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May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
May 27, 2010
15 Sivan 5770
Our Chief Confessor
By
Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The first duty of national leaders is to worry about the self-interest of their own countries; utopian internationalism can come later. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite her soaring European Union rhetoric, is relearning that lesson.
German voters in a recent parliamentary election rebuked her for bailing out the spendthrift Greeks with hard-earned German money.
Barack Obama should take note.
Last year, Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize not for what he did, but for what he represented -- to the European judges a new post-national American president. His subsequent apology tours abroad have emphasized American sins without much discussion of the context of the times.
In Cairo last year, the president inaccurately claimed that Islam helped to foster Western achievements like the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
In such moments, Obama sounds as if he thinks America has to be perfect to be good, while other nations merely need to be OK.
Even though Obama apparently has no intention of closing down Guantanamo Bay as he promised -- or ending tribunals, renditions, Predator targeted assassinations, wiretaps and intercepts -- he continues to fault former President Bush's war on terror and promises the world that he will reset American foreign policy.
Consequently, the mixed message goes out abroad that if you were anti-American from 2001 to 2008, you probably had reasonable complaints; and if you were friendly back then, you may now seem a little suspect.
Obama's new outreach to Iran, Syria and Venezuela tells the world, fairly or not, that the United States -- not these anti-American authoritarians -- was responsible for tense relations in the past. Meanwhile, the old special relationship with democratic Britain, the once unquestioned support for democratic Israel, and missile defense for democratic Eastern Europe all seem passé.
Recently, Obama went too far when he invited Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the White House to address the Arizona immigration law. Side by side with Obama, Calderon summarily trashed the voters of Arizona for demanding enforcement of their nation's immigration laws: "It is a law that not only ignores a reality ... but also introduces a terrible idea, using racial profiling as the basis for law enforcement."
Wrong. In truth, the law prohibits racial profiling. The new Arizona statute allows law enforcement to request proof of citizenship of only those detained for other reasons -- and only if there is sufficient reason to doubt their citizenship.
Obama right there should have corrected Calderon's unfair caricatures -- and a foreign head of state's inappropriate and disingenuous intrusion into American politics. The Mexican government treats illegal immigrants from Central America far less sympathetically. And not long ago, Mexico printed a comic book instructing its own citizens how to break American law -- cynically assuming its own fleeing citizens were both illiterate and without worry about illegally entering Mexico's northern neighbor.
Obama, however, in response to Calderon, mentioned the growing irrelevance of borders themselves. He cited his own worry about the propriety of an Arizona law that currently receives a 70 percent approval rating among Americans. Even if Obama in the past has remarked that he thinks America is not necessarily an exceptional nation, the president still should side with states that want to enforce federal laws rather than with foreign nations that seek to circumvent them.
The Obama-Calderon criticism of Arizona came after Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, in a meeting with Chinese envoys, on his own initiative raised the issue of Arizona's immigration law "early and often." Posner wanted to offer his own example of America's morally equivalent problems with issues of human rights. He forgot, however, to actually read the Arizona law -- and that he was discussing human rights with a regime that routinely denies its citizens rights of free speech and due process, and not all that long ago killed millions of its own citizens and swallowed Tibet.
Instead of seeing his nation or its states as the problem, our president would do better to focus on the woes of the European Union, North Korea's sinking of a South Korean ship, Iran's plans to get the bomb, continued terrorist attacks in the U.S., wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Mexico's encouragement of its own citizens to violate American immigration law.
Right now there are quite enough foreign felonies in the world without dwelling on American misdemeanors.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and military historian, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. Comment by clicking here.
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