Dec. 6, 2013 Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The Road to Faith is Paved with Uncertainty Caroline B. Glick: The Politics of Subversion Jonathan Tobin: Mandela, patron saint of Israel haters? Kimberly Lankford: How to Navigate Medicare on Your Parents' Behalf Lisa Gerstner: 6 Things to Know About Going Paperless The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: A symphony of the always flavorful and tender mixed with the nutty, delicately sweet Dec. 4, 2013 Mordechai Schiller: The Mystery of Teddy Roosevelt's Menorahs George Friedman of Stratfor: Israel's New Strategic Position Christi Parsons: The chalice that helped make possible the Iran nuclear deal Geoffrey Mohan: OOPS! You mean men and women really are different? Kimberly Lankford: How to Navigate Medicare on Your Parents' Behalf Everything's Relative by Jordan B. "Gorf" Gorfinkel : A teaching/torture moment The Kosher Gourmet by Kathleen Purvis: The secrets to preparing perfect mashed potatoes (3 mmm-outhwatering recipes!) Dec. 2, 2013 Rabbi Moshe Grylak: Attack on Chanukah's scholar-warriors an affront to all people of faith Mark Steyn: U.S. boxes in Israel, not Iran: Surrender in Geneva Kimberly Lankford: The Lowdown on the Obamacare Health Insurance Penalty Kathy Kristof: 5 Stocks to Sell Now Karen Ansel, M.S., R.D.: How you can eat more and weigh less Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Vanessa Bayer & Jacob, the Bar Mitzvah Boy; Adam Levine, nickname "the Bear Jew," is People's Sexiest; Eastwoods Need to Say "Kinehora!" The Kosher Gourmet by Kim Ode: Fried and gone to heaven: Dense, fried Slovenian doughnut-like rolls, krofi, on Chanukah is a treat you'll want to eat all year long Nov. 27, 2013 Caroline B. Glick: The goal of Obama's foreign policy David G. Savage: 1993 religious freedom act is at heart of contraception case Jonathan Tobin: SCOTUS Gives Religious Freedom a Hearing Cameron Huddleston: Best Doorbuster Deals for Thanksgiving and Black Friday Anjelica Tan and Cameron Huddleston: 12 Things Not to Buy During the Holidays Amina Khan: Jellyfish inspire flying-robot design The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: Thanksgiving leftovers from boring to brilliant: TURKEY-BUTTERNUT TORTILLA SOUP WITH ZESTY LIME SOUR CREAM Nov. 25, 2013 Jonathan Tobin: Ayatollahs, 1; West . . . Damned Melanie Phillips: It's 1938 all over again Cameron Huddleston: The Black Friday Deals that Aren't Harvard Health Letters: Some health-related apps should be avoided Kimberly Lankford: Time Is Running Out on Energy-Efficient Home Improvement Tax Credits Karen Kaplan: Tracking babies' eyes, scientists find signs of autism in 2-month-olds The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Secrets to perfect roasting of vegetables, including clever cook additions Nov. 22, 2013 Rabbi Benjamin Hecht: Especially wrong: How not to de-pamper a self-absorbed society Caroline B. Glick: A vastly changed Middle East Karen Kaplan: Bored? You won't be after reading this! Morgan Housel: What drives me absolutely crazy about finance Schuyler Velasco: Is one-click shopping just too darn easy? Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Hunger Games: Jewish Connections; A 'Minyan'of Jewish Celebs Recite the Gettysburg Address On-line; Walter Matthau's Reaction to JFK's Death L'CHAIM! by Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon: This year, give the gift of booze Nov. 20, 2013 Christa Case Bryant: Israel becomes a 'Promised Land' for non-Jewish geeks Steve Weizman: Rebuffed by Washington Netanyahu heads to Moscow 'Love Thy Enemy's Grandchild' Yale S. Samole, M.D. : Doctor, do I have to take this medication forever? Sharon Palmer, R.D. : Which foods are best? Busting nutrition myths Eleanor Laise: Medical credit cards can cause heartburn The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: Cranberry Curd Bars with Walnut Shortbread Crust is an excellent last-minute treat for Thanksgiving or any other special dinner this fall Nov. 18, 2013 There Is More Than One Way To Save a Life: As told to Rabbi Nachman Seltzer Nancy A. Youssef : Christians too afraid to complain as treatment in new 'democracy' worsens Stacy Teicher Khadaroo: How to get high school dropouts into 'recovery'? Soumya Karlamangla: Family sues NJ over gay-conversion therapy ban Susannah Snider: When to replace your financial adviser Jordan B. "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative: FINALLY! The solution to the global campaign to ostracize Israel The Kosher Gourmet by Rick Nelson: Celebrating vegetables, Italian-style ( 4 tantalizing recipes!>) Nov. 15, 2013 Rabbi Avraham Edelstein: The Quintessential soul food Caroline B. Glick: The demise of Pax Americana Steven Emerson: 'Muslim exception to the First Amendment'? Sandra Block: Watch out for the sales pitch Morgan Housel: Now is not the time to do anything stupid Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jewish MLB managers; Past and Present; Movie News and Dancing W/the Stars Shocker; Paula Abdul's Israeli bat mitzvah and bio facts rarely reported The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Lamb Stew with Dates and Zinfandel is a slightly sweet, aromatic feast and the perfect cold-weather entree

Jewish World Review Sept. 24, 2008 / 24 Elul 5768 Scaring us to death By Walter Williams http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There is a H.L. Mencken quotation that captures the essence of this year's politics: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." The media, economic "experts" and both presidential candidates are making bad-talking our economy key features of their campaign messages. For politicians and their hangers-on, keeping the populace alarmed is a strategy to seize more control over our lives. It's so important that Senator John McCain took his economic adviser, former Senator Phil Gramm, to the woodshed for saying that America had "become a nation of whiners" and described the current slowdown as a "mental recession." Had Senator Gramm added that economically today's Americans are better off than at any time in our history, he might have lost his job altogether. Let's look at it. Dr. W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, in the July/August 2008 edition of The American, have an article titled "How Are We Doing?". Wages and income are frequently used to measure progress but Cox and Alm say that a better measure is consumption. For example, while gasoline prices have skyrocketed, the average worker has to work about two hours to earn enough to purchase 10 gallons. In 1935, it was six hours and in 1950, over two hours. A basket of groceries that took four hours of work in 1950 to purchase now takes 1.7 hours. Annual hours of work have fallen from 1,903 in 1950 to 1,531 today. Real total compensation — wages plus fringe benefits, both adjusted for inflation — have been rising steadily for several generations. Fringe benefits have become a greater share of our earnings, thus dampening statistics on wage increases. Today's Americans are healthier than ever. In 1950, life expectancy was 67 compared with today's 78. Death rates from diseases, once considered a death sentence, are in steep decline. With advances in medicine and medical technology we're receiving much better health care. The increase in quality explains part of the higher health care costs. But health care costs would be dramatically reduced if there were more competition and less government intervention and third-party payers. Cox and Alm say that competition works but because of third-party payers, consumers have little incentive to shop around. They point out that prices for Lasik eye surgery, a procedure rarely covered by insurance programs, have fallen in the past decade because consumers shop around and take their business to surgeons who offer the highest quality service at the cheapest price. Recall that during President Carter's last year in office in 1980 what was called the "misery index", which was defined as the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates, was about 22 percent: inflation averaged 14 percent; unemployment was 7.5 percent. Today's inflation just became 5 percent, having been between 1 and 3 percent for a decade, and unemployment is 6.1. Cox and Alm say that today's problems "will turn out to be mere footnotes in a longer-term march of progress." They add that, "Since 1982, the United States has been in recession for a mere 16 months, the present slowdown notwithstanding. Over that period, the country more than doubled its inflation-adjusted output of goods and services and created jobs for an additional 50 million workers." Things are not nearly as gloomy as the pundits say. Most of today's economic problems, whether it's energy, health care costs, financial problems, budget deficits or national debt, are caused by policies pursued by the White House and Congress. As my colleague Dr. Thomas Sowell suggested in a recent column, we don't look to arsonists to put out fires that they've created; neither should we look to Congress to solve the problems they've created. 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. Walter Williams Archives © 2006, Creators Syndicate.

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