What Price Do You Put On Virginity?

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Luke Ford

The Torah commands that a man who takes a woman’s virginity must either marry her or pay her father what her virginity is worth.

Dennis Prager says we observe this law today — virginity is worth nothing, so we pay nothing.

I don’t agree with Prager. Among many men I know, the idea of seducing a virgin is a big deal.

What’s the old saw? Every man wants to be a woman’s first. Every woman wants to be a man’s last.

Claire Gordon writes:

Last week, a 19-year-old New Zealand student, known only as Unigirl, sold her virginity to a stranger for $32,000. Her online ad was viewed by 30,000 people and received over 1,200 offers. Thanks to the Internet, women like Unigirl are putting their sexual initiation up for sale in the very public marketplace. Though these auctions have a new global reach, the pricing of virginity is an ancient human practice

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She Did It For Her Sons

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Luke Ford

Why do women despise cheapskates? Some of us humble writers don’t have the big bucks to throw around.

Hanna Rosin writes:

The idea that Jenny Sanford wrote her memoir Staying True to mollify her sons, as she told the New York Times, is quite comical if you’ve actually read the book. There is no child who needs to know precisely when and how his father lied to his mother about the mistress in Argentina and how she watched him disintegrate into a pleading, heartsick fool. Sanford’s tone is studiously not vengeful, and yet this book is an act of revenge. As well it should be, since the poor woman was married to the most doltish specimen of a husband this side of John Edwards

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The Jewish Obsession With College

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Luke Ford

I am thrilled to find more original content in Dennis Prager’s latest column for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:

Having been in public life all of my adult life, I am not infrequently recognized by strangers. Most days someone will walk over to me

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Small Claims Beit Din Set Up In Fairfax/La Brea

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Luke Ford

It has the support of rabbis Gershon Bess and Avrohom Union of the RCC.

For more information, call 323-988-0160.

It is located at Kollel Yechiel Yehuda at 354 North La Brea Avenue, LA, CA 90036.

TheUpperWestSidePosek: I have another idea how you might make some gelt.
TheUpperWestSidePosek: Why not set up a beit din to deal with monetary issues?
TheUpperWestSidePosek: You would be lots cheaper than litigation.
TheUpperWestSidePosek: And with that beard, you could market yourself as a veritable Solomon
TheUpperWestSidePosek: Seriously, any job nibbles?
TheUpperWestSidePosek: This could be a real test of the economic clout of your readership

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I’m Getting Skewered!

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Luke Ford

From my live cam:

guest9: Typical of my ponce of a lad! Whinging about his financial state but dilly-dallying about the computuer like the fair-dinkum drongo he is!
guest10: Desmond, calm down! It’s no good for your health raging at the boy like this!
guest10: I must admiut he is a disappointment, Des.
guest9: Gill, I ought to crack the boy’s empty skull!
guest10: Last time you tried that, Luke cried, “Nay, Dad! Nay!” and ran for his life!
guest9: It’s a fair-dinkum pity that he’s so bloody clueless … and selfish. Begging on the Internet for work! A bloody abo has more dignity … and an Abo will eat grubs! Fair-dinkum GRUBS, I tell yu!
guest10: Shameful.
guest9: What do you have to say for yourself, boy?
guest9: Speak up!
guest9: Bloody ponce!
guest10: Our son doesn’t want to talk to us, Desmond!
guest9: Our son should be ashamed!
guest9: Look at our boy Paul. Now THERE’S a lad!
guest9: What’s THIS one ever done?
guest9: “I’m blogging, Dad!”
guest10: No shame can equal that which I feel when I see my son with that awful beard, play-acting at religion.
guest9: What a fair-dinkum waste of time.
guest10: Des, maybe you ought to crack him over the head. Or at least stuff a burst cane toad in his gob. Stealing Cocoa Krispies from the homeless and not earning his Weet-Bix like a real man!
guest9: Don’t get me started on that loathesome aspect of the boy, Gill. “Look at my long beard, world! Look how ‘religious’ I am.” Bloody attention-seeking moron.
guest9: “Oh, nobody will hire me because of my dirty-looking beard. What ever will I do?” Shave and stop the pitiful masquerade, boy.
guest9: Gill, I’ve had it with this dreadful excuse of human being our son has made of himself. Put on the Easybeats record, brew a pot of tea and bring in that plate of ANZAC biscuits! We’ll try to forget the shame he’s caused us.
YourMoralLeader: May I borrow some money?
YourMoralLeader: Could you help me get a job?
guest10: I’ll bring the johnny rivers sides, too, desmond!
guest10: You’ve done enough leeching off the family, Luk!
guest9: How about I lend you my balled-up fist … right in that simpering face pf yours, Sunny Jim?
YourMoralLeader: I’m standing straight and tall using Alexander Technique!
guest10: “nay, Dad….nay! Nay! Please!”
guest9: Maybe I’ll just slit your throat and leave you for the magpies.
guest9: Some dark night, don’t think it won’t happen. You’ve a lot to pay for, lad.
guest9: Gill, the lad is a fair-dinkum worthless cob.
guest10: I’m having hot flashes, Desomnd!
guest9: The world will be better off when beat him beyond recognition. What’s funny is that the lad thinks I’m joking about this. I’m the dark cloud on your horizon, boy!
guest9: Gill, let’s enjoy some tea and leave the lad to his own misearble devices. He’s sickening to me.
guest10: He’s not worth it, Desmond! You’ll only end up in the calaboose.
guest10: We’ll call on Paul and his Oriental wife later, that will make you feel better.

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Leon Wieseltier’s Attack On Blogging

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Luke Ford

In an article on Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic’s Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier writes: “He is the master, and the prisoner, of the technology of sickly obsession: blogging–and the divine right of bloggers to exempt themselves from the interrogations of editors–is also a method of hounding.”

That’s funny. Leon Wieseltier has long been the The New Republic writer most resistant to editing. He had a sweet deal with the former owner of the magazine, Marty Peretz, so that he could not be edited. When Michael Kinsley ran The New Republic and wanted to edit him in his first issue, Wieseltier went over Kinsley’s head to Peretz and secured for himself a no-editing privilege.

And what’s with calling “blogging” the technology of sickly obsession? Why is it more sickly obsessive than cell phones? What is sick obsession? When are you dogged and I am obsessed?

A lot of people have called me obsessed in my blogging. I know then that they lack arguments and can only use cheap put-downs.

A Google search could not turn up Leon Wieseltier’s email address. I guess he doesn’t want to be questioned. It’s so much more comfortable just to pronounce.

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Will My Beard Hurt My Job Prospects?

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Luke Ford

Most of the people close to me hate my beard. They say it will hurt my job prospects. That people don’t like beards.

I know there are jobs that require a person to be clean-shaven, but I am not so sure that people in general dislike beards.

I’ve found that most people are either indifferent to my Orthodox Judaism or respectful of it. Most of the people who hate it are secular Jews who hate traditional Judaism and adherence to traditional Jewish practices. But much of the goyim I know don’t have a problem with my beard and my yarmulke and my tzitzit and my adherence to Jewish law. They respect people who live for transcendent values. I think most employers will respect that too.

Would you rather employ someone who fears God? I would.

Gary emails:

Luke:

It truly is a pity that you remain breathatkingly clueless about normative halacha and view Judaism through the distorted prism of cultic mores.

Nowhere in normative Judaism is there any suggestion that a beard is desireable, let alone required, and certainly not in a circumstance of employment in the diaspora working with others. Your responsibility is to make the best presentation on behalf of the employer paying your wages.

There is also the very significant issue of whether a public display of your fundamentalism would be misinterpreted as a chilul hashem given likely and inevitable occurrences at work.

Finally, I remind you that according to halacha you are likely in violation of the instruction to bachelors NOT to grow a beard absent the specific consent of the available women in the community. Your task is to make yourself presentable to their liking, not to display an ill conceived distortion of normative halacha.

D. emails: “Listen to me, Sunny Jim! You had best drop the fake piety and holier-than-the-rest-of-the-fair-dinkum-world act before I come out there and plant my boot squarely up your whinging bum! You’ve been play-acting at Judaism for years, and nobody’s falling for it. Need I remind you of the words I gave to that young journo several years ago? Paraphrasing, “Judaism for my ponce of a lad is a PSYCHOLOGICAL OUT from being thought of as a clone of his fair-dinkum DAD! Luke does NOT really behave according to the ethics of Judaism at all. It’s a fair-dinkum FRONT … even if my boy is too delusional to realize it’s a front.” I rightfully should crack you in the face with the nine-iron I use for toad bursting, dry-shave you with a rusty razor and leave you for the fair-dinkum magpies, boy. Thank goodness your brother Paul isn’t such a goldbricking, layabout fraud. At least that much is a comfort to me and your stepmum in our twilight years.”

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Why Is A Super Bowl Win So Great For New Orleans?

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager: We always hear this, but I’m not sure why it is true.

“They always say this. Every time a city’s team wins, it’s great for the city. And we all believe it. And then if you think about it for approximately four seconds, you can’t think of a single reason why it’s great for the city.

“People feel good for a day or two and then go back to the exact same problems they had before the team won.

“I happen to have been in Philadelphia the night they won the World Series. All I saw were overturned cars. I couldn’t get to my hotel because all the streets were blocked off. I couldn’t see why that was great for Philadelphia. What’s the enduring great benefit for Philadelphia?

“He went further the coach. That this is great for Louisiana. I’m sure that for Baton Rouge, Shreveport, it’s just a new world.”

“I don’t think LA misses the NFL and I don’t think the NFL misses LA. It’s a phenomenon that the second largest city in the country doesn’t have an NFL team.”

“I love lines stated with great conviction that don’t mean anything. I’m happy that the citizens of New Orleans have something to celebrate. But whenever there is a ten, it is followed by a one. They’re now at an ecstatic level. It’s manic. This guy Drew Brees, could there be a sweeter guy in football? He’s tattoo free.”

“I love the absurd. I love irreverent humor. That’s why I love Monty Python. But I didn’t like this Dorito’s ad — slapping the adult, sexualizing kids.”

From DennisPrager.com: Prager H1: The New Orleans won their first Super Bowl. This is supposed to be a boost for the city

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Dennis Prager Applauds Lack Of Raunch In Super Bowl Ads

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager opposes social and political issue ads on sports events.

He says the Super Bowl etc should be areas of life safe from political conflict.

On his radio show today, Dennis said: “The Focus on the Family ad, had nobody known anything about it in advance, had the pro-choice people kept quiet, nobody would’ve known what the ad was about. It was not possible to know that that ad was anti-abortion.”

“You can’t argue that ads for drinking are ads for left-wing issues.”

Dennis said: “If the environmentalist could run society, you saw your future in that ad [by Audi mocking green rules]. They are as committed to environmentalism as the Iranian regime is to their version of Islam and they would arrest people for exactly those things — ‘Are you using styrofoam cups sir? Please step out of the car’. ‘Could we come in and check the temperature in your house? We’re coming in.’

“They’ve already passed these sorts of things where they want to monitor the temperature in people’s homes. In California, no new house can have a fire place. That’s reason 84436 not to move to this state. I say it even though it hurts me because my real estate value will decline if you don’t move here.”

Dennis Prager bought his home in the Glendale area around 2005, the peak of the real estate market. Since then, the value of his home has plunged.

Dennis: “I can not think of a good reason, given what the left has done to California, for you to move here. I have a dear friend who would love to move here but he won’t because of the taxes compared to the state he now lives in. You can’t build a house with a fire place? Is that sick?

“Maybe that will increase the value of my place because I have a lot of fireplaces.”

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Prop 8 Trial Judge Gay

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Luke Ford

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay.

Many gay politicians in San Francisco and lawyers who have had dealings with Walker say the 65-year-old jurist, appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, has never taken pains to disguise – or advertise – his orientation.

They also don’t believe it will influence how he rules on the case he’s now hearing – whether Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure approved by state voters to ban same-sex marriage, unconstitutionally discriminates against gays and lesbians.

“There is nothing about Walker as a judge to indicate that his sexual orientation, other than being an interesting factor, will in any way bias his view,” said Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is supporting the lawsuit to overturn Prop. 8.

As evidence, she cites the judge’s conservative – albeit libertarian – reputation, and says, “There wasn’t anyone who thought (overturning Prop. 8) was a cakewalk given his sexual orientation.”

State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who has sponsored two bills to authorize same-sex marriage that were vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that as far as he’s concerned, Walker’s background is a nonissue. “It seems curious to me,” he said, that when the state Supreme Court heard a challenge to Prop. 8, the justices’ sexual orientation “was never discussed.”

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