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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Tag Archives: quot quot
The Kindly Jew
So I’m walking down the street Wednesday (circa 6 pm) untangling difficult Talmudic passages in my head when I come upon an old lady kneeling in the grass. She’s in high heels but one shoe is off. Her bags are … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged circulation problem, Holly Randall, man purse, quot quot, secret man, talmudic passages
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Emancipation & Enlightenment
Here’s a partial transcript of sociologist Steven Cohen’s talk July 10, 2008: Steven: "If you want to understand people, you need to know two things about them. Who do they hang out with and what do they value?" He talks … Continue reading
Posted in Steven M. Cohen
Tagged baby boom generation, emancipation, individualism, jewish parent, jewish parents, orthodox rabbi, partial transcript, quot quot, remarkable changes, social circles, steven cohen
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I Had Lunch At The Milky Way
It’s located next to Aish Ha Torah on Pico and Doheny. It’s one of the few kosher restaurants where you can have a quiet conversation. Steven Spielberg’s mom operates the place. She showed me to my seat. Then she came … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged kosher restaurants, milky way, quiet conversation, quot quot, steven spielberg
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The RCC & Corruption
Jane calls. "I just curse the day I took my case to the RCC. They are so corrupt and biased. The RCC rabbis sit on these different boards, they have so many entanglements, and I feel like the big donors … Continue reading
Posted in RCC
Tagged corruption, donors, entanglements, quot quot, rav
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Bake A Cake
"When’s your next appointment?" she asked. "Tomorrow afternoon," I said. "Do you want to bring him something?" "No." "I want to bake him a kosher bunt cake." "No. Nothing you can make is kosher." "You could oversee it." "No." "You … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged appointment, bake a cake, bunt cake, egg, Kashrut, Modern Orthodox, mullah, orthodox muslim, polite society, Predators, quot quot, smart man, tomorrow afternoon, torture
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Trembling With Excitement To Join The Jewish People
"I need to know your motivations," he said. "Orthodox Jews are a tiny peculiar people. Why do you want to become one?" "Motivations?" I exclaimed. "Motivations? You need to know my motivations? You can never know my motivations because I … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy, Personal
Tagged Aish HaTorah, bais, Beth Jacob, bezalel, century city, converts, Dennis Prager, evil man, excitement, machinations, manly man, motivations, orthodox jews, preacher, quot quot, rabbi, Rabbis, slingshot, Torah, Young Israel
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Who Is Cincinnati Chabad Rabbi Sholom Kalmanson?
On April 16, I got an email from somebody calling himself the "Satmarer Chosid" poking fun of Rabbi Kalmanson‘s emotional speech about the rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Schneerson). On April 17, I got more emails criticizing Rabbi Kalmanson. I surfed the … Continue reading
Posted in R. Sholom Kalmanson
Tagged blog, chabad rabbi, cincinnati, dirt, email, emotional speech, globe, jewish life, kalmanson, lightning rod, menachem schneerson, motive, motives, ounce, point of view, public eye, quot quot, rabbi menachem, rebbe, shred
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Hear Howard Stern’s Filthy Perversion Of Dolly Parton’s New Audio Book
Click here to listen. Defamer reports: We really take no pleasure in informing you that two of our idols—early tickle-machine adopter Howard Stern and top-heavy country legend Dolly Parton—are currently at war, but such is the case. To get you … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged apology, aristocrats, bob saget, country legend, dolly parton, filthy phrases, howard stern, jacuzzi, mdash, million years, perversion, pleasure, quot quot, trickery
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