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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 Oct. 23, 2006 / 1 Mar-Cheshvan, 5767

Late-night thoughts

By Paul Greenberg


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it.
— HAL, the onboard computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey"


To rephrase Wordsworth slightly, the news is too much with us, and listening and watching we lay waste our powers.


Click your way through the channels in the sleepless hours of the early morning, and soon they all begin to merge into one meaningless blur of voices and visions until, with one final click, the sound and fury signifying nothing ceases.


Ah, respite.


Sane silence.


We are no longer part of Marshall McLuhan's global village, that is, the worldwide mob.


"The desire not to be impinged upon, to be left to oneself, has been a mark of high civilization both on the part of individuals and communities." — Isaiah Berlin. The dark night of the soul, according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, that sage of the Jazz Age, always comes at 3 o'clock in the morning. In our time, television makes the dark hour even darker — in the brightest way. Just as the Internet, that marvel of our over-informed age, provides us with an infinite wealth of information and an absolute dearth of judgment.


The news seduces us into thinking it is new, when often enough it is but a remake. The roles may be played by different actors, but the plot lines scarcely vary. It's as if Ecclesiastes were the news anchor: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be…." Until you feel you're caught in a house of mirrors forever replaying the past and calling it BREAKING NEWS.


Free speech is as free as ever at Columbia University, where a mob shouted down a presentation by the Minutemen, who propose to stop illegal immigration by patrolling the Mexican border. Or by building a wall — as if there were no such things as ladders, tunnels, wire cutters, rust and decay.


Or maybe by deporting 13 million people, and that estimate may be on the low side. (That great sucking sound you'd hear would be the American economy crashing.)


The best response to bad ideas is better ones. Instead, "Shut up," the mob explains. So much for the notion that a university ought to be a place of free inquiry. That idea was pretty much done in by the Spirit of the Sixties, when the ultimate arbiter of intellectual exchange on campus became whoever could shout loudest.


The rowdy scene at Columbia U. inspired a certain nostalagia in some of us. It was like watching the rebirth of a plague, or the return of 40-year locusts right on schedule. It restores one's faith in natural cycles, or at least history's pendulum. Things may not make sense, but at least they make patterns.


Sometimes you can actually see the reel of time unwind. The hands on the clock twirl counter-clockwise. The prices on the gas pump go backward. Who's directing this movie, Salvador Dali?


Fair is fair: Just as there were congressional hearings when gas prices soared and Big Oil was accused of manipulating the market, shouldn't there now be outraged voices demanding to know why gas prices have dropped?


Shouldn't Congress be investigating this dangerous conspiracy?


Remember when the junior senator and ace investigator from Arkansas, Mark Pryor, got the head of the Federal Trade Commission before the Senate Commerce Committee and, along with some of his more suspicious colleagues, started browbeating her?


Back then Sen. Pryor was demanding that the FTC produce proof of some dark and sinister plot to raise gas prices. The lady — Deborah Platt Majoras — quietly and patiently stood her ground, trying to explain the law of supply and demand. But of course Mark Pryor and his suspicious colleagues weren't interested in the actual data; they had angry constituents to appease and an issue to demagogue.


Now those danged oil companies are clearly involved in another nefarious conspiracy, this time to lower consumer prices. But somehow I don't think there's going to be another investigation.


It's another World Series without the Damn Yankees. The world seems off its axis. I begin to have the strangest sensation. It's surreal, dizzying, entirely new. Maybe I should call a doctor. I begin to feel … a certain sympathy for New York Yankee fans. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it.

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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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© 2006 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

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