Reincarnation

I have always believed in reincarnation, that when your life ends, you begin a new life in a new body. I believe that the “Nefesh” (the soul in Hebrew) is eternal.  The Nefesh is composed of energy. Science tells us that energy can be neither created nor destroyed.

My first encounter with reincarnation came with a recurring dream.  This began, I think, when I was mayb five or six years old. The fact is that I can’t remember a time when the dream wasn’t recurring.

In the dream I am walking, hand in hand, with a woman. I never see her face. We are casually walking on the shore of a body of water around sunset. In different occurrences of the dream, we are walking besides different bodies of water: Lake Michigan in Chicago, a river (somewhere), one of the oceans, and in one occurence of the dream, two suns are setting (I would guess that that was not on Earth).

What is important about the recurring dream is that it stopped recurring. I used to be able to expect it’s recurrence several times in a week, and this was true from the time I was about five all the way until July of 1998.  I had been living with Ceridwen for awhile, when I realised that I had not had the dream for a few weeks. This is because Ceridwen was the woman in the dream. She is someone with whom  I have spent many life times.  We are “soul mates,” “twin flames.”

While I was on a field trip with my grade school class to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. I was in the Egyptian exhibit, looking at some of the mummies.  Of particular interest to me was the mummy of an eleven year old boy. I was reading about him and the thought came to me out of the blue, “I knew this kid. I used to play with him.”  Where did that come from?

The last house that I purchased in Kankakee was one that I used to walk past on the way to school. I was drawn to that house, and had a feeling that I had lived there at some time.  The person who built it was a dry goods merchant with a store in downtown Kankakee. He hired an architect who specialized in designing homes in the Eastlake style, which used oriental lines to modify Victorian designs.  It had a pagoda like look.

When the movie Titanic came out I was one of the first to see it.  I could not sit through it. When the scene came with the ship’s stern straight up in the water, I had to leave the theatre. I sat in my car and trembled. It was like I had been on the ship when it went down.

So, what precisely do I think happens; what are the conditions present, when we reincarnate?

I do not think that there is much of a time gap between the moment your Nefesh leaves your body and the moment it takes it’s place in a new body. Perhaps just moments after your death, and just moments before you are born.

For a time I studied with the Rosicrucians (AMORC) out of San Jose CA. They teach that each incarnation happens at a 144 year interval. I don’t believe that as I don’t see what purpose it could possibly make. On the other hand, it may be that time just stops going forward for the newly dead, and so it seems like there is an interval.

I suspect that you might alternate genders with each incarnation. This is not something I considered when I wrote my own preprogramming script for my next incarnation. Perhaps this is why the phenomenon of trans genderism has become prevalent.

Some teachers suggest that when you reincarnate that you can do so into the past or the future. Personally I think that you only go into the future.

Some teachers say that your memory is wiped clean in the beginning of each incarnation.  I think that you can preprogram your next incarnation, so that you don’t loose any of your memories of the things you learned in the previous life. I suspect that this is what accounts for the phenomenon of geniuses.

I may have other ideas further on. I will edit this article accordingly.

An Open Letter to Coast Central Credit Union

 

TO: Member Support
Coast Central Credit Union

SUBJECT: NSF fees on Debit Card transactions

My wife and I have been members of Coast Central for quite awhile (10-15 years). Up until very recently we have never been charged a “Non Sufficient Funds” fee on a Debit Card transaction. It’s actually the reason we do not write checks, because those have always been subject to such fees.

When I use my Visa (charge card) for a transaction, Visa does not charge me a fee if I don’t have enough in my account. Why are Debit Cards suddenly being treated differently?

Does this mean I will be charged an NSF fee at the Co-Op if I attempt to pay for my groceries and my balance is too low?

When was this new policy enacted?

Why wasn’t I notified, in writing (via USPS) of this change?

You might lose a member over this policy.

I will certainly bring it up in social media.

You might lose A LOT of members over this. If a credit union is acting like a for-profit bank, why use credit unions?

I might share this letter with the North Coast Journal. It will certainly be shared on my blog. (https://el.urgod.org)

 

How to fool Progressives

 

You just have to say the right words, and advocate the right things. You just have to say that you are a Democratic Socialist (like Bernie Sanders) and it doesn’t matter what else you believe in, or what you might secretly advocate. The Progressives, like lemmings rushing over a cliff, will support you whole heartedly.

Let’s look at Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected mayor of New York City.  His platform included opposition to wealth inequality, racism, and discrimination, immigrant protections, and single-payer healthcare, community-based approaches to public safety,  fare-free public transit; large-scale social housing, expanded labor protections, higher taxes on corporations and high-income earners, and climate policies linking decarbonization to social equity.

This is all great stuff. Progressives, including Jewish Progressives, have bent over backwards to get him elected. He’s going to make public transportation, and school, and apartments all absolutely free.  These are all socialistic ideals, and of course Progressives are all left leaning Socialists or even Communists, and therefore have jumped on the Mamdani bandwagon.

You know who else promised all these things? In some cases, once they took power they even delivered these things:  the Islamic regimes of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Gaza, and many others. In order to secure power these Islamic leaders promised (and mostly delivered) all these socialistic programs.  But there is always a trade off, and in all of these cases the populace lost their basic human rights.  In all of these countries the people gained free health care, free schools, free housing, free public transportation and a host of other things.   But the trade offs were that women became property and lost their rights, LGBTQ  citizens lost the RIGHT TO LIVE (period), voting in elections was suppressed, freedom of speech became “don’t criticise the government or the “supreme leader” unless you want to end up in prison (or worse).” In Iran a woman had better wear their Hijab correctly. Women have been arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed for this failure.

Zohran Mamdani is a Moslem. An adherent of Islam. He was also the founder and key advocate of the anti Israel, anti-semitic,  Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel pro-Jihad American campus terrorist advocacy group.

Mamdani is critical of Israel, condemning “Israeli apartheid” in 2023.] He supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and in 2023 introduced a state assembly bill named the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act”. The bill prohibited registered charities from donating to organizations involved in Israel’s  Samaria/Judea settlements. A later iteration of the bill added organizations lending support to IDF actions in Gaza. The day after the October 7 attacks on Israel, Mamdani issued a statement to “mourn the hundreds of people killed across Palestine“ and saying that the end of “occupation” and “apartheid” was the only path to peace.

In November 2023, Zohran joined Cynthia Nixon in a five day hunger strike outside of Washington DC in support of an immediate ceasefire and opposition to Biden’s involvement in support of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. He continued local activism in 2024, holding an iftar for a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan. He was also arrested during a ceasefire demonstration.

In 2025, he stated that he believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, and that if Benjamin Netanyahu travels to New York City, he should be arrested in accordance with the International Criminal Court’s warrant for his arrest. He has remained an ongoing critic of Israel; in June 2025, to placate Jewish New Yorkers, he asserted that Israel has a right to exist as a state of “equal rights for all.” Both supporters and critics have described his position as one in favor of a single, multiethnic democratic state. Mamdani supports the creation of a Palestinian state of the “West Bank“ and Gaza strip, the end of Israeli settlements in what he calls the “occupied” Palestinian territories and an end to economic, military and cultural Israeli “apartheid” for Palestinians in Israel. In response to protests against a November 19, 2025 appearance of Nefesh B’Nefesh at Park East Synagogue, Mamdani’s press officer said on his behalf, “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

Additionally, Mamdani has posted a picture of himself with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whom he called “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders.” Wahhaj, at one point in time, was suggested as a co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six New Yorkers. Wahhaj has also urged “jihad” upon New York City, and still, Mamdani called Wahhaj a “pillar of the Bed-Stuy community.”

So, as a Moslem, Mamdani believes in Sharia Law. He believes that women are property (and they should not own property), that they should be clothed in Burka’s when outside of their homes, and that they should be escorted by a male family member anytime outside the home.  They need to obey their husbands (or fathers) or be beaten.

On the other hand, if anyone advocates, free health care, free housing, free public transportation (regardless of what else they advocate) Progressives need to support them in lock step. After all, there is nothing Progressive about women’s rights, or LGBTQ rights, or Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, Jewish, etc. rights. Progressives are only interested in economic issues. All else is optional.

I’m a Progressive. A Progressive Zionist. I support Israel because Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that upholds equal rights for women, minorities, LGBTQ, all religions, all races. Israel also has, for all of it’s citizens, free health care, low cost housing, low fare public transportation, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, you can have both equal rights and socialistic programs. And Israel is the very model of what a modern Progressive democracy looks like.

STOP BELIEVING LIES!

Cats

I’ve had a lot of relationships with our feline friends over the years.  I think they are some of the most fascinating creatures on our planet.  On my first visit to a zoo (Brookfield Zoo) I marveled at the way that the big cats, lions, tigers, panthers, etc., acted so much like their domesticated cousins.

Petronius (Pete) was my first. He was a Tabby, and kind of followed me home from school one day. We were living on South Osborn at the time. I was about 14. I named him after a fictional feline in Robert Heinlein’s novel, The Door Into Summer. He was an indoor/outdoor cat and usually spent his nights outside and days inside.  He would appear at my bedroom window every morning, and I would let him in, talk to him, feed him and he would usually fall asleep on my bed before I left for school. He didn’t have a litter box – never needed one as he took care of his needs outdoors.

One morning he didn’t appear at my window. It was one of those very cold, very blustery February days in Illinois. It had snowed over night and the fresh stuff had accumulated on out car. I went out before school and shoveled the walks off. My dad asked me if I’d like a ride to school and I said “of course.”  The car didn’t start and when my dad popped the hood to take a look, there was Pete. He was gone. It looked like he had quite a fight with some other being, and he had bled out from his wounds.

Princess was our second.  I was married to Lynne and we were living on South Chicago Avenue.  She came to us in the winter, an adult Tabby who appeared on our back porch.  The twins were, I think, eight years old. They were the ones who named her. We set her up in the basement with a litter box.  Princess was a very loving cat and spent a lot of her time on my chest when I was  home. About six weeks after our first encounter she gave birth to seven kittens (apparently, she was pregnant when she adopted us).  

Lynne hated Princess.   Lynne had grown up on a farm and the only felines she knew were the barn cats, that, well, lived in the barn and kept the rodents at bay. “Cats do not live in houses with people,” was her belief, and she wanted nothing to do with Princess. As it turned out, Lynne was allergic to fleas, so that didn’t help our case. And like all cats, Princess had her share of them.  When Spring came we took Princess and her kittens to Lynne’s parents farm, and left them there (in spite of my protests).

Sydney belonged to Qadisha, and I met him when I landed in Santa Cruz in May of 1992.  We actually hit it off right away, and his favorite spot in the house became my lap. He was also a Tabby, but more dominant grey than Princess or Pete. He was indoor/outdoor, so no litter box.

We  had this little potted evergreen tree. A sibling Scotch Pine. It mainly lived outside, but at Yule time we brought it in and decorated it. Sydney had decided he would kill it, and he made a noble try, peeing in it whenever it was indoors.  In the summer of 1997 Sydney was found dead in the pot the pine grew in.  Sydney was quite elderly at the time, so were no sure if he just died of old age or if he ate something that didn’t agree with him. We had him cremated and buried his ashes in the pot with the Scotch Pine, and so he finally got his wish: the Scotch Pine died because the ashes were toxically too acidic for it.

Aleister. One day Qadisha and I were riding around Santa Cruz doing errands. Out of the blue she said, “You know, if we were ever to acquire a black male kitten, we should name him Aleister, after Aleister Crowley.”  I laughed and said, “Well, I’ve always admired black cats. But wouldn’t naming one after Crowley be a bit of a heavy burden on a kitten?”

The next day (yes, the very next day) three kids came to our door with a little black long haired kitten. We sent them away. THREE TIMES! Finally when they came back they told us that their mom was going to kill the kitten if they didn’t find a home for him.

Aleister became my cat. He lived with Qadisha while we were in Santa Cruz, but as soon as we moved to Ashland (OR) he became my responsibility.

Ceridwen moved into my townhouse with me in May 1998.  She brought Hunter, her
cat of about twenty years, with her. He was an amiable cat, but pretty much kept to himself. He and Aleister got along very well, and they never fought. Hunter passed away not too long after Ceridwen moved in with me. We found a tiny cave up above Lithia Park in Ashland, and covered it with a big rock. That became Hunter’s tomb.

We moved to Grants Pass in September 1998.  We lived on 20 acres, surrounded by about 700 acres of BLM land about 800 feet above Grants Pass (about a 10 min. drive to town). Our driveway was about 3/4 mile long.  Aleister had free run of the entire 20 acres, and no doubt ventured further than that. He used to bring us all sorts of “presents:” birds, lizards, small rodents, etc.  We think perhaps one of these, a blue bellied lizard perhaps, may have been what ultimately led to his death. He was buried in the little garden we had bellow our cabin.

One day I came home from work and met Gwidion and Buddha. They were two brothers from the same litter that Ceridwen had found at a local animal shelter. Gwiddon (“Gwiddy”) was a black American Short Hair, and his brother Buddha (originally named Kundun, which was the childhood name of the 14th Dalai LLama) was a black Mane Coon.  Like Aleister, they had free run of the twenty acres and, like Aleister, they brought home “presents” (of course they did. It was “wild kingdom” up there).  They would exit and enter the house through a window in the bathroom, which opened onto our back deck, which led to a board that served as a ramp down to the ground (the back deck was 10 feet off the ground).  Our Grants Pass home was great place to be a cat.  The house was an eight sided cabin, with a central pole, and eight  suspension poles that radiated from it.  The cats would run along those poles, and hang out on the roof of the bathroom, or in our sleeping loft.

There was an incident one day. Ceridwen doesn’t sleep well, and one day she was up quite late, after sunrise, and had opened the bathroom window to let the cats out.  Every night, about 100 yards down the hill from our house, a group of Coyotes would gather. On this particular day, Ceridwen, after opening the window to let the cats out, was sitting at her computer when she noticed out or the corner of one eye something black streak up one of the two ponderosa pines that were growing near our house. She got up and went to the kitchen window, only to see Gwidion about 100 feet up one tree, and Buddha up the other. On the ground, was a really big Coyote, wandering about between the two trees, waiting for his “breakfast” to come down. Ceridwen went into a maternal rage (basically channeling the Hindu Goddess, Kali) and ran unarmed out of the house, chasing the Coyote away from our clearing.

It took Ceridwen about an hour, and a couple cans of tuna, to coax the boys down from the trees. When he finally came down, Buddha was limping. He had somehow gotten hurt in all the chaos. He spent about the next three weeks up in out sleeping loft. We brought a litter box and his food up to him.

The Coyotes who nightly gathered in the clearing south of our cabin disappeared after this, never to be seen again.

In April of 2004 we moved to Eureka CA, to the King Salmon area. The cats became strictly indoor at that point, since there were too many other cats in the neighborhood.  In 2009 we moved to the Myrtletown area of Eureka, where we still are today.  Gwydion passed away from an inflamed pancreas that year. Buddha died from old age about 2011. Both of them are buried in our back yard, where their remains feed out fence of Jasmine.

Taliesin is out present house cat.  He was rescued from a crazy cat guy’s property up off Highway 36 (near Bridgeville) where he had about 60 feral felines competing for resources and just running wild. He would feed then a little kibble now and again but otherwise they were on their own.  We have a friend who occasionally drives up there and rescues two or three kittens at a time. She then takes them to the spay/neuter center and then rehomes them.  Taliesin (“Tally”)  was maybe a month old when he was delivered to us, and quite feral. He spent about the first two months under our bed, and his litter box and dining area was also in our bedroom. That was about four years ago. He bonded with Ceridwen right away (at the time she didn’t have a bad back (like mine) and was able to interact close to the floor with him). It’s only been very recently that he has decided he likes me too.

In addition to Tally, Ceridwen and I are friends with and cat sitters for some ot the neighbors felines, and when neighbors go out of town we are called upon to feed and play with them.  Luna, Russel (“Wussel”) and Shmokey, belong to our close

friends Michael and Annie who live across the street from us in the back half of a duplex.  Sky and Pepper belong to Serena, who lives in the front unit across the street and lastly Luna(2) belongs to Kathy, who lives in the unit behind us.

A new cat has appeared recently. Black and white, very friendly (and wants to come in the house). We don’t know his/her name or which neighbor she/he belongs to (probably one of the tenants from the duplex next to ours). Eventually we will find out.

Waiting is.

Remember that I mentioned that my first wife, Lynne, hates cats?  I am happy and proud to report that all three of my sons have indoor/outdoor felines.  We all just had to escape from her influence in order to participate in the wonderful, marvelous, experience of being owned by cats.

 

I’m more Jewish now than I ever have been

The transition began with October 7th 2023. That was the day that the terrorist group Hamas savagely attacked communities in Southern Israel and a music festival from their base in Gaza, murdering, raping, disemboweling, innocent Israeli men, women, children, infants and the elderly.  News reports say that over 1400 were gunned down, gang raped and dismembered by savage inhuman adherents to the “religion of Peace.”

I won’t got into any more details. You can read about those elsewhere, but the effect it had on me, over time, caused me to embrace the Jewish side of my persona more so than at any other time in my life, even more so than my visit to Israel in 1974.

So, if you are wondering why my writings and missives on this blog are emphasising Judaism more than in the past, this is the reason.  This year I have visited a Rabbi, afixed a Mezuzah to both my front and back doors, actively lit the candles and recited the prayers for Channukah, began observing Shabbat on Friday evenings by wearing a Kippot  and been attending the Zoom broadcast of Shabbat services from Central Synagogue in New York City.  I also attended the public lighting of the Menorah on the eighth night of Channukah in Olde Towne Eureka.

I haven’t found a spiritual home here as yet. There are two Synagogues here: Temple Beth El in Eureka, and the Chabad Jewish Center in Arcata. Rabbi Cowen of the Chabad house in Arcata was the Rabbi I met with this past summer, and the one I have had the most interaction with (through the Facebook Humboldt Jewish Community group). I would probably be more inclined to attend Temple Beth El (a Reform congregation more like the one I occasionally attended in Chicago) if it weren’t for the fact that Rabbi Naomi believes all the falsehoods spoken about Israel by both the Right and the Left (“Apartheid,” “Occupation,” “Genocide,” “Illegal Settlements,” etc.).  On the other hand Chabad is very, very orthodox and extreme in it’s practices, even though I am very impressed with Rabbi Cowen (his joy is infectious). I find the ultra orthodox Chabad a bit too extreme for my comfort level. Still, if I am going to become a member of a Jewish community, Chabad attracts me for it’s unabashed allegiance to the Jewish state of Israel, rather than the mealy mouthed, denial of Judaisms intrinsic attachment to Zionism, that some so called “Progressive” Jews embrace.  I cannot fathom the embrace of a form of anti-semitism (anti-Zionism) that some of these folks espouse.

I am a Progressive myself. I always have been. The doctrines of Islam are some of the most anti-Progressive I have ever witnessed (misogyny, anti-LGBTQ, pro-slavery, anti- Human rights, anti-democracy) and nearly every Islamic dominated nation on this planet exhibits the same inhumane traits.  Yet many so-called Progressives would rather support such regimes (which a “Palestinian” state would inevitably become) rather than support Israel, which is by far one of the most Progressive states on the planet, perhaps even more so than the United States.

DO NOT purchase an HP printer

Or, if you do buy one, don’t sign up for instant ink. Unless you are printing stuff on a daily basis, you will end up spending way more for ink (at the rate of $5/month) than if you just bought your ink at a Staples.

Not only that, if you realize you are being robbed, the ink cartridges you are using that where sent to you via the program; the minute you unenroll from instant ink your ink cartridges, which you paid for, will be rendered useless via a broadcast command from HP.

I bought a new Epson printer at Costco back in July. When I brought my new printer home, I logged into instant ink and dropped out of the subscription. I also instructed the payment service I was using to no longer honor requests from HP Instant Ink. It is December now, and I still get emails from HP asking me to update my payment source.

What will it take to get these ink pirates to stop harassing me?

As I said, don’t buy a printer from HP. It’s just not worth it, and in reality, you  don’t actually own the printer or at least not the right to use it.

 

 

I am a “Progressive Zionist”

I am a “Progressive Zionist.” What does that even mean?

Let’s start with “Progressive”:

The progressive agenda encompasses a range of political philosophies and policy goals that advocate for social reform and a more active, expanded government to address societal ills. While the historical Progressive Era (late 19th and early 20th centuries) focused on issues like trust-busting and women’s suffrage, the modern progressive agenda has evolved to include specific priorities in economic, social, and environmental justice.

Core Principles of Modern Progressivism
Modern progressive thought is generally rooted in the concept of social justice and the idea that unregulated capitalist markets create inherent inequalities that must be managed through government regulation and social protections. Key principles include

    • Economic Justice: Advocating for policies that reduce income and wealth inequality.
    • Environmental Protection: Emphasizing strong climate action and measures to eliminate pollution, noting the link between environmental harm and marginalized communities.
    • Strong Democracy: Working to get money out of politics, eliminate corruption, and protect and expand access to voting rights.
    • Global Peace and Diplomacy: Prioritizing diplomacy over military intervention, cutting the defense budget, and promoting a rights-based international order

Key Policy Proposals:
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has outlined a specific legislative agenda, often referred to as the “Progressive Promise” or the “Progressive Proposition Agenda,” that includes proposals such as

  • Healthcare: Realizing a universal, high-quality healthcare system (often “Medicare for All” or expanding Medicare) and lowering healthcare costs.
  • Wages and Labor: Securing a living wage (e.g., a federal minimum wage of $15/hour or more), protecting the right to organize unions and bargain collectively, and ensuring paid family leave.
    • Tax Reform: Reforming the tax code to ensure the wealthy and large corporations pay their “fair share,” including measures like a billionaire minimum tax and increased taxes on corporations with large CEO-to-worker pay gaps.
    • Climate Change: Taking urgent and transformative action on climate change, building on legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and ending subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
    • Social Safety Net: Expanding Social Security benefits, investing in care for seniors and people with disabilities, and providing affordable childcare and debt-free college options.
    • Criminal Justice and Immigration: Ending mass incarceration, advancing equal justice under the law, and establishing humane and fair immigration laws with a path to citizenship

These policies aim to deliver structural change that empowers working people and addresses systemic inequalities

What is a “Zionist?”

A Zionist is a person who supports the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. generally in the form of the State of Israel. What makes someone a Zionist is the belief that the Jewish people form a distinct nation and, like all other peoples, have a moral and historical right to a sovereign state and a safe haven in the Land of Israel.

Key Aspects of Zionism and Being a Zionist:

A Political and Nationalist Movement: Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Europe as a secular political movement, largely in response to widespread antisemitism and the rise of ethnic nationalism, which argued that Jews would only be safe in their own sovereign state.
Support for Israel’s Existence: Today, the term primarily refers to support for the continued existence and security of the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland.
Diverse Perspectives: Zionism is a broad, “big tent” movement that includes people with a wide range of political and religious views, including progressives, conservatives, secular individuals, and the religiously observant Zionists often disagree on specific Israeli government policies, such as the specifics of borders or the settlement movement.

In summary, a person becomes a Zionist by subscribing to the core belief in Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel and supporting the existence and protection of the modern State of Israel as the embodiment of that right.

Some say that being a Progressive and being a Zionist are oxymoronic, but the fact of the matter is that there is nothing contradictory in the two positions and in fact they are complimentary.

The State of Israel as it exists today embodies and demonstrates everything within the Progressive agenda:

1) All citizens of Israel, Jew, Moslem, Arab, Druze, Christian, atheist or agnostic enjoy all of the rights outlined in the

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2) All citizens (and resident non-citizens)of Israel enjoy free universal, healthcare (something Progressives in the United States have fought for for decades).

3) FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION: Education from age 3 through age 18 is not only free but compulsory.
4) All citizens of Israel have the right to enter any profession they wish.
5) All citizens of Israel have the right to vote in all elections for representatives in the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament), as well as all elected offices such as local mayors.
6) All citizens of Israel have the right to marry or form domestic partnerships with whomever they may choose, and with anyone that chooses them.

Contrast that, with “Progressives” who today support the Palestinian cause:

From September 2005, Palestinians living in Gaza have for all intents and purposes enjoyed the rights and privileges of having their own country, and electing their own government. Since withdrawing all Jews from Gaza, Israel has, with a few exceptions, allowed Gaza to be free. Gazans elected the terrorist group, Hamas, to be their government on January 25, 2006. Since then womens rights within Gaza have been practically eliminated and women are coerced into wearing Hijab. In other countries under Islamic Sharia Law, women wear the head-to-toe Burqa. Educational opportunities for women have been severely restricted, and women my not leave their homes without a male chaperone.

One thing I noticed from watching news stories coming from hospitals in Gaza: no women work in hospitals, or at least I have not seen any.

In Gaza, LGBTQ rights have been eliminated, and the death penalty has been implemented against Gazans who are found out to be Gay or Lesbian.
Gazans have no right to vote. The last election held was the one on January 25, 2006.

In conclusion: it is obvious to me, as it should be to you, that support for the State of Israel is the only logical stand that true Progressive can take.

Programming my next incarnation

MY BIRTH DAY, DAY ONE:

It is sometime between November 15 2053, and November 15, 2073.  A few hours ago  I fell asleep.  I have awoken to a dream, a bright light  at the end of a tunnel is opening up before me. I can hear the muffled sound of machines, and peoples voices and alarms coming from the light, which I now see is a portal. I am being swept along, closer and closer to the light.

As I am discharged from my mother’s womb, I have to close my eyes. The light is too bright. I feel the slight pain as my umbilical cord is clipped and I am totally separated from my mother. I am being passed around from person to person, and finally my mother takes me in her arms, “what a beautiful boy you are,” she says to me and kisses me. She is SO HUGE!  Everyone and everything is huge! It finally dawns on me what has happened: a few hours, days, weeks, ago I was a retired journalist living with my wife in Eureka California.  Now I am a new born infant. The last I remember from my old life was Ceridwen, my wife and soul mate of many lifetimes, kissing me and saying good night. I have no memories of anything between then and now.

My mother presents her teat to me, and  I greedily suck down her nourishing milk. There is nothing much I can do at this point. I don’t seem to have any control over my bladder or bowels, nor can I walk. I realize that I need to recover, to grow and evolve. I can do that. But right now I need to sleep.

I awake a few hours later. I look around the room I am in, but the high walls of the bassinette I am in don’t let me see too much. The only way I have to communicate is to cry as loud as I can, so that’s what I do. Also, my butt and genitals are wet and there is a mushy substance, and I am hungry.

A man comes to me and takes me from the bassinette. I’m trying to get a good look at him.  I know this is not my mother.  He strips the diaper from me, cleans me up with some cloths and puts a fresh diaper no me. Then he carries me into another room, where my mother awaits in her bed. He hands me over to her, and she once again presents her breast to me. I hungrily take in as much of her milk as I can, and I fall asleep in the process.

I have roughly figured out that about six days have passed since my birth. I have ascertained that from what I can remember from past lives, when I raised children of my own. Days seem to be twenty four hours long. The first few days after my birth, the breast was presented to me about every hour. After a few weeks this was cut down to every three hours. Now it happens every four.  In between feedings I sleep, but I am starting to take time to think about what is happening to me, and also to calculate the passage of time, and I am starting to take note of my surroundings.

The man who comes to me sometimes when I cry I think must be my father. He’s a big guy (well, everyone is big except me).  He has hair on his face which I can reach for with my hands and pull. This makes him laugh. He is also wearing some metal object that covers his eyes. I grab at that too. He picks me up and holds my chest against his shoulder. I can see what is behind him. I notice he wears something on his head. I grab at that, but it is attached somehow. He has lots of hair on his head. I have no hair. Not anywhere. He hands me off to mother.

DAY EIGHT:

After I drink her milk. She looks at me and says, “It has been eight days since you came into our life. Your father and I have something special planned. We’re going to Temple now. We’re going to see the mohel!”  

My mother has dressed me up. I can’t really see how I look, but from the way she is looking at me I must look pretty good. They bundle me up and place me in a special chair, sitting upright and I am in the car and facing the back of the seat. I can’t tell where we are going.

I am taken into a building. There are lots of adults there, but also smaller versions of themselves, all milling around.  I hear music for the first time in my life. I think I remember this first song from my past life: “Kol od balevav penimah…” I hear some men speaking, praying. Four men and my father now surround me. I am on my back looking up at them. I see my mothers face peering lovingly at me, from just behind my father, so I have no fear. The men all have beards  and are all wearing the little hat like my father wears They are also wearing a kind of white and blue cape like thing. As the men pray they take my diaper off, and then …..OUCH! I cry. That really, really hurt! Then a big celebration happens. There is singing and dancing and I am paraded about on my fathers shoulders, and I forget about the pain I have just endured.  Then my mother comes and gets me, and presents her breast. I drink and fall asleep.

SIX MONTHS:

Mom withheld her breast today, at least at first. She gave me a spoonful of something fruity and somewhat solid. It was pretty good. After that she gave me her breast and I then I fell asleep.

1 YEAR, 4 MONTHS:

Mom has been withholding her breast more and more, and feeding me other food from a spoon more and more. Today, after breakfast she took my diaper off, but she didn’t replace it. Instead she sat me on the toilet. It was big!  And kinda scary.  She told me to let her or dad know if I had to pee or poop. To not go in my pants.

I started speaking about five months ago, so now pretty proficient at telling my parents what I need.  My dad has started to teach me how to read Hebrew, and my communication skills have vastly improved because of that.

1 YEAR, 6 MONTHS:

Today was the last day my mother breastfed me. I am pretty proficient at using a spoon and a sippy cup.  I have not worn a diaper over night for the past three months and I rarely have an accident. Also, I have started to dress myself. I haven’t quite mastered tying my shoes yet. But I’m getting better.

2 YEARS:

My father has started to speak in another language to me, and has shown me some books in that language. It is called English. It’s in a whole different alphabet.

My father is a Rabbi. My mother is a gynecologist.  We live in the new city of Jerusalem in Israel. In addition to being a medical doctor my mother is also the department head of the gynecology dept at Hebrew University Medical School.

4 YEARS:

I start preschool this year. My parents have relocated to a Kibbutz that is mostly made up of people in the professions and the tech industries. I’ve been in pre-school for six weeks. My teachers don’t think I belong there. I am so much more advanced than the other kids.  In January the decision was made to advance me to Second Grade, as my reading proficiency is far beyond what I’ve been exposed to in pre-school.

5 YEARS: 

I’ve been reading books from our Kibbutiz library computer.  The books I was given in Second Grade just weren’t challenging to me.  I stated to read some classic Science Fiction, like Heinlein, Asimov and some fantasy like Tolkein.

5 YEARS 2 MONTHS:

When I arrived at school today I was ushered into the headmasters office. My test results came back, and it has been decided to advance me into the Eighth Grade.

The thing that has been happening, over and over again, is that when new material is presented to me I already know it. It’s like it’s been lying dormant in a corner of my mind, waiting to be coxed out.  They tell me that my reading level is at Ninth Grade level, and my mathematics skills are bordering on calculous.  History has been a breeze, since, as mentioned before, I know historical information before it is presented.  It is almost as if I had learned all this stuff in a past life, and retained it all as memory.

7 YEARS, 6 MONTHS:

I have a baby sister! Her name is Ruth. I plan on teaching her all that I know. Just as soon as she quits using diapers.

12 YEARS, 6 MONTHS:

I graduated from High School today.  Next week is my Junior College graduation. I’ve already started on my Junior Year at Hebrew University.

13 YEARS:  

I was Bar Mitsvah today. My dad was the presiding Rabbi.

14 YEARS:

I received my Bachelors Degree in Applied Science from Hebrew University.

15 YEARS:

I received my Masters Degree in Astrophysics.

15 YEARS, 3 MONTHS:

I was awarded a PHD in Astrophysics.  At this rate I should get a Nobel Prize by the time I reach 21. Maybe.

I started my job at Hebrew University. I’ll be a teaching professor in Astronomy. In the meantime I am studying exoplanets in the Andromeda Galaxy. I’ve been granted access to the newly deployed Tyson (Named after the late Neil Degrasse Tyson) Space Telescope.

18 YEARS:

I’ve been dating a girl from our kibbutz for about a year now. Her mother is from Korea (and has converted to Judaism) and her father is a close friend of my mothers who is a neurosurgeon. Her name is Zelda and we have many of the same interests, including Science Fiction and roll playing games. She’s studying to be an astrophysicist too. She’s about two years older than I am, but that’s not something I am worried about.

18 YEARS, 7 MONTHS:

Zelda just informed me that she is pregnant.  We will meet with all four of our parents at Shabbat dinner tonight. This does not promise to be a very pleasant evening.

18 YEARS, 10 MONTHS: 

Zelda and I were married today. The wedding was held in the Kibbutz park, and the entire community attended, as well as most of the staff from Hebrew University. My father presided, my best friend Jacob, was best man, and my sister Ruth was the flower girl.

19 YEARS, 4 MONTHS:

Zelda gave birth to identical twins.  I am a dad. We named them Jordana and Jessica.

19 YEARS, 11 MONTHS:

My sister Ruth had her Bat-Mitzvah today. She did really well reading the Torah portion.

21 YEARS:

On a lark Zelda and I took a night off from the kids and drove into Sefad, the Kabbalistic “capital” of Israel. We visited a psychic medium named Deva who told Zelda some things that I immediately concurred with.  In her immediate past life, Zelda’s name was Ceridwen. We were married at that time, and in fact have spent many, many lifetimes together. In our immediate past life, she had grown up in Upper Michigan and I in Chicago.  We met each other at age 46 in California, circa 1998. Zelda and Ceridwen apparently had more in common than just, well, me:  Both were/are fascinated by the ancient Celts and specifically Wales and Scotland. Both were/are enamoured of Highland “coos.” Both of them were/are astrologers.

Now I know what “on the nose” means.

“Uhm El: When did you become so Jewy anyway?

I was born that way. As stated elsewhere, my mother was Jewish and my father a Roman Catholic.   We attended shul in Chicago at  Congregation Agudas Achim. I was Bar Mitzvah there on November 19, 1966.  I grew up in Kankakee IL, and there was a synagogue there (just a few blocks from my parents home actually), but my mom’s parents had a phobia about being Jewish that to this day I do not fully understand, but Jewish practice was always on the downlow.  When mom died I was going through the dumpster (where my dad had tossed all of her memorabilia) and I found lots of her stuff, including: my brother Dan’s bris certificate, my bris certificate, my bar mitzvah certificate, a newspaper clipping of a celebration for my grand parents 50th anniversary. What was funny (interesting? frightening? dumbfounding?) was that a year of so ago I had compiled a family tree mostly form notes my aunts Vernette and Rita had gathered but I mostly used ancestry.com. I made up a packet for my sons, Joshua, Jordan and Jesse, and included the ancestry.com tree and the original long from one my aunts had provided (upgraded to include my sons and their children). I also included copies of aforementioned  bris and bar mitzvah certificates, and a copy of the 50th anniversary newspaper article about my grandparents 50th.

Above are two articles. The one on the right is the one I found in my Mothers things when going through them after she passed away. The one of the left is the microfiche from The Daily Journal’s archive library, that Jordan found. I can only surmise the one on the left was printed in the local paper, and that the one on the right was produced for distribution to my grandparents shul in Chicago. That’s the kind of thing that holocaust survivors often did, to hide their identity as Jews.

Jordan and Jesse are video-journalists. Especially Jordan (and he has won a boat load of Emmy Awards for his television work in Chicago). Jordan, for whatever reason, took that clipping and researched it at the original publishers (The Daily Journal, then The Kankakee Daily Journal).  In the microfiche records he found the original published clipping (see above),  It did not match my clipping. Except for the picture of my grandparents, it was almost completely different.  Instead of showing that they had been married at Congregation Agudas Achim by a Rabbi, it said they were married at the 1st Baptist Church by a Reverend. This contradiction was what I meant above when I said (interesting? frightening? dumbfounding?). But I think I know how this happened. The Stewarts were very secretive about their Jewishness.  They didn’t want people in Kankakee to know what they were. It probably has something to do with the events of WW2 and the Holocaust. I am guessing that the article posted in the local Kankakee paper was the one folks in Kankakee were intended to see, and the copy I had was the one distributed to the synagogue in Chicago.

Personally, I have never been all that demonstrative about being  a Jew. It was never an issue, and in fact after my Bar Mitzvah I pretty much forgot about it all. Then I spent some time in Israel (1974) and I reconnected with my Jewish side. Well kinda. For awhile.  I started wearing my Mogan David while in Israel. I also started wearing a beard, and I purchased a mezuzah in Jerusalem and attached it to the doorframe of every house that the boys mother and I lived in. But other than that, and the Jewish elements that happened at our wedding, there wasn’t much Jewy stuff in my life at all.

By the time I left the boys Mom, I was for all intents and purposes, an atheist (a pantheistic one, but nonetheless..).   Qadisha, who was wife number two, was a Wiccan. I played around with that for a few years. Then I met my true sole mate, Ceridwen and we founded the Reformed Druids of Gaia (RDG) It’s an international organization. At one time, we had almost 5,000 members in 17 countries an almost all of the states of the USA.  Covid 19 sucker punched us, and  people stopped practicing. We never really recovered, although we still  hang on.  Due to Ceridwen and I attending Kirtan sessions in Arcata monthly since 2019, we’ve introduced some Hindu philosophical an practical elements into the RDG. We continue to evolve.

On October 7th 2023.  I awoke to the news that the terrorist group, Hamas, had invaded southern Israel. and committed genocidal atrocities on Kibbutzim, private homes, villages and a music festival. In total, 1,195 people were killed by the attacks: 736 Israeli civilians (including 38 children) 79 foreign nationals, and 379 members of the security forces. While attending the Nova music festival, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded. About 250 Israeli and non-Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. Dozens of cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred.

In the aftermath of that I started reading reports from various sources on the Internet, and Facebook and Progressive Facebook Groups.  What really shocked me was the lies. I’ve written about and debunked these elsewhere on this blog, so I wont go into more here, but I found myself defending Israel on these pages, and getting my ass reamed out, but I have stood my ground.

Because of 10/07/2023 I am more Jewish now then I have ever been in my 72 years of life on this planet. I was born a Jew, and I will more than likely die a Jew, and I will defend Israel, at least with the pen, for the rest of my life.

And if you don’t like it you can’t have any!

The best part?  Ceridwen supports me and she will continue to do so no matter what. That’s what love is all about.