July 2, 2009 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya July 1, 2009 Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts June 30, 2009 Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent? Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief June 29, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor' Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas June 26, 2009 Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law June 25, 2009 Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative June 24, 2009 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun June 23, 2009 Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect June 22, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews? June 19, 2009 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity June 18, 2009 Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative June 17, 2009 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and … June 16, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity … June 15, 2009 Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine' Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed June 12, 2009 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner June 11, 2009 Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos June 10, 2009 Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste June 9, 2009 Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president? June 8, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper? Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic? June 5, 2009 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth June 4, 2009 Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette June 3, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed? Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action June 2, 2009 Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk Oct. 29, 2003 Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 24, 2007 / 10 Elul, 5767 Man's best, and man's best friend By Jonah Goldberg http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Readers keep asking me what I think about Michael Vick, the disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback who this week agreed to plead guilty to a number of charges relating to his aspiration to be the Don King of dogfighting. They ask not because I'm a renowned sports lover, but because I'm such a dog lover. And I do love dogs. They are, evolutionarily and otherwise, man's partners, our wingmen — winghounds if you prefer. Dogs are the only animal to choose to be our friends and comrades in the great struggle of muddling through our turn on this mortal coil. (Cats, I'm sorry to say, hold one paw in each camp so as to forever keep their options open, and all other domesticated animals had to be forced into the arrangement.) What we see most clearly in dogs are precisely the things we as human beings wish to see in ourselves: loyalty, joy, love, home, family, commitment, humor and an utter disregard for the pieties and pretenses of fashionable life. ("If you take a dog which is starving and feed him and make him prosperous," Mark Twain observed, "that dog will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man.") My dog cares not that he is beautiful, that he is rich, that he is prized. All he cares about is that he is loved and that he has someone to love back. And if that someone happens to have a piece of ham behind his back, well, he's no fool either. Indeed, as many have noted, dogs look to us as we look to G-d. Even Ambrose Bierce, a great cynic, defined "reverence" as "the spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to a man." This helps us understand why finding joy in cruelty to animals is horrific. Torturing a dog or a cat for sport is not disgusting because animals have rights, it is repugnant because human beings have obligations. If animals look to us as gods, and we in turn torture them for our amusement, have we not willingly made ourselves into devils? Dogfighting in particular is grotesque because in it we reject all that is lovable about dogs in favor of all that is animalistic. We exploit canine loyalty and trust, stripping away the joy like so much bark in order to make dogs more fearsome than even wild animals. No wolf or coyote could stand up to one of Michael Vick's pit bulls, nor do wolves and coyotes have anything like that kind of bloodlust. It's revealing, however, that we call dogfighting a "sport." This can partly be explained by the double meaning of the word. One definition is mere "amusement." When we do things "for sport," we're doing them for trivial or base reasons. Yet, we also define "sportsmanship" as among the highest forms of conduct. We talk of the glories of sports, the purity of sports, the nobility of sports. Sport, we are told, is a selfless endeavor of sacrifice and excellence. Businessmen and hucksters exploit this double meaning. After all, there's a lot of money to be made in athletes being seen as heroes. So, every few years we have one of these canned, fruitless debates about whether athletes should be role models, sparked by the latest incident of some poorly educated multimillionaire egomaniac beating (or killing) his wife, trashing a strip club, buying cocaine or, most recently, electrocuting dogs in his spare time. When these men make tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, we are told that it's because such men are special, super even. They are heroes and community leaders, not to mention role models and brand names. But when these same ubermenschen hit the skids, the lawyers, P.R. flacks and front-office men suddenly decry holding these mere mortals to a double standard. Vick's defenders say he wouldn't be banned-for-life from any other profession, so why, they ask, should he banned from his career as a ball-thrower? Well, if football were like ditch-digging and if we treated quarterbacks like ditch-diggers, this complaint would ring more true. But we treat quarterbacks like gods and sports like the highest form of human expression. So when these men behave like devils and revel in the lowest aspects of humanity, it will not do to suddenly declare "it's just a job." (The NFL, though hardly in danger of succumbing to an epidemic of moral integrity, can surely see this distinction, at least as an issue of brand integrity.) Indeed, if sports is supposed to represent all that is best in men, it should tell us something about more than merely Vick himself that his greatest joy came in bringing out the very worst in dogs — and in us. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. To comment on JWR contributor Jonah Goldberg's column click here. Jonah Goldberg Archives © 2006 TMS

Mitch Albom  Michael Barone   Dave Barry  Tony Blankley  Andy Borowitz  David Broder  Stratfor Briefing  Mona Charen  Linda Chavez  Ann Coulter  Greg Crosby  Rod Dreher  Larry Elder  Suzanne Fields  John Fund  Frank J. Gaffney  Lloyd Garver  Jonah Goldberg  Julia Gorin  Jonathan Gurwitz  Paul Greenberg  Lewis Grossberger  Victor Davis Hanson  Betsy Hart  Nat Hentoff  David Horowitz  Laura Ingraham  Paul Johnson  Jack Kelly  Ed Koch  Ch. Krauthammer  Jonathan Last  Michael Ledeen  John Leo  David Limbaugh  Kathryn Lopez  Rich Lowry  Michelle Malkin  Jackie Mason  Dick Morris  Bill O'Reilly  Jim Mullen  Clarence Page  Kathleen Parker  Dennis Prager  Wesley Pruden  Tom Purcell  Jonathan Rauch  Celia Rivenbark  Robert Robb  Cokie & Steve Roberts  Pat Sajak  Debra J. Saunders  Culture Shlock  Roger Simon  Michael Smerconish  Thomas Sowell  Mark Steyn  John Stossel  Cal Thomas  Bob Tyrrell  Diana West  Dave Weinbaum  George Will  Walter Williams  Byron York  Mort Zuckerman  Robert Arial  Chuck Asay  Baloo  Chip Bok  Dry Bones   Lisa Benson  John Branch  Gary Brookins  John Cole  J. D. Crowe  John Deering  Brian Duffy  Everything's Relative  Mallard Fillmore  Jake Fuller  Bob Gorrel  Joe Heller  David Hitch  Jerry Holber  Steve Kelley  Jeff Koterba  Dick Locher  Chan Lowe  Ranan R. Lurie  Jimmy Margulies  Rick McKee  Michael Ramirez  Kevin Siers  Jeff Stahler  Ed Stein  Danna Summers  John Trever  Gary Varvel  Kirk Walters  How 2  Lori Borgman  The Savvy Consumer  Elder matters  Fixit  Dr. Peter Gott  Marybeth Hicks  GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko  Richard Lederer  Tech Maven  Every Monday Matters  Nutrition Myths  Bookmark These  Bruce Williams  How Stuff Works