Luke Ford | No sacred cows.

Forbidden Sex

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

The afternoon Torah reading on Yom Kippur is from Leviticus 18, the passage of forbidden relations. Included in this list is adultery, incest and homosexual relations. Why do we read it on Yom Kippur?
Rashi (Megillah 31a sv. korin ba-arayos) writes that it is to remind anyone who has committed these common sins that they are forbidden and to lead them to repent. Tosafos (ibid., sv. be-minchah) explain that we read this passage because women dress up in their best clothes in honor of the holy day, and men need to be reminded to keep their desires under control. Regardless, the message is clear. These relations are forbidden and we need to remember that and heed the warning.
Steve Greenberg, the "gay orthodox rabbi", has a different take on this (link). He says that, first of all, it is better to read the passage than to deny that it exists. Furthermore:
Second, reading Leviticus 18:22 in shul on Yom Kippur makes gay people present in a powerful, if challenging way. With the proper acknowledgement, the reading can become a call to greater empathy and understanding. We can use it to bring to communal memory the countless people throughout the ages, who, on the most holy day of the year, had no voice in the face the most devastating misrepresentation of their hearts. And lastly, it can serve as an impetus for learning and reinterpretation of the biblical and rabbinic texts that should no longer be a source of self-loathing or exclusion.
This is an incredibly self-serving distortion of the Jewish tradition. Should adulterers and those guilty of incest also take the opportunity as "an impetus for learning and reinterpretation of the biblical and rabbinic texts"? I see this idea as being similar to encouraging using the Torah reading of Parashas Zakhor (which teaches us to destroy the memory of Amalek) as a way of embracing Amalek. Or of blowing the shofar as a way of leading us all to sin. Or lighting the menorah as a way of stimulating assimilation and abandonment of Jewish heritage, a common but widely disparaged activity.
Perhaps a better message of the Yom Kippur afternoon Torah reading to the homosexual community is that their desires are as equally strong as heterosexual desires, which is why the Torah lists all of the forbidden relations together. This is their opportunity to shine and to represent the Jewish people in upholding this prohibition despite their strong desires.

Posted in Homosexuality, Judaism | Comments Off

Torched By T.J. Simers?

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

Before I went on AM 570 KLAC’s morning show (hosted by KNBC sportscaster Fred Roggins, Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers and his daughter Tracy) July 12, I was warned that T.J. was down on blogs and would rip into me.

I geared myself up for a fight that never happened. Fred and T.J. were perfectly respectful.

I did the show again today (audio). It was just T.J. and his unmarried daughter.

Many people inquire about how I achieve such amazing quality with my audio. Well, here’s the secret. I first record things onto my clunky Radio Shack cassette tape recorder. Then I replay it on to my sony digital tape recorder and upload the magic.

The L.A. Times coverage of Mirthala Salinas has been phony from day one. In their profile of her a couple of months ago, they praise her about 20 times for being a good hard-working journalist without providing any examples of her good journalism.

When the Times wants to quote a journalistic expert on her, they seem to invariably turn to fellow latina journalists at USC.

From their Sept. 24 story:

One journalism authority said Telemundo’s decision to transfer Salinas could help restore some of the credibility KVEA and its network had lost in the unfolding scandal.
"It’s a way for the station to wash its hands of the conflict-of-interest problem," said Laura Castaneda, associate professor of professional practice at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism.

I have some questions. One, what makes Laura Castaneda a journalism authority? Two, why does the Times seek out a fellow latina to comment on this? Does one have to be latina to have an opinion on Spanish-language journalism?

(Castaneda is the author of "The Latino Guide To Personal Money Management." Why would latinos need their own guide to money management?)

The Spanish-language news media in Los Angeles and throughout South and Central America (with a few exceptions) are pathetic and the Times coddling of them and placing them in this ghetto of low expectations isn’t doing them or us any favors.

Jim emails: "I’m curious. Do you speak Spanish? How many hours of Spanish-language news do you watch each week? Or is it possible that you neither speak the language nor watch the news which you so summarily dismiss? If the latter is the case–and I suspect it is–your assertion is, like most everything else you spew, brainless hot air."

I don’t speak Spanish.

Posted in Personal | Comments Off

When Does The Los Angeles News Media Take Bloggers Seriously?

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

When they show up on Kevin Roderick’s LAObserved.com.

Once my Jan. 29, 2007 story on the disintegration of the mayor’s marriage was cited on LAObserved.com (that same day), that put the story in play and soon the LA Times and KFI radio were covering it.

A long time reporter and editor at the Los Angeles Times, Roderick employs the same standards as his former employer. As a result, LAObserved.com is every bit as reliable as the L.A. Times (in addition to being five times as much fun to read).

Until Roderick has put his hecsher (kosher certification) on an L.A. blogger’s story, the mainstream media tend not to trust the story.

Posted in LAObserved.com | Comments Off

No Lipstick for the Dodger pig

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

Matt Welch writes:

Of all the lowliest (and most punishing) forms of journalism there are in our marvelous culture of media plenty, post-game baseball call-in shows possibly rank in the lowest quintile. And I say that as someone who probably spends more man-hours per annum listening to "Angel Talk" than reading The New Yorker and The Atlantic combined.
The problems are endless, and structural — callers ranging in sophistication from pre-T-baller to Don Zimmer, screeners failing to weed out monomaniacs and drunks, and hosts trapped between serving as goodwill ambassador to the fans and loyalist defender of the team. As the fine Dodgers/Angels blogger Rob McMillin put it recently, "Sports talk shows are a thankless job, but it’s a heck of a lot easier if the team is in first place."
There is a root conflict of interest foreign to almost every journalistic job except for the peculiar position of ombudsman — the primary target of the journalism either pays the radio host’s salary directly (as in the case of the Angels’ Terry Smith), or pays the host’s station a pile of money to broadcast games (as happens with "Dodger Talk" host Bob Harvey). It’s hard enough to pursue journalistic fairness in the absence of financial considerations; next to impossible when the subject of your story holds the whip hand.
Which Harvey learned (or more likely, re-learned) the hard way last week, when Dodgers PR director Josh Rawitch called him during his broadcast to label Harvey’s show "an embarrassment." The complaint, as Rawitch laid out on his blog the next day, goes like this:

Posted in Journalism, Matt Welch | Comments Off

From Dallas Cowboy To Orthodox Jew

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

Barry Horn writes:

Schneur Kaplan is the Fort Lauderdale rabbi who shepherded Mr. Veingrad’s metamorphosis from Alan to Shlomo. It was Rabbi Kaplan who began calling Mr. Veingrad by the Hebrew name that he was given at birth and then promptly stored away for almost four decades.
A rabbi in the Chasidic movement that strives to bring Jews back to their religion’s roots, Rabbi Kaplan calls his friend’s relatively rapid total immersion into a new way of life "rare."
"To see his transition from living a mundane life, where the important things were boating and water sports and talking about bigger and better houses and fancy cars, to a religious life has been amazing," Rabbi Kaplan says. "But Shlomo is an all-or-nothing kind of guy. He has approached this like I’m sure he approached football – with every fiber of his being."
…The big-city boy from Miami loved East Texas State from the moment he reported for practice in 1981. He found himself surrounded by like-minded players from small towns in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana whose primary passion was to become better football players.
Never, he said, did he hear a single anti-Semitic remark, although he did stop counting the number of times that he heard teammates say, "I never met a Jew before."
More often than not, when they asked questions about Judaism, Mr. Veingrad shrugged, said he would get back to them and called his mother in Miami for answers.
"Like most Jewish boys, I had a bar mitzvah when I was 13 and thought I was through with religion," he says. "I thought it was an exit service."

Posted in Football, Orthodoxy | Comments Off

Foreskin’s Lament

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

Jason Maoz (editor of The Jewish Press) emails: "Read an advance galley of Foreskin’s Lament. Disappointing. Auslander comes across as a creepy sociopath who gives new and literal meaning to the old and overused phrase "self-hating Jew." Also, I noticed at least one internal inconsistency in terms of the narrative’s chronology. And other parts of the book just seem less than genuine. He doesn’t tie Philip Roth’s shoelaces."

Posted in Shalom Auslander | Comments Off

The Football Novel

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

David Davis writes:

The football novel didn’t hit its stride until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the sport began to overtake baseball as our national obsession. Not coincidentally, the quartet of works that still dominate the pantheon — Dan Jenkins’ "Semi-Tough," Peter Gent’s "North Dallas Forty," Frederick Exley’s "A Fan’s Notes" and Don DeLillo’s "End Zone" — reflects the anti-Establishment chaos of Vietnam War-era America. In these funny and passionate novels, football serves as backdrop to stories of friendship, loss and obsession.
Today, the influence of contemporary football — at the high school, collegiate and professional levels — exceeds every other sport in America. The South shuts down on Saturdays for college games. Super Bowl Sunday serves as a secular holiday; even the commercials for the big game are hotly debated. After Hurricane Katrina, more than $150 million was spent to repair the Louisiana Superdome, in part so that the New Orleans Saints could play again.

Posted in Football | Comments Off

L.A. Is A Terrible Place To Do Business

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Luke Ford

From MayorSam:

Blogger Cutter at MetroBloggingLA wonders why he’s "one of the only white people riding the bus every day?." Thoughts?
TV’s Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick) apparently had a real life lesbian love affair with sister Jan (Eve Plumb) during the years the show was in production. At least a new book authored by McCormick makes that claim.
The Daily News editorializes that LA is a terrible place to do business. The piece recaps various reports and studies that show neighboring cities such as Burbank and Santa Clarita are far more business friendly. Even other large cities in California such as Oakland and San Francisco rate at the tops of lists LA is barely in the cellar on.

Posted in Los Angeles | Comments Off

The Jewish Journal’s Mythical Sex Slaves

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

Few publications enjoy relying on mythical prefabricated stories as much as the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. The newspaper loves to rely on official sources. That’s what makes it so advertiser-friendly. The Journal specializes in third-rate rewrites such as such their March 30, 2007 Amy Klein cover story on sex slaves:

Traffickers sell slaves to Europe, Israel and, increasingly, to North America. In the United States, human trafficking is a growing problem. In 1999, a report issued by the CIA estimated that 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States a year. But in 2004, when the Department of Justice put that number at between 14,000 and 17,000 a year.

Well, maybe not. A real journalist, Jerry Markon, reports in the Sept. 23, 2007 Washington Post:

President Bush has blanketed the nation with 42 Justice Department task forces and spent more than $150 million — all to find and help the estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of forced prostitution or labor in the United States.
But the government couldn’t find them. Not in this country.
The evidence and testimony presented to Congress pointed to a problem overseas. But in the seven years since the law was passed, human trafficking has not become a major domestic issue, according to the government’s figures.
The administration has identified 1,362 victims of human trafficking brought into the United States since 2000, nowhere near the 50,000 a year the government had estimated. In addition, 148 federal cases have been brought nationwide, some by the Justice task forces, which are composed of prosecutors, agents from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and local law enforcement officials in areas thought to be hubs of trafficking.
In the Washington region, there have been about 15 federal cases this decade.
Ronald Weitzer, a criminologist at George Washington University and an expert on sex trafficking, said that trafficking is a hidden crime whose victims often fear coming forward. He said that might account for some of the disparity in the numbers, but only a small amount.
"The discrepancy between the alleged number of victims per year and the number of cases they’ve been able to make is so huge that it’s got to raise major questions," Weitzer said. "It suggests that this problem is being blown way out of proportion."

Posted in Amy Klein, Jewish Journal | Comments Off

Mistress Salinas Returns To Work

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Luke Ford

ERSNews.com reports over an hour before the Los Angeles Times:

ERS News has learned that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s girlfriend and suspended Los Angeles Telemundo anchor/reporter Mirthala Salinas will return to work on Monday October 1, 2007. The announcement came today at a meeting at the Spanish language KVEA-TV Channel 52 Burbank, CA newsroom. Salina’s was suspended in August by the station for violating what the station called a "conflict of interest" in having a romantic relationship with the Mayor while also covering and reporting on him.
The twist to this story is, Mirthala will not be working in Burbank, her former location, where she covered and had romantic relationships with many well known LA area hispanic politicians before "hooking up" with the Mayor. Those politicians included California Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez, former LA City Councilman and now State Senator Alex Padilla and others. ERS News extensively reported on the scandal this past summer, as the Mayor’s relationship with Salinas made national headlines. It turns out Salinas won’t be anywhere near Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. She is being sent to work at the Telemundo Inland Empire news bureau with KNBC-TV’s Mary Parks.
Salinas’ new assignment is at least two hours commute from Getty House (the Mayor’s official residence where ERSNews reported Marthala Salinas and the Mayor were spending lots of ‘quality time’ together). As for Inland Empire political and news junkies, they might expect to possibly see the LA Mayor hanging around Riverside for some mall shopping excursions with his girlfriend Salinas, like the one captured by celebrity website TMZ.com in LA last month. ERS doesn’t know the nice malls in Riverside or San Bernardino, but we do know there are a lot of factory outlet malls out there, so maybe the Mayor will be able to save a little money the next time the Mayor is hunting for a new pair of shoes!
According to insiders familiar with the new "general assignment" reporting job, Salinas will not be covering LA politicians anymore, which is what got her into trouble in the first place. Unless of course, they have a reason to make the trek out to the "Inland Empire" as the area is known. As for Riverside and San Bernardino politicians, we here at ERS News want to make sure the politicians out in the "Inland Empire" have been alerted! It looks like Salinas will be stuck covering snow in the mountains, floods in the desert, high winds in the passes, and the occasional meth lab bust! All these stories are the staple for Los Angeles area TV news.

Posted in Antonio Villaraigosa, Mirthala Salinas | Comments Off