Luke Ford | No sacred cows.

LA’s Good Samaritan Hospital Is Every Bit As Troubled As The Disgraced King-Drew

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Goodsam.org makes some hilarious claims, such as: "A major research center and teaching hospital, Good Samaritan pioneers procedures that save lives and alleviate pain and suffering."

"Noted as one of America’s best hospitals."

Hah!

It has patients lying in the hallways for hours before they get their sub-standard care. Its doctors and nurses are at war.

A patient dies. The nurses think about which doctor they want to get rid of, and then they blame the patient’s death on that doctor.

State law since 2005 has required Good Sam and all other hospitals to make sure they meet minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

Nothing, however, requires them to meet any physician-to-patient ratios. So the hospital saves money by cutting back on its physician staff. The result is a hospital swamped with patients with too few doctors answering the calls to an ample nursing staff.

Good Samaritan staff have a high turnover rate.

Its doctors are looking over their shoulders wondering whether nurses are there to help them or just to catch them in a bad result. A string of physicians left after being blamed by nurses for patient deaths.

There’s such a low ratio of doctors to patients that the doctors have to run from patient to patient. Unlike Cedars-Sinai and UCLA, Good Samaritan can’t count on residents from its teaching programs to provide enough doctors to give patients prompt care.

Other downtown hospitals (LA Metropolitan and California Hospital, etc.) are also skimping on the number of doctors.

Here’s a link to the Los Angeles Times coverage of the Martin Luther King – Harbor hospital:

"Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital is set to close down soon after failing a federal inspection. The action comes after a new round of questions about care, including one in which a woman writhed on the floor of the emergency room lobby for 45 minutes before dying of a perforated bowel. No one stepped in to help her. The Willowbrook hospital, once known as King/Drew, has been plagued by allegations of poor treatment almost since its inception 35 years ago."

Would you like to be treated at any hospital named after Martin Luther King? Would you like to hang out on any boulevard named after Martin Luther King?

Posted in Good Samaritan, Health | Comments Off

Under Fire In Lebanon

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Dikla Kadosh writes:

Yoav Galai documented the Israel-Lebanon war in the summer of 2006 as the only embedded photographer. No other Israeli photojournalist wanted the job. And when Galai returned with graphic images and an ignominious tale, no Israeli newspaper wanted to see or hear what he had to offer.
Unedited and unmitigated, Galai’s gritty photo series is now being displayed at the UCLA Hillel through Dec. 14.
"Under Fire in Lebanon" chronicles the few days Galai spent with an Israeli Defense Forces engineering unit in mid-August. A ceasefire was expected any day, and the unit was one of the last ones to push that far north into Lebanon.
The intrepid 26-year-old trudged through the dusty terrain to the deserted town of Ainata along with the young soldiers and photographed them preparing a bomb-blasted schoolhouse for incoming wounded soldiers.

I am sure that these photos are not "unedited." Perhaps "uncensored" was the word Dikla meant.

Posted in Calendar Girls, Israel | Comments Off

Ann Coulter At USC: ‘A Couple Of Well-Placed Nuclear Bombs And The Japanese Became Meek Little Lambs’

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

I got video of Ann and of the protesters outside Wednesday night.

Protesters Protesters Protesters New Videos

Mickey Kaus sat a few seats to my left during Ann’s talk. Andrew Breitbart stood in the back.

The auditorium at the Annenberg School of Communications sat about 300 people, almost all of them pro-Ann.

(About 100 people milled around upstairs watching Coulter on closed-circuit TV including the Surfing Rabbi Nachum Shifren.)

I sat next to a couple of Christian youth from Azusa Pacific University.

Half the crowd rose to give Ann a standing ovation when she walked in and 95% of the crowd rose to applaud her at the end.

Outside of the Annenberg complex, about 30 protesters held up placards and chanted: "Down with Coulter, stop the war!"

"Hey hey, ho ho, racist bitch has got to go!"

At times, there was a civil dialogue between Ann fans and the protesters. Nobody got nasty.

USC Hillel’s Reform Rabbi Susan Laemle hung out with the protesters, giving one of the leaders a big hug. He kept yelling, "Why are we bringing a hatemonger to a research institution?"

Three minutes into this video, a woman from Russia excoriates the protesters. "You have no idea what fascism is. You haven’t come from Russia or from Germany."

Her husband tugs her away.

A young white right-winger tells the protesters: "Save your voices for the pledge of allegiance tomorrow!"

They chant back: "Stop the war! Stop the hate!"

A man who says he served in Iraq tells the protesters: "The first medal of honor winner in Iraq was killed helping an Iraqi lady across the street."

The chants resume: "Stop the war!" "Stop the hate!"

"Fascists off campus! Fascists off campus!"

Rabbi Laemmle’s friend yells: "If anyone is interested in what true fascism is, the definition of fascism started by Mussolini in Italy is when the corporation merges with the state. The people you call Islamo-fascists are fighting for the people’s causes… There’s never been a more fascist threat than Bush’s America."

Protester tells the ex-soldier: "It’s not the soldiers fault. You were used."

I’m told the USC administration limited Coulter’s speech to the relatively small Annenberg auditorium because it was easier and less expensive to provide security there.

Kip Payne, Vice-Chair of USC College Republicans, says: "The USC College Republicans chose Annenberg Auditorium as the location and oversaw the security arrangements for Ms Coulter’s speech. The USC administration had no hand in any of the planning or funding of the event."

I kept expecting audience members to rise up in protest during Ann’s speech but nobody did.

I arrived at Annenberg at 4 p.m. Organizers were setting up tables. There was a feeling of excitement in the air that steadily increased in intensity as the place filled up.

An odd intense middle-aged man with a pot belly arrived early, carrying a cardboard sign that read: "Christians = Pagans = Heathens = Burn In Hell."

Sorry Brad Greenberg.

An acquaintance showed up with four Ann Coulter books for her to sign. This was his 40th birthday present to himself.

Michael Finch got me in to the speech.

From the USC Daily Trojan:

The event was part of "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," a nationwide effort by the David Horowitz Freedom Center to "confront the two Big Lies of the political left; that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat," according to Horowitz’s Terrorism Awareness website. It was sponsored by the USC College Republicans and USC Objectivist Club and underwritten by both the Freedom Center and the Young America’s Foundation.
Coulter, self-admittedly notorious for making controversial and offensive remarks, addressed why she believes the Democratic Party enables Islamofascism, criticized liberal stances on both international and domestic policy, with a focus on foreign policy in the Middle East and the Iraq War, and addressed the threat of religious fundamentalism.
She said that 9/11 was "the greatest hate crime in world history" and that Guantanamo Bay looks more like a freshman dorm than a detention center, in response to a recent report that some detainees have gained 20 lbs.
…Perhaps the most notable part of the event was that Coulter encountered no interruptions. In 2005, she cut short her speech because of jeering at the University of Connecticut, and in 2004 she dodged a pie thrown at her at the University of Arizona.

Posted in Ann Coulter | Comments Off

Heads Must Roll At The New Republic

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Editor Franklin Foer and company have been protecting another fabulist.

Matt Drudge reports:

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained internal documents from the investigation of THE NEW REPUBLIC’S "Baghdad Diarist", Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private turned war correspondent who reported tales of military malfeasance from the Iraq War front.
The documents appear to expose that once the veracity of Beauchamp’s diaries were called into question, and an Army investigation ensued, THE NEW REPUBLIC has failed to publicly account for publishing slanderous falsehoods about the U.S. military in a time of war.
Document 1: Beauchamp Refuses to Stand by Story (Beauchamp Transcript Part 1)
THE NEW REPUBLIC has been standing behind the stories from their Baghdad Diarist, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, since questions were first raised about their accuracy over the summer. On August 10, the editors at TNR accused the Army of "stonewalling" their investigation into the stories by preventing them from speaking with Beauchamp. The DRUDGE REPORT has since obtained the transcript of a September 7 call between TNR editor Frank Foer, TNR executive editor Peter Scoblic, and Private Beauchamp. During the call, Beauchamp declines to stand by his stories, telling his editors that "I just want it to end. I’m not going to talk to anyone about anything really." The editors respond that "we just can’t, in good conscience, continue to defend the piece" without an explanation, but Beauchamp responds only that he "doesn’t care what the public thinks." The editors then ask Beauchamp to cancel scheduled interviews with the WASHINGTON POST and NEWSWEEK.
Document 2: Beauchamp Admits to "Gross Exaggerations and Inaccurate Allegations" (Beauchamp Transcript Part 2)
The DRUDGE REPORT has also obtained a signed "Memorandum for Record" in which Beauchamp recants his stories and concedes the facts of the Army’s investigation — that his stories contained "gross exaggerations and inaccurate allegations of misconduct" by his fellow soldiers.
Document 3: Army Investigation: Tales "Completely Fabricated," Beauchamp Wanted to be Hemingway
The third document obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT is the Army’s official report on the investigation into the allegations made by Private Beauchamp. The Army concluded that Beauchamp had "completely fabricated" the story of mocking a disfigured woman, that his description of a "Saddam-era dumping ground" was false, and that claims that he and his men had deliberately targeted dogs with their armored vehicles was "completely unfounded." Further the report stated "that Private Beauchamp desired to use his experiences to enhance his writing and provide legitimacy to his work possibly becoming the next Hemingway."
The report concludes that "Private Beauchamp takes small bits of truth and twists and exaggerates them into fictional accounts that he puts forth as the whole truth for public consumption."

Posted in Journalism, New Republic | Comments Off

‘Etz Chaim Hee’ As The Ex Used To Say

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

I was preparing a beautiful homily Tuesday night for the short alcohol-soaked life of my Malibu ex when she IM’d me.

It was a beautiful opportunity to share with her my message of hope.

hollyrandall (9:13:41 PM): so are you really leaving us?
Luzdedos1 (9:14:13 PM): yes
hollyrandall (9:14:32 PM): what prompted this decision?
Luzdedos1 (9:15:15 PM): …gave me an ultimatum
hollyrandall (9:16:42 PM): whoa
Luzdedos1 (9:17:08 PM): frankly, i am glad
hollyrandall (9:17:07 PM): me too
hollyrandall (9:17:13 PM): i’m glad you’re doing it 🙂
hollyrandall (9:17:21 PM): i think you’ll find yourself much happier
hollyrandall (9:17:31 PM): you know i’ve urged you to get out
hollyrandall (9:19:12 PM): well it makes sense that he feels you should not be making a living on porn advertising
Luzdedos1 (9:19:33 PM): yes
Luzdedos1 (9:20:15 PM): what’s new with you?
hollyrandall (9:20:10 PM): survived the fires
Luzdedos1 (9:20:38 PM): i was wondering about that
Luzdedos1 (9:20:50 PM): I was preparing a beautiful funeral speech for you
hollyrandall (9:20:42 PM): haha
hollyrandall (9:23:33 PM): seriously it got very close– super scary
Luzdedos1 (9:24:05 PM): oy
hollyrandall (9:24:09 PM): do you have another form of income?
hollyrandall (9:24:15 PM): getting back to you
Luzdedos1 (9:24:57 PM): lukeford.net and revver etc, i’m close to a $1000 a month
hollyrandall (9:25:23 PM): and how much is your rent?
hollyrandall (9:25:34 PM): it doesn’t seem like you had a lot of extra cash flow
Luzdedos1 (9:26:29 PM): I don’t have to get a job this week but soon
hollyrandall (9:26:18 PM): wow that’s cutting it close
hollyrandall (9:26:30 PM): what kind of job are you going to look for?
Luzdedos1 (9:27:07 PM): just checking craigslist and journalismjobs.com for stuff I’d like, otherwise secretarial
hollyrandall (9:27:10 PM): wow a real job
Luzdedos1 (9:28:19 PM): I’m kinda looking forward to it, floundering for a while as i usually do, and eventually finding a niche with a job i like
hollyrandall (9:28:43 PM): it’ll be good to have a solid routine
hollyrandall (9:28:53 PM): hell, you might even meet new people! 😉
Luzdedos1 (9:29:22 PM): exactly, i’m very horny
hollyrandall (9:29:49 PM): now we get to the bottom of the REAL reason
hollyrandall (9:30:02 PM): honestly i hope you really go through with this and don’t come back
hollyrandall (9:30:08 PM): i think you will be much happier
hollyrandall (9:30:12 PM): i’m proud of you
Luzdedos1 (9:30:33 PM): thank you!
hollyrandall (9:30:24 PM): leave us to burn in hell, you deserve better 😉
Luzdedos1 (9:30:41 PM): I agree
Luzdedos1 (9:32:11 PM): reading any good books?
hollyrandall (9:32:08 PM): i’m reading blue shoes and happiness
hollyrandall (9:32:13 PM): it’s a south african book
hollyrandall (9:32:20 PM): my mom loves the author
hollyrandall (9:32:22 PM): it’s cute so far
Luzdedos1 (9:35:37 PM): how close did the fires get to your parents place?
hollyrandall (9:37:05 PM): just over the ridge

Posted in Personal | Comments Off

Where Should Jews Stand On Immigration?

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

John Derbyshire writes:

It remains the case that the generality of American Jews, certainly among the commentariat, are very hostile to immigration restriction. They believe that wellnigh unrestricted immigration from absolutely everywhere is … is what? Good For The Jews? That would be MacDonald’s interpretation. My own impression, talking to these people, is that they actually believe it is good for the U.S.A. Indeed, given that most of present-day immigration is of either (a) Muslims, who are antisemitic almost to a man, or (b) Latin Americans, which is to say, people from countries where antisemitism is more common, and more frank, than it ever was in the U.S.A. (where do they think all the old Nazis retired to?)—given that, the persistence of extravagant pro-immigration sentiment among American Jews today is rather astonishing. Perhaps the only explanation can be that Jews have so thoroughly internalized the Good For America justification that it overrides the understanding—which they must surely possess—that it is Bad For The Jews.
And it should be said, of course, that there are now numerous exceptions to all the above—many American Jews, including some prominent and activist ones, who are off the old reservation on immigration issues—Stephen Steinlight, for example.

Posted in Immigration | Comments Off

The Kingdom Breaks Through the (Smoke) Screen

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz writes for Jewcy:

The Kingdom, still playing in major movie houses, may be the most important recent contribution to the public discussion of U.S.-Saudi relations. Surprisingly and even hearteningly for those who follow developments in the desert monarchy, the film begins with the “W” word – Wahhabi – referring to the ultrafundamentalist Sunni Muslim sect that provides ideological support for the Riyadh regime.
American media, guided by academic Middle East Studies experts, have assiduously evaded discussion of Wahhabism, its murderous career over the past 250 years of Islamic history, and its complicity in incitement, recruitment, and financing of terrorism in Iraq today. Western journalists, academics, and politicians have even chimed in with Saudi claims that Wahhabism does not exist – only Islam, or “Salafism,” an abuse of the Islamic vocabulary. Wahhabis call themselves “Salafis” for the same reason Stalinists called themselves “progressives;” because when they are open about their affiliations and goals, they are repudiated.

Posted in Terror | Comments Off

The Noah Feldman Debate Just Won’t Die

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Izzy Grinspan writes:

Last Thursday night, NYU hosted a debate between Birthright Israel founder Michael Steinhardt, rabbi and TV personality Shmuley Boteach, and law professor Noah Feldman on the question “Are Jews different?” But as commenter agenius put it over in the Noah Feldman thread, what took place wasn’t really a debate. (I suspect agenius and I don’t agree on much, but we’re together on that.) It was more like a chance for three very different Jews to air their beliefs about Judaism, followed by a mini-drubbing of Noah Feldman by the NYU audience.
Rabbi Shmuley, who spoke first, testified to the virtues of Torah-based Jewish values. I can’t top Jewlicious’s hilarious description, so I’m just going to quote it: "Shmuley Boteach is, and I do not exaggerate, an evangelical Protestant minister with a beard and hand gestures." The girl sitting next to me, wearing a sensible skirt and loafers that I can only describe as tsnuit, leaned over and whispered “Isn’t he great? I was at his house for dinner last Shabbat.”

Posted in Noah Feldman | Comments Off

I Want To Move To Israel

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

I want to make a fresh start.

I call a friend Wednesday morning.

Friend: "You’re going to be coming out of the kosher Subway on Pico Blvd and we’re going to pull you into a van and take you to San Bernadino for three weeks of active deprogramming.

"Aliyah? What are you smoking?"

Luke: "I’d like to work on my Hebrew."

Friend: "That’s UCLA Extension. Seven to ten. You want me to sign you up?

"Go work for a jeweler downtown.

"You’d hate it in Israel. The majority of Israelis are not religious. You’d be with the nutters. Your love of porn would rekindle. The next thing you know it’ll be the song from Midnight Cowboy and you’re back on the plane.

"Come on. I’m the Ghost of Hanukkah Future.

"I can see you now with a beard down to your knees living in a settlement with an uzi putting stones on Baruch Goldstein’s grave. All supported by my tax dollars."

Luke: "I want to be an integrated person. I want to carry a gun. I want to shoot terrorists. I want to bring the moshiach."

Friend: "You and Ahmadinejad."

"You need to voluntarily commit yourself for 48 hours. It’s like a mental detox and then you’re free. ‘I want to work in an office park selling magazine subscriptions to save enough money to buy a one-way ticket to Israel to make aliyah to live in a settlement where I’ll never be accepted and forever suppress my healthy urge to download pornography.’"

Luke: "I want to live in Jerusalem."

Friend: "You’re close enough to Jerusalem. You live amongst the Orthodox."

Luke: "You’ve never been to Israel. If you went, you’d believe."

Friend: "I’ve never been to Baghdad."

"You think that when you move into some settlement on the West Bank, uzi on your shoulders, beard down to your knees, all of a sudden you say to yourself, ‘Now would be a good time to listen to Air Supply.’ You click that on. You think Rabbi Goldstein isn’t going to smash that vinyl LP with extreme prejudice? He’s not going to want to hear that crap. ‘What is this, Levi?’ ‘It’s from my youth.’

"He’s going to smash it."

"The minute you go online, and it’s going to be dial-up, and download porn, it’s over. You’ll be caught and exiled. As you’re leaving, Palestinians will hurl stones at you."

"The Talmud, please? It’s all man-made. Find another rabbi in the Talmud who says porn is acceptable. ‘In 51 CE, Rabbi Yose Mendleson said that to celebrate the naked body openly and commercially is not a sin.’ You just need one Talmudic citation and find a rabbi who says, ‘We can probably stretch this to include porn.’

"And your rejoinder is, ‘I’m not doing any gay porn. It’s all straight.’ And you’re fine.

"This is something out of The Counterlife. You’re Philip Roth.

"I can read it now, ‘American blogger befriends Yigal Amir and I’ll read a quote from Adlerstein defending the correspondence. ‘Yigal Amir is a political prisoner and the correspondence with him is an attempt to let the rest of the world know that a hero lies in prison.’"

Luke: "Adlerstein believes the opposite. Stop slandering the rabbi."

Friend: "You should be running down Pico Blvd arms flailing screaming, ‘I’ve seen the future.’

"I’m offering you freedom and you want to remain a slave. I’m brandishing the key to your chains. You’re been imprisoned for so long that you don’t know what to do. You’re an Iraqi. You don’t know what to do with freedom so you start blowing stuff up.

"That van is going to die on the 101 as you try to drive to Calabassas every morning to some job in a boiler room where you’re going to sell magazine subscriptions. You’re going to be 300 pounds from eating snickers bars. And you’re going to be constantly hung up on… You’re going to have a cigar-chomping boss cursing you out for not making your quota.

"Forget the rabbis. They have congregations paying their salaries. You’ve got to eat.

"I’ll find you a nice Reform synagogue where everybody is in the same industry. Then you can connect! ‘Hey man, what do you do?’ ‘I’m uhh, I’m uhh, I’m in entertainment.’ ‘Really? What’s the name of your company?’ ‘Umm, Up The Ass Productions. It’s distribution.’

"You can wear the tallis still.

"This will be your most heavily trafficked post in the past month, notwithstanding your Eliot Stein post. Internet pioneer. Yeah, it was him and the crew at the Pentagon that created Arpanet. He had a celebrity column.

"He was the first person to teach high school history. Before then it was just known as social studies. He went to the California Department of Education and said, ‘I have an idea and we can put this in every high school in America.’"

Luke: "I’m going to sell religious artifacts. The Luke Ford Lulav."

"Where would the first Jewish suicide bomber go?"

Fred suggests:

1. Mecca (during the Hajj)
2. The Dome of the Rock
3. KPFA in Berkeley
4. Anyplace else in Berkeley
5. A Louis Farakhan gathering
6. Gaza

Chaim Amalek writes:

Such attempts at humor prove that just minutes detached from the world of porn, you have lost your way. What law firm will hire you on as a manretary now?
Maybe there is a hedge fund in LA run by guys who are really way into porn. And maybe one of them would be willing to hire you.
Now that you have "left" porn, how rooted are you to LA? If you really are leaving porn, why should you remain there? Living in NY (where there is no porn industry worthy of the name), the yetzer horah would have far fewer opportunities to lure you back into the fleshpots of Onan and, believe me, you would find it far far far easier to be a Jew – ANY sort of a Jew – living here than you do living there. You wouldn’t need a car, so you could ditch the van, and you could milk your legit media connections here in ways not possible there.
So why not give New York a shot?

Avraham writes:

Levi, It sounds like you are standing at a crossroad in your life. Don’t listen to them. Listen to your inner / authentic voice. Parshat Lech – Lecha and it commands: Go! Not to San Bernadino, New York or Bombay. Leave it all and go TO YOU… Into your authentic self, where you will find the answers. Follow your heart. Don’t fear the journey of self-discovery. You aren’t loosing much here. I SAY GO!!! It doesn’t have to be forever. Please stay in touch with your readers. CAUTION: Be realistic and know what to expect there. At age 40 the likelihood of you carrying a gun has diminished to zero. You are too old for the army. Use your pen. Your words are sharper then a weapon.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off

Wafa Sultan: ‘America is my God’

Posted on October 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Danielle Berrin writes:

Wafa Sultan is on a mission to debunk what she calls the Islamic ideology of hate. Since 9/11, the Syrian-American psychologist has spoken out against the Muslim world calling them "hostages of their own belief system." She believes Islam has polluted the subconscious of millions of Muslims who are indoctrinated into a culture of toxic religious and political ideology. Those are powerful words coming from a woman who was born and bred in that system, but even more, they’re courageous: "I sometimes hear Osama Bin Laden walking behind me in my bedroom and I wonder why he doesn’t shoot me; but most of the time, I am at peace about my decision to speak out."
Now, she is urging the western world to join her and help liberate Muslims from Islamic teachings that are their only access to knowledge.
Since her fiery speech on Al Jazeera in February 2006 caught the world’s attention, Sultan has been promulgating her criticism of Islam from college campuses to international governments. She has met with leaders in Israel, Australia, Qatar and will soon travel to France. Last night, she appeared at Sinai Temple to tell several hundred people "what the west needs to know about Islam" and how she believes her message will resonate 200 years from now.

Posted in Wafa Sultan | Comments Off