Susan Boyle Got Ahead On Merit

Dennis Prager said on his radio show yesterday: "People don’t like to see people get ahead through changing the rules. She met the rules. It’s an important subject to me, why the tears?"

Dennis, who often say how he aches to get his views to the world, has put podcasts of his radio show behind a paywall at DennisPrager.com (a subscription costs $7 a month).

Dennis: "I don’t like crowds… Numbers usually don’t bring out the best in people. They usually bring out the worst. People act worse in groups than they do individually… I see it at hockey games. People going crazy where there are fights. When people are cheering, I don’t associate it with the kindest parts of human nature. But here it was. They just wanted [Susan Boyle] to do well…after they heard her sing. She got it on merit. Never underestimate the importance of winning without changing the rules. Affirmative action has been so corrupting to those who benefit because the cheers they know in their heart are not real."

A caller complains that society sees people from the outside and not the inside.

Dennis: "There is no choice. The first recognition of a human being is the outside. We do react… First impressions do matter. That’s why I want people to dress nicely for work and for church. Of course an initial physical impression is made on people… It doesn’t make those upon whom the impression is made superficial. I hope she does get to look better through the fame and money she will undoubtedly garner because I want a man to kiss her. I want a man to love. I want her to have love in her life. Men care about how you look. If that is the only thing a man cares about, he is superficial."

"I love human compassion, but it can’t be the basis of policy. This is the great example. I had tears because of the audience compassion for this woman. That’s what gave me my tears, not her. Their reaction. I was so moved by their cheering this woman."

"The larger government is, the more it deprives people of the opportunity to do goodness. That’s one of many reasons that I loathe the welfare state. It deprives people of the opportunity to take care of their fellow citizen because the state will do it… Socialism and welfare states make people more selfish, not more kind."

Richard LaRuina writes:

If you look in a book shop, you’ll find plenty of books on confidence. Lots of people read them, but when it comes to it, how many people are actually perceived as confident by women in a pick up situation? Let’s take that perspective. We all know that women want a confident guy. That wasn’t much help to me when I was growing up, I knew what they wanted but didn’t know how to give it to them. It needed it to be broken down in a little more detail. That’s what I’m going to do right now. We are going to look at this from the perspective of an attractive woman in a bar or night club.She’s looking around the room and she is making a judgement of whether the guys look confident or not. Who is she drawn to? Guys with good body language could be one answer. Guys who are attractive could be another. A better answer is: Guys who look confident. What determines if a guy looks confident in a night club. It’s very easy…he looks COMFORTABLE. That is why the first C of Confidence is….

Comfort in the Environment
It is impossible to look confident if you are uncomfortable and it is impossible to look unconfident if you are comfortable. Therefore there is 100% overlap

Examples: It is impossible to look confident if you are uncomfortable and it is impossible to look unconfident if you are comfortable. Therefore there is 100% overlap. The barman, DJ, and bouncers and known to do very well with women. They are the most comfortable guys in the place because they are there every night and the environment can’t phase them anymore. Let’s get something clear – the barmen are not high status guys. The other guys in the club could be millionaire business men wearing $10,000 suits and buying bottles of Crystal. The barmen earn very low wages, and are not successful high status guys in any way. It’s purely that they look comfortable. There is no other secret to it.

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What Toll Can Holding Conspiracy Theories Take On Your Relationships?

I met Zan Overall outside the Oscars. He was holding up a sign and protesting Hollywood’s depiction of the Holocaust.

He emails me:

Dear Luke,

In an email you asked me: “When did you first take on what are often called “conspiracy theories” and when did you start proselytizing them? And how did this affect your relationships, friendships, social life etc.?”

Let me answer as briefly and honestly as I can.

My first “conspiracy theory” experience was an interest in UFOs or “flying saucers”  as they were originally called.  I soon came to see that the government was hiding the truth about the phenomenon., as they still do.

Up to that point I had been a good little conformer.  Drafted in 1944.  Trooped into the post theatre with other recruits to view the mind molding film “Why We Fight.”  Bought the whole story.  “Hitler was going to take over the whole world!”  What BS!  He didn’t even want to fight Britain and France and certainly not the U.S., which had defeated Germany in WW I.  Read the book by Pat Buchanan Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War.

When I saw the government covering up the truth about UFO’s I lost my innocence and became what they call a “conspiracy theorist.”

(Here is my definition of the words “conspiracy theory: “Conspiracy Theory” is a demeaning term the power structure applies to a truth it fears.  The term is also used by those toadying up to the power structure.

Example: The “9/11 Truth” movement has proved that our government, not Muslim terrorists, did 9/11.  The power structure calls that idea a “conspiracy theory,” hoping to keep the public from learning of the government’s guilty role in 9/11.  They fear that the rage they have channeled against Muslims would then be directed at them.  They remember Mussolini’s lamp post.)

Oddly enough, flying saucers were no surprise to me as they were to the public In that summer of 1947.  I had been reading books by Charles Fort and had joined the Fortean Society.  In the 1920’s and 1930’s Fort searched through old newspapers, magazines and scientific journals for odd events unexplainable by and therefore ignored by “scientists.”  Included were reports of apparent craft in the sky long before the invention of airplanes. BTW I am not convinced UFO’s come from other planets.

As to the impact of my opinions on UFO’s on my relations with others, most people bought the official debunking and would mock my opinion that something unusual was happening.  I was pretty much a loner so the opinion of people I considered uninformed didn’t bother me.  I did try to persuade and inform them as I was doing on Hollywood Blvd. on Oscar Day.

I came to California for a career as a musician and songwriter.  I had a song of mine recorded by Stan Kenton.  Called “Falling.”  I tried to get more cuts, thinking it would be easy……You might enjoy this. My 4 or 5 year old son would see me at the piano working on songs.  One day the songs were not on the piano and I was dressed up and carrying a briefcase. My son asked where I was going and I said “I’m going into Hollywood to sell my songs.”
His face fell and he asked “Don’t you want them any more?”

I became discouraged with songwriting (although I did get a cut on RCA- Victor of a song called “Love Has Come, Love Has Gone.”).  I distracted myself studying UFOs and becoming involved in the silly feuds and controversies within the “Ufology” community.  Mea culpa. That’s French.

In the early 1990’s I became interested in the crop circle phenomenon and still am.  I give talks on the subject, illustrated with slides.  It is a true (and beautiful) mystery.  Anyone reading this who sees crop circle formations
only as hoaxes could be dissuaded from that opinion by attending a talk of mine.  The same goes with a talk I give on the phony Apollo Missions which got no closer to the Moon than LEO, Low Earth Orbit.  I call the talk: “Americans Walked on the Moon: Don’t Bet On It.”

I lost some of the respect of my children and first wife for the time I spent on UFOs. I had a job for twelve years as a photographer at Rocketdyne during that period.  I didn’t allow my hobbies to keep me from fulfilling my familial duties, nor do I now. Mea non culpa.

I am putting more emphasis on songwriting these days and will attach a song I am pushing now, called “Who Is That Old Woman?.’  Will attach a recording. I am still an activist in two fields, issues I think are important to the country. 

(1) The 9/11 fraud, which has this country engaged in ruinous wars fighting Israel’s Muslim enemies for her, all based on a false claim that Muslims did 9/11.  I defended that view earlier. 
(2) Debunking the conventional version of the Holocaust.  This ever changing lie has this country wrapped around Israel’s little finger.

When I say “ever changing lie,” I am referring to things like: the now abandoned lies about soap and lampshades; the abandoned claim that homicidal gas chambers existed in camps in Germany proper; the retreat to the East with the claim that the gas chambers were really in Poland at Auschwitz (“Yeah! That’s the ticket!”-Jon Lovitz); the dwindling Jewish deaths claimed there (four million down to less than one million) without diminishing the magical “six million” figure and without triggering a refund of some of the billions extorted from Germany and Austria.  Perhaps the check is in the mail.

My present wife agrees with me regarding UFOs, crop circles, Israeli abuse of Palestinians, the Moon hoax and 9/11 as an inside job.  However, she clings to the Holocaust story and will not look at any contrary evidence.  We have reached a modus vivendi.  We don’t discuss the subject.

I hope this answers your question, Luke.  As I said earlier, my shortcomings have no bearing on the truth or falsity of any opinion I hold. I am prepared to defend my views. Holocaust revisionists are prepared and eager to debate but no one wants to debate them.  That should tell you something.

You asked about my proselytizing. That started as soon as I reached a firm opinion on any controversial subject.  I did not “hit the streets” until I got into the 9/11 Truth Movement.  I like to do one man informational demonstrations. Before the Oscar thing I paraded in front of Bryan Singer’s office in Burbank with much the same message: that the current spate of Hitler/Holocaust movies are propaganda.  I recently did a one man demonstration in front of  the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, handing out a two page flyer called “A 9/11 Truth Activist Watches the Academy Awards.”  (I’ll attach a copy.)

I have called in to a lot of radio talk shows.  Doug McIntyre knows me well.  He had me on his late night radio show for a whole night talking “conspiracy theories.”  Dennis Miller knows me well but I am persona non grata there now.
Won’t take my calls.

I have no apology for proselytizing or demonstrating.  When the presstitutes have blocked contrariant opinions from print and the airwaves, you do what you can.

Both sides proselytize.  When Bush or No Change Obama says Muslim terrorists did 9/11 they are proselytizing.  Every time Abe Foxman inveighs against “Holocaust Deniers” he is proselytizing. Every time a busload of innocent schoolchildren go through the shabby Shoah show at the Museum of Tolerance they are being proselytized.  Big time!

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JTA Vs The Blogosphere

Jewlicious reports:

To summarize, the JTA sent out a fundraising letter that insulted bloggers and tweeters. The JBloggers got pissed and the JTA backtracked. That should have been the end of it right? But then the Forward picked up the story and interviewed blogger Dan Brown and JTA’s Dan Sieradski. It seemed like an innocuous piece until Sieradski tweeted the following “Is Dan Brown kidding? http://ow.ly/2ttG Maybe I should post the emails which show why he’s really mad at JTA…” The Forward article stated that Sieradski was “Formerly a leading blogger known for his provocative commentary” who stated in response to this kerfuffle “Now I’m learning what it feels like to get a taste of my own medicine.” Sieradski however clearly still knows how to dish it out, not just in response to Dan Brown but also on Luke Ford’s blog where he publicly accused Ford of thievery for using JTA’s content and generally insulted him. This is some very heady stuff. Especially since the JTA has no problem quoting extensively from other sources (6 paragraphs from TMZ here). And if I may, the last thing I read from the JTA was so ill informed, I had to read it twice…

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Refusing To Eat In Other People’s Homes

Rabbi Gil Student writes: "There is a practice among some to refrain from eating at the home of others on Passover (what I believe some call "mishing"). While it is difficult to pin down a label of permissible or forbidden on this practice, I was wondering whether this custom is proper or not. It seems to imply that other people are insufficiently religious and that you don’t trust their kosher standards. That doesn’t seem like a good thing to do. I’d like to suggest that it is a dispute between Rashi and Tosafos whether this practice is proper."

Eskimo posts to Hirhurim: There are a lot of Jews that truly don’t want to offend others. There are a lot of communal rabbis, especially in smaller towns, that don’t eat out as a rule. The ideal would be that everyone is careful about kashrus, and everyone is frum. But that isn’t reality. What about people who don’t keep kosher at all, or barely, and aren’t shomer shabbos who a rabbi invites over? Would Tzvi call it "offensive and obnoxious" for the rabbi to say that he doesn’t eat out when the offer to reciprocate comes? Or is it better to eat with some but not others? Or should kashrus just go out the window because of k’vod habrios, which is also a d’oraisa?

I just had a rebbitzen widow at my table. She told me that there was a family that came to her house on Pesach for many years. One year, the family wanted to reciprocate. The rebbitzen explained (nicely) that she couldn’t eat at the house of someone who wasn’t religious. The woman was very offended and said, "I feel sorry for you." They didn’t come again on Pesach.

This was a no-win situation, of course, because (as anyone who has lived in a smaller community knows) it is exactly this sort of person who will be offended, not the person who keeps yoshon and cholov yisroel. Would it have been better if she had said, "We don’t eat out at all?" I don’t know the answer. Do you, Tzvi?

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Immigration News

From CIS.org:

1. Backgrounder: “The Appearance of Security”
2. Blog: “No Surprise Here”
3. Blog: “‘Undocumented Americans’?”
4. Blog: “No ‘Progress by Pesach’”
5. Blog: “McCaskill Pulling a Gillibrand?”
6. Blog: “Judge: ACLU Wrong on E-Verify”
7. Blog: “That’s Enough Culture for Now”

— Mark Krikorian]

1.
The Appearance of Security
REAL ID Final Regulations vs. PASS ID Act of 2009
By Janice Kephart
CIS Backgrounder, April 2009
http://www.cis.org/PASSID

EXCERPT: The move toward more secure issuance of state identification documents may be in jeopardy. The most recent iteration of the National Governors Association secure ID bill circulating the Senate for signatures for possible introduction, the “Providing for Additional Security in States’ Identification Act of 2009” or PASS ID Act, gives the appearance of security for drivers licenses and non-driver IDs (DL/ID) when, in fact, security does not exist. The PASS ID Act would provide for insecure issuance practices by the states that, for the most part, were in place prior to 9/11. In many ways, the PASS ID Act is a step backward for most states, or at least an endorsement of the status quo, because nearly all states are implementing elements of the REAL ID Act1 — the 2005 measure designed to raise state ID standards in response to the 9/11 attacks — even in states that have passed legislation that precludes REAL ID implementation. However the new bill’s mandate to verify an ID applicant’s legal presence in the United States by 2013 is voluntary, as any state can opt out of PASS ID Act requirements.

2.
No Surprise Here
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, April 11, 2009
http://www.cis.org/Krikorian/KyleWingfieldAtAJC

So, the Atlanta paper has selected its new conservative editorial columnist, the result of a contest to fill the affirmative-action position. I’m sure Kyle Wingfield is a prince of a man and an engaging writer — but it’s no accident that he supports open borders: ‘I have seen the segregation and inhumanity that result from being unable to stop immigrants from coming to your country, but managing to stop them from working in your country and integrating into your society.’ (And yes, he does write editorials for the Wall Street Journal, thanks for asking.) From his brief intro piece (his column won’t start ‘til next month), he seems to be against cap and trade, Card Check, and the nanny state in general — all sound views the liberals at the AJC editorial page would recoil from. But he can get away with all that because, like I always say, open borders is the immutable value of the Left.

3.
‘Undocumented Americans’?
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, April 9, 2009
http://www.cis.org/Krikorian/MayDayAmnestyParades

EXCERPT: Here’s an e-mail alert about the upcoming May Day amnesty parades (no word on whether the Politburo will be in the viewing stands):

4.
No ‘Progress by Pesach’
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, April 9, 2009
http://www.cis.org/Krikorian/NoProgressByPesach%22

EXCERPT: Now that Passover (Pesach) has started, it’s worth looking at the results of Jewish pro-amnesty groups’ campaign called Progress by Pesach, to light a fire under Congress and the White House to get moving on ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’ This is of more than parochial interest because the effort was led by HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, whose president, Gideon Aronoff, is now chairman of the National Immigration Forum (the national umbrella group for open-borders advocacy) and as such the paramount chief of the amnesty movement. (This is the same guy Derb debated a couple years back.) It was supported by all the big national Jewish organizations, and there was a concerted effort to blacklist one of the few dissenters, the Center’s Stephen Steinlight.

5.
McCaskill Pulling a Gillibrand?
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, April 9, 2009
http://www.cis.org/Krikorian/McCaskillonDreamAct

EXCERPT: Sen. Claire McCaskill, the rare Democratic immigration hawk, is apparently growing in office — she’s said she’ll likely vote for the DREAM Act amnesty if it comes up this year.

6.
Judge: ACLU Wrong on E-Verify
By Jon Feere
CIS Blog, April 8, 2009
http://www.cis.org/Feere/RhodeIslandEVerifyRuling

EXCERPT: Rhode Island’s Superior Court has dismissed an ACLU lawsuit aimed at stopping the use of E-Verify. It is a significant loss for the ACLU and a big win for state government.

7.
That’s Enough Culture for Now
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, April 6, 2009
http://www.cis.org/Vaughan/ThatsEnoughEnoughCulture

EXCERPT: Kudos to the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchanges for taking steps to curb use of certain temporary work visas as unemployment rates continue to rise in the United States. Deputy Asst. Secretary Stanley Colvin, who heads the bureau, recently sent a letter to organizations that sponsor summer work exchange programs asking them to voluntarily cut back on the number of visiting workers, noting that it could be very hard to place them in jobs this year. The Summer Work Travel Program is one of 15 “J visa” exchange programs run by the State Department that bring in 400,000 foreign workers, students, and exchange visitors each year. The summer workers typically work as lifeguards, ice cream scoopers, camp counselors, and produce stand clerks – the kind of jobs that would otherwise be held by American teenagers.

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I’m Not As Bad As Richard Yates

Over Shabbos, I finished Blake Bailey’s superb biography of novelist Richard Yates.

I love reading biographies of great writers because I usually find that they share my flaws and yet have done great things. It gives me hope.

Yates had many mental breakdowns. During one episode, he ran around a friend’s house naked, urinating on the walls.

At least I’ve never done that.

Yates was frantic to excuse his alcoholism and breakdowns, frequently claiming "epilepsy."

Yates was always looking for a hot young chick to rescue him.

As he moved through his fifties and grew more frail, that became impossible.

He was terribly lonely. When he succeeded at seducing women, he was unable to finish the job (due to his alcoholism). Before falling asleep with his guest, he’d plead, "Please don’t leave."

Yates left his apartment unlocked because he knew he’d only lose his keys if he carried them around.

There was rarely anything in his hovels worth stealing.

During his last couple of years, he was sustained by his friendship with an admiring novelist and former Warner Brothers exec — Susan Baudy.

Yates finished his life at the University of Alabama. "The ordeal of looking after him, though, had been of such Sisyphean proportions…" (Pg. 582)

"As a driver Yates soon became a familiar sight in Tuscaloosa: a gaunt whiskered old man hunched over the wheel of his tiny car, a cigarette smoldering in one fist while the other clasped an oxygen mask to his face — "a bomb on wheels" as one student put it."

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A Torah Perspective On The Recession

STBO posts to Hirhurim: I can’t figure out why I or anyone else would buy this book. It’s very hard to imagine anything in this book that doesn’t apply to life every single day of every year (e.g. ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’, ‘the world is bigger than your bank account’, ‘keep things in perspective’, ‘don’t panic’, etc. etc. etc.). We’ve heard these mussar / "chassidus" lessons ad infinitum. What’s new here? Vortlach about impoverished chassidim back in Europe?

Are people honestly unable to figure out that "Prayer will bring you closer to God"? And that they need to pay attention to the words?

The making of many books can be a weariness of the flesh and it doesn’t reflect well on us as a community that we have a new little pocket self-help tagalong for every contingency. It suggests a severe lack of willingness of many people to think on their own, even about their own lives.

…I worry generally about the number of books being published today that are not of lasting value. A book can serve a useful contemporary self-help purpose for a year or two… but is it something that somebody would pick up 20 years from now and find valuable? For the majority of "seforim" published today the answer is clearly no.

As bad, it seems like we’ve lost the ability to distinguish between temporary self-help value and enduring worth.

As a community we also seem largely focused these days on moving from ‘crisis to crisis’, seeking what are in reality (even if they appear otherwise) local tactical fix-ups while there are severe strategic problems surrounding us. And again we don’t have the insight to note the difference between the two. I just see books of this overall genre being a symptom of that state–lots of words, but going nowhere in particular.

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Skipping The Second Seder In Israel

Haaretz reports:

In the area of Cleveland where Menachem Hecht used to live, two Modern Orthodox synagogues are located right next to each other. The rabbi of one synagogue ruled that people who don’t intend to move to Israel must observe two days of Yom Tov (religious holiday), even when they are spending the holiday there. The other rabbi allows his congregants to keep just one day when they are in Israel.

"I follow the rabbi who said it’s okay to keep just one day," laughed Hecht, 27, who now lives in New York and this week arrived in Jerusalem to spend Passover here. "There are a couple of serious reasons why I chose to go with the more lenient position," he added, explaining that a while ago he invested in a piece of property in Israel and that he plans to move here in the "near" but still undetermined future.

Hecht is not alone. An increasing number of Modern Orthodox Jews in the Diaspora seek – and receive – their rabbis’ permission to observe just one day, even without contemplating immigration. "There has been a big shift," said Hecht, who teaches at the Frisch High School in New Jersey. "When I studied in a yeshiva in Israel, some ten years ago, all my American friends kept two days. Nowadays, most of the Modern Orthodox kids I teach only observe one day when they’re in Israel. The one-day phenomenon has definitely taken root."

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Dear God, Why Is There A Naked Lady In My Haggadah?

Rabbi Gil Student writes:

There was always one passage that stuck out in my youthful mind because it refers to a naked woman with a little detail (see below). As I grew older and learned what the passage means from a rabbinic perspective (naked of mitzvos), I still wondered why there wasn’t a way of expressing that which did not include such provocative language.

In the recently published Haggadah from R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik (link), he explains this (pp. 68-69):

"Numerous" — as it is said: "I caused you to thrive like the plants of the field, and you increased and grew and became very beautiful, your bosom fashioned and your hair grown long, but you were naked and bare. (Ezek. 16,7)

Gidon Rothstein writes: "I think the original reaction is interesting, since Yehezkel seems not to have worried about that. I ran into this in my recent book, Cassandra Misreads the Book of Samuel, since I included some such sections, almost all of them based on Tanach, and yet readers were surprised and/or offended. Maybe, sometimes, we are sensitive to what Tanach thought was reasonable and appropriate."

Anon writes: "We have the unusual stuff in the beginning for the kids to ask and stay up, when the immature teen start acting up a bit later in the hagada, we put this in to keep them interested, gil we did it for you."

Y. Aharon writes: "R’ Gil: Your question is but a reflection of the great cultural difference between traditional Western or Victorian values and that of ancient times in the Middle East. In the times of Yechezkel or in the late Tana’itic times when the passage was inserted to expand the biblical text for vidui bikurim (Sifrei, Ki Tavo), it would not have been considered problematic or shocking. Prophets do use sexual imagery to convey graphic lessons, comparing Israel to a harlot, etc. Here the imagery is very cogent. The time had come for Ya’akov’s extended family/nation to undergo a dramatic change from abject and oppressed slaves to a free people. Yet, they were unprepared, both physically and spiritually for such a change. They had come of age physically, but their conditions were unpromising and barren. However, the bloody mess that they were in was, yet, the sign that they were being prepared for a new relationship, and the necessary precursor for it."

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She Calls Herself Rabbi

The Jewish Week’s Elicia Brown reports:

As an egalitarian Jewish woman and a chronicler of the Orthodox feminist movement, I would have been thrilled if the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale’s Rabbi Weiss had ordained Hurwitz as a rabbi (as rumors initially suggested might happen). But meeting Hurwitz in her tiny office space at the Hebrew Institute, where a baby’s bouncy seat rests beneath shelves of Jewish texts, I think perhaps others might be missing the miracle of the moment.
After all, as Hurwitz says, she “functions in the same capacity as a rabbi.”
When Hurwitz was 17, before she began Barnard College, her parents insisted that she take a vocational exam to determine what course of study to pursue. When the exam directed her to the clergy, Hurwitz laughed heartily, and then turned her attention to occupational therapy. It would be more than three years before even the first congregational interns would be hired, giving women a junior role alongside the rabbinic staff in Orthodox synagogues.
As an Orthodox woman, Hurwitz cannot serve as a religious witness or lead a complete service, but when she’s officiating at a funeral or filling the role of pastor at a hospital — or even when she’s getting a haircut, she calls herself “rabbi.” It’s simpler that way. “If you’re calling the funeral director and he asks, ‘Well, who are you?’ If you say, ‘I’m the rabbi here,’ the tone totally changes.”

….Hurwitz communicates frequently with the four other Orthodox women who hold leadership positions at American synagogues. As a group, they have requested inclusion in the newly formed association for Modern Orthodox rabbis, the International Rabbinic Fellowship.
And?
“We’ve just been finally invited to participate, but not necessarily with full membership.”
That’s disappointing, I observe.
“It is,” she concurs, laughing gently. “I just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If I keep thinking about the barriers I don’t think I would be here.”

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