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 'Garbage man' in cells could extend life 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 Top Muslim cleric boycotts inter-faith dialogue conference attended by 'Jews' 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 Hagel, on maiden Middle East visit, arrives in Israel bearing gifts and promises 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 March 14, 2013 / 3 Nissan, 5773 The nation-building follies By A. Barton Hinkle http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In a week, America will mark the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. That colossal mistake — more than 100,000 killed in a war over nonexistent WMDs — has cost America dearly: nearly 4,500 troop fatalities, and more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Sixty billion of that sum has gone to rebuild Iraq. ("You break it, you own it," as Colin Powell famously said.) According to the final report from Stuart Bowen — the inspector general overseeing Iraqi reconstruction — much of that outlay, too, has been a colossal waste. Hundreds of projects that were started years ago now sit unfinished and abandoned. Others that have been finished hardly seem worth the cost — e.g., a $108-million waste treatment facility in Fallujah that will serve only 9,000 homes. The voluminous report is filled with details such as those concerning Anham, a defense contractor that billed the federal government $80 for a 4-inch PVC plumbing elbow — which is "5,574% more than a competitor's offer of $1.41." Small wonder, then, if audiences applaud at President Obama's frequent assertion that "it is time to focus on nation-building here at home" — to "take the money we're no longer spending at war" and use it "to rebuild America." Sounds great in theory. Just one small problem, though: America's record at domestic nation-building isn't much better. Take disaster relief. Ten months after Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, The New York Times reported that reconstruction efforts had led to "one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes, and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion ... in fraud and waste." That sum represented "nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent to date." Even worse, the GAO estimated "as much as 21 percent" of direct aid to victims "had been improperly distributed." "The blatant fraud, the audacity of the schemes, the scale of the waste — it is just breathtaking," lamented Maine Sen. Susan Collins at the time. There was more to come. By 2009, the FBI reported upwards of 1,300 people had been indicted on Katrina-related offenses — and more indictments were still rolling in. But waste, fraud and abuse are not limited to emergencies. Improper payments for Medicare alone total $60 billion a year — as much as the U.S. has shelled out in Iraqi reconstruction grants over the past decade. Even more remarkable, the $60 billion tab for improper payments is five times what the experts once predicted the entire Medicare program would cost. In 1967, forecasters expected Medicare to cost a mere $12 billion by 1990, according to Veronique de Rugy of George Mason University's Mercatus Center. The real 1990 cost was $98 billion — and today it is five times that. Such wild overruns are not at all unusual. Planners for Boston's Big Dig anticipated it would cost $2.6 billion. Final tab: more than $20 billion. The F-22 Raptor originally was budgeted at $139 million per plane. Today's total: more than $400 million per unit. In 2008, California's "bullet train" was sold to voters as a $33 billion project. Within three years the bill had reached nearly $100 billion. Doesn't anything ever come in on time and under budget? Sure. It happens. But De Rugy cites an exhaustive, 20-nation study by Danish researchers that shows nine out of 10 public projects blow past original cost estimates. And sometimes, all the taxpayers get for the voluminous sums is a giant goose egg. The Obama administration's bad bet on Solyndra will cost taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars, for instance. And that's chump change compared with the Carter administration, which sank $88 billion (almost a quarter- trillion, in today's dollars) into the ill-fated Synthetic Fuels Corporation. (History to Carter: You didn't build that.) Liberals harp on the military boondoggles, holding them up as proof of the perfidy inherent in the military-industrial complex. Conservatives gloat over social-welfare fraud, treating it as proof that the entire system is a scam to rip off hard-working taxpayers. The larger truth is more sobering: Metastasis in government programs does not obey partisan boundaries. In trying to explain what happened in Iraq, inspector-general Stuart Bowen last week said the reconstruction effort "grew to a size much larger than was ever anticipated," and "not enough was accomplished for the size of the fund expended." You could say the same about the federal government itself. Bowen's report contains excerpts from interviews with those who were involved in the reconstruction of Iraq, such as Qubad Talabani, the son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani: "You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it," Talabani says. It also quotes Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides: "Those in Iraq who developed and implemented the rebuilding program intended well, but good intentions don't always produce good results." Maybe he should put that in a memo to the president. Because the lessons learned in Iraq should lead to a greater degree of humility when Washington contemplates its next big nation-building project — whether overseas, or right here at home. 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. A. Barton Hinkle is Deputy Editor of the Editorial Pages at Richmond Times-Dispatch Comment by clicking here. Previously: • 03/12/13: Will the right come around on pot? • 03/07/13: Another U.S. dupe falls for a dictator • 02/28/13: How dare you say that here! • 02/26/13: Eating Frito-Lay chips at gunpoint • 02/20/13: Death Star petitions are just what we need • 02/13/13: ObamaCare proves law correct --- deep down you knew it would • 01/29/13: It's Time to Get Judgy About Incompetency • 01/23/13: Look who's mocking fascist fear-mongering now • 01/16/13: Only in Washington could you get away with referring to spending and tax increases as spending 'cuts' • 01/09/13: Obama begins his second term, Bush's fourth • 01/07/13: Who's Attacking the Constitution Now? • 01/03/13: Why, historically, January is the perfect time to debate the filibuster • 12/26/12: When libs devalue diversity • 12/20/12: Mark Your Calendars • 12/13/12: Gun control, ad infinitum • 12/11/12: Fracking can help fix the CO2 problem • 12/06/12: Let's open the door to lots more immigration • 12/04/12: Who's watching the kids? Just about everyone • 11/29/12: The Real Middle-Class Champion was Mocked and Opposed • 11/26/12: It's time to cut a deal on the budget • 11/20/12: The case for a carbon tax • 11/15/12: Cue the hysterics. Reports of Democracy's Death Greatly Exaggerated • 11/07/12: The $4,000 Trash Can: We need regulation, but not this much • 10/23/12: The Ballad of Islamist Rage Boy • 10/17/12: Undermining the values that enable people in poverty to escape it? Sadly, yes • 10/11/12: How Much Is This Tax Cut Gonna Cost Me, Doc? • 10/04/12: Warrantless spying skyrockets under Obama • 08/20/12: The wrong side absolutely must not win • 08/14/12: America was not built on dirt alone • 08/02/12: Libs Discover Their Inner Cheney • 07/30/12: Feds want to help you --- whether you want help or not • 07/23/12: Barack Obama, Storyteller-in-Chief • 07/23/12: Nation's worst outsourcer? You • 07/19/12: Listen up, America: You need to knuckle under • 07/12/12: Obama, Romney: As Different as Two Peas in a Pod • 07/05/12: Are teenagers big children --- or little adults? • 06/25/12: Minorities treated as mere numbers • 06/21/12: Memo to the the Little Guy: Seemingly innocuous activity could bring the federal hammer down out of a clear blue sky • 06/19/12: We mustn't let America be buffaloed • 05/31/12: Drop and Give Uncle Sam 20 • 05/15/12: The feds would like to know if you enjoyed that video • 05/03/12: Obama inspires: 'America --- Still Not as Bad Off as Venezuela!' • 04/26/12: It's everyone's favorite time of year again • 03/29/12: GOP disillusionment is a good thing • 03/27/12: Just what America needs: more red tape • 03/20/12: Nation wondering: what happening to language? • 02/21/12: Culture warriors resort to propaganda • 02/15/12: Step away from that cookie and grab some air • 02/08/12: Lessons in heresy • 02/01/12: Do We Really Need Pickle-Flavored Potato Chips? • 01/11/12: Shut up, they explained • 12/30/11: A Modest Proposal: Let's Ban All Sports! • 12/26/11: A Christmas letter from the Obamas • 02/24/11: Will the next Watson need us? • 12/24/10: Here Are Some Good Gifts for People You Hate • 06/15/10: The Presinator • 05/26/10: More than equal • 04/08/10: Angry Right Takes a Page From Angry Left but guess who is ‘ugly’? • 02/16/10: Either Obama owes George W. Bush an apology, or he owes the rest of us a very good explanation for his about-face on wiretapping • 02/03/10: Talkin' to us 'tards • 01/27/10: I never thought I'd see the day when progressives would howl in ragebecause the Supreme Court said government should not ban books • 01/07/10: Gun-Control Advocates Play Fast and Loose • 12/31/09: Nearly everything progressives say about neoconservative interventionism abroad applies to their own preferred policies at home © 2011, A. Barton Hinkle

Arnold Ahlert  Mitch Albom  Jay Ambrose  Michael Barone  Barrywood  Lori Borgman  Stratfor Briefing  Mona Charen  Linda Chavez  Richard Z. Chesnoff  Ann Coulter  Greg Crosby  Larry Elder  Suzanne Fields  Christine Flowers  Frank J. Gaffney  Bernie Goldberg  Jonah Goldberg  Julia Gorin  Jonathan Gurwitz  Paul Greenberg  Argus Hamilton  Victor Davis Hanson  Betsy Hart  Ron Hart  Nat Hentoff  A. Barton Hinkle  Jeff Jacoby  Paul Johnson  Jack Kelly  Ch. Krauthammer  David Limbaugh  Kathryn Lopez  Rich Lowry  Michelle Malkin  Jackie Mason  Ann McFeatters  Dale McFeatters  Dana Milbank  Jeanne Moos  Dick Morris  Jim Mullen  Deroy Murdock  Judge A. Napolitano  Bill O'Reilly  Clarence Page  Kathleen Parker  Star Parker  Dennis Prager  Wesley Pruden  Tom Purcell  Sharon Randall  Robert Robb  Cokie & Steve Roberts  Heather Robinson  Debra J. Saunders  Martin Schram  Greg Schwem  Culture Shlock  David Shribman  Roger Simon  Lenore Skenazy  Michael Smerconish  Thomas Sowell  Ben Stein  Mark Steyn  John Stossel  Cal Thomas  Dan Thomasson  Bob Tyrrell  Diana West  Dave Weinbaum  George Will  Walter Williams  Byron York  ZeitGeist  Mort Zuckerman  Robert Arial  Chuck Asay  Baloo   Lisa Benson  Chip Bok  Dry Bones  John Branch  John Cole  J. D. Crowe  Matt Davies  John Deering  Brian Duffy  Everything's Relative  Mallard Fillmore  Glenn Foden  Jake Fuller  Bob Gorrel  Walt Handelsman  Joe Heller  David Hitch  Jerry Holbert  David Horsey  Lee Judge  Steve Kelley  Jeff Koterba  Dick Locher  Chan Lowe  Jimmy Margulies  Jack Ohman  Michael Ramirez  Rob Rogers  Drew Sheneman  Kevin Siers  Jeff Stahler  Scott Stantis  Danna Summers  Gary Varvel  Kirk Walters   Dan Wasserman  Tech Q&A  Mr. Know-It-All  Ask Doctor K  Richard Lederer  Frugal Living  On Nutrition  Bookmark These  Bruce Williams