The Doppelganger Effect

Whizzing, whirring and beeping happily down the street on a mid-day brightly lit by the moons, D2 suddenly heard whizzing, whirring and beeping approaching, growing ever louder.

She looked to one of her right sides and saw herself, then R1, superimposed. Smiling she asked him: "Aren't you either too old or too young to be up at an hour like this?", feeling oddly as though she had asked that question before. He responded: "How did you know I was up? I might have seen myself walking down the street once, but if I did I didn't stop to say hello", and she heard his whiz, whir and beeps merge into one indistinct and ever-fading yyyyaaaawwwwwww.... as he passed.

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

Comforting thought of the day:

There is an infinite number of women with my mind and Carmen Electra's looks who do not have to clean for Pesach in infinite parallel universes – some perhaps as close as 10^10^497 meters away, give or take.

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

Now There's Hope - Bibliophilia Recovery Program

OK, let's dispense with the 40 questions for self-diagnosis. You know who you are – and so does everybody else. Think your family hasn't noticed that you spend four hours on the toilet seat – every time you go? Or the cleaning lady hasn't seen the stacks of books under your bed? Get real.

We're here to offer you help – serious help for an otherwise intractable illness that is progressive and ultimately fatal.

The Bibliophilia Recovery is a simple program based loosely upon, but in no way associated with, 12 Step programs.

The Bibliophilia Recovery Program is a 12! Step program.

That's right. You read correctly. It's a 12 Factorial Step Program and you must do all the steps, in order, or it won't work. Half-baked measures will avail you nothing. Just surrender your will and judgment and do exactly what we tell you to. Shut up and let us love you until you can love yourself.

The Step One is admitting that you're totally insane. From there you can proceed reasonably toward taking responsibility for yourself. The Step Two is writing down exact nature of your ideation. Step Three is sending a formally notarized copy of what you have written while doing Step Two to all of the people you have harmed. Step Four is following up Step Three with cutesy e-mail: "Oops, I didn't mean it. I'm really sorry." cards. If those you have harmed do not respond with an acceptance of your apology, continue to send them the e-card repeatedly each day. Take each step slowly and go on to the next only when you feel you have mastered the one you've been working on.

Feeling a bit intimidated? Doubtful? Yeah, we know it's a rigorous program. But, hey, you've got a serious problem and it's doing exercises right now out in the parking lot even as you read this.

If you undertake to follow this program faithfully, we promise you the freedom from addiction that has heretofore eluded you. You will be the person you have always wanted to be. Hundreds of thousands of people in hundreds of thousands of countries have recovered successfully using this simple program. Believe us. It can help even a hopeless wretch like you. Hey, it helped us and we were really skid row. You'll be able to get through a day, then a week, then a month, then a year, eventually the rest of your life without reading another book. That's a guarantee.

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

QUEEN DOREEN OF THE LAPUTANS MANQUE

I neglected to mention that I'm the Queen of the Laputans Manque - of course, as Queen of the Laputans Manque I neglect to do just about everything.

I so wanted to be Queen Doreen of Southern Ireland. It seemed quite fitting, until I realized that I can't so much as afford a flat in a decent neighborhood in Dublin and a Queen, after all, is expected to live in a decent flat in most countries.

I realized that even the Irish on their drunkest and foggiest days would expect me to make some reasoned decisions and adhere to a predictable code of behavior - an expectation I could not live up to, especially when I go into one of my blue funks.

Crestfallen, I had to admit that I wasn't right for the job.

Then, as randomness would have it, I met Richard May on line. He introduced himself as the Founder of the Laputans Manque. It sounded absolutely ideal!

I could be a schlemeil and not feel mylife was being squandered. In fact, I could reign as Schlemeil Supreme. It was so Me.

I entreated and pleaded and generally nudged him to let me be the Queen of the Laputans Manque.

I explained to him that I am eminently suited for the job being as for all my ruminations, I can't so much as remember what it was I go to the grocery store for.

He asked me to promise that I wouldn't impose anarchy on Laputa. That would be entirely too orderly.

I swore solemnly.

And so, I was coronated Queen Doreen of the Laputans Manque, and nary a more fitting Queen they could hope to find.

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

Continuation of No, I Won't Vote! (see entry directly below)


The record low voter turnout at the polls yesterday, 57%, which broke the record set in the last elections, when 63% of eligible voters cast their ballot has been interpreted by some commentators that the voters don't care what the future of Israel is.

The public was adjured to vote by organizations whose stated purpose is to uphold democracy. They were told in repeated broadcasts: "Get out and vote. It is more than a right. It is a duty. Don't give up your rights to someone else."

Oh, please! The reason why so few Israeli voters didn't bother is because after having been betrayed by Ariel Sharon we learned that the "democratic process" is an utter farce and it doesn't matter how we cast our votes.

More important, vastly more important, is the fact that they do not understand that our inaction does not bespeak indifference or an abrogation of our power.

We are whittling away at the ersatz democratic state and we intend to supplant it with a truly democratic, that is, anarchic, state.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
March 29, 2006

No, I Will Not Vote

My husband just got back from the polls.

He won't tell me who he voted for because he doesn't want to influence my vote in any way.

Fat chance of that happening.

I don't intend to vote anyway.

I'm not taking part in this charade anymore.

I didn't vote for him, but I certainly believed that Arik Sharon meant what he said and had this country's best interests at heart.

I would never have believed that he, of all PMs, would be the one to run Jews out of the homes utilizing the army, the police, the riot squad and UN soldiers, throw them out into the streets and scatter them helpless throughout the country so that they could not regroup.

Those who voted Sharon in did so because they feared that a Labor PM might do such things. No one believed it would be Sharon.

He destroyed our faith in any politician.

He crossed the line into making Israel a fascist state that turns the armed forces on its own citizens for political purposes.

There are still some families from Shomron who do not have homes. There are still some children who are not in school.

Young adolescents, I mean boys and girls as young as thirteen, were put into adult prisons for demonstrating. Their parents were not allowed to bring them school supplies. A judge ruled that: "being in jail is not a luxury".

The wife of the lawyer who was giving counsel to the Jews in Shomron was arrested and taken to prison, though she did nothing. She was nursing at the time. They hauled the baby off with her.

If Sharon, the supposedly most staunch defender of Israel did all that, who would not? The next stage of evacuation of Jews is already in the works. Minister of Defense, the former Chief of Staff, Sha'ul Mofaz has said he supports the plan.

Dan thinks that it's important that I vote.

For what? A grotesque? A farce - that is anything but funny?

It is clear that whoever is dictating Israeli policy is outside Israel and will continue to do so no matter who the PM is and no matter what the breakdown of the seats in Knesset will be.

No. I, for one, will not play their game. I will not take an action that will signal to them that I'm still buying into the lie that this is even a quasi- or ersatz democratic state.

By not voting I cast my vote. It is a vote for anarchy.

Evidently, I'm not the only one picketing the bogus election:

http://tinyurl.com/fqa8p


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

DEPLETED URANIUM - A HIDDEN LOOMING WORLDWIDE CALAMITY - by Stephen Lendman

http://tinyurl.com/q65fg

My response to this is:

We should be absolutely incensed about this!
This is arrogance, dominance and disdain in their very worst manifestation.
Why do the world's unwashed masses have to put up with this???
There should be unwashed mass demonstrations - all over the world.
We are as entitled to enriched uranium as the rich are!
On second thought, the world's unwashed masses have a part in their being treated with contempt.
Their complacency is an open invitation to being treated shabbily.
The unwashed masses must learn to be more critical if they wish to get their fair share of exposure to enriched uranium as well!

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

PESACH CLEANING

If Purim is my very favorite holiday, then Pesach is my very least favorite. I hate it.
Why should I clean? Why should anyone? Is there any work more Sisyphean than dusting? Dust is cosmic. Dust is the stuff of the formation of galaxies. Dust is more sublime than we can fathom. From dust we are and to dust we shall return. Anyone who thinks that they can rid their miniscule homes of dust doesn't have the first notion of the greatness and vastness of creation.
Dust, if you ponder the subject with the depth it deserves, is as Pesachdik as it gets. What is the desert, after all, if not a huge dust heap? Isn't that what we are supposed to be celebrating - our liberation from Egypt into 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the desert? Dust is very near and dear to me. Ever since that incarnation during which I wandered through the desert for forty years, I simply cannot but be surrounded by it. It was amidst the dust that I received the Torah. I am deeply sentimental about it.
Besides, I find the accumulation of dust on my shelves very convenient. F'rinstance, when someone phones (as is wont to happen once a month or so on the average), I can jot the person's name and number down right there on a handy, nearby shelf. No need to say: "Just a minute. I'll find a piece of paper and a pen" and then make the poor schmo wait 1/4 hour 'til I find them buried under the dust.
Dust makes me feel good. I never miss an opportunity to ROFL.
I always thought that Pigpen was the true star of the cartoon and found that nauseatingly sweet and insipid Charlie Brownnose nothing but annoying.
I also dearly want a cat, but because I have guinea pigs I have to wait until they die. In the meantime, the dust balls that are forming in my house are my ersatz cats. They look just like those pricey Rag Doll cats. How would you feel if someone swept your cat away and dumped him?
The mites are my companions and in the depths of depressive despair it is to them that I turn for comfort and solace. They advise me wisely and well.
To our Xian brethren I say: Console yourself that all you have to worry about is going into hock to the tune of your yearly income for Xmas. At least your dusty world is not shaken and uprooted.
In our next episode: Doreen laments having to eat matzah and horseradish.

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

Don't Misunderestimate Him

I serendipitously came across the following blog:

http://tinyurl.com/n6y33

I present it not merely for your entertainment. It's really not at all funny.

I have suspected for some time that a program has been implemented in the US to divest people of the ability to think incisively and discern by systematically dulling their linguistic tools.

I don't believe for a single moment that Bush's malapropisms are the expressions of mere semi-literacy. He does not speak impromptu. He is, after all, the President of the United States. His speeches are painstakingly crafted by professional writers whose job it is to imbed subliminal messages.

I think that Bush speaks as he does in order to set the tone for unclear and imprecise speech so that the thought of the American populace, and by extension entire English-speaking world, will become increasingly unclear. Our powers of discernment are being whittled away systematically.

I don't know who this semi-literate, soi-disant editor Peggy is, but I suspect that her blog is not simply a compendium of egregious and laughable errors. I'm quite sure that many young people are not laughing along with us.

I think that "Peggy", and many more like her, are employed to disseminate fuzzy language and encourage fuzzy thinking.

Imagine if we were youngsters today. Would we be able to speak, read and write English as we do? I think not.

Soon we will be gone and with us the ability to discern between and among fine points and think analytically will go. There will be no one to correct the young people's spelling, grammar and syntax. There will be no one to lead them out of the haze. There will be no one to provide young people with the exacting mathematical and linguistic tools they need to clarify nebulous ideas to themselves and then articulate them to others - and someone is very interested in bringing about that state of affairs.

I recently came across the following: http://www.devilducky.com/media/23894/

I think it lends substantial endorsement to the observations and concerns I expressed above.

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

The Reasons Why People Do Not Accept Alphanumerics

Message 2391 on the Yahoo Group Acephalic Swine & Stupid Parrots

The system of Hebrew alphanumerics treats these matters and answers these questions incomparably more satisfactorily than classical math could ever hope to.

There are a number of problems that stand in the way of people accepting it generally.

1) People think that the laws of classical math exist a priori. Why anyone would assume this has been a wonder to me since the first time I was ordered to accept an arithmetical law as true just because an old harridan in orthopedic shoes, elastic stockings and a severe bun said so.

2) Hebrew alphanumerics requires the study of Hebrew, which is the math and the math is the language. They are inextricably bound. They are, in fact, one and the same and should never be entertained separately, lest one is reduced to what is called 'mochin katnut' in Aramaic (restricted consciousness, or the consciousness most of us think of as normal and all there is).

3)The math doesn't artificially do away with "mess" and provide an illusory this-and-not-that reality. It produces a reality that is a *conjunction*, not a disjunction. That is: this *and* that - concomitantly. It allow for a vastly more complex and elastic universe.

4) There is an emotional component to not accepting alphanumerics. People are reluctant to take responsibility for the reality they are living in and to accept that it is being generated out of our minds hearts and *moral level*.

4) The teachings have been made a travesty of by the "Lurianic" school of Kabbalah, which deals in superstition and mind bending. Lurianic Kabbalah is big business with all the accoutrement. I am not from the Lurianic school and have spent many years as a pariah because I came out against it strongly. My work is an extension of that of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, whose work was hidden away for 800 by the Church and Orthodoxy alike and for exactly the same reasons - his work sets the mind free. Yet, his work was not without taint and he was most certainly subject to human errors and failings. Rabbi Abulafia did not elucidate an absolute revolution of Hebrew alphanumerics and neither did I. All I did was see a few steps further than he did because I climbed up to that giant's shoulder.

It is the work of Humanity to unfold it gradually. No one Human being, no one People, no one generation can conceive it all. It is what we are. It is the substrate of all actual and potential being.

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

This Time I Say: YES!

I do not take a simplistic, unilateral, across the board position on the death sentence that allows me an illusory peace of having a mind made up and always knowing just what should be or should not be done.

I think that each individual case has to be considered based on the very specific circumstances.

There are cases in which I believe the death sentence is dead wrong. See my article "Some Thoughts on Revision of the Death Penalty in Light of the Case of Stanley (Tookie) Williams" on the following URL:

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/TOOKIEWILLIAMS.htm

There are cases in which I feel it is absolutely right and I do not feel the slightest hesitation or compunction. Cases in which adults rape, torture and kill children are just such cases.

I would, if I was legally enjoined to, carry out the death sentence myself in those cases.

This is one of those cases: http://tinyurl.com/zrb5r

He himself says he wanted to die just before he raped and murdered that 11-year-old girl.

Let's support him in getting out of his misery, her and his families', and society's.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

When The Irresistible Force Meets the Unmovable Object

Robertson Finds Radical Muslims 'Satanic'

http://tinyurl.com/nu3q6

The confluence we are sharing is a spectacular one - filled with danger and supersaturated with opportunity.

The Christian world is reaping the whirlwind of the winds it sowed in the Crusades. Its own megalomaniacal aspirations of spiritual world conquest are coming back to haunt it and challenge it for a final showdown. They do not recognize their own image being reflected back to them. They imagine that, having laid down the weapons of the Middle Ages and desisted from armed evangelism, they have been forgiven and their actions have been forgotten. They do not know that the perturbations and disruptions they caused in the universe when they swung their maces and engaged their catapults are still reverberating and are returning to them.

The discovery of the Coelacanth changed the way we think about "extinction" forever. Scientists, wholly baffled, ask: "How could Coelacanths disappear for over 80 million years and then turn up alive and well in the twentieth century?" They use the terms as though they have some vague idea of what they mean.

The Okapi and other animals, most recently a "rat squirrel", thought to be long extinct have been discovered alive.

The genetic mutation that causes some of the siblings that belong to a family in Turkey to behave in a quasi-apelike/humanoid manner has caused scientists to ask if they are witnessing a case of human devolution. They note, however, that the family are characterized by singular love, warmth and acceptance - far in advance of that evinced by most human families. Scientists are entertaining the possibility that this is a case of devolution based upon what appears to be findings of devolution in other species.

The universe is showing us that our conception of time is wholly inadequate. We are amazed by the above-mentioned discoveries because we cling to a hopelessly inadequate conception of time. Time is certainly not a vector; that illusion is an artifact our consciousness. The common understanding of reincarnation is based on this illusion.

Space-time is the creation of our emotions, most particularly our inability or unwillingness to encounter objects, persons, situations, etc. We create space-time in order to distance ourselves, to put someone or something off.

The Irresistible Force that compels us to learn, encounter and accept is coming up against the Unmovable Object of our unwillingness to be divested of our ways of conceiving and cognizing. Our collective consciousness, and thus our universe, is imploding. But, never mind. The next universe we create will be bigger and better, as was the last universe we created, as is this one...

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

Someone asked: "Do you believe in Soulmates?"

Someone else answered: "I believe that some people have shared a past together and when they find each other in our current incarnation, they know and can share a deeper relationship than most of us. But I also think that searching for one's soulmate can lead to misery if you're not careful. Always trying to find that one special bond that may not be available in our current lifetime. "

I responded:

There is one problem with the belief in reincarnation. It presupposes that time is a vector. There is no reason to assume that this is the case. It appears to us that this is so because of the way that our thought is structured.

I believe that there are soulmates. I believe that they are together eternally, but I also understand that space-time is a creation of our emotions. When we do not wish to be in immediate contact with a person, situation, object, etc., we create space-time to create a distance.

When we want with all of our being to be with our Soulmate we are there - spontaneously and instantaneously.

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

Obscene Contraband

Returning from a sensual vacation in Miami, after having dropped into their favorite sex shop, Mary and Joseph Jones were just crossing the state line into their home state of Abalamala when Joe Jones saw the blue strobe light of a police car in his rear-view mirror. "Oh. Oh. Mary, I think they're on to us."

Sho' nuff, they heard the feigned polite, authoritarian voice of a policeman coming through a bullhorn. "Pull your car over to the side of the road, please."

Joe Jones pulled over, rolled his window down and said: "Good evening, officers. What's the problem? I don't believe I was driving over the speed limit."

"No, sir, you weren't. We have been tipped off that you and your wife are attempting to enter the holy land of the state of Abalamala with obscene contraband."

Joe Jones gasped as if horrified and said: "Us? Mary and Joseph Jones? Obscene contraband? Why, we have been members in good standing of the White and Decent Evangelical Church for two decades. We'll be attending the AEGA World Conference once again this year. Us? Wherever did you get the idea that we would bring contraband into the holy land of the state of Abalamala?"

"We've received information, and we must investigate. Now, please cooperate and tell us where the contraband is."

"There is none. We don't know what you're talking about."

"Please get out of the car." Mary and Joe Jones got out of their car and the two policemen proceeded to check every inch of their car. "There's nothing in the trunk."

"There isn't anything in the glove compartment or under the hood either."

"Check under the seats and under the carpeting. Check under the dashboard. It must be here somewhere. Think, Murphy, where the hell would somebody stash a butt plug and a vibrating egg?"

"Dunno, sir. Sir?"

"Yeah, Murphy. What is it?"

"What came first? The vibrating chicken or the vibrating egg?"

The senior officer looked levelly at the more junior officer. He was clearly not amused. The two officers found nothing. Not just a bit frustrated and embarrassed the policemen told Mary and Joe that they could go, got back in their car and drove away. "My cop's nose tells me they've got it somewhere, Murphy, but if we can't get our hands on it we can't bust 'em."

Mary and Joe got back in their car looked at one another and smiled. As they drove away the faintest buzzing could be heard...

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

Expunge Humanity from Textbooks

Reference: 'Mom,' 'dad' to be axed from school textbooks? Zelda's revenge: Gender-neutralizing billcould also jeopardize prom kings, queens

http://tinyurl.com/mdfz4

I think humanity should be expunged from all books used in schools. This will solve a number of problems. First, there will no longer be a need for revisionist history. Second, the problem of gender vis-à-vis sex will be obviated. And last, but certainly not least, as all schoolchildren know, humanity provides an atrocious role model.

"Expunge 'em", Doreen says with a dismissive, imperious fluttering of the wrist.

Think how much more interesting English and American literature will be without people ruining perfectly good story lines.

Think of "The Raven". It's the raven that carries the poem. Who gives a fuck about Lenore?

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

Two Hard Lessons I Learned In My Life

One of the hardest lessons I learned in my life is that we can't love someone more than they are willing to be loved or in a way that they don't want to be loved or intervene before they are ready to be "saved". We can't decide when it's time for someone to recover from alcohol addiction, food addiction, drug addiction or from violence and addiction to primitivism.

Another one of the hardest lessons that I learned is that those who are willingly enslaved and allow evil to occur because they will not organize themselves into an effective force against evil are more reprehensible, and responsible, for their unhappy condition than are those who enslave them.

All we can do is be there for the ones who come of their own free volition and according to their own time table.

Humankind has not yet evolved to the point where we know how to form alliances based on purely altruistic and other-serving principles. Evil people are better at organizing based on selfishness, brutish competition and hierarchies, than are the good folks - and creation favors organization.

So long as the peace-lovers who will not organize are atomized and dispersed we remain powerless and it remains wholly indeterminable whether we would, if we organized, constitute the critical mass necessary to change things - we deserve every kick in the butt we get because it need not be this way.

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

Spike Tells Condi: "Quit Smoking That Crack!"

http://tinyurl.com/mfzcd

Hot damn, dat Domstella brown dwarf do look smokin' in dem Spike-heeled, patent leather boots and dat suita dark matta. Yas, indeedy.

I don't know if she's darkening, but she sho' is ultrakewel.

Vintage Prawn

The discovery of old "bones" from the JurAssic period that belonged to a "beaver", which ate fish and baby dinosaurs and, in turn, was eaten by fish and dinosaurs, has proven conclusively that the development of transsexualism, cunnilingus, arse play and paedolphelia had all evolved by at least 1.64 E8 years ago.

Article: http://tinyurl.com/lua3g

Hope for Humans to Regain Ability to Cooperate

A gene that apparently sets human evolution back about a million years holds out hope that humans can be devolved to the point where they regain the ability to cooperate strategically for the good of all concerned, which we evidently lost somewhere in the mists of time. Scientist are hopeful that the genes we evolved that cause modern humans to refuse to cooperate, despite the deleterious results to all concerned, can be mapped on the human genome and chemically neutralized, thus returning us to the cooperation level of chimpanzees.

Articles: http://tinyurl.com/z6dxb and http://tinyurl.com/lhhru

Palestinians – Encroachers, Invaders and Squatters
By Their Own Admission and Self-Definition

The etymology of the ancient Semitic radical p-l-sh or p-l-s is:

In Aramaic-Syraic: to break through, to dig

In Akkadian: to dig through

In Arabic: to cleave, to split

In Ethiopian: to invade, to emigrate

In Hebrew: to open, to dig through, to make a passage, to invade, to squat (on land, not to hunker), to encroach, to be invasive

Reasonably now, would any people who knew what they were talking about take on this name?

Could it possibly be the name of an indigenous people?

Do people call themselves: "Those Who Invade"? "Those Who Squat"? "Those Who Encroach"?

Could it possibly be the original name of this geographic area?

In their ignorance of the Bible and all of the Semitic meanings of the radical p-l-sh or p-l-s, the “Palestinians” took on a name that they thought would give them historical support to their claim to this land. If you will examine both the Bible and history, you will find that the P’lishtim of the Bible have nothing to do with the present day people who call themselves squatters and invaders. The P’lishtim of the Bible were associated with another invading people from Crete. If you can read Hebrew and some Latin, please consult the entry הכרי/הכריתי (Criti = from Crete), who, you will see are identical with the people called Philistaei in Latin (see Veteris Testamenti CONCORDANTÍAE Hebraica Atque Chaldaicae by Solomon Mendeldern.

Herodutus (and after him Ptolemy and Pliny) used the phrase Syrie e palaistine (=Palestinian Syria) to denote Judea and Palestine as well as the interior of the and down to the Arabian Desert. Later the phrase ‘Palestinian Syria’ was shortened to ‘Palestine’, the name used by Josephus and Philo as well. Since the time of Vespesian the country was called officially ‘Palestine’. In 1948 the name was changed to Yisra’el. The land was not renamed Judea, as that name is based on the name on only one tribe, Yehudah, while the name Israel is comprehensive, including all of the children of Yisra’el (Ya’akov – Jacob). As it is our desire to gather in all of the exiles of all of the tribes, thus we took the comprehensive name Yisra’el as the name of our State.

The people who call themselves "Palestinians" are the descendants of indigents who came from surrounding lands to find work in the reborn Israeli settlement. They are so undesirable their countries of origin refuse to take them back. In 1972 the Bedouin King of Jordan Hussein killed 10,000 “Palestinians".

Doreen Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

THE REAL TARGETS: CIVILIZATION, CULTURE AND MEMORY

You have probably heard of Shinar. That's because you're especially well-read and struggled for your intellectual independence in a culture hostile to free-thinking. If you haven't heard of Shinar, that is probably because you are a victim of the US programme of wiping out historical memory. In America only scholars with particular areas of expertise or those with very particular areas of interest know what Shinar is, although it should be a name much more generally known. Long before there was Baghdad there was Shinar, that is Babylon, in the Fertile Crescent - the cradle of civilization. It was there that civilization, as we know it in the Middle East and in the West, began. Despite the fact that many priceless archaeological artifacts were destroyed in the last Gulf War - many still remain. Physical archaeological artifacts provide the basis and sometimes the proof of how the history of Humankind looked. Without these priceless artifacts all historical and linguistic theories remain just that - theories. Every statement made about whom our ancestors were and how they lived must end with "IMHO", if we do not have artifacts that bear out our claims. Artifacts not only serve support theories and lend proof to beliefs; they can make short shrift of the longest-standing, most cherished beliefs as well. The discovery of the 'The Dead Sea Scrolls' is a perfect example of an archaeological discovery which is revolutionizing the way we think about the Second Temple period. The 'The Rosetta Stone' also served as the key that opened many doors of knowledge that were bolted and sealed before its discovery. The examples are many and dear to our hearts. Artifacts are priceless, then - by far dearer than gold, oil, drugs - or any other commodity that nations may go to war over. Those who control what knowledge of archaeology is available to the public control what the public is privy to knowing about where they came from, where they are and where they are going to. Whatever one's status in American society: long-time citizen, new immigrant, descendent of slaves or conquered Natives, one is stripped of their historical framework and linguistic background (unless, of course, they come from an English-speaking country, but even in this case they will be required to adopt the American ‘take’ on English, and thus be forced to adopt American thought patterns). America demands that one forget whom they were, where they came from and blend into the "melting pot". Nowadays, with the advent of means of mass communications, the process of assimilation into the American ‘melting pot’ is usually complete in one generation. Among those who retain their culture most tenaciously the process takes two generations. Paradoxically, those whose racial type is not mainstream in America have a much better chance of retaining their identity than those who ‘look white’ with few cosmetic applications. It is said, and it is true, that if one does not know where s/he is coming from, s/he cannot know where they are going to. This is the goal of those who determine American sociological policy - the creation of a mass of citizens none of whom have clear knowledge either of their own roots, and thus have a very nebulous sense of self, or a sense of the historical context of others. Dignity, honor, sense-of-self and an appreciation of the greatness of others are the most immediate casualties in the war against free thought. Public opinion is quite easily manipulated in a non-culture in which the citizens have no sense of rooted-ness, knowledge of their original languages (or the etymologies thereof) or clear sense of historicity. For example: It is the lack of knowledge of history and etymology of languages that allows the present propaganda concerning who the ‘Palestinian People’ to be believed by well meaning, but ignorant and gullible people. The less we know about history and languages the more our consciousness can be manipulated as we make a hodge-podge of the images that are fed into our brains in words whose etymological roots we have no knowledge of. I urge the readers of this post to read the material contained on the two links provided below carefully. We will see that both those who operate Bush and those who operate Sadaam Hussein are interested in revision of history. On the one hand the Western world would have the wealth of artifacts in Iraq, which could serve as plastic proof of our past destroyed so that historicity is obliterated. On the other hand the powers that be in Iraq would have the artifacts preserved in order to be used to manipulate history and create a false sense of pride and continuity from the glory of Sumer in the present-day citizens of Iraq - thus returning them to being the slaves of a leader who has declared himself a deity. This war is about YOU - who your ancestors were, who you are and who your descendants will be - rootless, mindless, unknowing and manipulated in the West or utterly helpless slaves who work in unquestioning devotion for a leader they believe to be god. There is no "good guy" and "bad guy" in this war. Control of knowledge for the sake of mass enslavement of Humanity is evil - no matter what continent it is attempted on, no matter whether the people doing it wear three-piece tailored suits or jalabias. This writer must be honest and say that the destruction of archaeological artifacts is far worse than the manipulation of their meaning, because so long as they exist there is a chance they may be understood properly. The destruction of the remains of civilization is the attempt to blot out the basis for civilization and rooted-ness - irrevocably. We will be returned to pre-Sumerian levels of civilization if this occurs, regardless of what our level of technological development is. The prospect of being pre-historic even while we are nuclear capable is beyond nightmarish. The booty in this war is control of CIVILIZATION itself. Did anyone seriously entertain the notion that the instigation of war with Iraq on the part of the US, UK and the U.S.'s lesser allies was principally about oil? Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el

April 13, 2003

__________________________________________________________
BAGHDAD, June 20, 2005 (AFP) - Archaeological sites in southern Iraq have been systematically looted for over two years, but experts say the dig will have to go much deeper to find out where thousands of lost artifacts have ended up. "The complete lack of knowledge is devastating," says archaeologist Elizabeth Stone, who spent years excavating the Old Babylonian city of Mashkan Shapir. "One article said that a billion Iraqi dinars worth of artifacts had been smuggled to Syria, but that's absurd. We just don't know what's gone," she says. The mystery has emerged as new site protection forces finally begin to make a dent in thefts from the cradle of civilisation, rampant since the US-led invasion of March 2003, but experts say it may be years before the riddle is solved. Meanwhile, artifacts are surprisingly absent from the ever-hungry illegal market. "Artifacts aren't turning up yet," says Seth Richardson of Chicago's Oriental Institute. "The market's too hot. People don't want to trade them, for good reasons and bad." "We'll probably have to wait four or five years for this stuff to turn up. And it could be anywhere -- London, New York, Geneva, Tokyo." What is known is the shocking breadth of looting, with satellite images showing ancient sites turned into chessboards of square-shaped holes. "There's been more dirt moved after the (2003) war by looters than there ever was by archaeologists and looters combined before the war," says Stone. On the ground, archaeologist Abdal Amir Hamdani, in charge of antiquities for Dhi Qar province, home to some of Iraq's most famous archaeological sites, says his focus has shifted from looters to smugglers. "I'm not an archaeologist. I'm a policeman," he says. Hamdani uses what he calls a "hunting dog" -- a former looter turned paid informant -- who follows up on rumours and goes out with a digital camera and global positioning system (GPS) equipment to locate and mark smugglers' houses. Italian carabinieri forces disguised as Bedouin then go with Hamdani to carry out often fruitful raids. "This is the war within the war, the forgotten war," he says of his dangerous job. Last October, eight Iraqi customs officers were found dead and their recently seized cargo of antiquities disappeared on the road to Baghdad. Al-Fajir, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Hamdani's base in Nassiriyah, is rife with smugglers and dealers, he says, and 60 suspect homes in the small town of 10,000 have already been identified. Hamdani shows photos of seized artifacts: Parthian glasswork, Sumerian statues and erotic images on temple tablets, hundreds of coins, gold jewellery and bowls inscribed in ancient Aramaic, some clumsily glued together, damaged forever. "I don't know how much they're worth to a dealer," says Hamdani. "To me, they're priceless." He laments what he says are lax sentences of two or three years handed down to smugglers. "It's not enough. They should be getting 10 years or more. I would like to kill them, but then what happens to human rights in this country?" Stone says that families in the area have been selling artifacts for generations, but the lawlessness of recent years combined with increased demand from the West, Japan and Israel has made them more daring. "You can see the purposefulness of it. People are very well-organised. They come with food and water and guns. That's different from what Iraq has always had, farmers and villagers coming to take something to sell at the local souk." "The assumption is that they won't have to hold onto it for 100 years. But some families have been doing it for generations and might think their grandchildren will sell it. There must be warehouses bursting with the stuff," she says. "It will start coming onto the market when people decide authorities can't be bothered to prosecute anymore." While the director of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Donny George, says that an object sold by a farmer in Baghdad for 50 dollars can fetch "200,000 to 300,000 dollars in New York," the financial loss pales in comparison to the cultural one. "The frightening thing is objects going to private collectors, where they are hidden, just for investment, like hoarding gold," says George. He says ill-informed buyers in the West, such as the man who paid 80,000 dollars for a non-descript cylinder seal, are also inflating prices and inspiring more thieves. "They've been taking out at least 3,000 tablets a week, by the truckload. That's got to be 400-500 dissertations," says Richardson, adding that some looters die when the tunnels they use collapse, becoming artifacts themselves. Iraq currently has 12,000 registered archaeological sites, but once the whole country has been surveyed, that number will jump to 100,000, says George. Hamdani says there are 800 sites around Nassiriyah alone, with 200 site protection forces to patrol them in just seven vehicles. As a result, no amount of policing is going to suffice and the museum is placing its hopes in changing people's mindsets. "Ninety percent of schoolbooks used to be dedicated to Saddam and the Baath party. If we can dedicate five percent of books to antiquities, children can learn a lot -- and they can teach their parents." Meanwhile, generous foreign aid is well-intended, but not always useful. In the corner of George's office is a box of 40 satellite phones donated for site protection forces by UNESCO. "We've had them for three months, but they didn't give us SIM cards," says George. "Now we have extra funding so we can buy the cards and use them." I told you so.

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

Am I Real?

Not having been in the States for almost 24 years and not owning a television, I cannot always determine the status of that which is presented to me taped and sometimes experience feelings of unreality as a result. Actually, I am not at all sure that I would be any less confused about the reality of what I might be viewing if I was back in NY or Miami Beach and "plugged in". I suspect that quite the opposite might be the case, though I would probably be less aware that I was having difficulty separating fact from fiction or being able to mentally and emotionally assimilate semi-biographical movies; mini-series loosely based on fact; a John Nash not only endowed with preternatural mathematical genius, but also the looks of Russell Crowe who is too preoccupied with, and engrossed in, his paranoid ideation to make love to Jennifer Connolly or a Suzanne Hinn.

In the case of "The Fruitcake Lady" it was entirely clear to me that it is a show, even before knowing that the links were from a Jay Leno site. OK. No questions there.

Sometimes matters are not that straightforward, though. Not having been in the states and witnessing the development of the "entertainment" industry, and finding that Western society blows my mind and seems unreal all too often (especially when it transpires that it is all too real); I get confused about whether something implausible that has been videotaped is real or a put-on if I am not prompted beforehand as to what exactly what I'm going to be viewing.

The oxymorons in the entertainment industry confound me. They are myriad, so I find myself feeling confounded more often than I should expect to. E.g., what the hell is a "reality show"? Since when do stiff upper lipped British MPs, who were formerly renowned for their dignified reserve, get down on all fours and act like cats and cavort in red leotards with someone, one breast exposed, whose gender is indeterminate? (Since when is gender entirely independent of sex? But I digress.) Now that I think about it, why have so many ex-actors made the transition to being politicians so easily? I thought that then actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was acting in the film "The Terminator". Now, as Governor of the State of California, he refuses to stay the execution of the third convict on death row in a matter of a couple of months, this time despite the doubts of a judge that the evidence against him is credible. I am left wondering if he was acting in the movie or not.

Do you remember the film Mondo Cane? The 1962 movie was considered "shock cinema". Today, images far more shocking, perverse and utterly revolting are not supposed to shock people at all, but rather serve as light-headed and light-hearted entertainment, and one is considered peculiar if they do feel that those images assault his or her sensibilities. TV is filled with images that make Mondo Cane look tame. If one protests that they are sickened by those images and suggestions, the person is considered overly sensitive, overly religious, or just plain over the hill.

Sites like scopes.com and the search that someone on an e-list conducted in order to determine the status of the film clip bespeak the fact that I am hardly alone in this confusion. It's not at all clear even to people who have been steeped in Western culture all their lives if what they are viewing or reading on the net is real, some weird chimera of reality and staging, urban legend, a put-on...Note how often the scopes.com site will label a given story partially true, or something to that effect. Those are the buggers. Give me the truth or a damn lie anytime, but when they create pernicious, predatory species of mental picture-inducing and emotion-stirring images and suggestions by splicing and concatenating the plausible and the implausible ostensibly willy-nilly (but I'll bet dollars to donuts it's painstakingly crafted to be conflating and emotionally overexciting, thus numbing) into some indeterminate filmed production, evolution has not provided me with a mechanism for defending myself against that. There are no such images in nature and I am at a loss. I feel like the child who, emerging from a wax museum, asks: "Am I real?", only there's a far more sinister air to it all.

There is a description on the psychiatry books for that state: borderline experience. When a person has been assaulted by the unthinkable and by that which the brain is not equipped to process more times than the brain can recover from, i.e., has had more borderline experiences than the psyche can heal from, a syndrome results - Borderline Personality Syndrome. The prognosis for BPS is far more pessimistic than for Schizophrenia. The mass media are inducing Borderline Personality Disorder in the masses and I don't believe for a moment that it is unintentional or not serving someone's purpose.

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

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

As background to the following discussion, please see: http://tinyurl.com/k75vy

I am saddened, profoundly saddened, that Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) has been "discredited" because of the cases of medical practitioners who allegedly misused the diagnosis.

I do not know why Sir Roy Meadow has been discredited personally and instead of being called the discoverer of this syndrome is being slurred as "the inventor of this label/diagnosis". I think he should be hailed for having given a name to a phenomenon that, without being named, is very difficult to recognize as a syndrome of child abuse.

Almost 25 years ago I befriended a woman who had one daughter at the time, or rather, she befriended me - desperately. She was a needy and dependent personality, but I was new in Israel and her obvious admiration of me and the open house she provided me with was pleasant and convenient in lieu of a real family. She seemed to need to be needed and didn't seem to care if a good deal of being used was involved.

Her daughter, whom I loved, was a "sickly" child and she was always attentively attending to the girl's various, rather obscure and oddly symptomless, illnesses. At first I thought this woman a very dedicated and concerned mother. After a while I began to see that something was amiss, but I did not know how to define what exactly. I began to joke with her that she a hypochondriac for her daughter. Her husband did not smile when I made these jokes.

After a few years she has a boy, then another child...five in all.
All of her children were "sickly". Their obviously imaginary illnesses ran the gamut from the mild cold to chronic illnesses and emergency medical conditions that required immediate attention. She was constantly running with them from one health clinic to another (perhaps as they caught on to her she moved on?) and calling ambulances in the middle of the night. There was no name for what she was doing to her children in those days and all I ever heard of was plain old vanilla hypochondria. Evidently, that was also the case with the child welfare workers too. Israel has excellent child welfare mechanisms in place for rescuing children at risk, but no one had a name for this type of personality disorder and child abuse at the time.

The last time I saw her she invited me over to her place. We were living in different cities at the time. When I got there no one was at home. I spotted a pharmacy across the street. I walked over to the pharmacy and, not at all surprisingly, there she was with the kids. "How did you know where to find me?", she laughed knowing the answer. She was always plying the kids with OTCs and getting them prescription drugs from unsuspecting doctors and administering those as well. This time she was buying Flagyl. I knew Flagyl was dangerous so I opened my mouth and said: "Flagyl is dangerous (I don't recall that we knew it is carcinogenic at the time, but we did know that it is risky to take). Why are you giving the kids Flagyl?" The little one said: "Mom says I have worms" and rolled his eyes signaling that he knew he didn't. I choked back the tears.

I never went back there. I couldn't. It hurt too much to see what the kids were going through in that house. She called me to invite me to the wedding of her oldest, my favorite of her children. I couldn't attend. Too many memories of her having been hurt as a child would have flooded my memory. My friend said something unclear about a social worker helping the family and about the little ones being in boarding schools. I understood that child welfare had intervened. I heaved a very deep sigh of relief.

My conscience bothers me to this day. Had I known the words Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, I would have reported her to the authorities. I would have demanded that they look into the case if they ignored it for lack of knowing how to handle it. If they didn't know what MSBP is, I would have sent them information. I didn't know what MSBP was and those kids suffered terribly until someone learned about the syndrome and acted on it.

I am filled with sorrow that MSBP had been "discredited". How typical of the West to throw out the baby with the bathwater on the lark of a trend. MSBP was probably the "darling" of the psychological world at one time. Now it's the ugly stepdaughter. How typical. Dammit!

I am certain that more children will suffer because of real MSBP than due to medical malpractice using MSBP as a cover.


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

Come As You Are - Verdeutschte und Verbessert

The afflatus for the following rewrite comes, oddly, from
Shakespeare –the Yiddish rendition of Shakespeare to be accurate.

The frontispiece of the book reads: Shakespeare auf Yiddish – Verdeutschte und Verbessert

In that spirit, here you have The Vaselines – if not uebersetzt,
then surely verbessert:

First, the original, mediocre, not-quite-grungy-enough lyrics:

Come as you are, as you were,
As I want you to be
As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy
Take your time, hurry up
The choice is yours, don't be late
Take a rest as a friend as an old memoria
Come dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend, as a friend, as an old memoria
And I swear that I don't have a gun
No I don't have a gun

A few nips and tucks and it'll be the true grunge it was meant to be:

Cum as you are, as you were,
As in my fantasy
As a friend, as two friends, as an old enemia
Take your time, hurry up,
Don't cum before me. Don't be late.
Take a breast from a friend, here's an old mammary
Cum dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach
As I want you to be
As a trend, as a friend, as an old mammary
And I swear that I don't have a gun
No, I don't have a gun
But I do have a dungeon

TITS & TATS

On another message board I was called judgemental and narrow-minded by a woman in her mid-50s (that's her age, and perhaps her IQ) who starting talking about how cool tats are.

She waxed ecstatic as she described the "body suit" of the tattoo artist who did her and her husband's tats.

I once saw a young man who had a continuous spider's web tattooed on his whole body that could be seen (he was wearing shorts, no shirt) and was sickened with sadness. I wondered what will happen to him if he ever regrets what he did.

IMO, tats, particularly extensive tats are an act of aggression against one's own flesh and a sign that one harbors abysmal self-anger, if not self-hatred.

I think that anyone who has extensive tats needs psychiatric care, as would anyone who did anything to mutilate himself or herself.

I would say the same for "Prince Alberts" and ampalang.

I don't get driving a rod through one's tongue, nipples and clitoris either.

Have I become a narrow-minded aging lady? Or am I one of a minority of people who still has what used to be called common sense?

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

Lighten Up for Chrissakes!

On another list someone wrote: "The Islamics of the world like the Christians and the Jews need to be subjected to humor and critique."

That prompted me to respond:

If they could only learn to laugh at themselves, they would not need to be critiqued.

They take their religion so damn seriously is what their problem is. There is no levity in their worship at all, no fun.

One of the teachings that Judaism instills is worshipping God in joy, because only in a state of joy does one's consciousness expand to the point of being able to understand the teaching correctly. We are taught that the presence of God does not rest on someone who is not in a state of joy.

As one of my Rabbis once taught me: You've got to take it all with a great sense of humor. The Ramba"m goes so far as to say that one returning from a business trip should not engage in the study of Torah until he relaxes from it. Why? Because he is in too serious a business frame of mind to learn Torah.

There are those who say that organized religion is the problem and they call for individual "spirituality".

I say that religion without humor, particularly the ability to know that God is playing with us and to play with God in return, is the problem.

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

Some of my lighter-hearted stuff is to be found on a site I've called

Miscellaneous Meanderings:

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW AGAINST SICKENING IMAGES AND MENTAL IMAGES

There ought to be a law against submitting people to the mental and emotional distress of seeing horrific pictures or exposing them to horrific descriptions that become indelible memories and often scar us emotionally for years, even for life for the express purpose of shocking them.

I remember as a child I suffered from this horribly. People would talk about all kinds of violent and traumatizing things in my presence and my young imagination would be ignited and I would get burnt - bad. TV would give me night horrors.

Why is it OK for papers to publish photos that, even if one doesn't read the paper and the eye falls on them perchance, leave one sickened?

Why is it OK for someone to write some of the stuff that Snopes refutes and send it around the net for countless millions to be sickened by and have the mental picture in one's mind forever?

I call that assault and battery.

There are sites for people who like all kind of sick stuff. Let the people who want that go there, just like people who like physical violence can go to wrestling matches.

And leave the rest of our psyches alone!

DoreenEllen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Transgender – A Matter of Diversity?

Those who consider themselves "Transgender" (the "T" in GLT BDSM) claim that they are a perfectly normal expression of naturally-occurring Human sexual diversity.

They would have us celebrate this diversity, not merely accept its existence matter-of-factly.

The following definitions of Transgender and Transgenderist will suffice for the purpose of this discussion:
Transgender: 1) Transgender (sometimes shortened to trans or TG) people are those whose psychological self ("gender identity") differs from the social expectations for the physical sex they were born with. To understand this, one must understand the difference between biological sex, which is one’s body (genitals, chromosomes, etc.), and social gender, which refers to levels of masculinity and femininity. Often, society conflates sex and gender, viewing them as the same thing. But, gender and sex are not the same thing. Transgender people are those whose psychological self ("gender identity") differs from the social expectations for the physical sex they were born with. For example, a female with a masculine gender identity or who identifies as a man. 2) An umbrella term for transsexuals, cross-dressers (transvestites), transgenderists, gender queers, and people who identify as neither female nor male and/or as neither a man or as a woman. Transgender is not a sexual orientation; transgender people may have any sexual orientation. It is important to acknowledge that while some people may fit under this definition of transgender, they may not identify as such.
Transgenderist: A person who lives either full time, or most of the time, in a gender role different than the role associated with their biological or chromosomal sex (a gender non-conformist).
The above definitions are to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/89sxu

We see from the definition above that the understanding of Transgender is based upon the assumption that there is a difference between one's sex and one's gender. People who define themselves as Transgender not only assume that there is a difference between one's sex and one's gender, they assume that this is the natural, normal state of being for Humans and would have those who are not Transgender accept this as a natural, normal state as well. If we accept this assumption then Transgenderism, a state in which a person does not experience himself or herself as being of one and the same sex inside and out, must be accepted as a perfectly normal and natural part of the diversity of Human sexuality.

It is being demanded of us that we accept that it is normal and natural that one's perception of oneself is vastly at variance with others' perception of him or her. Demanded of us it is. It has become politically incorrect to question the normalcy of transgenderism and those who voice a doubt that it is normal are met with every bit of the verbal violence that homosexuals and transgendered people are met with by their ultra-conservative counterparts. There is no reason not to believe, given the level of verbal violence that many people who identify as transgendered allow themselves to engage in when their claims are questioned, that would they could, they might allow themselves the physical violence that the homophobic engage in as well.

Diversity amongst individuals can be advantageous to a species and/or the ecosystem in which the species exists, disadvantageous to the species and/or the ecosystem in which the species exists or neither particularly advantageous nor catastrophically disadvantageous, so long as the diversity remains within a given percentage of the population.

As a species, Humans are marked by differing Races. We are diverse in some of our physical characteristics. That diversity has aided our adaptation to our environments and is certainly advantageous within the given environment that the adaptation occurred in. Take a light-skinned Celt out of the British Isles and place him or her in a hot and sunny environment and the same physical adaptation that was advantageous in the British Isles, becomes disadvantageous. Take a Black person who carries the gene for Sickle Cell Anemia out of the malaria-ridden area in which the adaptation occurred in order to protect the species and that person's adaptation that was so necessary for his or her survival and that of the species becomes disadvantageous.

There are types of defects that are so catastrophic to the bearer that there can be no advantage to the individual or the species whatsoever. They are wholly destructive to the individual, do not perpetuate or serve the species and are often destructive to the individual's surroundings as well. Psychoses and major personality disorder fall under this category, as do the devastating physical disorders.

There are some types of differences among individuals in a species that are always disadvantageous to the individual to some extent and will become catastrophically disadvantageous to the species if those who bear them exceed a given percentage of the general population. Albinos, epileptics and dwarves are three examples of individuals who bear a disorder, defect or syndrome that affects their functioning to some extent and which, if they were to multiply in numbers unchecked in the species, would impact negatively upon the entire species. It is clearly a disadvantage to the individual to be born an albino, an epileptic or a dwarf. The individual will, no doubt, be unable to partake in many, but not in all, of the activities that further the welfare of the species, but so long as they remain within a given percentage the species can tolerate, even accept their existence with equanimity.

Neuroses and other psychological disturbances are among the disorders that impinge upon one's individual functioning to some extent, and affect society negatively to some extent, but which are not catastrophic to the individual so long as he or she can function for the most part, or to the species so long as the majority of individuals in the species are not disturbed.

As in the case of illness that are always and in all ways detrimental, the defects that fall into the category of those that make existence and survival more difficult, but not untenable, can be congenital, acquired and some can be both.

It should be needless to say that any acts of cruelty toward those who possess a defect, whether congenital or acquired or both should be punished to the full extent of the law. Certainly those who have chosen to modify their appearance because they experience themselves as a sex and gender other than they appear without modification must not be objects of ridicule for so doing and any violence perpetrated upon their persons should be punished vigorously.

While individuals born with defects are entitled to every respect, dignity, opportunity, advantage, etc. in every sphere of life that their condition allows, and it must be illegal to limit an individual who possesses a debility more than the debility itself necessitates limitation, we cannot deny the fact that those who possess a deformity, disability or illness of some kind are, in fact, afflicted to whatever the extent may be.

There is absolutely no benefit to the species in being Transgender. It is not an expression of Human diversity that serves the individual, the species and the environment, as would being unusually fertile, of above-average intelligence or strength or possessing greater empathy than do most people. Thinking of oneself as one gender, when objective reality says something else or thinking of oneself as having no gender at all, when one bears the primary and secondary characteristics of a given sex that are observed clearly by objective observers cannot be considered an expression of Human diversity that we should foster, encourage and "celebrate".

Wanting to have one's genitals changed surgically in order to be on the outside what "one is on the inside" cannot be considered a mental/emotional state that serves the furtherance of our species as a whole.

However, neither is Transgenderism a wholly catastrophic illness, deformity or defect that impacts wholly negatively on the individual, the species and his or her environment as are, for instance, Muscular Dystrophy, Spina Bifida, extreme intractable psychosis or Tay Sachs.

Neither is the state of having a perfectly healthy male or female body, while experiencing oneself as the opposite sex within to be considered a psychosis, although normally when one perceives one's own body or self in a way that does not accord with objective reality we are dealing with one who is hallucinating. This is not the case with Transgenderism. Transgenderism is a species of neurosis or personality maladjustment. As long as the person focuses the perceptual distortion on one aspect of his or her being (the person's gender) and can function otherwise normally in society, there is no reason to label Transgenderism as a psychosis.

Each case in which an individual wishes to undergo irreversible surgery that involves amputation or modification of the genitals and hormone therapy must be very carefully scrutinized by a panel of psychiatrists and other health care professionals.

Transgenderism is a catch-all term for a rather large number of disorders that are characterized by various psychological and/or physiological abnormalities. However, Transgender individuals can function as normal Human beings in most spheres of Human existence and society. The disorders, then, are of a similar order as epilepsy, albinism, dwarfism and various neuroses. We see that people who define themselves as Transgender are among those who possess illnesses, deformities and genetic abnormalities that allow them to function fairly well and not impact catastrophically on the species and the environment – so long as the number of individuals possessing them do not exceed a given percentage per capita.

While Transgenderism must be accepted in civil society, it should be seen for what it is: A disorder that causes us no harm as long as the percentage of people who define themselves as Transgender remains stable, but potentially harmful if the percentage grows.

Since it is entirely possible, if not likely, that the types of Transgendered individuals who are in possession of a normal body but perceive themselves as being other than the sex that is observed objectively are suffering from acquired neuroses, it behooves us to determine what the causes of such errant self-identification are and prevent the disorders from occurring. For all of their bravado and claims of "transgender pride" they suffer miserably for the most part.

On the physiological level, it is important that science develop ways to insure that fewer babies are hermaphrodites or pseudo-hermaphrodites. Their sexual ambiguity is very real and will, no doubt, lead to psychological and social problems in addition to the congenital defects.
The fact that some cultures, particularly some Native American tribes have been found that seem to have accepted transgenderism and incorporated them into the general culture, is not proof of their normalcy. Neither is the oft-heard claim that transgenderism is the physical expression of lofty "spirituality" that cannot be attained but by being transgendered to be taken seriously. The following is said about the "berdache":
"Since the berdache could mix characteristics of both genders, they were viewed as having a special status as if "blessed" by the gods. They were thought to be the "middle gender," and seen as prophets and visionaries having an almost mystic and psychic vision into the future. They were often consulted by tribal elders and chieftains because they were thought to have a kind of "universal knowledge" and special connection to the "great spirit." (See: http://tinyurl.com/bwuzg)
Let's compare what has been said about the "berdache" above with what has been said about epileptics, not only historically, that is that they are possessed (positively and negatively) of unusual spirituality, but which modern research bears out:
"Spirituality, but not participation in organized religion, called higher in people with epilepsy
Although most people with epilepsy do not consider themselves more religious or spiritual than other people, a recent study suggests otherwise.
The study, reported at the American Neurological Association meeting in October, was conducted by Dr. Thomas Hayton and associates, of the New York University Hospital in New York. An abstract of the study appeared in the September 1, 2002 supplement to the Annals of Neurology.
Dr. Hayton and his research team gave a standard questionnaire on religious belief and spirituality to 91 people with epilepsy. They then compared the results to standard norms for the rest of the population.
The team reports that this group of people with epilepsy were more religious and spiritual than the general population.
They scored higher than others in terms of daily, personal spiritual experiences (feeling the presence of God, love, deep inner peace, and the beauty of creation). They also scored higher in measures of the strength of their spiritual beliefs and values.
On the other hand, they were less likely than the general population to attend religious services or to participate in activities of congregations or in private prayer." (See http://tinyurl.com/aw67k)
As an epileptic, I can bear out the fact that these clinical observations are true. I am possessed of hyper-religiosity and have experienced direct contact with God during absence seizures when my consciousness was not otherwise entertained, but rather suspended. Many years of my life were spent being totally engrossed in Jewish mysticism. With all that, I am fully aware of the fact that I am also possessed of a disorder that it characterized by a rather unpleasant syndrome of symptoms that impinges on my functioning and would not wish for society to accept me as Exhibit A of perfectly normal or that which it is desirable to be. There are healthy ways of achieving God-consciousness. One need not be epileptic to experience what I have experienced during absence seizures. I am likewise aware that if people with my affliction were to proliferate, the species, as a whole, would be adversely affected. I therefore do not accept the claim of transgendered people that they are possessed of a unique "spirituality" that cannot be attained in a salubrious manner that serves the individual, the species and the environment.
The Egyptians respected dwarves and even represented some of their deities as dwarves, yet this in no wise should be interpreted that dwarfism is either normal nor desirable.
A number of cultures made eunuchs of young boys for a number of reasons, as is generally known. Some of those eunuchs held very respectable, and even important, positions in their societies, but that does not change the fact that they were mutilated.
The proof of whether a given condition is normal, healthy and a boon to the species is in the sexual pudding. In contradistinction to Bisexual females who, according to a recent British study, constitute at least 50% of the general population of females, this given the fact that they still feel inhibited by heterosexual societal norms (See: http://tinyurl.com/c83h6).

Transgendered people, like others who possess a physical defect, whether congenital or acquired that impinges upon their functioning to some extent and which can be tolerated by the species so long as they remain within a given percentage of the general population, like dwarves, the obese, albinos, etc. are not generally physically attractive to the general population. The vast majority of healthy individuals are not sexually attracted to people bearing physical or mental abnormalities. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the French Post-Impressionist painter suffered two broken legs as a child, which inhibited the growth of his legs. As a result, his stature was dwarf-like. While we cannot deny his genius and contribution to culture, neither can we deny that his physical deformity impacted only negatively on his place in society and personal love life. He was not seen as a desirable lover or mate, despite the fact that he hailed from a noble family.

It is entirely possible that individuals may fall in love with individuals who possess an abnormality of some kind despite the abnormality. However, rarely does someone find himself or herself attracted to the person because of an abnormality. In the cases where one is attracted to the abnormality, per se, we say it is a fetish or a "kink".

Humans tend, for the most part, to be attracted to those who are fit to perpetuate the species.

Bisexual women are physically and behaviorally indistinguishable from heterosexual women in the presence of men. They do not bear physical characteristics specific or peculiar to them as do transgendered women and many lesbians. Bisexual women are not only sexually attractive to heterosexual men; their Bisexuality often stirs the men to greater attraction to them. Many, men, find Bisexual women more exciting than heterosexual women. The thought of a woman making love to a woman is a very arousing and common fantasy that many men would live out if presented with the possibility to make love to more than one women, particularly if the women exhibit erotic behavior one toward the other. But a Bisexual woman need not be actively bisexual in the presence of man to excite him. The very thought that she is bisexual aroused him to exciting fantasies. Bisexuality in women, then, is a boon to the propagation of the species because Bisexual women are no less attractive to men than are heterosexual women, and often more so.

None of the sexualities under the GLT BDSM rubric, that Bisexuality has been subsumed, wholly incorrectly, under can make the claim that they serve the perpetuation of the species. They are, in fact, disadvantageous.

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

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GENIUSES GONE, LONG TIME PASSING?

I have always marvelled at the genius of the brightest of the bright lights in generations gone by until not very long ago.

Up until the middle of the 20th C. not only were there stunningly brilliant people, none of whom are matched by any in our times, but they were mightily productive, particularly so since the conditions of their lives were often very difficult.

"Where have all the geniuses gone, long time passing?", I asked myself, paraphrasing a song.

Stephen Hawkings is no Einsteins, Heisenberg, even a Pauli or a Fermi.

Noam Chomsky is no Gustav Landauer, Bakunin or even a Marx.

Angela Davis is no Emma Goldman.

There is not one, but not one, female scientist today who approximates the stature of Marie Curie.

The list can go on and on.

What happened?

When I came across the information below, I received my answer in part:

"Fluoride used by Nazis to sterilize inmates and make them docile. Fluoride a key dumbing down ingredient of Prozac and Sarin nerve gas -- poisons of choice for tyrant rats."

See the whole article here:http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.htm

"We are told by the fanatical ideologists who are advocating the fluoridation of the water supplies in this country that their purpose is to reduce the incidence of tooth decay in children, and it is the plausibility of this excuse, plus the gullability of the public and the cupidity of public officials that this is responsible for the present spread of artificial water fluoridation in this country. However, and I want to make this very definite and very positive: the real reason behind water fluoridation is not to benefit children's teeth. If this were the real reason, there are many ways in which it could be done that are much easier, cheaper and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination, control and loss of liberty. When the Nazis decided to go into Poland, the German General Staff and the Russian General Staff exchanged scientific and military ideas, plans and personnel, and also the sheme of mass control through water medication was seized upon by the Russian Communists because it fitted ideally into their plan to Communize the world. I say this with all earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spend nearly 20 years research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorine -- any person who drinks artificially fluoridated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person, mentally or physically."

See the entire article here:http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39fc499b6a91.htm

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

Yes, Virginia, There Are Fnords

I was told by someone who considered the alternative system of mathematics that I developed that he suspects that I suffer from the same delusion that John Nash suffered from. I considered that the second greatest compliment of my life, second only being asked if I am a fairy by a little girl in a supermarket one day. I am sure that had I shared the piece below with him, the suspicions of the person who considers my delusions downright John Nashian would have been confirmed as far as he is concerned.

P.S. Nash was dead-on right and had he had gematria at his disposal, he could have proven it. But I digress. Here is the piece:

Fnords, like all theoretical matters, are inferred to exist, though we have not yet proven their existence, by observing the effects they have on that which we can perceive and empirically determine.

Observing Western culture and the behavior of people in Western societies, we may be far more certain that fnords are being utilized to control thought, emotion and behavior than we may be certain that dark matter exists. Observing Western culture and the behavior of those who live in Western societies, we may be fairly certain that fnords are being employed by very deft hands. They most certainly are imbedded in the messages we are getting from the media. We, in repeating the "lines" from the movies, TV shows and popular songs that strike a chord in us and that seem "cool" or otherwise arouse us to emulation, reinforce those messages. The fnords have been crafted such that they impact on our psyche and become ever-repeated household words. The work of reinforcement by repetition and habituation is carried on as a matter of course. We become the unwitting agents of our brainwashing. The fnord craftspeople are, then, doing a chillingly good job of influencing behavior, thought and emotion.

Not only have the fnord weavers exploited the normal Human needs for love, acceptance, shelter, belongingness and justification by making us feel that we must join one of the state-sanctioned types; they also exploited and reinforced our natural xenophobia when we encounter those outside of our group.

When we encounter the rare, indefinable, personality we have been taught to go into panic mode. The few who managed not to be pigeon-holed are perceived as raptors.

The xenophobia has been exploited and reinforced by making people totally blind to their own xenophobia. They can see it clearly enough in others. Yet, each is absolutely sure that he or she is an open-minded, accepting person, even while they revile those outside their group.

Those who think that they are living various "alternative" lifestyles and/or belong to "subcultures" may rest assured that they too belong to state-sanctioned types. States are served well, very well indeed, by people who are living any lifestyle that so obsesses them that the matter of bettering society is of no great concern to them because all of their energies are channeled into their "lifestyle".

All of the state-sanctioned lifestyles require the purchase of dress and paraphernalia typical to the group. Additionally, the indoctrinating education every group requires costs money as well. Schools, books, seminars, etc., keep the cash registers clinking. This is true of the Fundamentalist, straight-arrow members of conservative, conventional groups; members of non-mainstream, but accepted religions; those who partake in alternative lifestyles and religions, such as Wicca; and those who belong to the furthest out subcultures, such as BDSM, which I have been considering of late because I've suspected for some time that is a state-sanctioned group.

The members of all of all of the state-sanctioned groups Interpret the expression of original ideas negatively and have been programmed to react to such pronouncements viscerally. They all lack the inability to grant credence to the expression of a viewpoint that does not belong to one of the state-sanctioned groups. In other words, the members of each of the groups have been taught to accept only the pronouncements of each of the other groups as valid expressions of diversity. They have been taught to interpret any self-expressing that is not one of the accepted expressions of the other state-sanctioned groups as anti-diversity and otherwise threatening.

They have been rendered incapable of recognition of altruistic motivation for what it is and have been taught to perceive it cynically at best, as a threat at worst. Upon hearing expressions of altruism they go into extreme self-defense mode.

Each of the state-sanctioned groups has been taught to tolerate only the existence of the others. They thus lend support to one another, despite the fact that they may think they are diametrically opposed in their views to some other groups. Only upon the hearing of the standard buzz words, clicheיs and canards are they aroused to the thought of "live and let live".

(During the course of writing this paper I have been reminded of some models from the behavior of birds that I learned along the way. I know very little about ornithology and would not presume to arrive at even a tentative conclusion that ornithology has provided a basis for our own brainwashing. I hope that someone more knowledgeable than I in this matter would be interested in pursuing this possibility.)

_______________________________________________________

Not in the least bit surprisingly, in fact right on cue, someone responded that I was being "insulting", "arrogant" and "judgemental" in writing this piece.

I responded:

"Insulting". "Arrogant". "Judgemental."

BIG fnords.

How many times have you heard those words in the last month?

Compare that to the number of times you have heard words like: "wisdom", "modesty", "integrity".

When do you hear those words being used by others?

What arouses you to employ those term?

Why did you think I was exempting myself?

Why were you so sure that you knew my motivations and intentions?

Can you put your finger on what tripped your emotional wires?

I'm not defending myself. What I'm doing goes much deeper than that.

I'm trying to get people to see how they are "set off" and to be able to take a step back from the process and observe it objectively.


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

Are BDSM and Anarchy Incongruent?

Please see my Mystical Anarchy site: http://tinyurl.com/8wugt