The Budget Crisis Facing the LAUSD is a Red Herring

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Nachum Shifren (WWW.RabbiFor26.com) emails:

There are some things that people refuse to speak, even if they are true. We live in a culture that is so ingrained with "cultural sensitivities" that some issues may not, cannot, be discussed for fear of crossing the lines of comfortable discourse. So it is with the LAUSD.

When the howling and yelping by the District and teachers’ unions is decoded, the following translation will show:

1) The District will never tell the REAL truth of the budget paralysis: 25% of the students are illegal aliens, non-English speakers. These students are the basis of the "50,000,000" lunches and breakfasts served by the District. They are using precious resources that could be used by American students who are ALREADY AT RISK of failure and dropping out of school.

2) The article by the Daily News proves that the "arts" are being taught on the back of basic education courses (history). Why? Is this the "kumbaya" melody that everyone so jokingly hums in the District? The kids have been so impacted by dumbed-down academics that elective courses have supplanted core academics. This, at a time when only 25% of our students can pass a basic Calif. High School Exit Exam!

Where is the oversight here, and how has this scam been allowed to keep ripping off the taxpayers?

3) Cafeteria workers? Who said that the District’s recent $200,000,000 contract, including benefits, health care, ret irement FOR PART-TIME CAFETERIA WORKERS was to be implimented on the backs of the education of our children? To anyone other than the deaf and dumb, the District is acting as a welfare system (and a lousy one at that), without concern for the swollen, deficit-riddled budget that instead should be designed to put our students in competitive status for critical thinking and technological know-how. Visit any campus breakfast program, and you’ll be challenged to find how the tripe that is served can translate to wholesome, vitamin-rich, low salt, low calorie nutritiion. If you wanted to stop teenage obeisity and sluggish brain capacity, the cafeteria would be a great place to declare a moratorium.

How’s this for a way to save teacher jobs and vital academic resources: MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN LUNCH. TRY BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN CHILD! I know of no responsible parent that would trust the fare offered by those super nutrition experts at LAUSD. If your contention is that the families have  no money for lunch, then we need to find another country that will agree to feed those illegals mentioned.

4)  LAUSD has wasted over $400,000,000 on the Belmont learning center. Another $300,000,000 has been scandalously twiddled away on another school. We just couldn’t do without that albatross of a pet Latino project located over a methane gas field.  Note: those responsible are still on the job, not missing a paycheck, and will certainly collect fat pensions. We can’t have any vigilantes seeking to have t hese criminals fired now, can we? That might be interpreted as "culturally insensative."

5)  Board member Marguerite Lamotte was instrumental in putting the kabash on former Mayor Richard Riordan’s offer to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe more, for a Marshall Plan in raising academic achievement at drop-out plagued Dorsey High. Statewide, Dorsey is ranked as one of the lowest achieving schools. Why would anyone refuse help, in light of the horrific financial reality we face with the present budget deficit? Answer: more criminal negligence on the part of the Board, with not a little racism mixed in. Not a peep from the rest of the Board, nor from the Mayor. All’s well in La La land, and the hell with the children who are criminally promoted without survival skills, onward to our already bulging State Prisons.

6) The Daily News article omits much of the budget nightmare, and just like everyone else in this city, seeks to placate a seething cauldron of social dysfunction. A serious and immediate audit willl find untold milliions of dollars wasted on "campus security." It is a known fact that the District is pandering to Black and Hispanic gangs, and will do anything humanly possible  to retain them, despite the cost and loss of untold thousands of hours of wasted class time due to discipline issues. Students that want to study MUST LEAVE THE DISTRICT SO THEY ARE NOT HARRASSED OR DISADVANTAGED BY BULLIES OR GANGBANGERS. In the poorest of inner city schools, the responsible students are made to feel GUILTY for their diligence and desire to excel, putting them often times at risk. The facts on the ground (in the hood) are, that the gangs are running the show! Bloods vs.Crips, Crips vs. Los Nortenos, MS13 vs Crips, 18th St. Gang vs. MS13, ad nauseum. Counselors must check a list of "gangs on campus" before they transfer a hoodlum out of a school to another (this is what they call an "opportunity transfer"). Serious offenders and predators are allowed to ravage and rampage at will. No consequences, no intervention with any accountability, just "chill" and let bygones be bygones. Meanwhile, the taxpayers must bear an increasing NON-ACADEMIC burden of students, many of them in this country illegally, that have hamstrung our system, laughing at us all the while. These troublemakers feel no heat–indeed, they are socially promoted, they "walk the stage" for their diplomas, and we are all supposed to feel good about a non-education that costs us more than $12,000 per year, per student.

7) From the above we can conclude: we are probably wasting about 80% of the taxpayers’ money on nonsense that passes for socially sensitized, feel-good stuff that resembles education.

We are failing our students, putting our city under siege with an army of students without skills, raising their level of frustration and expectation to the breaking point, and setting ourselves up for racial disharmony and backbiting. We have abandoned our once great schools to the misfits and academically disadvantaged. Just ask the UTLA membership where their children attend school: 60% of them send their children to private schools.

What is needed in LAUSD is not just some belt tightening: We need a revolution for the sake of our students, and the very survival of our city.

Rabbi Shifren
Candidate for State Senate, District #26
WWW.RabbiFor26.com

"If we had 10 more teachers like Rabbi Shifren, we could turn America around tomorrow."     Rev. Jesse Lee Petersen

ANON ENIGMA EMAILS LUKE:

Don’t you check anything before you post it?  Your Rabbi Shifren is a clueless crackpot.  He alleges that only 25% of students pass the High School Exit Exam.  If you check the California Dept. of Education website, you’ll see that nearly 70% of 10th graders passed each section this year.  That doesn’t mean that students in LAUSD are doing well, but that’s the kind of discrepancy that calls into question every assertion this Rabbi Shifren makes.

I’d also like to know where he gets the $12,000 per year figure for per student spending and the absurd statistic that 60% of teachers union members send their children to private schools.

Rabbi Shifren is an imbalanced, immigrant-bashing liar – bad for the Jews, bad for the children of this city, bad for humanity.

Luke, you should be ashamed for giving his poison a platform.

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Failed Messiah On A Tear

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Luke Ford

Failed Messiah reports:

I broke this story a month ago and then added to Monday night. The JTA’s report is clearly based on these two posts.

The JTA skips all mention of the involvement of Chabad’s national prison outreach organization, the Aleph Institute, and skips all mention of Chabad’s attempt to cover up its fundraising for Rubashkin (in part because it is using tax deductible donations for Rubashkin’s legal defense), and totally misses the story of Chabad’s failure to help the victims of Rubashkin’s alleged crimes – victims who are overwhelmingly non-Jews.

It also did not check with legal experts or the IRS to see if Chabad’s use of tax deductible donations is legal. Chabad is using this tax deductible money in part to advocate for and protect a private for-profit business. And the "fund" Shea Hecht mentions itself is comprised of tax deductible donations.

The JTA also fails to mention that the Aleph Institute started its legal defense fund exactly at the same time it began accepting donations for Rubashkin, and that all money donated to that fund was used for Rubashkin – in other words, this "legal defense fund" was really the "Rubashkin legal defense fund," and Aleph has no real history of raising money to defend accused criminals.

Aleph’s role in this affair may even jeopardize its access to federal prisons. But the JTA doesn’t explore the issue, either.

Also note this graph, where the JTA seriously downplays the facts:

Prosecutors claimed that a travel bag with money, silver coins and passports were found in Rubashkin’s home and that — partly because Israel’s Law of Return grants Jews automatic citizenship — the former plant manager posed a risk of flight.…

Failed Messiah reports:

This is one of the videos banned by YouTube and then, as you’ll see below, reinstated after viewer and blogger pressure:

What you see are Hamas operatives loading Grad missiles onto a truck. Then you see the explosion after the IDF rockets the truck, destroying it and the missiles and killing the Hamas operatives, as well.

But this is not graphic footage. You don’t see body parts or blood.

Still, YouTube’s parent company, Google, felt it necessary to remove that and other videos – all of which make Israel’s case for war.

What Google has done is clearly censorship of the worst kind.

And that censorship by Google continues, as you’ll now see.

This is how the the IDF Channel’s home page looks now. Please click to enlarge:

Youtube Idf Channel Home

If you click on a video there you are brought to a YouTube verify screen before being allowed to view footage. You must be 18 or older – just like porn – to view IDF videos. Please click to enlarge:

Google Idf Channel Flagged

Here’s the text:

This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube’s user community.

By clicking "Confirm", you are agreeing that all videos or groups flagged by the YouTube community will be viewable by this account.

In other words, if you want to watch the IDF videos showing Hamas loading missiles meant to murder Israeli civilians, you’ll also have to take the chance of seeing KKK videos or porn.

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The Trillion Dollar Meltdown

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Remember the Spring of 2007?

Everything was great with the economy. Consumer spending was strong. The credit markets looked strong. Sure, the real estate bubble had burst.

I am reading this 2008 book by Charles Morris, "The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash":

The first shock came in mid-June when two Bear Stearns mortgage hedge funds could not make margin calls. Moody’s downgrade cut the value of some of their investment-grade subprime mortgage-based bonds. So the fund tried to sell its bonds but most of them were not salable at any price. The value of all subprime-debt dropped dramatically.

The talking heads said the subprime market was small. The Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said the problem was contained.

Then subprime-related problems popped up all around the world.

Markets panicked.

In August, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank flooded their economies with money. It did not help.

The moment of truth came in a November analysts call with the Citigroup CFO who revealed he did not know how to value his own company.

In September 2007, analysts estimated subprime-related losses at $20 billion. Two months later, the estimates were as high as $400 billion, which seems close to the truth.

Twenty years ago, the sum of all financial assets — stocks, bonds, loans, etc — roughly equaled global GDP. Now they are four times global GDP. That’s the credit bubble.

In 1986, 80% of lending was regulated. By 2006, only 20% was.

Banks learned to make loans at no cost. They made loans and sold the loans as CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) and CLOs (collateralized loan obligations). They collected fat fees. After the 2000 dot com crash, interest rates went to near zero for banks.

Because of credit insurance, investors bought low-rated CDOs and CLOs because of their extra yields.

"When money is free and lending is costless and riskless, the rational lender will keep lending until there is no one else to lend to."

During the second half of the 1990s, long-term interest rates went down. The big banks began pushing refinancing. Consumers caught on that they could use their homes as ATM machines.

In 1995, refis amounted to $14 billion. Eleven years later, they were worth a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Home ownership tends to do good things for families and communities. It makes them more stable. It grounds them in concrete commitments. It inculcates thrift and long-term planning. Putting off present pleasures for future gains and that sort of stuff.

Have you heard of NINJA loans? Those are loans given to people with no jobs, no income and no assets. Just imagine giving mortgages to such folks. That’s reckless lending.

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Holy Dazed

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Steven I. Weiss writes:

You can learn some really fascinating things when interviewing celebrities, comedians and New York media types about their Judaism. Holy Dazed, our series that combines these interviews into humorous vignettes, was just supposed to be funny, but it ended up revealing a whole new idea of Jewishness that undermines so many of the negative assumptions coming out of the the big leadership in the Jewish world.

Readers of Page Six might have been surprised to find out that George Clooney would throw pies at good friend Richard Kind for not allowing him to have a Christmas tree when they were rooming together, but as someone who’s spent nearly twenty years in yeshivas and most of my adult life reporting on the Jewish world, I was far more astonished that this Hollywood actor cared that much about preserving his Jewish heritage.

Everything that billionaire philanthropists and hundred-million-dollar initiatives are telling the Jewish world is that most of the people we’re interviewing are a lost cause. You’d expect that New York media types and comedians would be the first to express cynicism about ancient Jewish traditions — and it’s the assumption that kids today ("kids" being anyone under 45 in Jewish organizational lingo) don’t want any part of those traditions that is leading to massive investments in new programs that try to put a new spin on being Jewish — no matter how desperate or different these efforts may seem.

But maybe Judaism’s doing OK, after all, and maybe these people are the proof of it.

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Tough Love From Amalek

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Chaim Amalek emails:

The art work is nice.  She’s talented AND pretty.  The paintings signal the world that this is a woman of many charms and talents.

But you, Luke, are a middle aged man living in obscurity on the edge of poverty whose attentions are not of interest to her.  While I get the true (and non-threatening) sense in which you made that comment, you were not talking to a chum at a college mixer.  A man who is well into his forties must find other ways of expressing his appreciation for a woman’s physical charms, especially when he knows they will not be reciprocated.  Twink time is over, unless it is to be directed to women well past menopause.

Fred emails: "As one who is slightly past his forties, I’ve reached the point in life where, insofar as the seven deadly sins are concerned, I find that sloth is highly underrated. I recommend re-prioritizing one’s vices. Having said that, it is much more difficult to write a compelling blog in LA about sloth than lust, pride, envy, wrath, avarice or gluttony. (Of course, being truly slothful, I don’t think I’d ever get around to writing such a blog.)"

Horizontal Plane reports on a girl with a tattoo of the sh’ma below her right breast:

Amir Norman writes: “I was doing a documentary for Matisyahu, that was about his experience at Langerado. I was walking around with two rabbis (true story, not some set up for a joke) and as they were walking around blessing anyone who wanted a blessing a girl came up to us. We all started talking and she was like “I am a Jew!!! See,” revealing the tattoo of the prayer shema, which is one of the holiest prayers in the Jewish religion. I need to take a a picture of this, it had to be documented. I’ve shown it to many of my friends, both Jewish and non and to many Rabbis too. Each of them either having a funny comment or thinking it is awesome. One Rabbi told me it was interesting because it says in the shema to hold g-d close to your heart and thats where the tattoo was near and that is what the prayer calls for…”

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‘Kagan’s Superfecta’

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

I was walking home from shul on a Friday night about six weeks ago. I was passing Aish HaTorah on Pico Blvd, headed east.

I was stopped by a couple from New Jersey. They were looking for Shiloh’s restaurant for a private simcha (celebration).

I said to keep heading east. It was on the other side of Pico, about a quarter mile down.

We got to chatting. They asked me what I did for a living. I said I was a writer. They asked me what I was working on. I said a book on American-Jewish literature.

"Have you interviewed Allen Hoffman?" the guy asked. "He’s my cousin."

"No. Who’s Allen Hoffman?"

"He wrote a lot of books. His best is a collection of short stories called ‘Kagan’s Superfecta.’"

I told him I’d check it out and now I have. It’s excellent.

Hoffman lives in Jerusalem. He’s frum (religious). He teaches in Bar Ilan’s Creative Writing program.

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President Bush & The Jews

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Luke Ford

Jay D. Homnick writes:

In this spirit, it is appropriate for us to take a moment to publicize the outstanding respect shown by the President and Laura Bush to traditional Jews and their practices throughout his administration. One historic example of this is the startling fact that, for the first time ever, a regular Torah class has been given in the White House to Jewish staffers who wish to attend. It is more or less a weekly affair, offered by an old classmate of mine, Rabbi Tzvi Teitelbaum of Silver Spring, Maryland. He is a co-principal at Yeshiva of Greater Washington and has been active for many years helping Jewish students at Georgetown University with adult education programs.

Once Rabbi Teitelbaum was heading out of the White House when the President came through with his aides. “Rabbi,” he said. “I’m on my way to deliver a speech at a synagogue. Will you be there?” “I have no way to get there,” Teitelbaum replied. “Then come with me,” the President answered. Teitelbaum was swept along and became part of the entourage.

Hannukah itself has been granted extraordinary primacy in the Bush White House. Each year a major dinner is hosted by the President, inviting rabbis and Jewish lay leaders from all across the country. Amazingly, in 2002, in a special session after the dinner with a few of the most influential leaders, he entrusted them with the knowledge of the forthcoming invasion of Iraq.

In the early days of the administration, the dinners were divided into kosher and non-kosher food sections. The White House chefs made the non-kosher food on premises for the non-Jewish attendees and the kosher food was brought in by an outside caterer. However, in the third or fourth year, one of the kosher eaters accidentally ended up at the wrong buffet and consumed some of the other food. When Laura Bush heard about the mishap, she insisted that this must be prevented from ever recurring. The only solution was to make the White House cooking equipment kosher and have the entire dinner made that way.

What does this entail? Well, the theory is that the ovens and stoves absorb some secretions of the food cooked and baked in them and on them. That spillage will then work its way back into the next set of food prepared. This would have the moisture from last night’s pork soaking into tonight’s kosher chicken, making it impermissible. The solution is to painstakingly run a blowtorch across all the surfaces of the cooking areas to eliminate this problematic material.

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My Favorite Bible Story

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Luke Ford

Bringing peace to the Middle East:

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Orit Arfa Bothers Me

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Luke Ford

When life gets me down, I close my eyes and dream of a better day.

Then I surf to OritArfa.net to see how the good life is lived.

Tonight I found this: "Orit complements and enhances her journalism with a variety of creative projects, including the performing arts, oil painting, and creative writing."

What kind of girl would write this?

Oy ve!

I know what she wrote, but what I feel is this: "Orit complements and enhances her journalism with a variety of creative projects, including finger painting, belly dancing, and witchcraft."

There, that’s better.

Joe emails: "That’s right where you go over the line, mate. It’s childish, rude and serves no purpose."

Fred responds to my inquiry:

Sir–

I am the wrong person to consult in matters of social propriety. I fear you must seek guidance elsewhere.

However, if it makes you feel better, I am perplexed and amazed that this young lady would deny you anything. She errs grievously.

F

p.s. Just read (for the first time) The Miller’s Tale and The Reeve’s Tale (Canterbury Tales). Now this is my idea of classy literature.

p.p.s. Is it just my imagination, or are LA bloggers bombastic ego-manaical self-promoters?

Perhaps, Luke, you should add a blurb to your web site: 

Luke Ford complements and enhances his journalism with great intellectual insights concerning theology, cosmology, philosophy, art, history and the human condition.  His critique of string theory and quantum mechanics was well-received by the Nobel committee in Stockholm.  The pope recently reversed his earlier decision to make Luke a cardinal only after the crushing disappointment of learning that Luke is Jewish. Obama has been phoning Luke every other day, begging him to become a member of his cabinet.  Several sagacious rabbis have been considering adding many of Luke’s blogs to the Talmud.  However, Luke will not turn away from his calling of enlightening his readership with wit, wisdom and virtue apparently unvailable anywhere else in the universe.  He is a blessing to all mankind.

Yet, surprisingly, Luke is unspoiled by all of this unalloyed adulation.  "If, after consulting my writings, someone is inspired to insult a loved one, or spread a rumor or two, it will have all been worthwhile.

>>>I couldn’t explain why, but that sentence of hers bothered me more than….>, which are superb…

p.p.p.s. I think its over-the-top self promotion. Sadly, I suspect this is typical for LA web pages. As one of the major intellectuals of the 21st century, I personally find it pretentious and jejune. However, in this post-modern era, oftentimes superficiality is the best that such souls have to offer in the absence of spiritual meaning. Such nihilistic pseudo-intellectualism defaces the cultural and existential experience of humanity in the present age.

On the other hand, her … and … are quite profound. Yet I am left contemplating two of the remaining mysteries. 1) How’s……; and 2) does……?

What is it about hot chicks who go to work for the Jewish Journal? Look what it does to their writing. There’s only one woman in the world who writes like Orit and that is her colleague Danielle Berrin. From blogger.com: "Born in the sticky heat of the Everglades region, where hurricanes whirl by every summer and mojitos are as ubiquitous as water, I was raised in a loving family on a green acre enclosed within a hedge of oak, ficus and palm trees. The year-long summers of Florida meant my recent move to Los Angeles wouldn’t be too shocking – I was merely trading hurricanes for earthquakes, humidity for smog. But I didn’t come here for the weather, it’s just an added benefit. I ventured across the country because Hollywood is where dreams come true, and although I am woman of many passions, I find myself enjoying the pursuit of journalism."

Everything by Orit Arfa reads like it is written by the teacher’s pet. She’s like Holly Randall in that regard. She’s always handing in an essay for class.

Khunrum emails: "Cute…frizzy hair…generous… She’s worth removing your leg braces and taking your mouth guard out for."

"I see she positions herself in her work. Smart. Can’t go wrong with self promotion. I like the paintings too. Kinda like those old Charlton Heston Swords and Sandals flicks."

Enough with the harsh words. I want us to remember Orit in happier days, before she complemented and enhanced her journalism with a variety of creative projects.


Is she obscuring the act of penetration above? If so, why? She must be a fundamentalist.

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How Come So Few Print Journalists Are Hot?

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Luke Ford

I don’t get it. About a quarter of young female lawyers are hot. About a quarter of young female professionals are hot. Yet print journalism attracts 99% dogs. Why? I love journalism and I love women and I’d really love to love female journalists, but why can’t more of them look like Emmanuelle Richard and a young Cathy Seipp?

I guess the profession requires so much exertion that the female print journalists are just too sweaty to look good. The hot ones don’t go into it. But why? Why do I have to suffer?

Not many female bloggers are hot either. What’s up with that?

How come half the hot female journalists in the world work either at the Jewish Journal or Reason magazine?

There’s some Zionist plot here I am unable to untangle.

I don’t think I want too much. I don’t think I am being unreasonable. I just want female journalists to look like actresses and to act like them too.

It just all seems very unfair.

I want life to be more exciting.

God hates me.

Frankly, I blame the gays.

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