Same-sex marriage in Judaism has been a subject of debate within Jewish denominations. The traditional view among Jews is to regard same-sex relationships as categorically forbidden by the Torah. This remains the current view of Orthodox Judaism, but not of Reconstructionist Judaism, Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism, which started changing its position to same-sex unions in 2006. As the issue of same-sex marriage has broached the forefront of social and political consciousness in the United States over the past few years, it has also become more prevalent in the Jewish community as well. Certain branches of Judaism that had until recently been less open to gay rights have made organizational changes on the issues. The Conservative Movement was the last of Judaism’s liberal streams to adopt a more progressive streamlined approach to dealing with issues related to homosexuality. Even within the insular Orthodox community, there is a small, but growing population of individuals and leaders who are actively engaged in the struggle for same-sex marriage as a secular institution in America. Rabbi Steven Greenberg is an openly gay Orthodox rabbi who is leading the charge among open-minded Orthodox and traditionally-observant Jews around the world. Leading Orthodox rabbis have denounced reparative therapy and have embraced a much more toned down approach to homosexuality in Judaism. Each year dozens of observant Jewish students "come out of the closet" and many have increasingly remained involved in organized Jewish life.Organizations have been established to assist Jews struggling with the perceived dichotomy between living a traditional Jewish life and being homosexual. Eshel was established by Rabbi Greenberg as a platform to advocate for greater acceptance of LGBT Jews in Orthodox life. Jewish Queer Youth (JQY) also exists as a platform to connect with and advocate for LGBT rights within Jewish communities across the United States.
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
LDS trips
Monday, May 25, 2020
Chicago Strangler
The Chicago Strangler is the nickname given to an American serial killer (or killers) who is (or are) suspected of raping and murdering at least 55 women and girls in Southwestern Chicago between 2001 and 2018. The killings were combined only in 2018, and until then they were considered to have been committed by different perpetrators. Nevertheless, representatives of the Chicago Police Department told the media in 2019 that there might actually be several serial killers operating in the city.
Victims: As victims, the criminal(s) chose girls and women, predominantly African-American, between the ages of 18 and 58. Most of the victims were prostitutes or members of a marginalized group who had previous scrapes with the justice system. Nearly all were strangled and left in abandoned buildings, alleys, garbage bins, parks and snowdrifts. In November 2007, one man killed two women in two days, placed their bodies in garbage cans and then set them on fire. The majority of the murders were committed near Washington Park in Chicago's Southside, a high-crime area, and near Garfield Park in Western Chicago, as well as the surrounding areas.
bored
Sunday, May 24, 2020
new hobby
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Death of Phoenix Netts
Investigation-
Discovery:
The investigation began after a member of the public reported their suspicions to police about a car being driven erratically on the A4136 road near Coleford in the Forest of Dean. Police located the car a short while later and they spoke to two people. Two suitcases containing human remains were found, two people arrested and a vehicle seized. The remains were found around 11:30pm.
Search:
A search began of Stowfield quarry and the village of Staunton. There was a large police presence in the area, a police helicopter and several roads were closed. The A4136 was closed between Monmouth and Coleford and closures were expected to remain until Friday 15 May 2020. On Friday 15 May 2020 police searched properties in Wolverhampton and Birmingham as well as using DNA tests to identify the victim.
Police statements:
Detective chief inspector John Turner, the senior investigating officer, said "The nature of this incident is distressing and we’re working around the clock to fully understand what has happened. Someone’s life has been lost and our priority is to identify the victim and get answers for her family. Searches have taken place in the surrounding area for evidence-gathering and no remains have been found as part of these searches. Our major crime investigation team is working in collaboration with the West Midlands police homicide team to carry out further enquiries." On Thursday 14 May 2020 a Gloucestershire police spokesman said "Officers have been granted a 36-hour magistrates’ extension to continue questioning two people who were arrested on suspicion of murder. Overnight a 12-hour custody extension had been granted for both the woman aged in her 20s and from Birmingham and the man aged in his 30s and from Wolverhampton. The further 36-hour extension was granted at around midday today and means they can remain in custody for further questioning. Due to the ongoing investigation, road closures and scene guards are likely to remain in place. Gloucestershire constabulary would like to thank local residents and those impacted by the cordons for their patience during this time." On Friday 15 May 2020, Gloucestershire police said "A postmortem examination yesterday was found to be inconclusive and further examinations are ongoing to establish the cause of death. DNA testing is also ongoing to identify the female victim. Searches have continued today around the area of Stowfield Quarry, near Coleford, and some road closures remain in place in the surrounding area.
Impact:
Key workers had to find detours around the closed roads and some thought that the roadblocks were to stop people travelling from England to Wales to exercise. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales people are only allowed to exercise in their own area.
Charges:
A 27 year old woman from Birmingham has appeared before Cheltenham Magistrates' court on 19 May 2020 and has been charged with killing the woman between 14 April and 12 May 2020 at her home in Birmingham.[6][7] She was remanded to appear in Gloucester Crown Court on 19 May 2020. A 38 year old man from Wolverhampton has been charged with assisting an offender between 25 April and 12 May 2020 and was also remanded to appear before Gloucester Crown Court on 19 May 2020. Both have been refused bail appeared before magistrates in Cheltenham via video-link.
Identifcation:
The remains were identified via DNA tests as those of Phoenix Netts, a 28 year old woman from Birmingham. Detectives from West Midlands police have taken over the investigation from Gloucestershire pilice. Their investigations have focused on a womens refuge in BIrmingham. Conditional bail was granted to the man from Wolverhampton. The conditions include him residing at his home address, following a curfew between 7pm and 7am, reporting daily to police and surrendering his travel documents.[8] No application for bail was made for the woman from Birmingham. Both suspects are to next appear at Bristol Crown court on 4 August and a provisional trial date of 10 November has been set.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
entertaining
Friday, May 15, 2020
Forest of Dean unidentified body
The Forest of Dean unidentified body is that of a woman found hidden in two suitcases near the England–Wales border in May 2020.
Investigation-
Discovery:
The investigation began after a member of the public reported their suspicions to police about a car being driven erratically on the A4136 road near Coleford in the Forest of Dean. Police located the car a short while later and they spoke to two people. Two suitcases containing human remains were found, two people arrested and a vehicle seized. The remains were found around 11:30pm.
Search:
A search began of Stowfield quarry and the village of Staunton. There was a large police presence in the area, a police helicopter and several roads were closed. Road closures on the A4136 are expected to remain until Friday 15 May 2020.
Police statements:
Detective chief inspector John Turner, the senior investigating officer, said "The nature of this incident is distressing and we’re working around the clock to fully understand what has happened. Someone’s life has been lost and our priority is to identify the victim and get answers for her family. Searches have taken place in the surrounding area for evidence-gathering and no remains have been found as part of these searches. Our major crime investigation team is working in collaboration with the West Midlands police homicide team to carry out further enquiries." On Thursday 14 May 2020 a Gloucestershire police spokesman said "Officers have been granted a 36-hour magistrates’ extension to continue questioning two people who were arrested on suspicion of murder. Overnight a 12-hour custody extension had been granted for both the woman aged in her 20s and from Birmingham and the man aged in his 30s and from Wolverhampton. The further 36-hour extension was granted at around midday today and means they can remain in custody for further questioning. Due to the ongoing investigation, road closures and scene guards are likely to remain in place. Gloucestershire constabulary would like to thank local residents and those impacted by the cordons for their patience during this time."
Impact:
Key workers had to find detours around the closed roads and some thought that the roadblocks were to stop people travelling from England to Wales to exercise. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales people are only allowed to exercise in their own area.
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Green children of Woolpit
The legend of the green children of Woolpit concerns two children of unusual skin colour who reportedly appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England, some time in the 12th century, perhaps during the reign of King Stephen. The children, brother and sister, were of generally normal appearance except for the green colour of their skin. They spoke in an unknown language, and would only eat raw broad beans. Eventually they learned to eat other food and lost their green pallor, but the boy was sickly and died soon after he and his sister were baptised. The girl adjusted to her new life, but she was considered to be "rather loose and wanton in her conduct". After she learned to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother had come from Saint Martin's Land, a subterranean world inhabited by green people. The only near-contemporary accounts are contained in William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum and Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicum Anglicanum, written in about 1189 and 1220 respectively. Between then and their rediscovery in the mid-19th century, the green children seem to surface only in a passing mention in William Camden's Britannia in 1586 and in Bishop Francis Godwin's fantastical The Man in the Moone in the early 17th century, in both of which William of Newburgh's account is cited. Two approaches have dominated explanations of the story of the green children: that it is a folktale describing an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of another world, perhaps subterranean or even extraterrestrial, or it presents a real event in a garbled manner. The story was praised as an ideal fantasy by the English anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read in his English Prose Style, published in 1931, and provided the inspiration for his only novel, The Green Child, written in 1934.
Sources:
The village of Woolpit is in the county of Suffolk, East Anglia, about seven miles (11 km) east of the town of Bury St Edmunds. During the Middle Ages it belonged to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, and was part of one of the most densely populated areas in rural England. Two writers, Ralph of Coggeshall (died c. 1226) and William of Newburgh (c. 1136–1198), reported on the sudden and unexplained arrival in the village of two green children during one summer in the 12th century. Ralph was the abbot of a Cistercian monastery at Coggeshall, about 26 miles (42 km) south of Woolpit. William was a canon at the Augustinian Newburgh Priory, far to the north in Yorkshire. William states that the account given in his Historia rerum Anglicarum (c. 1189) is based on "reports from a number of trustworthy sources"; Ralph's account in his Chronicum Anglicanum, written some time during the 1220s, incorporates information from Sir Richard de Calne of Wykes, who reportedly gave the green children refuge in his manor, six miles (9.7 km) to the north of Woolpit. The accounts given by the two authors differ in some details.
Story:
One day at harvest time, according to William of Newburgh during the reign of King Stephen (r. 1135–1154), the villagers of Woolpit discovered two children, a brother and sister, beside one of the wolf pits that gave the village its name. Their skin was green, they spoke an unknown language, and their clothing was unfamiliar. Ralph reports that the children were taken to the home of Richard de Calne. Ralph and William agree that the pair refused all food for several days until they came across some raw broad beans, which they consumed eagerly. The children gradually adapted to normal food and in time lost their green colour. The boy, who appeared to be the younger of the two, became sickly and died shortly after he and his sister were baptised. After learning to speak English, the children – Ralph says just the surviving girl – explained that they came from a land where the sun never shone and the light was like twilight. William says the children called their home St Martin's Land; Ralph adds that everything there was green. According to William, the children were unable to account for their arrival in Woolpit; they had been herding their father's cattle when they heard a loud noise (according to William, the bells of Bury St Edmunds) and suddenly found themselves by the wolf pit where they were found. Ralph says that they had become lost when they followed the cattle into a cave and, after being guided by the sound of bells, eventually emerged into our land. According to Ralph, the girl was employed for many years as a servant in Richard de Calne's household, where she was considered to be "very wanton and impudent". William says that she eventually married a man from King's Lynn, about 40 miles (64 km) from Woolpit, where she was still living shortly before he wrote. Based on his research into Richard de Calne's family history, the astronomer and writer Duncan Lunan has concluded that the girl was given the name "Agnes" and that she married a royal official named Richard Barre.
Explanations:
Neither Ralph of Coggeshall nor William of Newburgh offer an explanation for the "strange and prodigious" event, as William calls it, and some modern historians have the same reticence: "I consider the process of worrying over the suggestive details of these wonderfully pointless miracles in an effort to find natural or psychological explanations of what 'really,' if anything, happened, to be useless to the study of William of Newburgh or, for that matter, of the Middle Ages", says Nancy Partner, author of a study of 12th-century historiography. Nonetheless, such explanations continue to be sought and two approaches have dominated explanations of the mystery of the green children. The first is that the narrative descends from folklore, describing an imaginary encounter with the inhabitants of a "fairy Otherworld". In a few early as well as modern readings, this other world is extraterrestrial, and the green children alien beings. The second is that it is a garbled account of a real event, although it is impossible to be certain whether the story as recorded is an authentic report given by the children or an "adult invention". His study of accounts of children and servants fleeing from their masters led Charles Oman to conclude that "there is clearly some mystery behind it all (the story of the green children), some story of drugging and kidnapping". Jeffrey Jerome Cohen offers a different kind of historical explanation, arguing that the story is an oblique account of the racial difference between the contemporary English and the indigenous Britons.
Folklore:
Scholars such as Charles Oman note that one element of the children's account, the entry into a different reality by way of a cave, seems to have been quite popular. Gerald of Wales tells a similar story of a boy who, after escaping his master, "encountered two pigmies who led him through an underground passage into a beautiful land with fields and rivers, but not lit by the full light of the sun". But the motif is poorly attested; E. W. Baughman lists it as the only example of his F103.1 category of English and North American folk tale motifs: "Inhabitants of lower world visit mortals, and continue to live with them". Martin Walsh considers the references to St Martin to be significant, and sees the story of the green children as evidence that the feast of Martinmas has its origins in an English aboriginal past, of which the children's story forms "the lowest stratum". A contributor to Notes and Queries in 1900 suggested a Celtic connection: " 'Green' spirits are 'sinless' in Celtic literature and tradition ... It may be more than a coincidence that the green girl marries a 'man of Kings Lynn.' Here the original Celtic word would be lein, evil, i.e. the pure fairy marries a sinful child of earth." In a modern development of the tale the green children are associated with the Babes in the Wood, left to die after being poisoned with arsenic by their wicked uncle (the arsenic explaining their colouration). Fleeing from the wood in which they were abandoned, possibly nearby Thetford Forest, the children fell into the pits at Woolpit where they were discovered. Local author and folk singer Bob Roberts states in his 1978 book A Slice of Suffolk that "I was told there are still people in Woolpit who are 'descended from the green children', but nobody would tell me who they were!" Other commentators have suggested that the children may have been aliens, or inhabitants of a world beneath the Earth. In a 1996 article published in the magazine Analog, astronomer Duncan Lunan hypothesised that the children were accidentally transported to Woolpit from their home planet as the result of a "matter transmitter" malfunction.[18] Lunan suggests that the planet from which the children were expelled may be trapped in synchronous orbit around its sun, presenting the conditions for life only in a narrow twilight zone between a fiercely hot surface and a frozen dark side. He explains the children's green colouration as a side effect of consuming the genetically modified alien plants eaten by the planet's inhabitants. Lunan was not the first to state that the green children may have been extraterrestrials. Robert Burton suggested in his 1621 The Anatomy of Melancholy that the green children "fell from Heaven", an idea that seems to have been picked up by Francis Godwin, historian and Bishop of Hereford, in his speculative fiction The Man in the Moone, published posthumously in 1638.
Historical explanations:
Many Flemish immigrants arrived in eastern England during the 12th century, and they were persecuted after Henry II became king in 1154; a large number of them were killed near Bury St Edmunds in 1173 at the Battle of Fornham fought between Henry II and Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. Paul Harris has suggested that the green children's Flemish parents perished during a period of civil strife and that the children may have come from the village of Fornham St Martin, slightly to the north of Bury St Edmunds, where a settlement of Flemish fullers existed at that time. They may have fled and ultimately wandered to Woolpit. Disoriented, bewildered, and dressed in unfamiliar Flemish clothes, the children would have presented a very strange spectacle to the Woolpit villagers. The children's colour could be explained by green sickness, the result of a dietary deficiency. Brian Haughton considers Harris's explanation to be plausible, and the one most widely accepted, although not without its difficulties. For instance, he suggests it is unlikely that an educated local man like Richard de Calne would not have recognised the language spoken by the children as being Flemish.
Historian Derek Brewer's explanation is even more prosaic:
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen proposes that the story is about racial difference, and "allows William to write obliquely about the Welsh": the green children are a memory of England's past and the violent conquest of the indigenous Britons by the Anglo-Saxons followed by the Norman invasion. William of Newburgh reluctantly includes the story of the green children in his account of a largely unified England, which Cohen juxtaposes with Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain, a book that according to William is full of "gushing and untrammeled lying". Geoffrey's history offers accounts of previous kings and kingdoms of various racial identities, whereas William's England is one in which all peoples are either assimilated or pushed to the boundaries. According to Cohen, the green children represent a dual intrusion into William's unified vision of England. On one hand they are a reminder of the racial and cultural differences between Normans and Anglo-Saxons, given the children's claim to have come from St Martin's Land, named after Martin of Tours; the only other time William mentions that saint is in reference to St Martin's Abbey in Hastings, which commemorates the Norman victory in 1066. But the children also embody the earlier inhabitants of the British Isles, the "Welsh (and Irish and Scots) who [had been] forcibly anglicized ... The Green Children resurface another story that William had been unable to tell, one in which English paninsular dominion becomes a troubled assumption rather than a foregone conclusion." The boy in particular, who dies rather than become assimilated, represents "an adjacent world that cannot be annexed ... an otherness that will perish to endure".
Legacy:
The English anarchist poet and critic Herbert Read describes the story of the green children in his English Prose Style, published in 1931, as "the norm to which all types of fantasy should conform". It was the inspiration for his only novel, The Green Child, written in 1934. A 1994 adaptation of the story by Kevin Crossley-Holland tells it from the point of view of the green girl. Author John Macklin includes an account in his 1965 book, Strange Destinies, of two green children who arrived in the Spanish village of Banjos in 1887. Many details of the story very closely resemble the accounts given of the Woolpit children, such as the name of Ricardo de Calno, the mayor of Banjos who befriends the two children, strikingly similar to Richard de Calne. It therefore seems that Macklin's story is an invention inspired by the green children of Woolpit, particularly as there is no record of any Spanish village called Banjos. Australian novelist and poet Randolph Stow uses the account of the green children in his 1980 novel The Girl Green as Elderflower; the green girl is the source for the title character, here a blond girl with green eyes. The green children become a source of interest to the main character, Crispin Clare, along with some other characters from the Latin accounts of William of Newburgh, Gervase of Tilbury, and others, and Stow includes translations from those texts: these characters "have histories of loss and dispossession that echo Clare's own". The green children are the subject of a 1990 community opera performed by children and adults, composed by Nicola LeFanu with a libretto written by Kevin Crossley-Holland In 2002 English poet Glyn Maxwell wrote a verse play based on the story of the green children, Wolfpit (the earlier name for Woolpit), which was performed once in New York City. In Maxwell's version the girl becomes an indentured servant to the lord of the manor, until a stranger named Juxon buys her freedom and takes her to an unknown destination.