I’m Live With The President

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

I’ll be live on my cam when the president addresses the nation at 6 p.m. about our financial crisis.

I’m part of a new KNBC.com team providing analysis via web cam and YouTube video.

KhunDiddy:  I’m back after 11 nights with no electric
palestine4ever:  You’re in Texas?
KhunDiddy:  candlepower only
KhunDiddy:  Houston
palestine4ever:  Damn
KhunDiddy:  ate lot’s of tuna
palestine4ever:  I was gonna ask that
palestine4ever:  Farmer’s life
palestine4ever:  Up at dawn, down when it gets dark
guest42:  going for a beer and naked women down at the corner……. the gaza strip club
KhunDiddy:  everything Ok now ‘cept Galveston is history
KhunDiddy:  24/7 having to talk to my wife and listen to a small battery powered radio arrrggghhh!
palestine4ever:  that’s pretty awful
KhunDiddy:  no suffering my friend…lot’s of community spirit…neighbor helping neighbor. now that the power is back on we all went back inside and it’s biz as usual. I’d rather be cool in the air con than be involved with the community spirit
ChaimAmalek:  My name is enshrined in the Bible.
ChaimAmalek:  I’m on the tip of every orthodox Jew’s tongue.
ChaimAmalek:  I think this latest stunt by McCain can work. 
palestine4ever:  Pfft.
palestine4ever:  Obama says "no".
ChaimAmalek:  He’s trying to seize control of the narrative from the hostile press, and get them to talk about his past opposition to Fannie Mae
palestine4ever:  And McCain eventually has to "un-suspend" his campaign.
palestine4ever:  The day he does, he loses.
ChaimAmalek:  The head of Obama’s VP selection committe was initially to be some big wheel from Fannie Mae
ChaimAmalek:  We shall see. Tomorrow McCain will get to stand up in the Senate, make big speeches, what will little man Obama be doing?
palestine4ever:  and they say the Jews don’t like Obama…
ChaimAmalek:  Jews are wedded to leftish causes so yes, Obama takes the Jewish vote
ChaimAmalek:  As for me, I’ve no dog in this hunt
ChaimAmalek:  So you undecided should cast your vote as a write in for AMALEK
ChaimAmalek:  I can hardly wait to hear Bush explain why, after giving him a blank check on drug funding for medicare (a trillion dollar unfunded liability), God knows how much for Iraq, we should now let him quickly commit the nation to spend another trillion on this bailout
ChaimAmalek:  This man is not to be trusted around money
ChaimAmalek:  THERE ARE NO WOMEN IN HERE
ChaimAmalek:  It is all penises.  Blech. 
ChaimAmalek:  Luke, rustle up some females
ChaimAmalek:  If these were the Old Days, there’d be all manner of porn chicks queing up to post in here
ChaimAmalek:  I miss those days.
YourMoralLeader:  I’m gonna be on TV
YourMoralLeader:  They asked for my commentary
ChaimAmalek:  When, where on what?
YourMoralLeader:  on the Bush speech
ChaimAmalek:  uh huh
YourMoralLeader:  i sent you the email
YourMoralLeader:  what’s my position?
ChaimAmalek:  I don’t care what Bush says.  Fact is, he is just going to be reading whatever someone told him to read.
ChaimAmalek:  Your reaction is: does the plan leave the @$%@ who brought this on the nation bleeding from their rectums?  If not, it must be opposed.
YourMoralLeader:  I must be wise
YourMoralLeader:  this is my big chance
palestine4ever:  Luke, you have only one view to relate: is this good for the Jews?
ChaimAmalek:  OK, then give them your honest reaction.
ChaimAmalek:  Weren’t you once an economics buff?
ChaimAmalek:  Wasn’t that your calling, before you fell from the sky and became a sickly Jew with an obsession for porn?
ChaimAmalek:  OK< that could be it.  Opposition to the bailout is tinged with antisemitism
ChaimAmalek:  I don’t think it is, I just made this up, but who knows?
ChaimAmalek:  Maybe one of the Gedolim will see this, think you a genius, and toss you a bone
YourMoralLeader:  that’s good
ChaimAmalek:  After all, who are all of these bankers?  JEWS.  Remember the mantra from that show "Heroes" a few years back?
ChaimAmalek:  "Save the cheerleader, save the world"?
ChaimAmalek:  "Save Goldman Sachs, save the Jews"
ChaimAmalek:  "I do not want to live in a world without even one Jewish investment bank"
ChaimAmalek:  "In such a world, the living would but envy the dead"
ChaimAmalek:  "Antisemites see this moment as the time to strike at Jewish power"
ChaimAmalek:  None of this is true (save maybe that last part), but so what?

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From Loma Linda To Pico/Robertson

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

I made this video Sept. 7 after returning home from seeing my father preach.

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Charles Krauthammer: ‘How Many Hail Marys Can One Man Throw?’

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

On Fox News this afternoon, Charles Krauthammer says: "McCain supported the surge and that was a touchdown. He chose Sarah Palin and she caught it in the endzone. I don’t think this one [suspending his campaign and canceling Friday night’s debate to work on the highly unpopular bailout bill] is likely to work."

McCain strikes me as a nutter. I agree with George Will that he does not appear to have the calm necessary to be president.

By contrast, Barack Obama has run a superb campaign without desperate measures.

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Who Is Casey Serin?

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

From wikipedia:

Casey Konstantin Serin (born September 10, 1982 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan) is a former real estate speculator and blogger. In a newspaper article, USA Today called him the "poster child for everything that went wrong in the real estate boom".[1] Serin immigrated to America in 1994. In his early twenties, Serin worked as a web developer, but then decided to quit this job to pursue his dream of becoming financially independent through real estate investments. Beginning in October 2005 and continuing through the following year, Serin purchased eight houses in four southwest U.S. states, and then began blogging about the foreclosure[2] process on the properties he was unable to resell. In time, six of the eight properties foreclosed.[3]

As for his real estate investments, Serin acknowledged to the Sydney Morning Herald that "the stuff I did is technically mortgage fraud, but it’s not officially called that until someone prosecutes me and proves that that is indeed mortgage fraud," [4] asserting a presumption of innocence. On the Jon Ronson show, Serin confirmed his use of so-called "liar loans".[5] On July 11, 2007, Serin disclosed that he was under investigation by the FBI.[6]. In an interview conducted by ABC News, his attorney reported that Casey Serin is under investigation by the FBI, but "no charges have been brought against Mr. Serin. However, based upon conversations with the U.S. attorney’s office in California, federal charges related to Mr. Serin’s real estate transactions are expected to be brought against him" [7].

After staying offline for a few months, Casey Serin has resurfaced as a partner of Damion Lupo (author of Maverick Mistakes in Real Estate) on ForeclosureHelpBook.com. This partnership dissolved in October 2007. Casey resurfaced with a new blog, EscapeMyHouse.com, which was taken offline in November 2007. He most recently (January 29, 2008) started and then stopped a blog based on his information on gold stocks, most specifically GoldSpring (GSPG) called MillionaireByChristmas.com. This site has gone thru numerous edits, some within minutes. His latest blog TrueCasey.com continues themes from his previous blogs, including publishing a foreclosure book and detailing his investment into GoldSpring.

From my live cam:

palestine4ever:  Hey Luke
palestine4ever:  I still get no video here.
palestine4ever:  Which is, of course, in keeping with the prohibition against graven images
palestine4ever:  So for once I feel more holy than you are.
palestine4ever:  I must admit…
palestine4ever:  It’s kind of scary that you could out an anonymous jewgirl with just 1 blog post to go on.
YourMoralLeader:  my powers of investigative journalism scare even me
palestine4ever:  Just remember: use them only for good.
YourMoralLeader:  how are the jews treating you?
palestine4ever:  Eh, you know
palestine4ever:  Always trying to keep a brother down.
palestine4ever:  I must admit, I’ve been cheating on you.
palestine4ever:  Once Casey Serin began blogging again, I just couldn’t resist.
palestine4ever:  I can’t help but to wonder what would happen if the two of you were in the same room.
palestine4ever:  It’d be unholy, like flying a kite at night.
palestine4ever:  caseypedia.com = about him, truecasey.com = his new blog
palestine4ever:  Yes, there’s an entire wiki devoted to him
palestine4ever:  and of course, i thought of creating lukepedia.com myself
palestine4ever:  but it would be nicer than that
palestine4ever:  hay wait
palestine4ever:  Casey lives in Sacramento
palestine4ever:  he’s part of some weird baptist russian community
palestine4ever:  i bet you two would get along great
palestine4ever:  except for the urge you’d have to punch him every few minutes
YourMoralLeader:  I am not a crook
palestine4ever:  but you’re both vegetarians too
palestine4ever:  you could have smoothies and talk about being bloggers
palestine4ever:  it’d be like the old days with Matt and Emmanuelle, only with a 26 year old boi with a murse rather than a hot chick and her intelligent husband

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If Obama Loses, Is It Racism?

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager writes:

If Barack Obama loses the 2008 election, liberal hell will break loose.

Seven weeks before the 2008 presidential election, liberals are warning America that if Barack Obama loses, it is because Americans are racist. Of course, that this means that Democrats (and independents) are racist, since Republicans will vote Republican regardless of the race of the Democrat, is an irony apparently lost on the Democrats making these charges.

That an Obama loss will be due to racism is becoming as normative a liberal belief as “Bush Lied, People Died,” a belief has generated intense rage among many liberals. But “Obama lost because of white racism” will be even more enraging. Rage over the Iraq War has largely focused on President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. But if Obama loses, liberal rage will focus on millions of fellow Americans and on American society.

And it could become a rage the likes of which America has not seen in a long time, if ever. It will first and foremost come from within black America. The deep emotional connection that nearly every black American has to an Obama victory is difficult for even empathetic non-blacks to measure. A major evangelical pastor told me that even evangelical black pastors who share every conservative value with white evangelical pastors, including pro-life views on abortion, will vote for Obama. They feel their very dignity is on the line.

That is why the growing chorus — already nearing unanimity — of liberal commentators and politicians ascribing an Obama loss to American racism is so dangerous.

Andrew Sullivan of (set ital) The Atlantic: (end ital) “White racism means that Obama needs more than a small but clear lead to win.”

Jack Cafferty of CNN: “The polls remain close. Doesn’t make sense … unless it’s race.”

Jacob Weisberg of (set ital) Newsweek and Slate: (end ital) “The reason Obama isn’t ahead right now is … the color of his skin. … If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth.”

Nicholas D. Kristof of (set ital) New York Times: (end ital) “Religious prejudice (against Obama) is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice.”

Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, in a speech to union workers: “Are you going to give up your house and your job and your children’s futures because he’s black?” Continued…

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A Blog To A Young Blogger

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

I sat in Torah class yesterday writing out these points for a young writer:

* Decide what is most important to you. Is it pleasing family, friends or community? Is it being a great Jew or is it being a great writer? For me, writing trumps everything (after meeting God’s moral demands, and maintaining my health, a livelihood, a religious community and a circle of friends). With the exception of a few relationships and Torah precepts, I’m willing to sacrifice everything for my work.

* Decide who is important to you. Be clear about what you need to do to maintain your most important relationships. Sometimes it is necessary to give up certain relationships so you can have the freedom to write the truth.

* Decide whose approbation you most seek.

I love rabbis. They are my favorite group of people. But I don’t write to gain their approval. I guess I most seek the approval of writers I respect.

I live on the edge. My blogging has cost me numerous friends and membership in four different Orthodox shuls. This was painful but inevitable given who I am.

I think about these issues all the time.

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USA Today Profiles Rabbi David Wolpe

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

From yesterday’s newspaper:

LOS ANGELES — Who loves questions more than Rabbi David Wolpe?

That’s a trick question. Wolpe has incontestable faith in questioning — about science, history, evil, tragedy, mystery, and most of all about God. They are "all questions that could open doors," he writes in his new book, Why Faith Matters.

READ MORE:How Jewish beliefs compare to other faiths’; Jewish populations across the USA

And if "some questions had answers beyond what I could know," that would be all right with Wolpe, 50. He has encountered much of the tragedy and the mystery.

He has seen his mother struggle for 30 years with a stroke that left her unable to speak. His wife survived a rare cancer after the birth of their daughter. Then Wolpe developed a brain tumor. Four years after the tumor was removed, he was stricken with an unrelated, incurable form of lymphoma, which is now in remission.

In the past 11 years he has become a nationally known leader of Sinai Temple in Beverly Hills, a Conservative synagogue with 2,100 families. He has taught on theology and religion and science at the University of California-Los Angeles and studied Torah weekly with Kirk Douglas.

Before Sinai, he taught and wrote six other books. including a succinct handbook, Why Be Jewish?.

But he says that as he lay sidelined by chemotherapy, a question emerged: "Wow, I’m facing mortality. Is there something more I really want to say?"

Why Faith Matters is his answer. It addresses two great threats that have troubled him in recent years. The first is that the only choices on religion appeared to be cold denial or flaming fanaticism.

He was "infuriated" by a wave of best-selling books by atheists, including Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, all glibly sure that God does not exist and that faith is for fools, he says.

"What’s so appalling is the idea that there is no mystery that won’t yet be solved. That if we don’t know it all yet, we will," Wolpe says.

The other is the threat of violent religious fundamentalism that turns belief into a scourge, he says.

"The tremendous good that is done by faith in this world is sometimes overlooked or belittled. But most of those who are able to stand up to tyranny and hatred feel that they do so because they are empowered by a force beyond themselves," he writes.

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Hallmark’s CBS pic is ‘Unorthodox’

Posted on September 24, 2008 by Luke Ford

From the Hollywood Reporter:

hr/photos/stylus/39981-ambrose_bartha_341x182.jpg

Lauren Ambrose, left, Adam Kaufman (Getty Images photos)

Lauren Ambrose and Adam Kaufman lead the cast of "Unorthodox," a new Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for CBS.

Susie Essman, Ricki Lake and Mercedes Ruehl co-star in the film, now in production in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Based on P’nenah Goldstein’s play "Loving Leah," "Unorthodox" centers on Jake (Kaufman), a 30-year-old Washington D.C. doctor whose estranged older brother, a rabbi in a close-knit Hasidic community in Brooklyn, N.Y., dies. Jake is asked to marry his late brother’s 26-year-old widow, Leah (Ambrose), honoring the ancient levirate marriage law.

To keep their mothers (Ruehl, Essman) at bay, Jake and Leah decide to enter a pretend marriage, living separate lives out of Jake’s D.C. apartment. That proves challenging, especially after they start to fall for each other.

Lake plays a Washington rabbi who befriends Leah. Also cast in the film is Christy Pusz as Jake’s girlfriend.

Jeff Bleckner is directing "Unorthodox" from a script by Goldstein.

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Leah Kleim Returns

Posted on September 23, 2008 by Luke Ford

She popped into my chatroom tonight and then made her first blog post in weeks.

She seems to be doing OK.

Leah lost her little sister to a drug overdose seven weeks ago.

Leah badly wants me to stop listening to goyisha music and to start shaving (with a halakhicly approved razor). She wants me to follow her example and not blog so much. Just do it as a hobby and get a real job.

Never.

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The Luke Ford Solution To The Troubles At Young Israel Of North Beverly Hills

Posted on September 23, 2008 by Luke Ford

Jacob Graff was the president of YINBH until the shul decided not to hire his nominee for rabbi – Nachum Braverman, the author and ex-Aish rabbi.

That deal broke down because Rabbi Braverman insisted on staying close to a group of his students – wealthy individuals who contribute $250,000 a year to the fund he manages and from which he draws.

Graff has now sued the shul.

Until this meltdown, YINBH was member-for-member, the most affluent Orthodox shul west of the Mississippi.

YINBH wants and needs a full time and fully committed Rabbi. They learned the drawbacks of a part time rabbi from their experience with Sholom Tendler who was "part time" in several places simultaneously.

YINBH has imploded. It was controlled by men with big egos. They put less planning into a mushrooming $6m real estate development than any of them would put into a kitchen remodel at their homes. The leaders of YINBH included some of the most successful real estate developers in town. They started construction of the new shul with no budget, no plan, inadequate funding, and no community. Yet they went forward.

YINBH has a common Jewish problem — they all want to be chiefs. Very few YINBH members are content to be Indians.

YINBH is not a democracy. Its leading members have a "my way or the highway" attitude.

Recently the daily minyan that had been held at the home of Edward Czuker (the current president) was terminated. That’s probably the final nail in the coffin of that troubled community.

Several members say they were better off when they were renting space opposite the Beverly Hills Public Library. During those days, politics and fundraising were essentially absent. Those were the god ol’ days when it felt like a real community would evolve.

THE LUKE FORD SOLUTION FOR YINBH:

1) Affiliate with Beth Jacob and tap into their "infrastructure" and become BJ North,
2) Sell the lot immediately (with the partially completed project) to Chabad or the Sephardic shul,
3) Rent a storefront or a large office suite and focus on building a community instead of an edifice. They got the sequence wrong – and have paid dearly for it.
4) Hire a young dynamic rabbi to lead the shul forward.

Ohr HaTorah developed a community for a decade and then they moved into a permanent building.

I used to go to Stephen S. Wise’s Mountaintop Minyan (1994-1997). That was run from the top down. Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin and Stephen Marmer and company decided everything and everybody just went along. The leaders unilaterally decided to drop the learning session after one Shabbat when only a few people showed up. There was such a huge protest that Rabbi Tova August restarted the learning.

Anyway, my point is that the Mountaintop Minyan, which I loved, was run from the top down.

When I went to Ohr HaTorah, I noticed that it bubbled up from below with excitement. Yes, Rabbi Mordecai Finley is an ex-Marine and it’s his way or the highway, but all the members there are heavily involved and committed to pursuing a communal dream (a non-Orthodox version of Aish HaTorah). There’s communal discussion and a holy method for making decisions.

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