Stephen Steinlight On Immigration Reform

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Luke Ford

Stephen emails:

Dear Friends, First of all a Shana Tovah and a Good Yontif! It’s been too, too long, and I’m sending my heartfelt wishes for a splendid and sweet year. I’m sending this statement — placed in the record of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship by Senator Sessions –for yesterday’s hearings titled "Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Faith-Based Perspectives."

The piece, based on comments I delivered on a CIS panel held at the National Press Club last week (I was joined by a brilliant Catholic priest, Dominique Perdians, and my Evangelical friend Jim Edwards) addresses two important issues: the stunning emptiness, Scriptural shoddiness, insincerity, and sheer childishness of the arguments advanced by members of the "faith community" in support of open-borders immigration, and the outrageous conduct of this Committee, Chaired by the unctuous and intellectually dishonest Charles Schumer, who restricted testimony to religious spokespersons that support "comprehensive immigration reform."

The attached testimony submitted for the record — since faith-based opponents of "comprehensive immigration reform" like me were not permitted to address the Committee — both protests the assault on open debate and freedom of expression as well as challenges the sloppy thinking and shoddy exegesis of religious supporters of amnesty and open borders.

It’s a strong and elegant piece that received very positive responses from the large group of people that attended the event at the National Press Club.

I hope you might consider publishing it in full or in part, or citing it, and might also suggest whom else I should approach in the Jewish press or in the community of bloggers who could help get the word out.

Thanks very much for reviewing it and thanks in advance for your help.

I’ll be back in touch — on a more personal level — at the end of the month when I return from Dallas — where I’ve got seven speaking engagements. So much for Aronoff’s attempt at blacklisting me.

Warm regards and b’shalom,
Steve Steinlight

http://www.cis.org/statement_on_faith_and_immigration

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Luke Ford’s Grotto! Kids Will Love It!

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Luke Ford

A friend who’s converting to Judaism emails me: "I was talking to my mom on the phone just now, trying to explain to her what a sukkah is. I told her it was like a hut, a temporary dwelling place, like what the Israelites lived in. Then she said, "Oh, is that what Mr. Ford lives in? He lives in a sukkah?" She’s been reading your blog, she said. I could’ve died. Mr. Ford lives in a sukkah year-round."

Mickey Kaus blogs:

Creepy on so many levels. … 1) He just died; 2) He wasn’t that important. This isn’t Winston Churchill. (The vacuity of David Gregory just makes him seem like Winston Churchill); 3) They’ve recreated the way his office looked on the day he died. Morbid! 4) It’s like they’re trying to build some kind of cult of the personality, with the family willingly invading its own privacy to help out (‘Look, there’s Luke’s childhood drawing’); 5) Making a big deal of Russert’s I-love-the-Bills schtick assumes it’s shocking that a high-level Washington news guy would be an ordinary middle class American. Bureau chiefs, they’re just like us! 6) Does the exhibit include an animatronic NBC butler?** 7) Will it include Lloyd Grove’s famous, damning profile of Russert-on-the-make? 8) Self-important, dying industry attempts to fetishize its prominent members before it is completely forgotten. 9) NBC News in particular seems to be living in the past. …

Coming soon: Luke Ford’s Grotto! Kids will love it. …

P.S.: I’m sure Gawker goes to town on this, but I haven’t read Gawker yet. Update: They do. Jack Shafer beat me to mockery too. By hours. Lucky for me speed isn’t important in this business. [The contrarian thing would be to defend the exhibit–ed Defending Russert can’t be contrarian. That violates a law of physics.]

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One Man Who Deserved The Nobel Peace Prize

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Luke Ford

I broke the news to a liberal friend this morning.

She responded: "For what?"

I laughed.

"For what did he win the Nobel Prize?" she said. "Was it Afghanistan? Iraq? I don’t get it."

Bridget Johnson writes: "Was there ANYONE who deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more this year than Morgan Tsvangirai? All politics aside — he hasn’t done anything yet!! Tsvangirai has put his life on the line (been arrested, beaten, survived assassination plots) to battle the tyrannical rule of Mugabe. There are few so ballsy."

The Los Angeles Times reports: Many Afghans are illiterate, and people in the countryside, by and large, had never heard of the Nobel prizes. But even among the educated elite in big cities such as Kabul, there was some bemusement over President Obama’s selection.

"I’m not sure I understand — this isn’t for peace here, is it?" said bank worker Homaira Reza. "Because we haven’t got any."

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Sick

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Luke Ford

I’ve felt like crap since Rosh Hashanah, almost three weeks ago. Every time I feel like I am getting better and I return to yoga and I get some exercise and I try to resume a normal life, I get sick again.

I’ve asked around and this seems to be common. People who are normally in great health have been feeling sick for weeks.

This is a flu-like thing that is not severe enough to stay home. Almost everyone I talk to who is sick is still going to work, but they’re dragging through their day and then going home to crash.

I just want to be able to dance with the Torah by Saturday night, Simchat Torah.

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Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis – The Pride of the Jews

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Luke Ford

From a ballet gala in NYC Wednesday, oy, how good it is to be a yid!

According to Wikipedia: Milena "Mila" Kunis[1] (Ukrainian: ?????? ???????? ?????, Russian: ?????? ????ο??? ?????; born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Her television work includes the role of Jackie Burkhart on That ’70s Show and the voice of Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy. She has also played roles in film, such as Rachel Jansen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and as Mona Sax in Max Payne.

Kunis was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, to a Jewish family.[2][3] Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher and drug store manager, and her father, Mark Kunis, is a mechanical engineer and cab company executive.[1] She also has an older brother. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991.[1][4] Despite reports to the contrary, Kunis did not learn English from watching The Price Is Right.[5] In Los Angeles, she attended Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle School. She was mostly taught by an on-set tutor for her high school years while taping That ’70s Show. When not on the set, she attended Fairfax Senior High School. She briefly attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.[6]

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‘Are You A Rabbi?’

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Luke Ford

At a succah party tonight, I ran into my yoga teacher. She has three kids who she sends to an Orthodox day school.

Her four year old said to me, "You have a beard. You must be a rabbi."

I got so flummoxed, I shook up the bottle of berry-flavored water that was handed to me and then I opened it. It exploded everywhere.

The boy loved it. He grabbed a bottle, shook it up, and tried to open it. "I want to make an explosion too," he said.

He’s in his experimenting stage. He sits in his mom’s kitchen and starts mixing food coloring and stuff and when his mom reproves him, he says he’s doing science.

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Are Blogs Good For The Jews?

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Gil Student writes for The Jewish Press:

It is extremely important that we all remember the laws of lashon ha’ra apply to all forms of communication. The same standards we see in newspapers should be expected from blogs, but the same leniencies for talking about communally important issues also apply when appropriate. Not everything is lashon ha’ra. There are important discussions that we, as a community, need to have and there is critical information we need to disseminate. While newspapers and newsletters used to shoulder this entire burden, some of that has now shifted to the less formal but more immediate medium of blogs.

Nevertheless, we must be ever vigilant to avoid reading or writing defamation. It is the responsibility of every blogger to discuss these issues with his rabbis, and of every reader to ask the same halachic questions he does regarding any sort of reading material.

Just as we do not discourage people from finding appropriate books in the library despite the vast amount of inappropriate material there, we similarly encourage them to find the right ways to use this tool that is redefining life in our day.

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The Spiritual Lives Of Sex Workers

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Luke Ford

Joe emails: "I had a fascinating experience on my way back from Vegas the other day. Sitting next to me was a moderately attractive very immaculately dressed young woman reading a book called “The Holy Science”, which is a nineteenth century Hindu attempt at reconciling yoga and the new testament. Turns out that she’s in the “adult entertainment” industry, named Sophia Shanti, if I got it right. I went back to my book but was curious about the spiritual life of porn stars. One would think that generally they’d have to be pretty dead inside, no? Or is there something about this kind of new agey stuff and sexuality? I was surprised about her line of work as she looked very clean and put together on the plane, I would have taken her for a business secretary or paralegal."

As Dennis Prager says, people who want to be spiritual but not religious typically want the benefits of practicing an organized religion without paying the costs. Anyone can feel spiritual. I can imagine that murdering people could feel very spiritual. Going to yoga makes me feel spiritual. It’s easy to imagine you are getting a spiritual high. It’s easy to imagine that one is living a spiritual life. There’s no behavioral code for the "spiritual." They just do what they like.

In my understanding, "spirituality" refers to the part of life that can not be reduced to chemistry. It is the realm that is beyond the physical. As such, it is hard to put your hands on it. In fact, it is impossible to put your hands on it.

Because it is amorphous, spirituality is open to anyone, even sex workers.

Jack emails: "Neurologically, there is evidence that lesions in the amygdala lead to a syndrome of hypersexuality combined with a bizarre religiosity, so perhaps its all chemical in the end."

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Track The Valedictorians

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Luke Ford

Jeff emails: "the idea is to write a series that tracks the valedictorians of both yula and shalhevet. to be fair you dont use their names just yula 200X or shalhevet 200X. start with 2004 bec those students should be done with college and work backwards. i am sure with your contacts you can dig up lots of info. the idea is to show which schools top students are still frum… how many have intermarried, who may even be openly gay. this can be a tremendous resource to a parent looking for a high school. I’m about to spend over 100K in the next 4 years. lets see how the schools top students ended up!"

Speaking of Shalhevet and YULA, I had the opportunity over the past few weeks to speak to various students at these schools. I was struck by how much they loved their schools. A YULA student praised his teachers, saying "they’re like professors!"

A Shalhevet high school student said: "It’s just so much fun. They give you tons of homework, but they’re constantly springing surprises on us. The other day, we all piled in buses and went to the beach. The principal (of general studies) Phu Tranchi served in the peace corps. He’s more comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. He comes to school on a motorcycle. How cool is that?"

According to Shalhevet.org: Phu Tranchi is in his second year as the Principal of General Studies. After receiving his Master of Science Degree in Physiological Science at UCLA in 1997, Mr. Tranchi joined the US Peace Corps and served in Kenya, East Africa, as a teacher and community development planner from 1997-2000. Soon after returning from Africa, he joined the Shalhevet Faculty eight years ago as a science teacher. He was the Science Department Chair for the past three years and continues to teach Advanced Placement Chemistry. Mr. Tranchi is devoted to a more progressive educational model for the high school, implementing models from a recently attended Summer Institute for Principals at Harvard University. He is married to Melanie Berkey, Chair of the English Department.

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Luke & Chocolate Moose

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Luke Ford

My favorite rotweiler/boxer:

Chaim Amalek emails: "How many roofies did it take?"

Khunrum emails: "What is that, The Hound of the Baskervilles? and what’s the beast doing spreading fleas in the Hovel? I don’t even let dogs in my house much less sleeping next to Rin Tin Tin. UUUUURRRRGGHHH! Highly unsanitary my dear Ford. You could catch Hound Flu.”

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