I Can’t Wait To See The New Facebook Movie

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Luke Ford

Sharon Waxman nails it:

It seems to me that Facebook has forgotten the most basic rule of public relations and marketing: any publicity is good publicity, of course. The movie will only draw more attention to the site. It will cement its place in American popular culture.

That is a good thing. Like in previous cases where Zuckerberg has encountered pressure and criticism, he has reacted with a lack of maturity and sophistication. His protests sound like whining. He is taking this all personally — and with the size of the company he now runs, he cannot afford to whine.

I watched his public meltdown at the AllThingsD conference in June, and my sense at that time was that he is too young to be running a company this large and this important — founder or no.

His response to a big Hollywood movie is so far not convincing me otherwise.

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What’s the best outfit to crown God king while still feeling like a queen inside?

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Luke Ford

It’s almost Rosh Hashanah. What will the Zionists of the hot young female variety be wearing to shul on the days of awe?

I need to know.

Let’s say you are a 16-year old Jewish princess seeking your third boyfriend. What will you wear to your Conservative synagogue?

Let’s say you are a 44-year old cougar looking for a younger man. You want the spiritual meaning of the holidays as well as a love connection at your Reconstructionist synagogue. What to wear?

Let’s say you are 19 and Orthodox from birth and you want a husband this new year. What will you wear to shul to give off just the right vibe?

Let’s say you are going to go straight from your Reform temple on erev Rosh Hashanah to a disco? What to wear?

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Torah Questions

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Luke Ford

I’m reading the Michael Lewis book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

His opening protagonist is Steve Eisman, who started to study Talmud as a teenager to find mistakes in it. When he made his billions, he founded a charity to help ex-Hasidic Jews adjust to secular life.

Chaim Amalek emails: Do you ever give thought to such things, or is the benefit to you in social terms sufficient to sweep such things under the rug?

Things I always wanted to ask in cheder, but never did:

“The following are pairs of verses which contradict one another in
the books of the Jews:

2 Samuel 8:4(7 HUNDRED horsemen)
1 Chronicles 18:4(7 THOUSAND horsemen)

1 Chronicles 21:12(THREE years famine)
2 Samuel 24:13(SEVEN years famine)

Deuteronomy 2:19 & Deuteronomy 2:37(Moses deprived land of
Ammon)
Joshua 13:24-25(Moses gives land of Ammon as inheritance)

2 Samuel 24:9(800,000+500,000)
1 Chronicles 21:5(1,100,000+470,000)

2 Chronicles 36:9(EIGHT years, three months +10 days)
2 Kings 24:8 (EIGHTEEN years, three months)

2 Samuel 10:18(700, 40,000 HORSEMEN)
1 Chronicles 19:18(7000, 40,000 FOOTMEN)

1 Kings 7:26(TWO thousand baths)
2 Chronicles 4:5(THREE thousand baths)

2 Samuel 6:23(Michal had NO children)
2 Samuel 21:8(Michal had FIVE sons)

Genesis6:3(mankind shall not live past 120 years)
Genesis 11:10-32 (500,438,433,464,…etc.)

2 Chronicles 9:25(4,000 stalls)
1 Kings 4:26(40,000 stalls)

Isaiah 40:28 (God does not FAINT nor WEARY)
Exodus 31:17 (God RESTED, and was REFRESHED.)

Genisis 1: (God creates Plants, THEN animals, THEN man and
woman.)
Genesis 2: (God creates man, THEN plants, THEN animals, THEN
woman)

Ezekiel 45 and Ezekiel 46 (DOCTRINES of offerings and sacrifices)
Numbers 28 and Numbers 29 (CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES of
offerings and sacrifices)

1 Chronicles 8:29-38 (One list of NAMES)
1 Chronicles 9:35-44 (A CONTRADICTORY list of NAMES)

2 Samuel 5 and 2 Samuel 6 (David brought the ark AFTER fighting
the Philistines)
1 Samuel 13 and 1 Samuel 14 (David brought the ark BEFORE
fighting the Philistines)

Genesis 6:19-20 (Noah was to bring onto the ark “of EVERY living
thing of all flesh, TWO of EVERY sort shalt thou bring into the ark,
to keep them alive ….male and female….of fowls….of cattle….of every
creeping thing of the earth…”).
Genesis 7:2-3 (Noah was to bring onto the ark “Of every CLEAN
beast thou shalt take to thee by SEVENS, the male and his female:
and of beasts that are NOT CLEAN by TWO, the male and his
female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the
female…”).

2 Samuel 8:1 (“David took METHEGAMMAH out of the hand of
the Philistines”).
1 Chronicles 18:1 (“David…took GATH and her towns out of the
hand of the Philistines”).

2 Samuel 8:8 (“And from BETAH, and from BEROTHAI, cities of
Hadadezer, king David took exceeding much brass”).
1 Chronicles 18:8 (“Likewise from TIBHATH, and from CHUN,
cities of Hadarezer, brought David very much brass”).

2 Samuel 8:10 (“Then Toi sent JORAM his son unto king David”)
1 Chronicles 18:10 (“He sent HADORAM his son to king David”)

2 Samuel 8:12 (“Of SYRIA, and of Moab, and of the children of
Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek”).
1 Chronicles 18:11 (“from EDOM, and from Moab, and from the
children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.

2 Samuel 8:13 (“And David gat him a name when he returned from
smiting of the SYRIANS in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand
men”).
1 Chronicles 18:13 (“And he put garrisons in EDOM; and all the
EDOMITES became David’s servants”).

2 Samuel 8:17 (“and SERAIAH was the scribe”)
1 Chronicles 18:16 (“and SHAVSHA was scribe”)

1 Kings 15:33-16:6 (“In the THIRD year of Asa king of Judah began
Baasha the son Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, TWENTY
FOUR years….. So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was BURIED
in Tirzah”). 3+24=27.
2 Chronicles 16:1 (“In the THIRTY SIXTH year of the reign of Asa,
Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah”). But he died in the
twenty seventh year!. Was he resurected?. So how did he invade
Judah 10 years after his death?.

Ezra 2:6 (2812)
Nehemiah 7:11 (2818)

Ezra 2:8 (945)
Nehemiah 7:13 (845)

Ezra 2:12 (1222)
Nehemiah 7:17 (2322)

Ezra 2:15 (454)
Nehemiah 7:20 (655)

Ezra 2:19 (223)
Nehemiah 7:22 (328)

Ezra 2:28 (223)
Nehemiah 7:32 (123)

Gingernova responds on Youtube to my latest Torah Talk with Rabbi Rabbs:

I have questions.

1. Where can I look up the “Rombom” and what you are talking about?

2. What about the foreshadowing of the potential sacrifice of Isaac (and the lamb sacrificed)…Christians believe he is the lamb of God who was sacrificed.

3. Could it be possible that God could come down and inhabit a human body? Or is it impossible?

1. Okay so why do you (Judism) not tell us the code?

2. Why do you not have time for that?

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Torah Talk Returns

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

Rabbs and I want to do a Rosh Hashanah fashions show in the next week or two on Torah Talk and we need prospective models to show off the latest in frum fashions.

I will need to meet privately before the show with each prospective model to make sure she’s glatt kosher.

Models do not need to be Jewish but they do need to be hot.

While there will be no material payment for appearing on my show, please know, ladies, that the spiritual rewards will be immense, and your portion in the world to come in recompense for your kindness to His servant will be awesome.

Please email Your Moral Leader about your fashion choices for this year’s Yamim Noraim. I have a feeling that hot pink will be big this Yom Kippur.

This week’s Torah portion is Ki Tavo (Deut. 26-29).

Who’s the hardliner now?

Here’s the Rabbi Cunin video Rabbs talks about:

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Where Do People Have Affairs Now?

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

I love how Dennis Prager’s mind works.

On his radio show today, he says: Anything happens now, there’s a video of it. Is there a parking lot in America near any store that is not videoed? Where do people have affairs now?

If somebody wants to hide his life, it’s getting much harder.

…I like Bridget Jones Diary. I have no problem saying I like chick flicks. I have a highly developed feminine side.

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The One Group You Can’t Critizice

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

On Dennis Prager’s radio show today, he says: The argument that the people against the mosque being built near Ground Zero are only aiding our enemies. Al Qaeda sees all the protests against the mosque and this helps recruitment.

Something is missing. People will see people protesting the building of a mosque near Ground Zero and that will cause people to blow up Americans? That is supposed to be a defense of the Muslim world?

If somebody said bad things about Christianity, would somebody say, you’re just going to help recruitment for Christian terrorists. You’ll just feed Christian extremists and they’ll blow up as many people as they can find.

How come nobody makes that argument?

The people who make this argument acknowledge that there is a serious moral problem in parts of the Muslim world.

They don’t say, don’t criticize Democrats or they will start blowing up innocent people.

The only group you can’t criticize lest you be blow up is Muslims.

That this imam won’t consider moving the mosque makes his motives seem self-aggrandizing. If he was really in it for inter-religious love, he’d have moved it long ago.

LUKE SAYS: I love this fight. We’ll never make peace with this mosque near Ground Zero. The opposition will only grow.

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Beauty Queens Have More Wisdom Than Intellectuals

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager says: “She could do more for Muslims than half the faculty in Islamic studies in this country. She’s not a victim. She loves America. She’s proud of her heritage and understands the pain of those killed on that day may trump the need to build an Islamic center two blocks away. And she’s good looking to better. Long live Rima Fakih.”

MSNBC says:

One of the United States’ most visible Muslim-Americans has taken sides in the debate on whether to build a 13-story community center and mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City. Lebanese-born, New York-raised Miss USA Rima Fakih said she is against the plan.

Following President Obama’s comment in favor of the proposed mosque project last week, Fakih was asked her thoughts on the hot national debate by a reporter for “Inside Edition.”

“I totally agree with President Obama with the statement on constitutional rights of freedom of religion,” Fakih, 24, said from Las Vegas, where she is scheduled to represent the USA at the Miss Universe pageant tonight.

However, she added: “I also agree that it shouldn’t be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.”

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Topless Women March On Venice

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager says: Most people who did not go to graduate school understand there is a big difference between men going bare-chested and women going bare-chested.

You don’t have to rush to the picture in the LA Times because you only see the woman’s back but there are 200 men taking photographs of her. How come there aren’t 200 women taking photographs of topless men?

The Los Angeles Times reports: More than 200 people, including about two dozen topless women, marched on the Venice Beach boardwalk Sunday afternoon to protest state laws that bar women from going bare-chested in public.

Participants obtained a permit in advance and agreed to obey the law by covering their nipples with red tape, Band-Aids and other makeshift pasties. Los Angeles police hovered at the periphery as the group marched nearly a mile from Navy Court to Windward Avenue on Sunday afternoon, but did not arrest anyone for indecent exposure, a misdemeanor.

The protest — organized by gotopless.org, a website that depicts exactly what its title says — was the third of its kind at Venice Beach and one of about a dozen planned in cities across the country Sunday, including San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Denver, Miami Beach and Seattle. The protests were timed to precede the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote Aug. 26, 1920.

The chanting women caused a stir. Wait staff at boardwalk cafes paused to watch them pass, diners climbed on tables to catch a glimpse of the crowd, some bystanders flashing their breasts as men in surrounding apartments hung out of windows and balconies, cameras in hand.

Equal rights did not seem to concern many of the men who gathered to gawk at the topless women, record amateur videos and snap photos with cellphones as girlfriends and wives looked on.

Topless protester Kat Kaplan, a dancer and rapper, admonished the crowd using a small megaphone.

“It’s not just about taking pictures — you got to back the cause and wear a bikini top, men,” Kaplan said.

About 50 men strapped on red bikinis supplied by organizers to show their solidarity. Protesters hoisted signs that said, “Free your breasts! Free your mind!” and “Demand topless equality.”

“If we are not allowed, men must be forced to hide their chests on the basis of gender equality,” said organizer Nadine Gary.

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Why Should Anyone Help Pakistan?

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

Pakistan won’t accept any help that is labeled as coming from Jews.

I don’t get why Jews should help this hateful Islamic country?

If Pakistan hates Jews so much that they won’t even recognize the existence of the Jewish state of Israel and refuses all help if it is known to come from Jews, then why should Jews help these monsters? Let them drown. Let their fellow Muslims help them out.

This option isn’t even raised in the following article:

JDC, by contrast, requires that its beneficiaries announce the source of the funding, no matter where their projects are located—which is why there’s an ambulance in Haiti with the JDC’s name on the side of it. “I have a letter from former [Pakistani] President [Pervez] Musharraf,” said Recant of JDC, “thanking the Jewish community and the [JDC]” for its help establishing a village in the aftermath of Pakistan’s 2008 earthquake.

JDC often works with other large international nonprofits like the International Rescue Committee and the Clinton Global Initiative, which makes printing the words “American” and “Jewish” on the sides of water tanks and buildings less problematic. The question of how to announce the provenance of donations, however, is not unique to Jewish organizations. Los Angeles-based Operation USA has had issues with its name, too. “We have had instances where we’ve worked with local partners where we’ve not had our name on [the project],” said Alison Deknatel, Operation USA’s director of communications.

Operation USA, which has so far raised $7.9 million in donations and in-kind contributions for Haiti, and has been working in Pakistan since the 2005 earthquake, has seen very little contributed for Pakistan in the wake of the ongoing flooding. Deknatel said she can’t say what exactly has been keeping people from contributing. “It’s hard to know exactly. It could be donor fatigue. It could be general unease with working in that region,” Deknatel said.

In light of the dire situation, Sahi said he believes Pakistanis wouldn’t object to receiving aid from the U.S., “but there will be some problems with the word ‘Jewish’ if printed on clothing especially,” he wrote. “It will not be easy for them to accept aid from Jewish groups from Israel, but they will be OK with American Jewish groups’ aid.”

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles said she knew of no aid that has gone from Israel to Pakistan during this crisis, and could not comment on whether any had been offered. Israel was widely recognized for the medical services it sent to Haiti after the earthquake.

I shed no tears over the destruction of the wicked. Pakistan is an evil country. Let them get their own act together or die trying.

I’m reading the Jewish Journal’s “My Pakistan” blog. There is no mention of “Jews” and but one mention of “Israel.” There is no discussion on this blog of Pakistan’s hatred of Jews and refusal to recognize the Jewish state.

What you will find on the blog are a lot of calls for handouts. The Pakistanis will take Jewish aid, so long as it is not from Israel and it is not labeled as coming from Jews.

Here’s a long article in Foreign Policy magazine wondering why nobody cares about Pakistan. It does not mention Pakistan’s pathological hatred of Jews and refusal to accept Jewish help (when it is noted as coming from Jews).

What has Pakistan done for anyone else? When there are earthquakes in Iran, or other disasters, are Pakistani aid teams fast and effective?

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Frumster Is Different

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Luke Ford

On the Orthodox dating site Frumster.com, I found one young woman who described herself as “G-d fearing…”

You don’t find that so often in secular dating sites.

“God-fearing” used to be a very common way that people were described (prior to the 1960s).

I would describe myself as “God-fearing”, but I didn’t put that in my profile. Perhaps I should.

Mac emails: “That’s a translation of yirat shamayim (or as an adjective, yare shamayim), and is a common artscrollism.”

Not just that, fearing God is a fundamental Torah value and commandment which is repeated many times in our daily prayers.

Mac emails: “You misunderstood me. Of course yirat shamayim is a critical concept in yahadut (I always feel like a sheygitz saying Joodyism). But the use of it as a descriptive term, which as you noted is not common in the non-Jewish world, conveys a set of sociological statements about the user, and obviously it can’t refer simply to the state of Gd fearingness, as it were, because otherwise how could one describe oneself that way without self contradiction?”

“You wouldn’t be really described as yare shamayim in the sense they use it, you quote Prager and not the gedoylim, you don’t say i”h and amush after everything, you talk to women, don’t limit your reading to artscroll or Feldheim and you aren’t in nor do you support a koylel. Also, your yiras shomayim is deficient as you hold and post your own views, which technically makes you a baal gayvo. Daf yomi only makes you a potential baalabus (baal habayit) but not a yarei shomayim. Plus you don’t wear a hat and your hair is too long.”

“Look man, I grew up in that community. I’d be curious about the language on frumster (though I assume it would be like the comments section of VIN and chaptzem). What else did she say about herself? There is a very distinct semiotics of speech and dress in the fromm world, it is a German word which means pious. It is also used as a pejorative, ie to call something a frommkeit is to say that it is not critical to the mitzvah).”

Rabbi Rabbs posts: “For frumster, just describe yourself as being tall with a sense of humor. According to their profiles, that’s all about 90% of the females there are looking for in a man.”

Mac emails: “Rabbs is right about that. The only problem is that its the machatunim who want more. As a survivor of the kedimas haberachos plate and other similar ordeals, you may need a crash course in frommer dating traditions if you want to continue to pursue that route. Though you may need Leah Kleim on this one, if for nothing else than to realize that if you start dating Boro Park style you might end up covered in tattoos.”

My route is HaShem’s route.

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