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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 22, 2007 / 6 Tamuz 5767

Before I forget …

By Greg Crosby


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Remember a couple of years ago when President Bush was going around the country pushing for his plan to "fix" the Social Security System? Congress was in agreement that Social Security was going broke but they differed with Bush on just how to fix it. This debate, on how to "save" our quickly depleting Social Security System, went on and on — until finally….nothing happened. Nothing at all. Quick cut to today — the president and Congress are both pushing to find a way to add tens of millions of people that have never paid a dime into the system, to the rolls of those drawing out of it. Hey, that's a good idea! Social Security is running out of money, so let's add millions of illegal immigrants who have never contributed into the system and let them draw out benefits from it! Can you believe this? Our honorable elected officials must think that most of us have zero memory or are just plain stupid. You couldn't make this stuff up, folks.


Our system of justice has a problem. Trial by a jury of one's peers was a great idea back in the days when everyone who was an American citizen was considered to be your "peer." In the past thirty or forty years however, people have been growing more and more "tribal" in their associations and in their thinking. It's called "group think" and our secular progressive society not only allows for it, it encourages it. People vote along group lines, i.e. women vote for women, blacks vote for blacks, Latinos for Latinos, and so forth. So when this "group think" carries into the court room you can pretty much throw justice out the window. If you don't believe it, just remember the O.J. murder trial. Tribal thinking is happening more and more throughout all aspects of our society, dividing us a people and weakening our ability to act as a unified nation. It's not only wrong-headed it's dangerous.


How come we haven't bombed Iran back to the 6th Century yet? Just a thought. Really, though, what are we waiting for? With every day that goes by they get closer and closer to having nuclear weapons. Iran floods Iraq with jihadists and weapons that kill Iraqi citizens and American soldiers. Iran harbors, trains and funds terrorists, namely Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda. Iran's leader has said repeatedly that he intends to use nukes to annihilate Israel. They will certainly use them, either by detonation or by threat, against other Arab states and Western countries to advance their ambition to become top dog in the Middle East and control the vast majority of oil resources of the region. Other Arab nations have already said that they cannot just stand by so they will begin developing their own nukes in self defense. The entire area will explode if that is allowed to happen and ultimately the rest of the world with it. Iran needs to be addressed right now — and you can spell addressed b.o.m.b.e.d.


The case for keeping the Sabbath was made recently in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, where they quote from a new book "A Day Apart" by Christopher Ringwald. Mr. Ringwald says, "Taking a day of rest protects us from ourselves — from our urge to always be doing, improving, earning, getting, spending, having, consuming — all the ways we hurry on toward death." I think setting aside one day a week for "a day of rest" is a good thing too, but I was quite taken by that last part of his quote, "…we hurry on toward death." So true. It's life's practical joke — you spend years struggling, working hard, attempting to accomplish something and in the end, what? You grow old, get sick, and die (probably with some degree of pain). It's not fair, but who said that life was ever fair? But that's why it is so important to take that one day out of the week for some kind of quiet reflection, to appreciate what we have and to give thanks. One day without work, without playing, without spending money, without knocking yourself out. Besides the religious aspects of honoring the Sabbath, it's good for your health, too — a way to slow down and catch your breath. Good for one's soul and good for one's well-being. Sounds like a win/win situation to me.


And one final thing…several weeks ago I wrote a column on how the Los Angeles Times has been slipping — both editorially and financially — for the past couple of decades or so. And no matter how many changes they try, their circulation just keeps falling lower and lower. Well, I received a letter from a reader who thinks he has an answer to the Times' poor circulation. He said, "I know why it's going downhill. From what I have observed in recent years, fewer people in L.A. any longer read English. They can save this paper and increase its circulation by simply hiring a Mexican editor and printing the whole thing in Spanish!" You know, I think he may just be on to something. Are you listening Sam Zell?

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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.

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© 2006, Greg Crosby

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