"The American Dream"

 

I used to like Americans, but now I'm not so sure anymore: Somehow the jolly worker who definitely is obtaining the cosy house with the white fence for himself and his family has turned into a bitter and overworked slave. As I see it Americans are down the wrong lane when it comes to non-exploitative social settings as people may have several jobs, but still not the income that keeps things going. If diligent workers have to live paycheck to paycheck the system isn't working the way it should.

"As income inequality has increased substantially since the 1970s, the American Dream has begun to seem less attainable for those who aren't already affluent or born into affluence. According to U.S. Census family income data, real family income began to grow much more among the top income group than among other segments of American society.3 For example, the Federal Reserve's 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances shows that the top 10% of the income distribution earned roughly a quarter of all income and held more than three-quarters of all wealth."

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/american-dream.asp

That is not a healthy situation for a society, but still, that doesn't kill off that silly "American Dream": Americans don't unite to break the power system of their exploiters, no, instead of breaking it they dream of how they themselves may become rich. Sadly enough that damned TrickleDown scam that started out as a joke has gotten into them ....

USA is spending more on the military than any other country in the world. Health Care like in other Western countries is non-existent. Also it seems that Americans can't study without getting deep in debt and that too is different from other countries. Ask aquestion that takes a scientific answer and you may get a quote from The Bible. It's weird, also because most Americans seem to have a very strange opinion of the Biblical sayings. I always said that Americans confuse Jesus with Santa and they have a way of seeing all their deeds - good or bad alike - as sanctioned by their god. THAT's not religion, but more like "kidnapping" of the god they are purporting to believe in ....

Science is not popular, and more Americans believe in Genesis than in scientific findings. Why? Are they dumb? No, but this kind of (primarily verbal) "siding with God" gives the ultimate authorization of their own life, beliefs and habits where science puts a question mark with everything they are or believe in. Most likely, everyone all over the world likes to be RIGHT, but the Americans took that preference a bit longer, thus turning themselves into (unconscious or naive) hypocrites ....

America is the only country in the world which fought a war about the ultimate exploitation of their fellow men, namely the Civil War about slavery. However, the point is that when that happened, most other Western countries already had given up the ugly habit of exploting dark-skinned people in a gruesome slavery system ....

Yup, and that's very sad, because then we have come to a very costly standstill ....

 

Periods, Male Chauvenism and the Pope .....

Somebody said that if men had periods bleeding would be an Olympic sport and there would be free or tax-deductible menstrual cups, pads or tampons. Everyone would sport jewelry celebrating the happy event of a period instead of feeling ashamed or worried about what's happening.

Those women who hate the idea of this natural, feminine process may have found this part of The Bible troublesome. Actually it may be part of their feelings on the subject:

Leviticus 15: 19-33: "¹⁹ ‘If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be ^[a]set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Everything that she lies on during her impurity shall be unclean; also everything that she sits on shall be unclean. ²¹ Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. ²² And whoever touches anything that she sat on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. ²³ If anything is on her bed or on anything on which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. ²⁴ And if any man lies with her at all, so that her impurity is on him, he shall be ^[b]unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. 

²⁵ ‘If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean. ²⁶ Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity. ²⁷ Whoever touches those things shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

²⁸ ‘But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. ²⁹ And on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. ³⁰ Then the priest shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for the discharge of her uncleanness.

³¹ ‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them. ³² This is the law for one who has a discharge, and for him who emits semen and is unclean thereby, ³³ and for her who is indisposed because of her customary impurity, and for one who has a discharge, either man or woman, and for him who lies with her who is unclean.’ ”

While Leviticus obviously was an idiot or, to say the least, very, very unknowable in the female anatomy this guy with the box of Tampax looks like one who knows enough about what's going on to deal with it in a rational manner. And, of course, that's how it should be in our modern society of science and knowledge. 

Women should not be made to feel "unclean" by the bodily process, and they are the only ones who should be allowed make jokes about periods if there are situations where that's what's called for.

However, I feel pretty sure that most - but not all - women would prefer never to have periods. Actually, that's possible and has been so for the last 40 years or so, but the pope was against this "unnatural" development in the lives of women: The hormonal birth control pills were designed in a manner so that those who used it had something that looked like, but wasn't a natural period. Women had to bleed to appease the pope. That's quite interesting: 1) Leviticus is very clear about what makes women "unclean" and thus socially unacceptable, and 2) the pope wants to keep it that way ....

https://www.simplehealth.com/blog/the-pope-and-your-birth-control

https://www.brmc.com.au/portfolio-posts/was-the-pills-21-7-regime-really-invented-to-please-the-pope/ 

 https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-due-masculine-dominance-gynecological-science.html 

Strength and Beauty in Female Type Castings

 

Bodybuilder Relna Brewer showing her strength by ripping a phone book apart, 1938

Relna Brewer stood at 5'2 with a weight of 115 pounds, but she was very strong and sported some big muscles. At one point she was dubbed "The Strongest Woman of the World", but at the same time her feminine beauty didn't go unnoticed: In 1939 she won the Miss Venetia beauty pageant. Also she was the stunt double for Marilyn Monroe. All of this means that she wasn't fended off as the female cliché "a strong, but ugly woman". Usually that cliché has been a stop in the career and private lives of many women who have been afraid to lose out in the usual type casting of women that goes more after what's considered "beautiful" than inherent or aquired strength. However, there is no way that kind of social femininity controls might work with someone like Relna Brewer. She is both a very strong and very beautiful woman and nobody can deny it, not even today.

Relna was able to lift four people at the same time, rip telephone books, etc., etc. without losing her feminine grace. That meant that she was someone who surpassed the stereotyped women who were popular at the time. She was no "Sleeping Beauty waiting for the Prince", but an active and strong woman. Her body builder type, so to speak, wasn't the most popular one, namely the "Good Girl", who ended up a housewife and mother. This type didn't in any ways compete with the stereotyped male which was what most men wanted. 

Should women do body building? Well, should men?

 https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/blog/articles/the-original-girl-gone-strong-part-2-relna-brewer-mcrae/ 

https://thedailycrisp.com/a-therapist-tells-us-the-11-types-of-women-and-how-to-deal-with-them/ 

https://thoughtcatalog.com/luke-bennington/2015/03/10-types-of-women-who-make-the-best-wives/ 

https://liveboldandbloom.com/12/relationships/qualities-good-woman

Sportskvinden, der var en mand

 

De Olympiske Lege i Berlin 1936 bød på mange interessante, men ikke specielt Nazi-glamouriserende begivenheder samt resultater. F.eks. vandt den farvede amerikaner Jesse Owens suverænt over den tyske favorit Erich Borchmeyer. Føreren blive vred, da man henstiller til ham om at lykønske sejrherren og siger angiveligt: "Amerikanerne skulle skamme sig over, at de vinder deres medaljer med negre. Jeg giver ikke denne neger hånden." Da den tyske sportskvinde, der stiller op til højdespring for kvinder, viser sig at være jøde, skyndte man sig at udtage hende og finde en erstatning. Man glemte dog at tjekke kønnet, for denne nye deltager, Dora Ratjen, var slet ikke kvinde, men mand. Hvem - og hvor mange - vidste det, og gjaldt det også top-nazisterne? Netop det punkt hersker der stadig en vis usikkerhed om, men Nazi-Tyskland fik i hvert fald én medalje, der ikke var efter reglerne - og det handlede ikke om hudfarve eller religiøsitet, men om køn - og hun/han blev ikke engang nr. 1, men "kun" nr. 4 .... 

Skandalen blev først afsløret senere, men da fortalte flere, at "Dora" altid var meget genert, når sportskvinderne badede og skiftede tøj: ingen havde rigtig set på hende, men nogle havde dog mistænkt, at der var et eller andet suspekt ved denne atletiske højdespringer. Da hun/han blev født i 1918, havde alle været i tvivl om kønnet, også lægen, og hun/han blev derfor opdraget som pige, gik i pige-tøj, etc., så fra starten af var der egentlig ikke tale om et egentligt bedrageri, men en misforståelse. Læger, der kom ind i billedet senere, var også karrige med deres diagnose, men én sagde dog noget om, at visse deformiteter ville forhindre, at kønsorganernes ejerman, dvs. Dora, kunne blive far. Hvorom alting er, så skiftede Dora navn + køn og blev til Heinrich/Heinz. Det skete dog først efter, at hun/han i 1938 vandt i "The European Athletics Championship" med et spring på 1,67 m, hvilket var verdensrekord. Noget, der ikke huede hans/hendes højdespringskonkurrent, Dorothy Tyler-Odam, der skrev og klagede over at blive frataget verdensrekorden af en mand. Denne protest førte til en mere omfattende undersøgelse af Dora, der endte med, at "hun" blev omklassificeret som mand.

For at være ærlig undrer det mig nu også, at "Dora" blev regnet for en ægte kvinde, da "hun" helt sikkert virkede temmelig maskulin i sit ydre. Spørgsmålet er dog, om "hun" snød for at skaffe tyskerne en medalje? Mange har spurgt, og der er opstået en teori om, at "hun" blev tvunget til at forblive i den kvinde-rolle, "hun" var havnet i ved sin fødsel. Da jeg jo tror alt ondt om nazisterne, er jeg fristet til at støtte denne teori, men beviser er der ingen af .....

 

https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kultur/berlin-1936-mandag-den-3.-august-1936 

 

https://www.rferl.org/a/olympic-cheats-through-history/27867140.html

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qkyvym/sex-and-gender-in-hitlers-shadow-dora-ratjen-and-the-1936-olympics 

 

https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/tag/dora-ratjen/ 

 

Wikipedia

 

 

Jahve, the one and only god?

Presumably Jahve enthroned on a winged wheel

 

I once read that there presumably has been around 3000 gods and goddesses up till now. Actually, I'm sure there must have been even more, but most of these old religious figures have been forgotten or have been absorbed by other deities. One of the reasons for this is that faith changes over time. Once people believed in gods who, for them were as genuine, powerful, and important as Jahve became for us. We tend to laugh a little at those who worshipped these "pagan" gods and goddesses of the past, but that's not fair. To them their gods, and their myths were as true as those that go with The Bible is - or were - for Christian believers. What's interesting is that people tend to build a pantheon in most societies and to fight those who don't believe in their god/gods - that is unless they include the non-believers's deities in their own religion. One thing is for sure, all over the world religions change and develop over time ....

 

When the Jews didn't destroy the inhabitants of Canaan as they had been told to do, but stayed and even married Canaanite women they were exposed to the foreign gods that were incorporated into their pantheon. One of these foreign gods was the Canaanite El who was the consort of the mighty goddess Asherah. Actually, she seems to have had several consorts which makes it interesting that with time Jahve blended in with El: Actually, most - but not all - scholars believe that El and Jahve were - or became - one ....

Asherah

Findings indicate that when entering Canaan the Jews were polytheistic: Jahve was not the omnipotent "sky-Daddy", but was part of a Divine Counsil which ended up being absorbed by him. There are references to Jahve's presiding over a pantheon e.g. in some of The Psalms, and he is called "Elohim". Also other parts of The Old Testament have references to Jahve and his "council". One must not forget that "The Bible" came into being not in a flash, but as a lengthy process of 1000 years: Circa 1200 BC-circa 200 BC. As to Abraham and the other old patriarchs they seem to have come into existence around 721 BC when Israel fell to Assyria. Originally Jahve was connected with the exodus from Egypt, Moses and the Ten Commandments.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Council 

 

https://www.openbible.info/topics/jahve 

 

https://www.worldhistory.org/Yahweh/ 

 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yahweh 

 

 

Askepot og hendes sko

 

Eventyrprinsesserne Askepot og Snehvide føles som søstre, der har mistet kontakten med hinanden, men som stadig har en masse til fælles. Resultatet af alle deres prøvelser med onde stedmødre og misundelige stedsøstre er i hvert fald nogenlunde det samme: de vinder den flotte prins's kærlighed og bevæger sig op ad den sociale rangstige som hans brud, hvilket har været regnet for idealet for kvinder i århundreder. Man stiger ikke i graderne ved at udrette store ting, men ved at være smuk og behagelig, så andre føler sig godt tilpas med én ....

Nej, nej, nej, sådan er det ikke: Askepot er bundet af  aftalen med den gode fe, der forvandlede hende fra undertrykt hushjælp i sin stedmors palads til en dårende dejlig skønhed, der fik chancen for at danse med den skønne prins, som alle kvinder er ude efter at erobre, da han er vejen til social fremgang - foruden at han altså er en laber fyr.
 

Det er faktisk billigt for resterne af det køretøj, som feen udstyrede Askepot med, så hun kunne komme med til ballet, hvor hun mødte prinsen. Trylleri gjorde det muligt, men trolddom har sine begrænsninger, for den virkede kun til midnat, hvor Askepot ville miste sit fine føj og den flotte karet. Surt show, må man sige, men så tabte hun heldigvis sin ene forheksede sko, og den førte prinsen ud på en større eftersøgning, der dog virker ret suspekt i mine øjne.

Ak ja, den mandlige hjerne + hukommelse er ikke altid, hvad den burde være, dvs. set fra et feminint synspunkt. Parterne forenes dog, efter at han har ledt og ledt overalt efter den skønne pige, der forsvandt så brat under ballet. Dermed forventes man at godtage forklaringen om, at de levede lykkeligt til deres dages ende, og det får én til at tænke lidt over sandhedsværdien i dette gamle eventyr: kan det være sket i virkeligheden, eller er det bare en myte? 

Ifølge den græske historiker Strabo og hans ‘Geography, Book XVII.33’ var der faktisk en kvinde, der kom ud for noget lignende. Hendes historie er senere blevet set som en forløber for det velkendte eventyr, men sandhedsværdien betvivles: var der engang en underskøn slavinde og/eller hetære ved navn Rhodopis, der fik stjålet en sko af en ørn, der tabte den ned i skødet på den ægyptiske farao, eller var der ikke??? Og blev denne farao så betaget af skoen, at han gik i gang med en eftersøgning af dens ejerinde? Ikke nok med det, men giftede han sig også med hende??????

Det er en skøn beretning om en kvindes sociale opstigen, der kommer i stand via en total mangel på egen indsats: ørnen gør arbejdet, og skoens ejerinde høster, hvor hun ikke såede ....

Prey of Book Vultures .....

 

The first book I wrote was published with a traditional, Danish publisher, Munksgaard. It was a scholarly treatise turned book about teen  magazines. I'm still proud of it as it was something new: "Ungdomsblade", 1977. Later on I published several other scholarly books with traditional, Danish publishers so I was used to this publishing system which worked fine for me. However, for some time I had been writing fiction in English and as I didn't want to try my luck with traditional publishers in either England or USA I started to look for other possibilities. In a sort of happy-go-lucky moment I decided to publish these books with AutorHouse, UK. Actually, I published four books with them in 2011. At that time I had never seen anything to worry about so I took for granted that this publishing house was a decent and trustworthy company, or put another way: They hadn't been unmasked the way they are now ....

AuthorHouse was fun - and very expensive without doing much for the payment they expected ....

After book four I stumbled upon a platform for free publishing: LULU. Here I published several ebooks, both for children and for grown-ups. This was the "dawn of the ebook" and I enjoyed publishing a lot of books, both with LULU and the Danish publishing firm SAXO like, e.g.:

 

I miss the innocence of that time as one published as one felt like, but alas, it's gone forever. Now a lot of criminal people and devious companies developed within the branch of publishing, and they seem to be waging a sort of war against writers: People posing as agents or publishers trick them into costly and fruitless projects. Recently this new kind of robbers - and that's actually  what they are - have grown a new branch: Criminals lure authors into weird schemes of turning their books into movies. Even though I'm not all that naive I fell for such a ruse because it, presumably, was instituted by a genuine film director:

It appered that The Spotlight Media Productions were considering one of my many children's books, "The Naughty Peteyboy, Sonya and The Magic Word", for a movie. I was surprised as I never had seen this book as movie material, but also I was flattered so I fell for the ruse. Someone wiser than me, Victoria Strauss, was approached too with another scheme, but she didn't fall for it:

https://twitter.com/victoriastrauss/status/1577402465531461632?s=20&t=8PkPopl74Ac4jshbURTl8w 

After reading what she wrote it dawned upon me that I had been duped. Before that I had written to the so-called "Charlie" to tell him off as I found it weird that the company didn't pay for the option of my book or sent me a contract, but it  was Victoria Strauss who made it clear to me what was going on. After some investigation I now see the scam as it is: Someone, maybe in the Phillipines, commits identity theft and poses as Charlie McDowell hoping that sooner og later his victim (me!!!!) would be flattered into sending him money for the movie they are (NOT!!!!) making over one of their books. That I would never have done, but still, I might have given him the rights of my book which is small and old ....

https://justpublishingadvice.com/author-solutions-gets-the-chop-about-time/

https://justpublishingadvice.com/vanity-book-publishing-and-self-publishing-are-not-the-same/ 

https://www.usp.ac.fj/research/research/output-and-awards/identifying-reputable-publishers/

https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/

https://twitter.com/cedar3ec/status/1569547081261682689?s=20&t=2UORxJC5Fk5_qAIie00pFA

Wikipedia