Without the surge of the Tea Party, a massive welcoming of illegal immigration would’ve passed the Democratic-controlled Congress in a lame duck session and would’ve been signed by President Obama.
Republican moderates are soft on illegal immigration but the conservative Republican believes in the rule of law.
Season of the Witch! Roy Beck, CEO of the highly effective restrictionist immigration lobby Numbers USA, has posted a cold-eyed and revealing post-game analysis of his victory over the so-called DREAM Act Saturday morning.
The Tea Parties did it. Not only had they threatened establishment Republicans with primary opposition, but they had actually beaten one … two … three of them. Nothing like fresh heads on pikes to, er, reinforce a persuasive (to my mind) policy argument. Score one for losing Delaware Tea Partier Christine O’Donnell, who knocked off establishment pick Rep. Mike Castle (who voted for DREAM) in the GOP primary. Even score one for Alaskan Joe Miller. He probably alienated Republican Lisa Murkowski by beating her in the primary, and ultimately she won reelection anyway as a write-in. But that’s just one lost Senate vote. By my count, Miller’s primary coup may have helped gain around ten votes by terrifying GOP incumbents who might otherwise have been tempted by the prospect of a feel-good, bipartisan, MSM-approved pro-DREAM stand.
Democracy can be a wonderful thing …
P.S.: Have I mentioned that Slate‘s Dave Weigel was wrong, hideously and revealingly and embarrassingly wrong, when he predicted Dems would not use the lame duck to try to jam through controversial legislation? (“This just isn’t going to happen.”) He was wrong! So wrong … Politico’s Jonathan Martin was wrong too
The Los Angeles Times says: “President Obama chalks up victories on taxes and ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ as the first half of his presidential term ends. He’s getting a fresh look from voters as engaged and involved — a deal maker.”
People like Obama personally and hate his socialist agenda. This agenda is the mainstream Democratic agenda and it would not be much different if Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton were president.
At Shabbat dinner, a woman turned to me and said, “Do you like strong women?”
“Yes,” I said. “How did you know? Because I’m a writer and a teacher of Alexander Technique, therefore I am a sensitive guy?”
“I’ve got a friend I want to set you up with,” she said. “How do you feel about Russians?”
“I have no problem with Russians,” I said.
I do like strong women. I guess I am a sensitive guy. I like women who are disciplined and educated (not necessarily formally) and who read books.
I don’t like women who take the easy way out, who get through life on their looks and on their ability to manipulate men. I don’t like women who have no problem stealing from big companies and from strangers (a habit of a woman I dated who was very kind to those she loved but couldn’t care less about strangers).
And as I spoke, this precocious five year-old girl beside me imitated my every gesture and word.
I’m a VietNam veteran (once in a neglectful moment, you referred to me as a World War II veteran, which would have made me about 80 or 90 instead of only 15 or 20 years your senior), and I view this decision as a very bad idea.
It’s a bad idea in a long history of bad ideas as I believe Jurassic Park put it. It may or may not be an achievement for gay Americans, but that completely dismisses the point of whether it’s good for military effectiveness or social cohesion in the military.
Naturally, as combat is the most obvious bang for the buck relative to tax dollar spending, it is the focus of military brass in congressional hearings.
However, the thing that this misses is that the military is a society. The military has very rigidly defined hierarchies of power, authority and can easily be corrupted by favoritism, blackmail, extortion, preferences, and a host of other dark parts of regular experience endemic to the human condition. The closest I can come to thinking of a civilian institution similar to the military would be prison. Some would say the police force, however, cops punch out at the end of their shifts and live with civilians and in the civilian world until it’s time to go to work.
Frankly, in a situation defined by the dynamics of military interaction, one can scarcely think of a more corrupting influence than the introduction of openly homosexual members to that system. I could spin out scenarios by the dozens that could bring down military effectiveness and military operations. Frankly, we heterosexuals do quite a superior job of messing things up all by ourselves without the inclusion of yet another dramatically opposing element into the fray.
I tried to introduce my point of view to some leftist sites, and they almost thought that my experience only led me to conclusions that were satanic. (I know Rabbs has whitewashed Satan to an extent, so please excuse me from rabbinical culture. I’m speaking colloquially.) You know, Luke, I think Jews are right about this one. You have often written about the dark side of human nature unrestrained. Sometimes in military situations you see that dark side very vividly. And with openly homosexual members, with no reason whatsoever to be restrained by the necessity for circumspection, you’re going to see some dark situations indeed.
(Luke, my man, and Rabbs, would you be so kind as to explain to us how that couple who pulled off the scam in People’s Court that you posted will be received when they show up at their shul? Will it be high fives for chutzpah, or will it be condemnation?)
I can’t conceive of any shul being proud of this kind of chutzpah.
According to this show, the Orthodox couple were lying in an attempt to steal $3,000. No shul is going to be proud of that kind of behavior.
RABBI RABBS POSTED ON FB A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO: $3K for a F’n wig? Are you kidding me?? That was G-d’s doing to tell them to get their priorities straight. Let her wear a $30 scarf, and the rest of the money should’ve gone to poor people. F them for letting me starve while she has to wear a G-d d*n wig when wigs go against the spirit of the Torah anyway.
And then go on TV with their kvetching????? what a desecration of G-d’s name. this makes “Jewish” rap not look so bad.
Tamara is a 20-something third year law student. She writes a dating blog for the Jewish Journal called Tattletales. Here are the highlights or watch the whole thing below.
Dennis Wilen: And there arose over the Jewish Journal dating column a new writer who knew not Luke Ford.
Leslie Sim: lol scoot a little closer “just for the sake of the camera”
Ellen: I haven’t seen you so giddy – wow what a bit of femininity in the hovel can do
Ellen: So what advice would you give someone like Luke on attracting a positive relationship?
Ellen: I’m of the opinion that sexuality, and more specifically the enjoyment of sexual satisfaction requires practice and development during experimentation. How do you feel about that and how it collides with waiting for marriage?
Joshua: It is not in accordance with the Torah Ellen
Joshua: How many children do you have Ellen?
Ellen: Like a child’s brain has a window of opportunity for learning, if you pass over the window during sexual development it could be detrimental. Don’t you think waiting ruins the physical development aspect?
Ellen: Two kids
Joshua: Thank you
Joshua: IS your husband a doctor or a lawyer?
Ellen: yes
Joshua: both?
Ellen: I’m a Dr and my spouse is a lawyer
Joshua: Well done! What a balabusta!
Ellen: Sounds like the same drivel – a woman not being able to separate sex and love
Joshua: She is doing her best
Ellen: yes, and I give her props for showing up
Joshua: She is dressed modestly too
Ellen: I’m sure she has tiger print underneath
Joshua: O please !!
Joshua: Let’s keep this professional
Joshua: I quite like her
Ellen: Would your guest be willing to take you out on a date?
Joshua: Please show some respect Ellen
Joshua: Ay yay yay Luke is cursing
Ellen: Who was Tamara in the Torah and how does your guest feel about that?
Joshua: I think she is more of a Rebecca
Ellen: help her out
Joshua: It is not her specialist subject
Joshua: She is very ‘Sex in the City’
Joshua: Except the city is Tel Aviv
Ellen: Did she already give her support or rant about jdate?
Joshua: I don’t know
Joshua: Does she support her husband in his career?
Ellen: and has she ever had her heart broken?
Joshua: well how do I know?
Joshua: Has she ever dated a goyim?
Joshua: Oy vey she is warming up!
Joshua: She is a good guest – best yet!
Ellen: would you be a offended if a guy came to a date without reading your facebook profile – like coming to a job interview without knowing anything about the companyt
Ellen: much better looking than Rabbs
Joshua: Ay ay ay sometimes he shames us
Joshua: Would she describe herself as a ‘Cougar’ ?
Joshua: Jewish men do not sleep around!
Joshua: I have to go – my work calls! SHALOM!
Tamara tweets Dec. 13 about my blog post: “People writing about how much they disagree with me. I love having haters!”
Tamara tweets Nov. 29: “I’ve agreed to do an interview with Luke Ford. I’m excited but also praying that my mother doesn’t wikipedia him…”
Tamara went to Adat Ariel Conservative Jewish day school through sixth grade and graduated from Calabassas High School in 2000. She got her undergraduate degrees in Dance and English from Northwestern.
“When I was seven, I wanted to be a stripper because I saw the movie Gypsy.
“I went to Camp Kinneret. On the first day, we had to say our name and what we wanted to be when we grew up. I had seen the musical Gypsy the night before. I said in front of the group, ‘My name is Tamara and I want to be a stripper.’ My mom got a talking to.”
Luke: “So you never did become a stripper?”
Tamara: “No. Not professionally.”
She was suspended for a day from Calabassas High School “for planning a field trip for the Junior Statesmen of America to go to a conference. The administration didn’t approve the field trip and I told everyone they did. I arranged for parent drivers and I kept the permission slips in my backpack with me the whole trip. I had all the kids sign them.
“I really thought I got away with it. The trip went off without a hitch. There was a dance. We had a great time. We came home. I forgot about it. And then a few days later, I got called in to the principal’s office. I just bawled. I cried and cried. My parents were so upset.”
Luke: “What did you get in trouble for with Adat Ariel?”
Tamara: “Oh God. Sending p*** to another student in fifth grade. Me and this other girl. She had a reputation as a troublemaker. I was one of the star kids. Everyone blamed her. I let her take the fall.
“We found p*** in her dad’s bathroom. We sent it to this boy we had a crush on.”
“We put it in a vanilla envelope that had been sent to her house by Adat Ariel. We crossed off Adat Ariel with a marker and mailed it anonymously.
“His mom found it. She wondered, who’s sending my son porn? She called the school and said there’s an envelope with your name on it… The troublemaker girl told them it was me. I went in there and they said, she corrupted you. She’s the reason. I said, yes, she was.
“The vice-president at the time was a weird twisted woman. My mom came in. I was ten and just wanted to die. The vice-principal shows the pictures to my mom. It’s one of the most traumatic memories I have.”
“I don’t want to go into what it was, but it was a lot worse than your average Playboy.”
“My mom was like, this is bad, we’re going to deal with this. And the vice-principal was like, I don’t think you realize how bad this is. Did you see this one? Did you see this one? My mom is like yes. We’re taking this very seriously. She’s going to be disciplined. And the vice principal goes, No, I don’t think you really know. Did you see this one?”
“My sister ended up going to Heschel day school. When she was in fifth grade, she wrote something in a kid’s yearbook that was considered p****graphic. The principal at that time was the old vice-principal who got me in trouble. So the same principal called my mom about p*** in the yearbook.”
Luke: “What was your reputation in high school?”
Tamara: “Nerdy. Weird. I was interested in student council.”
Luke: “That is weird.”
Tamara interned for Congressman Brad Sherman. He recently got “married.”
Tamara says, “I felt very safe there.”
“I thought President Clinton was too centrist.”
“He’s an amazing flirt with men and women, young and old. That ineffable charisma that makes you feel warm towards them.”
Tamara says she’s dated more non-Jews than Jews. “I don’t know that I’ve noticed a big difference. I’ve never dated anyone very religious in any faith. I tend to date people who consider their religion in the same way I consider my religion — an intellectual academic approach.”
Tamara says there’s a big difference between what men and women in their late twenties want. Overall, however, she sees few important differences between the sexes and she rejects the idea that females tend to be more mature than males their age.
Tamara: “What does that mean?”
Luke: “They’re less likely to urinate on you.”
Tamara was in a relationship for almost four years during her early twenties.
I posted a photo here of Tamara laughing. “It was my first Halloween being single in a long time and I had a lot of fun.”
Luke: “What does your family think of your blogging?”
Tamara: “It’s a huge issue. They’re not happy. My dad just said he will never read it again.”
Luke: “Not many fathers want to read their daughters thoughts on sexual addiction.”
Tamara: “I keep telling him I am going to get a book deal from this blog and it is going to be totally worth it.”
“I think emphasizing waiting [for sex] until you are in love is important. The best sex you are going to have is when you are in love.”
“I think there should be more talk about what it really means to be in love. How do you know when you are in love?”
Luke: “How do you know when you are in love?”
Tamara: “For me it is the best feeling in the world. It’s a drug. I really miss being in love. It’s part of what makes life worth living. We don’t talk about it enough.”
“I want to marry for love. It’s the most important thing.”
“My mom thinks I often dress like a homeless person because I often wear stuff I got from thrift stores.”
“I got a lot of looks in my first year of law school for my fashion choices. I was really digging ripped tights. There were a few pictures that showed up on Facebook for my ripped tights and I got a talking to from my mom. She said ripped tights were for prostitutes.”
Luke: “Would you rather date a Republican or a felon?”
Tamara: “Do I have to answer that?”
Luke: “Have you ever had your heartbroken?”
Tamara: “Yes. Brutally. By a man two-and-a-half years ago. I was so depressed. I remember lying on my couch and asking myself if I was going to die of a broken heart.”
“Yech! I’m like an expert at dating poor guys, I’ve dated so many.”
Luke: “Was there a point when you realized you had hitting rock bottom with your dating?”
Tamara: “So many times.”
“I’ve dated younger than me. Four years younger.”
Luke: “Did you appreciate how much energy and vigor he had?”
Tamara: “Unfortunately it did not translate like that.”
“That felt like I was taking steps backwards. I felt like I was the first girl this man has ever touched. No woman in her twenties is going to say I want to have sex with a 15-year old boy because he’s so talented and experienced.”
“There’s almost nothing I wouldn’t do if I were really in love.”
“I am pretty much willing to do anything once.”
Luke: “Hey, you came to the hovel.”
Tamara: “And I had good reason to be fearful.”
Luke: “What was the scariest thing?”
Tamara: “That you starred in your own **** film.”
“When my parents gave me the sex talk, it was basically that I shouldn’t have sex until I was over 30. Since I started writing this dating blog, my parents are in mourning that I am not a virgin.”
“They’re more nervous that I am writing myself out of a chance of working as a lawyer.”
Luke: “What’s more important to you? Your career as a writer or your career as a lawyer?”
Tamara: “Writer.”
Luke: “What’s more important to you? Marriage or career?”
Tamara: “Family and thereby marriage.”
Tamara stays in touch with some of the guys she’s dated. “I really bristle at being asked [by a boyfriend to cut off contact with her exes]. I think you should be able to trust the person to make those decisions.”
Luke: “You haven’t asked any of your boyfriend to cut off contact with their exes?”
Tamara: “No. I’ve definitely commented on how ugly and fat they were.”
Luke: “How prone are you to violent fits of jealousy?”
Tamara: “It used to be that I didn’t think I was ever jealous. And then I got cheated on. We tried to stay together after that and that made me really jealous.”
Luke: “Why did you try to stay together after that?”
Tamara: “To try to see how much I could hurt him. We were only together for two months together afterward and I tried to do every evil thing a girlfriend could do.”
Luke: “You slept with his best friend?”
Tamara: “Things like that but not necessarily that. Threatening things. Writing things. Afterward, you think of all these things you should’ve done.”
Luke: “Do you ever feel, I have the world at my feet?”
Tamara: “Yeah. Can you tell? I feel like things are going so well for me…”
Luke: “Are you high maintenance?”
Tamara: “I don’t think so. I get ready really fast. I expect chivalry. I expect a guy to open a door for me.”
“I’m a reliable person. I respond to every correspondence.”
“I’m wary of Orthodox Judaism because I feel like it dismisses my brain. I can’t have the same discussions and my opinion doesn’t mean as much in the conversations we’re having, that’s the attitude Orthodox men have towards women in my experience.”
Luke: “How often do you find that your thoughts are not taken seriously because you are attractive?”
Tamara: “Often. It depends on where I meet people. If I meet people at a bar…”
Luke: “They’re less interested in the cognitive ability than some of your other attributes?”
Tamara: “I think so, especially because I can dress pretty scandalously, a tight dress, a short skirt, five-inch high heels, and I’m out at a bar and not every guy is expecting to hear someone’s Supreme Court analysis who just goes to law school as a hobby.”
Luke: “Do you expect men to relate to you the same way if you dress conservatively as opposed to scandalously? Do you expect them to be equally interested in your mind?”
Tamara: “I expect the same respect, regardless of how I’m dressed.”
Luke: “Even if you are dressed like a hooker, you still expect to be treated like a Supreme Court justice?”
Tamara: “Yeah. If you are hooting and hollering on the street, I don’t think there’s any dress that says that’s appropriate.”
Luke: “So you’re walking down the street in a short skirt and ripped tights and a man goes, ‘Yeah, baby!’, that’s inappropriate?”
Tamara: “Why do guys do that? What do they want? I don’t think it’s respectful.
“I would dress that way to feel sexual and I would never ask a man to ignore that. I would never dress like that around my parents, but I am entitled to dress that way when I go out, but I don’t expect it to be ignored, but there is a way to be respectful. I think men just assume you are one or the other and they make that judgment quickly. I tend to be attracted to men who are smart. I think they’re more likely to respect me on an intellectual level.”
“If I am dressed sexually at a bar, I don’t expect someone to come up to me and start a conversation on Nietzsche.”
“You can be attracted to someone and relate to them purely on a purely sexual level and be respectful.”
Luke: “Really? You can be sexual and respectful? Interesting.”
Tamara: “Clearly it is not even an option in your world.”
“Sometimes I get pigeonholed the other way, if I know someone from law school or the writing world. They can be surprised negatively in what I might look like.”
Luke: “In a little skirt with ripped tights?”
Tamara: “Yeah.”
Luke: “Do you think they judge you?”
Tamara: “I’ve felt that at my Christian law school.”
Luke: “When you wear ripped tights and short skirts.”
Tamara: “But I have a right to wear that. I would never complain about someone looking at that but if I am sitting in class and I’m talking but you discount my opinion because my shirt is short, I don’t appreciate that.”
Luke: “And your tights are ripped.”
Tamara: “You can look and you can also listen to what I have to say.”
Luke: “Do your professors relate to you differently when you dress provocatively?”
Tamara: “Probably. Yes.”
“I think there’s nothing more powerful than feeling sexual as a woman and feeling respected intellectually.”
Luke: “Simultaneously?”
Tamara: “Yeah. That’s when I feel on top of the world.”
“I’m never more turned on than in those moments.”
Luke: “Do you think you are sexually harassing men who dress in a provocative way?”
Tamara: “They’re certainly not complaining to me.”
Luke: “I could take you to an Orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur and you wouldn’t shame me?”
Tamara: “Yeah.”
Luke: “Have you been a victim of sexual harassment?”
Tamara: “No. Not that I have noticed.”
Here are my notes for my Tamara interview:
* Which of your dating blog posts did you find easiest to write? Most difficult?
* What does your family think of your blog?
* Do you have any concern that your dating blog will haunt you? Perhaps there might be guys who don’t want to date you because you write so personally?
* What does 3-L mean in law student speak?
* What constitutes dumping properly? Are men less likely to do this than women? Has this happened to you? What have been the most satisfying and least satisfying ways you’ve been dumped?
* Is there anything your female friends may be doing wrong to put themselves in these situations where they get dumped silently?
I’ve gone out with women who only wanted to hang out and to hook up but didn’t want a relationship. I was dying to commit and they had no interest in living in a hovel. And they treated me as casually as the guys do in your latest blog post.
* You wrote: “So when he asked for my number, I found myself hating him for putting me in a position where I have to be the bad guy.” Is that similar to the guys who don’t want to have a break-up conversation? You both want to avoid awkward confrontation? “I don’t want to stare someone in the face while rejecting him.”
* When you start opening up to a guy and “share what you think makes you special”, do you say the same things or is what you say different with each guy?
* Do you think men are cowards if they shy away from conversations about the relationship? Are most of the men you know well cowards?
* Is one reason guys don’t break-up that we don’t date anymore? We hang out. We hook up. We’ve gone from courting to dating to hooking up. This is all very different in the Orthodox community where we all know each other and you know very clearly when you’ve been dumped because there is none of this amorphous hanging out.
* Does part of you long for a Jane Austen world of courtship?
* Do you notice any difference between dating Jews and non-Jews?
* I notice that one of your favorite phrases is “they just need to get over it.” You seem to be a pretty tough chick who despises weakness.
* What’s more important to you? Marriage or career?
* If someone fails the bar multiple times, what does this mean?
* Why do you think it is inappropriate if a stranger asks you if you are Jewish?
* You don’t want to waste your time dating any more. Could you elaborate?
* “I don’t date beneath me.” Could you elaborate?
* Number of partners. You complain that this is sexist. Could something be sexist and true? Do you think that men and women are different? If so, how?
* “This gets me so angry because girls don’t bristle at the number of women their boyfriend has dated.” Is this just a fact of life, like the fact that you can’t feel attractive for men who are below you?
* Staying friends with an ex. How has that served you?
* “So for the women out there with high numbers, I salute you on your ability to make decisions that are not limited by societal conventions. Forget the recycling. You’re only young once! I truly admire you.” Do you think there might be societal conventions for a reason?
* What do you think about sex addiction? Do you think alcoholism is a disease or a lack of will power?
* How should a girl relate to her man if he is an addict?
1. The Bareback Addict
2. The Threesome Addict
3. The Girls Do My Laundry For Me Addict
4. The Fantasy Football Addict
5. The I’m Addicted to Your Hot Best Friend Addict
6. The Hands Free Addict
7. The Eye-Candy Addict
8. The I’m Addicted to My Own Bed Addict
9. The I’m Addicted to Losing Girls Phone Numbers Addict
10. The Parental Allowance Addict
* In your dating posts, men are overwhelmingly jerks. Is that your experience in real life?
* Do you struggle over how much to disclose on your blog? Do you worry about how you come across?
* Do you ever feel, I have the world at my feet! I’m young, I’m hot, I’m smart.
* What do you think of the pick-up artist movement?
* So how is it being the artsy Jewish girl at a conservative Christian law school?
* What type of guys do you fall in love with?
* Are you high maintenance? Why does it take girls so long to order? Do girls enjoy making guys wait?
* Are you on time? Are you reliable? If you tell someone you will meet them at 7pm, do you meet them at 7pm?
By a vote of 65 to 31, with eight Republicans joining Democrats, the Senate approved and sent to President Obama a repeal of the Clinton-era law, known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a policy critics said amounted to government-sanctioned discrimination that treated gay, lesbian and bisexual troops as second-class citizens.
Mr. Obama hailed the action, which fulfills his pledge to reverse the ban, and said it was “time to close this chapter in our history.”
“As commander in chief, I am also absolutely convinced that making this change will only underscore the professionalism of our troops as the best-led and best-trained fighting force the world has ever known,” he said…
I want to know which workplaces have been rendered more efficient and more professional by people talking openly about their sexual preferences?
Which profession becomes more accomplished by its members defining themselves by the type of people they prefer to have sex with?
Announcing to strangers “I’m gay” makes as much sense to me as announcing to strangers, “I can only get off when I wear the opposite sex’s clothing” and the like. I don’t need to know what gets you off unless you’re my spouse.
If I were in a foxhole with a bloke, I wouldn’t want to hear him talking about what type of sex partner he preferred and how much he wanted to cornhole his commanding officer and the like.
I’ve been watching The Pacific (about WWII) and listening to Philip Roth’s latest novel, Nemesis. It was a better time, in some ways, because people did not go around talking to strangers about the type of sexual partners they preferred.
Speaking of stomach turning, the New York Times reports on the defeat of the DREAM act: “The vote by the Senate on Saturday to block a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students was a painful setback to an emerging movement of immigrants and also appeared to leave the immigration policy of the Obama administration, which has supported the bill and the movement, in disarray.”
Most immigrants who come to the United States legally do not want to see more illegal immigration to the United States nor do they want to see illegal immigrants rewarded.
The Los Angeles Times reports: “Five Democrats join the GOP in blocking a path to citizenship for some children of illegal immigrants.”
What do you mean “blocking”? Opponents are not throwing up any new blocks to illegal immigrants. The blocks are already in place. The blocks are also known as the rule of law, something that illegal immigrants, by definition, flout and want exception from.
I would anticipate kicking it Lithuanian along the lines of Volozhin. And we’ll shut down before we teach secular subjects.
I’m not sure yet whether or not we’ll grant semicha. I anticipate our institution will be more dedicated to serious learning than vocational training. We definitely won’t be doing any conversions.
I walked up in shock. I had never been called first to the Torah before. I hadn’t been called to the Torah period in about six months. I was not at all sure I was worthy of being called to the Torah.
I had become Back Seat Levi, always looking hide in the back. Let Disjointed Luke fade away. Let mature Levi take his place.
So I walked up to the Torah and my face was flushing and my heart was pounding and I was trying to remember what to do. I took the little pad and touched the scroll where the rabbi’s pointer directed me and then I took the handles of the Torah and lifted them and set them down and then I looked at cheat sheet and read off the blessing. Everyone responded appropriately. Nobody said, “Get that shmuck out of here!”
I followed the rabbi as he read the parsha. The script was much harder to read on the scroll than it was in the chumash.
The rabbi finished. I took the pad and brushed the scroll and lifted the Torah and gently let it fall and then I turned to the cheat sheet and I got all discombobulated and my recitation of the second blessing was disjointed.
Then I let go off the Torah scroll and shook hands and moved to the right and let the next man go.
Normally I charged out of shul right after mincha. My social anxiety tended to kick in after about an hour or two of shul. It had only been this way since September of 2007, but ever since then, it was hard for me to stay in shul longer than an hour.
This day I sat down after mincha and I studied the parsha and I enjoyed the hell out of the spirited singing.
A man loomed over me and his hand came out and here it comes, I thought, he’s going to punch me in the face, but he was only shaking my hand and inquiring about where I’d been the past seven weeks.
“I have this Alexander Technique teacher training,” I said. “It’s very tiring. I haven’t been leaving my place during the weekends so I can rest up.”
I didn’t mention my surgery. I just shook his hand again and kissed my fingers (as has been my practice for about three years, I fell in love with other people doing it and adopted it as my custom).
And then I felt that things were going so well, I had better just leave while I’m ahead. Never overstay your welcome, I thought. It makes you look needy.
PS. My friend Will “went to a lecture where the Rabbi said the amount of hatred non-Jews have to Jews always depends on how much senseless hatred Jews have for other Jews. Gentiles reflect what Jews feel towards ourselves. Rather than write about Gentiles who don’t like us, which we can’t control, we should worry about Jews who don’t get along with each another.”
When I came down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in in February, 1988, I had to spend about 18 hours a day in bed (until the end of 1993).
This began my insomnia. Bed stopped primarily representing a place where I sleep. It began to be a place where I toss and turn, the site of a battle between myself and sleep.
So this new books recommends using a bed only for sleep and for sex.
I spend a lot of time during the day napping or just listening to books on CD or to Dennis Prager’s radio show. I’ve got to stop that so bed becomes a place of sleep for me. If I can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, the book recommends getting up and watching TV or reading a book or writing a diary.
I’ll let you know how it works out. I’ve become caught in this vicious cycle of not falling asleep until after 3 a.m. (the way it has been for me for about six months), awaking around 7 a.m. and then lying down much of the afternoon because I am so exhausted from not sleeping.
P.S. I am sure my mild to moderate sleep apnea does not help. To combat this, I am losing weight. I’ve made some fundamental changes to my diet and I am down about six pounds in a month.
P.P.S. I have an appointment with a sleep doctor Dec. 28.
Stephen Steinlight emails: History will likely record this victory over the “DREAM ACT” as the high watermark of the pro-amnesty, pro-exponentially increased immigration/open borders alliance. When the new Congress convenes in January, the bugle will sound and our side will go on the offensive for the first time in a decade. Imagine what it will be like to fight without a bottomless chasm a foot behind us.
For those with mixed feelings about the young people concerned, remember the anomalous situation of some who would have been legalized under the misnamed Dream Act should and will be resolved at the end of the process of fixing our broken system. Supporters of the plot to undue America through massive illegal and low-skill immigration were cynically exploiting them as a stalking horse for “comprehensive immigration reform.” When we’ve completed the destruction of that legislative monster we’ll find a find a just solution to their situation.
"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)
