Luke Ford | No sacred cows.

Mocking Kids

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

When it comes to the right or wrong of slinging insults at innocent youths, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is blunt. "I don’t feel bad at all," he says of posts on PerezHilton.com that poke fun at the prominent chin of Rumer Willis (daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis). Or his physical criticism of Christie Brinkley and Bill Joel’s daughter Alexa Ray Joel ("no supermodel"). In fact, his ribbing of her prompted the 22-year-old singer to strike back on her MySpace page by calling him "dangerous."
The blogger sees celebrity kids as fair game because they’re out in public. So do other celebrity gossip websites, such as A Socialite’s Life (socialitelife.buzznet.com) and the Evil Beet (evilbeetgossip.com), that mock celebrity kids on their physical appearances.
…And their parents, no matter how high up the celebrity ladder they are, probably don’t have much legal recourse. According to Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, the coverage of kids is a breach of good taste rather than the law. "It’s the Faustian bargain that these celebrities make for fame," she says. "Part of that pact is paid for by their families — their children and their spouses."
That pact never expires either. At the moment, perezhilton.com finds Suri Cruise "adorable." But when she grows into an awkward adolescent?
"I’ll say, ‘What happened to Suri,’ " Hilton says, "if she’s ugly."

I don’t believe I’ve ever mocked someone for his physical appearance (certainly not on my blogs). It’s below the belt.

This Times story makes me cringe.

On the other hand, I love the Fox News show "Red Eye," which does mock people for their appearance. So yes, I can enjoy cruel humor even when I won’t allow myself to dish it out.

Jim Jones emails:

It’s fair-dinkum below the belt, mate!

"I don’t believe I’ve ever mocked someone for his physical appearance (certainly not on my blogs)."

Need you be reminded of but one example?
“Mark [Kernes] is old and ugly. He loves porn and hates its critics. Fond of wearing suspenders and thinking of himself as a lawyer [he was once a court reporter], he looks at the world through beady, suspicious, pig-like eyes, squinting between jowls of fat.”
No, certainly not you…you hypocritical ponce.

Posted in Journalism | Comments Off

Budapest’s Jewish Quarter

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

Nicholas Kush writes for the New York Times:

KIRALY STREET in Budapest has staked claim to the title of hip new spot with its restaurants and fine boutiques, but there’s more to the city’s once-gritty District VII than this one storied stretch. Cafes, bars, nightclubs and fashionable stores have sprung up throughout the dark lanes of the old Jewish Quarter, whose history and recent rise to trendiness evoke comparisons to the Lower East Side of New York.
The unpretentious restaurant and bar Koleves (Dob u. 26, 36-20-213-5999; www.koleves.com) epitomized the laid-back charm of the neighborhood one recent afternoon, with the stop-and-start melodies of a band practicing in the basement and an artist hanging his latest works on the walls of the dining room. It would be easy to get lost in the design flourishes like the cheese graters converted into perforated wall lamps or the chandeliers made of dozens of wineglasses, but the food, a mixture of Jewish and Hungarian dishes, demands attention.
Like an overzealous grandmother, Koleves stuffs you with delicious fare in huge portions. The savory roast goose leg at 1,880 forint, or around $10.65, at 180 forint to the dollar, is a steal. With a cup of cappuccino, the matzo flodni — a Jewish layer cake made with apple, poppy seeds and matzo — is nigh irresistible.

Posted in Travel | Comments Off

Will Smith, Hitler and Diminishing Value of Truth

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

Dennis Prager writes:

On Dec. 22, the Scottish newspaper The Daily Record published an article summarizing an interview its reporter Siobhan Synnot had with the superstar actor Will Smith. Near the end of the highly laudatory piece, the reporter wrote: "Remarkably, Will believes everyone is basically good" and immediately cited the actor saying: "Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today,’" said Will. "I think he woke up in the morning and, using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.’"
What Will Smith said is probably true. Most of history’s great evils were committed by people who somehow convinced themselves that the evil they did was really good. This is hardly a new problem. As the Prophet Hosea said 2,700 years ago, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness" (Hosea 4:6).
Some years ago, I made a video on goodness ("For Goodness Sake") with the director David Zucker in which I said almost the same thing word for word, that few people who do evil wake up in the morning saying, "Ah, another day to do evil."
In his play "Incident at Vichy," playwright Arthur Miller depicts a Jewish doctor in Nazi Occupied France who seeks a corrupt Nazi to bribe in order to escape Hitler’s genocide of the Jews. The Jewish doctor knows that if he finds an idealistic Nazi, he is doomed. Miller’s point was that there were bestial Nazis who believed that what they were doing was good.
Yet, Will Smith, making the same point, was quoted around the world as saying that he thinks that Hitler was a good person.
Every Hollywood and celebrities Internet site I checked — about 30 — headlined that "Will Smith thinks Hitler was a ‘good’ person" (note that ‘good’ was put in quotation marks as if the headline was accurately quoting Smith).
And most then opened their phony report with this: "U.S. actor Will Smith has stunned fans by reportedly declaring that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was essentially a ‘good’ person."
A complete fabrication.
The lying about Smith was not confined to Hollywood and celebrity Web sites. For example, Rense.com, which calls itself "World’s No. 1 Alternative News Service — Your First Source for Reality and Honest Journalism," offered this headline (www.rense.com/general79/smith.htm), reprinting a World Entertainment News piece: "Will Smith — ‘Hitler Was Essentially a Good Person.’"
A Web site presumably credible to its readers put into quotation marks something Smith never said.
Even some responsible sites completely distorted what Smith said. YNETnews.com wrote: "Hollywood superstar Will Smith told Scottish newspaper The Daily Record recently that he was convinced Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler did not fully understand the extent of the pain and suffering his actions would cause during his time in power in the 1930s and ’40s."
Smith said that? Where? When? YNET — to repeat, a usually responsible site — made up that whole statement.
And, of course, millions of Internet readers believe all this, and then the sites publish readers’ comments based on the lie the site published — such as this one at YNET about "Will Smith losing millions of fans, being another Mel Gibson … "
To their credit, the mainstream print and electronic news media rarely misquoted Smith, but when they did cover it, the coverage was unhelpful and occasionally irresponsible.
The New York Post’s gossip column, "Page Six," wrote this on Dec. 30: "December 27, 2007 — Will Smith wisely backed away from comments he made to a Scottish reporter about Adolf Hitler." In fact, Smith never "backed away" from his comments, and there was nothing to back away from.
…What is to be learned? The lessons are simple:
1. Don’t trust a Web site that doesn’t cite a reputable source for a news item (opinions columns have different standards).
2. Then, check that source.
3. Don’t trust headlines in newspapers — read the entire column.
4. When a person is quoted, read his original statement in context.
In the meantime, however, millions of people around the world will continue to believe the lie that Will Smith said that Hitler was a good man.
And the media will, apparently, pay no price.

Posted in Dennis Prager | Comments Off

What Is Spirituality?

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

Fred emails:

I am about 1/2 through reading the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. (Don’t worry–I’m not converting. A friend gave me a copy.)
This book interests me because it dwells on the spiritual objective of Catholicism as, essentially, communing with God. Query: What does spirituality mean to you? Spirituality is almost alien to me. When I read discussions on the subject, it is almost like describing a sense that I do not have. For example, if I were deaf from birth, it would be like describing what it is like to hear. I have no reference point.
An ex-girlfriend of mine suggests that spirituality is related to instincts and feelings one has towards one’s parents when one is an infant, and perhaps one’s ability to experience spiritualism relates to one’s relations with one’s parents.
What do you think?

I would define spirituality as the awareness of a dimension in life beyond the physical. I feel it at times, such as at Yosemite.

Joe says: "That’s how Heschel begins his book "man is not alone", and uses that metaphor as defining the ineffable, the sense that there is more to the universe than can be expressed in a qualitative rather than a quantitative manner. It’s a very beautiful passage, and no surprise to me that a whole group of semi-converts in Japan virtually worship him as a prophet."

Posted in Spirituality | Comments Off

Spinka Rav In Town

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

I heard that the Spinka rav Naftali Tzi Weisz, after being released on bond erev shabbos stayed in Los Angeles.

At Young Israel of Century City, Rabbi Elazar Muskin made an impassioned speech condemning this public desecration of G-d’s name.

Khunrum emails: "Learning Spinka rav was back in town generated zero spiritual interest here my friend.. Actually I didn’t know he left town. Where was he, and who is he? On the other hand, when I read that Sierra Sinn… was now working in the sandwich section of Whole Foods…..well, that caught my interest. I hope she wears those clear plastic gloves when she makes your tuna on rye."

Posted in Orthodoxy, Spinka | Comments Off

Ken Layne Returns To Wonkette

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

Nick Denton writes on Gawker:

I am, says Jacob Weisberg, doing a "Cheney" — heading the search committee for a new managing editor of Gawker, and choosing myself. Thanks for that. Yes, Brian Stelter had the story right. The site won’t change much: it will remain focused on media gossip and pop culture; Alex Pareene will blog the breaking news; Maggie Shnayerson will continue to embarrass the magazine industry and permalancer-abusing media conglomerates such as Viacom; and Sheila McClear will cover book publishing. We’ll be adding some new contributors over the next few weeks. To begin: Richard Morgan, who’ll focus on the TV networks; Nick Douglas, a Gawker Media veteran, as our early warning antenna for Youtube clips and other pop culture phenomena on the web; Richard Lawson, better known as the commenter lolcait, will be running the site’s new photo caption contest. Oh, and there’s a surprise guest, this afternoon at 2pm, in the comments. After the jump, other new year changes at Gawker’s sibling titles, if you’re interested.
It’s Gawker Media’s anal side: we like to make changes in a neat package. As well as my own promotion, there are new managing editors at two other titles; and there’s a new site launching today. At Wonkette, the political gossip site, by popular demand, the legendary Ken Layne is back, this time as managing editor. And, at Defamer, Gawker’s entertainment gossip title, Mark Graham is coming in as managing editor.
Mark Lisanti, the site’s founding editor and one of the best writers on the web, will remain. But Defamer’s expanding, into celebrity photos and video clips, and original reporting. So we’re hiring the site’s first managing editor. Mark Graham, who’ll take over the administration of the operation, was a manager at Viacom. More importantly, he’s an old-school blogger, creator of Whatevs, one of the first pop culture blogs.
And the one last bullet point to this company press release: Annalee Newitz, a contributor to Wired among many other publications, is helming Gawker’s new science fiction and futurist culture site, io9, which launches today. It’s unashamedly geeky, but lavishly illustrated. Click through, if only for the pictures, like this one below, of a solar eruption, captured by an amateur astronomer.
Picture 15.jpg

BigHeadDC reports:

…Big Head DC recently noted (twice) that Clarke had started freelancing for Radar, a chief competitor to Denton’s blogs. Within days of those revelations, Clarke was out at Wonkette. That a second editor has left Denton to work for Radar (the first was Alex Balk) surely must be a stinging slap in Denton’s face, especially considering the mass quitting of three of his top editors at Gawker in December. Each of those editors took jabs on the Gawker blog about Denton’s poor management style in the weeks prior to their departures.
Interestingly, Ken Layne, who had run the Wonkette blog with Alex Pareene for a majority of 2006 and 2007 – and who was asked to leave the blog by Denton when Clarke signed up – has temporarily filled the open position. Pareene left to join Gawker’s NYC-focused blog soon after Big Head DC revealed his involvement in a Washington sex scandal.
As for Clarke, problems started soon into his tenure. A source close to the situation says Clarke didn’t realize the amount of posting he’d be expected to do, nor did he understand the extent of Denton’s desire for fresh and original scoops to be broken via the blog. Denton’s demands for scoops similar to mainstream media outlets have become much more intense as of late as some of his blogs, including Wonkette, have lost audience share and ad revenue to competing outlets such as Big Head DC.

Posted in Blogging | Comments Off

My Plans For 2008

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Luke Ford

Chaim Amalek writes:

Amalek tells Luke HOW to make this a great year, but will he listen?
Face it, Luke: your brand is the porn business. It is what brought you such fame as you have, and it is what paid your bills. In the tiny dirty pond that you flopped around in, you got to rub elbows with your intellectual inferiors and rub other body parts with the likes of Holly Randall. Removed from that world, you are like a lone lump of coal, quickly growning cold.
Consider this comment on your blog (do you know who posted it?):
"I am not sure if you have looked in the mirror recently, but you are becoming increasingly disheveled and obese – it’s alarming. The protruding double chin and sickly/tired appearance should be a wakeup call to change your life now before it is too late. Instead, you spend your New Year’s Eve – largely abandoned – blogging in a dimly light “hovel” shamelessly shilling Lasik and cheap airline tickets – a duty normally left to spam – in a meager attempt to improve your flagging fortune. Believe or not, this is even sadder than being a hated porn gossip columnist.
"Since you are a college dropout with neither the financial resources nor the work ethic to ever complete your degree, I suggest you get a gym membership and a part-time job somewhere so that the authorities do not find your homeless and aged/bloated corpse on the sidewalk in the near future."
I’ve not seen you in a while so cannot judge the truth – are you disheveled and have you been gaining weight? Some of the things you post have an air of desperation about them, a last-minute attempt to make an extra $20/day by trying to emulate spammers. This is not working out for you. I say you ditch the orthodox rabbis and instead of being the weird suspected "ger" who really isn’t a Jew but who is into porn and who keeps trying to infiltrate the black hats, you become the somewhat excessively religious guy who prays with the reform or even conservative Jews of LA. That would be a much, much better fit for you in many many ways. You would be viewed as religious, meet more rational people, people with money and connections and better skin, and you would get to earn a living doing what you like and what you are good at, and how many of us get to do that?
If this obese old Jew may be so bold as to speak for the All-Mighty, God does not want you there among the orthodox. He may want you to write about them, to socialize with them, and to perhaps even think of yourself as one of them, but communally, God wants you to be a different kind of Jew.
Otherwise, just what is the point of what you are doing? 40 becomes 50 becomes 60 becomes dead before you know it. What will you have to show for your time on earth – a stain on the hovel floor when the paramedics come to peel off your remains?

Khunrum emails:

Luke I must agree with Amalek here. We don’t want to put you down dear friend but the sad fact is LukeFord.net is a snoozefest. The content is all over the map. News of some scandal ridden, fallen Rabbi who diddled his students combined with pics of D list celebs or pathetic has beens like Mamie Van Doren. To quote Dan Rather, "What’s the frequency Kenneth"?
Let us crunch the numbers. What is the population of Jews in the USA, 3%-4%?. And out of that tiny population how many will consider Luke.Net interesting? Very few I’d say. Most would find it as boring as the rest of us. On the other hand, the world is full of porn perverts. That’s your target audience. Go with Amalek’s advice and put your energies into what go you to the hovel in the first place.
Either that or run, don’t walk, to your library and study diligently for the Postal Service Exam. Think Health Care and Retirement Bennies.

If you guys were more spiritual, you’d have greater appreciation for LF.net.

When you have a donkey look into a blog, you can’t expect an angel to look out.

Chaim Amalek responds:

Sorry, but that comment makes no sense. What is going on here is that you are like a bug in amber, frozen in time, and unable to think about the doom that is fast approaching as the amber hardens.. You cannot improve your life on your own, and you no longer can talk women into devoting their energies into doing the needful for you. Sorry to be so blunt, but you have neither a Cathy Seipp nor a potential Asian Wife nor a Holly in your life, and with every dawn the chances of such appearing to rescue you ala John Wayne drops. What’s left – Jewish blogging, competing with 14 year old boys to snap photos of G-list celebs, cutting and pasting from other blogs. The sun is setting on the Luke Ford name, and even though you know this, you have not the will to change things.
There will be no intervention.

Khunrum writes: " Luke will garner the respect he craves from the Jewish Community when he pulls up to shul in a shiny new car (having just left his shiny new digs) walks inside, drops a hefty donation in the poor box and greets all in his new Armani suit (black of course). They’ll love you when you make the bucks my friend and you can do that best through porn.

"Luke, my wife’s sister who I wanted to match you up with has married a young man who was then drafted into the Thai Army and it now in the deep South of the country helping to quell the ongoing Moslem insurgency. You should have seized the moment, she’s quite cute."

Helpful writes:

What’s in it for her? Moving from a village in the Thai jungle to The Hovel (TM) is a lateral move at best.

Sorry to dog pile on you Luke, but they Rum and Chaim speak the truth.
Go back to porn with a vengence. Report it all and without apology. Maybe the LF brand has faded, but it can be resurrected.
Perhaps you should follow other male porners and set up a "talent agency" for young starlets. Mentor them in fellation and what not then turn ’em out. Maybe a return to your alleged gigilo roots via craigslist.com. Men your age still have a following in the 50+ set. Hell, how much can you get for a sperm donation? You could kill two birds that way easy cash (it’s just running down you shower drain now anyhow) and reproduce (albeit anonymously).
Move forward!
Lets face it. Dental school is out of the question.
The next best thing is a shiny new Lexus to impress the chicks at shul. Maybe you could give up The Hovel and lease a new car for about the same money? Living in a car would be considered an upgrade in most people’s book.

Posted in Chaim Amalek | Comments Off

Campaigning Can Be Fun

Posted on January 1, 2008 by Luke Ford

Mickey Kaus writes:

On Samizdata, Paul Marks offers a fairly common defense of Fred Thompson:
Fred Thompson is in the middle of a 40 town Iowa tour – so he is hardly lazy. And he does go on television shows – thus dealing with critics, such as myself, who attacked him for not going on enough shows. But what sort of person would enjoy all this?
A lunatic.
I dunno. Sounds kinda fun to me! Being rushed from interview to interview, at each of which reporters (who may not know a whole lot less about government than you do) hang on your every nuance, jot down each pensee? Waging an underdog campaign against unfair, flimsy media expectations? Occupying the center of attention wherever you go? Having an eager staff devoted to making you, you, you look good. Sounds like a the world’s greatest book tour, only better. You don’t need an emperor’s ego to enjoy that sort of thing, or even a blogger’s ego. A normal attorney’s or reporter’s or college professor’s ego should do. … There may be reasons why sane people are discouraged from running for president–e.g., fundraising, holding lower office–but the horrible experience of campaigning in Iowa for a month wouldn’t seem to be among them.

Posted in Mickey Kaus | Comments Off

Sierra Sinn Says She Was Never a Crackhead

Posted on January 1, 2008 by Luke Ford

I get a call New Year’s Eve from the ex-porn star. I was acquainted with her for several years when I covered that industry.

Audio

Christian evangelist Shelley Lubben writes in late August 2007:

As most of you know Julie, formerly known as Porn Star Sierra Sinn, left porn on June 20, 2007 and in just two months she has been able to walk away from the enslavement of the porn industry, stop smoking pot, she found a new place to live and went out and got a great job at a prominent Food Store that offers full benefits!!!
That took HUGE amounts of courage not to mention she is willing to her use her life story to help others. Most girls want to hide when they leave the sex industry but not Julie. She is determined to help others learn the truth about porn and God is blessing her BIG TIME for it!
Julie is so thankful to all of us who offered her support through their encouragement, prayers and donations. She says our support gave her the strength she needed to take the steps necessary to rebuild her life. She also wants to thank the Esther Fund set up by xxxchurch for donating a large amount toward her living expenses.
She is especially thankful to God because she KNOWS God is the one who faithfully stood by her and opened doors for her as she took her first courageous steps to rebuild her life.
Truly with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! I hope all of you reading will be inspired to trust in God and lean on Him to help you take the steps necessary to live the life you were created for!
You were meant for greater things than porn! Whether porn star or porn addict, God has more for you than a life enslaved to porn.
If you would like to learn more about how you can help Julie and other girls like her, you can visit my web site at www.shelleylubben.com

Julie, formerly Sierra Sinn, phones at 10 p.m.: "Even though I quit porn, I am doing way better than ever. I just wanted to report that."

Luke: "Hey. What are you doing these days?"

Julie: "I’m doing what I need to be doing to take care of myself and my family."

Luke: "Are you working? Are you going to school?"

Julie: "I’m working. I’m working very hard in every sense of the world. I’m staying out of porn. I’ll never go back.

"I don’t hate porn the way people think I do. I believe in God and I believe in Christ and everything, but I’m not like a Jesus freak. I don’t condone anyone for what they do. I don’t hate anyone for what they do. I don’t hate anyone for what they’ve done to me. So what I’m saying is that I’m having a great year and I’ll continue to and I’d really appreciate it if you’d report that."

Luke: "I will. Hang on a second. What have been the best things and what have been the toughest things for you in making a new life?"

Julie: "The money. I haven’t had nearly as much money as I had before. I feel really good that I have a job. I feel responsible. I have something that I can do every day. I don’t feel like a scumbag for just taking what I can get. Before I’d just take paychecks but it was never steady. Now I feel responsible for something. I’m doing something good."

Luke: "So the toughest part of leaving the industry was leaving the money?"

Julie: "Definitely. I’m a strong enough person that I can get past that. I can live humbly for a little while until I can get promoted.

"If you stick by a job, they’re going to promote you and give you what you need. I have health insurance now. That’s one thing I’m really happy about. When I was in porn, I never went to the doctor except for AIM. Now I can go and get my entire body checked out, not just my vagina."

We laugh.

Luke: "How does your soul feel?"

Julie: "I don’t feel any different. I feel better about myself as far as I’m not a whore. I’m with one guy. I love him very much and that’s it. I feel a lot better about myself now. Other than that, I don’t feel any different. I’m the same person I’ve always been.

"I was never the person that some people portrayed me to be. I was never a crack head. I was never a meth head. I was never a tweaker like they tried to say I was. I went out and I partied. I’m sorry. Excuse me for having a good time. I’m a DJ. That’s what I do. That’s going very well. I’ve spun three parties in the past year. For someone who’s not really trying to pursue it, I think that’s pretty good."

Luke: "So what kind of person is Shelley Lubben?"

Julie: "She’s awesome. She’s intense and some people may confuse that for something that it’s not. She’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She doesn’t judge you for things you’ve done in your past but helps you get to where you want to be in your future. People can say what they want about her. Yes, she’s radical, but she has her heart in the right place. Shelley Lubben is my hero."

Luke: "How did you get in contact with her?"

Julie: "She hit me up on MySpace. She was at the right place at the right time. It was very fateful. I hate to sound like a Jesus freak, but I feel like I was put in touch with her through God. I was going through a downfall and she hit me up and I was like wow. It’s crazy. Everything she said made sense. I love Shelley."

Luke: "How many friends did you keep from the porn industry?"

Julie: "One and a half."

Luke: "What do you think we as individuals can do about the porn industry?"

Julie: "I just don’t want to see children being exploited. I wish there was more security. I wish it wasn’t as extreme. I wish girls didn’t have to go as far as they did. But honestly, that’s a personal decision. I made it and a lot of girls will make it. I pray to God for their souls that they don’t, but if they do, I hope they find the right side.

"I really wish that like children weren’t being exploited. People under 21. Between the ages of 18 and 21, you’re not an adult. I made a lot of mistakes between the ages of 18 and 21, note even porn, that maybe you should not be accounted for but you are because you are over 18."

Luke: "Do you find people still holding your porn background against you?"

Julie: "Not really. Too many people know that I did it in the past."

Luke: "Have you been able to get closer to people now that you’ve left the industry?"

Julie: "I’ve been able to have a boyfriend now that I’ve left the industry. My family was never not supportive but they were never like fully gung-ho on it. Now that I’m not doing it, they’re a lot happier. I find that I’m able to have more real friends, actual friends, rather than just people who are using me for status, money or whatever reason… I have real friends rather than just people in my life."

Luke: "How is your sex life different now that you’re out of porn?"

Julie: "How did I know that was coming up? It’s different. It’s not as frequent but it’s very satisfactory. It means a lot more. Before I just felt that I was f—ing to reach a high because I would get high from certain orgasms. You know what I mean?"

Luke: "Yeah."

Julie: "Sometimes you’d get like this f—ing like f— buzz. But now I don’t just f— to get like that f— buzz. I f— because I love my boyfriend and I want to make him happy. I mean it when I f— now."

"I just want everyone to know that I’m not just some f—ed up bitch who left the industry and like started doing drugs and all that s—. Yeah, I did a few drugs, but I was never strung out like people wanted to believe that I was. Yeah, I had my share of partying but I was never like some f—ing cracked out bitch. People think that just because I left the industry that it was because I was all f—ed up. But in actuality I left the industry because I was all f—ed up but that was mentally not on drugs. And now I’m not. And I just want to say that."

Luke: "Right. How long have you been clean and sober for?"

Julie: "Does pot count? Because I still smoke pot."

Luke: "Aside from pot."

Julie: "Other than pot, since July."

Luke: "Cool."

"How long have you been with your boyfriend?"

Julie: "Since July."

Posted in Pornography | Comments Off

Idea of McCain-Lieberman ticket is the buzz at Orthodox parley

Posted on January 1, 2008 by Luke Ford

Sue Fishkoff writes:

Radio host Michael Medved, a hardcore Republican, and political scientist David Luchins, former adviser to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), disagree on just about everything related to the presidential race.

Except the idea of John McCain.

In a campaign that they say is filled with adulterers, fundamentalists, crooks, bigots, and wildcards, the GOP senator from Arizona is the only candidate both men say they could endorse — especially if his running mate were Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Sabbath-observant Democrat-turned-Independent who crossed party lines last week to endorse the Republican war hero.

On Sunday, at the Orthodox Union’s West Coast Torah Convention in Beverly Hills, Calif., during a session titled "Should Torah Jews Vote Democratic or Republican?," Medved and Luchins examined the campaign lineup. With about 100 people in attendance, they ruminated on which candidates deserve the support of Orthodox voters, the majority of whom bucked the overall Jewish trend and voted for President Bush in 2004.

The two men trashed one candidate after another, until a woman in the back of the room offered the final question of the day: What about a McCain-Lieberman ticket?

Heads swiveled back to enjoy what would surely be another of Medved’s sharp witticisms, as he skewered the woman’s political naïveté.

But no. Medved paused. He’d had lunch several times with McCain, he confessed. And maybe — no, he couldn’t tell about it. It was off-the-record information.

"Turn off the tape!" one man shouted at the video technician recording the session.

Smiling slightly, Medved relented: "I don’t think it’s an unthinkable possibility, and it would be a very strong ticket." Although he’s not ready to give up on the Republicans, and although Luchins is still holding out hope for a strong Democratic ticket, the two agreed that McCain-Lieberman 2008 wasn’t a bad idea at all.

The two men are close friends, Medved noted, "and people would love a unity ticket that would put America’s interests first."

Lieberman, a four-term Connecticut senator, was an unabashed Democrat in 2000, when he was tapped by Al Gore to be his running mate. Since then, however, Lieberman’s vocal support for the Iraq war has put him at odds with many Democratic lawmakers and the party’s liberal base. Last year, in Connecticut’s Democratic senatorial primary, he lost to an anti-war challenger, businessman Ned Lamont, before winning as a third-party candidate in the general election. These days, he describes himself as an "Independent Democrat," and caucuses with the Democrats, securing their control of the Senate.

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