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The intersection of faith, culture and politics
Monday, January 9, 2017

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PONDERABLE

"Intelligence once meant more than what any artificial intelligence does. It used to include sensibility, sensitivity, awareness, discernment, reason, acumen, and wit."

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Personal
My mother told me to let her die rather than let her live in a wheelchair
By Irene Sege

I was taken aback, surprised that she'd rather die than adapt, and hurt that her personal calculus devalued maximizing time with those who love her


 

Light of a Life
Nat Hentoff, journalist who wrote on jazz and civil liberties, dies at 91
By Martin Weil

Long-time JWR contributor was once described as "the only Jewish atheist pro-life libertarian hawk in America."

Personal Growth
55 simple ways to make this year your best ever
By Gary and Joy Lundberg

You may be surprised at how simple it is to have the best year of your life. Try these suggestions and reap the rewards

Wellness
What's the best fitness routine for you? Consider your personality
By Gabriella Boston

How to find the right match for long-term motivation

Consumer Intelligence
Tips for buying or selling a house in the winter
By Jonathan Fox

Several key points and approaches to help you maximize your chances of being successful over the next few months

Ess, Ess/ Eat, Eat!
The Kosher Gourmet
By Ellie Krieger

Delivering a perfect portion of portable pep, simply

[ W O R T H  1 0 0 0  W O R D S  ]

• Sean Delonas

• Lisa Benson

• Chip Bok

• John Deering

• Jerry Holbert

• Gary Varvel

• Michael Ramirez

Marilyn Penn: The Times and the Stars

Dennis Byrne: Here are some Republican plans to replace Obamacare

[ T O D A Y  I N  H I S T O R Y ]

On this day in . . .

• 1349, the Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated. It has been conclusively proven via analysis of ancient DNA from plague victims in northern and southern Europe that the pathogen responsible is the Yersinia pestis bacteria.

• 1768, in London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus

• 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.

• 1839, the French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process

• 1861, the "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War"

• 1894, New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts

• 1905, according to the Julian calendar which is used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Czarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Revolution of 1905

• 1951, United Nations headquarters in New York was officially opened

• 1968, the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface

• 1991, representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try and find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait

• 1995, in New York, the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and 11 other defendants accused of conspiring to wage holy war against the United States began. (All the defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy, except for two who reached plea agreements with the government.)

• 2002, two practitioners of that "religion of peace" stormed an Israeli army post near the Gaza Strip, killing four soldiers before being shot dead in a gun battle

• 2008, President W. Bush began a trip to the Middle East, including his first visit as president to Israel. After meeting with Palestinian leaders, Bush called for an end to Israeli "occupation that began in 1967."

• 2009, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached on abuse of power charges, including accusations that he tried to sell U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. The vote was 114-1

• 2011, North Korean officials urged South Korea to return to talks aimed at easing military tension between the countries and overcoming "distrust and confrontation."

• 2012, military experts said a buildup of Western naval forces in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea was a reaction to Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz. U.S., Russian, French and British air and naval forces moved to the Syrian and Iranian coasts

• 2014, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie fired one of his top aides, Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly, and apologized repeatedly for his staff's "stupid" behavior, insisting during a news conference that he had no idea anyone around him had engineered traffic jams as part of a political vendetta against a Democratic mayor. AND: A chemical plant spill into West Virginia's Elk River contaminated the water supply for Charleston, forcing more than 300,000 water customers in nine counties to stop using tap water.

• 2016, French Jewish leaders and the nation's prime minister, Manuel Valls, held a memorial ceremony for four people killed in a kosher market a year earlier by an attacker claiming ties to the Islamic State group

[ I N S I G H T ]

Glenn Reynolds: Fallout from humiliating the gentry libs

News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd: Fun With Pennies

Virginia Postrel: Why Americans long to live in an HGTV home

(GUTSY) Heather Mac Donald: A Window Into a Depraved Culture

Megan McArdle: How to rekindle the magic in your political union

David M. Shribman: Obama looks to his legacy: But history has a way of casting and recasting presidents in unexpected ways

Jeff Jacoby: Barack Obama's legacy of failure

Bruce Bialosky: The Three State Solution

Adam Taylor: This Kremlin leader bragged about tipping a U.S. presidential election

Leonid Bershidsky: US intelligence got the wrong cyber bear

Bernard Goldberg: How Should the Media Handle Trump's Many False Statements?

Chris Cillizza: GOPers can credit Harry Reid for Donald Trump's very conservative Cabinet

Jean-Marie Guehenno: 10 conflicts to watch in 2017

Debra J. Saunders: Question: What's a Good Question?

Alicia Colon: Who's really behind the Russian Hacking Controversy?

George Will: The naive presumption in the oxymoronic existence of 'the community of nations' led to some of Obama's most destructive actions

• Dry Bones by Ya'akov Kirschen

• Mallard Filmore