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May 25, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman: The former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with contemporary Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Sweet Noodle Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread
May 24, 2012
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May 23, 2012
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May 22, 2012
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Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
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May 21, 2012
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Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
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The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
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Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
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May 11, 2012
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Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
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The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
Sept. 18, 2009
29 Elul 5769
It's Multicultural, Stupid
By
Suzanne Fields
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The attack on America on Sept. 11 set off alarms everywhere. We were shocked to discover that few Foreign Service officers were fluent in Arabic or Farsi, the dominant languages of the Middle East. We didn't know much about Islam. Children grew up on the engrossing and romantic "Tales of the Arabian Nights," but few parents thought much about the implications of women portrayed in veils and harems, as the property of men.
College students grooved on "The Rubaiyat" by Omar Khayyam, the medieval Persian poet and philosopher, whose poetry was tailored to Western sensibility by the 19th century English translator Edward FitzGerald in "A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou." There's a small park on Embassy Row in Washington dedicated to the poem. The popular culture glibly entertained us with tales of flying carpets and genies popping out of magic bottles, and serious study of Islamic history and culture was grossly neglected.
Multiculturalism and increasing tension in the Middle East have changed all that, but we haven't improved the education of our children about Islam or the roots of Islamist terrorism. An insidious campaign to mislead, misinform and disinform is at work in the textbooks of the public schools. Do you know what your children are reading today?
A new report by the American Textbook Council, an independent research organization that monitors the quality of textbooks, is a new wake-up call. In "Textbook Troika: How publishers, activists and multiculturalists keep students in the dark about Islam," Gilbert T. Sewall, the director of the council, documents the malign influence Muslim activists exert on social studies texts. Not only do texts distort historical fact, but "disinterested scholarship" is in jeopardy, threatened by a gathering perfect storm of academic failure and fatuousness.
Muslim activists intimidate naive editors with misinformation in the name of "diversity" and "sensitivity." Unpleasant facts are replaced by euphuism, and timid publishers who know better are drawn into a propaganda con game. There's big money in textbooks, and publishers are tempted to defer to whomever exerts the most pressure. An uncritical and even reverential treatment of Islam rises in direct proportion to diminished respect for Western achievement.
Muslim apologists are hardly alone in attempting to present their faith uncritically in textbooks. Christians, Jews, Hindus and others simply don't enjoy the same clout in an environment of unquestioned multiculturalism. Islamists fuse faith with political activism and bully academic writers, editors and state bureaucrats responsible for overseeing curriculum standards.
The most important place to push the hot button is in California, mandated by its sheer size. Meeting state standards is big business worth hundreds of millions of dollars for publishers after texts are adopted. California, which is especially sensitive to political correctness, buckles easily under the bullying of the California-based Council on Islamic Education (CIE), which with other Muslim groups spreads Islamic propaganda through the newspapers, film and television studios. Islamic groups pursue a rich textbook market in Massachusetts, New York and Virginia, as well.
The textbook publishing troika consists of Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin. When McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin sought definitions of "jihad" and "sharia," they cowered under Muslim intimidation. Instead of showing the links connecting religion, law and ritual, they simply dropped all discussion of them. There is no mention of the Islamic mistreatment of women, homosexuals and members of other faiths.
The Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI), a relatively new company in the California textbook market, produces a social studies series titled "History Alive!" Teachers know it for its amateurishness and wealth of errors, but it is nevertheless popular for its trendy multicultural treatment of history. A seventh-grader who reads a Prentice Hall textbook will learn that medieval Islamic Spain was a "multicultural society." (This is news.) An ambiguous "team of terrorists" is responsible for Sept. 11; the religion of the hijackers is not mentioned. (How convenient.)
The Council on Islamic Education (CIE), which Sewall describes as an organization of "injustice collectors," has exerted enormous power over textbook publishers, forcing revisions and rewrites while managing to conceal exactly how much it controls content." What is in fact a propaganda machine," says Sewall, "presents itself as a resource center and scholarly authority."
Trusting parents are easily gulled into believing that their children's textbooks are based on legitimate scholarship. Americans stretch out to accept other faiths in good faith and with good humor, and are especially sensitive to the Muslim cry of scape-goating. But Sewall's disturbing research wistfully recalls the simple and innocent poetry of Omar Khayyam:
"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."
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Suzanne Fields Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields
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