David Wolpe – America’s Top Congregational Rabbi

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Luke Ford

From the Jewish Chronicle of London, this interview with the Sinai Temple rav:

And as for the question of gay marriages, he argues that “in America in 10 years, maybe less, maybe more, it won’t be an issue. The sociological trend is overwhelming. Under [the age of ] 30, 70 per cent favour gay marriage; under 18, it is probably 90 per cent. It is almost irrelevant what your view is, you are standing against the ocean in America and I suspect that will be true of Europe, too.”
Theologically, there are different Conservative teshuvot on the subject. “You can argue, especially if you use biblical criticism, that what the Bible was proscribing was not necessarily gay relationships.”
Openly gay and lesbian students are already admitted to the American Conservative rabbinic institutions, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the American Jewish University. “Gay marriage is a matter of time,” he said, “whether one likes it or not.”
He visited the UK earlier this summer to deliver the annual memorial lecture for Rabbi Louis Jacobs. But he also dropped in to Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation and saw Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks.
He is an admirer of the Chief Rabbi’s writings, describing him in a recent review as the “most gifted expositor of Judaism today” and a “masterful interpreter” of Torah, who is best placed to give contemporary Judaism what it currently lacks: a comprehensive philosophy. But he also has his criticisms, saying that Lord Sacks’s ignoring of comparative religion, archaeology, history and textual criticism of the Bible has left a “gaping hole” in his work.

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The Justice Department’s War On Banks

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Luke Ford

Remember, Jews have long played a disproportionate role in banking. When government instructs bankers on how they may invest their funds and forces them to extend loans to politically protected minorities with bad credit and a low likelihood of paying back such loans, that is bad for America and bad for the Jews.

Mark Kissel reports:

Talk about not learning from past mistakes: A government department is again intimidating banks into lending to minority borrowers at below-market rates, all in the name of combating “discrimination.” Welcome to the next housing mess.

The 1990s may have brought us supercharged politicized lending, but Eric Holder’s Department of Justice is taking the game to an entirely new level, and then some. The weapon is a “fair lending” unit created in early 2010, led by special counsel Eric Halperin and overseen by Civil Rights Division head Thomas Perez.

A sampling of Mr. Perez’s thinking, from April 2010 congressional testimony: “The foreclosure crisis has touched virtually every community in this country, but it disproportionately touches communities of color, in particular African-Americans and Latinos.” And: “[C]ross burnings are the most overt form of discrimination and bigotry. Lending discrimination is some of the most subtle. It’s what I call discrimination with a smile.”

Even for the Obama administration’s antidiscrimination cops, this is a shocker: A political appointee who’s supposed to neutrally enforce the law loosely equates bankers with Klu Klux Klan thugs. But let’s move from what may be Mr. Perez’s personal bias, and focus on the broader brush strokes of the Justice Department—which seem designed to paint bankers into a corner.

Read On

I cover the housing and mortgage industries:

August 31, 2011

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I Loathe Owners Who Don’t Control Their Dogs

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Luke Ford

As I walk around Pico-Robertson, I often encounter owners letting their dogs run free off a leash, even though this is against the law.

I dig how they will tell you, “Oh, he’s friendly.”

The dog is often getting in my way or charging at me or tripping me up and the owner takes no responsibility.

On other streets, the dogs inside a yard come rushing up to the fence and barking and howling every time somebody walks by. I’ve come to avoid those streets. Even though the dogs have yet to jump the fence and bite someone, who wants to be screeched at by some frantic animals when you’re out for a nice quiet walk?

Devi writes: As I was fumbling for my key, I freaked out as I noticed a vicious-looking dog lunging away from his black owner, who was struggling to hold on. As he walked away, I overheard him say to his friends, “You don’t think that was racist?” I guess if I told him he’s an idiot, he’d say that was racist-I mean there can’t possibly be another explanation.

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The Sad Decline Of Poynter Media News

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Luke Ford

When this column was run by Jim Romenesko, it was sharp and funny.

Now it reads like the work of ethicists who work for a non-profit. It’s dull.

Romenesko’s retirement from running the column is a sad day for journalism followers. The man has a knack for cutting to the heart of a story. He writes great headlines and cutlines.

I first got tipped off to Romenesko’s column when I was featured in June of 1999.

Romenesko largely had contempt for bloggers such as myself but I don’t recall him ever taking cheap shots at us in his column. He’s welcome to his contempt. Romenesko was a pioneering blogger and he performed a great service for those interested in news of American journalism.

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Gay Lifestyle Embraces Prostitution

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Luke Ford

From a Huffington Post article on gay college students seeking sugar daddies:

Unlike in the straight world, many say they find working as an escort on the gay scene to be an accepted, even applauded practice. While none of the nearly dozen men interviewed had told their parents about their sugar daddies, nearly all had discussed them with their friends. And unlike the young women engaged in similar behavior who reported feeling great shame and remorse, the men generally seemed less traumatized by their decision. In fact, they often felt emboldened by the money they were able to earn, rather than shamed by the stigma.

Christian Grov, an assistant professor of public health at Brooklyn College and co-author of “In the Company of Men: Inside the Lives of Male Prostitutes,” attributes the rise of young gay men engaged in sex work as part of a growing sense of social acceptance. Gay men engaged in sex work often face far less of a stigma than do straight women, he says. Generally speaking, Grov finds the gay culture more accepting of one-night stands and casual relationships.

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager said: “I have never once used the term ‘gay lifestyle.’ I’ve never bought into that notion. Apparently there is a significant proportion of the gay population that has different values, unless this is wrong.”

Pete calls: “It seems more a sign of maleness as opposed to gayness.”

Dennis: “I think that’s true. But in the gay world, that’s what males do.”

“Straight men don’t look at straight women who prostitute themselves with the same admiration as gay men do at gay men who prostitute themselves.”

“While there is shame over prostitution in the heterosexual world, there is admiration in parts of the homosexual world.”

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The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager talks to Rev. Wilson Miscamble, Professor of History at Notre Dame. His new book is The Most Controversial Decision: Truman, the Atomic Bombs, and the Defeat of Japan.

Aug. 30, 2011, Dennis said: “There is a subject that has troubled me my whole thinking life, which began on my 14th birthday. Before 14, I did not think. Not the actual act but the reactions to it have plagued me. I’m talking about the United States decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. I’ve always been morally at peace with the decision. It is now de rigeur to lump Hiroshima with Auschwitz, as though they are moral equivalents.”

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Parashat Shofetim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9)

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Luke Ford

I discuss the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7:00 pm PST on the Rabbi Rabbs cam and on YouTube. Facebook Fan Page.

This week we study Parashat Shofetim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9).

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Is Israel An Apartheid State?

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager writes: Next month, the UN-sponsored hate-Israel festival known as Durban III takes place. Under the heading “anti-racism,” the great bulk of the conference, like Durban I and Durban II, consists of condemning Israel for racism and equating it to an apartheid state.
Of the world’s many great lies, this is among the greatest.
How do we know it is a lie? Because when South Africa was an apartheid state, no one accused Israel of being one. Even the UN would have regarded the accusation as absurd.
Israel has nothing in common with an apartheid state, but few people know enough about Israel — or about apartheid South Africa — to refute the slander. So let’s respond.
First, what is an apartheid state? And does Israel fit that definition?
From 1948 to 1994, South Africa, the country that came up with this term, had an official policy that declared blacks second-class citizens in every aspect of that nation’s life. Among many other prohibitions on the country’s blacks, they could not vote; could not hold political office; were forced to reside in certain locations; could not marry whites; and couldn’t even use the same public restrooms as whites.
Not one of those restrictions applies to Arabs living in Israel.
One and a half million Arabs live in Israel, constituting about 20 percent of that country’s population. They have the same rights as all other Israeli citizens. They can vote, and they do. They can serve in the Israeli parliament, and they do. They can own property and businesses and work in professions alongside other Israelis, and they do. They can be judges, and they are. Here’s one telling example: it was an Arab judge on Israel’s Supreme Court who sentenced the former president of Israel — a Jew — to jail on a rape charge.
Some other examples of Arabs in Israeli life: Reda Mansour was the youngest ambassador in Israel’s history, and is now Consul General at Israel’s Atlanta Consulate; Walid Badir is an international soccer star on Israel’s national team and captain of one of Tel Aviv’s major teams; Rana Raslan is a former Miss Israel; Ishmael Khaldi was until recently the deputy consul of Israel in San Francisco; Khaled Abu Toameh is a major journalist with the Jerusalem Post; Ghaleb Majadele was until recently a Minister in the Israeli Government. They are all Israeli Arabs. Not one is a Jew.
Arabs in Israel live freer lives than Arabs living anywhere in the Arab world. No Arab in any Arab country has the civil rights and personal liberty that Arabs in Israel enjoy.
Now, one might counter: “Yes, Palestinians who live inside Israel have all these rights, but what about the Palestinians who live in what are known as the occupied territories? Aren’t they treated differently?”
Yes, of course they are — they are not citizens of Israel.

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Legal Protection For The Ugly

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager said: “I have not met an ugly person. What they mean is the least attractive.

“If you are unattractive, you should do everything you can to become more attractive. If society says that there is no price paid for how you look… What about people with bad breath for physiological reasons? I don’t want to hire them as sales people because I smell their breath in the interview. Will that be next? Halitosis is the next protected group?

“Or does the person who has that issue fights it. He will look into treatment, how many mints he can have in his mouth at a time.

“What we have now is that you do not have to do anything for you. We will protect you. This infantilization of the human being is disastrous.”

Daniel S. Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, is the author of “Beauty Pays,” published this month.

BEING good-looking is useful in so many ways.

In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you, being attractive also helps you earn more money, find a higher-earning spouse (and one who looks better, too!) and get better deals on mortgages. Each of these facts has been demonstrated over the past 20 years by many economists and other researchers. The effects are not small: one study showed that an American worker who was among the bottom one-seventh in looks, as assessed by randomly chosen observers, earned 10 to 15 percent less per year than a similar worker whose looks were assessed in the top one-third — a lifetime difference, in a typical case, of about $230,000.

Beauty is as much an issue for men as for women. While extensive research shows that women’s looks have bigger impacts in the market for mates, another large group of studies demonstrates that men’s looks have bigger impacts on the job.

Why this disparate treatment of looks in so many areas of life? It’s a matter of simple prejudice. Most of us, regardless of our professed attitudes, prefer as customers to buy from better-looking salespeople, as jurors to listen to better-looking attorneys, as voters to be led by better-looking politicians, as students to learn from better-looking professors. This is not a matter of evil employers’ refusing to hire the ugly: in our roles as workers, customers and potential lovers we are all responsible for these effects.

Marell emails: I heard Daniel Hamermesh on The Michael Medved show today and the guy should not be taken seriously. The man is a clown trying to sell books using junk science. When a caller asked him why he always mentions Blacks when he talks about legal protection for the ugly and the guy says in so many words they are a group that needs it most. Even Medved as taken aback by some of his statements.

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