Category: book review

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Revisiting superstition from the perspective of economics

What do imaginary goods, virtual cats and superstition have to do with each other? – Economics. ‘Imaginary goods’ is a term used by an Austrian economic theorist from the 1800’s, Carl Menger, to describe goods that might be sold but which did not meet all the criteria of a ‘goods‘ – a thing of value which could be sold or purchased. Imaginary goods could also be sold but they did not meet all of his criteria for ‘goods‘ because their value was more transient – in the imagination of the buyer and/or seller rather than clearly apparent to any normal consumer of goods.  (Principles of Economics, by Carl Menger, a translation in English)

As I’ve been working on devising ways to make pomegranate peel edible I’ve been thinking about the idea of a market or demand for a good versus the actual value of the good. You can’t sell something of value if no one considers it valuable even if it fits the criteria of being ‘goods‘ – fulfilling human needs; while it recently was brought to my attention, a refresher course having grown up in era of ‘Pet Rocks,” that some people will pay for anything if it is popular – if other people are bidding on the item too. I was astonished as a child that anyone would pay real money for a rock in a box just because it was called a ‘Pet Rock‘ – just go outside, find a rock, stick it in a box – there you go, your very own ‘pet rock‘ captured from its wilderness and tamed for your own enjoyment. The current trend that was brought to my attention is less solid but requires an imagination – virtual cats, bred to have unique characteristics, the bidding is based on the uniqueness of the characteristics (investopedia.com) – my thought, too much time or too much money, and too little space for a real pet cat.

People need love and affection as it promotes oxytocin and dopamine which are hormones that promote positive feelings.

For those with limited room in their lives for an expensive virtual cat, consider going outside and looking for a wild rock to tame instead.

Bringing this back around to the New Year’s Day topic of good luck black-eyed peas and the following day’s topic of superstition – Carl Menger includes in his examples of imaginary goods items that might be considered good luck charms and also medications that aren’t effective.

Pomegranate peel might be effective but until there is proof that it is effective there might not be a market of consumers willing to pay for it let alone even try it. So Master Chef Challenge – Pomegranate Peel -> make it appetizing and if people also feel good after eating it then they will return for seconds -> thus creating a market that hadn’t previously been known.

Carl Menger’s four criteria for what makes something a consumer ‘good’:

“If a thing is to become a good, or in other words, if it is to
acquire goods-character, all four of the following prerequisites
must be simultaneously present:

  1. A human need.
  2. Such properties as render the thing capable of being brought
    into a causal connection with the satisfaction of this need.
  3. Human knowledge of this causal connection.
  4. Command of the thing sufficient to direct it to the satisfaction
    of the need.” page 52 (Principles of Economics, by Carl Menger, a translation in English)

According to his theory something can lose its value as a consumer good if it stops fulfilling any one of those four criteria, to paraphrase – if we

  1. stop needing it because the problem it solved no longer exists,
  2. the thing no longer works to solve the original problem
  3. we forget that the thing is useful for fulfilling the need,
  4. the thing is no longer something humans have access to (the WiFi goes out and the virtual cat breeding stops functioning) :

“Hence a thing loses its goods-character:

(1) if, owing to a change in human needs, the particular needs disappear that the thing is capable of satisfying,

(2) whenever the capacity of the thing to be placed in a causal connection with the satisfaction of human needs is lost as the result of a change in its own properties,

(3) if knowledge of the causal connection between the thing and
the satisfaction of human needs disappears, or

(4) if men lose command of it so completely that they can no longer apply it
directly to the satisfaction of their needs and have no means of
reestablishing their power to do so.” -pages 52-53 (Principles of Economics, by Carl Menger, a translation in English)

So for those who may have forgotten (reason #3, causal connection), – caring for living people or pets can help one’s own health through increased oxytocin, dopamine and reduced oxidative stress.

If owning a real pet is not possible due to housing issues visiting a local Humane Society type agency and volunteering to help care for the shelter animals is generally possible and appreciated. If money isn’t a problem hiring a human for a service that involves touch such as a manicure is helping others by providing money for jobs and providing oxidative stress reducing touch from the hands-on service. If owning a real pet or hiring human hands-on service isn’t possible then oxytocin, dopamine and possibly even reduction in oxidative stress may be provided by a caring relationship with a houseplant that cleans the air of toxins (ferns and other types), or by enjoying looking at art objects that have to do with nature or possible the touch of a smooth natural object such as a rock or crystal or wooden object.

  • While my search of oxidative stress and art didn’t turn up the link I was looking for it did find a review of research on male infertility, oxidative stress, antioxidants (vitamin E, C and CoQ10) and ART, assisted reproductive techniques, while it doesn’t mention iodine it’s worth saving for reference and smoking is mentioned as risk:   http://ccf.org/reproductiveresearchcenter/docs/agradoc261.pdf
  • Smoking increases intake of formaldehyde as well as other toxins. There are also other common sources of formaldehyde in modern living environments. Tips for reducing risk of formaldehyde exposure and links for the houseplants that help detoxify indoor air from formaldehyde and other common volatile chemicals are included in an older post, Formaldehyde (volatile – chemicals that might be easily released from plastics or carpets into the air – ie “new car smell”).
  • The topic on nature and art and oxidative stress is discussed with links in the section Art – Food for the Eyes on another website, effectivecare.info, 10. Food Helps Too.
Returning to the Master Chef Challenge – Pomegranate Peel,

– it is helping my mood and health more consistently than the 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds did but it is quite acidic. I’ve taken to using a couple spoonfuls in my bean soup instead of the lime juice or apple cider vinegar that I had been adding as a digestive aid. I’ve also tried it on salads in place of lime juice.

As a beverage I occasionally have the original blend of approximately 3 ounces of the pomegranate extract/soup stock with about 3 ounces of water and 1 ounce of cherry juice with four pinches of Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) to make it less acidic. Sugar is inflammatory in itself so I’v stopped using much of it. After the review of the blueberry/rhubarb jam recipe I bought some blueberries and will try a combination of the pomegranate extract with the less acidic fruit. Cherry juice is also acidic. Blueberry juice concentrate is available in specialty stores but I wasn’t at one.  The Baking Soda may be too much sodium or something in the pomegranate extract or the level of acidity it adds to the diet may have a diuretic effect like coffee – so like many things in life – it’s not perfect. But being sick isn’t either.

When you start thinking about food as fuel and as your body’s natural medicine cabinet then taste is something that can be acquired and adapted to suit the needs of health – but first the mind has to overpower the habit of “I always eat what my family ate, or what I got used to at college, or whatever my friends are eating.” Social settings and food are very strongly linked and it can be viewed as rude to refuse an offer of food that is being offered – sometimes life isn’t perfect either.

Good luck and best wishes all you Master Chefs out in virtual reader land – I know you can take on whatever culinary challenges you choose.

If at the beginning of 2017 someone predicted that I would successfully be using pomegranate peel, baker’s cocoa, cardamom, and leafy green herbs and vegetables instead of medical marijuana for my autoimmune health condition I might have thought they were imagining things – but Carl Menger was right we have to know the causal connection between a good and a problem it might solve before we go to the effort to purchase, prepare, and use the good for solving that problem/need (health care improvement in my case). pages 51-58, (Principles of Economics, by Carl Menger, a translation in English).

A tastes better than it looks salad – Blueberry Pomegranate Avocado Quinoa Salad.

Bring two and a half cups of water to a boil and add one cup quinoa (or amaranth or cracked wheat for a more traditional tabouli like salad). Cook for twenty minutes at a simmer. Stir occasionally to keep it from sticking to the saucepan. Once the water is fully absorbed remove the pan from the heat and add about (all of the following ingredients are estimates except for the avocado- this is a first try) one tablespoon coconut oil and stir into the hot cooked cereal. Add about one cup of frozen or fresh blueberries, 1/2 cup frozen or fresh pomegranate seeds, 1/4 cup pomegranate peel extract, one chopped ripe avocado, one tablespoon dried tarragon and one tablespoon dried basil (or more if fresh is available), and 1/4 cup chopped walnuts. Stir the mixture thoroughly. The cereal will turn purplish color from the blueberries. Serve a cup or so of the mixture over a plate of chopped salad greens and top with a pretty 1/8th cup of fresh or frozen pomegranate seeds.

I always add salt to taste at the table. We taste only the salt on the surface of food, not what has been cooked into a food or stirred into a mixture as much.

The flavors and textures work well together, sweet and tanginess from the fruit, creaminess from the avocado, quinoa and coconut oil. Tarragon adds flavor, the basil is milder and wasn’t noticeable in the amount I added here. Tarragon has a slightly minty flavor. The walnut is a stronger flavor and the crunch and flavor balance with the flavor of the blueberries and crunch of the pomegranate seeds. This was a success flavor and texture-wise no matter what it looks like and it would be nutritionally balanced with protein, essential fats and carbohydrates and plenty of fiber and trace nutrients and antioxidants. Walnuts and blueberries have both been found effective for cardiovascular health and male health issues.

Blueberry Pomegranate Avocado Quinoa Salad
Blueberry Pomegranate Avocado Quinoa Salad.

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.

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Banana Republics – an old novel for a current era

11/2017 – the USDA Food Composition Database is still missing critically important information – and until we can discuss that there is much else that isn’t going to be discussed. Note – this is about my concern that the entire public is being victimized by inadequate health care options as well as the information missing from a public database, and the history likely involves the radioactive incidents and factory work that took place in Hanford, Washington. Adequate iodine supply helps protect the body and thyroid gland from developing cancer and yet instead of educating the public regarding that fact the opposite occurred. Radioactive iodine is treated as a therapy for detecting cancer with the use of X-ray machines and for destroying thyroid cancer. Emergency supplies of higher dose iodine are produced for use in case of a nuclear incident but long term adequacy of iodine would work just as well or better than a short term use of high dose iodine if/when a nuclear incident occurred. The negative health effects of radioactive iodine have also been tested on the U.S. public without permission in covert experiments that took place during the Cold War years. See number six: http://theweek.com/articles/622448/8-government-conspiracy-theories-how-could-right/

Another plant can help reduce radiation in the soil – sunflowers have been used to help clean up radioactive hazardous waste sites. So instead of growing banana plants it might be helpful in some areas to plant sunflowers. https://gardencollage.com/change/sustainability/scientists-using-sunflowers-clean-nuclear-radiation/

Happy Holidays anyway – food sources for iodine and selenium, another trace mineral that is important for thyroid health is collected in an initial draft on my newer website: https://effectivecare.info/g9-iodine-%26-thyroid

Don Quixote, USA is a novel by Richard Powell that I read many times as a youth. Banana growing was a serious love for a nerdy young man who joined the Peace Corps and went to a South American country to help teach others. Somehow in the ensuing comedic adventures and misadventures he managed to grow bananas and takeover a Banana Republic – it is never too late to catch up on the classics.

I read the Reader’s Digest version which is mentioned in this book review. Reader’s Digest publishes slightly condensed versions of full length novels and publishes a book that includes four novels. Having read a few of the novels in their original and the Reader’s Digest condensed version I would say, great job Reader’s Digest at putting books in young adult’s and adult’s hands. I have not read the full length version of Don Quixote, USA but trust that it is even better than the Reader’s Digest version. Part of their success might be in choosing great books in the first place.

Book Review: Don Quixote, USA by Richard Powell

The novel is also available in a Kindle version and has an all star review on Amazon: Don Quixote, USA .

Take home lesson – if you don’t like something don’t just smash walnuts, unless you can also grow bananas. Read Don Quixote, USA to find  out more.

/Or spoiler for those who like to take things the wrong way, when the nerdy looking Peace Corps first arrives he is met by the current dictator who liked to crack nuts – smashing them – with the handle end of his pistol. When the now swash buckling Peace Corps member finds himself in the dictator’s chair as the people’s choice he finds the desktop has rounded indentations that do hold the walnut in place for handing cracking with the pistol handle (or whatever type it was, I don’t quite remember). The point in my sharing this is about negative smear campaigns against information – why is iodine information being withheld from the U.S. public when it was once available. No other nutrients seem to be missing and several non-nutrients are included. In 2012 I had an account on a social media site and multiple fake looking accounts were following it in a way that seemed to be trying to link me to the President in office at the time – I closed the account as the simplest way to end the parody followers attempt at a negative smear campaign. I didn’t know who might have been behind the fake looking followers but there were many of the same type of persona.

More on the less amusing history of the term Banana Republic is available on the Smithsonian website: Where we got the term Banana Republic. 

The take home lesson – don’t let your country be taken over by a business dictatorship where money talks, dictators listen, and everyone else asks how high to jump because they know that more than walnuts will be smashed.

Disclosure: Among my many houseplants I have grown a banana plant. they would need more sun than normal indoor light provides to actually produce fruit but as a large, lovely green tropical plant banana plants grow quickly and easily. https://www.thespruce.com/grow-bananas-indoors-1902483

Growing bananas in the right outdoor climate is relatively easy because new sprouts grow around the base of the older fruit bearing plant which can be the size of a small tree. The individual small plants can be dug up, and replanted with more space around them so that they all will be able to have the nutrients and sunlight that they will need in order to become a fullsize fruit bearing plant. I’ve never grown more than one potted plant banana but the book explains the process and it is an important part of the story – the young man changed himself in the process of helping the struggling people grow a more productive product for export. The dictator was overthrown by the will of the people who had grown to appreciate the young man’s help.

The Peace Corps volunteer knew about the amazing properties of the banana plant and his hard work led to a productive country, while the dictator that had been in charge knew more about cracking walnuts. The book includes details about growing bananas as the problem with the dictatorship at the time was a lack of productivity and lack of income.

The lesson isn’t about one Peace Corps worker or one dictator, it is about the group of people learning productive skills – no one alone can grow an entire field of bananas – it took a while for the young man to get enough interest and help.

A row of immature banana plants that need to be separated and replanted in a field. Or needed to be separated and replanted before they got this big. Ideally the sprouts would be used when they first appear and are only a few inches tall. This row would have roots that are too intertwined to be able to be separated.
A full size banana plant in the autumn, with a row of immature sprouts at the base – used for decorative purposes, I just happened to notice them.

And a daily reminder iodine content in our food supply was removed from a public database. This would not have been an accident – government agencies do what they are told. Why would the Obama Administration want to remove iodine information from public use? and why would the Trump Administration continue the policy? Food sources and other information about iodine and selenium is collected in a draft form on a different website: G9: Iodine & Thyroid

Where’s the iodine? Still missing from the USDA Food Composition Database, November, 2017.

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.

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Against Our Better Judgement; book summary

No one, including the President can get much done without the support of a majority of the legislators. We need to elect  a congress who will work together to promote peace and protection of the environment. Wars on terror have seemed to only cause increased terror and destruction and for what benefit or whose benefit?

Alison Weir is a journalist who didn’t like what she saw when she visited Palestine in the early 2000s and so she started reading and was brave enough to have written a book. It is still dangerous to people’s careers to report on the treatment of Palestine by Israel. It is a short book, 93 pages of text, and 109 pages of footnotes with further details, and 24 pages of works cited, and three pages of books for further reading which didn’t make it into the 93 pages of text. Her original goal was to write an article but it kept getting longer. Her goal was to share this information with the American public because Palestinians are still being mistreated and killed without cause or repercussions. We as a nation are continuing to support this apartheid situation.

This is not a book review in the normal sense of the genre, consider it a book summary or an attempt at the more condensed article that the author may have first envisioned. I encourage you to read the book as there are many more details which I didn’t attempt to include, it is a concise and well written book, but I also know that it is a busy world and not everyone has time to read a book, even an important book that is short in length and tall in character.

This summary was not written with consultation or permission of the author of the book Against Our Better Judgement, please see the website IfAmericaKnew.org for a link to the book and for more information about conditions in modern day Palestine  — any errors contained in this summary are my own and the opinions expressed are my own.

The book “Against Our Better Judgement; The hidden history of how the U.S. was used to create Israel,” by Alison Weir (2014) suggests that our nation has had people in positions of power since the early 1900s who have been promoting a Zionist agenda to takeover Palestine and create a nation for “all” Jews to live. However the Jews throughout the world were more interested in staying settled where they were and were not interested in being singled out as an exclusionary religion. The group working for an Israeli nation were known as Zionist and many Jewish people were anti-Zionist. The media and financial support for creating a nation for Jews in Palestine had become too powerful however. Speaking out against Zionism became dangerous:

“Berger and other anti-Zionist Jewish Americans tried to organize against “the deception and cynicism with which the Zionist machine operated,” but failed to obtain anywhere near their level of funding. Among other things, would be dissenters were afraid of “the savagery of personal attacks” anti-Zionists endured. ref.155. (page 38, Against Our Better Judgement)

There was a lot of dark money already in play as people in the Zionist movement were also involved in banking and the creation of the Federal Reserve. Fund raising efforts also were very successful among people of the Jewish and Christian faiths — creating a nation in the Promised Land for Jewish people sounded nice.

Zionist supporters did get an agreement from the negotiations with Great Britain during World War I promising that if the U.S. could be brought into WWI to help Great Britain win the war, then Jews would be allowed to settle in Palestine. The region where Palestine is located was under the control of Great Britain at the time. And the U.S. was able to be encouraged by Zionist supporters to enter WWI and we did help win the war for Great Britain. And Jewish immigrants were allowed to settle in the Palestine region. The area at the time had been mainly populated by Muslims and Christians living without conflict.

The early Zionist settlers found out however that Jews living peacefully elsewhere did not have a strong urge to move to a desert to grow oranges. European Jewish settlements started experiencing violence that was publicized as hate crimes of anti-semitism but were actually undercover Zionists hurting Jews in order to cause fear and promote immigration to Palestine.

The German people who ended up on the losing side of WWI had some knowledge of the Zionist influence used to bring the U.S. into the war. During the build up to WWII this may have added to the power of Hitler and the Nazi regime. However Zionist worked with the Hitler regime during the 1930s and Jews who wanted to settle in Palestine were allowed to leave and to transfer their financial assets to Palestine. During WWII the areas where Jewish people lived in close communities ended up making it easier for the large numbers of victims of the concentration camps and death chambers.

And the large numbers of deaths made it easier for Zionist efforts after the war was over to work on international sympathy for the cause of having the Palestine area be made into a nation called Israel – partition was promised – Arab groups were supposed to be able to have their own place in the area but it .didn’t work out that way and the plan was “Against Our Better Judgement;” it was expected that a dual nation was not the ultimate goal and that there would be blood shed:

An internal State Department memorandum accurately predicted how Israel would be born through armed aggression masked as defense:

“…the Jews will be the actual agressors against the Arabs. However, the Jews will claim that they are merely defending the boundaries of a state which were traced by the U.N…. In the event of such Arab outside aid the Jews will come running to the Security Council with the claim that their state is the object of armed aggression and will use every means to obscure the fact that it is their own armed aggression against the Arabs inside which is the cause of Arab counter-attack.” (ref.195) (page 48, Against Our Better Judgement)

At the time Zionists were working towards support of a voting majority of the members of the United Nations to accept Israel as a new nation President Truman was in office. He was also pressured to vote to partition the nation of Palestine:

‘Truman wrote in his memoirs: “I do not think I ever had as much pressure and propaganda aimed at the White House as I had in this instance.”‘

The paragraph continues with information by the author of the book:

“There were now about a million dues-paying Zionists in the U.S.” (ref.206) (page 51, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

And financial incentives were involved as we learn in the next paragraph:

“Then, as now, in addition to unending pressure there was financial compensation, Truman reportedly receiving a suitcase full of money from Zionists while on his train campaign around the country.” (ref.207) (page 51, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

Enough nations did end up voting for the partition of Palestine to create Israel and there was bloodshed as the fledgling nation cleared out Arabs and Christians, and even went after some British people:

“Begin, head of the Irgun militia, sent the following message to his troops about their victory at Deir Yassin:

‘Accept my congratulations on this splendid act of conquest. Convey my regards to all the commanders and soldiers. We shake your hands. We are all proud of the excellent leadership and the fighting spirit in this great attack. We stand to attention in memory of the slain. We lovingly shake the hands of the wounded. Tell the soldiers you have made history in Israel with your attack and your conquest. Continue thus until victory. As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest.'” (ref.246) (page 60, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

There was an eye witness report of the blood shed that had occurred there:

“Deir Yassin in April 1948 — before any Arab armies had joined the war. A Swiss Red Cross representative was one of the first to arrive on the scene, where he found 254 dead, including 145 women, 35 of them pregnant.” (ref.240) (page 59, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

Begin ended up traveling throughout America six months later on a tour that the State Department had tried to deny but which had the support of “11 Senators, 12 governors, 70 Congressment, 17 Justices and numerous other public officials,” (ref. 249) (page 60) but the attempt by the State Department to deny Begin’s visa “was overruled by Truman.” (ref.250) (page 61, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

“Begin later proudly admitted his terrorism in an interview for American television. When the interviewer asked him, ‘How does it feel, in the light of all that’s going on, to be the father of terrorism in the Middle East?’ Begin proclaimed, ‘In the Middle East? In all the world!'” (ref.251) (page 61, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

At least 33 massacres of Palestinian villages occurred, half of them before a single Arab army joined the conflict. (ref.232) (page 58) The Zionist militias had more weapons (ref.233) (page 58) “and by the end of Israel’s ‘War of Independence’ over 750,000 Palestinian men, women and children were ruthlessly expelled.” (ref.234) (page 58, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

Zionists had been working within the United States under assumed names during the late 1930s through 1948 under a variety of “organizations, including the ‘Emergency Committee to Save European Jewry’ and ‘American Friends of a Jewish Palestine.‘” (ref.252) (page 62, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014) The groups had support from many people.

“Baumel reports that an American Jewish leader who had immigrated to Palestine wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt asking her to withdraw support from the Brando production, [”We Will Never Die!’ celebrating the Jewish contribution to Western civilization”] because its profits ‘were being used to fund terrorist activity.'” (ref.261) Eleanor ignored this advice apparently unaware that it was well founded.” (page 64, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

Another supporter did withdraw support after finding out that the fund-raising organizations were all connected to the same group and who were connected to terrorism:

“One supporter, best-selling author Pierre van Paassen, resigned when he learned that various Delegation-spawned ‘committees’ to save Jews were all tied to horrific terrorist actions in Palestine.”

“He declared that he did not believe they had the means or intention to truly save Jews from the Nazis, writing: ‘To speak bluntly, that “Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe” is a hoax, in my judgement a very cruel hoax perpetrated on the American public, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.'” (ref.264) (page 65, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

“…critics point out that it [the group] did not manageto rescue any Jews during the Nazi holocaust,” (ref.265, “though it may have helped contribute to the pressure on President Roosevelt to later create a War Refugee Board.” (ref.266) (page 65, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

“The group had numerous opponents among Jewish leaders, both Zionist and anti-Zionist. (ref.267) Some, unlike the general public, were aware of the secret connections to Menachem Begin’s Irgun, whose violent tactics many found abhorrent, particularly when they targeted the British at a time that England was fighting to defeat Hitler — the most effective way, many felt, to rescue Jews.” (page 65, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

The main leader of the many ‘committees’ operating in the U.S. to raise funds was working under the name “Peter Bergson” but was really named “Hillel Kook.” (page 62) His “uncle was Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, often known as ‘Rabbi Kook the Elder.””…and eventually became the ‘Chief Rabbi of Palestine.‘” (page 66) He is the founder of “an ideology that merged a Kabbalistic version of religious Judaism with political Zionism, founding an extremist religious Zionism that continues in existence today.” (ref.273) (page 67)

“The Kabala teaches that non-Jews are the embodiment of Satan and that the world was created solely for the sake of Jews. (ref.274) Rabbi Kook, who achieved saintly status among his followers in Israel and the U.S., stated: ‘The difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews. . . is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle.'” (ref.275)

American money raised by just one of the organizations, between 1939 and May 1948, would be the equivalent of $3.5 billion in today’s dollars. (ref.309) (page 73, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014) The money was used in part to buy guns for the immigrants already settled in Palestine “for use in taking over the land for a Jewish State.” (ref.306) (page 72, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

After WWII was over the Zionist movement ran into the same trouble again — refugees didn’t want to move to a desert — they were forced to anyway. Even Jewish orphans were forced to leave families that had been hiding them safely throughout WWII and who frequently had come to love the children and would have happily adopted them. The children were then placed in temporary orphanages in Belgium and were forced to speak only Hebrew. They also weren’t allowed to leave the facilities to seek out whether any of their relatives had survived in order to prevent them from possibly staying in Europe instead of going to Palestine. (page 75-76, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014) “Displaced persons” some of whom may already have had visas approved for immigration to other countries were forced to go to Palestine instead drafted into military service. (page 78-79) Where they weren’t treated with equally as the Zionists:

“Israeli author Tom Segev reports that most of the immigrants from Germany were refugees who came ‘against their will… They were not Zionists.’ In Israel they were ‘objects of condescension and contempt.'” (ref.326)

“The American public, however, was led to believe that European Jews desperately wished to go to Palestine, and the well organized, well funded, and frequently ruthless operation behind the emigration was hidden from view. (page 79-80, (page 75, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

Palestinian Arabs weren’t the only population to suffer massacre and forced eviction by the Israeli forces when the nation was voted into existence.

“Journalist and academic Anders Strindberg reports: ‘In the process of “Judaizing” Palestine, numerous convents, hospices, seminaries, and churches were either destroyed or cleared of their Christian owners and custodians. In one of the most spectacular attacks on a Christian target, on May 17, 1948, the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate was shelled with about 100 mortar rounds — launched by Zionist forces from the already occupied monastery of the Benedictine Fathers on Mount Zion. The bombardment also damaged St. Jacob’s Convent, the Archangel’s Convent, and their appended churches, their two elementary and seminary schools, as well as their libraries, killing eight people and wounding 120.'” (ref.335) (page 83, (page 75, Against Our Better Judgement, by Alison Weir, 2014)

One financial control is held over a nation’s politicians and its media than history is reported according to the goals of the financiers. Propaganda does not actually mean history didn’t happen but if enough people are led to believe a one-sided story then it is almost as if history didn’t happen.

I will be celebrating Nakba Day this year on May fifteenth [for more info: Nakba Day (The Catastrophe) fifteenth of May, 1948] and as many years as I survive — in honour of the many Arabs, Christians, Jews and British people who lost their lives to Zionist terrorism. And I may visit a cemetery on May seventeenth in memory of the eight people who lost their lives during the shelling of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate, on May 17, 1948.

Our nation was founded on a strong belief in the separation of church and state but our priorities were manipulated by financial incentives and threats. It is time to end WWII and let Palestine be free again. Our nation’s War on Terror is actually a war on common sense and a war on decency and a war on the future of the planet. It is past time to stop terrorizing the world and to stop funding apartheid.

And, a second copy of this statement:

This summary was not written with consultation or permission of the author of the book Against Our Better Judgement , please see the website IfAmericaKnew.org for a link to the book and for more information about conditions in modern day Palestine  — any errors contained in this summary are my own and the opinions expressed are my own.

An addition, 6/30/2017, history books may also have failed to discuss the possible role U.S. discriminatory laws played as models for policy developed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. Racist laws were in place in many states in the U.S. during the 1920’s-30’s. A book review regarding the topic: truth-out.org/opinion/item/41107-racist-us-laws-provided-inspiration-to-the-nazis-an-interview-with-james-q-whitman

/Disclosure: Opinions are my own and this information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

An additional history of Zionism that includes similar information found in more detail in the book by Alison Weir, along with more detail about the Russian socialist fight against anti-Semetism and pogroms in Eastern Europe and then against Nazi Germany. http://www.isreview.org/issues/24/hidden_history.shtml

Some excerpts, see embedded Tweet and scroll up to the beginning, https://twitter.com/deNutrients/status/1151844177099022339

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Babies have dignity too; Magical Child Matures, a book review

Babies should have the right to human dignity too. The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage was based on a human right to dignity. The decision has brought up the question of whether polyamory, marriage between more than two people, should be the next human rights question to discuss. [2] Before broaching that topic I would suggest that the infant’s and birth mother’s right to a good delivery and breast feeding experience need to be clarified legally. The legalization of same sex marriage may lead to an increase in the number of infants born to surrogate mothers or other contracted parenting arrangements which may not allow for a normal amount of time for breast feeding. Ideally an infant would nurse for at least 3 to 9 months and in nature primate species tend to nurse their infants for two to three years. Research into artificial womb incubators also exists which might greatly impact the infant’s right to a dignified (ie close to natural) prenatal and birth experience.

I found the book Magical Child (1977) by Joseph Chilton Pearce to be very helpful during my first pregnancy. It is the precursor to the book Magical Child Matures, (E. P. Dutton, Inc., 1985, New York), which I had mentioned in a previous post and again in my last post where I mentioned that it is now selling used for one penny. I posed the question of whether it is worth a penny and answered that, yes, to me it is worth it specifically because of the third chapter which is titled “Bonding and Attachment.”

The author has written twelve books in all and has focused on child development and the importance of the child-parent bond and breast feeding relationship and also on topics of spirituality and the heart-mind connection or  the “compassionate mind.” [1]

In the third chapter of the book Magical Child Matures labor is described from the infant’s perspective. The stress of delivery causes an increase in an infant’s stress chemicals and establishing a breast feeding relationship as soon as possible after delivery helps bring the levels back down to normal levels.

The chapter titled Bonding and Attachment (1985, page 24-40) first describes an ideal delivery experience for the infant and then describes how disturbing delivery could be in an over-crowded and rushed hospital in the 1970s. The baby and mothers from the over-crowded setting are described as black people receiving care at an inner-city hospital and my impression is that he included the information because he’s not racist, because he felt that #Blacklivesmatter and that all mothers and infants deserve a low stress delivery with a positive bonding experience. Bringing up traumatic history reminds us to investigate routine practices and evaluate them for fairness, effectiveness, and safety risks. He includes in the chapter that the old practice of holding a baby upside down and smacking it on the bottom to stimulate their first breath may also have caused some infants to have internal bleeding in the upper spinal column and die prematurely from silent crib death (found in 80% of autopsies of infants who had died of silent crib death in one study) (Magical Child Matures, 1985, page 35).

He also described a practice that may have been commonly used to save time after delivery in some busy hospitals. The medical professional would just yank the laboring mother’s placenta out by the umbilical cord instead of allowing her body to progress through the final stage of labor at her own pace.

Never discussing uncomfortable history may be more comfortable for us but it doesn’t promote learning from our mistakes or lead to our making changes in routine practices. Holding a baby upside down and smacking it always seemed like a horrible practice to me so finding information that suggests it might indeed have caused traumatic injury was disturbing and revealing. We do many things each day because that is just the way things have always been done but if we never stop to evaluate procedures for their effectiveness or safety then we may be causing harm on a routine basis without realizing it.

Having a baby, for me, was painful and amazing and euphoric and joyful and beautiful, and kind of sweaty and gross, and just as wonderful as the author describes for the well bonded, good delivery experience.

So is the book Magical Child Matures worth a penny (plus shipping and handling)? Yes I think so. The author discusses development of consciousness during the different stages of the lifespan along with his interpretation of how thinking might occur in a triune brain but that speculative discussion of consciousness could be skimmed and the reader may find the developmental information helpful on its own. The author also describes some personal experiences with psychic phenomenon and meditative practices. So that might be a reason for some potential readers to avoid the book or it might be a reason to seek out the book because they are topics that are infrequently discussed.

I’m expecting my first grandchild this month so I made a copy of the chapter on bonding and attachment for the expectant parents just in case they also would find it helpful. However the discussion of bonding and attachment may also be helpful for any age person to read because early childhood experiences might impact our behavior throughout life – a well bonded infant may grow up to be a more trusting adult while a stressed out infant may have more delayed development during early infancy and grow up to be more focused on collecting things and being dominating within relationships rather than being trusting.

The newborn’s first lesson in life is trust. The fetus had warmth and a constant swishing heartbeat and soothing amniotic fluid and suddenly they are forced out into a cold bright noisy world. Newborns certainly don’t deserve to be held upside down and smacked as their first experience in life whatever their skin color may be. And mothers deserve time to labor at their own pace, rather than have the process rushed for the convenience of the medical professional. Hormonal changes occur for the infant and mother during different phases of labor and delivery, rushing the process may interfere with the infant’s health and development and with the development of the mother’s mammary glands and ability to make an adequate supply of breast milk.

Growing a baby isn’t rocket science – it’s much more complicated than that – but worth it. Thanks for sharing your experience in Magical Child Matures, Joseph Chilton Pearce.

/Disclosure: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a lactation educator and Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./