Okay, so I've been called pretty much everything but a white guy so far; that's special. It's pretty laughable that since I said I used to post on SF (and I also said I left that life a long time ago) that somehow permanently stains me as being "from SF" for all time. People do change, you know- or do you think that once a person makes a mistake they can do nothing to ever erase it or make up for it? I'm not proud of that part of my life- but it is a part of my history and I have to live with it. Although I am loathe to reference the Christian bible on anything, one quote is rather appropriate here, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone".
As it stands, I was looking for a Jewish online community when I found this place so if I'm not welcome here I'll be more than happy to be on my way and look elsewhere. I expected to be corrected (and would welcome the correction) if I made a mistake in theology or issues of Jewish practice, but I didn't expect to be personally attacked and accused of having all sorts of nefarious motives because of my self-admitted past.
Muman is correct in his observation, regarding self-hating Jewish individuals, but in my case I am not one of those kind of people; in fact, I've done extensive research on my family tree and despite my best efforts I've found no one in any of my family lines who was a born Jew or even a convert. To my knowledge, I am the sole Jew- and a convert, at that- in my entire family history. I chose this for myself: it wasn't something I was born into. At 50, I've had many years to go down many paths and experience many things in life yet this is where I have found myself at last.
Now, to borrow a quote from Winston Churchill, when they come for us Jews again we must hang together or we will surely hang separately. I'm with you- are you with me?