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Sept. 5, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: What does 'doing the right thing' entail?

Caroline B. Glick: The master strategist

Sept. 4, 2008

Ron Kampeas: Biden, Palin take lead in clash on Mideast issues

Bruce Dancis: With humor as their weapon, the Three Stooges took on Hitler

Sept. 3, 2008

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: Productive school years don't just happen

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Quick lamb stew serves up flavors of India

Sept. 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Costly Advice

Caroline B. Glick: Calling Israel's bluff

JWisdom: Wandering in Wonder by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

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. 8, 2007 / 26 Tishrei 5768

Once upon a time, we trusted our athletes

By Mitch Albom


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | TO: All kids

FROM: A sportswriter


It wasn't always like this. Once upon a time, the sports world didn't have handcuffs, fingerprints and indictments. Once upon a time, we didn't have steroids, human growth hormone or dog fighting.


Once upon a time, we really did just watch the games. We kept score at home, we dreamed about catching foul balls, and when someone won something, we believed they won it. We didn't wait for the urinalysis.


Once upon a time, when a woman like Marion Jones captured three gold medals at an Olympic Games - including the treasured 100-meter race, making her "the fastest woman in the world" - she came home wearing those medals around her neck and everybody cheered. We didn't hear words like "steroids," "masking agents" or "the Clear."


We just believed our eyes.


Once upon a time, the sports world wasn't the way it was last week, kids, and it's important you know that, because otherwise you might wonder why people bother with sports at all.


Last week, Jones - who made a second career out of insisting she was clean, always had been clean, and would sue those who claimed she wasn't clean - admitted that she wasn't clean. She admitted using banned substances before winning her golds in the 2000 Sydney Games.


And, once again, those of us who remember a different sports world wondered how things fell apart so fast.


THE SHOT PUTTER AND THE SPRINTER
I've met Marion Jones. I not only covered her races, asked her questions, marveled at her skill - but also hosted her on a radio program six years ago. She arrived with her then-husband, C.J. Hunter, a shot putter. At the time, Hunter was facing charges of using banned substances and failing drug tests - and Jones was livid. She defended him up and down.


"We're confident in the very near future C.J.'s name will be cleared," she said on the air that day. "We've found out a lot of information in the past couple of months on people that are not doing the right things in this sport and so we plan on getting it all out in the open."


As it turned out, Hunter's name was not cleared. He retired. He and Jones divorced. And a few years later, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Hunter told investigators that he had injected Jones with a banned substance before the 2000 Olympics and that he saw her inject herself as well. He also claimed she had HGH and a substance known as "the Clear" with her at the Olympics.


Again, Jones was livid. She claimed Hunter was an angry ex with an ax to grind. Her lawyer at the time made this emphatic statement: "She has never, ever used performance-enhancing drugs."


But now she admits she has.


In fact, she admits using "the Clear."


It didn't used to be like this.

THE UNWORTHY RUNNER-UP
Marion Jones is not the first to make headlines this way and she won't be the last. But for some reason, her admission seems to really sting. Perhaps because she was so adamant all these years. Perhaps because it comes on the heels of Barry Bonds' steroid shadow sapping the joy out of a home run record or last year's Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, being stripped of his title for failing a drug test.


Perhaps because, if Jones is stripped of her 100-meter gold, it will go to the second-place finisher, Greece's Ekaterini Thanou. And you want to believe that at least justice will be served.


Except that Thanou, four years later, was accused of staging a motorcycle accident to avoid a drug test at the Athens Games and was subsequently banned from competition for two years.


Who's clean? Who can you believe? When is someone banging a fist on a table still lying? When is the most impassioned cry of "I'm innocent" still just an act?


I don't know. All I know is these kinds of questions didn't used to be part of the sports world. Neither did beakers, labs or the FBI.


You should know this, kids, because you are probably shrugging off Marion Jones as just another athlete who did what athletes will do. And the fact that you shrug it off?


That's what scares us older folks the most. .

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.

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