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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 Dec. 5, 2011 / 9 Kislev, 5772

Sometimes paranoia is common sense by another name

By Dale McFeatters




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Washington, D.C., is a city of holes in the ground. They're constantly being dug, and it's not easy as its residents found when they built the subway system.

Half the city is reclaimed swamp, and it tends to revert to such in a heavy rain, and the other half of it is the hard rock of the piedmont. If you need a hole in Washington, you've really got to want it. The capital doesn't do casual excavation.

Because of strict height limitations having to do with the Washington Monument, the buildings tend to be boxy, bland and boring to maximize their interior space. One day you'll walk past a building as you've done a hundred times, and suddenly it's been replaced by a large hole in the ground.

Soon a new trade association headquarters or a glossy lair for lobbying firms and law firms -- the two tend to run together -- will appear in a bland, boring boxy building, although this time much tarted up with fancy stone and metal facing.

Many defense agencies are being moved outside the District of Columbia, both for security considerations and a perverse desire to see how much really worse we can make the slowest traffic and most time consuming commutes in the nation. We're nothing if not competitive.

The construction companies thoughtfully cut large viewing openings in the fencing surrounding their sites. This is a white-collar city so at lunch hour there is intense fascination with men in hard hats, flannel shirts and tool belts who are actually building something and not dreaming up creative ways of telling a powerful member of Congress that the largest employer in his district cannot dump cyanide and sulfuric acid into the local rivers even though the firm has commissioned a study that says that highly toxic substances are actually good for children.

However, when the standard issue Washingtonian can't see what's going on a level of paranoia sets in. A few years ago, the government set out to renovate Lafayette Square in front of the White House. Lafayette Square is dominated by a statue, not of Lafayette, but of Andrew Jackson. A casual passerby might think it's actually Jackson Square, much the way the Soviets used to intentionally mislabel their maps.

The work took a year or more, far longer than just relaying some sod, planting a few shrubs and repairing the sidewalks should have taken. I'm still not convinced that there isn't some kind of huge underground complex there -- the second Bush administration actually proposed moving the White House press corps to an underground bunker in the far northwestern corner of the park -- and that the four groups of statues aren't actually watching people. The partially clad woman with a sword is especially suspicious.

Now there is massive skepticism about a huge hole being dug outside the Oval Office. The official explanation is routine "upgrades and replacement" of electrical, cooling, heating and alarm systems. Sure it is. It's just taking a long time. And then they're going to do the same thing on the other side of the White House.

They've already expanded the basement Situation Room (it was named that before "Jersey Shore" took off) by 5,000 square feet, not an undue amount of space for the situations in which we somehow find ourselves. And there's a new nuclear bomb shelter under the East Wing, the first lady's side of the building.

The mystery of why Washington is burrowing into the ground was given a new perspective this week when a group of Georgetown University students for a class project documented a massive complex of thousands of miles of tunnels secretly dug to shelter China's nuclear weapons and their launchers.

The Chinese call it the "Great Underground Wall," perhaps tongue in cheek because the original Great Wall didn't work. The barbarians still got in. Beijing surely can't be happy that one of their most closely held secrets will soon be for sale in the university's bookstore.

However, Beijing will shortly explain that the purpose of the thousands of miles of tunnels is for routine "upgrades and replacement" of electrical, cooling, heating and alarm systems and missile launchers.

Every paranoid is right at least once.

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.

Comment by clicking here.


Previously:


12/02/11 When the U.S. truly became one nation
12/01/11 Last chance to snap up a Maybach
11/30/11 Iran wants respect without earning it
11/29/11 Surprise! ‘Spider-Man’ may weave a profitable web
11/28/11 Italians entertain novel proposition: Paying their taxes
11/25/11 No time to let up on al-Qaida
11/24/11 Congress Quietly Abolishing Friday
11/23/11 Cleaning up after supercommittee implosion
11/22/11 Jailing minors with adults adds to problems
11/21/11 Brilliant strategy? Action by inaction
11/18/11They're going to eat horses, aren't they?
11/17/11 A pretend stick shift for pretend drivers
11/16/11 Clinton's ‘vast experiences’: Did NBC pick the wrong Chelsea?
11/15/11 Occupy protesters, you've made your point. Now, scat
11/10/11 Our vets are a national problem?
11/09/11 Requiem for a once-great sport
11/08/11 A toilet as smart as its occupant
11/07/11 Prerevolutionary gems in need of TLC
11/04/11 Feds must stop scam of stealing from dead children
11/03/11 Bank listens ‘very closely’ to customer lynch mob
11/01/11 TV that's leading the people away from ‘core socialist values’
10/31/11 NATO should not be a victim of its success
10/28/11 Iran mulls getting rid of president and presidency
10/27/11 Bienvenidos a Dayton and bring your businesses with you
10/26/11 Archivists long for Obama's teleprompter
10/25/11 United Nations to run the Internet?
10/24/11 Attention, world: You've got the cash. We've got the houses
10/19/11 Oil pipeline must be in America's future
10/18/11 U.S. plans ‘limited’ mission in an Africa with no limits
10/17/11 Social Security's grave mistakes
10/12/11 NASA's help-wanted sign for astronauts
10/10/11 Saving Thomas Jefferson''s chimneys
10/06/11 Uncle Sam's answer to deadbeats --- robo-calls
10/04/11 Christie should ignore jibes on his weight
10/03/11 Iran says its warships will head for Jersey shore
09/29/11 Europeans bristle at Obama's lectures
09/28/11 Jessica Rabbit for the defense
09/27/11 Russia learns outcome of next March's presidential election
09/26/11 Another try at leaving no child behind
09/23/11 This generation needs a job more than a name
09/22/11 In the lane next to you: A driverless car
09/20/11 Cloudy, cool, chance of falling satellite
09/14/11 Humanitarian extortion
09/13/11 Paging Dr. Watson; he's there in 3 seconds
09/09/11 Forecasting 100 percent chance of heavy metal
09/08/11 A jobs program at Obama's doorstep
09/07/11 Iran's government afraid of the water
09/06/11 Congress returns, tanned, rested and testy
09/05/11 Space nations must clean up after themselves
09/02/11 Osama bin Laden died a failure and he knew it
09/01/11 Time to retire political pie in the face
08/31/11 Labor Day celebrates what, exactly?
08/30/11 These arrestees really are framed
08/25/11 When in an earthquake, block traffic
08/23/11 A case for discretion in deportation arrests
08/22/11 Tough times or not, parents shell out for school
08/18/11 Being unpleasant for fun, profit, promotion
08/17/11 Time to prepare for the end game in Libya
08/16/11: ‘Super Committee’ starts facing reality
08/15/11: World's fastest plane disappears even faster
08/12/11: British cops track rioters through security cameras
08/11/11: Relax. There is no Death Star
08/10/11: House pages run final errands
08/09/11: U.S. treading water on job creation
08/08/11: Uncle Sam, the world's permanent guest
08/05/11: Most 9/11 victims not on federal death records
08/04/11: Russian PM calls U.S. a ‘parasite.’ He should be so lucky
08/03/11: Congress goes from one bind to another
08/02/11: D.B. Cooper may no longer be a mystery
08/01/11: Libya's latest weapon against NATO --- lawsuits
07/29/11: He'll always be known as Hot Wheels Handler
07/25/11: Recruiting children to save a dying town
07/22/11: Bachmann's admirable medical candor
07/12/11: Social Security's grave mistakes
07/08/11: Debt crisis need not be constitutional crisis
07/07/11: Startups entice new talent with kickball, treehouses
07/05/11: Stranded tourists get rare treat
06/30/11: The dollar Americans refuse to spend
06/27/11: The hangman doesn't cometh





© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

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