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February 10, 2012
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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)
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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
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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
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Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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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
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Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
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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
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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
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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
Dec. 8, 2008
/ 11 Kislev 5769
This time he didn't get away
By
Mitch Albom
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The first time, O.J. Simpson never spoke.
This time, he spoke, but no one listened.
This time, he hemmed and he hawed. He pleaded, in a tired, scratchy voice in a Las Vegas courtroom, that "in no way did I mean to hurt anybody." He said the men in that hotel room had "eaten in my home ... I sung to their mothers when they were sick."
He even said the words people had been desperate to hear many years ago. "I'm sorry ... I'm sorry for all of it."
He implored. He apologized. He talked, non-stop, for just under five minutes.
And then the judge put him away.
Nine years in prison, minimum, which means he'd be 70 when he got out. Not only a dead man walking, but an old one, too.
Because let's face it. In the 13 years between Simpson's first courtroom verdict and this most recent one, he died before our eyes. He became a national zombie. He looked hollow. His eyes were ringed and red. His mouth was usually tight-lipped and drawn. He tried to project a free man's image, walking a golf course, wearing a cap, but when the cameras caught him smiling, it seemed a skeleton smile, creepy, forced, the look, most of us suspected, of a guy who knew he got away with murder.
On Friday, he didn't get away.
He was put away.
And the strange thing is, most people don't even know what he did.
THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY
This was not the case in 1994 and 1995. Back then, it was hard to find an American who didn't know about the eyeglasses, the blood in the car, the gloves that didn't fit, the limo driver. The names Kato Kaelin and Lance Ito and Johnnie Cochran were as well known to us as our neighbors'.
That was a murder case. A family nightmare. A racial battlefield. And when his verdict came in not guilty! it set off a national earthquake. O.J. was a symbol of who we were as a society, how skin color separated us, how justice was perceived differently, how class and fame were still stones on the scales of justice. Simpson was the biggest news of the year.
But years pass. We have different symbols of who we are today, "For Sale" signs. Busted bank accounts. We're out of work. We're struggling. Nobody cares much if a once-great football player goes to jail, stays in jail or gets out of jail.
For the record, what Simpson did this time was storm into a hotel room with some thuggish buddies and threaten men who had his memorabilia. Guns were brandished. The memorabilia was seized.
And that was pretty much it. No one was killed. Blood was not an issue. The word "kidnapping" was part of the charges, but no one was kidnapped the way we usually think of that word.
"The potential for harm to occur in that room was tremendous," the judge said in the televised sentencing.
The potential for harm? O.J. Simpson, who escaped prison when two people were stabbed to death, now goes behind bars for the damage he could have caused.
FROM FAME TO PRISON
And that puts a stamp on what many figured was a foregone conclusion: that Simpson would wind up in a prison cell one day.
It's hard to remember that this guy was once a Tiger Woods before there was a Tiger Woods: a handsome, gifted athlete who cut across race. He acted in movies, did broadcasting work and filmed Hertz commercials.
That guy died a long time ago. This guy has just been renting his body. Now that body goes behind bars for the rest of this decade and beyond barring any appeals.
They say Simpson was convicted not because of this crime but because of the one he evaded 13 years ago. I say they are one and the same. A guiltless O.J. Simpson doesn't lose his house and money and memorabilia. A guiltless O.J. Simpson doesn't become so enraged over a stupid dispute that he gets a posse of gunmen to play tough guy.
"I wasn't there to hurt anybody," he said Friday. He might have said it in 1995. But he didn't talk then. He talked now. He goes away now, for at least nine years. But he hasn't really been here, among the living, for a long time.
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