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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Jean Raspail: The Consul of Lost Causes
- Michel Houellebecq: A Life
- Anthony Lane: A Life
- Author Philip Gourevitch
- Joseph Telushkin: The Accountant’s Son Who Taught America Judaism
- Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph (2012)
- WP: As Christians are attacked in Israel, government shows little concern
- Life as a Haredi Jew
- Moral Philosopher Derek Parfit
- The Life of George Gilder
- Richard Posner’s Legal Pragmatism
- The MLA: A History
- The Great Delusions in History Theory
- Allan Bloom: The Teacher Who Wanted Your Soul
- The Great Delusions in Literary Theory
- William K. Wimsatt Jr.: The Judge of Evidence
- Larissa MacFarquhar: The Woman Who Slows Judgment Down
- Stanley Fish: A Biography
- Hortense Spillers: The Grammar Lesson
- Paul Gilroy: A Biography
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Author Archives: Luke Ford
Decoding Better Call Saul
Alliance Theory says morality is coalition management. We signal virtue to attract allies, shame defectors, and justify power plays. Better Call Saul is about a man who cannot find a stable coalition, so he keeps reinventing one. I. Jimmy McGill … Continue reading
Posted in TV
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Decoding Breaking Bad
David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory treats morality as coalition management. People moralize to recruit allies, justify dominance, and punish defectors. Breaking Bad is a near-perfect case study. I. Walter White’s original coalition Walter starts with a tiny, fragile alliance. His family. … Continue reading
Posted in TV
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Decoding Game of Thrones
David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory says morality is mostly coalition management. We signal virtue to attract allies, punish defectors, and justify power grabs. Truth is secondary. Coordination is primary. Game of Thrones is basically a laboratory for this. I. Houses as … Continue reading
Posted in HBO
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The Intellectual In Orthodox Judaism
The Orthodox intellectual does not hate the hand that feeds him. This distinguishes him from nearly every secular thinker in America, and the difference is not temperament. It is structural. In America, the intellectual is expected to be adversarial. His … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
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The Lonely Man of Intellect in Orthodox Judaism
In The Lonely Man of Faith Abraham Joshua Heschel described two archetypes of the religious person: one who engages the world and one who withdraws into interior communion with God. Heschel’s lonely man of faith is not a social creature … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
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Safe Spaces
My anecdotal impression is that most guys with the opportunity to hook up with an attractive woman will do so, no matter how devastating the consequences. Gemini says: The installation of glass walls in synagogue offices reflects a broader shift … Continue reading
Dennis Prager: Right and Wrong Are Not a Matter of Personal Opinion
The Free Press states: If you were to name the defining figures of the 21st-century conservative movement, Dennis Prager would surely rank near the top of the list. A longtime radio host and founder of digital educational platform PragerU, he … Continue reading
Posted in Alliance Theory, Dennis Prager, Japan
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Modern Orthodoxy’s Affordability Crisis
The affordability crisis in Los Angeles is dismantling the traditional Modern Orthodox middle-class lifestyle with the methodical efficiency of a structural force rather than a cultural choice. In Pico-Robertson and Hancock Park, home prices have escalated so rapidly that price-to-income … Continue reading
Posted in Chabad, Los Angeles, Modern Orthodox
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Ben Shapiro: ‘Modern Orthodoxy’s Moral Failure’
Ben Shapiro writes in 2022: What, then, should the Modern Orthodox do? First, we ought to stop relying on institutions as reliable moral guideposts, absent verification of their values. If those institutions are willing to sell out the long-term values … Continue reading
Posted in Ben Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, Yeshiva University
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White Hat/Black Hat
During Season 2, Episode 8 (“White Hat/Black Hat”) of Silicon Valley, Erlich Bachman confronts Jian-Yang about smoking inside the house (the incubator). Erlich Bachman: “Jian-Yang, what’re you doing? This is Palo Alto. People are lunatics about smoking here. We don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Freedom
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