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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 11, 2007 / 23 Nissan, 5767

The Edifice Complex

By John Stossel


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Why do we let politicians name buildings after each other? I understand building monuments to honor leaders like Washington and Jefferson. But monuments to current members of Congress? Haven't we lowered the bar too far?


Today all a congressman has to do to get his name slapped on a building is bring home enough pork.


Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott has lots of facilities named after him: a middle school, an airport, the Trent Lott Center at Jackson State, the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, and more.


West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd has even more named after him. My show, "20/20," discovered more than 30 buildings, a bridge, even a telescope.


This practice of naming buildings after living public figures is relatively new. The Lincoln Memorial didn't appear until more than 50 years after Lincoln's death. The Washington Monument came 89 years after Washington died.


One politician wants to stop such self-glorification. Dan Greenberg, an Arkansas state legislator, introduced the "Edifice Complex Prevention Bill." It would ban his state's politicians from naming buildings after themselves. "For me it just comes too close to using taxpayer money to build temples to living people," he told me.


Arkansas politicians are as guilty as others in memorializing one another. The most recent former governor, Republican Mike Huckabee, who's now running for president, has plenty named after him, and even his wife, Janet, has things named for her, like the Mike and Janet Huckabee Lake and the Janet Huckabee Nature Center.


What made Greenberg try to stop this nonsense was discovering that a park was named after him and some other legislators. One complained that the sign with her name didn't use her campaign colors. "That was so distasteful, I just said to myself, 'Enough!'" Greenberg recalls.


Other politicians sneered at his idea, and the Edifice Complex Prevention Bill was killed in committee 11 to 3.


In Jackson, Miss., such political egotism is controversial. Some people want a new federal courthouse named after one of Mississippi's pioneering black lawyers, the late R. Jess Brown, who defended James Meredith in his effort to attend the University of Mississippi and defended Medgar Evers, the civil-rights activist who later was murdered.


But Sen. Lott has other ideas. He thinks the courthouse should be called the Cochran Federal Courthouse because his colleague Sen. Thad Cochran got Congress to spend $100 million of your tax money to build it. That upsets Brown's children, as well as others in Jackson who want to see the civil-rights fighter honored.


Sen. Cochran's office says he's too modest to comment about this matter. But Sen. Lott defended his effort, saying:


"Thad Cochran moved to the Jackson area at age 9 and adopted it as his home-making partner in less than three years in the state's most respected law firm. … Jackson voters first sent Thad to Washington where he rose to chair powerful Senate committees that advanced projects that have improved the quality of life of all Mississippians. He's responsible for Congress' approval of the new Mississippi Courthouse, and that's why Jackson residents and the Mississippi judicial community want it to bear his name."


Give me a break! Jackson residents want this? Which ones? Most Jackson residents "20/20" asked were opposed to it, saying things like, "Don't put a politician's name on it. A politician's already received enough from the American public!"


I agree. I understand why politicians like having their names on buildings. It's an ego boost. And the free advertising doesn't hurt their perpetual reelection campaigns.


But you shouldn't have to pay for their monuments to themselves.


This week another politician said "enough" to politicians' self-glorification. Probable presidential candidate Fred Thompson asked a legislator to withdraw his plan to name a stretch of U.S. Highway 43 "Fred Thompson Boulevard."


Maybe it will start a trend.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JUST OUT FROM STOSSEL
Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel --- Why Everything You Know Is Wrong  

Stossel mines his 20/20 segments for often engaging challenges to conventional wisdom, presenting a series of "myths" and then deploying an investigative journalism shovel to unearth "truth." This results in snappy debunkings of alarmism, witch-hunts, satanic ritual abuse prosecutions and marketing hokum like the irradiated-foods panic, homeopathic medicine and the notion that bottled water beats tap. Stossel's libertarian convictions make him particularly fond of exposes of government waste and regulatory fiascoes. Sales help fund JWR.



JWR contributor John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20." To comment, please click here.


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