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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 Feb. 14, 2008 8 Adar I 5768

In Search of a Scenario: Hollywood's Version of the Campaign

By Suzanne Fields


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It's too early for conservatives to kiss and make up with John McCain, Valentine's Day or not. We're not ready to give him our unconditional hearts (or minds). The notion that he's the "presumptive nominee" eliminates the other suitors, but it doesn't make him more loveable.


No matter how entertaining Mike Huckabee is, strumming his guitar or showing a wickedly winning sense of humor, the life of the party is rarely the man to run the student government or the country's government. John McCain is the serious leader we could vote for, even if he doesn't have a great personality. If Hollywood should make a political version of "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner," the surprise guest would not be a mainstream black man — that's so 20th century — but a white man resembling John McCain. The conservative parents would object to the marriage because he wasn't conservative enough and they didn't think he could make their daughter happy.


Joseph Bottum of the Weekly Standard posits a different Hollywood analogy, casting John McCain as the marshal of Hadleyville instead of Gary Cooper in a remake of "High Noon." The bad guys are out to get him, and the upright citizens spurn pleas to help. They've got their reasons, which boil down to the fact that they're cowards.


The marshal's wife Amy, a Quaker with a sweet religious disposition played by Grace Kelly, abhors violence of every kind (just like Barack Obama and his followers). But she fires the gun that kills the man who would have shot the marshal dead. She goes against her principled pacifism for many reasons, not the least of which is love, and because she understands the stakes. Amy could symbolize the social conservatives of the modern Republicans. If they don't turn out to vote for John McCain, no matter how principled their reasons, their enemies win.


This election season cries for metaphor and analogy because there's such dramatic contrast in the candidates. We're watching great theater, with multiple plots and a lot of subplots.


The Republicans are looking for Cyrano de Bergerac to feed John McCain the lines to woo conservatives. But that only happens in literature. Mr. McCain is no silver-tongued devil, but he does say what he means, and in watching him give his speech at the Conservative Political Action Convention in Washington, it was remarkable how he slowly warmed up a cold audience. He flashed a seductive grin in the beginning when he thanked the conservatives for their courtesy and said wryly, "We should do this more often." The only boos answered his opening remarks about immigration, even though the crowd disagreed with him over a number of other issues. He quieted them as he reiterated his call for a widespread public "consensus" that the border be secured before we decide how to deal with the illegal immigrants in our midst.


In any drama about the McCain campaign, George Bush would get a walk-on role as supporting actor to observe that John McCain is "a true conservative." The sitting president has had trouble with some conservatives himself, and understands that Mr. McCain still has work to do.


"The Portrait of a Lady," with Hillary as protagonist, couldn't be the narrative of Henry James about a woman who stays in a bad marriage in spite of her independent spirit, but one studded with flashbacks of a woman in a bad marriage who enjoys what comes of her experiences at the White House. The screenwriters would have to take considerable liberties, since the Clintons refuse to release the relevant documentation of those years. Her drama would have to carry the disclaimer: "Some of the following is based on fact and some of it is not." There could be dramatic scenes from the Lincoln bedroom, where major contributors to the Clintons in the 1990s (and today) enjoyed sleepovers, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to campaign treasuries. They had to take as fiction the Clintons insistence that there was no quid pro quo.


More than the other two candidates, Barack Obama's narrative is a "work in progress." Shelby Steele in his new book " A Bound Man" draws on Ralph Ellison's novel, "Invisible Man," to describe Obama's difficulty in separating his authentic self from a mask he wears unconsciously to please whites: "His supporters do not look to him to do something; they look to him primarily to be something, to represent something." It's a provocative notion that bears further illumination, to ask whether Barack Obama can achieve visibility as an individual with well-formed ideas rather than as a racial token who pleases whites simply by being there. Is there a young Ralph Ellison to write the script?


As we move through the scenarios, we see a fascinating tale full of sound and fury. It signifies something, but just what we yet know not.

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


Comment on JWR contributor Suzanne Fields' column by clicking here.

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