Kathryn Lopez

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women

Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces

Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad

Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

'Garbage man' in cells could extend life

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage

Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

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The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study

Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

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Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed

Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism

Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Top Muslim cleric boycotts inter-faith dialogue conference attended by 'Jews'

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on

Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

Hagel, on maiden Middle East visit, arrives in Israel bearing gifts and promises

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Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

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Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: 'Noodles,' Asian style is a carb sub, sure. But they are also amazingly delicious and colorful

April 19, 2013

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: When violence seems the only answer

Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy

Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?

Harvard Health Letters: Can you die of a broken heart?

Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds

Nora Schultz: Oxytocin helps beat booze cravings

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: Middle Eastern cuisine meets Italian delicious with this lentil and eggplant pastitsio

April 17, 2013

Shira Rubin: Too much of a good thing? 'Palestinians' realize downside of foreign aid boom

Geoffrey Mohan: Can computers decode dreams? Researchers take a first step

Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 heart-healthy eating tips help cut saturated fat but not taste

Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Told your child has sensory processing disorder? Seek a second opinion

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Corn and Curry Add Zing to Chilled Soup

April 15, 2013

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Death of Education?

Kristen Chick: Egyptian Christians respond with harsh words to attack -- rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire -- against main cathedral

Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA

Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators

Kristin Ohlson : The loneliest fight

The Kosher Gourmet by Dana Velden: A tasty, rich dish that hints at spring's arrival while still anchored in a favorite winter staple

Jewish World Review Sept. 22, 2008 / 22 Elul 5768

Google needs to ‘search’ its conscience

By Kathryn Lopez

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | At first it didn't really bother me, but it became increasingly hard to ignore. On certain relatively slow news days, the bulk of the e-mails I would receive from readers of the National Review's Web site would be about Google, the popular Internet search engine. Specifically, these letters would complain about Google's failure to recognize certain holidays.

Google — if you don't live on the Internet as I do, and thus haven't noticed — tends to change its logo to celebrate special occasions. Google was very into the Olympics in Beijing (and has bent to China's will there, but that's another story). Google was ecstatic when the first day of summer arrived this year. It honored Leap Day on Feb. 29 with a slaphappy portrait of a jumping frog, and duly marked the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick on Jan. 28. It even celebrated artist Diego Velazquez's birthday in June, and regularly marks geeky anniversaries like the invention of the laser on May 16. So, some ask, why not fly a flag on Memorial Day?

What Google does with its pixels, of course, is not the biggest concern in the world by any stretch, even during a sluggish news cycle. But I increasingly started noting some of the days on which the corporate behemoth opted not to change its logo. Couldn't we at least get a bunny on Easter Sunday? If the likes of Macy's can recognize that holiday without seeming sectarian, why can't Google? I wasn't looking for a resurrected Jesus or even a cross.

This bothered me again this year on Sept. 11. On that particular Thursday, Google's logo went unaltered. If a ton of terrorist attacks had murdered thousands of people on American soil in recent history, I could understand why Google wouldn't change things up for each occasion. But, since there haven't been — and since, on Sept. 10, Google had changed its logo to mark the first test of Europe's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator, I didn't think that Sept. 11 was too obscure a day to note.

Google, as a private company, certainly has the right to do whatever it wants. I can choose to use another search engine if I'm that annoyed with how it monkeys with its image. But like it or not, it occupies an enormous chunk of American and world culture. To "Google" is a verb that has entered the common lexicon. And with great power comes great responsibility.

Which is why I was delighted to hear Google's new policy on abortion. Shockingly, for a company with such titanic sway, Google has heretofore claimed to be neutral on life-based issues, while actually hewing very stiffly to one side - favoring abortion advocacy and providers. Sued in the United Kingdom by a British group called the Christian Institute, it recently settled out of court and agreed to run abortion-oriented ads from pro-life as well as pro-choice clients.

In April of this year, Google had refused a paid ad from the Christian Institute that said:

"UK Abortion law Key views and news on abortion law
from The Christian Institute
www.christian.org.uk."

Google had said that its policy was to refuse ads that mixed "abortion and religion-related content." Previously, if you typed the word "abortion" into the company's search engine, the only advertisements that would appear alongside search results would be for abortion clinics and support groups, with nothing from religious groups that oppose abortion and offer alternatives to it.

A spokesman from the company announced, "Over the last few months, we have been reviewing our abortion-ads policy in order to make sure it was fair, up-to-date and consistent with local customs and practices. Following the review we have decided to amend our policy, creating a level playing field and enabling religious associations to place ads on abortion in a factual way."

Whatever Google's executives believed they were doing, their company was choosing sides. And it's too powerful an influence to pretend its choices don't have an impact. If you were in a bind and susceptible to influence, and the only ads you saw were for abortionists, you just might have made a poor choice because of Google's previous policy.

Do I think you'll forget we were attacked on Sept. 11 if a ubiquitous resource doesn't remind you? Of course not. Because of my Google holiday-logo awareness tic, I've been quoted in articles about Google bearing titles like "Does Google Hate America?" I'm sure Google loves this country because America may not run on Dunkin' but Google. But it could afford to give a little in return.

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