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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

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

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

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 Sep. 21, 2005 / 17 Elul, 5765

Spaced out

By Michael Graham


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Imagine what FEMA would be like if it had a $100-billion budget, really cool uniforms and the power to blow things up on national television. Congratulations—you just invented NASA.

NASA is FEMA with rockets. Who in the world would want to give them $104 billion?

The answer, as usual, is George W. Bush. This guy is like a lottery winner on a bender—he can't give away money fast enough. Unfortunately, it's not his money. It's ours.

When he's not spending $200 billion of our dough to transform the Middle East (good idea) or dumping another $200 billion to eradicate poverty from the Gulf Coast (yeah, right), he's digging into taxpayers' pockets for $104 billion for the geniuses who run America's space program (are you out of your tiny little mind?)

NASA, in its proud tradition of pressing toward ever-new frontiers, has come up with a new American mission for a new American century, a far-flung vision of a future beyond imagination. Give us $104 billion, says NASA administrator Michael Griffin, and we will boldly go where no man has gone before….the MOON! And it will only take us 13 years to get there!

If this was a movie, somebody on the set would be shouting "Get me re-write!"

Maybe the pocket-protector crowd at Houston Control are too busy to get to the multiplex themselves, but they need to put The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 on their Netflix home page. Going to the moon is so passe', we've even made a hit movie about not getting there.

When President Kennedy committed America to "achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth," the reasons were clear: to do something great that would reflect the greatness of our nation, and to kick the commies right in the technocrats. We got there first because we're the best.

In the heat of the Cold War, that NASA mission made sense.

So why are we going back to the moon today? Well, according to NASA, one reason is to "scour the moon for water, hydrogen and ice" that could be used on a future mission to Mars. That's right: $100 billion to look for water. On the moon.

The irony of that argument will not be lost on the folks of New Orleans, who might suggest that a more productive search for water could be conducted in their second-story apartments.

Look, I'm no scientist. And normally I'd be the first to say, "Hey, who am I to question these scientists?" But we're not talking about scientists. We're talking about government employees.

We're talking about NASA, where they accidentally slammed a Mars explorer into the surface of the Red Planet because they forgot to convert kilometers into miles. We're talking about bright boys who sent up the $100 million Hubble telescope fitted with a defective lens (oops!), performed an amazing repair mission that has turned Hubble into a national treasure (hooray!) but now that it's doing amazing science, want to abandon it in space (D'oh!).

And we should never forget that these are the government employees responsible for wasting the lives of 14 brave astronauts, all killed in service to one of the dumbest, most inefficient and scientifically-useless boondoggles in world history, the space shuttle program. Not a single scientifically-significant act has been performed on the shuttle that could not have been done more cheaply and safely using an unmanned vehicle In fact, NASA's handing of the space shuttle has been so inept that, in July of this year, the entire program was grounded…while the shuttle Discovery was still in space.

Houston, we really have a problem…

So let's get to the real reason why the shuttle program is still around, and the real reason we're going to blow $104 billion over the next 13 years to go back to the moon: government jobs.

When asked if America should set aside space exploration for the moment because of budget pressures from the Katrina disaster, NASA administrator Griffin quickly pointed out that many of government jobs created by the space program are in the Gulf region.

And there it is. NASA's manned-space program is a huge government-jobs scam that takes billions of dollars from taxpayers and gives back the occasional video of astronauts listening to rock music on the space shuttle, an insignificant bit of scientific research and, all too often, dead people. Couldn't we just put everyone at NASA on welfare? It would cost less and nobody would get hurt.

Meanwhile, hasn't anyone at NASA noticed that, even assuming everything goes right with the new moon mission, we're still going backwards? They want to go to the moon in 13 years. The first time we went, it only took us 10, and we'd never done it before!

Then again, math has never been NASA's strong suit. For example, there have been 114 shuttle flights, and two of them have blown up. However, NASA claims that the existing failure rate of the space shuttle program is just 1-in-220.

114 flights. Two failures. Do the math.

Unless you work for NASA, in which case you should ask someone to do the math for you.

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.

JWR contributor Michael Graham is a talk show host and author of the highly acclaimed "Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won the War." Listen to "Michael Graham, Unleashed" weekdays at www.rightalk.com. To comment, please click here.



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