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May 25, 2012
Mark Clayton: Is Hillary's State Dept. hacking Al Qaeda? Not quite
Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
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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The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
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Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
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
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
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
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
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
March 5, 2008
/ 28 Adar I 5768
Nominate in haste, repent at leisure
By
Paul Greenberg
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
This front-loaded presidential election year is spinning past at dizzying speed. It's all happening much too fast to think. Which isn't good for the voters, the country, or the candidates, who no longer get to wage a long, drawn-out national campaign for their party's nomination. To run a presidential marathon requires endurance, thought, organization and grace under pressure. Maybe even high principle. Or at least low cunning. Reduce the race to a sprint and you get, well, what the country's got in 2008 too many elections too soon. Result: The chances increase of electing a chief executive unprepared for the job and Lord knows the country has had enough of those.
Some of us can remember those long-ago times, like four years ago, when a proper pace was maintained in these presidential sweepstakes. The campaign would essentially start off, as long custom dictated, in New Hampshire in February, proceed in measured steps to big states like New York in the late spring, and then conclude with the biggest prize of all, California, at the beginning of summer. This long, stately procession of primaries set the stage for the big show, the nominating conventions, at the end of the whole, and possibly even deliberative, process.
Well, deliberation ain't got a chance in 2008. Not in all this swirl. Those of us who are supposed to comment on these hasty proceedings barely have time to scrawl a few notes, let alone go beyond the horse race to discuss the great issues at stake, if any.
There's just barely time to count the votes in one primary before the country must move on to the next crucial/decisive/must-win primary or primaries. Super Tuesday is followed by Super Tuesday II, which will be followed by … what? A sudden-death playoff tonight? A slow swan song over half a year? A helluva trainwreck at this year's Democratic national convention that'll derail the surviving candidate in the fall?
Through the grace of history or maybe just happenstance, the United States of America had developed just about the best of tests for a prospective president: the long, well-paced campaign. Now we're busy junking it.
The only sure thing about this year's presidential election is that it's going too fast. The effect is like running an old movie at twice the intended speed, or a 33 rpm record at 78. Everything is reduced to a high-pitched whine, a montage of jerky movements. Think? Americans are too busy voting early and often.
In such an atmosphere, the press is as subject as the voters to mindless enthusiasms, maybe more so, for we've got deadlines to meet, copy to file, air time to fill, judgments to rush to. Consider the whole phenomenon known as Obamamania. This kind of political intoxication deserves a chapter in the sequel to "Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" that I'd long intended to write if only I hadn't been swamped by the sheer overabundance of raw material.
Oh, the swooning of the crowds, the adulation of the political junkies! The whole thing has been sweeping over the country like a great national revival, or maybe just the flu. Whatever it is, it's contagious. The media-ocracy, formerly known as the press, seems unable to control its attraction for this bright new star flashing across the political heavens. To cite a few symptoms of the effect St. Barack Chrysostom has had on some of us taking notes out in the pews:
Chris Matthews, who once prided himself on playing hardball, went all weak in the knees, literally, after one of the Sen. Obama's many victory speeches, saying he felt "this thrill going up my leg." Contrary to Mr. Dooley's oft-cited dictum, politics is beanbag once Barack Obama casts his spell over formerly hardened observers of the game.
Tough, probing questions are transformed into sweet nothings as Sen. Obama enchants the smitten fourth estate. Bob Schieffer of CBS, who's been around so long you'd think he'd be resistant to puppy love by now, confessed that he got all choked up just watching the pro-Obama video "Yes We Can."
Grown men have been known to tear up at the sight of Mister Cool wooing the masses, making comparisons to JFK, William Jennings Bryan and the Beatles at the drop of a notebook. Somebody really ought to tell these fans in the guise of commentators to curb their enthusiasm before they say still more embarrassing things. Is this a presidential election or the Second Coming?
Hey, what a country. There's a war on, the economy is having a case of the vapors, uncertainties abound at home and abroad, and the two surviving candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have been busy exchanging sound bites. Has anyone heard a great idea out of either of them?
Instead we get only alternating team yells: Change! Experience! Is this a race for president of the United States or a high school popularity contest? It may all be riveting for us political junkies, but it's scarcely serious.
The two contenders, having forgotten that they once praised free trade, now try to outdo each other at bashing NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement at least in Ohio, where it makes a handy scapegoat. (In Texas, where NAFTA's been a great success, they tend to grow silent on the subject.)
When the subject is the all-important one of war and peace, notably in Iraq, each tries to outdo the other in defeatism as if The Surge hadn't started to turn things around. It's as if neither has read a paper for the last six months.
Meanwhile, the GOP is preparing to crown its presidential nominee if only that good ol' boy from Arkansas would get out of the way. Republicans must be watching the proceedings in the other party with a mix of amusement and dread. For the longest time they'd been preparing to campaign against an op researcher's dream in Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was going to be like running against Lady Macbeth. The low campaign Mrs. Clinton et vir have conducted against this bright young comer only added to her voluminous dossier, which just waited to be reviewed at length by her opposition in the fall.
But the prospect of going through all those old scandals again was deadening, which may explain why voters flocked to a newcomer on the national scene whose scandals would at least be new. And now the GOP may have to run not just against a candidate but a political phenomenon. No wonder so many Republicans find themselves pulling for a Clinton for the first time in their lives. Which is one more delicious irony in a campaign full of them. For connoisseurs of irony, this has been a veritable banquet. But it's been conducted at breakneck speed. The guests barely have time to study the menu before it's whisked away. And the choices to be made are much too important to be rushed.
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JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.
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