Nov, 21, 2008 Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters? Caroline B. Glick: Civilization walks the plank Nov, 20, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto Nov, 19, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality Elliot B. Gertel: 'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them? Nov, 18, 2008 Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster? Nov, 17, 2008 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit? Nov, 14, 2008 Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead Nov, 13, 2008 Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic The Kosher Gourmet by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla Nov, 12, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks Nov, 11, 2008 Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad? Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate Nov, 10, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built? Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist Nov, 7, 2008 Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy Nov, 6, 2008 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism The Kosher Gourmet By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes Nov, 5, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie Nov, 4, 2008 Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East Nov, 3, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart? Jonathan Tobin: Was He Wrong About Everything? Oct. 31, 2008 Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Our Immutable Noble Essence Caroline B. Glick: Running against Bush Oct. 30, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: The End of the Special Relationship? Steve Lipman: 'Kid Kosher' Gets A Title Shot Oct. 29, 2008 Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: GET US THE TAPE THE L.A. TIMES REFUSES TO RELEASE, AND WE'LL GIVE YOU CASH! Dr. Ari Korenblit: Making The Write Choice for President Oct. 28, 2008 Mona Charen: Denial runs through American Jewry Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Sell-off to capitalism or sell-out to Islam? Oct. 27, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Are tax deductions for charitable donations moral? Jonathan Mark: The Mystery Of The Arab-American Vote Oct. 24, 2008 'Why aren't all religious people vegetarians?': Response by Miriam Kosman Caroline B. Glick: Testing Obama's mettle Oct. 23, 2008 Daniel Pipes: Obama Would Fail Security Clearance The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A fast chicken dish with an Asian accent Oct. 20, 2008 Gary Rosenblatt: Still One Torah Jonathan Tobin: Government 'Gifts' Are Not Free Oct. 17, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: Sukkos and the Great Meltdown Caroline B. Glick: The disappearance of law Oct. 16, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Copying DVDs: RIP OR RIPOFF? Cal Thomas: Blaming the Jews (again) 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 Oct. 20, 2005 / 17 Tishrei, 5766 America, the Killjoy Nation By James Lileks http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Another day, another international conference, another meaningless display of unity. But with lovely gift bags, we're sure. The latest example: a UNESCO compact, sanctified in October at a conference in Tunisia, supporting the rights of nations to control the import of entertainment from other countries, all in the name of "cultural diversity." Otherwise Bugs Bunny cartoons would pose a mortal threat to the state-controlled monoculture of most nations. The United States opposes the compact, because we're mean and hate everyone, if you read the press. But was the U.S. vote correct? Let us consider. The original sponsors were France and its stepchild Canada; figures. No country is more prickly about preserving its own culture than France; they regularly have le panique attaq whenever small fragments of other tongues infect their pristine lingo. Their cinema is heavily subsidized, producing endless movies about older-yet-unquestionably-masculine men who pensively smoke while contemplating a girl's knee observed on a beach in 1972. Canada also mandates local content, because there's so much difference between someone who grew up in southern Manitoba and someone who grew up in upper North Dakota. The North Dakotan grows up without a sense of what it's like to be annoyed by bilingual candy-bar wrappers, for example. Might as well be from different planets. There are reasons to protect local culture, of course. American culture is The Borg, assimilating all. Drop a VCR and a TV in a remote Amazonian village, return a year later, and what do you find? Nothing, because you forgot to supply the generator. But leave one of those, and within six months the kids will be running around saying "No Luke I am your father" and making whoom-whoom lightsaber sounds. This fact gladdens the hearts of some, since it shows that American values — freedom, justice, explosions — are universal. But it also puts cultural conservatives in a bind, because modern pop culture is crass, rude, naughty, and often indefensible. Do we really want to defend the right of American record companies to export Li'l Kim diatribes against all the b-word rapperettes who set her up? Doesn't it bother anyone that China has entire factories devoted to pumping out pirated copies of "Scarface," because the global demand for that rags-to-twitches cocaine opera is so insatiable? It was easier when the Yanks stood for nylons and chocolate bars. In one sense, the convention is misguided — American culture is far more diverse than the products of the nations it purportedly corrupts. "The Matrix" was a synthesis of innumerable Hong Kong wire-fu movies. Recent Hollywood horror movies borrow heavily from Japanese ghost movies. HBO's brilliant "Rome" is about, well, Rome, shot in Italy. Musically, there's not a culture we haven't pillaged, dissected, broken into digestible bits and recycled, except perhaps for 15th century Aboriginal didgeridoo tunes. But give us time. American culture is eventually world culture, and vice versa. Brittle cultures don't handle it well. Adaptive cultures absorb and adapt — the point of multiculturalism, no? Imagine if the U.S. decided to head off the influence of Indian cinema, lest the next "Batman" movie turn into a chaste historical drama that inexplicably bursts into ornate and endless dance numbers. Imagine if the Feds forbade Bollywood imports. Kids would be swapping the forbidden movies on the internet, just to put a thumb in the censor's eyes. And that's what they do now, UNESCO convention be damned. Tunisia, after all, has 800,000 Internet users. If a dozen of them are under 20 and know how to use BitTorrent, well, Comedy Central's "Adult Swim" gets passed around Africa by next Saturday. In another sense, the UNESCO effort is pointless. No: toothless. More posturing from an international body that convenes to strike pleasing poses, nothing more. But some will see the U.S. position as more American mulishness. The New York Times put it thus: "As with the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty and the treaty creating the International Criminal Court, (the U.S.) will likely remain a critical — and perhaps obstructionist — outsider." Imagine that! The killjoy nation. Monarchy, Communism, Fascism, Socialism, now Tribalism — the U.S. never quite joins in the fun. Everyone else jumps off the bridge, and we hang back, taking notes. Like we're special or something. 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. JWR contributor James Lileks is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Comment by clicking here. ARCHIVES © 2005, James Lileks

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