Jews getting into trouble- In defense of gender roles and orthodoxy

I know, I know, what else is new?

If you haven't yet seen, there's this floating around the internet:
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/09/brooklyn-based-newsp.html
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=219660&R=R1
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/05/hasidic-paper-removes-hillary-clinton-from-osama-picture-567.html

Oy. Its pretty obvious from reading these articles, and from viewing the photo, that whoever the editor is at this yiddish newspaper...
1. Has entirely too much time on his hands. He photoshopped IN the guy next to Hilary's entire torso. A better use of that time might have been finding a different photo that doesn't have women so as to both not picture women in their newspaper AND not cause the entire world to hate Jews again, some more.
2. Is likely in some legal trouble for altering the photo against the original photo's direct terms of use.
3. Has never heard of journalistic integrity.

However, I am far more concerned by a what the rest of the country is thinking right now, not what the nutjobs who decided the post the doctored picture think. Quite frankly its scary. Jews in America, and the world overall, have a bit of a PR problem. Even before this, people see orthodox Jews as crazy, backwards, sexist, cultish. Read some of the comments on those articles linked above, and you will see that a manageable PR problem has possibly gotten a WHOLE LOT worse.

A selection:

Women covering their hair may seem strange to you - it isn't oppressive or sexist.

A rule that applies to one sex? That seems a little sexist.

It was an action taken by them alone - and does not reflect hasidism, Orhtdox Judaism or religion as a whole.

They did it for reasons of religious belief, but it doesn't reflect religion?

they'll see the truly offensive things are their own presumptions and prejudices.

No, religious piety is what is truly offensive.

Simply the best article to observe how fanatic jews and fanatic muslins are so alike .Does anyone sincerely see any diference in this kind of behavor ? not me , both create their own trueths , both want to impose their views , both use lies , both consider woman as an inferior human . I think this tell everything. Maybe because extremists like these , in both sides are in the power , the problem in the midle-east remains.

I think the Hasids are ridiculous in regard to their views on sexuality and women. I do not think we should abridge their right to believe and act how they wish.

There is a difference between thinking something is sexist, wrong, or ridiculous and abridging people's right to be sexist, wrong, or ridiculous.

They have the right to be however they want. I have the right to call them archaic. They can believe they are right; I can believe they are wrong, and say so.

Now, granted, some people are sticking up for Jews ("not all Jews think this") and some are defending the right of Jews to be as backwards as they want to be (like that last comment above), but I still fear the backlash.
Also it makes me angry, time and again, to see people go from "They cover their hair" to "they are sexist and oppressive."

Which brings me to my points:
1. Modesty is not such a bad thing. I'm sure alot of the fathers out there would be happy to teach a little more modesty to their daughters and a little less objectifying women to their sons. These women who dress this way are NOT oppressed, they are happy. At my shul there are women who wear wigs, women who wear hats, and women who let their hair out. Nobody is persecuted for whichever practice they choose- the men freely socialize with women who show their hair, and their husbands do not berate them for it. The level of modesty, like all matters of observance, is a personal choice.
2. Encouraging women to cover their cleavage is not disrespectful of women. I dare you to tell me you get more respect from a man when you wear a low cut shirt than when you cover your boobs. I have never felt more respected by a man staring at my breasts than one staring at my face. When I attend shul I feel respected for my ideas and my intellect without feeling that I must either defend my body from objectification or expose my body in order to garner attention, my physical appearance is of no relevance to my worth.
3. Equal does NOT mean the same. Or, alternately, different does NOT mean lesser. I will not use racial segregation as an allegory, however many detractors of the Orthodox practices do... black people during segregation really were treated as lesser and it was wrong. Jewish women are not. Let me instead use these analogies... One: When a woman goes to the beach or swimming pool she must wear both bottoms and a top. Women may not be strolling the beach topless. However, men can wear just trunks, chest exposed for all to see, with nobody taking any notice. Is this sexist? Two: When the men come to console, they are expected to wear button down shirts and either a tie or jacket. If a man were to come in short sleeves, or with no jacket or tie he would not be considered appropriately dressed. When I come to console I rarely wear long sleeves, a jacket, or a tie (never a tie). Is this sexist?
Are women lesser because they are expected to cover their nipples in public. Are men lesser because they are expected to wear a tie. No. There are simply sometimes different rules for genders based on natural characteristics or cultural norms. If you were to stand up and say that men's formal apparel is sexist and you demand that all men from here out where skirts, v-necks, and heels so that their attire be equal to women... people would think you insane. It is no different to stand up and say "Orthodox women being forced to dress modestly is sexist and they should be allowed to wear miniskirts and tanktops." First you assume that they are forced, that they would want to do other. Second you assume that because their rules are different, they are somehow being treated as lesser. I know of few men who would wish to trade their ties for high heels, and I know of few Orthodox women who would wish to trade their wigs for sluttery.

In conclusion, to sum up that giant paragraph above... This paper is not representative of all forms of Judaism, nor is its omission of women or other Jewish laws concerning the dress and behavior of women de facto sexism. Those who are opposed are pushing their own agenda onto others for their own purposes and are not taking the needs or wishes of those actually accepting the rules into account. Nobody is asking you, commenters listed above, to wear wigs and long sleeves so it does not concern you what others do. But if you really must push your agenda, go put some men in skirts and leave us alone.

Console Prep

Tomorrow night I start a 7 night overnight stint in mission control (unless the space shuttle manages to launch before 5/13... unlikely). Basically for the next 7 days I will get up around 6pm, eat dinner/breakfast with my awesome boyfriend, putter around for a few hours, and then head off to work at 11pm until 8am the next day.
One of the things I do to prep for console is make some food. Tonight I cooked a 9 (!) serving chicken and rice casserole. I'll give Dan a couple servings for lunches and I'll keep some to heat up for my 5am breakfast/dinner. Here's a shot of my meals all boxed up:
To make this, I had to skin some chicken thighs. Raw chicken is the grossest thing ever! Then brown it with some garlic. Then the rice went into a pan with wine, chicken broth, onions, spices, and boiled for a bit. Then it all went in the oven with artichokes and frozen peas. Here's what it looked like after the oven:
Haven't tried any yet because its 3am and I can't imagine eating anything right now. I'll let you know. Other console prep includes buying a bunch of snacks. And making muffins to bring in:

These beauties are Brown Sugar and Cornbread muffins, with a brown sugar and cornmeal crunch topping. I haven't tasted them either, but I did lick the bowl and the batter was amazing!









Recently Dan and I have cooked a couple other delicious Cooking Light meals:
For the last Friday in Lent which was also during passover, we needed something breadless and meatless. The recipe was for Tuna but we couldn't find any tuna steaks so we got salmon instead. It was still delicious. Blackened Salmon with spicy slaw.



And last night we made a lighter (not deep fried) Falafel. Here's the whole table layout: Falafel, pita, tahini sauce, and spinach, and Israeli Salad (tomato, onion, cucumber, garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil).So far, we have not been disappointed by this cookbook in the least. Other recent meals not pictured include Peppered Watercress Turkey Burgers and Grilled Sea Bass with Mango salsa.

More from Cooking Light

Sorry I have not been posting pictures. However I have been cooking. Here's a selection of some shots I have snapped from recent cooking experiences:

Chicken packets on the camping trip (not a cooking light recipe)- Chicken, potatoes, veggies, cream of mushroom soup, sealed up and tossed in the fire til the chicken is done and the potatoes are soft. Italian Veggie Pie: Lasanga noodles topped with tofu/veggie/tomato sauce mixture, covered with more lasagna noodle, and then topped with cheese. Delicious!














Crab and corn chowder from Cooking Light:
Southwester bean casserole (cooking light)- Layers of beans, spicy tomato sauce, cheese, and tortillas. Yum!













Polynesian Chicken (from cooking light)- Chicken with a sweet sauce, including chunks of pineapple. It was amazing!
There were many others, but these are the ones I got a photo of. Stay tuned next for the Passover Adventures. 7 Grenitzes have descended on Houston and my house for Passover. Mom and I cooked all day today, and have two more cooking days ahead!

Another Saturday Night in MCC

Hey kids,
For this saturday night I'll be staying up all night long. Like a party animal. Or a shift worker. I'm gonna watch the sun rise. Well I could, if I wasn't stuck in a windowless room. However, the sun will rise on the ISS 8 times before I leave here, and I'll see them all in my data and most of them in the video downlink, so that'll have to do.
Tonight is a fun night though, I get to do alot of commanding, moving really big pieces of the station. We have two giant joints that rotate about a third of the truss each, and then 4 little joints at the end of each of those that rotate just one solar array. I get to move both big ones (called SARJs- Solar Alpha Rotary Joint) and 4 of the 8 little ones (called BGAs- Beta Gimbal Assembly) to keep them safe from the thruster firings during the thruster test tonight. The nights I actually get to DO something I feel way better about spending my nights at work since I didn't just sit here and surf the net all night. Granted, they pay me to sit here knowing full well most nights I'll do nothing. Just in case something bad happens. I'm an insurance policy, basically.

In news actually related to the purported subject of this blog... I have been cooking, just not been so good at taking pictures and posting them. We grilled flank steak and made southwestern bean casserole and lamb chops and just last night there was italian veggie pie (picture posted by Dan on fb and then stolen by me to post on twitter). Its all been delicious, not a single letdown yet. I'm having more veggie pie in 1 hour and 33 minutes, the next time I'm allowed to leave this console.

One good thing about working the weekend overnight shift (in contrast to the many many not so good things presented in that statement)? Lots of free time next week. When I leave console at 8am Monday morning, I'll have worked 32 hours... before most other people have worked a single hour of the week, I'll be one full working day from done. With that spare time, I have ALOT to do:
1. Monday at 9am I am going to buy a car. This car. With luck. I test drove it over a month ago, and have been trying for 3 weeks to get one. The guy keeps jerking me around and saying "tomorrow, tomorrow..." but finally called me on Friday that it was in. Of course I had to be here all night and didn't feel like buying a car right before staying up ALL night. So I called today and they hadn't sold it yet so I'll be going right after work on Monday morning to get it. Hopefully. Whee!
2. Monday at 2pm, cable guy. I got Uverse, and its pretty awesome, but not quite as compatible with my Tivo as I would like. The cable box goes to sleep and the Tivo can't "press ok" so sometimes if I forget to turn the cable box on in the afternoon, or don't get home in time, it records an hour of "Press ok to watch TV." The new Tivo premieres don't have that problem, but my 4 year old Tivo does. But rather than get a new Tivo, I'm just gonna get the Uverse DVR. Cool thing here is that it records stuff all in one location but can be played back on any TV with a cable box... so I can record in my living room and watch in my bed. For some reason though, they can't just give me the DVR... they have to "install" it. Um, I control the space station, I can probably figure out your DVR. But no, I have to wait for the installer.
3. Bicycle... you may have seen the pic of my new trailer hitch. Last sunday me and Dave (a coworker who likes to tinker with cars) installed a trailer hitch on my CRV. Its main purpose is for my new bike rack, so that Dan and I can take our bikes with us camping in a few weeks, and maybe on other adventures. But my bicycle, after 2 years of non-use, and three moves, is not in the best of shape. So I need to strap the poor guy to my car, now that I have a hitch and rack for it, and take it to a bike shop.
4. Car maintenance... poor CRV is a little neglected, and will be more so once I buy a new car. It needs a tire rotation and oil change. Also want to see about maybe getting a transmission flush (if it didn't get one with the 75,000 mile service). And I should probably buy the poor thing new windshield wipers. Though it won't be my everyday car, I just put ~$250 into it with the hitch and rack... and it'll be a good recreational car. The Juke doesn't have alot of interior space, but it doesn't need to, for me to drive to work every day. For camping trips, Ikea runs, and other things, the CRV is still the perfect midsize crap hauler. And I want it to haul my crap for years to come. I foolishly dream of giving it to my 16 year old in like 20 years, who will look at it with disdain and threaten to take the bus, but I'll know that it was and is a wonderful car. I'll also know there is no bus in Houston and its too hot to walk. You'll take the beater and love it you little brat! Kidding, I likely won't let my kid anywhere near my "classic" (read: ancient) car, for fear that it'll break down and she'll be murdered on the side of the street.

Yes I sure am looking forward to all my free time, once I finish spending every waking moment in mission control. When you work a 13 hour shift, you only get 11 hours to leave work, drive home, get into bed, get up, get ready for work, and come back. Not much time for anything else.
Also, while you all mourn the loss of your hour of sleep tonight, I celebrate that my 13 hour shift is only a 12 hour shift. Whee!

An Entire Roasted Chicken!

Tonight from my new, and so far still awesome, cookbook:
Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Chicken and Cranberry and Apple filled Acorn Squash!!
Yes I roasted an entire chicken. It was rather large, and cooked forever, but it was kinda cool. And I said I would cook all the way through the cookbook, which includes whole roasted chickens.

Here is me sticking my fingers in the chicken (to put rosemary and crushed garlic between the chicken and skin). No funny business!

It came out beautiful! I can't believe it came out looking edible, let alone good.For the side dishes... Roasted Acorn Squash. Green apple and cranberry sauce sauteed in a pan, then scooped into the squash (emptied of seeds and weird stringy stuff). Also, garlic, which was roasted with the chicken in its head, mashed into a paste and put on some toasted french bread. And the onion chunks roasted with the chicken as another side. And some wine :-)

Here's the whole spread:
My new cookbook is definitely not letting me down. :-)

Stuffed chicken and cookies

The Cooking Light project continues. So far I have been extremely happy with all the recipes. On Tuesday we made...

Brie and Caramelized Onion Stuffed Chicken:
The oniony goop kinda spilled out of the chicken and into the sauce but it was super delicious. I forgot to take a picture of it all plated and pretty so these were the lunch leftover breasts before I packed them up. We ate them with some green beans sauteed in spicy peanut sauce (bought in a bottle from the grocery, nothing too fancy). Yum!

Then we also made chocolate mint cookies. The dough is easy to make, then you form it into a log, wrap in wax paper, and stick in the freezer. When its time to make it, you unwrap the frozen dough and roll it in raw sugar. Then slice it- the frozen dough is the perfect consistency for slicing- not too sticky or too hard. I want to make a few more batches to keep in the freezer. I brought them to console and they were a big hit. They are basic sugar cookies with 4 variations- plain, chocolate, peanut butter, and mint. You can also roll two (or more?!) kinds of doughs together to create a pinwheel shape.

And finally, here is an action shot of my lovely boyfriend helping me cook (P.S. isn't my kitchen pretty?! I love it!)

The Cooking Light project

So... as I discussed a while back, I want to start a cooking project kinda like Julie and Julia.
So a couple weeks ago I went to Half Price Books (this might be a Texas only thing... they buy back used books to sell for cheap, only they're a huge chain so they have an awesome selection unlike most used book stores) and found a cookbook. This one:
It meets all the previous specifications: Not overly complicated (also has cool little side boxes where it explains a little about the science behind the recipe, some ingredient... so I can cook AND learn!). Healthy. Serving sizes range from 2 to 8, depending on the recipe. And so far, its been pretty boy friendly.

So whats the project? I'm going to cook my way through the book. By Jan 1, 2012 I want to be done with the entire book. Except... there's a section on bread machine breads. I don't have a bread machine, I don't WANT a bread machine, I cant afford a bread machine. So I will not be cooking those recipes.
Tuesday I made Mediterranean Veggie wraps (didn't take any pics though, oops!). It was good, and made a great lunch the next day too.

Tonight, my lovely dining partner (aka, my boyfriend) and I made 2 awesome dishes:
At the top of the plate is Polenta with Wild Mushroom Sauce. At the bottom are Veal Birds with Artichoke Sauce (but I used beef instead of Veal because Kroger is certainly no Publix).

The polenta was chilled, broiled, and covered with a shitake mushroom and tomato sauce. The beef was sliced thin, covered in flour, browned, and topped with an artichoke and mushroom sauce. Add a spinach salad and glass of red Zinfandel to make a delicious dinner... with plenty of leftovers for lunch on Monday!


Oh and in other exciting news.... I bought and (with the help of my visiting Mom and Dad this week) assembled my beautiful new dining room furniture. This was the first meal to be eaten on me new table. Here's a picture of the spread:

Stay tuned for more adventures in Cooking Light!