Luke Ford | No sacred cows.

Too Much Information

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Yaakov Menken’s Cross-Currents.com is a gorgeous blog.

I’m relaxing with it Sunday evening after a day in which I had the TV on for eight hours so I could watch football with the sound off while simultaneously listening to Nick Hornby’s book "On the Way Down" on CD while interviewing, transcribing (I turned the CD off for these two activities) and blogging.

Rabbi Avi Shafran writes:

At an Agudath Israel national convention several years ago, Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon, the Mashgiach, or dean of students, of the famed Lakewood Yeshiva (Beth Medrash Govoha), delivered an address that I often recall as I settle into my ferry-seat. His topic had been the centrality of introspection and focused study to the essence of true Jewish life, dedication to the Divine. And then he bemoaned how chronically unconcentrated we all are these days.
When incandescent lighting was first commercialized in the 1920s, Rabbi Salomon recounted, committed Jews – like the rest of the world – were enthralled with the possibilities presented by the new technology. They saw wondrous potential in not having to rely on the dim, flickering light of wax candles or oil lamps to illuminate the sacred books whose study they so cherished.
But the revered Torah personage Rabbi Elya Lopian (1872-1970), a giant of the Mussar movement that stressed striving for personal ethical perfection, was less sanguine. He told his students that the more primitive lighting to which they were accustomed, for all its drawbacks, facilitated concentration and focus. The new technology, he feared, for all of its advantages, would undermine those things.
We don’t generally think of our well-lighted spaces as impairing concentration, but the logic is unquestionably there. The more informational input to the senses, the less mental focus. That is, after all, the point behind darkened arenas and spotlights. Our brains are wonderfully able to filter out much that might distract us from tasks at hand, but the extraneous information is still there even if we don’t consciously notice it, background static to our contemplations. Every time I turn on my little light on my winter commute home, I appreciate Rabbi Lopian’s prescience anew.

Posted in Orthodoxy | Comments Off

Mickey Kaus Pulled Over In New Hampshire On Suspicions Of Pimping

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

He blogs: "Gave three women a ride to their motel from the Radisson. Was pulled over by police who suspected we were … part of America’s growing service sector. Where is Ron Paul when you need him?"

Mickey blogs:

I don’t particularly like Huckabee–he’s slick, and sells a bleeding heart approach–but his invocation of social equality in last night’s debate was moving, and would seem to provide a firm basis for going national:
In that sense of equality, the greatest principle is that every human being and every American is equal to each other. One person is not more equal because of his net worth or because of his I.Q. or because of his ancestry or last name.
That was a radical idea when those 56 signers put their names on that document, knowing that if their experiment in government didn’t work, they were going to die for it.

Mickey writes for Slate:

Mitt Romney’s failure to hang "comprehensive immigration reform" around John McCain’s neck in last night’s debate may have been the defining failure of Romney’s candidacy. We’ll see if he does better in the Fox debate that just started. [Update: He did, but maybe not better enough.]
It’s been my impression that McCain has been locked by the realities of the issue into a tactic of gruff testy dissembling–e.g., saying that illegals he’d legalize would "not be in any way rewarded for illegal behavior" (of course they would–how many people around the world would like to pay a fine and come and live here legally?) or that they’d have to go to the "back of the line behind everybody else" (nope-they get to short-circuit the most important line, the line to get into the "citizenship" line).

Matt Drudge reports:

NYT Monday: Bill Clinton drawing 'sleepy, sometimes smallish crowds' in NH... Developing... CNNUSATODAYGALLUP: Obama 41% Clinton: 28%... RASMUSSEN: Obama 39% Clinton 27%... CNNWMUR: Obama 39% Clinton 29%... MORE... Clinton, Obama Clash in Personal Terms... Edwards: 'The Clinton campaign has no conscience'... REPORT: No Cash For Obama From Denzel, Spike, Motown, BET... Obama's popularity soars - in Germany...

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An Agenda For Modern Orthodoxy

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

Rabbi Gil Student writes:

R. Barry Gelman, author of the recent book Irresistible Judaism, presents an agenda for Modern Orthodoxy in the current issue of The Jewish Week (link). What follows is my summary of his points (in bold) along with my comments:

1. Be more active in the general Jewish community in order to change the world and, while we are at it, reach out to non-Orthodox Jews.
1b. This includes reaching out to those with non-observant lifestyles (homosexuals? intermarrieds? – he’s unclear).

This is fine in theory but in practice it is more complicated. How do we do this without compromising on our religious principles and exposing ourselves and our children to non-traditional influences? Do we want our children to attend classes or events with children of the opposite gender who are non-religious, sexually active (depending on their age) and scantily clad? Do we want them hearing Torah insights from non-Orthodox rabbis? Do we want our adults, some of whom have tenuous religious commitments themselves, to be in those situations?

2. Speak out on the major cultural and ethical issues of the day.

I agree with this provided that it is done in a Mussar framework and receives the appropriate emphasis within a full ethical education. We cannot have our agenda set by the secular media, whether in fact or in appearance. It is a disaster waiting to happen, in terms of youth leaving tradition, if Modern Orthodoxy becomes all about the cause du jour.

3. Be inclusive and sympathetic (i.e. lenient) in halakhic rulings.

Yes, but only on an individual level and not on a communal level. We do not want to set low standards in order to accomodate the exceptional case. Instead, we need to educate rabbis and laypeople that leniencies often exist for extreme cases. Most importantly, we need to emphasize the Divine in Jewish law and that it is not infinitely malleable. This was an important point that R. David Zvi Hoffmann made in regard to a proposal for conditional marriages that would eliminate the problem of abandoned wives: we may never concede that the temper of the times overrides halakhic concerns because that, alone, distorts Jewish law and promotes an antinomian agenda (Melamed Le-Ho’il 3:22:51).

Posted in Modern Orthodox | Comments Off

Plastic Surgery Videos

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

Financing Plastic Surgery

New Lens For Alternative To Laser Eye Surgery

Plastic surgery scandal, growth, deterioration

Celebs before and after plastic surgery.

Plastic Surgery teen supermodel

Plastic Surgery Without the Surgery, Makeup Techniques

PLASTIC SURGERY: CROSS ACNE SCARRING TREATMENTS JOURNEY

Times Square Discussion

ABDOMINOPLASTY, TUMMY TUCK, PLASTIC SURGERY

Cheap Plastic Surgery in Costa Rica

Phyllis Diller Part Two

Cheek & Chin Replacement

PLASTIC SURGERY UPDATE: PIXEL MICROFRACTIONATED LASER

Posted in Health | Comments Off

New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

I’ve rarely made New Year’s resolutions (for either the Jewish year or secular year).

One Christian bloke blogs:

I heard on the radio the other day that going on a diet was the #1 New Year’s Resolution and going to the gym was #3. So I Googled it to be sure and saw this on Digg for Men, and it’s found on mannpill.com. Here’s the list, and what’s interesting is that many of the items on my list are my goals for the year:
10. Get Organized (clutter month)
9. Help Others (Random Acts of Kindness month)
8. Learn Something New (Hobby Month)
7. Get Out of Debt
6. Quit Drinking
5. Enjoy Life More (All Months Combined, Act Like a Kid Month)
4. Quit Smoking
3. Tame the Bulge (This month and next)
2. Stop Watching So Much Porn
1. Spend More Time With Friends/Family (Wife month, Kid Month)
So anyway, I’m glad to see that others are also trying what I’m trying. I know some people aren’t into Resolutions because they feel it’s something most people do, but never finish. I heard two interesting ideas on this the other day by Dennis Prager:
1) Why do people assume doing something new is only worthwhile if a perfect end is the result? So what if I don’t complete a whole month of the gym, or go a whole month of being a vegetarian. If I only lost 5 pounds instead of 15, that’s better than gaining 5 pounds. What if I don’t act kindly EVERY day, and only 10. Aren’t those 10 days better than none?
2) In the end, creating a resolution points out in my life what is right.

Posted in Dennis Prager | Comments Off

Q&A With ‘Pussycat Preacher’ Director Bill Day

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

We did this via email (Pussycatpreacher.com, more from JimmyD):

> * Why did you make this movie?
Oddly enough, it wasn’t a film I wanted to make at first. Heather showed at a screening of my earlier film Missionary Positions and promoted the Idea to make a doc about her ministry. I decided to shoot a day or two with her to check it out but I soon realized she was a fascinating person with a story to tell.
> * How was the process of making it different from > Missionary Positions?
It was much much harder for a variety of reasons. Missionary Positions was all guys and this one was all girls. And girls bring their own challenges. The other thing was that Heather became a very hot news item soon after my shooting began. Suddenly there were lots of people telling Heather she need not be working with me. But Heather stuck by her deal with me and even turned down an offer from HBO so as not to injure my enterprise. Then the guys from Missionary Positions let me know they didn’t appreciate me working with Heather and my relationship with them suffered because I stuck by Heather. In the end, it kinda bonded us in a way that helped us survive a number of bumps in the road.
> * Whatever happened to Missionary Positions?
Missionary Positions is doing well online. It is currently the 2nd most popular film on the emerging movie site Jaman.com for all 2007 with over 110,000 downloads. And that is amazing because if you look at the other films on this site, many with big budgets and Hollywood stars, it almost defies logic.
> * What did you love and hate about making Pussycat > Preacher?
What I really loved was the people I was working with. I really enjoyed my time with everyone connected with Sandals Church. They were just all cool… and good looking! What I hated was the many knives that got stuck in my back by supposed Christians who were always trying to hurt Heather, me and the project.
>What were your biggest obstacles in making > Pussycat Preacher?
LYING CHEATING DECEPTIVE HYPOCRITICAL CHRISTIANS like this one pastor who wrote an e-mail to the Pastor in my movie (Matt Brown). In this e-mail he listed a litany of horrible deeds done by yours truly – then used some inter-pastor pledge of silence so Matt couldn’t tell me what I was being accused of. Heather and I had a running joke about all this stuff and it goes like this: One day they find me dead in an alley. When they do the autopsy, they roll me over on the table and see all these knife marks in my back. At that point, the doctor examining me records the discovery and concludes, "Likely encounter with Christians."
> * How did you get this niche of making documentaries > about Christian > outreach to the sex industry?
The same way, I got into doing niche documentaries about environmental activists trying to save the rain forests of South America – Once you enter the niche you become a part of it and discover getting out is a lot harder than getting in.
> > * How would you compare Heather’s ministry to the > XXXChurch?
Heather and the boys from xxxchurch are, from my point of view, the same archtypical character. Joseph Campbell refers to it as "The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Their paths are beat for beat are very similar.
> > * How come Pussycat Preacher does not mention > Heather’s divorce and how it > cost her almost all of her Christian friends?
My movie ends when Heather leaves Riverside and moves to Las Vegas. Her separation from Jon happened months after they moved to Las Vegas and I was no longer shooting so it wasn’t in the scope of my story. Many people suggested I put a title card at the end of the film revealing this. I thought it over, but there was no way to do it with one or two sentences. It was far too complex and personal and would require another full chapter to present it fairly to all sides.
> > * Which characters in Pussycat Preacher were the > most different when you > turned off the camera?
Mostly the Pastors ( with the exception of Matt Brown)… everyone else was pretty solid. >
> * How long did you follow Heather? How many hours of > footage?
I followed Heather for almost two years… and it was about 200 hours of footage. >
> * Did making this documentary change your life? Did > you find Christ? Are you > saved?
Yes making the documentary did change me with regards to Christianity. I felt I entered this world unbiased and fascinated by the Christian culture. I left somewhat disillusioned by what I saw. Religion doesn’t seem to have the power to remove our human foibles from our character. In terms of coming to Christ, I will be honest. I never understood the whole Christ thing before I entered this world. It seemed pretty ridiculous to me that I was born with some kind of sin and that this dude hung up there on the cross for me… But one day I had this little interpretational epiphany. I was looking at a picture of Christ on the cross, and somehow I came to the conclusion that his death was the symbolic victory of love over hatred. So, right or wrong, that is what I made Heather’s story about… shoot me if I am wrong.

I call Heather Veitch in Vegas Sunday morning.

Heather: "I like it a lot. The storyline is about religious intolerance."

"It shows I live a crazy life with people hating me while I’m trying to love others."

Luke: "Did they get any footage from the softcore movies you made?"

Heather: "No. I can’t even find those movies online. It was eleven years ago. I searched the sites I was on and they don’t even exist anymore."

Luke: "You lost all your Christian friends when you got divorced."

Heather: "I pretty much have all my old friends back (including Pastor Matt Brown and the rest of the JCsgirls)."

"You see how I get eaten alive? People were scared to stand by me through a scary time because they knew what was going to come at me."

I talk to Heather about one of her critics — Dawn Reinas.

Heather: "The obsession level is scary. They follow everything about me online. You read about stalkers? They get started like that. I’ve had that. Remember in the movie about people breaking into my house? Those were all religious nuts. They get so crazy that they think that God told them to do something to me."

"I go to bed every night like I’m going to war. I don’t even sleep like a normal person sleeps. I sleep so light now. Any sound in my house I hear it."

"I’m so sick of people saying this is a money-making thing. I went from making $8,000 a month as a hair dresser. Now I’m down to $3,000 a month. I make nothing off the movie."

Luke: "Do you ever wonder if all the sacrifices are worth it?"

Heather: "The only time I’ve wondered that was when I was going through the divorce. If I wasn’t in this situation, I could go through a divorce and have people love me, support me…

"I had people threaten to stand up in church and talk about my divorce. Nobody else goes through that. That’s been the hardest thing — the constant criticism."

Heather says her Jewish boyfriend Ira is not looking forward to going to the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas later this week because of all the guys who will be hitting on her as she walks around the show floor.

Luke: "He can go hit on some porn stars."

Heather: "I’ll kill him."

"My boyfriend says, ‘Please, can’t you get some normal friends.’ He’s very normal. None of my friends are even close to normal."

Luke: "How’s the Jewish-Christian thing working out between you guys?"

Heather: "He goes to church with me almost every Sunday. His faith in Jesus is growing."

"When I met my boyfriend, he said he was a Christian, but you know how that in the Jewish culture you can’t say you’re Christian."

"His family aren’t Jewish people who are heavily into [Judaism]. I know more about the things he should’ve been doing than he does."

Posted in Heather Veitch | Comments Off

Scratch Bloomberg’s Surface, Find A Democrat

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

Nicholas Confessore writes a news article for the New York Times:

Hundreds of miles from the hustings of New Hampshire lurks a possible presidential candidate who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and stricter regulation of handguns. Who doesn’t mind taxing the rich on their income or big companies on their carbon emissions. Who says that deporting illegal immigrants would destroy the nation’s economy. And who is not necessarily averse to adding more bureaucrats to the government payroll.
That politician — Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York — has spent months laying out his vision for a post-partisan approach to politics that would take the best from left and right.
Yet a close reading of the policies Mr. Bloomberg has promoted during his mayoralty suggests that Mr. Bloomberg actually has a lot in common with one party’s leading candidates — the Democrats — and not so much with the other’s. Indeed, on issues like gay marriage and gun control, Mr. Bloomberg stands well to the left of top-tier Democratic candidates like Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama.

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The Pussycat Preacher

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

For two weeks you can watch the whole 75-minute movie for free. Click here. You may have to download special software from vuze.com but it is hassle free and won’t hurt your computer.

It’s about my friend Heather Veitch, an ex-stripper who turned Christian evangelist to the sex industry.

The movie talks about how much opposition Heather received from Christians.

It’s no mystery to me why so many people — particularly women — hate strippers and hookers and porn stars and even hate those who minister to sex workers.

Men do not naturally bond with one woman and stay around to help rear children. They only do this at a high percentage if all other avenues of sexual expression aside from monogamous marriage are stigmatized. More men would sit around watching porn all day and spending their spare money on hookers if it was more socially acceptable.

Almost every society stigmatizes masturbation and commercial sex because it reduces the incentive for men to commit to one woman and to help her raise their children. Natural man prefers to screw around.

Women instinctively hate strippers and porn because it reduces their female power. A regular woman’s breasts are devalued when anyone can go on the internet and find free pictures of the finest breasts in the world. A 35 yo woman’s sexuality is not as valuable when you can easily rent the vagina of someone younger and hotter.

Many of Heather’s fellow Christians recoiled on instinct against her ministry to sex workers. It disrupted their comfortable patterns of thinking. It’s tiring to go out into the world and interact closely with those who don’t share your values.

I find it much easier to go to a kosher restaurant and a kosher supermarket where everything is kosher and I don’t have to constantly be on guard against trafe. I am more relaxed around Orthodox Jews than any other group. We all like to be around our own kind, particularly as we get older. And in our comfortable lives that most of us have worked hard to secure, we don’t want the forces of death and disease and disgust coming in. Sex work is tame — impure — and most people don’t want sex workers and those who associate with them in their home, community and house of worship.

Sex is fire. It can warm your life or toast it. When this genie is taken out of the marital bottle, to quote Dennis Prager, civilization breaks down.

A friend of mine was a member of a chareidi shul. She got divorced. Suddenly the tides of disorder threatened to overwhelm her community. Those with shaky marriages were disturbed that one of their own had walked away from her marriage. Various married men in the shul tried to f— her now that she was single. Wives felt threatened. There were a series of divorces in the community. She had started a trend.

She was pushed out of that community and relocated to the Modern Orthodox where bonds are not as tight. She has less of a sense of community now but more freedom.

I have a single female friend in her thirties. Wherever she goes in chareidi Orthodox life, she disrupts communities. Married men, including rabbis, want to f— her for fun. Their wives sense this and hate her. She alternately revells in and feels distraught over her power. But there’s no home for her in the warm chareidi shuls she wants to belong to as long as she’s single. If she wants a shul, she’ll have to settle for an antiseptic big-tent Modern Orthodox shul — Beth Jacob, etc — where most people ignore her.

The online version of the documentary Pussycat Preacher doesn’t mention Heather’s recent divorce and how it cost her almost all of her Christian friends. The sex workers, however, still love her.

Pastor Craig Gross from the XXXChurch writes:

Tuesday we head for Las Vegas for the AVN Adult Expo. January 9th marks six years for XXXchurch.com. Send all birthday cards to the PO Box.
We have learned a lot over the six years with XXXchurch. We have met a lot of people and come across a lot of things that have hurt. Our story has inspired others to do things. Some knock off our ideas and create look a like events to help churches talk about porn. Some use our slogans and ideas and create their own events or so called movements. Some use their time with us to try and strike a deal or launch a solo career. Some just like being associated with what we do but don’t want to do any of the work that needs to be done.
We are excited about the show and praying for great things to come. We are worried about Las Vegas becauase there are 5 ministries that are doing some form of outreach next week at the show. Some are putting out request for volunteers on their Myspace. Some are stating that they need bodyguards and scaring people about the people that they might encounter. Some have so much hate for the industry that their motives in going are driven by hate not love. We have groups that are walking outside the show, some groups that have booths, and some that plan to just walk the show and bombard people with tracks and propoganda. And I am sure there will be the picketers. My friend Heather and I talked this week and we just decided to say something. Heather lives in Vegas and reaches out to females in the industry. She and her friend Annie will be joining us at this years show. What we would like to say is “Sorry”. Sorry to those of you who will encounter groups and people next week that will not sound and do things like the Jesus they claim to be associated with. Please know that although we all speak of Jesus we are not all the same. We know this is very confusing to people to see so many different groups sending so many different messages and for that we apologize. We hope that you have seen over the years what are true intentions are and that we really do believe Jesus loves you and we share that same love for you as well.

Posted in Sex | Comments Off

Blogging For Money

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Luke Ford

Joe emails:

Hi Luke,
I have long been an avid reader of yours, since the protocols days. I like the salacious view of the frum community. In any case, I see that you have now become more serious about making some money from your blogging, so I wanted to share a few ideas with you. You may know some of this, but I think you can make more money without too much work.
1. You really need to do a much better job with your adsense placement and color selections. I don’t know what your ctr is, but I am sure it can be improved. You might want to look at www.getafreelancer.com and advertise for an adsense specialist. You can probably find someone to greatly improve things for like 100 bucks or less.
2. If you don’t already, it is really high time that you get an account at www.cj.com and start doing some affiliate marketing. There is no better way to monetize your traffic than through affiliates. If you look through their links, there are many companies that would appeal to your audience. www.lifelock.com and www.gotomeetings.com or sites of the sort pay like 30 bucks or more per free monthly trial that you generate, which sure beats 10 cents a click from adsense.
3. You might want to look into www.clickbank.com they let you sell e-books which generally sell very well and pay a very high commission.
4. You should write posts or essays targeting generic typos, for which you can rate well on google. Examples would be jewlery, jewellry, dimond, insurane and others… they get many searches a day, but since big companies don’t usually like to target typos, you have a very nice shot at getting ranked for those terms. When you do this, make sure that your title is the exact word or phrase, and that the next sentence or so is something that would entice someone to click through if they are finding you on google. Ex. would be the title is jewlery and the first sentence is Get Jewlery gold and diamonds for 80% off retail or something like that. Then, when you rank for a work or phrase on google, that will show as your description, thus encouraging more clicks. Also, if you start to rank for some commercial keyword, then you should make blog posts on some of your blogs with the hyperlink to that page and the keyword as the link text.
5. You can look at www.eovt.com (sometimes down) of keyword discovery’s free tool to estimate how much traffic a work or a phrase gets, so that you target things which will get some searches..
6. You should have a big banner ad or a block ad from doubleclick or one of those cpm ad networks at the top of your page. They usually pay 2-8 bucks per 1000 impressions, regardless of clicks.

Posted in Blogging | Comments Off

Saturday Night Fights

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Luke Ford

Drudge lists:

VIDEO: Hillary Heated Response At Debate…
The Moment…
Clinton: Obama Has Changed Positions…
VIDEO, LUNTZ: Undecided Voters Rip Hillary in New Hampshire…
FLASH: RASMUSSEN New Hampshire Poll: Obama 37% Clinton 27%… MORE…
MAG: Clinton Machine Shaken by Setback…
O’Reilly in confrontation with Obama staffer at rally…
HOST DENIES ‘SCUFFLE’…
Republican candidates in fierce foreign policy battle…
N.H. GOP backs out of FOXNEWS GOP forum…

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