- https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback
"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:
- The Cost of the Claim
- Who owns the residual?
- Nobody in the Room Was Gullible
- To The Values
- The Man Who Diagnosed the Machine
- The Module
- The Weather
- Jason Arday: ‘Things Can Only Get Better’
- The Awarding Institution
- A Web Page Can Be Edited
- By That Standard
- The Man Who Would Not Vouch
- The Renewable Wound: Jason Arday and the Trauma That Has to Keep Happening
- Anthony Fauci’s Diary
- How I Use AI
- Christine Hayes and the Question Underneath
- How Effective Are Deradicalization Programs?
- The Newspaperman: Jacob Neusner and the Manufacture of a Field
- Stratfor Reunion: Peter Zeihan on Mentorship & Geopolitics
- The Man Who Measured the Unspoken
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)
Israeli Swimsuit Models and Jewish-Catholic Relations After Vatican II: This Week’s TJC Newscast
Posted in Articles
Comments Off on Israeli Swimsuit Models and Jewish-Catholic Relations After Vatican II: This Week’s TJC Newscast
Michael Jackson’s Dermatologist Publishing Shocker Book
Dr. Arnold Klein has a book coming out on Michael Jackson. It reports that Michael Jackson had a homosexual affair with Dr. Klein’s office manager. It also reveals the truth about Michael Jackson’s skin disease which made him look pale.
It has other bombshells.
Michael Jackson’s dermatologist Arnold Klein injected the pop icon with the muscle freezer Botox and facial filler Restalyne, performed acne surgery on the star, and prescribed him Latisse, the eyelash lengthener. There were 179 procedures in all. What’s shocking is that these were all in the last three months of his life, the last three days before his death in June.
Even Nicole Kidman is thinking, ouch.
Klein, a longtime Jackson pal whose nurse, Debbie Rowe, married the singer and bore him two children (or so the legend goes), filed papers with Jackson’s estate to claim $48,522.89 for the procedures, TMZ.com reports. Klein also injected Jackson with a muscular drug called "I.M.," sometimes several times a day. A dermatologist tells TMZ that I.M. is the common billing code for the painkiller Demerol.
Michael Jackson’s famous longtime dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, is wanted for questioning by the LAPD regarding drugs he may have prescribed to the late singer. Michael was reportedly seen regularly at Dr. Klein’s Beverly Hills office in recent months.
According to US, Arnold Klein, who had a close relationship with Michael and was Debbie Rowe’s former boss, is the biological of his older children, Prince and Paris: “He is the dad,” says a Jackson insider. “He and Debbie signed an agreement saying they would never reveal the truth.”
A source told TMZ, Michael was not the biological father of any of his children and Debbie Rowe is not the biological mother either. Debbie was just a surrogate that was well paid for her services. This might turn into a complicated matter since Michael never filed legal papers to adopt any of his three children.
Posted in Celebrity
Tagged arnold klein, bumpshack, dr arnold, dr klein, eyelash lengthener, homosexual affair, longtime jackson, nicole kidman, tmz
Comments Off on Michael Jackson’s Dermatologist Publishing Shocker Book
Acting Out Of Fear
"You like me because I’m safe," I said. "You can safely feel contempt for me because I look chareidi but don’t act chareidi. You can have contempt for my Judaism, and yet be secure that I adore you, that my every pore is grateful for your presence in my life. That I need you."
"That is safe," she said. "I’m not sure it is a good basis for a relationship, coming from a place of fear and insecurity."
"Fear and insecurity is just as good a place to come from as confidence and security," I said. "You and I have dangerous tendencies. We sometimes feel confident when we should feel very afraid. We’re sometimes secure about things we should feel very insecure about.
"No emotion is superior to another. It is not always better to feel love than hate, security than insecurity. What’s important is that emotions be congruent to the situation. Sometimes it is good to feel love and other times it is better to feel hate.
"Insecurity and fear are just as valid places to situate a relationship as confidence and security. You could come from confidence and security and make some really stupid decisions."
"I just think you should find security and confidence in yourself and not look to someone else to mother you," she said.
"You can feel totally confident and secure in yourself and still feel fear and insecurity when you are around certain people," he said. "Every one you meet will affect you, no matter how secure you feel. If other people don’t affect you, then there is something very wrong. You are totally closed off.
"No matter how secure you are within yourself, if you are at all sensate, you will be affected by those around you, those you pair off with. You will inevitably feel insecure and afraid. If you never feel those things, you will be dead because you’ve made some stupid choices. If you go outside right now at 11pm on a Saturday in Pico-Robertson and walk the streets, you better feel some fear or you are more likely to get into serious trouble.
"How accurately do you think I see you?"
"Very accurately," she said. "There are some things you don’t understand, but generally, very accurately.
"How accurately do you think I see you?"
"In many ways, not accurately," he said. "Many times you don’t see me for who I am, you just see a trigger for your emotions. You couldn’t articulate my Judaism. Why I do it? How much I do? You have no interest in my body of work. You have no interest in my books."
Posted in Personal
Tagged contempt, insecurity and fear, pore, sensate, stupid choices, stupid decisions
Comments Off on Acting Out Of Fear
Judge Denies Rubashkin Bail Bid
The Des Moines Register reports:
A federal judge has denied Sholom Rubashkin’s request to be released on bail until he is sentenced on 86 financial fraud convictions.
Chief Judge Linda Reade ruled that Rubashkin, the former vice president of Agriprocessors, Inc. poses an escape risk if released.
Rubashkin should remain in jail because of the “powerful incentive to flee” in the wake of his convictions last week, she wrote, as well as his purported efforts to help another indicted manager escape to Israel.
Federal prosecutors argued this week that Rubashkin helped a co-defendant, Hosam Amara, flee the country after a May 2008 immigration raid at the kosher slaughterhouse.
Defense attorneys presented Reade with 1,340 letters from Rubashkin’s supporters, and 43 people who offered the equity to their homes as collateral.Reade acknowledged Rubashkin’s support in the Orthodox Jewish community, and recognized his commitment to his family in the northeast Iowa town of Postville.
“Nevertheless, the court finds that this evidence does not rise to the ‘clear and convincing’ level necessary to show” that Rubashkin will not flee the country, Reade wrote.
Rubashkin was held at the Linn County Correctional Facility this week. His sentencing date has not been set.
Posted in Agriprocessors, Orthodoxy, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged 86 financial fraud convictions, bail, des moines register, escape risk, flee the country, Hosam Amara, Judge Linda Reade, kosher slaughterhouse, Linn County Correctional Facility, northeast iowa, postville, sentencing, Sholom Rubashkin
Comments Off on Judge Denies Rubashkin Bail Bid
Modesty In Blogging
Regarding tzeni’us, however, I find the question perceptive. Tzeni’us is not just about how much skin a woman is showing. As R. Jack Abramowitz writes, in his recently published The Tzniyus Book (pp. 19-20):
Literally, tzniyus means "hidden." The meaning is that certain things are private. Not dirty or shameful, but private. Privacy is a good thing and an important thing…
Similarly, tzniyus means more than just the secular concepts of modesty and privacy. There are major aspects of modest and privacy to be sure, but tzniyus also includes an aspect of humility and an aspect of dignity. Tzniyus refers not only to dress, but also to speech, actions and comportment.
Tzeni’us is about acting dignified and keeping private matters private. Even if you sit in front of your computer with every single inch of your skin covered with baggy clothes, you can still act un-tzni’usdik if you broadcast private things to the world.
ISAAC WRITES JADED TOPAZ:
Do you really believe that there’s no such thing as too much sharing? Do you think it’s appropriate to present every part of your life to everyone you encounter?
If you put stuff in public fora that casts you in a poor light, there doesn’t need to be a malicious party out there for the information to hurt you. Do you really want prospective employers to google you and hear the details of your last date or silly party activities?
Jaded responds: I believe in honest lighting only.
If the details of my dates are intellectually stimulating, fascinating and exciting enough to write about, of course i would want prospective employers to read all about it.
Same goes for partying.
Proper partying in all the right venues is quite the art.
It also works nicely with the ex employers, so they know what they are missing out on.
How else do you expect to have the proper prospective employers pleading with you to come work for them.
serious prissy and goody goody gumdrops oriented is so last season.
EJ posts: I think tzniyus on a blog is much more than content, it’s also the style of writing or strutting or performing.There are many ways of drawing attention to oneself on a blog. One might be witty or have a writing style that draws people in and keeps them coming back. The same for tzniyus in women. One women could be wearing slacks and her hair uncovered and no one pays attention. The next women because of her femininity and natural sexuality could be draped from head to toe and guys will keep on looking.
If tzniyus is also anti styles that draw attention we are in unchartered waters. Is it forbidden to be virtuoso violinist,a stage performer? We are getting close to Taliban country where all is sand and desert.
Posted in Blogging, Judaism
Tagged baggy clothes, gil student, Google, private matters, public fora, silly party
Comments Off on Modesty In Blogging
Feds Dismiss Immigration Charges Against Sholom Rubashkin
The Des Moines Register reports:
Federal prosecutors dismissed all immigration charges against former Postville [Iowa] meat plant manager Sholom Rubashkin today, one week after a South Dakota jury convicted him of 86 business-fraud charges.
The decision spares Rubashkin a second federal trial on 72 immigration-related charges. But the former vice president at Agriprocessors, Inc. still could spend the rest of his life in prison. The maximum sentence for his convictions adds to 1,255 years.
Federal jurors convicted Rubashkin last week of all but five of the 91 business fraud charges listed in a 163-count indictment. But supporters of Rubashkin, the former vice president at Agriprocessors, Inc. in Postville, continued to maintain that he had done nothing illegal.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan Jr., one of three federal prosecutors who argued the case, wrote in court papers that any further convictions “would be entirely eclipsed by (Rubashkin’s) recommended guideline sentence on the counts for which he has already been convicted.”
Deegan said Rubashkin has already been convicted of the most serious charges listed in the indictment. Dismissing the charges also will avoid an extended and costly trial and lessen the inconvenience to possible witnesses, he said…
Deegan also said the jury’s verdicts on several of the fraud and false statement counts were premised, at least in part, upon Rubashkin knowingly making false statements to the bank with regard to the harboring of undocumented aliens at Agriprocessors Inc…
U.S. District Judge Linda Reade issued an order this afternoon which granted the prosecution’s motion to dismiss the immigration charges.
Rubashkin lawyer Guy Cook said he viewed the dismissal of the immigration charges as a victory for his client…
Rubashkin is being held in the Linn County Correctional Center in Cedar Rapids. He is awaiting a ruling by Reade on a request by his lawyers that he be released on bail while he is awaiting sentencing.
Cook said he plans to file a motion this week for a new trial, based on what the defense believes are legal errors in the prosecution and trial of the case. If the new trial motion is not granted, an appeal will be filed, he said.
Wednesday bail hearing turned testy
A bail hearing for Rubashkin turned testy Wednesday when a prosecutor accused him of lying in court.
The bail hearing in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids followed Rubashkin’s conviction last week on 86 counts of financial fraud. His attorneys argued he should be allowed to remain free on bail until he is sentenced. Prosecutors claimed he is a flight risk.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said Rubashkin committed bank fraud when he was released on bail following his initial arrest in October 2008. The accusation sparked a heated exchange between Deegan and Rubashkin, who was on the witness stand.
"When you testified at trial, you didn’t give truthful testimony, did you?" Deegan asked.
"I think you’re lying under cross-examination," Rubashkin responded…
When he was first arrested, Rubashkin’s attorneys said his ties to his 10 children, the expectations of the Jewish community and the financial support of thousands of donors would keep him from leaving the country.
Deegan argued Wednesday that things have changed: Now that Rubashkin faces a certain jail sentence, he’s more likely to leave the country and take his family with him, using the money from donors.
Posted in Agriprocessors, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged bail hearing, business fraud charges, Cedar Rapids, convicted, des moines register, Guy Cook, immigration charges, Iowa, Judge Linda Reade, meat plant, Peter Deegan Jr., postville, Sholom Rubashkin, South Dakota
Comments Off on Feds Dismiss Immigration Charges Against Sholom Rubashkin
Fort Hood Massacre
WASHINGTON — A Senate committee on Thursday opened the first public hearings into the Fort Hood shootings, with several legislators asserting that the incident in which 13 people were killed was a terrorist attack by a homegrown extremist who may have slipped past law enforcement and military authorities…
At the Congressional hearings, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that the Nov. 5 shootings allegedly carried out by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was a “homegrown terrorist attack” and that law enforcement and military agencies may have failed to act appropriately…
But Mr. Lieberman’s hearing made only limited headway because the Obama administration has refused his requests for witnesses from the F.B.I. and Defense Department. Mr. Lieberman said he had spoken with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Mr. Gates, who told him they would cooperate with his inquiry, but did not want to compromise the criminal investigation.
As a result, Mr. Lieberman proceeded with several non-government experts and former officials, including Frances Fragos Townsend, formerly the homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush. She expressed concern that “political correctness,” and fear of intruding on Major Hasan’s free speech rights, may have interfered with the sharing of information earlier this year, when an F.B.I.-led counterterrorism team examined his e-mail exchanges with Anwar al-Awlaki, a well-known radical cleric, but found nothing amiss.
The administration has irritated some lawmakers by trying to delay their inquiries into the shootings, though some committees have postponed investigations, such as the Senate Armed Services Committee. Instead, officials from the Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have provided closed-door briefings for some lawmakers.
Military and law enforcement agencies are also conducting their own internal inquiries…
Posted in FBI, Journalism, New York Times, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged congressional hearings, Fort Hood, Frances Fragos Townsend, homeland security, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, Senate committee, senator joseph lieberman
Comments Off on Fort Hood Massacre
A Sweet Screw-You
Dennis Prager called Artur Davis’s comments "as sweet a screw-you as I’ve ever read."
"We have to remember that line. That’s precious."
Democratic Rep. Artur Davis is the the only African American in Congress representing Alabama, and he was the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to vote against the House Democratic health care bill earlier this month. And yesterday, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson apparently called him out for it.
"You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man," Jackson said Wednesday night, the Hill newspaper reports. Jackson made the remarks at an event hosted by the CBC Foundation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Jackson’s presidential bid.
Jackson later told the Hill he "didn’t call anybody by name," but he noted that the state of Alabama could benefit from health care reform because of its relatively high poverty levels. In a statement to the Hill, Davis avoided conflict with Jackson.
"One of the reasons that I like and admire Rev. Jesse Jackson is that 21 years ago he inspired the idea that a black politician would not be judged simply as a black leader," he said. "The best way to honor Rev. Jackson’s legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race."
Posted in Blacks, Dennis Prager, Politics
Tagged artur davis, cbc foundation, congressional black caucus, Dennis Prager, health care bill, rev jesse jackson
Comments Off on A Sweet Screw-You
Dennis Prager Says New Mammogram Guidelines Are A Taste Of Obamacare
Dennis Prager opened his radio show today: "This latest announcement that women should not get mammograms until they are 50 is a telling statement of what is in store for you if the House and Senate bills are paid.
"Do you know how many women get cancer who are under 50? Did you know that breast cancer is a more virulent strain prior to 50? The higher likelihood of death?
"And what is the downside to the mammogram procedure? Cost.
"How do you think they are going to save all this money? To the extent they do save money, it will be things like this. Don’t get a mammogram. It saves too much.
"Weren’t we told that preventive care would save all this money? Isn’t this preventive care?
"Societally speaking, preventive care does not save money."
"It is almost impossible to understand what is at stake here and support these bills."
"Has a trial lawyer ever saved your life? How about a drug company?"
About a tenth of medical expenses are due to legal expenses. That’s the same proportion that prescriptions make up.
If you want to know how well government will run healthcare, check out how well they’ve done providing the swine flu vaccine. Vaccine makers can be sued for any problems. What’s their incentive to produce if their pay is limited?
A group of female House Republicans used the upset over new guidelines on breast cancer screening issued by an advisory panel earlier this week to highlight what they view as the dangers of government-administered health care and the Democrats’ bill to revamp the system.
It’s “an example of how government-run decisions could be made,” said Representative Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington State, who gathered other female members of her caucus to condemn the findings on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force, said Monday that women should start regular breast cancer screening at age 50, not 40, and that doctors should stop teaching women to examine their breasts on a regular basis.
“This is how rationing began, said Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. “This is the little toe in the water and this is how you start getting health a bureaucrat between you and your health care.”
The women stopped just short of questioning the motives of the government panel as Democrats and the administration look for ways to cut costs should they get their bill through Congress.
“The timing is very curious to me,” Ms. McMorris Rogers said.
The women are joining a chorus of criticism from the medical community, the general public as well as bloggers and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a breast cancer survivor who has cosponsored a bill that would promote the early detection of breast cancer in young women said Tuesday the new guidelines were “very disturbing.”
Posted in Dennis Prager, Health, Politics
Tagged breast cancer screening, cathy mcmorris, cathy mcmorris rogers, Dennis Prager, marsha blackburn, united states preventive services task force
Comments Off on Dennis Prager Says New Mammogram Guidelines Are A Taste Of Obamacare