Monday, October 24, 2005

I'M AN IDEALIST, NOT AN EGO TRIPPER


It has happened entirely too many times that my writings have been construed as an attempt to overshadow the accomplishments of the others. I have been called "overbearing". I have been accused of trying to show others up. I never intended it that way. I am always astounded that anyone could possibly receive my writings in that vein. I'm very impressed and respectful of others' accomplishments and I tell them so.

I am not an ego tripper, but if I wasn't very sure of my ideas I wouldn't have the fortitude to disseminate them. I am an idealist. I write what I do in order to advance Human kind, not to make a name for myself. I am convinced that I have found some solutions to a great deal of suffering. My life is, was and will be dedicated to considering these matters. I have no idea how many experiences I forfeited in favor of thinking and writing the conclusions of my thoughts in order to better the lot of Human kind. I have no idea how much money I did not earn so that I may be free to help others in the only way that my abilities allow me to – to think and to write.

The desire to be of assistance to Human kind and the certainty that my ideas are liberating alone emboldens me to promulgate my ideas. My need to ameliorate Human suffering is that which gives me the strength to publicly suffer character assassination and vulgar, baseless accusations on the part of strangers again and again.

Someone called me a "hack". I have eschewed earning money from my writings all through the years in order to be free to write according to the lights of my own conscience. In fact, I have expended a good deal on the publication of my ideas.

Something terrible happened to people in the US during the intervening generation since my emigration from there. Too many Americans are filled with blind rage. This is true of people in other parts of the world as well, particularly those in the American sphere of influence. I attribute that to overall malnutrition, the using of various addictive substances, and exposure to the media.

Evidently many people think that the semi-anonymity of the internet gives them license to speak and behave in an unbridled manner. I'm sure they wouldn't dare carry on so with the people they encounter in real life.

I see being an intrepid proponent of alternative models for social mechanisms and structure as my calling.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
October 24, 2005

Monday, October 17, 2005

BIRD FLEW, UH, FLU

I received the following message just the other day.

There is a lab in Safed that has the responsibility to check fordiseases in birds. If anyone finds any birds that are actingstrangely or are dead, please contact them. If the bird is dead theywill need to have it as soon as possible, it would be good to coverit with an upside down pail with a heavy rock on top or something sothat predators dont get it. Then call one of these numbers right awayand ask them to pick it up:_______________(numbers provided). Thanks.

In order to deal with my fear, I employed the age-old self-defense mechanism of sick humor. I made a few additions to the notification. My additions are in lilac:

LABORATORY TO CHECK BIRDS:


There is a lab in Tzfat that has the responsibility to check for diseases in birds. If anyone finds any birds that are acting strangely or are dead, or both, please contact them. Contact who? The lab or the birds? How does one make contact with birds that are acting strangely? These birds may be seriously psychotic. Are there avian psychiatrists? How do I contact dead birds? Are there mediums that do that sort of thing?

If the bird is dead they will need to have it as soon as possible. It would be good to cover it with an upside down pail. An upside down pail. Yeah, right. I always carry one in my back pocket. Put a heavy rock on top or something on top or something? What are the options? so that predators don't get it. A heavy rock. Uh huh. I always have one of those at the ready too. You never know when a predator will try to eat my pail and I'll have to protect my proprietary rights by bashing its skull in with a heavy rock. Then call one of these numbers right away, because you can't be sure that the bird will still be dead when they get there if you don't hurry and ask them to pick it up. Ask them to pick it up? That sounds pretty Jappy.
Pick up what? The bird, the rock, the pail or the lab?

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Thursday, October 13, 2005

WHAT'S A SOCIETY TO DO?

What do we do when we, as a Society, are confronted with a case like this?

http://tinyurl.com/8a6xm

What does "justice being served" mean in a case like this?

My initial response is:


From the story, as it was presented in the news, it is clear that these people knew full well that according to Israeli law that what they had done is considered a sexual crime against a minor. Whether or not they themselves considered it a perversion and a violation of the child's Human rights cannot be determined from the story. It is clear, however, that they knew that this is their society's view. They did, after all, use the behavior to incriminate one another in the course of their marital disputes.

My inclination is not to punish, per se, but to correct, which is what I think all effective punishment should be. Chances are the parents are victims of sexual predators in their childhood.The parents are very sick and, as in the case with all extreme illnesses, extreme methods of cure may be called for.

If we mete out harsh measures unwisely we become a depraved and brutal society. Punishment cannot be carried out in order to release our feelings of outrage. It has to be a corrective measure that helps the persons who veered off societal norms. It would be ironic indeed if, in being unwisely brutal toward sexual predators, we become perverted morally as a society.

And who will carry out the harsh punishment? In ancient Israel the Judges themselves had to mete out the punishments they recommended. They were, therefore, extremely careful not to have innocent blood on their hands and not to be unnecessarily harsh. Today there are professional executioners, jailers, psychiatrists, etc. who do the bidding of the judges who keep their hands "clean" of meting out the actual punishment.

I would call for them serving a term in a closed psychiatric facility and having to take part in one-on-one, family and group therapy. Thereafter, when they show marked improvement, they may be released on the proviso that they agree to having their libidos chemically reduced to the point where they are incapable of repeating these acts. This agreement on their part, in writing, should be made a condition of their release. I say this because there is an unusually high rate of recidivism amongst sexual offenders. A troubling case is a Canadian one: A man, who was a serial rapist from the age of 12 (no typo), has been in jail for decades. He is a model prisoner and is due for early release. Yet, he is still more sexually excited by rape scenes than by scenes involving consensual sex. The families of his victims are livid about, and terrified of, his impending early release and are doing everything they can to petition the Canadian justice system to reconsider the decision. Certainly, it cannot be assumed from the fact that he is a model prisoner that he will be a model member of society-at-large, or even a minimally functioning one. How he responds to sex scenes, is, IMO, far more indicative of future behavior when he is set free. When asked if he thinks that he will return to raping he answered honestly, saying that he doesn't know. He recommends setting him free to determine the matter.

I know that the chemicals that reduce the libido cause side-effects. I can see no way out of the moral quandary. It seems to be that we have to "violate" the human and societal rights of sexual offenders in order to protect society. It is preferable, IMO, that paedophiles be made into semi-zombies than that innocent children be made sexually maladapted and the sexual predators of tomorrow. It is better, IMO, that convicted rapists be made sterile than that they be able to rape again. Moreover, as rape is a crime of violence, not a sexual act per se, it is desirable, methinks, that convicted rapists be so drugged as not to be able to harm another being in any way as acondition of their release from closed institutions.I'd like to throw this one out for discussion.

This is a tough case and it's been put on our plate. This is not a theoretical discussion. This is a real case pending in the District Court of Tel Aviv.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Someone sent the following to me:

"This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W. Bush, arranged for "aesthetic" purposes, by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share.Ah, yes! A testament to literacy in the age of Every Child Left Behind!"

BUSH HAIKU


MAKE THE PIE HIGHER!

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pant leg of opportunity.
I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!

Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

The foregoing is not a demonstration of Bush's idiocy or lack of linguistic skills. This is painstakingly calculated mind muck. George Walker Bush, the President of the United States of America, does not "ad lib" or do "improv". Those who pull the strings that control this dummy's mouth are handsomely-remunerated, expert ventriloquists. That is why you do not see them working their "magic".

Every word that comes out of Bush's mouth is deliberately chosen by highly-trained specialists. They compose optimally efficacious formulations of words that create the mental images which elicit the desired psychological and emotional responses in those who listen to the speeches and comments Bush delivers.

Moreover, I contend that the quotes above were not "arranged for aesthetic reasons only". By repeating and disseminating the quotes above, the Washington Post is in collusion with the Bush administration, not in opposition to it. It will be the lampoon that will stick in people's memories, and that is their precise objective.

If you've ever read an article in one of the United States' "better" newspapers, most notably the New York Times, then you know that they say absolutely nothing. The articles are strings of incoherent sentences that produce fragmented thought. But they're written using a lot of high-falutin' language that creates the illusion of something very profound having been related by a very profound professional writer. Those who guard their reputations as intellectuals jealously do not dare admit that they didn't understand a damn thing that was written in those articles, lest they be thought not to be capable of plumbing the depths of the thought of the Times' "brilliant" journalists. They pretend not only to understand, but also agree, with the "substance" of the articles on pain of being banned from the august Society of New York intellectuals. But I tell you: he King of American Newspapers has no clothes on, and neither do the bonnie princes.

My husband, Daniel, and I were and having a grand old time reading the lines above and laughing - until we came to the "vulcanize society" line. I laughed at the obvious error and then stopped laughing, rather abruptly, realizing that I could not think of the correct word to replace the malapropism with. Turning to Daniel I said: " I know 'vulcanized' is not the correct word, but I can't remember what the correct word is." I had to rack my brain for about a minute to remember the word 'galvanize'.

In putting those lines in the President's mouth, and making people who have learned correct English laugh at them, the people who write Bush's speeches are causing the educated to remember this patois, thus wiping out and supplanting their memory of correct English with gobbledygook. They are being re-educated even as they chortle. Their minds are being washed even as they guffaw. They are being taught how not to induce coherent thought using language aptly. They willingly go along with the process because they enjoy the laugh and the feeling of hubris at laughing at the President. The pride that the intelligent take in their intelligence is that which is being used to dumb them down – and they're enjoying every minute of it.
Putting misstatements and malapropisms in the mouth of the President is tremendously effective on the less educated and the young whose vocabularies, use of language and modes of thought are in the formation stage. The President is the role model of the political conservatives and a figure whose words are oft-heard for all in the English-speaking world. His English will be emulated by those who respect him and will become the manner of self-expression even for those who do not respect him because it will become that which is most familiar to them.

This device for dumbing down of Americans , and the English-speaking world really, by placing patois in the mouth of the President of the United States of America is highly indeed.

Those properly schooled are forgetting that which they once learned, the young and the poorly-schooled accept the English of the President as the norm and the intelligentsia – who have always used reason expressed in language as their most formidable weapon against oppression, ignorance and irrationality, have been very effectively disarmed. In contrast to the degraded, and even incoherent, mode of speech and writing that is rapidly becoming the familiar norm, the intelligentsia sound increasingly incomprehensible, ridiculous even alien. Thus, even more than in generations gone by, those who need to hear the messages of the intelligentsia most are the most likely to reject them out-of-hand for seeming weird, being different and being incomprehensible. In those rare cases in which someone might be disposed to reading their writings, the laziness and inability to think cogently that thinking in patois causes, will douse the desire to consider deeply soon enough.

Bush's manner of speech is no joke, then, and certainly not impromptu. It is part of a carefully-devised program to dumb the English-speaking world down and we would be extremely foolish to allow ourselves to be led down the garden path to generalized inability to think coherently, laughing cooperatively all the way.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

B & B & B


Thuh 'Merican gum-mint has formulated and produced a powerful new weapon to add to its arsenal employed in its never-ending war against lucidity and individuality.

The USians, encouraged by the results of the mandatory administration of Ritalin to schoolchildren whose indefatigable love of life and joyous enthusiasm was so disruptive and insufferable in public schools, will now be administering a new, experimental drug, which induces extreme apathy and euphoria, to children who are bright or caring, or, in the worst of cases, both.

Starting this school year, B & B & B will be administered to children deemed, according to rigorous testing, to be in dire need of being doped, uh, that is, calmed.

The administration of the drug will be on a mandatory basis, free-of-charge, to all children who were found to have IQs of at least 120 and/or evinced compassion or empathy to any degree whatsoever, in the course of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health screening program. The screening, which is quite obviously worth every tax dollar spent in developing and implementing it, has proven scientifically that these children are extremely disturbed and potentially dangerous to society. They simply cannot be allowed to disrupt the flow of public school indoc…um, education. They must be controlled – for their own good and for the good of all decent White Christian folks.

The promising new drug will be marketed by the name of B & B & B, after the ideal personality that the drug is designed to induce in those who receive it – that of Barbara Bourbon-Bush.

The remarkable pharmacological innovation in the development of B & B & B is that preliminary testing has revealed that the efficacy of the drug is not only heightened substantially when it is taken together with pseudo-Liberal propagandistic tripe, popularly marketed as Red Bull, but that the two administered together increase suggestibility and enhance natural mimetic tendencies in the recipient.

The recommended initial starting dosage is one pony glass of B & B & B three-quarters of an hour before classes begin. According to the individual reaction of each child, the dosage may be increased to a shot glass, and, in cases of extreme incorrigibility, where the child continues to ask incisive and/or critical questions and/or evinces empathy and/or demonstrates any degree of non-acceptance of authority; a chaser of Red Bull can be recommended as well.

Um, say what? You say you have objections to your child taking an experimental soporific drug that will render him or her optimally socially malleable? Well, just try to "Just say no".

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com