March 19, 2010 Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes) Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel March 18, 2010 Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America? JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes) Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum March 17, 2010 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth? March 16, 2010 Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes) Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel March 15, 2010 The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes) Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT March 12, 2010 Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes) Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades March 11, 2010 Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes) The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing March 10, 2010 Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE) Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S. March 9, 2010 Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES) David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral March 8, 2010 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss? JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES) Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion March 5, 2010 Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES) Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause March 4, 2010 Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses? JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES) Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative March 3, 2010 Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: NEVER!!! JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES) The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub March 2, 2010 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo? March 1, 2010 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Lender responsibility JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES) Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute Feb. 26, 2010 Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES) Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost Feb. 25, 2010 The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES) Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives Feb. 24, 2010 Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’ Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack Feb. 23, 2010 Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No! JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES) Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes Feb. 22, 2010 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically? JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES) Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk Feb. 19, 2010 Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us? JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES) Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State Feb. 18, 2010 Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain? JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES) Everything's Relative By Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel : The altruist in hell Feb. 17, 2010 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Entitlement Vs. Charity JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES) Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah Feb. 16, 2010 Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES) Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief Feb. 15, 2010 Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES) Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review December 29, 2008 / 2 Teves 5769 The pedophile Santa of global capitalism By Mark Steyn http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I was at the mall two days before Christmas, and it was strangely quiet. So quiet that, sadly, I was able to hear every word of Kelly Clarkson bellowing over the sound system "My Grown-Up Christmas List." Don't get me wrong — I love seasonal songs. "Winter Wonderland" — I dig it. "Rudolph" — man, he's cool, albeit not as literally as Frosty. But "Grown-Up Christmas List" is one of those overwrought ballads of melismatic bombast made for the "American Idol" crowd. It's all about how the singer now eschews asking Santa for materialist goodies — beribboned trinkets and gaudy novelties — in favor of selfless grown-up stuff like world peace. Which is an odd sentiment to hear at a shopping mall. But it seems to have done the trick. "Retail Sales Plummet," read the Christmas headline in The Wall Street Journal. "Sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending." Hey, that's great news, isn't it? After all, everyone knows Americans consume too much. What was it that then Sen. Obama said on the subject? "We can't just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world's resources with just 4 percent of the world's population, and expect the rest of the world to say, 'You just go ahead, we'll be fine.'" And boy, we took the great man's words to heart. SUV sales have nose-dived, and 72 is no longer your home's thermostat setting but its current value expressed as a percentage of what you paid for it. If I understand then Sen. Obama's logic, in a just world Americans would be 4 percent of the population and consume 4 percent of the world's resources. And in these past few months we've made an excellent start toward that blessed utopia: Americans are driving smaller cars, buying smaller homes, giving smaller Christmas presents. And yet, strangely, President-elect Barack Obama doesn't seem terribly happy about the Obamafication of the U.S. economy. He's proposing some 5.7 bazillion dollar "stimulus" package or whatever it is now to "stimulate" it back into its bad old ways. And how does the rest of the world, of whose tender sensibilities then-Sen. Obama was so mindful, feel about the collapse of American consumer excess? They're aghast, they're terrified, they're on a one-way express elevator down the abyss with no hope of putting on the brakes unless the global economy can restore aggregate demand. What does all that mumbo-jumbo about "aggregate demand" mean? Well, that's a fancy term for you — yes, you, Joe Lardbutt, the bloated, disgusting embodiment of American excess, driving around in your Chevy Behemoth, getting two blocks to the gallon as you shear the roof off the drive-thru lane to pick up your $7.93 decaf gingersnap-mocha-pepperoni-zebra mussel frappuccino, which makes for a wonderful thirst-quencher after you've been working up a sweat watching the plasma TV in your rec room with the thermostat set to 87. The message from the European political class couldn't be more straightforward: If you crass, vulgar Americans don't ramp up the demand, we're kaput. Unless you get back to previous levels of planet-devastating consumption, the planet is screwed. "Much of the load will fall on the U.S.," wrote Martin Wolf in The Financial Times, "largely because the Europeans, Japanese and even the Chinese are too inert, too complacent, or too weak." The European Union has 500 million people, compared with America's 300 million. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are advanced economies whose combined population adds up to that of the United States. Many EU members have enjoyed for decades the enlightened progressive policies that Americans won't be getting until Jan. 20. Why then are they so "inert" that their economic fortunes depend on the despised, moronic Yanks? Ah, well. To return to Kelly Clarkson — and Barbra Streisand and Michael Buble and Amy Grant — the striking thing about their "Grown-Up Christmas List" is how childish it is. The vocalist tells Santa that what she wants for Christmas is: "No more lives torn apart, That wars would never start…" Whether wars start depends on the intended target's ability to deter. As to "lives torn apart," that, too, is a matter of being on the receiving end. If you're in an African dictatorship, your life can be torn apart. If you're in a society that values individual liberty, you'll at least get a shot at tearing your own life apart — you'll make bad choices, marry a ne'er-do-well, blow your savings, lose your job — but these are ultimately within your power to correct. The passivity of the lyric — the "lives" that get "torn apart" is very revealing. A state in which lives aren't torn apart will be, by definition, totalitarian: As in "The Stepford Wives" or "The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers," we'll all be wandering around in glassy-eyed conformity. "Lives" will no longer be "torn apart" because they're no longer lives, but simply the husks of a centrally controlled tyranny. To live is messy but liberating: free societies enable the citizenry to fulfill their potential — to innovate, to create, to accumulate — while recognizing that some of their number will fail. But to attempt to insulate free peoples from moral hazard is debilitating and ultimately fatal. To Martin Wolf's list of a Europe "too inert, too complacent, too weak," we might add "too old": Healthy societies recharge their batteries by the aged and wealthy lending their savings to the young and eager. But Germany is a population of prosperous seniors with no grandchildren to lend to. Japan is a society of great invention with insufficient youth to provide a domestic market. That's why if you're Sony or IKEA or any other great global brand, you want access to America for your product. That's why economic recovery will be driven by the U.S., and not by euro-Japanese entities long marinated in Obamanomics. One final thought on "My Grown-Up Christmas List". The first two lines always give me a chuckle: "Do you remember me? I sat upon your knee…" When was the last time you saw a child sit upon a Santa's knee? Rod Liddle in the British Spectator reports that at a top London department store Santa sits at one end of the bench while a large "X" directs the moppet to a place down the other end, well out of arm's reach. For even Santa Claus is just another pedophile in waiting. Naughty or nice? Who really knows? Best not to take any chances. That's another way societies seize up — by obsessing on phantom threats rather than real ones. Are free peoples now merely vulnerable infants in need of protection from the pedophile Santa of global capitalism? This is the issue that will determine the future: Euro-style state-directed protectionist sclerosis versus individual liberty in all its messiness. I know what I want on my "Grown-Up Christmas List." 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. JWR contributor Mark Steyn is a syndicated columnist. Comment by clicking here. • ARCHIVES STEYN'S LATEST "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It"   It's the end of the world as we know it…      Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are.      And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"—while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.      If you think this can't happen, you haven't been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn—the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world—shows to devastating effect in this, his first and eagerly awaited new book on American and global politics.      The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West—wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion—is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization.      Europe, laments Steyn, is almost certainly a goner. The future, if the West has one, belongs to America alone—with maybe its cousins in brave Australia. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope.      Steyn argues that, contra the liberal cultural relativists, America should proclaim the obvious: we do have a better government, religion, and culture than our enemies, and we should spread America's influence around the world—for our own sake as well as theirs.      Mark Steyn's America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny—but it will also change the way you look at the world. It is sure to be the most talked-about book of the year. Sales help fund JWR. © 2007, Mark Steyn

Arnold Ahlert  Mitch Albom  Michael Barone   Dave Barry  Tony Blankley  Andy Borowitz  David Broder  Stratfor Briefing  Mona Charen  Linda Chavez  Ann Coulter  Greg Crosby  Larry Elder  Suzanne Fields  John Fund  Frank J. Gaffney  Lloyd Garver  Jonah Goldberg  Julia Gorin  Jonathan Gurwitz  Paul Greenberg  Lewis Grossberger  Victor Davis Hanson  Froma Harrop  Betsy Hart  Nat Hentoff  David Horowitz  Laura Ingraham  Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby  Paul Johnson  Jack Kelly  Ed Koch  Ch. Krauthammer  Michael Ledeen  John Leo  David Limbaugh  Kathryn Lopez  Rich Lowry  Michelle Malkin  Jackie Mason  Dick Morris  Bill O'Reilly  Jim Mullen  Clarence Page  Kathleen Parker  Dennis Prager  Wesley Pruden  Tom Purcell  Jonathan Rauch  Celia Rivenbark  Robert Robb  Cokie & Steve Roberts  Pat Sajak  Debra J. Saunders  Culture Shlock  Roger Simon  Michael Smerconish  Thomas Sowell  Mark Steyn  John Stossel  Cal Thomas  Bob Tyrrell  Diana West  Dave Weinbaum  George Will  Walter Williams  Byron York  Mort Zuckerman  Robert Arial  Chuck Asay  Baloo  Chip Bok  Dry Bones   Lisa Benson  John Branch  Gary Brookins  John Cole  J. D. Crowe  John Deering  Brian Duffy  Everything's Relative  Mallard Fillmore  Jake Fuller  Bob Gorrel  Joe Heller  David Hitch  Jerry Holber  Steve Kelley  Jeff Koterba  Dick Locher  Chan Lowe  Ranan R. Lurie  Jimmy Margulies  Rick McKee  Michael Ramirez  Kevin Siers  Jeff Stahler  Ed Stein  Danna Summers  John Trever  Gary Varvel  Kirk Walters  How 2  Lori Borgman  Elder matters  Fixit  Dr. Peter Gott  GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko  Richard Lederer  Tech Maven  Every Monday Matters  Nutrition Myths  Bookmark These  Bruce Williams  How Stuff Works