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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
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February 6, 2012
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Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
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January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
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January 13, 2012
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Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Sept. 15, 2008
/ 15 Elul 5768
A day of remembrance, in spite of it all
By
Kathryn Lopez
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks came abruptly. Most of the political world had just returned from the conventions in Denver and the Twin Cities. In the immediate hours leading up to that day, we had all succumbed to talk of lipstick and pigs.
In case you live in a cave in Afghanistan (in which case, maybe you don't want to know or I shouldn't be telling you), Barack Obama, during a campaign event on Sept. 9, said, "You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig." The crowd pretty clearly took the words as a swipe at the Republican ticket, harkening back to Sarah Palin's comment in her vice-presidential acceptance speech that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick.
Although I had hoped Palin's official response would consist of simply hitting the podium in the midst of applying makeup at her next campaign rally, the McCain campaign instead reacted with a juvenile ad, using footage of anchorwoman Katie Couric complaining about sexism, insinuating that Obama's use of the cliche stemmed from sexist roots.
Obama's comment was silly. The response was silly. Thank goodness we have the luxury of being silly.
Or do we?
As the lipstick was put back in its purse for a day, or at least for the morning hours of Sept. 11 when MSNBC took time off from showing Keith Olbermann rants to air footage from that day in 2001 we remembered. We remembered those who were murdered. We remembered our fellow citizens fighting at home and abroad. We remembered that three of the four candidates vying for the White House have children serving; Palin's son left for Iraq that very day.
During that week seven years ago, fellow JWR columnist Kathleen Parker wrote: "Our behavior toward one another in recent years our splintering into groups and bickering over blame now should be a source of embarrassment as well as an inspiration never to go back."
We should be embarrassed and inspired.
On one hand, it's a great thing that we can take the time to care about silly matters. As one reader e-mailed me: "I woke up this morning with a prayer of gratitude in my heart that the top story of the day was the silly 'lipstick on a pig' saga. What a blessing that we're not waking up worrying about anthrax attacks and bombs and wondering if it's safe to send our kids to school. God bless George W. Bush and our men and women in arms that have kept us safe these seven years."
True and fair enough. But we have an important decision before us. And as we get distracted by lipstick and pigs, let's remember, too, that there will be bombings and battle plans.
What worries me about Obama is not his use of hoary old sayings, but his judgment. He's running for the position of commander in chief, after all.
In his acclaimed best seller, "Dreams from My Father," he wrote: "I know, I have seen, the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi in much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago's South Side, how narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury, how easily they slip into violence and despair. I know that the response of the powerful to this disorder alternating as it does between a dull complacency and, when the disorder spills out of its proscribed confines, a steady, unthinking application of force, of longer prison sentences and more sophisticated military hardware-is inadequate to the task. I know that the hardening of lines, the embrace of fundamentalism and tribe, dooms us all."
That worries me, not because I am without compassion for hardship. There is humiliation and fury on Chicago's South Side. And there is humiliation and fury among Muslims and Catholics alike in Pakistan. But Hamas' hatred for the Jews in Israel is a specific and evil thing that does not need to be understood as much as it must be condemned and stopped.
And the men who murdered 3,000 of us on Sept. 11, 2001, hate those who live on Chicago's South Side as much as they hate the wealthy folks who work on Wall Street.
Seven years after the attacks on my city and our country, no lipstick can gloss over the truth: There is a war on. And I'm not sure Obama and his Democratic colleagues the bunch that ostracized Joe Lieberman for daring to support our troops, who have done successful work in Iraq thanks to leaders like him get it.
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