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May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

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

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

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

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

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
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

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

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

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


Jewish World Review Nov. 24, 2006 / 3 Kislev, 5767

When plenty is not enough

By Diana West


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | One more word about Thanksgiving.


It is above all my favorite holiday, maybe because it retains its essence. Not so other special days on the calendar. The wild orgy of consumption beginning the day after Thanksgiving has long rendered the Christmas season the most pagan of religious holidays. Most of the other holidays we keep according to the federal government's schedule — Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Veteran's Day — are marked as three-day weekends generically suited to barbecuing, season permitting. This is probably natural, as the momentous events such days commemorate recede into practically ancient history.


But Thanksgiving is different. Harkening back about four centuries to our founding narrative of Pilgrims and Indians, of thanks-be for plenty, the holiday still holds much of its traditional allure and even divine inspiration. To this day, we, the figurative (if not literal) descendants of those Pilgrims and Indians who sat down to sup together sometime in the fall of 1621, continue to give thanks for American plenty. And on Thanksgiving Day, when plenty is manifested in a simple and emphatically homey feast, our level of satisfaction and our sense of gratitude remain in balance. By Christmas, of course, nothing is in balance. "Plenty" tends to have become "glut," and heartfelt gratitude has curdled into a conflicted sense of embarrassment. This is all the more reason to savor Thanksgiving, a day when plenty is still "enough" and not "too much."


In olden days, such plenty meant survival — literally. With enough food, the fate of the Pilgrim colony, founded to perpetuate austere Puritan ideals, was nearly assured. In our day, plenty alone provides no such guarantee. Although our material wealth as a society has never been greater, our survival as that Puritan-originated society seems more in jeopardy than ever before. Maybe that's because plenty has become an end in itself. And, truth be told, plenty in America today is hardly just a 20-lb. turkey on the table. It's a $500-$600 Sony PlayStation 3 in the home entertainment center. Which seems to have turned our notion of "survival" into what we do until Sony comes out with PlayStation 4.


This might be enough, I suppose, if we really lived in a PlayStation world. We could eat too much and buy too much and play too many really repulsive games such as Grand Theft Autos, I- IV, and just mark time. But in what may be an inversion of American exceptionalism, our singular sense of ourselves has somehow insulated our entire nation from what it's like to play for keeps — from what it means to live in a new age of Islamic jihad. With the exception of our military families, we, as a people, have remained insulated from our time of war.


Maybe this all started, at least in earnest, after 9/11 when George W. Bush, even as he prepared to fight "terror" — that politically correct and historically misleading term for jihad violence — implored Americans to get back to those shopping malls, just as if the nation could fight a war in perpetuity without ever noticing it. And so we have, so far. So vast is our "plenty" that we can send our armies across the sea to the desert and never feel it in our pocketbooks or our bellies.


Is that good? It doesn't feel good. At least, it doesn't feel real. That is, it feels strange for a nation to make war without moving to anything resembling a war footing. Saving string as our parents did during World War II isn't going to do much for the modern military, but how about the president asking Americans to avoid driving one day a week? Without any thought of sacrifice on the home front, "plenty" serves as a buffer between us and reality, and our extremely comfortable way of life serves to distract us from what it takes to maintain that extremely comfortable way of life.


Of course, the election indicates Americans were feeling something — that things were going wrong in Iraq and elsewhere, although it is distressing that the Democrats they have empowered hold no better answers than the Republicans. This intellectual stalemate should make this one of those winters of discontent you hear about. At least I hope it will.


If such dissatisfaction goads us to think past the distractions of plenty, and face up to the difficult, politically incorrect, and uncomfortable facts of beating back global jihad, it would be something to be truly thankful for.

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


JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

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© 2006, Diana West