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Nov. 2, 2007
Dec. 30, 2005
Sept. 9, 2004
My New Writing On Dennis
Prager
5/20/02
The Moral Threat Of All Nude Slumber Parties
Dennis Prager devoted the third hour of his nationally syndicated
radio show to a letter to Ann Landers about all nude slumber parties.
Somebody called up Prager's producer and said the letter was a hoax.
Prager repeatedly said he did not believe it was a hoax because
of the moral deterioration of America and that the letter writer
came from Burlingame, in the San Francisco Bay Area, a center of
moral decline.
Prager said that any woman who would host such a party would lose
his trust. But he didn't mention anything about advice columnists
and talkshow hosts who got suckered by such a letter would lose
his trust.
It's hilarious listen to Prager say he didn't believe all the callers
who point out the letter is a hoax (though Prager did not take any
of their calls on the air while I listened to the show). Prager
says he's ready to bet that the letter is authentic. Why? Because
if it is a hoax, it is not funny. There's nothing funny or titillating
about such a letter about nude slumber parties, it is only morally
depraved.
Prager was concerned that 15 and 16-year old girls at such nude
slumber parties would begin touching each other and experimenting
with lesbian sex.
DP says: "I had no problem showering with other guys. The
issue is not nudity. The issue is spending twelve hours together
with no clothing on. It is not possible in the sexually bombarded
era in which we live that this prolonged nudity would not lead to
same sex experimentation. The concept of modesty is appropriate
for same sex, not just opposite sex. The battle for civilization
is just against Al Quada."
From Newhouse
News Service: Relax, parents. Nude slumber parties full of 15-year-old
girls are not "all the rage these days," as seen in the Ann Landers
column of May 16.
Nor were they when the letter first appeared in print in 1995.
Landers is the latest of several prominent advisers to receive
-- and answer -- the letter from a "Baffled Mom in Burlingame,"
troubled that her daughter wanted to attend one of the parties.
Dear Abby received a very similar letter three weeks ago and didn't
bite.
"I think it's a hoot. I dismissed it as a young boy's prepubescent
fantasy," said Jeanne Phillips, who writes under the pseudonym Abigail
Van Buren for the column founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips.
"If this is a trend, I certainly haven't seen an avalanche of mail
about it."
A nearly identical letter, signed "P.M., Burlingame, Calif.," appeared
in the Ebony Advisor column of Ebony magazine in September 1995.
(``Oh, I don't think we'd want to make any comment on that," a spokeswoman
for Ebony said with a laugh.)
Phillips' mother, the original Dear Abby, received and published
the letter from "Perplexed Mom in California" in April 1996. Her
answer: "Tell her that you were not raised in an atmosphere that
condoned casual nudity and you are uncomfortable with the idea of
her attending nude slumber parties. Period."
Child psychologist T. Berry Brazelton published it (name and address
withheld) in his May 1996 newspaper column, answering, "The nudity
sounds pretty stimulating; I don't know why the other mother would
encourage that. Maybe all you mothers should get together to discuss
it."
While nude slumber parties were not and never have been a trend,
"Nude Slumber Party" is the name of an adult videotape that promises
to show what happens when "the clothes come off and the intimacies
begin."
"What would really happen," Jeanne Phillips said from her Los
Angeles office, "is once the girls stopped giggling they'd get cold
and want to put something on."
The whole thing sounds suspiciously like an urban legend, said
Cylin Busby, author of the upcoming book, "Pajama Party Uncovered."
Busby recalled rumors of nude all-girl slumber parties as early
as 1993 -- the same year she wrote a thesis on the role of women
in urban legends. Busby also was senior editor of the former Teen
magazine. "Of all the letters we got, and we'd get hundreds a week,
I never saw one from any girl that had been invited to a nude slumber
party and was wondering how to respond," she said.
Neither was child psychiatrist Elizabeth Berger familiar with nude
slumber parties. "No, I've not heard of naked girl parties," she
said from her office in Elkins Park, Pa. "It's certainly not inappropriate
for girls of 15 in the context of a hot summer day to jump into
a lake," she added, but the emphasis there is on the lake, not on
the nudity.
The subject intrigued Ann Landers. "We received a letter, it seemed
legitimate," said Marcy Sugar, Landers' spokeswoman. The columnist
"had not heard of anything like it before." In fact, Landers admitted
as much in her answer to "Baffled in Burlingame."
"I'm as baffled as you are," she wrote, adding that "as long as
you trust the mother of these girls to supervise for the duration
of the party, I see no harm in it."
Coincidentally, Burlingame, Calif., is Jeanne Phillips' "old stomping
ground." She graduated from Burlingame High. "And," she added, "I
can assure you that nude slumber parties were not the trend back
then."
Todd writes on the Prager List: As bright as he is, the fact is
Dennis Prager is extremely naive on alot of matters. This is just
another example.
Soggy writes: Actually the naivety is on your part.... Was not
the substance of Prager's comments about the moral implications
of the behavior not ascertaining fraud and hoaxes? Since virtually
anything one can imagine about humans has been done there is little
question that the supposed behavior could have or did happen sometime
or someplace. Did anything he said actually depend on the exact
"story" being true or otherwise? Were his generalizations entirely
dependent upon the story or was it merely the stepping stone to
a larger picture? The inability to actually deal with the substance
of his comments (pro or con) is more your lack than his.
Mike writes on the Prager List: If this is all either of you find
interesting/provocative in his remarks, then there is no point in
my continuing to monitor this list. I'm listening to discuss thought
provoking and challenging issues to help me both share my beliefs
and clarify them. Perhaps you could start another group. I've got
a few suggestions:
alt.prager-flaming
alt.im-smarter-than-dennis-prager
alt.want-my-own-talkshow
Dennis is not the only commentator that has been making comments
on this issue lately. Also, hoax or not, it is an interesting topic
that is not entirely implausible considering our society's current
moral direction.
Alan writes: I guess that using lies to make ones point does show
a certain lack of moral rigor and as that much of what one hears
on certain conservative talk radio programs is of similar quality,
perhaps it is indicative of a decline - or not.
If the letter is a hoax then it isn't an example of moral decline.
Peel enough of these things away and there is no case for a moral
decline - i.e. DP et al lose their issue. Which they should as there
isn't a moral decline. (BTW if I remember my Bay Area geography
Burlingame is hardly representative of Bay Area demography, if by
Bay Area one means Berkeley/San Francisco.)
Your reasoning is a perfect example of what's wrong with ideological
commitments; one no longer has to worry about the truth. Today he
got a call from a Sacramento listener that the local NPR affiliate
was discussing Japanese internment - I checked the schedule and
it said they had Lynne Cheney discussing her new book on American
patriotism. Another denunciation of NPR on another day involved
a Pacifica program - apparently DP doesn't know the difference.
There is just too much bad information on talk radio and DP's is
no exception. Wisdom involves knowing ones limitations - the broadcasts
from Israel were interesting and informative; as a general cultural
critic there is much lacking.
Luke says: The point is that Prager repeatedly said on air that
he did not believe this letter was a hoax. The evidence is overwhelming
that the letter is a hoax. With Prager's commitment to truth, one
would expect him to apologize and clarify on the air. I have not
heard him do this. Does anyone have any doubt that the evidence
demands the verdict that the letter was a hoax? On what basis?
It points to a deeper issue. I often feel like I am wasting my
time listening to Prager because he is not taking issues on their
merits and thinking through things, but instead he just slots issues
that come up into his predictable thinking. I often walk away after
spending three hours listening to his show thinking I've wasted
three hours because I've not heard him say one thing that is new.
I guess I'm increasingly disappointed in Prager's commitment to
truth. I attended a lecture by Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe at
UCLA on Sunday about challenges to modern faith. Wolpe is best known
for his sermon over a year ago saying that the archaeological and
other evidence overwhelmingly says that the Exodus did not take
place the way it is described in the Bible. Wolpe listed off half
a dozen other challenges to the traditional view that God wrote
the Torah/Bible... I was deeply disappointed in Prager's facile
dismissal of this evidence, which he has not studied, in his essay
on the Exodus controversy...
It reminds me of DP's approach to THE BELL CURVE and the role of
IQ. IQ happens to be one of the best predictors for a person's success
in life...and it so happens that different racial groups have radically
different average IQs...but Prager refuses to look at this evidence
because he thinks it is obnoxious.
4/30/02
Dennis Prager broadcasts this week from Israel. I've listened every
hour but haven't learned much. Prager is not a good interviewer
- too ponderous. He feels a great need to share his views, which
I've already heard 100 times, with his every guest, which winds
up often sounding like Prager preaching to those he's purporting
to interview.
4/22/02
Dennis Prager spent the weekend in Chicago with his family. He
delivered a couple of lectures.
DP's youngest son Aaron loves to wear his hat backwards. DP hates
that. When Aaron turned nine years old, DP decreed that he could
no longer wear his hat backwards.
Being a Prager, Aaron now likes to wear his hat sidewards. In Chicago,
a policeman warned him that he could get killed in certain parts
of Chicago for wearing his baseball hat the wrong way. And DP loved
the policeman's response. DP says stranger can play a powerful role
in raising kids. DP knows how much he has influenced the lives of
other people's kids.
DP says that clothing is of staggering importance. What you wear
affects you. Often a child wearing his hat backwards will act differently,
just like kids wearing a school uniform will often act differently.
DP called former president Jimmy Carter a fool (referring in particular
to his Op-Ed piece in Sunday's New York Times). "He wouldn't
know the difference between good and evil if it kicked them in the
teeth."
DP praised this Safire column:
Democrats vs Israel
William Safire writes in Monday's
New York Times: Most of the leaders of the Democratic Party
and its liberal media voices distanced themselves from Israel in
the midst of its defense against Arafat's war. Their echo-chambered
furor caused George W. Bush to waver temporarily, but an outcry
of moral dismay from Republicans stiffened his administration's
spine.
Too partisan a reading? Consider: As the Palestinian murder of
Jewish civilians exploded, Democrats blamed Bush for having been
"disengaged." This charge of "noninvolvement" had one plain meaning:
Bush should have continued the failed policy of Bill Clinton, pressuring
Israel's newly elected leader to offer again the dangerous concessions
of Camp David and Taba.
From Mary McGrory in The Washington Post to Mark Shields on CNN,
a falafel curtain has descended across our continent, transmogrifying
the Arab aggressor into the victim. ABC-Disney leads that parade,
as the BBC vies with Al Jazeera to inflame the European street.
Pro-Palestinian journalists gain cover from Israel's dovish Haaretz,
but such dissent is a democracy's strength; if a Ramallah paper
criticized Arafat, the editor's body would be dragged through the
streets as a "collaborator."
Eight out of ten American voters who are Jewish have been voting
for candidates of a Democratic Party that now only tepidly supports
the government overwhelmingly chosen by Israelis.
Pat
Buchanan's antisemitism.
4/16/02
Dennis noted the good behavior by the 100,000 pro-Israel demonstrators
yesterday in Washington D.C.. As opposed to the pro-Palestinian
crowd which often takes over buildings.
A man drove a truck full of explosives into an ancient Tunisian
synagogue, killing 15. A pro-Palestinian group claimed responsibility.
Dennis says the new ABC TV show Bachelor is worse than sleazy.
The LA Times asked DP to watch it.
The Bachelor takes a man, a Harvard graduate... So women know that
he can make a lot of money and that he has a brain. In his late
20s, living in San Francisco, he works as a management consultant.
Then they had 20 women vie for his attention and love. And these
women are really falling in love with him. This is not a farce like
the Fox show Who Wants
To Marry A Millionaire. [But is produced by the same man - Mike
Weiss.] This is compelling. Pathetic. With other women clamoring
for him, the bachelor becomes desirable.
There is something wrong with people opening their homes to TV
cameras like this.
Caller: Women are competitive and this man becomes more desirable
because so many women are clamoring for him.
DP: These women from good decent families are still desperate.
The original impetus may have been to get on TV but now these women
are giving themselves in a deeper way than sexual. They are more
bare than if they were nude.
The Bachelor executive producer Mike Fleiss calls in.
DP: Don't you think it is humiliating for this women to see this
man hugging and kissing other women?
Mike: All the women have told me that they would like to do it
again.
Mike sounded like a typical brash fast talking Sammy Glick Hollywood
Jew intent on creating a spectacle and oblivious to moral concerns.
DP read this article in full, by Italian
leftist Oriana Fallaci: I find it shameful that in Italy there
should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers
who spew vile abuse at Israel, hold up photographs of Israeli leaders
on whose foreheads they have drawn the swasitka, incite people to
hate the Jews. And who, in order to see Jews once again in the extermination
camps, in the gas chambers, in the ovens of Dachau and Mauthausen
and Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen et cetera, would sell their own
mother to a harem.
I find it shameful that the Catholic Church should permit a bishop,
one with lodgings in the Vatican no less, a saintly man who was
found in Jerusalem with an arsenal of arms and explosives hidden
in the secret compartments of his sacred Mercedes, to participate
in that procession and plant himself in front of a microphone to
thank in the name of God the suicide bombers who massacre the Jews
in pizzerias and supermarkets. To call them “martyrs who go to their
deaths as to a party.” I find it shameful that in France, the France
of Liberty-Equality-Fraternity, they burn synagogues, terrorize
Jews, profane their cemeteries. I find it shameful that the youth
of Holland and Germany and Denmark flaunt the kaffiah just as Mussolini’s
avant garde used to flaunt the club and the fascist badge.
I find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of Europe
Palestinian students sponsor and nurture anti-semitism. That in
Sweden they asked that the Nobel Peace Prize given to Shimon Peres
in 1994 be taken back and conferred on the dove with the olive branch
in his mouth, that is on Arafat. I find it shameful that the distinguished
members of the Committee, a Committee that (it would appear) rewards
political color rather than merit, should take this request into
consideration and even respond to it. In hell the Nobel Prize honors
he who does not receive it.
In his third hour, Prager hosted author Rabbi Yaakov and Susan
Deyo from Aish HaTorah's Speeddating program.
4/10/02
Women
Date Down Day
In his second hour, DP discussed this week's Maureen Dowd column
in the NY Times where she wrote about men's egg shell egos. DP says
Dowd is a cute writer, but not deep. DP says that men and women
have fragile egos, just in different areas. Men need to feel like
men and women need to feel like women.
DP wondered if Maureen Dowd's attitude to men will make it easier
for her to find one?
Dowd commented on a 60 Minutes story by Leslie Stahl, a less than
wise person.
DP: Men need to feel that he has a special role in the life of
the family, as a woman needs to feel that. Men usually will get
that feeling from being the principle provider. That will allow
him to feel that he is the head of the household.
Contrary to what Dowd writes, a large number of men, says DP, are
aching to be supported by a woman. But those men aren't wanted by
these women. They want men who are at least as successful in the
outer world. But such men don't want women who will be business
partners. They want to come home to be nurtured.
Men want feminine women. When women become lawyers or doctors or
MBAs, they frequently become less feminine. And feminine does not
mean unchallenging.
A woman who gets an MBA from Harvard isn't any more challenging
to a guy than an average woman. Every women is challenging.
"There is not a couple I know where the wives do not regularly
challenge their husbands."
4/9/02
DP says Bush's ordering of Israel to pull back will result in one
of three possibilies:
1) Real peace in the region.
2) Show that the need for Israel to destroy terrorist facilities
is as great as it was for the US in Afghanistan.
3) Mark the decline of the United States as the Lone Ranger, the
beacon of world morality.
DP thought he might live to see the end of Europe as a Western
civilization.
2nd Hour: DP discussed Enron's offer to the women executives of
Enron to pose nude. DP discussed Swedish female professional golfer
Karen Kotch who won an internet poll about who you would most want
to see pose nude. The golfer said she had no interest in doing so.
DP said that made her even more attractive.
DP: I know why a young unknown woman would want to pose for Playboy
- the money, fame, opportunity to meet famous actors. But what about
women who have made it. Why would they want to?
If a man posed for such pictures, he'd be a laughing stock. People
would deride him. It would undoubtedly hurt his career.
This women of Enron issue will sell well for Playboy. Why? The
women of Enron aren't more attractive than normal women. This reveals
the dark side of sex. Men want to get women out of their clothing.
This is a power play. We can get any woman to get naked for us.
Luke says: This issue, like the Darva Conger issue, will sell well
because of the vicarious thrill of seeing a woman humiliate herself.
Scariest Time For Jews Since Holocaust
Dennis Prager writes
on WorldNetDaily.com: This is the scariest time for Jews since
the Holocaust.
The Jews are being abandoned. Again.
From the Jews' perspective, the world can be divided into three
groups – those that hate the Jews and want them dead, those that
ignore this hatred and aid the haters, and Americans.
Because Europe fears its immense Muslim population, because of
its own anti-Semitism, because it is leftist, because it is dependent
on Arab oil, and because America supports Israel, Europe is the
primary support of those who wish another Jewish Holocaust. Europe,
which has been a decaying civilization since the end of World War
I, has reached a moral nadir – and once again at the Jews' expense.
So here we are, just one generation after nearly every Jew in Europe
was murdered, and the remnant that remains in the New Jersey-sized
Jewish state is threatened with extinction.
4/8/02
DP blasted the news media, particularly LA radio station KFI, for
sensationalistic coverage of the sex abuse accusation by a paranoid
schizophrenic against Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney.
DP wrote an article years ago saying that the rape of a name is
a rape.
In his second hour, Prager talked to Washington Post columnist
Charles Krauthammer. They began by discussing why the Bush administration
has asked Israel to halt its attack against the Palestinian Authority.
"It was their worst decision in six months," said Krauthammer.
DP: "As sure as the sun rises in the East, Israel will withdraw
and more Israelis will be slaughtered [by Palestinian terrorists]."
Krauthammer said the Bush move was started by a front page New
York Times article criticizing Bush for doing nothing about the
Middle East conflict, meaning, that Bush hasn't restrained Israel's
counter-attack.
4/3/02
Dennis says his support of the Oslo Accords was his biggest mistake
of his radio career. DP says the current Israeli offensive into
the Palestinian Authority is long overdue.
DP says that CNN, ABC News and others essentially take the point
of view of the Palestinians. DP praised this George
Will column:
Israel's policy of isolating Arafat in a room, clustered with a
few henchmen around guttering candles, is reasonable because it
underscores his dependence on "world opinion," and especially Europe's
appeasement reflex, which is still strong 64 years after Munich.
But it is unreasonable for Israel to allow electricity into his
compound. Enabled to recharge his mobile phone, he continues to
use the international media as his megaphone.
And when a gaggle of leftist European supporters of terrorists
-- described on CNN, which sometimes sounds like the voice of the
Palestinian Authority, as "international peace demonstrators" --
walks past Israeli tanks and into the compound, can Jesse Jackson
be far behind? Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's once and perhaps future
prime minister, can say of Sharon, as Teddy Roosevelt said of his
successor, William Howard Taft, that he "means well, but he means
well feebly."
But 54 years after the founding of Israel, Palestinian "refugee
camps" -- cities, actually -- exist because Arab nations have been
unwilling to absorb Palestinians and want cities that are hothouses
for developing irredentist fanaticism.
Sharon reportedly wants to exile Arafat, the chief fomentor of
such fanaticism. If so, why the tentativeness? Sharon should ship
Arafat to Europe, where there is much official sympathy for him.
Arafat would like today's France, where he could place his phone
calls by the light of burning synagogues.
DP notes the many calls, largely from the left and Europe, for
President Bush to get more involved in the Middle East. But the
US was immersed in the Arab-Israeli conflict under Clinton and what
good did that do? A terrorist state and more deaths. The left repeatedly
wants to do things that have failed.
3/26/02
DP says he only found out about National Review's Victor
Davis Hansen six months ago but now he considers him one of
his ten favorite columnists. DP read from his column
on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Why do Middle Easterners become excited and haughty as they gloat
to you that Americans are unpopular in their countries, but suddenly
grow shocked, silent, and hurt when you politely and calmly explain
why the feeling is becoming — and perhaps should be — mutual?
Why do so many from the Middle East come here to find freedom,
security, and safety — and then criticize the country that they
would never leave as they praise the country that they would never
return to?
Is there a word for profiling or irrationally hating Americans?
Americanophobia? Misamericany?
Why did we incur only anger from Eastern Europeans and Orthodox
Christians for saving the Muslims of the former Yugoslavia from
Milosevic, but no praise at all from the Islamic world itself?
Is there a difference between Palestinians preferring to kill Israeli
civilians rather than soldiers, and Israelis preferring to kill
Palestinian fighters rather than civilians?
From Dennis Prager's third hour: Why does the mainstream press
so rarely mention the sex of the victims of Roman Catholic priests?
Because the press is a herd. They think the same, talk the same
and vote the same. To mention that the great majority of victims
in the Catholic Church scandal are boys is to raise an issue that
they don't want raised.
We all know that heterosexuals abuse girls. So it is no smear on
homosexuals to note that these are probably gay priests. It doesn't
mean that homosexuals are all child abusers. But anything that might
cast any aspersion on gays is forbidden in the news media, particularly
the New York Times.
The pro-gay agenda of mainstream press has rendered the gay press
unnecessary. Why bother reading The Advocate when you can get gay
news and gay advocacy in the NY Times?
Luke says: Read Lavender
Mob.
DP says: These Roman Catholic scandals show why the Boys Scouts
don't want to have gay scout leaders. Why would you want scoutmasters
who can be sexually attracted to their charges?
If you had to leave your boy in the care of an adult, would you
rather the adult male be gay or straight? Of course you'd prefer
to leave him with a straight.
A caller wondered why there were so many more gay priests today
than historically. Does a celibate priesthood lead to homosexuality?
Prager said that mainstream clergy over the past generation have
become more therapeutic and anti-macho than morally prescriptive.
And that discourages macho males from joining up, and perhaps encourages
other types to join.
A caller suggested that homosexual priests were more likely to
molest than heterosexual priests. DP said he was agnostic.
3/25/02
Dennis Prager watched the Oscars last night. He was impressed with
Sidney Poitier's dignified appearance. Sydney dedicated his talk
to the whites who helped him break down the barriers of racism.
Unfortunately, the video presented about Poitier only showed blacks.
It's racist to ignore the central role played by so many good decent
whites.
A caller noted that blacks like Sidney Poitier, who come from outside
the United States, are more grateful for the opportunities that
the US affords.
Black actress Halle Berry won for Best Actress and seemed to only
thank blacks. As reported by the LA Times:
"Oh, my God," Berry said, her mouth agape, almost unable to comprehend
the moment as tears streamed down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she said
in halting gasps, as she clasped the gold statuette. "This moment
is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge,
Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It's for the women who stand beside
me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox, and the nameless,
faceless women of color who now stand a chance tonight because the
door has been opened. I thank the academy for choosing me to be
the vessel ...."
Is Hollywood that racist that there has been a block to black actors?
Compare Sidney Poitier's dignified talk to Halle Berry's overwrought
cry...
Halle went on and on, crying, almost out of control, about winning
an award for a movie. It was no breakthrough against racism.
DP: Here's why I think she cried. Her tears were more personal.
She's had a troubled life. She was involved in a hit and run accident.
She's had a string of abusive relationships. She wanted the moment
to be greater than it was. She thanked her mother, who is white.
Interesting that she used "women of color" instead of
"black women."
Why is a woman of a white mother and a black father a black woman?
Why isn't she a white woman?
Her black father was an alcoholic who abused her mother.
The only winner to say "God bless America," was the English
writer of Gosford Park. He thanks Americans for being a generous
people. Ironically, the director of Gosford Park was Robert Altman
who made the derogatory remarks about America a few weeks ago.
Prager says that if he hadn't planned to do a show on the Oscars,
he would not have watched its four hour and twenty minute length.
Along with Sidney Poitier, it was another lovely moment when director
Arthur Hiller received a humanitarian award. He fought against racism,
cast the first black as a doctor, helped the handicapped, and helped
refuseniks in the former Soviet Union. I wonder if one percent of
the audience understood what "refuseniks" were. I wonder
why the word "Jew" was not used? Because the word is too
passion-filled?
Why did Dennis Prager spend his time on something as trivial as
the Academy Awards? Because a billion people watched and Hollywood
has a huge impact on people's lives.
The New York Times wrote 3/10/02:
LONDON -- SITTING in a cozy Kensington apartment that is home while
she films a new James Bond movie, Halle Berry is so poised and stunning,
it's hard to imagine that she ever suffered so much as a scratch
in her life.
But Ms. Berry is blunt about the punches she has taken, physical
and emotional. She was beaten by one boyfriend so badly that she
lost 80 percent of her hearing in one ear. Her encounters with racism
in Hollywood, though subtler, have been equally painful.
"What's hardest for me to swallow," she says, "is when there is
a love story, say, with a really high-profile male star and there's
no reason I can't play the part. They say, `Oh, we love Halle, we
just don't want to go black with this part.' What enrages me is
that those are such racist statements, but the people saying them
don't think they are. I've had it said right to my face."
There was the time, she says, when she was turned down for a role
as a park ranger in the John Woo film "Broken Arrow" because a studio
executive decreed that there was no such thing as a black park ranger.
"I always have to rise above it," she says, reaching for some green
grapes on the coffee table.
"I can't go off like a raving lunatic even though my heart wants
me to. I say, `O.K., take a deep breath,' and I realize that's the
insidiousness of racism. People don't even know when they're being
racist."
3/20/02
A magazine of the Left, Dissent, publishes
a withering critique of the American Left by a man of the Left,
Michael Walzer of Harvard.
3/18/02
Dennis Prager rejoiced in attending a convention for pipe makers.
For one thing, it was all men. And there are few places left, outside
of traditional religion, where only men gather. The importance of
hobby has diminished in the age of constant entertainment. It is
much healthier to gather with people who devote themselves to pipes
than to sit at home and watch television.
In his second hour, Dennis Prager discussed the big deal the liberal
mainstream news media is making over the release of tapes showing
the Reverend Billy Graham and President Richard Nixon making anti-Semitic
remarks. DP says remarks in private do not matter as much as public
behavior and speech. And President Nixon, by his public actions,
such as during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, was supportive of the Jews
and the Jewish state.
The view that the Israelis and the Palestinians are two tarantulas
in a bottle, equally morally tainted, may be the view of the New
York Times but it is not the general view of New Yorkers, according
to a recent Gallup poll. It may be the view of the LA Times but
it is not the general view of Los Angelenos.
DP says the New York Times, which ran a
big story on this yesterday, wants to use this story as an opportunity
to bash evangelical Christians, the most pro-Jewish and pro-Israel
part of the Christian world. The mainstream liberal press wants
to do anything to show the failings of the non-liberal Christian
world. While the NY Times covers in detail private comments from
30 years, it ignores the blood libel charges in Saudi Arabia, that
Jews slaughter Gentile children for Passover pastries.
From Sunday's NY Times:
It seemed impossible, when H. R. Haldeman's White House diaries
came out in 1994, that the Rev. Billy Graham could once have joined
with President Richard M. Nixon in discussing the "total Jewish
domination of the media." Could Mr. Graham, the great American evangelist,
really have said the nation's problem lies with "satanic Jews,"
as Mr. Nixon's aide recorded?
Mr. Graham's sterling reputation as a healer and bridge-builder
was so at odds with Mr. Haldeman's account that Jewish groups paid
little attention, especially because he denied the remarks so strongly.
"Those are not my words," Mr. Graham said in a public statement
in May 1994. "I have never talked publicly or privately about the
Jewish people, including conversations with President Nixon, except
in the most positive terms."
That was the end of the story, it seemed, until two weeks ago,
when the tape of that 1972 conversation in the Oval Office was made
public by the National Archives. Three decades after it was recorded,
the North Carolina preacher's famous drawl is tinny but unmistakable
on the tape, denigrating Jews in terms far stronger than the diary
accounts.
"They're the ones putting out the pornographic stuff," Mr. Graham
said on the tape, after agreeing with Mr. Nixon that left-wing Jews
dominate the news media. The Jewish "stranglehold has got to be
broken or the country's going down the drain," he continued, suggesting
that if Mr. Nixon were re-elected, "then we might be able to do
something."
Finally, Mr. Graham said that Jews did not know his true feelings
about them. "I go and I keep friends with Mr. Rosenthal at The New
York Times and people of that sort, you know," he told Mr. Nixon,
referring to A. M. Rosenthal, then the newspaper's executive editor.
"And all — I mean, not all the Jews, but a lot of the Jews are
great friends of mine, they swarm around me and are friendly to
me because they know that I'm friendly with Israel. But they don't
know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country.
And I have no power, no way to handle them, but I would stand up
if under proper circumstances."
........
A Christian woman phoned DP to say that she's jealous of the Jews
close relationship to God. How they're God's Chosen People. And
she teaches her kids to love Jews because God loves Jews.
DP noted that many liberal Jews are uncomfortable with the notion
of Choseness just like many liberal Americans are uncomfortable
with the notion that America is somehow specially chosen.
3/12/02
Dennis Prager, one of America's most respected and popular nationally
syndicated radio talk-show hosts, begins writing a weekly column
for WorldNetDaily today. By exclusive arrangement, Prager's column
will appear every Tuesday in WorldNetDaily – before it appears anywhere
else on the Internet or in print.
3/11/02
Dennis Prager praised last night's 9/11 CBS documentary by the
two French documentary filmmakers who got footage from inside the
WTC after the terrorist attack. DP wondered what CBS did not show
out of sensitivity to victims families.
DP criticized those who went to bat for victims families and asked
CBS not to show the documentary, or to sanitize it, to avoid causing
the families trauma. DP said that it was narcissism - wanting to
deprive America of confronting evil for the sake of their private
feelings.
Dennis said the CBS program did not shock him (though he will never
forget the sound of the bodies smashing down) because he's spent
most of his life confronting evil. But many Americans are naive
and they need to see such things.
Prager blasted the Red Cross over this, as reported by the 3/10/02
Los Angeles Times:
A student troupe canceled a Sunday performance at an American Red
Cross luncheon after the charity barred it from using the words
"God" and "prayer."
Seventh- and eighth-graders from the Orange County High School
of the Arts had planned to sing a medley of "America the Beautiful,"
"Prayer of the Children," and "God Bless the U.S.A."
Group director Cherilyn Bacon said a Red Cross representative told
her the lyrics might offend some of those attending the annual Volunteer
Recognition Awards of the Orange County chapter. Another vocal group
from the same school was to perform. "We have to be neutral and
impartial in all situations," said chapter spokeswoman Rebecca Long.
3/7/02
Dennis began his show with this item from the Drudge Report:
A CNN internal memo warns staffers to hold off reporting on a new
book which presents a damning portrait of former CNN host and civil
rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson. The CNN memo obtained by the
DRUDGE REPORT, penned from the network's Chicago bureau, points
out how the author of SHAKEDOWN: THE LIFE OF THE REVEREND JESSE
JACKSON -- may not be trustworthy! "Kenneth Timmerman is a long
time writer and investigator touting conservative causes," the CNN
memo notes. "He is recently a failed political candidate [ran for
US Senate in Maryland] whose own bio points out he studied creative
writing at Brown."
3/5/02
DP writes in the Washington Times:
Given the anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiments
that are held by many Muslims in the West, it is not surprising
that there has yet to be a single reported Muslim demonstration
in the United States or Europe against Islamic terrorism. Just as
it is unsurprising that the leader of the Islamic terrorists who
killed Daniel Pearl was British born and educated.
The second frightening lesson of the Pearl killing is the degree
of evil emanating from parts of the Muslim world. Let's be honest:
Islamic terrorist groups and their many supporters are morally indistinguishable
from Nazis - they invert good and evil, are sadistic, are imbued
with a belief in their superiority over all other groups, and seek
to dominate the world.
Yet many in the West deny this evil. Some view Muslim terrorists
as inevitable products of the poverty of their societies (despite
the extraordinary wealth of bin Laden and the affluence of Omar
Sheikh); or as an understandable reaction to U.S. sanctions on Iraq
and support for Israel (as if containing Saddam Hussein or enabling
Israel to fight Islamic terrorism are not moral policies); or as
simply one more example of religious fundamentalism, comparable
to American Christian fundamentalism. Former New York Times columnist
Anthony Lewis likened Attorney General John Ashcroft, an evangelical
Christian, to Osama bin Laden.
Perhaps those Americans and Europeans who resist applying the term
"evil" to U.S. enemies (whether to the Soviet totalitarians during
the Reagan era or to the Muslim totalitarians now) ought to be compelled
to view the videotape of Daniel Pearl's throat being cut for the
crime of being an American and a Jew. Come to think of it, Muslim
school officials should also see the tape.
Dennis Prager mentioned this column by Cal Thomas:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/
And the Rev. Billy Graham was embarrassed by release of a 30-year-old
tape on which he was heard telling President Richard Nixon that
Jews had a "stranglehold" on the American media, which needed to
be broken because it was ruining the country.
"You believe that?" asked Nixon.
"Yes, sir," replied Graham.
"Oh boy. So do I," said Nixon, adding, "I can't ever say that but
I believe it."
"No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able
to do something," Graham said in a reassuring tone.
Graham also tells the president: "A lot of Jews are great friends
of mine (because)... they know I am friendly to Israel and so forth."
But then Graham gives in to the lower nature in us all, possibly
fearful of offending the man whose company he enjoys keeping: "But
(Jews) don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to
this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them," he
says. "You must not let them know," replies Nixon.
Had Graham spoken "truth to power" and said of Nixon's derogatory
remarks about Jews, Mr. President, those were wicked and sinful
things to say about Jewish people," chances are excellent that Nixon
would never again have granted the evangelist access. That's the
way the game is played between politicians and clergy. And the clergy
always lose in the end because it is their principles that must
be sacrificed if their proximity to supposed power is to continue
and their illusion of influence to be maintained.
IN PRAGER's third hour, he praised the movie Trembling Before God,
a documentary about homosexual Orthodox Jews. DP said it made him
and his wife Fran cry.
3/4/02
About two years ago, Dennis Prager advised California Republicans
that they should vote for the candidate (John McCain) who's most
likely to defeat Al Gore, rather than the candidate (George Bush)
who best embodies Republican principles.
Today Prager said California Republicans should vote tomorrow for
the man of Republican principles (William Simon) rather than Prager's
friend Richard Riordan, who's essentially a moderate Democrat with
some fiscally conservative views.
Prager repeated how much he likes Riordan and how he's eaten at
Riordan's home, and how the two of them raised money 16 years ago
to help the Afghans expell the Soviets.
2/26/02
Dennis Prager read most of a 2/22/02 Wall Street Journal article:
Word has finally come that Emory University is going to investigate
Michael Bellesiles, the award-winning author of "Arming America
."
It was about 18 months ago that Mr. Bellesiles published one of
those rare books that purport to turn both history and modern politics
upside-down. In "Arming America " he claimed that very few early
Americans had actually owned guns, opening a debate over whether
the Second Amendment had been designed to protect individual gun
rights.
Mr. Bellesiles originally received lavish praise from left-leaning
reviewers and historians and was even given the prestigious Bancroft
Prize. But since then, "Arming America " has spiraled into an enormous
academic scandal, with scholars from every quarter claiming his
work is at best sloppy, at worst falsified.
Emory will undoubtedly be investigating specific claims about Mr.
Bellesiles's research. In truth, all the university needs to do
is look back at the past 18 months of the author's shifting stories,
and his disregard for academic methods, to realize he doesn't meet
the standards of the scholarly profession.
SECOND HOUR: Dennis Prager interviewed prospective author Anne
Marie who's just written a book against shacking up before marriage.
Both Anne and Prager agreed that it is a bad deal for women. The
ultimate compliment a man can give a woman is to ask her to marry
him.
Anne says every woman who's told her that she's shacking up evinces
a sense of shame about it. Anne lived with her present husband for
eight years before they married.
Women who live with men hope that the experience will show him
that he should marry her.
DP's wife has a two year rule. If he hasn't married her by then,
drop him.
2/25/02
In his final hour, Prager praised conservative Christian Dr. James
Dobsen's courage in his recent
column on masturbation.
Question: My thirteen-year-old son is in the full bloom of adolescence.
I'm suspicious that he may be masturbating when he's alone, but
I don't quite know how to approach him about it. Should I be concerned,
and if so, what should I say to him?
Dr. Dobson Responds: I don't think you should invade that private
world at all unless there are unique circumstances that lead you
to do so. I offer that advice while acknowledging that masturbation
is a highly controversial subject and Christian leaders differ widely
in their perspectives on it. I will answer your question but hope
you understand that some Bible scholars will disagree emphatically
with what I will say.
First, let's consider masturbation from a medical perspective.
We can say without fear of contradiction that there is no scientific
evidence to indicate that this act is harmful to the body. Despite
terrifying warnings given to young people historically, it does
not cause blindness, weakness, mental retardation, or any other
physical problem. If it did, the entire male population and about
half of females would be blind, weak, simpleminded, and sick.
2/21/02
Prager last hour seemed an awkward affair. He said he'd just seen
the new movie Dragonfly and enjoyed it. His praise seemed stilted
and forced. He said the movie was opening for the general public
tonight and he was interviewing the director Tom Shadyac. Obviously
Prager got a special screening of the movie, thinking it might appeal
to him, so his nationally syndicated radio show could boost the
movie.
Prager's hour seem stilted. It felt like he'd gotten boxed into
interviewing the director and Prager tried to use the time to take
calls from people on whether or not they believed in the afterlife.
Joe Morgenstern writes in the WSJ: "Dragonfly stars Kevin
Costner as an emergency-room doctor whose dead wife, a doctor herself,
speaks to him through gravely ill patients. Seeing the movie is
a near-life experience, but not all that near. Mr. Costner has never
been further from the lively, engaging actor he can be, or at least
once was. First his doctor, Joe Darrow, lashes out, dully. Then
he withdraws, dully. Then he yearns, mopes, mumbles and whines,
all dully, though when a grief counselor tells him he needs to grieve
-- how did she think of that? -- Joe snaps back that he doesn't
need her to tell him how to feel. It's a welcome jolt in a weeper
that keeps telling us to feel moved when we're really feeling drugged
by greeting-card solemnity about rainbows, mists and the bright
light at the end of life's tunnel."
Jerry Zucker said about 12 years ago that Prager's teachings inspired
his movie Ghost.
Variety.com reports: HOLLYWOOD -- Hollywood movie premieres are
not normally the place to discuss spirituality, but that's what
happened Monday night as Universal unspooled "Dragonfly" at the
Directors Guild theater.
"I want evidence before I totally believe in an afterlife," star
Kevin Costner said. "I know my existence is not all my doing. There
is definitely a guiding hand over my life."
Shadyac told Variety.com: "The story was very real to me because
of what I encountered with my mom's death. I hope unbelieving audiences
will come away from the movie open to the discussion of faith."
2/20/02
DP discussed this LA
Times article:
UC Berkeley has suspended a course on male sexuality amid allegations
that its students engaged in an orgy at a class party and watched
a student coordinator have sex onstage at a strip club. The university
suspended the student-run, for-credit class after its coordinators
failed to show up for a meeting last week with a faculty sponsor.
Allegations about the course were published Friday in the campus
newspaper, the Daily Californian.
UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said the university is investigating
the course and also reviewing its counterpart, a class on female
sexuality. "Obviously, the events described in the Daily Cal are
not part of the approved course content," Gilmore said Tuesday.
The Daily Californian reported Friday that several students involved
in the male sexuality class said the orgy occurred at a party held
at the home of an instructor and was intended to help students get
acquainted. It was not mandatory, an instructor said.
Chris Bolton writes on the Prager List about the alleged connection
between religiosity and gun ownership:
I think Dennis is missing something here. I think religion and
gun ownership are symptoms of the same social condition rather the
former causing the latter. I think that rural people are more individualistic
while urban people are more collectivistic. For example -
Rural people grow and can their own food (relying on themselves)
Urban people shop at the grocery store (relying on others to grow
it, transport it, etc...)
Urban people call the repair man to fix things (relying on others)
Rural people fix it themselves or call a friend to do it (relying
on yourself)
Rural people rely more on nature (weather, good rain, few pests,
etc...) to succeed than urban people and therefore realize that
they need God more than urbanites. Urban people think that they
can do it on their own.
Gun ownership is done in part to feeling responsible for your own
safety. Urbanites, being more collectivist, rely on others (government)
for protection while rural folk rely on themselves.
Rural people also use their guns to gather food, Urbanistas don't.
They think hunting is immoral while rural people see the deer, rabbits
and elk eating in their gardens.
Urbanites are more collectivist in nature and therefore vote for
the collectivist political parties while Rural folk, being more
independently minded, vote for the parties that teach individual
freedom. Just look at the USA Today voting map that showed that
all of Gore's votes came from heavily urban areas while Bush was
strong in rural areas. Guns and religion are more common symptoms
of rural lifestyles. One does not cause the other.
2/18/02
On Presidents Day, Dennis argued for reintroducing Washington’s
and Lincoln’s birthdays as national holidays. On the issue of Washington
and slavery, he cited this
website
On the Palestinian
TV show “The Children’s Hour,” children sing about becoming suicide
bombers.
2/14/02
Dennis interviewed Wendy McElroy about her column
on taking back Valentine's Day:
A play that claims to unveil the truth about vaginas but, somehow,
overlooks the salutary role men play in most women's sexuality has
no credibility. Worse than this, The Vagina Monologues equates men
with "the enemy" and heterosexual love with violence.
Betty Dodson — a leader of '60s liberal feminism whose life's work
has aimed at demystifying women's sexuality — expressed well-deserved
horror at the play.
Describing Ensler as "an evangelical minister," Dodson believes
that the play is a blast of hatred at men and heterosexuality. After
all, the 24-year-old woman who seduces the drunken 13-year-old is
portrayed as "rescuing" her from male violence.
DENNIS: It's like taking Mother's Day and turning it into a day
protesting mothers who abuse children.
2/6/02
Dennis: "I am never ad hominem. I never attack people. Maybe
I've done it once or twice. Perhaps if Pat Buchanan had children,
he would think this country was worth fighting for. I distrust angry
people [like Pat]. I wonder about the tremendous time he has spent
trying to clear Nazi criminals. What moves your passions tells a
lot about you."
Indiana
11-year-old shoots and kills man who has a box cutter at his mother’s
throat. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Chris Toth says “Just because
a shooting is ruled as being justified doesn't make it any less
tragic." So, the killng of a career criminal who had a knife at
a woman’s throat “is no less tragic” than if the mother would have
been killed.
2/5/02
DP read this entire column: Why
Support Israel
Regarding the New York Times publishing an editorial from Yassir
Arafat this past weekend, DP wondered why it was necessary when
all the points Arafat made have already been made by the New York
Times Middle East correspondents.
In his second hour, DP suggested it was good for a parent to vacation
alone with one kid, as a way of developing intimacy and getting
to know your kids better.
2/4/02
Prager laughed about this comment by scientist James Watson in
Sunday's New
York Times magazine: "I divide men into those who think
of women 90 percent of the time and those who think about them 99
percent of the time. I was a 90-percenter."
Dennis says his wife has never revealed to him anything about women
that he found undecipherable. Foreign, but not non-understandable.
But male sexuality will seem to the normal woman as from another
planet.
2/1/02
Dennis Prager noted a NY Times article about giving out free condoms
to athletes at the Winter Olympics. What would happen if they gave
out free cigarettes? There would be an uproar that this encourages
smoking.
Yes surely giving out condoms encourages sex. Giving out condoms
in high school surely encourages sex. When you give out something,
you encourage its use.
DP discussed this Wendy
McElroy column:
According to a round of studies conducted in North America, Europe
and Australia, one reason for the increase may be the discrimination
fathers encounter in family courts, especially the denial of access
to their children.
If a similar rise in female suicides was occurring, a public crusade
would demand a remedy. Yet the extraordinarily high rate of male
suicide is rarely discussed.
What are the statistics? According to a 1999 surgeon general's
report, suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in America,
with men four times more likely to kill themselves than women.
1/28/02
Dennis Prager appeared on a Fox News TV talkshow today about U.S.
traitor Johnathan Walker, whose father left his wife for a man when
John was 16. A liberal Boston talkshow host berated Prager for homophobia
for pointing this out. 'Are you saying that homosexuality causes
terrorism?'
DP points this out as another example of political correctness.
If the New York Times had reported this on its front page, then
it would've been all over the media within a week.
The media are a sheep-like herd, lacking courage. The news media
want to get along with each other and confirm each other's liberal
instincts.
Why is the press going along with John Walker changing his name
to John Lindh? John Walker took on his mother's maiden name of Lindh
when John's father left the family for another man when John was
16.
It's a rupture in a child's life when a parent declares a different
sexual orientation.
John's lawyers talk about how much they like their client. They
have shaved him and dressed him conservatively, and had him drop
his Islamic name.
Part of DP hopes that John Walker is acquitted so people can see
how capricious American justice is.
Caller: I must commend your parents. They did such a good job with
you. You were so polite. I wanted to strangle that Boston woman.
DP: One reason I am so polite is so that people like you will have
that reaction. Staying polite is one of life's great secret weapons.
Dennis spent his third hour on TV addiction. He praised this
article in Scientific American:
Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the struggle for survival is
how easily organisms can be harmed by that which they desire. The
trout is caught by the fisherman's lure, the mouse by cheese. But
at least those creatures have the excuse that bait and cheese look
like sustenance. Humans seldom have that consolation. The temptations
that can disrupt their lives are often pure indulgences. No one
has to drink alcohol, for example. Realizing when a diversion has
gotten out of control is one of the great challenges of life.
Excessive cravings do not necessarily involve physical substances.
Gambling can become compulsive; sex can become obsessive. One activity,
however, stands out for its prominence and ubiquity--the world's
most popular leisure pastime, television. Most people admit to having
a love-hate relationship with it. They complain about the "boob
tube" and "couch potatoes," then they settle into their sofas and
grab the remote control. Parents commonly fret about their children's
viewing (if not their own). Even researchers who study TV for a
living marvel at the medium's hold on them personally. Percy Tannenbaum
of the University of California at Berkeley has written: "Among
life's more embarrassing moments have been countless occasions when
I am engaged in conversation in a room while a TV set is on, and
I cannot for the life of me stop from periodically glancing over
to the screen. This occurs not only during dull conversations but
during reasonably interesting ones just as well."
Dennis recommends these links: David
Horowitz on the Middle East.
Why the Southern states
seceded, forcing the American Civil War.
How Dennis Prager Changed My Life
Ellen Rosenfeld writes: There are a number of things that Dennis
has been very influential in: 1) Having me really examine the laws
of kashrus, and start taking steps in that area. I have stopped
eating veal and pork, and have an 8 point plan I call "Road to Kashrus".
2) Having me realize much of the failure, hypocrisy, and malaise
of most liberals and many Democrats. I actually voted Republican
twice after only voting Democrat before. 3) Validating the feelings
I have had my whole life (and for which I was usually told I'm oversensitive)
of compassion and caring for others, and my abhorrence toward meaness
and unfairness. 4) Giving me the permission and ability to reclaim
parts of Judaism without feeling I have to become Orthodox. I have
registered for 3 programs at a local JCC; attended Torah study at
a Reformed synagogue; am going to services at a local egalitarian,
progressive temple; and am becoming more committed and tangibly
dedicated to tzedakah.
1/9
From ABCNews.com:
So-called "never-marrieds" are one of the fastest-growing groups
in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Singles constitute
more than 40 percent of the adult population, and 10 percent of
all adults will never marry, according to 2000 census statistics.
In less than 30 years, the number of people who have never walked
down the aisle has more than doubled, as the median age of marriage
has reached a historic high: 25 years for women, and 27 years for
men.
DP says: This is a serious problem for individuals (singlehood
breeds narcissism) and for society.
Part of the problem is the romanticizing of marriage, so people
seek soul mates, rather than folks with common values.
A couple of Christians said they sublimated their desire for marriage
by dedicating themselves to serving God.
Crispin Sartwell is the philosopher that DP interviewed Tuesday.
His website is: http://www.crispinsartwell.com:
The other day my wife attended a funeral of an acquaintance who
had committed suicide. The minister who preached the funeral sermon
recounted the story of a period of despair in her own life when
she had thought about killing herself. But God intervened, she said,
and saved her.
I suppose the man she was burying wasn't good enough to be saved
by God, or perhaps it just wasn't God's whim to stop him from blowing
his brains out.
1/8/02
Dennis delivered his almost annual diatribe against women wearing
slacks like Hillary Clinton (not counting tight jeans and form-fitting
feminine pants which accent femininity). He says they defeminize
the female. Pants suits defeminize women.
I don't like when men dress like women and women dress like men.
DP thinks that male-female differences are a great thing and whatever
enhances the differences, within moderation, is a good thing.
People dressed nicer in the 1950s to go to a baseball game than
many people wear today to weddings.
Dress matters. Even if you dress down, you are doing it to send
a message. If you look like a mess, you chose to look like a mess.
If you didn't shave, you chose to send that message.
Why do half of movie directors wear baseball hats backwards? Prager
won't allow his two sons to wear baseball hats backwards.
Prager recommends these two books on the Arab-Israeli conflict:
From
Time Immemorial by Joan Peters.
Myths
& Facts:A Guide To The Arab-Israeli Conflict by Mitchell Geoffrey
Bard
12/27
Dennis condemned the Christian pastor who's leading a book burning
of Harry Potter. DP says the pastor makes God and religion look
stupid.
Reuters reports: A New Mexico church plans to burn Harry Potter
books because they are "an abomination to God," the church pastor
said on Wednesday. Pastor Jack Brock said he would have a "holy
bonfire" on Sunday at the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo
in southern New Mexico to torch books about the fictional teen-age
wizard who is wildly popular with young people. "These books encourage
our youth to learn more about witches, warlocks, and sorcerers,
and those things are an abomination to God and to me," Brock, 74,
told Reuters.
DP kvelled over a new poll that shows President Bush the most admired
man in the history of the poll. DP says he has friends across the
country who said to him, 'Dennis you are so bright. How could you
vote for such a dummy?'
DP now feels justified in his year 2000 vote for Bush. Bush fooled
people because he did not talk like an Ivy League educated intellectual
but rather like a Texan.
12/26
Dennis says that he and his family watch a movie or two a week
at home on DVD. The older he gets, the more he loves movies.
Tuesday Dennis and his family went to see Joe Somebody, starring
Tim Allen. DP says Hollywood films reflect society more than they
push society. Hollywood particularly reflects urban liberal opinion,
as the people who write and make the movies are urban liberals (aka
Jews).
When Joe (Allen), a divorced, listless, Minneapolis corporate drone,
gets beat up by a coworker (Warburton) over a parking space, humiliating
him in front of his daughter (Panettiere) on "Bring Your Daughter
to Work Day", he decides to fight back. His new quest for vengeance
revitalizes him, even leading to romance with Meg Harper (Bowen),
a young office counselor... (Belushi plays a "former B-movie star
turned martial arts expert who becomes Joe's mentor and helps him
prepare for his rematch with his coworker." (source: The Hollywood
Reporter, 3/7/01)
On his nationally syndicated radio show, DP says Hollywood films
reflect society more than they push society. Hollywood particularly
reflects urban liberal opinion, as the people who write and make
the movies are urban liberals (aka Jews).
DP says we can live without "Bring Your Daughter To Work"
day.
As for the movie, Allen's about to park in the lot for employees
who've served more than ten years when a new employee takes his
place. Then the bully smacks Allen down.
Allen is humiliated and he resolves to fight the bully again and
beat him. DP asks: What does the movie want you to think about Allen's
desire to fight the bully? Do women prefer men who fight bullies?
What is the right thing to do?
The movie teaches that if you are a real man, you don't hit back.
You are gentle. You're a peace maker.
To DP, sometimes it is right to hit back and sometimes it is right
to be a peacemaker. But to the Hollywood mindset, to be a real man
is to be essentially pacifistic.
It is the burning desire of men to attract lovely women. And the
beautiful woman in this movie pushes Allen in the direction of a
non-physical response. But if a bully hits you and humiliates you,
it is a good idea to hit the bully.
Recent articles have claimed that protector-men are now in. Women
want men like the New York City firefighters or police. And men
will do almost anything to get women. Women's primary power is in
signalling to men what they want.
Joe Somebody says you get the beautiful woman if you don't hit
back.
DP says it is important to see ordinary and boring Hollywood movies
as well as great ones, because boring movies heighten your sense
of great movies. Just like it is good to go on a few boring dates.
In Prager's second hour, he wondered why more media attention has
not been given to the fact that John Walker's father Frank Lindh,
when John was 16, left home and his marriage to live with a man
in a homosexual relationship.
San Francisco Examiner columnist P.
J. Corkery wrote:
NOT THAT IT MATTERS a whit to us here in the cool, gray city of
love what Frank Lindh, daddy of the Taliban warrior from Marin,
does, did or dreams of doing with other consenting adults, but shouldn't
he come clean with us about all the facts in the odd odyssey of
his son?
Frank Lindh has been quoted time and again as saying it was his
son John's reading of the "Autobiography of Malcolm X" when John
was 16 in 1997 that turned his son's head and heart towards Islam.
But something else then going on in the family's life may be have
been just as pertinent.
When Frank Lindh left his family in 1997, it was to move in with
a male companion. Yep. ... The man with whom Lindh lived has since
been described as "a family friend," but other family friends say
the men lived as a gay couple.
It would take a specialist in family issues to map the constellations
of feelings and problems that would describe John Walker's path
toward Islam in 1997, but sources close to the family say the father's
turn of life from married man to modern gay man startled and flustered
the 16-year-old.
Given the pummeling that the Walkers and marvy Marin County have
taken from the national press over their wayward son, you can't
blame the old man for wanting to suppress reporting on his sexuality.
...
Luke says: Prager often blasts the news media for reporting gossip
about people's private sexual lives. Today he blasted the media
for not reporting gossip.
Journalist Ed Walsh writes on Medianews.org: "I thought San
Francisco Examiner columnist PJ Corkery did a great job reporting
with the Johnny Walker/Lindh item on Tuesday. Since everyone is
speculating about why Walker would convert to Islam and eventually
join the Taliban, I think it is germane that Walker's conversion
to an extremely antigay religion came at the same time his father
separated from his mother to be in a gay relationship. Walker signing
up with the Taliban is like the son of a Jewish man signing up with
the Nazis."
Gay journalist David Ehrenstein writes: There was nothing "disgusting"
(Jayne Afrate) or "unnecessary" (Jason Lloren) about P.J.Corkery's
mention of Frank Lindh's gayness. No "outing" is involved when someone
is already "out." Of course to Afrate and Lloren being gay is truly
shameful and the status quo of secrecy -- called "privacy" -- must
be maintained at all costs. Truth to tell, they've actually got
a lot in common with Lindh's son who joined a group of religious
extermists that execute Afganistan gays by dumping brick walls on
them.
DENNIS PRAGER said that John's attraction to the Taliban may partly
stem from the Taliban's degradation of women. A caller thought it
may have stemmed from the Taliban's policy of executing homosexuals.
DP called Lindh's leaving home to live an authentic homosexual
life narcissistic. He should've stayed with his wife until his son
was at least 18. Sometimes it is good to stay in the closet. Usually
it is best to be out of the closet but in some instances it is best
to stay quiet.
Prager said it was more likely that Lindh's leaving home to live
with a man was more influential on John Walker's psyche than reading
the Malcom X autobiography.
In his third hour, Prager read the entire
column by Yossi Halevi Klein in the Los Angeles Times Christmas
Day:
JERUSALEM -- However improbably, Jesus is emerging as a figure
through whom Jews and Christians are discovering each other. For
many centuries, Jews viewed Jesus with resentment and dread. Even
uttering his name was considered an act of unbearable intimacy with
the person Jews regarded as the ultimate apostate, responsible for
their persecution. In the name of Jesus, after all, Jews were martyred
and humiliated and forcibly converted. And so Jews referred to Jesus
as "that man," or avoided invoking him altogether.
Growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1960s, I'd cross the street
rather than pass the local Catholic church, which I imagined a place
of menace, where Jews were kidnapped and forcibly baptized. I avoided
even glancing at the crucifix displayed outside: The image of a
Jew hanging in agony seemed to me a taunt.
For their part, Christians revered a dejudaized Jesus, emphasizing
those of his sayings that seemed to repudiate Jewish law while ignoring
those which upheld it. Jesus' mission was equated with the spiritual
displacement of the Jewish people--supplanting God's covenant with
the Jews with the new Christian covenant. In its religious paintings
and statues, Western Christianity remade Jesus into its own image,
European rather than Semitic. Now, though, as growing numbers of
Christians confront the Judaic roots of their faith, the historical
Jesus is reemerging in his inevitable Jewishness. And in a reciprocal
gesture, some Jews are discovering their spiritual kinship with
Christianity and their literal kinship with Jesus.
DENNIS PRAGER got pranked three times by the caller who hates God.
The guy is brilliant, calling up under various guises and accents
and topic. It drives Prager wild when he's upstaged and not fully
in control. Prager ranted at the guy, saying you should go back
on the medication and stop abusing my listeners.
I suspect that many, perhaps most of Prager's listeners, get a
kick out of the crank's ingenuity at making Prager look pompous
and a control-freak.
Emasculated
Men
12/25/01
Dennis devoted his three hours to religion. He got a fervent call
from a Christian wondering why Dennis and Michael Medved, religious
Jews, never discuss why they don't believe in Jesus as God and Messiah.
Dennis replied that he doesn't argue faith. If someone believes
X about God, that's a matter of faith, and is not amenable to rational
discussion.
This Christian true believer sounded a lot like Orthodox Jews who
argue with Prager over why he doesn't except the entire Oral Law
as divine.
Dennis is patient, which often seems to make his questioners all
the more hysterical.
12/24/01
Dennis Prager disagreed with Time magazine's choice of Rudy Guiliani
for Person of the Year. To say that he was the one who most affected
the world for good or ill is incorrect. Guiliani was shocked that
he was picked.
DP says the Man of the Year, judged by who affected the world the
most, was Osama Bin Laden or a generic Al Quada terrorist, or George
W. Bush. Bush may have changed the world more than anyone, compared
to how the US and the world would've reacted to the terrorism if
Gore or Clinton were president.
DP says Time picked Guiliani because it made the Time selectors
feel good.
DP gave his theory on why Time picked Albert Einstein for Man of
the Century. Because he was secular, brilliant, and academic, like
the Time selectors. DP argued for Hitler as the Man of the Century.
Prager pointed out Time's numerous mistakes in the past including:
2000 - George Bush. For what? Getting elected?
1999 - Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos
1998 - Bill Clinton, Ken Starr
1997 - Andy Grove of Intel (deserved)
1996 - David Ho, scientist working on AIDS (strange choice, who
knows of this guy? A politically correct choice.)
1995 - Newt Gingrich (makes sense)
1994 - Pope John Paul II
1993 - peacemakers, including the Middle East and South African
peacemakers. (The news media were the biggest cheerleaders for the
Middle East peace process.)
1992 - Bill Clinton
1991 - Ted Turner
1990 - George Bush Sr (deserved it)
Dennis has played Christmas music bumpers on his show the past
few days. Dennis, the religious Jew, loves Christmas even though
he personally doesn't observe it. Still, he wishes his Christian
listeners and neighbors "Merry Christmas."
Dennis's brother Kenny sang Christmas Carols with his Glee Club
at Columbia University, while wearing his yarmulke.
In his second hour, Prager discussed shoplifting. He received a
couple of sterling calls at the beginning of the show, including
one from a lawyer who thanked Prager in part for inspiring him to
turn to God and Christianity and gain the moral strength to stop
stealing.
A man who runs a non-profit organization to help shoplifters said
many celebrities shoplift because they want to get caught. They
feel they don't deserve their success.
Prager's particular case was Winona Ryder's shoplifting recently
in Beverly Hills. Dennis read from
today's New York Times:
The number of people on the make for the proverbial five-fingered
discount always surges during holiday times as stores grow more
crowded and thieves find it easier to blend in without detection.
This year, however, loss prevention experts see a convergence of
factors, including a weakening economy, psychological stress from
the Sept. 11 attacks and the trend toward longer store hours with
smaller staffs, that may swell the ranks of shoplifters much more
than usual.
Not until retailers do their final inventories in January will
the damage done this season really be known, if ever. Major retailers
are reluctant to discuss crime in their stores. "We hate to talk
about anything negative this time of year," said a Bloomingdale's
spokeswoman, Anne Keating. Several chains including Best Buys and
Wilson's: The Leather Experts say they have seen no recent increase
in shopper theft.
Dennis Prager Speaks To Orthodox Union
The only time, to my knowledge, the Orthodox Union (group of over
1000 centrist Orthodox synagogues in North America) has invited
a non-Orthodox Jew to speak to them was Sunday afternoon, December
23rd, when Dennis Prager spoke about why many Muslims hate Jews
and Israel.
Prager's speech was the climax of the convention. Nobody can pack
a Jewish crowd like Prager. While up to his speech, there were three
sessions going simultaneously, for Prager's talk, they opened up
all the dividers and packed everyone into one room.
Aguda's Rabbi Yitzhock Adlerstein delivered a teasing, even insulting
introduction to Prager. Rabbi Adlerstein said that Torah knowledge
is not the only type of knowledge you need, and that Prager was
here to deliver the non-Torah perspective. That was an insult of
Prager but Dennis took in good humor.
The rabbi described Prager as a gafly, outside the camp of Orthodoxy,
all true.
Dennis and Rabbi Adlerstein have known each other over two decades
and regularly studied Talmud together for some time. Dennis often
refers in his speeches to his Orthodox right-of-center rabbi friend
and this usually refers to Rabbi Adlerstein.
Rabbi Adlerstein said Prager has brought more people to Orthodox
Judaism than any group in Southern California. Rabbi Cunin, leader
of West Coast Chabad, says the same thing.
Rabbi Adlerstein said he agreed with Prager on almost nothing.
Prager got up and claimed they agreed on a good many things. Prager
has more freedom to speak his mind than Rabbi Adlerstein because
he's not beholden to any one constituency. It was kinda sad to see
how Rabbi Adlerstein had to pander to his religious right wing to
get away with introducing Prager to the Orthodox audience.
Prager and the rabbi are not such good friends that they don't
go years without seeing each other.
As Dennis began to speak, he asked how much time he had. Rabbi
Adlerstein said he had until Mincha (the afternoon prayers). Dennis
smiled. "He just wants to find out if I know when Mincha is."
DP recounted how he lived in this Pico-Robertson Orthodox neighborhood
for 12 years (1985-1997). Now he lives in Calabassas, which boasts
the fastest growing Jewish population of any US zip code.
Prager said it is morally wrong for Jews to not visit Israel at
this time of its distress and to not send their kids to Israel.
Prager's son David is studying for a year at a yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Though Prager strongly urged David to go to Israel, after the latest
attacks, Dennis told David he was leaving the decision up to him.
David chose to go.
On the phone a few days ago to Dennis, David described his safety
on a recent bus trip to Haifa as being "in the hands of God."
Dennis then delivered his familiar speech on anti-Semitism. It
was 30 minutes in before he got his first response from the audience.
He got cheers when he said that Europe stinks. They're morally confused.
This is the continent that had the French revolution, the Russian
revolution, WWI, fascism, Nazism, WWII, the Holocaust and communism.
And it still hasn't been morally chastened.
Prager quoted the French government official in England who called
Israel "a shitty little country."
DP emphasized, and he was speaking to a group overwhelmingly composed
of Orthodox Jews, that we should sharply distinguish between American
Christianity and European Christianity.
DP noted that probably a higher percentage of evangelical Christians
support Israel than do Jews. DP said that every shul should have
a sister Church.
Rabbi Adlerstein shook his head at that and some of Prager's other
points.
Prager writes in the Milwaukee
Jewish Journal:
As a Jew, I am embarrassed when I read the number of Jews visiting
Israel has declined since the latest Palestinian violence began.
An Israeli recently told me that more Christians are visiting Israel
than Jews (one of many negative effects of the relative lack of
deep religious faith in Jewish life), and that while more than a
few Jewish tour groups had canceled their tours, few if any Christian
groups had. The implicit American Jewish belief here seems to be
that only Israeli Jews should suffer for Israel’s survival—through
terrorism and a worsening economy. This is terribly wrong. We Jews
who live in affluence and without any threat of suicide bombers
dismembering us or our children should be visiting Israel now in
unprecedented numbers.
Next year, every time I hear or read of another act of Arab terrorism
in Israel, I will shudder. But when, God willing, David returns
to America, he will return a better Jew, a better American, and
a better man—just as my father did 60 years ago, and as I did 30
years ago.
Prager On Diet
The other day, Dennis devoted an hour of his radio show to discussing
diet. The important thing, he said, was quantity. It did not matter
so much what you ate. It was how much you ate that most mattered.
In 1994, Prager hosted Dr. Barry Sears on his show for three hours
to talk about diet. Prager was fascinated. He's long been interested
in the subject as he's struggled to keep down his weight most of
his life. For about a year or so afterward, Prager became an enthusiastic
proponent of Dr. Sears' Zone diet of 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat and
30% protein.
In the late 1980s, Prager was also giving his views publicly on
diet. The important thing, he said he'd discovered, was that only
fat makes you fat. So watch your intake of fat and you'll be ok.
The other day on his show, Prager protested federal government
guidelines for weight. According to the guideline, Prager should
lose about 70 pounds, which DP declared was ridiculous. He'd look
like a Holocaust survivor. Dennis said he should lose about five
pounds but there was no need for any greater loss.
Which sort of sums of Prager's approach to life. Wherever he is,
he is about perfect, perhaps needing a five percent adjustment.
The only exception I can think of offhand is the Oslo peace accords
for Israel. Prager now says he'll never be able to forgive himself
for supporting them.
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