Feb. 8, 2013 Rabbi Berel Wein: Lofty ideals must be followed with grounded applications Clifford D. May: Letter from the West Bank Steve Rothaus: Judge OKs plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be on girl's birth certificate Gloria Goodale: States consider drone bans: Overreaction or crucial for privacy rights? Environmental Nutrition Editors: Don't buy the aloe vera juice hype Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too Erik Lacitis: Vanity plates: Some take too much license The Kosher Gourmet by Susie Middleton: Broccoflower, Carrot and Leek Ragout with Thyme, Orange and Tapenade is a delightful and satisfying melange of veggies, herbs and aromatics Feb. 6, 2013 Nara Schoenberg: The other in-law problem Frank J. Gaffney Jr. : A see-no-jihadist for the CIA Kristen Chick: Ahmadinejad visits Cairo: How sect tempers Islamist ties between Egypt, Iran Roger Simon: Ed Koch's lucky corner Heron Marquez Estrada: Robot-building sports on a roll Patrick G. Dean, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: How to restore body's ability to secrete insulin Sharon Palmer, R.D.: 3 prostate-protecting diet tips The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen 7 principles for to help you make the best soup ever in a slow cooker Feb. 4, 2013 Jonathan Tobin: Can Jewish Groups Speak Out on Hagel? David Wren: Findings of government study, released 3 days before Newtown shooting, at odds with gun-control crusaders Kristen Chick: Tahrir becomes terrifying, tainted Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon: US keeps building new highways while letting old ones crumble David G. Savage: Supreme Court to hear case on arrests, DNA Harvard Health Letters: Neck and shoulder pain? Know what it means and what to do Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D.: Eat your way to preventing age-related muscle loss The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington Baked Pears in Red Wine and Port Wine Glaze: A festive winter dessert Feb. 1, 2013 Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: Redemption Clifford D. May Home, bloody, home Christa Case Bryant andNicholas Blanford Why despite Syria's allies warning of retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, the threats are likely hollow Rick Armon, Ed Meyer and Phil Trexler Ex-police captain cleared by DNA test is freed after nearly 15 years Harvard Health Letters: Could it by your thyroid? Sharon Palmer, R.D.: When 'healthy food' isn't Sue Zeidler: Coke ad racist? Arab-American groups want to yank Super Bowl ad (INCLUDES VIDEO) The Kosher Gourmet by Nealey Dozier The secret of this soup is the garnish January 30, 2013 Allan Chernoff: Celebrating 'Back from the Dead Day' America isn't a religious country? Don't tell Superbowl fans! Mark Clayton Cybercrime takedown! Germany remembers Hitler rise to power Israel salutes U. N. --- with the one finger salute Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Get cookin' with heart-healthy fats Ballot riles Guinness World Records The Kosher Gourmet by Elizabeth Passarella Potato, Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin January 28, 2013 Nancy Youssef: And Democracy for all? Two years on, Egypt remains in state of chaos Fred Weir: Putin: West is fomenting jihadi 'blowback' Meredith Cohn: Implantable pain disk may help those with cancer Michael Craig Miller, M.D. : Ask the Harvard Experts: Are there drugs to help control binge eating? David Ovalle Use of controversial 'brain mapping' technology stymied Jane Stancill: Professor's logic class has 180,000 friends David Clark Scott Lego Racism? The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali The celebrated chef introduces us to PANZEROTTI PUGLIESI, cheese-stuffed pastry from Italy's south

Jewish World Review July 28, 2011 / 26 Tamuz, 5771 Existential Crisis, Part 2 By Arnold Ahlert http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Most Americans, rightly so, believe we are in the midst of an economic crisis. Yet $14.4 trillion of national debt and record-level deficits are not the so-called "disease" itself. They are symptoms. As I wrote last week, America is in the midst of an existential crisis. It is engendered by the one aspect of our culture which has been in permanent growth mode, irrespective of our economic ups and downs. In short, we have become some of the most self-entitled people on the planet. Perhaps it was inevitable. For most of mankind's existence, life was, as Thomas Hobbs referred to it, "nasty brutish and short." For centuries, most of peoples' lives were completely consumed finding food to eat, clothes to wear and putting a roof over one's head. Anything resembling excess or luxury was enjoyed by a miniscule percentage of the population, who used every means at their disposal to protect their privilege. If such privilege resulted in the masses living in squalor, on the brink of starvation, so be it. In 1776, a truly remarkable development occurred. A nation determined to break free of its European overlords created a document which not only determined that "all men are created equal," but one in which the "pursuit of happiness" was codified! Not just for the wealthy, or the aristocracy, but all men. And not just by any government, but one "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." And if that government abused that consent? The people had the right to "alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Thus began the greatest "experiment" in the history of mankind, an entire nation dedicated to the idea that people should pursue their dreams. In the ensuing 235 years, America leaped ahead of every nation on earth. Nations with customs and cultures dating back hundreds or thousands of years, none of which could keep pace with the kind of dynamism and unbridled hopefulness that soon became known as the American Dream. It was an over-arching attitude that carried this nation through several economic downturns, world wars and natural disasters. Even now, despite all of our current problems, we remain the world's economic powerhouse, with a Gross Domestic Product larger than the next two nations, China and Japan, combined. So what happened? Why have Americans, in ever-greater numbers, either stopped believing in the American Dream or, as a cynical 30 percent believe, it never existed in the first place? As it is contended in the opening paragraph, the answer lies beyond statistical analyses. It lies in the elimination of three words from the contention in the Declaration of Independence that our "Unalienable rights," include "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Eliminate "the pursuit of" and we arrive at the heart of the problem in modern-day America: Too many Americans believe they have an inalienable right to happiness itself. RECEIVE LIBERTY LOVING COLUMNISTS IN YOUR INBOX … FOR FREE! Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. In one sense, that is a truly remarkable achievement for any society. The argument has moved beyond disputes about the basic necessities required for life, to those required for a lifestyle. This reality is reflected in the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau report that claims as many as 1-in-7 Americans could be officially designated as "poor," even as a Heritage Foundation Report has revealed that what constitutes poverty is far removed from what most Americans imagine: "In 2005, the typical household defined as poor by the government had a car and air conditioning. For entertainment, the household had two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there were children, especially boys, in the home, the family had a game system, such as an Xbox or a PlayStation. In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences included a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker." The report concedes that there is "a range of living conditions within the poverty population," and that some people are genuinely homeless and hungry. Yet it also notes that "misunderstanding and exaggeration are commonplace" with respect to defining poverty, and such misinformation has "the potential to promote a substantial misallocation of limited resources for a government that is facing massive future deficits." Only if those resources are indeed limited. Certainly they are mathematically, but as the American left likes to point out, that is only because the rich aren't paying their "fair share." That the current trajectory of the debt would still be unsustainable if the rich were taxed at 100 percent is of little concern to those suffused with a bottomless sense of "social justice." In the age of entitlement, such justice has only one component: the transfer of wealth, irrespective of any moral examination. In this worldview, the poor are, by definition virtuous, the rich "evil." Yet once moral examination is removed from the equation, poverty becomes nothing more than the absence of material wealth. It no longer matters if one is able-bodied and irresponsible, or genuinely needy and helpless. Both groups must be cared for in equal proportions. To suggest a distinction between the two is to be "uncaring," "cold-hearted," or, when all else fails, "racist." Still, if such a sense of entitlement were limited to the lower classes it might be manageable, no matter how distasteful it is to subsidize sloth. But it is not. Middle class Americans have developed quite an appetite of their own for "free" medical care, government-subsidized retirement and a host of other programs that "someone else" should pay for. Currently that someone else is not just the rich, but entire generations of Americans who are very young--or as yet unborn. Furthermore, middle class America may not have noticed it yet, but tax increases on "millionaires and billionaires" now include people making $200 thousand per year. Anyone who thinks there's no downward pressure on that number is naive. Absent substantial reform, "rich" people making substantially less than that will soon be called upon to shoulder their own "fair share" of our ever-expanding entitlement society. Is that what America wants? A recent Gallup poll illuminates a rather startling reality: over three-in-ten Americans think there are "too many rich people" in the United States. Compared to what? Not enough poor people? If sanity prevailed, there would be only one logical answer as to how many rich people any society would want. For those unaddled by class-warfare rhetoric, the answer is one hundred percent. That is the essence of the American Dream. Or at least it was when Lyndon Johnson instituted the Great Society to "end poverty as we know it." Unfortunately as it is with most leftist dogma, the equality of opportunity became entangled with the equality of results. The pursuit of happiness became an entitlement to that happiness, and any discrepancy between the Haves and Have-nots was de facto evidence of an insufficiency in wealth re-distribution. One that could only be mitigated by government. Yet as it must be noted for the umpteenth time, government does not produce wealth. If it did, we would not be $14 trillion dollars in the hole, nor would Europe be on the brink of its own economic meltdown. And it is truly schizophrenic to demand ever greater contributions from the wealthy, even as 31 percent of Americans polled desire to have less of them. The existential crisis in which we find ourselves is a direct consequence of economic ignorance coupled with moral confusion. It is a competition between those on the left, who see virtue in getting as many Americans as possible on government programs, and those on the right, who see virtue in getting as many Americans as possible off those same programs. Which side owns the better argument? That is up to Americans themselves to decide. But they should keep in mind, that mathematics is an exact science. As we argue over the size and scope of our entitlement society it must be done with a full understanding that we are now the largest debtor nation in the history of the planet. Helping the needy is a noble pursuit. Helping the entitled is a fool's errand. It is the difference between being your brother's keeper and being his enabler. Without a far greater national understanding of the difference between those two terms, the pursuit of happiness will once again be as elusive as it was when people lived merely to survive. All the ostensible nobility in the world notwithstanding, we have run out of other people's money to spend. 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. Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here. Previously: 07/25/11: Three-Out-of-Four Americans Are Radicals 07/21/11: What Does Two Plus Two Equal? 07/18/11: News Nuggets 07/13/11: The ‘Write Stuff’ 07/11/11: Completely Expectable ‘Unexpectedness’ 07/07/11: Organized Cheating 07/05/11: Stimulating Disaster 06/30/11: Progressivism Masquerading as Education 06/27/11: America: Greece With Better PR 06/23/11: NBC-ya Later 06/19/11: One Man's Conversation About Race 06/10/11: An Exhibitionist in an Exhibitionist Age 06/07/11: NAACP Betrays Black American Schoolchildren 06/02/11: For the First Time in My Adult Life . . . 05/31/11: If I Were President 05/25/11: California Dreamin' 05/23/11: On Wisconsin! 05/20/11: Obama's Farewell to Israel Speech 05/16/11: ‘Krauthammering’ Amnesty 05/11/11: Bounce, My Backside 05/09/11: The Epicenter of Progressive Contempt for the Rule of Law 05/03/11: SEALing Osama's Fate 05/02/11: The Education plantation 04/24/11: The Bell May Toll for Jersey Toll Collectors 04/19/11: From Medical Dependency to Dependency on the Welfare State 04/14/11: Trumping the Debate 04/06/11: It Takes a Bigot to Expose a Death Cult 04/04/11: Charlie and Snookie --- and Barack 03/30/11: ‘Disabling’ America, One Lawsuit at a Time 03/28/11: The MSM Kills the ‘Kill Team’ Story 03/23/11: Another Military Scandal 03/21/11: Barry, Joe, Helen and Wisconsin Teachers 03/16/11: The Inevitable Viability of Conservatism 03/14/11: Progressives in Their Own Words 03/09/11: $61 Billion in Cuts --- Vs. $223 Billion in One Month of Spending 03/07/11: Bean Bag B.S. 03/02/11: A ‘Green’ Catastrophe in the Making 02/28/11: Ain't Noting Like the Real Thing 02/23/11: Progressive Rot vs. the ROTC 02/21/11: Wisconsin: Progressivism in All its Ugly Glory 02/18/11: News reporters --- or Narrative Shapers? 02/16/11: The Presidents Budget Proposal: An Obamination of Progressive Profligacy 02/14/11: Only Another 9/11 Will Alter the Illegal Immigration Status Quo 02/10/11: Is O'Reilly losing his touch or is he just irresponsible? 02/07/11: Tossing Britain Under the Bus 02/03/11: Starving the World In Order to Save It 01/31/11: Walking the Middle East Tightrope 01/27/11: Small-scale Terrorist Attacks: Big Strategy? 01/24/11: Jeffery Immelt: A Crony Capitalist In Charge of Job Creation 01/20/11: An ‘Intimate’ Prime-time Interview 01/17/11: Progressives: Always Angry, Newly Desperate 01/12/11: Twain vs. the Totalitarians 01/10/11: Politically Correct Passports? 01/05/11: Showdown at the Fiscal Corral 01/03/11: Reading the Constitution Aloud is a Good Start 12/30/10: Getting Our Moral Mojo Back 12/27/10: PC Airport Safety is an Oxymoron 12/23/10: Getting America Back On Track 12/20/10: A Collectivist Coalition of Convenience 12/15/10: The President Who Wasn't There 12/13/10: Tech-No! 12/08/10: A Lethal Military, Inclusive or Not 12/06/10: The ‘Unexpected’ Consequences of Progressivism 12/01/10: Leakers and Losers 11/29/10: ‘We Won’, Part One 11/22/10: Keep Your Hands Off My Constitution 11/17/10: Grope and Change 11/14/10: Taking Back Our Country, One School At a Time 11/11/10: Checks (and Balances), Please 11/08/10: Curtain Up, Progressives Down 11/04/10: Last Chance, Republicans 11/01/10: By Their Own Words Shall Ye Know Them 10/28/10: Progressive Determination to Undermine American Elections 10/25/10: Shock, but more importantly, action: De-Unionize Public Schools now 10/20/10: Multiculturalism? Check, Please 10/18/10: Healthcare: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ vs. The Constitution 10/11/10: Vote for Restoring the Rule of Law in November 10/11/10: Dems: Running From Clarity 10/07/10: Hypersensitive Hogwash 10/04/10: ‘Comprehensive’ Con Artists 09/29/10: Why Dems Are Going Down in November 09/27/10: The Unholiest of Unholy Alliances 09/22/10: Two Words for Republicans to Remember: ‘I Won’ 09/20/10: Purging ‘Me First’ Politicians 09/17/10: No More ‘Lesser of Two Evils’ 09/15/10: ‘Recovery’ Arms Race 09/13/10: ‘Bigots’ in the Majority --- Again? 09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For 09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills 09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists 08/31/10: A ‘Dream’ Debased 08/25/10: American ‘Bigots’ Versus Media Propagandists 08/23/10: Recovery Bummer 08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals 08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President 08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect 08/11/10: A Far Better ‘National Discussion’ 08/09/10: It's ‘Only’ One Dead Nun 08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny 08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts 08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November 07/29/10: The United Cities of America 07/26/10: JournoList: ‘Coordinated’ Ideological Bankruptcy 07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way 07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe… 07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job 07/08/10: Extortionist Government 07/06/10: ‘Commerce Clause’ Totalitarians 07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA 06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President 06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption 06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border 06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief 06/16/10: Betraying Our Children 06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt? 06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare 06/01/10: Bill Maher's ‘Black’ President 05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero 05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico 05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism 05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido 05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will! 05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak 05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty? 05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It 04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo? 04/26/10: Son of Amnesty 04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns 04/20/10: Bashing Christians — Or Gays? 04/15/10: Personal Integri-‘tea’ 04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls 04/08/10: (Tea) Party On 04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity 04/02/10: Two For the Road 03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism 03/24/10: The Art of War 03/22/10: I Want My Country Back 03/18/10: A Perpetual Process 03/17/10: American Exhibitionists 03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity 03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot 02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road 02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy 01/27/10: ‘Roe-ing and Wade-ing’ Back to Reason 01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down 01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots 01/19/10: The Next Tea Party? 01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving 01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport 01/11/10: Secrets and Lies 01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry — or Rejecting Bullying? 01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread 01/04/10: Our ‘Wonderama’ Bureaucracy 12/30/09: A Day Off 12/28/09: Dangerous Myths 12/25/09: I, Me, Mine 12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas 12/21/09: My Opinon 12/18/09: The Party of Repeal 12/15/09: Privileged Exemption 11/30/09: ‘Settled’ Science and Unsettled Children 11/30/09: American Sharia Law 11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century 11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers 11/01/09: ‘Opting Out’ of Insanity? 10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required 10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR 10/21/09: Just Asking 10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality 10/14/09: News you can use … 10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness 10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency 09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness 09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels 09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized 09/08/09: ‘Truthers’ and Consequences 09/01/09: A ‘Paper Trail’ Challenge for the Mainstream Media 08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality 08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program © 2011, Arnold Ahlert

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