| Email Luke Luke Ford Essays Profiles Dennis Prager Sep 12 Rats Abandon Morally Sinking Ship Helpful writes: Note on today's Quasarmanrants.com myself, Rumdar, and Chaim all appear. Fred and W. want are you waiting for? Jump in. The water is fine! Khunrum writes: Sinking? The ship has done sunk. It's under the briny with the Titanic. Twas only a matter of time til the Advisory Gang of Four needed more mental stimulation than the name of the latest shul which kicked Levi to the curb or the discussion of Luke's new wardrobe. The question is, Young Weissblott writes for money, why do the rest of us toil for free? Helpful notes: Quaze has been very concerned about the recent terrorist assaults on American soil whilst YML has been very concerned about .... himself. Doesn't Quasarman deserve our free content more than Luke? Khunrum writes: Absolutely. It is time to vote with our pens. I see more phony patriotism coming from the Jordanian gas station owner down the street (awash in American flags) than our Jewish Aussie who owes this country so much. Luke says: Distraught over the direction of our economy, I bought $500 worth of clothes today, the most I've spent in 20 months. Helpful writes: This is as patriotic as I have ever seen you, buddy! Too bad the new wardrobe will be stratified with the rest of the debris on your hovel floor in less than 30 days. Luke Fears, Forgives Frederick S. Lane III In 1999, when I first heard about the book "Obscene Profits" by Frederick S. Lane III, on the porn internet, I immediately hated the guy for infringing on my turf. Now I've found that he frequently quoted me, so I feel good about him. Layne Winklebleck writes in the Spectator magazine: We watched with amusement when the Meese Commisssion in 1986 failed abysmally to make the connection between porn and organized crime. The best they could come up with was porn mogul Rueben Sturman, who was viewed by the Commission as the epitome of organized crime because, in essence, as the notoriously biased commissioners viewed the situation, pornography was a crime, and Sturman's empire of peep-shows and adult bookstores was well organized. So where is Lane coming up with this "mobconnection. Curious I checked his chapter note. He got data from the online version of Luke Ford's A History X: 100 Years Sex in Film (1999). Ford? Good grief! Ford is a notorious industry wag and Internet gossip journalistic loose cannon if there ever was one. Makes Matt Drudge look like Ted Koppel.Wed trust Linda Tripp over Ford. Scanning through other footnotes noted that frequently cited. quotedfor exampleand quite definitivelyon subject Candida Royalle work. Oh please! Our recommendation: If you are fascinated with the subject of technology as it relates to porn, you should be able to glean your money's worth from Obscene Profits. Page through and look for interesting topics. There is no real chapter continuity in any case: good short-term bathroom reading. But always check chapter notes to see where the data are coming from—it could be Luke Ford. How Chaim Amalek Observed Yom Kippur Chaim Amalek writes: Increasingly, I have been finding forgiveness and acceptance in the bosom of Christianity. In terms of the accessibility of its liturgy, the glory of its music, and the number of ritual requirements, I find it far superior to Judaism. I think orthodox, oral-law judaism is far closer to Islam than either Muslims or Jews care to acknowledge. By the way, when will our government stop all this immigration of third-worlders into our nation? Even now, they flood in, some legally and some not. I fear that it will not end until the last jew has evacuated Palestine. (I think it 55% likely that the Arabs, being more numerous and far more violent than the jews, will ultimately win that struggle.) How was your Yom Kippur date? Luke says: Deep and meaningful. Chaim writes: Congratulations - dating a girl who has a genitile father is the next best thing to dating a shiksa. Got a pic of her? Maybe I am wrong about your taste in women (but I do not think so). Luke says: A friend bought me an aliyah to the Torah on Yom Kippur for $180 - for Levi Ben Avraham, may he find a welcoming shul. But I missed my opportunity because I was outside chatting with her husband. Chaim replies: Such is the corruption of modern American Judaism that what should be a high honor is available for purchase by anyone with the sheckels, and on behalf of anyone. Thus does the Torah become reduced to a whore. The All-Mighty is VERY angry with you people, Luke. Fred writes: Next, Chaim will throw the money changers out of the temple. James DiGiorgio On Gas Masks Director James DiGiorgio writes: lukey...i saw on your site that chaim's looking for a gas mask this made me kinda curious so i went to a couple of army/navy surplus sites to find that their gas masks are all back ordered for months (mostly israeli gas masks--figures jews will make a killing offa this.). anyway, then i went to e-bay. seems the bidding is fast and furious for gas masks and filters (again, mostly israeli made). so i'm thinking. you know i'm always up for making an extra buck or two. well, what came to mind is the movie "Close Encounters." Remember when they were trying to keep everyone away from that mountain where the aliens were gonna land? Well, to keep people away, they told them there's been an accident with some military biological or chemical weapon or something, and the whole area was quarantined. but richard dreyfuss and a whole bunch of other people really wanted to get to the mountain, even though they werent sure about the biological/chemical weapon story being true or not. so anyway, yeah, everyone's wearing gas masks...but what they also did was get little parakeets or canaries ( i dont know what kind they were) and carry them around with them so they'd have a little warning time if they came into some bio or chemical weapons. you know, tweety suddenly croaks, better put on the mask and run. so i'm thinking. maybe we oughta go into the little tweety bird business. what do you think? advertise on ebay that we have inexpensive early warning systems that will help protect or at least help warn people of terrorist chemical or bio attacks. we might have to design a little cage so people can carry thier birds around with them, maybe a back-pack cage, or something stylish that goes around the neck, heck, i dont know....i just think i'm on to something. you know how they say sex sells? well, i'm thinking fear sells even better. Jack Chick Speaks Out Dear Ones in Christ,We at Chick Publications are praying for the families who have suffered loss of life in the great tragedy that has effected our land. Our lives, our country, and our world will never be the same. In the midst of these perilous times, we as Christians must be stedfast in our purpose to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15) But here is a word of caution....politicians are trying to hold this whole mess together by creating some kind of all encompassing, universal "god", composed of all kinds of "gods", that doesn't offend anybody including the Muslim god "Allah". The Bible says there is only one true God, who did have a Son and that Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the answer for the needs of every human being. Our God is a jealous God and will share His glory with none other. Let's be about our Father's business and pray for our President, our leaders, our military, our families, our friends, and yes, even our enemies. Beloved, examine the "god" of the terrorists, his name is "Allah". We must be active in the work that Jesus has called us to do, and that is presenting Jesus to a world that otherwise has no hope. Your brother in ChristJack Chick Click here: Tragedy Hits America Luke Gets Mail Clarence writes: Dinesh D'Souza's characterization of the terrorists and Bill Maher's reply were used in New Yorker Talk of the Town pieces last week. It's a simple matter of the meaning of words. "Cowardly" is often misused to mean "dastardly." It's an exceedingly widespread misunderstanding. Nonetheless, that makes Maher ignorant, if not downright stupid. On the other hand, ought to be noted that those benighted suicide pilots whose mission succeeded all to well, believed they would promptly ascend to Paradise, there to be awarded 72 virgins (why they are so hooked on virgins is beyond me.) So that certainly leaves little or no room for them to be regarded as heroes--and, of course, no one involved in this debate has ever called them that. Goddess writes: From your page... "the Bible says....Our God is a jealous God..." Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, how could God possibly be guilty of one them Himself? You Bible thumpers scare me... Two Important Columns For Moral Clarity Liberal E.J. Dione writes in the Washington Post: With the polls running 14 to 1 in favor of war, it makes you proud to live in a nation that gives the smallest minority the freedom to speak out against our government -- even in a time of crisis. So why was I skeptical over what seemed a reflexive response? Many on the left are so mistrustful of American power, so certain about our baleful influence on the rest of the world, that they seem to have a problem whenever the United States goes to war. But unless you're a pacifist, it's hard to argue that war is not justified in a case when a nation has come under direct attack, as ours just has. Fascism, as George Orwell noted long ago, is one of the most overused words in the political lexicon. But in this case, the United States is battling forces whose ideas approach some of the classic definitions of fascism. Our adversaries use terror in an attempt to impose regimes that would deny basic human liberties. They combine backward-looking appeals -- in this case linked to peculiar interpretations of Islam -- with promises of regional, if not global, domination. They use modern methods to upend modernity. How can progressives do anything but stand against these movements? Progressives should be wary of any attempts to excuse or rationalize the horrors of this month. It is important to insist that human misery does breed support for terrorism. But using the existence of poverty and injustice to explain away these suicide attacks will only undermine arguments for alleviating injustice. Centrist Time columnist Lance Morrow writes: A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let’s have rage. What’s needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of purple American fury—a ruthless indignation that doesn’t leak away in a week or two, wandering off into Prozac-induced forgetfulness or into the next media sensation (O.J. … Elián … Chandra …) or into a corruptly thoughtful relativism (as has happened in the recent past, when, for example, you might hear someone say, “Terrible what he did, of course, but, you know, the Unabomber does have a point, doesn’t he, about modern technology?”). Let America explore the rich reciprocal possibilities of the fatwa. A policy of focused brutality does not come easily to a self-conscious, self-indulgent, contradictory, diverse, humane nation with a short attention span. America needs to relearn a lost discipline, self-confident relentlessness—and to relearn why human nature has equipped us all with a weapon (abhorred in decent peacetime societies) called hatred. As the bodies are counted, into the thousands and thousands, hatred will not, I think, be a difficult emotion to summon. Is the medicine too strong? Call it, rather, a wholesome and intelligent enmity—the sort that impels even such a prosperous, messily tolerant organism as America to act. Anyone who does not loathe the people who did these things, and the people who cheer them on, is too philosophical for decent company. It’s a practical matter, anyway. In war, enemies are enemies. You find them and put them out of business, on the sound principle that that’s what they are trying to do to you. If what happened on Tuesday does not give Americans the political will needed to exterminate men like Osama bin Laden and those who conspire with them in evil mischief, then nothing ever will and we are in for a procession of black Tuesdays. Does Luke Miss The Attention Of LukeFord.com? Jack writes: Luke, A personal question. Do you miss the power you wielded as porn's premier gossip columnist. Not the job, not the sleaze, the power. You may have heard of those two gadflies of Hollywood gossipdom Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. They were much feared, for a poison sentence or two could ruin a career. Everyone kissed their ass. I realize the sleaze trade is entirely different but yet you must have enjoyed a certain stature. Magazines, newspapers, radio stations called for your opinion. People love publicity. They love to see themselves in print. Do you miss the attention? Have any of your porno buddies stopped calling now that you are not able to promote them (Jimmy D comes to mind) Come now, be honest Fess Up. Luke says: Very little. Less than I thought I would. I am wandering right now. I've yet to find my new niche. But overall I have much more inner peace and I know I am starting down a road that will connect me tightly to the people I want to get close to. Most of the people I care about in the adult industry have stayed in touch with me. Phillip Roth and the Power of the Word Richard Bernstein writes in today's New York Times: Years ago, when the cold war was in full rage, it was Philip Roth who, in one shining epigram, summed up the essential difference between East and West. "There nothing goes and everything matters," he said, the "there" in question being Czechoslovakia, which he first visited in the early 1970's; "here everything goes and nothing matters." The statement crystallized the paradox that in the bad places where good writing was banned, literature and poetry mattered enough for writers to risk their lives to create it; whereas where everything is free, literature and poetry are what students are forced to read when they would rather be watching television. Permeating "Shop Talk," Mr. Roth's slender volume of conversations and sketches of other writers, is the conviction that literature does matter, even when it is buried in the anesthetizing muffle of freedom. Luke says: Religion is similar to communism in that it severely restricts freedom and places much behavior that people engage in routinely in the West off limits. The reward, however, is a deep sense of meaning in life. I found in my years writing on the porn industry that most of the inhabitants of this world without God were unhappy and lacked meaning in their life. Even though they enjoyed about the greatest freedoms of any group I knew. In the religious world, few things go and everything matters. For years, I resisted getting up early every morning and driving to synagogue to pray. There were so many other things I preferred to do with my time. But then the years went by and my life diminished in meaning, until I went back to shul, disciplined myself to pray every morning, and refound purpose. Chaim Amalek Returns - Where To Get A Good Gas Mask? Chaim Amalek writes: You can tell me where I can buy a damn gas mask. None to be found here, none at all. Surely your readers can clue me (and other New York readers) in on where to get a good NBC (that's nuclear, bio, chem) gas mask? Catherine writes: Luke, I got my Iranian gas mask at a store called I Goldberg located in Wilmington, Delaware. I called for you and they are expecting them in this week. I'm sure you could order one. It makes a cool Halloween costume too. Good luck. I Goldberg: 302-999-0124 Khunrum writes Luke: I was happy to use my social skills and humor to get you two lovebirds back together again. A little less Luke and a little more of anything else will carry the day. Seriously buddy, we love you, but sometimes you go overboard. Time For Luke To Apologize? Putative Marc writes: Are the cheques you're getting for LF.com clearing? Are they still making porn movies? What are you doing all day these days? Luke says: Checks cleared. I am working on my memoir. Reading books I want to read. Trying to think of a subject for a novel. Faxing out interview requests to Hollywood producers. Taking care of many chores. My life is full. Meeting and dating women. Khunrum writes: Luke...I am glad to hear you are relaxing, planning the Great American Novel and reading books which interest you. May I suggest that we try and get Chaim back on board. How about an apology for being such a self centered, uncaring, individual. Go buy a small American flag to hang outside your hovel and rejoin the family of man. And since Rabbi NNN and the gang have booted you out of the Ortho Tribe, why don't you revert back to just plain Luke. Luke replies to the Advisory Committee: I've got nothing to apologize for here buddy... I have not done anything hurtful to you or Chaim. I have not done anything mean to anyone during this crisis. I simply admitted my narcissism. That's no sin. It doesn't deserve your testy snippy comments of the past ten days. I don't have anything profound to say on this crisis. I agree with the general direction and tenor of the US and I think we have a terrific president and administration to tackle this problem. It's better for me to stay silent if I have nothing to add here. For the past four years, I've operated a website which is largely about myself. Nobody is coerced to read it or to contribute to it. I try to admit my flaws. When I've done wrong, I try to quickly apologize. Now I am in a time where I am discombobulated - trying to figure out my new direction. There's no need for me to try to prove how many tears I've shed over this or how deep my feelings are. I'm the only person on this list who has long said George W Bush will be a fine president (see this article by Democratic activist Gerald Posner). Everyone of you has derided him. Now it turns out he's a terrific president and a terrific leader, doing a far better job than Gore or Clinton would do if they were in his place. Now we know that Bush is a great leader and president. I think each one of you regarded him as a blithering idiot. Now 90% of Americans approve of Bush. This is a time for not just soaking in emotion, but for those who regarded Bush as an idiot - it is a time for them to examine their thinking and try to figure out where they went wrong. Also, I think this event clearly shows that the greatest source of evil today is the Arab-Islamic world and that the enemies of Israel are particularly evil vicious folks who are the enemies of decency and democracy everywhere. We are all Israelis now. Khunrum replies: Luke, This is by far the most articulate statement we have heard from you in months. Perhaps you deserve some credit for not even pretending to give a shit about this national crisis. While your narcissism usually generates chuckles from we the advisory committee and your readers, you misread the seriousness of this catastrophe. It is a profoundly trying time in our country's history. Our citizens are shocked, unable to sleep, frazzled and you are like the little kid who knocks on the door and wants to play when nobody else is in the mood. It also puzzles me how a person who professes to be so devoutly religious cannot muster up some sympathy for those unfortunates, their families and our country as a whole. What is the point of all this Tora study if you are unable to make an emotional connection to those who are upset and grief stricken? I am sure the good Rabbi YYY is a continuing source of comfort and encouragement to his loyal flock. That is what makes him a fine man who people, including yourself, look up to. However my aim is not to castigate you. If nothing else you are not a phony. One wonders how many of the flag wavers actually care less than you do. Dialogue of this type I believes, clears the air and will fill up many paragraphs of Luke Ford.net. The type of honest analysis you probably never get from your shrink. Luke says: In many ways, these are the best of days. So much good is coming out of the horror. I've never known the US so united, since WWII. People are much friendlier and nicer and more genuine. I've had many deep and real conversations with people, more than usual. People are more likely to wear their feelings on their sleave. What changes have you noticed among the people you mix with? Our nation is rising to the occasion. It is a great time to be an American as we gird ourselves for war. It is a terrible time to be an enemy of ours. Luke says: An intellectual is someone who is a professional in the world of ideas. I.e., someone who makes his living writing and or speaking about matters of the intellect. A "terrorism expert," like any expert, is someone who earns money through his expertise or publishes or speaks about his area of expertise to a considerable audience. Khunrum writes: So presumably you could have totally invalid intellectuals whose ideas are haywire (like most ultra liberals) and also "Terrorist Experts" who are not experts at all. Just people who make a living convincing others they know what they are talking about. You should become and intellectual anti porn crusader. "Ladies and Gentleman, I was in the business, I know what this terrible industry does to people" Something like that. JMT writes: The fact that Bush can read well-written (by someone else) speeches off a teleprompter, and maintain his composure in public, is somewhat laudable, but it does not make him a "great leader and president." There's certainly no basis for the statement that Gore or Clinton would not have handled the situation as well (and I think it's worthwhile to consider whether this country's enemies would have felt quite so emboldened to attempt the recent atrocities if we did not have a president who felt the necessity of taking *the entire month of August* off work -- something which I'm sure neither Clinton nor Gore would have even considered doing). The 90% approval rating is a natural reaction to the recent events; if Bozo the Clown was the president, he'd probably have a 90% approval rating right now. Stating The Obvious - Of Course U.S. Support For Israel Helped Motivate Terrorist Attack The Ultimate Enemy William Safire writes in today's New York Times: "We're looking for links" between Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist group and Iraq's Saddam Hussein, said Colin Powell yesterday. So far, our secretary of state can see "no clear link" between bin Laden's forces in Afghanistan and the America-hater publicly laughing at our grief in Baghdad. Powell does not want to acknowledge any evidence of sponsorship of bin Laden by Iraq because that would demand a crushing blow at an Arab state. It might limit the diplomatic convoy of consensus he is assembling, which will travel at the rate of its most grudging member. Do we respond to our initial, catastrophic defeat in a wholly multilateral way? That would mean seeking intelligence crumbs from Saudi and Egyptian potentates, negotiating cautious U.N. resolutions, hunkering down to limit the damage of suicide bombers, and beginning a phased air and ground assault on bin Laden's "base" in Afghanistan to be followed up with joint police work for years around the world. It would fight yesterday's terrorist war. Or do we recognize now the greater danger of germ warfare or nuclear attack from a proven terrorist nation, and couple expected retribution for this month's attack with a strategy of pre-emptive retaliation? Such use of our superpower need not require our "going it alone"; civilized nations unafraid of internal revolt will understand the threat to their citizens and stand with us. By Robert Tracinski The day after last Tuesday's bombings, the headline of the French newspaper Le Monde declared: "We are all Americans now." It was an extraordinary gesture, especially from the French and especially from Le Monde. But the more appropriate headline, both in Europe and in America, would be: "We are all Israelis now." Israel has never been the victim of a terrorist attack of the same size as the bombings in New York and Washington. But in the past year—since Yasser Arafat initiated his new war against Israel—terrorists have killed or wounded more than 1,000 Israeli civilians. Compared to Israel's population—less than 6 million people—that's the equivalent of 44,000 civilians casualties in the United States. The terror we experienced last week is what Israelis have lived with for decades, and the motive of the terrorists is the same. Their motive is not solely a hatred for Jews, though that is an important component. Their motive is a wider hatred for the West—for the free, secular society that allows us to flout Islamic law—for the industry, technology, and economic freedom that makes us wealthy—for the military might that makes us invulnerable to conventional attack. The terrorists grasp this commonality, and they hate America, not only because we support Israel, but because Israel shares and represents our values. As a Palestinian cleric declared last year in a sermon at a Gaza mosque—a sermon broadcast on Arafat-controlled television—"Wherever you are, kill the Jews, [and] the Americans, who are like them." This is the enemy against whom we have urged the Israelis to exercise restraint. It is conceivable that, for many people, the plight of the Israelis was not fully real until we faced the same kind of attack here in America. Now they have no excuse. Read On Your Moral Leader's Sad Emotional Disconnect The United States is about to go to war, and Your Moral Leader is thinking mainly about - himself. I've found myself wrapt up in the crisis yet oddly detached most of the time. I was speaking with a therapist at my Friday night dinner... And she talked about the school kids she counseled. And she noticed that some of them were not affected by the WTC terrorism. And I identified with those kids. I haven't written much on the crisis because I feel like I have little to say that has not been said better by folks like Charles Krauthammer and George Will. My way of noting the tragedy has largely been silence - I have nothing to add. I overwhelmingly agree with the sentiments of most Americans. As for my feelings about the trageydy... At times I feel it intensely, but much of the time it is not on my consciousness. The tawdry details of my life mainly preoccupy me. Of course I find last week's attack morally repugnant and intellectually fascinating, but the horror of it, I only sense at moments. And worst of all, when I am at religious services, and I see how deeply this is all moving people, I'm mainly thinking about how to use this tragedy to pick up vulnerable women. (I don't act on these bad thoughts.) So I asked the therapist how she'd diagnose those who aren't much affected by the tragedy. And she said narcissistic personality disorder. I have the frightening ability to totally miss the pain of others for frighteningly long stretches of time...to be just totally morally tone deaf. I think this is common to journalists - when crises strike, we gear up to cover a big story and stop thinking humanly. I'm curious how you guys are psychologically processing this... I'm afraid that the way I think is not much different than before it happened, my life hasn't much changed... The tragedy is not usually on my consciousness...it's just life as usual. Which is pathetic. How often does this penetrate your consciousness, as weighed against, say, your sexual urges? How many thoughts of terrorism to one thought of sex? Khunrum writes YML: You have alienated members of the advisory committee with your self centered bullshit.. I wonder if you would be able to get in touch with your inner self quicker if we dropped you off in the center of Kabul with just your shirt, shorts, clodhoppers and yarmulke. You would probably be able to identify with the pain of others (no shrink needed) if the Taliban had you strapped down whilst Mohammed sticks a red hot poker up your narcissistic infidel ass. Give it up. It ain't funny anymore. Helpful writes: He will care once gasoline hits $3.50 a gallon in the coming Mideast war. Fred writes: Basically, for about a week I refused to go near television or radio. I just couldn't stand watching or listening to the news. That's how I dealt with it. The tried and true "head in the sand" approach, endorsed by ostriches everywhere. Khunrum writes: I was just the opposite. I was glued to the tube hour by hour. I felt the pain. But a couple of days ago I had enough. Now I have shifted from a grieving mode to war footing...Bomb! Kill! Nuke! Destroy!! Cindi writes: Luke, I am certain that your "narcissistic attitude" is more a front. I think you deal with painful things by pushing them out of your consciousness. You are too sweet and thoughtful a person to actually not care much about the terrorism and not be affected by it. Even though I consider both of us journalists (guess I use the term loosely, LOL), I certainly do feel deeply and often about the tragedy. And I would say I think about the death and destruction about 5 times as much as I think about sex, and since I write about sex, I guess that means I am thinking about the killing of our citizens quite a bit. I wrote a piece for my column. I have attached it. Maybe reading it would make you feel some emotion. I, personally, am pretty good and wearing my heart on my sleeve. Luke says: I certainly care about the terrorism. It was evil and we must fight it. I'm just sad how little it's been on my consciousness. The wonderful thing about Judaism is that it is a religion primarily based on deeds not feelings. What I feel is secondary to what I do. Therefore, if I conduct myself in a moral way, I don't need to be ashamed of my uncaring and selfish thoughts. I've been rereading a fascinating book - Intellectuals by Paul Johnson. About the heartless and frequently unethical behavior of intellectuals over the past 200 years - men and women who set themselves the task of telling humanity how to live. Folks like Bertrand Russell, Jean Jacques Rousseau who loved humanity but treated many persons poorly. I had a guest over at my hovel the other day and she was appalled by the slovenly way I kept it. Khunrum replies: How many times do I have to tell you Luke, do not leave the bodies hanging in your hovel. Take them in the back yard and bury them. You will never get a decent girl to like you unless you improve your housekeeping. Your Moral Leader Gets Mail Michel writes: I hope you enjoyed your vacation pal . You seemed like, so emotionally challenged on those pictured you posted on the internet. The more you seem to disappear in that orthodox jewish quagmire of yours the more we seem to lose the earthly quasi-sane Luke Ford. Luke Ford is disappearing, Levy Fordfinkel is emerging. I have always thought those orthodox jewish guys (we have a lot of them in Antwerp, they practically run the diamond industry in Belgium) were one card short of a full deck but who am I to judge. When you transformed from Luke Ford the pornography journalist into YML you turned from semi-wacko into wacko-jacko. Jesus, Luke what is this leading to. They don't give a f*ck about you. YML says: Buddy, I was putting ten hours a day into www.lukeford.com. I put about 30 minutes a day into www.lukeford.net. I'm working on a book. So this website which makes me no money gets put on the back burner. Will writes: Hi Luke: We gentiles have servants as well - when we can afford them. This is not a "jewish thing," but more a priviledge of the wealthy. I am sad to hear your friends won't pay proper minimum wage for a 'legal' worker because they are too cheap! To hell with them if they whine about their losses in the stock market. For those interested: The least expensive way to get help around the house which is legal is to hire a live-in student who can exchange housework and child care for room and board while attending school. This is both ethical and inexpensive. Illegal immigrants under the control of a single family standing between them and deportation is pathetic. Jew or not, one must consider the actual ramifications of such behaviour. Of course, if the 'servant' in your home is legal and able to participate in the general labour market you might want to consider them a boarder which is a far less condescending term than 'servant.' Perhaps it is the pleasure of economic dominance which makes the Central American illegal so desireable -- along with the title "servant." Your Moral Leader Grovells I told you how I wouldn't try to get back into where I wasn't wanted. Well, my resolution lasted less than 48 hours before I grovelled and got rebuffed again. So I come out of this with a familiar feeling. It's common for me to act out, say and do what I want, in what I think is a courageous manner, get expelled, initially say - I don't want to be a part of this group anyway - then change my mind, grovel to get back in, believing that through much hand wringing rather than genuine moral change I will get back in, and finally, get rebuffed again. I come out of this with renewed respect for those genuine moral leaders who see through me. If I was in their place, I'd refuse me too. I'm thinking of several charismatic orthodox rabbis who reached out to people, and loved people, but then overstepped themselves and loved inappropriately. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear their ecumenical tolerant teachings, but it is those who practice the mundane mind-numbing details of Orthodox Judaism, and take on its traditional beliefs and attitudes, who consistently achieve the highest levels of integrity and ethics. They have my greatest respect. How am I using these Days of Awe? Well, I'm going through the motions. I'm trying to fit in with my religious community. I've got a few more days before Yom Kippur and the closing of the Heavenly gates. If only I used as much ingenuity to police myself as I do to try get myself out of jams I create. Khunrum writes: I believe the rabbis have treated you fairly and with respect. I urge (and I believe the others will urge you) to leave those nice people alone. Do not bother them again. You have turned into a religious stalker. I am sure the good Rabbi sees you as most of us do. As a kook. A charismatic kook but a kook nevertheless. Give it up. Your obsession has become unhealthy. My advice is, lower your sights and begin hanging out with the happy crowd. They seem like fun people. Chaim Amalek writes: Stop all this whining. Who cares if you ever get to pray with Rabbi YYY? Start acting like a man. The hurt-lost-boy shtick is way over for a guy who is past 35 and no more works for you than it works for Michael Jackson. We all have problems of our own that we deal with on our own without splattering them over the web, and honestly don't care all that much about which shul you pray in. (There are 6,000 people rotting in a still burning heap a few miles to the south of me, and I am supposed to give a fuck about THIS? What's wrong with you?) Hang around JimmyD and ask him to teach you to act more like a man worthy of the respect of others and less like a goy camp follower of the jews. Do You Have Servants? Most of my affluent Jewish friends have servants, usually dark-skinned third worlders, some illegal. Many of my Jewish friends have live-in Central American maids who cook and clean and look after the kids. I wondered if this was more of a Jewish thing as I don't see this as often with non-Jews? According to sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset in the 1960s, a majority of Americans outside the South who have full-time servants are Jewish. Khunrum writes: I don't believe living well is necessarily a Jewish thing. I would have a cast of thousands taking care of me if I could afford it. What I have are Mexicans moving the lawn every two weeks. That is a must in Texas where the temperature is in the high 140s most of the year. I had a Filipina housekeeper who would come every other Friday to clean my place. She would stay over in the guest room and the next day I'd drive her to her aunt's stall at the Fiesta Food mart. It was working out well. One night we both had some wine and I boinked her. I thought, wow! this is great. For only sixty bucks I get my house cleaned and my ashes hauled. The next Friday she wanted eighty bucks but I still figured it was quite a bargain. After I upped her salary she only wanted to drink wine, eat pizza and fuck, no cleaning. It wasn't a good deal anymore. Fortunately it wasn't long before she met some guy on the Internet and flew off to Detroit to live with him. They got hitched. Now I have a married Mexican woman whose husband looks like Osama Bin Rivera. He drops her off and gives me threatening looks. She cleans, I pay and there is no talk of sex. It is much better. The moral of the story is to let the hired help do what they are paid to do. Don't drink wine with them. Norman Podhoretz writes for the Wall Street Journal: As for the Palestinians, their contempt for America is hardly exceeded by their loathing of Israel. For example, the mufti--or chief cleric--appointed by the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat has prayed that God will "destroy America," while the editor of a leading Palestinian journal has proclaimed: "History does not remember the United States, but it remembers Iraq, the cradle of civilization. . . . History remembers every piece of Arab land, because it is the bosom of human civilization. On the other hand, the [American] murderers of humanity, the creators of the barbaric culture and the bloodsuckers of nations, are doomed to death and destined to shrink to a microscopic size, like Micronesia." The point is that if Israel had never come into existence, or if it were magically to disappear, the United States would still stand as an embodiment of everything that most these Arabs consider evil. Indeed, the hatred of Israel is in large part a surrogate for anti-Americanism. Israel is seen as the spearhead of the American drive for domination over the Middle East. The Jewish state is a translation, as it were, of America into Hebrew--the "little enemy," the "little Satan"--and to rid the region of it would thus be tantamount to cleansing an area belonging to Islam (Dar-al-Islam) of the blasphemous political, social, and cultural influences emanating from a barbaric and murderous force. But the force, so to speak, is with America, of which Israel is merely an instrument. Does The Wickedness Of Man Know No Limit? On the Friday night following last Tuesday's horror, I attended synagogue services with about 2000 other Los Angeles singles, hoping to find comfort and meaning through the service of God. Yet between my prayers I could not help but notice men trying to take advantage of teary vulnerable women in this most sacred space. Now we've concluded Rosh Hashanah, a 48-hour period to crown God king in our lives. And while the gates of heavenly judgement are still open and our fate for the coming year about to be decided, I could not help notice again, between my fervent prayers, one particular young man about my age, using the holy space of synagogue to chat up women he didn't know and to secure their phone numbers and email addresses. Most of the women he spoke with were insecure and less religious than he, on unfamiliar ground, trying to find their way through the complicated Rosh Hashanah program. It is so sad to find in the most Orthodox synagogues, wicked men preying on the vulnerabilities of innocent unsuspecting women who only seek to connect to their people, tradition and God. These wicked men wear kipot and tzitzit and present the most pious front, but underneath they are full of wicked pornographic lusts. God will not be mocked. Khunrum writes: I suggest we all work on our "Top Five Reasons Rabbi XXX Never Wants To Deal With Levi Ever Again." Let me start it off. Number five: Levi out of touch with reality, thinks Trade Center is a "swingers" website. Helpful writes: Number four: His crippling "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" strikes most often when it is time to pick up the check at Jerry's Deli. Khunrum writes: Number three....Corny, inappropriate pick up lines. Refers to single available women in shul as "Young Kippurs." Number three amended to include corny, inappropriate pick up line: "Your unairconditioned, no hot water, bed-less garage apartment hovel or mine?" Number two...Levi's "clodhopper" footgear leave ugly black scuff marks on highly polished hardwood shul floor. Your Moral Leader says: Here's what Rosh Hashanah - Yom Kippur mean to me. * As I get older, the more I appreciate these days of moral introspection and their call for self improvement. * The chance to meet women. * Spending quality sacred time with people I care about. * Increasing my bonds to my community while eating delicious home-cooked meals. * Concentrating on what is most important in life. * Catching up on reading (use of electronic devices is prohibited on Jewish holy days). * Forced stoppage of my routine. This gives me a chance to break out of bad habits such as aimless TV watching and internet surfing. I find that Orthodox Judaism increases my appreciation of women in several ways. * It makes them less available, thereby increasing their value and allure. Orthodox Judaism separates males and females at prayer and other times. * Men and women have separate roles, which seems to increase women's femininity and men's masculinity. A woman becomes more attractive to me when she makes me feel more masculine and I make her feel more feminine. * Orthodox women dress and behave more modestly, which I find alluring. Orthodox Judaism makes me more innocent and wide-eyed in general to the pleasures of life. Without it, I become like a justice on the Supreme Court. Oh, this woman's thighs are too big, her chest is too small, her face is elongated. Within Orthodox Judaism, I am much more grateful for a woman's presence, which increases her value. Another thing, I think that aside from their mates, men prefer to hang out with men, which you can do more easily in Orthodox Judaism. I should write a book on my life, describing the various periods wherein I pursued the most intense pleasures. Until about age 30, they were sexual. Then the race began for power and influence. Another ten years, I will probably be most obsessed with money. Except for the dull emptiness gnawing within me for authentic meaning which begins to overshadow these natural drives. Chaim writes: This reminds me of all the tough WWII combat veterans I grew up with. (Most of them have since passed on.) These were fucking tough men, men who NEVER tried being "real" or "sharing their feelings" but who were more than willing to share their opinions. This feminized society of ours puts too much emphasis on men being "real" and "vulnerable". At this time it is toughness and strength that is called for, not men who want to share their feelings. Terrorists Get Lap Dances Fred writes: I had a thought about the news report that the terrorists went to a strip joint for some lap dances before the hijacking. It sorta reminded me of learning about Jimmy Swaggart's prostitution arrest. At the time, it occurred to me that a big part of Swaggart's ranting and raving pertained to his own battles with his own personal demons, and his inability to deal with sexuality in a reasonable way. I bet a big part of the Islamic extremist agenda is a complete inability to cope with life amidst the sexual and other restrictions of their society, and they lash out against what they perceive as a big source of temptation (as part of their battle against their own demons). Khunrum writes: An astute observation my dear counselor. In my hippie days (early to mid seventies) My then wife (attractive, blond hair, big tits), traveled through several Moslem countries. Those jokers lock up their own women and then come running after ours. They'd devise sneaky ways to separate us at markets and train stations so they could attempt to paw my wifey when I wasn't watching. A mere touch of her arm and they'd be drooling. It was obvious sexual repression is a large part of their culture. Same with the Hindus in India. An Ode To Joy - Your Moral Leader Peers Into The Face Of Jewish Motherhood On Tishu B'Av, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar when we commemorate the many tragedies of Jewish history including the destructions of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem, I was at shul. I saw a Jewish mother who'd hosted me at her home to celebrate a Jewish holiday with a delicious family meal. And I saw deep pain and disappointment in her face. I figured that it was probably because she'd learned of LukeFord.com (though it may well have been the day of mourning). I couldn't get her pain out of my mind, and the next day, I decided to sell my site and tread a new path. Today, in the final few hours until Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish new year and a time of deep introspection, this Jewish mother invited me to a holiday meal. And another member of the community phoned to make sure I was set up with homes to celebrate the holiday. Oh joy! I am once again a member in good standing with my community. Khunrum writes: Not so fast Luke. I am willing to bet "your community" still view you as the oddball you are. My take is this Jewish bubby has a gargoyle looking spinster daughter she is desperately looking to marry off. Yasser and Osama wouldn't be out of the question at this point. They however, are busy with the blood drive or hiding out in the caves. That leaves you. I can picture her bragging to her friends "My handsome son-in-law, the ex pornographer." Adult Entertainment Against Terrorism From AVN.com: CHATSWORTH, Calif. - The Protecting Adult Welfare foundation started a new charitable venture on Friday, forming Adult Entertainment Against Terrorism to help the disaster relief and pending war effort. Bill Margold told AVN.com that Private North America's Mara Epstein has been named chairwoman for the group, which began its campaign Saturday afternoon at Furball 2001, the adult industry's celebrity softball game in Long Beach. Adult Entertainment Against Terrorism (AEAT) drafted the following operating motto: "We blow people, we don't blow 'em up." Falwell, Robertson On 700 Club "God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," Falwell told Robertson on the 700 Club Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. "Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. Falwell went on to blame the ACLU and federal courts for "throwing God out of the public square." He continued: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'" This came on the heels of a vicious column by conservative hatchet-gal Ann Coulter, who wrote earlier this week: "We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Luke says: I believe the timing of Falwell and Robertson's comments was inappropriate. This is a time for uniting the country. I don't disagree with Falwell's theology. I don't know if I agree either. But certainly the doctrine of collective responsibility, that if a community sins deeply, it separates itself from God, the source of life, and then bad things happen, goes back to the Torah, the most sacred document in Judaism. Luke Ford: The Jewish Charles Kuralt Helpful writes: Remember Charles Kuralt? He was that old geezer who drove about in a winnebago reporting on reptile farms and doll museums every Sunday on CBS? Why can't Luke co-opt the idea and commandeer the "serial killer" van across America reporting on all things Jewish and mundane? Visit motzah factories, Debbie Friedman concerts, etc... He even could have periodic episodes when he makes extraordinarily long side trips to minister to the lonely hearts he meets on the internet. Khunrum writes: If I remember correctly Charlie was the guy who had two separate familles. It was discovered after he died. I like the idea with reservations. Let's face it, how many Jews do you think there are in Nebraska, four? Montana, maybe three? How many Jewish cowboys in North Dakota, Maybe five?...I think driving the Richard Ramirez van around the country is a good idea. However reporting on all things porn would be a better bet. You are still going to get the Jewish contingent anyway. Any self respecting Jewish male will read a porn article over a "motzah factory" piece anytime. Jewish guys won't go to a Debbie Friedman concert unless the yenta old lady drags them there. Luke is eventually going to get back into the "bizness." Probably sooner than later. Already Jimmy D is creeping into the column. This is good. Let's get the old Levi back. The new one is somewhat of a self indulgent bore. Come on Luke, give it up. BTW It is a fact, more and more Jewish guys are marrying not only shiksas but Asian shiksas. It is a fact. Crunch the numbers. Jewish guys are catching 'Yellow Fever" Who wants to comment on that? Chaim? Young Weissblott? Fred? Come on boys, speak out. Where Do You Turn For Comfort? I've found my friends turning to each other, to God, to their religion and to their neighbors for comfort in this time of national crisis. People do seem nicer and more unified. I see flags and candles everywhere. Wilshire Blvd on Friday night was filled with people holding candles. In my estimation, more Los Angeles Jews turned to Temple Sinai Rabbi David Wolpe for comfort than any other religious figure. He attracted about 2000 singles to his temple Friday night for the monthly program Friday Night Live. A Conversation With James DiGiorgio I spoke to my buddy James DiGiorgio Thursday. Jim: "You didn't drive 1500 miles to find release. Because you've got friends who could provide you with all the release you need. Seriously." YML: "True." Jim: "Are you still a zealous Jew?" YML: "Yes." Jim: "Will they let you back in to the Jew church?" YML: "No." Jim: "I told you - once you're shunned, you're shunned. There's no forgiveness. You know the Amish - they even dress like those kind of Jews. They're the same way. Once they shun you, it's over. There's no un-shunning. So what are you doing with yourself, aside from spending your money?" YML: "Writing a memoir." Jim: "So you stopped in Jew churches on your trip. I figure that if those sand niggers can get into one of our flight schools, I can get into any Jew church." YML: "Sand niggers?" Jim: "Those Iraqis or whatever they are. So what do you think about the war? We're going to war. We're going to declare war on Iraq, maybe Afghanistan as well. The Afghanis, the Taliban, who are supposed to be hardliners, they're sniveling. "You could be writing up a storm right now Luke, getting all the pornographers take on the World Trade Center thing." YML: "What's been going on in the industry the past month?" Jim: "Nobody knows. Without you, there's no grapevine. There's no way of knowing what anybody's doing. You were the clearinghouse of information. "You should call your memoir 'Autobiography of a Flea.' Because you were a flea on the back of a mongrel dog named porno. "This war will be good for porno. They won't have time to pay any attention to porno. They'll have their hands full for years going after terrorists everywhere. We could be fighting in the Sudan, Ethiopia. "Once the United States government has their eye set on a war, and how much money is to be made out of it, there's no dragging it back. "This is all about arrogance. This country is so arrogant it didn't think anybody would have the balls to do this on our soil. And the people who did it, don't think we have the balls to do anything about it. How many things have they done with no meaningful repercussions? They blew up a battleship and embassies and nobody did anything. "Yasser Arafat started snivelling. He knows this set back independence for the West Bank 30 years. It ain't never happening now. And he knows it." YML: "Interesting how Palestinian stops when he waves his hands." Jim: "People don't understand Americans. It's obvious now that the Pennyslvanian air crash happened when they tried to retake the plane. We are the most violent society on the planet. We have the highest murder rates. Yet we're perceived as weaklings. That's a big mistake on their part. Americans may seem all fat and weak, but deep inside, Americans are violent. That's why we don't lose wars. "Could this be Armagheddon? "Right now the borders are shut. Leave them shut. If you want to get on an airplance from now on, you should go through a security check. You should need a card like a Driver's License. Like you need a background check to own a gun." George Will, one of my favorite thinkers, writes for the Washington Post: Surely Washington will see less of Yasser Arafat, the most frequent foreign visitor to Clinton's White House. Surely we will hear less talk about Israel's attempts to pre-empt terrorism being "inflammatory" and "provocative." Such signs of U.S. irresolution and squeamishness tempt terrorists to believe they can bend U.S. policy. The Middle East is one coup (in Egypt or Jordan) away from a convulsion radically inimical to Israel. However, as Netanyahu said Wednesday by telephone from Jerusalem, Islamic radicalism regards Israel as Nazi Germany regarded Belgium -- as a small steppingstone toward a much larger conquest. In 1967, on the eve of the Six-Day War, Egypt's President Nasser proclaimed: "We are confronting Israel and the West as well." Netanyahu says: "The soldiers of militant Islam and Pan-Arabism do not hate the West because of Israel; they hate Israel because of the West." They hate "Zionism as an expression and representation of Western civilization." And they hate America because it is the purest expression of modernity -- individualism, pluralism, freedom, secularism. A grim illustration of the law of unintended consequences: Vast U.S. support helped create a large cadre of Islamic fighters to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The cadre is now worldwide. And although Americans are denouncing the terrorists' "cowardice," what is most telling and frightening is their lunatic fearlessness. As an Islamic militant, Abdullah Azzam, declared to an American crowd in 1988: "After Afghanistan, nothing is impossible for us anymore. There are no superpowers. ... What matters is the willpower that springs from our religious belief." Islamic groups in Italy and Denmark were linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Among the papers of El Sayyid Nosair, charged with but not convicted of killing Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990, was this: "We have to thoroughly demoralize the enemies of God ... by means of destroying and blowing up the towers that constitute the pillars of their civilization, such as ... the high buildings of which they are so proud." Luke's Neighborhood Unites My neighbors hosted a get together Saturday afternoon for the neighborhood (which is about 50% Jewish, largely Orthodox). Jews and Gentiles gathered together, united by our common tragedy. Of course the Torah-observant juden could not eat the food prepared by the goyim, but we could drink their colas. Jewish Law forbids eating food prepared by non-Jews (unless a Jew plays some role in the preparation). Also, non-kosher wines are forbidden (another fence by Jewish Law to keep Jews from getting too chummy with Gentiles). Amalek and Your Moral Leader conversed Sunday morning. We were appalled that many men we knew were using the horrible events of the past week to try to seduce vulnerable women. Amalek18: Your studied vulnerable boy shtick is fast going out of fashion Khunrum writes: Luke, Chaim makes an interesting observation. Your "little boy lost" (I want to be held) routine is not only wearing laughably thin but it is out of date. Chicks want tall guys with muscles. Asian women in particular always seek a guy over six feet. I ask them why they look for the big guys when someone 5' 6"-5' 8" would still be much taller than they. The response is the same, "To feel safe". I also noticed from your Big Sur Head Shots (hey, why don't you give the ocean a break and get out of the way)? That young Luke is morphing into older Luke. Forty is staring you in the eye buddy. If I were you, I would shift gears. Barbells and Anabolics from now on. And stop whining. Helpful writes: Talk about a "Bad Hair Week"! Keep the yarmulke on if you cannot afford a comb. Khunrum writes: That leads to another question. How does the yarmulke stay on in the dome when there is a brisk "Norther" blowing? Do you think Levi has a Velcro patch somewhere on his head? Helpful writes: Perhaps small magnets sewn into the yarmulke lining that would cling to the steel plate in our Moral Leader's head. Luke replies: Hey, I went five days without a shower to save on hotel expenses. Then I went into shul on shabbos, and a nice woman allowed me into her bathroom. Will writes: I saw people cranking about your hair in the photos, and as a former van traveler I can only say this: Real travel is about discomfort and bad aroma. If one washes and grooms every day then one is unable to smell where he has been! Pampered pansies is all they are Luke. If the hotels were closed, they would die. Keep stinkin' brother ....and get a tripod... XXX writes: Do you think Islam will win? Christians seem so gutless, and not just here, but in France, too. They are turning over their entire nation to Africans and Arabs. What does that french chick Emmanuelle Richard thinks about all this? Ask her if there are yet enough Muslims in France. Will Senger from Halifax, Canada writes: Hi Luke: As a Canadian, I am unable to tell you why Paul Bernardo committed his crimes, nor can I offer any insight into his state of being. I make this point because I am confident there are innocent people all around the globe who happen to be Muslim or happen to be Arab, just like I happen to be Canadian. Still, it looks like we are going to go blow a big hole in Afghanistan because the perpetrators of this heinous act against all humanity may be hiding in the desert there. It is hard to understand how a person intelligent enough to fly a plane could follow an order to commit such a crime for any reason, but it was also impossible to understand why Tim McVeigh committed his crime in Oklahoma. In McVeigh's case he was tried, convicted and later executed. I realize this was not enough to satisfy the hunger for revenge we all felt after the Oklahoma bombing but the US military did not turn McVeigh's home state into a vacant sandbox in hopes of achieving satisfaction. Of course McVeigh and Osama bin Laden are worlds apart: Osama is willingly harbored by an Islamic theocracy wheras the people of McVeigh's home state did not volunteer to keep him and his personal doctrine safe. But, the fact still remains that the innocent people in Afghanistan who do not hold enough power to decide their own future are probably the ones who are going to die if America and its allies (this will include myself and my fellow Canadians) decide to plant phosphor in the desert. The sad fact remains that nothing is going to make us feel any better about this situation. We have lost important citizens who gave of themselves every day to provide for families who are now left with grief and anger. I truly hope this suggested coalition to ferret out and destroy terrorists around the globe comes to fruition and meets with success, but I am deeply troubled to think powerless people in war-torn Afghan refugee camps are going to become the 'collateral damage' in this effort to quench a thirst for justice. I am all for dropping bombs, but I want to make sure they are falling on their intended targets -- terrorists. To My Fellow Jews Chaim Amalek writes: A few observations: Re your pics - clearly you photographed yourself by holding your camera at arm's length. This, on many levels, advertises things that a man should not advertise about himself. (Like, "I am alone" and "I must nevertheless be centered in every frame".) Now, on to much more disturbing stuff. The more I think about things the more worried I get. I am hearing morons in media compare this situation to that surrounding the OKC bombing, or even Columbine. Soon we will hear talk of "closure" and (sorry, Jamye) "healing". The people behind this attack were not fools like McVeigh, but intelligent men with a very clear agenda. (So intelligent that they may have had the foresight to short-trade certain stocks that they KNEW would crash as a consequence of their actions. The European authorities are investigating the matter.) They have no interest in our closure or healing. They have only begun their work. Read the latest analysis from YGGDRASIL. Yggdrasil is the nom de plume of a white racialist writer of considerably greater political sophistication than the hydrophobic nazi wannabe people at the National Alliance. Every Jew of sufficient political sophistication should familiarize himself (that includes you, Jamye!, and you too, Marc) with the writings on his web site at www/ddc.net/ygg/ to understand what certain others are thinking. These are not the "dumb white trash" we so often comfort ourselves into thinking our enemies are. Read them carefully, and you can see that some of those who seek to destroy us are more than sufficiently intelligent to do the job if given the chance. Two additional points here. First, I think his discussion of the geopolitical consequences surrounding our impending war may be quite sound. Afganistan itself is an impossible target to take out with conventional (non-nuclear) military forces - the Soviets spent their empire trying to do so and failed. And any massive war against an Arab state that may have been behind the attack, such as Iraq, will be met this time with tremendous resistance from the Arab street. To the extent that there is any democracy in that part of the world, the people may respond by ridding themselves of pro-western governments such as those in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. Once this happens, they will be able to turn off the oil spigot once again, plunge our fat and lazy world into a depression, and inflict deep pain on us without firing a further shot. Second, at this point the people of the west, on whom the Jewish State depend for so much, likely will begin to look beyond the messages emanating from Hollywood and ask themsleves the following question regarding aid to Israel: Is it worth it? Is it worth $3,000,000,000 in aid each year? (More, if you include what we give Egypt to mollify them.) Is it worth the loss of the World Trade Center? Is it worth God knows what else is coming within the United States? (Pierce, who has been prescient about these matters to the point where I am certain he is being read by active forces, suggests biowarfare is next.) Will they think it worth a new Great Depression? The next step is not clear. It is possible that this would end in nuclear or biological war on Israel, which she would not survive. Or, if these people are intelligent, they would use the very universalist arguments that jews have been advancing to "diversify" the west against Israel herself. I can already hear voices to urge that Israel be made into a multicultural wonderland, a democratic state in which Palestinian Arab and Jew have the sort of equality of rights that the American Liberal has long insisted on here between euro-American, African American, and now Mestizo American. And thus will the Israel problem be solved - with the political elimination of the Jewish state of Israel through the awesome fercundity of the Palestinian woman. Fred writes: Chaim, exactly what is your point. Do you think that America should abandon Israel in the interest of trying to keep the Islamic wolves away from our door, and keeping the oil spigot on? Chaim replies: I honestly do not know if Israel can survive in the long term. Three hydrogen bombs or a small plane dispersing anthrax, and it is finished. Perhaps Israel was the correct solution to 19th - early 20th antisemitism that physically imperiled the jews, but at this point is there a more dangerous place for so many jews to be concentrated? Long term, if Yggdrasil is correct and radical islam comes to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, I think the west (even the suicidal French) will have to seal itself off from Islam. No more migration from those lands; rapid expulsion of those here on "student" visas, etc. And not just us, but ALL of the west. Next, we will have to present those here from Islamic lands with some very painful choices, both for them and for us. Assimilation, repatriation, or expulsion. Hopefully, repatriation will not be too difficult, but we otherwise cannot coexist with a large fertile population of people who want us dead. Let the Arab Nation, which I respect (and far more than do most of the jews I meet), develop however they wish, let them sell us oil as it is in their interest to do, but otherwise we must bring our dealings with them to an irreducible minimum. Diversity has its limits. Jamye Waxman writes: THIS is indeed a situation that cannot and should not lead itself to comparison...When I speak with words like "healing" and "closure" I do not intend to define them in terms of "moving on" only in terms of understandin - Chaim, you are indeed correct in stating that these highly intelligent persons knew exactly what they were doing and so meticulously and methodically planned out a mass destruction of the core of the United States military and financial centers...I believe that in doing so they knew how much harder it would be for the U.S. to retaliate (at full capacity) because we have lost more in terms of the "intelligence" of this country than any of us can even imagine right now.. Speaking from the perspective I have been granted...that of witness in a city that has been wounded (badly wounded I might add - although yes, this is obvious) I am having a hard time healing and moving on...I seek closure to move forward, that is the only closure I seek...something to tell me that although it will not ever be the same I need to prepare for what is yet to come - Can we and how do we prepare for something that we don't fully understand? Since last Tuesday I have walked past the posters of the faces of the missing (that is what the optimistic are still calling them) People who look like you and me (although Chaim, I do not know what you look like) my friends, neighbors and family and I think - did I know you, what were you thinking, what did you die for? It could have been me or anyone I know here in this amazing city, my home!...How do we make sense of all this? Once I can answer that question, and I do not think it will be an easy answer to find, then perhaps I can seek some of that "closure" I have so frequently spoken of... Luke Sneaks Into Heaven Goddess writes: hey, if that smile on your face is any indication, you must have had a *great* vacation. btw, don't think us non-jews don't realize what you're about. now that the end of the world is coming, you're trying to sneak into heaven as one of the chosen few... Onward Christian Soldiers Inside.com names Ann Coulter's column the most hateful of this week. Joseph Gomes writes: "In a country full of people eager for vengeance and with an ample supply of commentators, Ann Coulter can safely take the prize for the most hateful reaction to appear in print. Her column, which appeared on the right-wing National Review Online, ostensibly is a tribute to her friend Barbara Olson -- another frequent on-air commentator and writer who died in one of the hijacked airplanes on Tuesday -- but quickly devolves into something more akin to a call for a Crusade (or is that jihad?). “We know who the homicidal maniacs are,” she wrote referring to the Muslim states suspected of harboring those responsible for the attacks. “They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”" I found these responses here: From DAVID HANNERS: Jeezamae. Anyone looking for proof that there's reincarnation need only read Ann Coulter's column. Yes, she lost a friend and she's angry -- we're all angry, Annie -- but "convert them to Christianity"?? Yep. It would seem Coulter lived a previous life, during The Crusades. Actually, now that I think of it, I can kind of picture her as Pope Urban II himself, rallying the the true believers at Clermont. Her column is also Exhibit A to anyone wondering why Mark Shields felt compelled last July to make the distinction that while Paul Gigot was a conservative columnist, he wasn't "a hater." Even taking Coulter's anger into consideration, if her column isn't hateful, I don't know what is. I think some folks who gave Shields crap over the remark owe him an apology. He knew what he was talking about. From REX BOWMAN: I wasn't so much shocked by Ann Coulter's call to bomb with near indiscrimination as I was impressed with her ability to look beyond the murder and mayhem, suffering and sorrow of her fellow Americans, and her decision to decline to offer words of encouragement and instead devote so many nasty comments to Bill and Hillary Clinton. That kind of single-minded obsession reminds me of Ossama bin Laden. From JEFF BORDEN: No one should be surprised by the vitriol of Ann Coulter. In a relatively short time, she has emerged as one of the shrillest yet shallowest voices of the right. NRO should be ashamed of itself. There is already enough heat following the horrors of Tuesday. Ms. Coulter is incapable of offering any light. From DAVID HILL Ann Coulter, the far-right commentator best known for her anti-Bill and Hillary rants, had a curious column today posted on [the JWR] web site. I guess her column is syndicated through the Jewish World Review. Tonight, I went to find the column, and it had been replaced with *last* week's column. Do you suppose the Jewish World Review got some complaints about her "convert them to Christianity" line, and then pulled the entire column? JRob writes Luke: I watched a guy being interviewed last night. He asked the question, "If the killing begins in Afghanistan, and the innocent are harmed, how many deaths will be enough?" He asked this as an open ended question meant to make us all stop and think. I, however, had an immediate answer. How many will be enough? I don't know. Let's find out. Give me a body count once a week, and I'll let them know when I'm satisfied. Luke's reaction to Ann Coulter's column: I disagree with it but I don't think I am appalled by it. I am not for the indiscriminate bombing of innocents. I am for the targetted killing of terrorists and those who support them. I am not for forcible conversion to Christianity, as I am not for prohibition, but I am not appalled or horrified by either. The world may indeed be a better place if there was no alcohol in the US and fewer radical Muslims in the world. Khunrum writes: I personally was very moved by the memorial service today. Dubya in particular was impressive. He didn't stumble over a word and his message was thoughtful and heartfelt. I suggest The Advisory Counsel (including putative frostback Mark W.) support Dubya and our government (Weissblott can support his government:) Luke, I would like to see you attend a memorial service and offer comfort to anyone who needs it in your area. Give blood, do whatever you can do to ease the pain and suffering of those in need. Wear your colors, (your yarmulke) and put yourself second for a few days. Kindness to others should be your primary mission right now... Fred writes: At the end of WWII, Douglas MacArthur considered trying to convert the Japanese to Christianity, but he decided not to. It turned out to be unnecessary. But I do think that there must be a change in the Arab and some other Islamic cultures, just like there had to be a complete elimination of Japanese militarism. I assume, sir, that this post was primarily intended to provoke controversy (as opposed to reflecting your actual point of view) and that you don't really agree with this, eh? I would have no problem with invading their countries or killing their leaders, most of whom are corrupt, all of whom are antidemocratic. Regarding trying to convert them to Christianity, I point out that there are about 1,000,000,000 Moslems in this world, including at least one Moslem nuclear power. The fairly benign non-Arab Moslem countries (e.g. Malaysia or Bangladesh) would probably consider forced conversion to Christianity to be going a bit too far and uncalled for. I dare say that the undertaking advocated by this auther would wind up having to be somewhat extreme. Perhaps putting their entire populations on valium would be a reasonable start. Luke's Vacation Photos NetMedia writes: Someone do Luke a favor and send him a $30.00 tripod so that when he takes his pics alone he can at least set the timer and run in front of the camera and pose. Luke in Big Sur 8/30/01 Luke at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey 8/30 Luke in Monterey 8/30 Luke at Monterey Convention Center Image:00032015 |
