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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:
- Jim Goad (1961-2026)
- Moira Greyland
- Robert Oscar Lopez: The Inconvenient Witness
- Two Ledgers: Decoding the Gurus and the Price of Talk
- The Pervert’s Progress: Costin Vlad Alamariu and the Making of Bronze Age Pervert
- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
- Strange Bedfellows in the Academy: Alliance Theory and the Straussian Schism
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
- Tournier on Cinema Paradiso and Desmond Ford
- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- A Place For You
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)
Category Archives: Articles
Learning to Live Forever: Rabbi Jonah Steinmetz and the Hero System of the Page
A beis medrash at night does not sound like a library. It roars. Two men lean over one folio and argue about a cow that gored another cow two thousand years ago. A third bangs the table to make a … Continue reading
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Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History (2015)
Marc Shapiro’s book documents the pattern: rabbinic authorities censoring, altering, or rewriting earlier sources to bring them into line with current Orthodox norms. Maimonides loses his Aristotle. The Hatam Sofer loses his contact with maskilim. Photos lose their women. Biographies … Continue reading
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Power at the Gates Foundation
Program officers, strategy leads, and senior executives at the Gates Foundation do not compete for authority by saying they want power. They compete by invoking languages of Data-Driven Impact, Evidence-Based Philanthropy, Every Life Has Equal Value, Measurable Lives Saved, and … Continue reading
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Ten Convenient Beliefs For Houthis Leaders Now
Stephen Turner’s convenient beliefs are keeping the mountain redoubts in Saada, the Red Sea missile batteries, and the Sana’a political council humming right now. With the U.S.-Israeli campaign pounding Iran for a second month, Khamenei martyred, IRGC supply ships sunk … Continue reading
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From The Perspective Of The Buffered Identity, There’s Nothing Funny About A Gay Ayatollah
Charles Taylor’s concept of the buffered self describes the modern individual as someone who experiences a strong boundary between inner life and the external world. The self is autonomous and insulated. Meanings come from inside rather than from outside forces … Continue reading
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Decoding CalTech
Applied to the California Institute of Technology, David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory reframes scientific rigor as an unusually effective anti-bullshit alliance technology. Caltech does not eliminate tribal cognition. It harnesses it by forcing status competition to run through narrow, costly, and … Continue reading
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The Lives of Others II: American Freedom
The setting is Los Angeles, January 2026. The smog is thick, and the city feels heavy with the weight of unstated rules. In this sequel to the spirit of the 2006 film, the surveillance is not conducted by men in … Continue reading
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The Lost Generation In An Age Of Experts
I want to map Stephen Turner’s 2013 book, The Politics of Expertise on to the topics discussed in Jacob Savage’s new essay, The Lost Generation. Turner argues that expertise is not just “truth” but a political authorized currency. The “Lost … Continue reading
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Understanding The Russell Brand Allegations (9-26-23)
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When you become a guru… (1-12-22)
* How do you keep offering insights? You’ll feel tempted to get out of your lane and to leave the areas where you have genuine expertise. You’ll feel compelled to relay conspiracy theories. How else do you maintain your conviction … Continue reading
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