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 August 22, 2011 / 22 Menachem-Av, 5771 The Inevitable Descent From Progressivism to Nihilism By Arnold Ahlert http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines "nihilism" thusly: a) a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless; b) a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truth. Perhaps it is indelicate of me to notice, but it would seem the definition of nihilism is interchangeable with the definition of progressivism. One may quibble with the notion that progressives do not consider existence senseless and useless (as long as one ignores the wholesale abandonment of religion by large portions of the secular left), yet witnessing the British riots of last week, and the ongoing flash mob attacks perpetrated here in America, it becomes impossible to ignore the fact that the abandonment of traditional values and beliefs, coupled with the denial of any objective truth, could lead to the conclusion that existence itself is senseless. This is not to say that the thugs tearing up their own societies are dystopian philosophers. Far from it. If there is one over-riding element that links this type of mass mayhem together it is the sheer thoughtlessness of the participants. They revel in mayhem, but not out of a commitment to a worldview, or a "greater cause." From the most egregious examples of murder, muggings, burning police cars and grand larceny, to the stealing of candy and soda from a 7-11, the common theme is immediate self-gratification. Nothing more, nothing less. Being a political writer requires one to follow the news. I happen to do that by reading. This is no accident. This is only so much hysteria one can pack into the written word. The most audacious "the sky is falling!" story one reads can never compare to the trailers, the teasers, the shouting, the ominous accompanying music and every other trick — and they are tricks — used by TV and radio to roil the masses. The word "infotainment" didn't come from nowhere. Yet even when one reads, it is impossible to escape the prevailing ethos of modern media. And that ethos is overwhelmingly nihilistic. There isn't a single day that goes by without at least one story completely dedicated to the proposition that armageddon — inevitable, unavoidable armageddon — is right around the next bend in the road. And while one story does not a nihilist make, a minimum of 365 stories per year — a wildly optimistic total based on only one sky-is-falling-story per day — can erode the stoicism of even the most dedicated optimist. 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. And unless one is literally living in a cave on a hilltop, modern media is inescapable. It is almost impossible to remember a time when one could walk into a restaurant or bar and not be assaulted — and assaulted is the correct word — by not one, but several TV monitors, with the sound more often than not turned up to ear-splitting levels. In fact, one is hard-pressed to think of a single location these days, with the possible exception being houses of worship, where some TV or radio isn't hectoring the hell out of us to do, buy — or be afraid of — something. Toss in a few gazillion cell phones with media-access capabilities, and an entire generation of young (and not-so-young) people who exhibit withdrawal symptoms when their new media is taken away, and you have the makings of an entire society for whom media is as addictive as crack cocaine. And when you separate out that subset of individuals who have never known it to be any other way, add a lack of critical thinking skills courtesy of an "educational" system which couldn't care less if kids learn or not, and mix it all together with a sky-is-falling relentlessness, that society produces exactly what one would expect: A generation of "what's the point in giving a damn about anything but myself" nihilists. Which brings us to the second Merriam-Webster definition of nihilism: a) a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake, independent of any constructive program or possibility. Destruction desirable for its own sake. Hmmm. I seem to recall a presidential candidate who told his followers back in 2008 "we are five days away from completely transforming the United States of America." That, we were told, was the essence of "hope and change." More than a few Americans have figured out it was nothing more than nihilism with some media PR attached to it. And in keeping with the second definition, the person who uttered it has yet to produce a single proposal which might be construed as a "constructive program or possibility" — unless one considers vilifying one group of Americans to placate another constructive. I sure don't. But I am sure of one thing: you can't run a country when you're attached to the idea that it is fundamentally flawed. That is the essence of nihilism. That nihilism is virtually indistinguishable from progressivism? It wasn't conservatives tearing up the streets of London. Nor is it conservatives determined to inflict mob-style mayhem on America wherever the opportunity presents itself. The mobs come courtesy of a bankrupt ideology, egged on by a bankrupt media, all dedicated to the proposition that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded, moral truth is non-existent, and that destruction is desirable for its own sake. It is a philosophy whose essential attractiveness lies in the fact that it requires little more than animal instinct — as in, if it feels good do it — to embrace it. Is that ideology progressivism or nihilism? If you can spot the essential difference between the two, you're a far wiser person than I am. 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: 08/22/11: Perry Stands Firm. Obama Stands Mute 08/15/11: Give Me a Flatscreen TV, or Give Me Anarchy! 08/11/11: Resign, Mr. President 08/08/11: Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts 08/03/11: Manufactured Crises 08/01/11: Stay Healthy, America --- or else! 07/28/11: Existential Crisis, Part 2 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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