: Eden Burger

A tray on a wooden table outside with a white cup and blue straw, a bunch of french fries and a burger with visible lettuce and cheese

Eden Burger’s mission is to “save the f’n world” (go guys go!). They share a building with the south OSU campus area local bar, Village Idiot. Eden Burger officially launched their new high-quality, fast food, artisan vegan burger, fries and banana-based shake business with an exciting array of burger options.

There are two types of burgers: 1-black bean and rice based, and 2- organic and breaded fried tempeh, with eight different burger styles from Western BBQ to Hawaiian. The burgers can be fried or grilled and all are made from predominantly organic ingredients. They have the quintessential burger accessory ensemble such as pickle chips, onion rings and fried tenders with buffalo sauce and a litany of premium toppings (like fresh avocado) and sauces. Gluten-free options are also available.

Kung Fu Kenny’s Guide To Columbus

A sign with a cup with yellow liquid and words Kung Fu Tea

The memory of Kenneth Blackwell’s presence looms as voter suppression along with Russian hacking clouds the last election. Kenneth Starr, as some people could not just get over their baggage from the 90’s Clinton term. This writing would not exist without Kenny Powers.

In many ways, the electoral college victory was the resurgence of the washed-up megalomaniac has been to frame the hipster-era to the failures of the hippies. And somewhat seems to be the thought process of the bulk of the president’s attempts at policy.

True, gentrification probably helped create some of the hipsters that the average Kenny Powers resent. And of course racism. Kenny Powers was not physically displaced by gentrification. Kenny Powers is a device. This makes the current racial climate even more sinister. Land acquisition is never without conflict. However, you can gather why I have no reservations saying the confederacy should have krautrocked during the reconstruction. 

More than one way…

A white sign with a black arrow pointing left and the word One

In Columbus, like any other city in America, we have been caught up with the constant unleashed rhetoric of thoughts that are beyond unbelief, from President Donald Trump. With his public endorsement of the KKK and hate groups of America, while denouncing terrorism in the same speech, people – rational thinking people – are more confused then ever with how this man became President of the United States.

Now with the threat of racism returning to its historic place in America, the home of the free who are white, minorities and people who are not racist are in a state of indecisiveness regarding who can be trusted and who is wearing the mask. What is the real reason that we, the American people, were ignored in the public vote, and forced to become prisoners of a reality show that can be found on Twitter. Surely the powers that be that decide the electoral votes had a plan when they went against the majority vote of the peoples’ choice. Surely.

ColumbusMediaInsider: Press Is More Likely To Scrutinize Unpopular President Like Trump

Man with gray hair comb over looking sideways at the camera with slitty eyes

A national business news website, Benzinga.com, recently asked my views on Presidential attempts to muzzle the press. Here is what I told them: “(President) Trump has found that his core supporters, now dwindling but still representing a third of the electorate, dislike the mainstream media and respond favorably whenever Trump criticizes the media. That results in more and sharper edged investigative reporting.”

“All recent presidents have battled with the news media and have, at times, treated journalists as mortal enemies and, at times, tried to pressure the news media into covering things the presidents' way.”

“President Richard Nixon allegedly threatened to take away the Washington Post's lucrative TV licenses after repeated negative coverage.”

“President George W. Bush's people allegedly threatened to charge the New York Times editor with sedition in a coverage dispute.”

(I also noted that President Barack Obama had frosty relations with the press at times.)

Medical Marijuana in Ohio: The Buzz on the Status of the State

Neon sign glowing in window orange letters saying Medical and Green image of a marijuana leaf

To understand the status of marijuana in Ohio, one must start at the beginning. No, not in prehistoric times as one of humanity’s oldest crops, nor in 1851 when medicinal efficacy was first documented in the “Report of the Ohio State Medical Committee on Cannabis Indica.” Skip past the Uniform Controlled Substances Act of 1969 that Ohio used to classify the plant as so vile as to cause the arrest of 20,000 residents each year. Move beyond legislation that Republican Governor “Big Jim” Rhodes signed in 1975 making Ohio the sixth state to decriminalize small quantities.

NFL Plantation Owners Ban Uppity Quarterback

 

o watch America’s structural racism at work, one need look no further than the National Football League (NFL) and its treatment of nonviolent unorthodoxy as expressed by Colin Kaepernick going to one knee during the national anthem in support of the unacceptable thought that black lives should matter as much as anyone else’s. Of course, that’s still a relatively new idea in the United States, dating from 1863 in law and still not fully accepted in much of the country.

Yingluck's Secret "Great Escape" Benefits the Junta

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's
"Great Escape" from Thailand last week allows her to dodge a possible
10-year prison sentence and enjoy a billionaire's international
lifestyle, but she gave the military government, which toppled her in
a 2014 coup, a surprise victory.
   Her sudden, secret flight overseas means the junta will not be
troubled by her supporters' scenario of a Ms. Yingluck cast as a
woeful, politically victimized, jailed martyr for democracy.
   Her absence also decapitates her shocked Pheu Thai ("For Thais")
opposition party which attracted millions of "Red Shirt" voters.
   Today, the two biggest questions in this Southeast Asian country were:
   Who enabled Ms. Yingluck to become a mysterious fugitive hours or
days before the Supreme Court's verdict was to be announced on August
25?
   And will Ms. Yingluck, 50, ask for political asylum in England if
she goes there?
   Thai media, investigating her escape, splashed accusations and
official denials of conspiracies, corruption, double-standards and

Iran, Again

When politicians are feeling the heat, they start a war and their popularity goes up even if the war is unnecessary or completely ridiculous. Donald Trump, the presidential candidate who promised that he would not take the nation into another Middle Eastern war, did so when he launched a fifty-nine cruise missile barrage against a Syrian Air Base even before he knew for sure what had happened on the ground. It was totally stupid but proved to be popular, even among talking heads and Congressmen, some of whom described his action as “presidential” in the best sense of the word.

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