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May 25, 2012
Mark Clayton: Is Hillary's State Dept. hacking Al Qaeda? Not quite
Erika Bolstad: Temple cancels Wasserman Schultz speech
The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman: The former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with contemporary Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Sweet Noodle Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread
May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
May 6, 2011 / 2 Iyar, 5771
Is This the Face of Evil?
By
Mona Charen
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Images of Osama bin Laden's mangled face will not be beamed around the world. But it's worth considering, as we think about the death of bin Laden, how his face looked in life.
It was not the face of a rabid or fulminating zealot. It was not even an angry face. On the contrary, in nearly every photograph, bin Laden bears a benign expression. There is softness to his demeanor. He was reportedly soft-spoken (if intense) with colleagues and reasonably kind, if distant, with his wives and children.
Yet he was the author of some of the greatest cruelties and crimes of the past two decades. Inspired and encouraged by him, al-Qaida murdered thousands of innocent Americans in cold blood. The memory of human beings hurling themselves to their deaths out of windows in the World Trade Center rather than die in the inferno is etched in our psyches. It was al-Qaida, possibly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed personally, who kidnapped, bound, and beheaded Daniel Pearl. It was al-Qaida, bin Laden's creation, that used a child with Down syndrome as an unwitting suicide bomber in an attack on an Iraqi polling place in 2005.
Perhaps running short on handicapped children to booby-trap, al-Qaida used mentally impaired women to sow death and mayhem in Iraq in 2008. The AP reported: "Two mentally retarded women strapped with remote-control explosives — and possibly used as unwitting homicide bombers — brought carnage Friday to two pet bazaars, killing at least 91 people..."
When mentally impaired women were not available, al-Qaida had other tactics. According to C. Christine Fair of Georgetown University, who authored a U.N. report on terrorism, al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq would rape women and then hand them off to Samira Jassim, known as the Mother of Believers. Until her arrest in 2009, her job was to convince the shattered victims that the only way to redeem their honor was to die in a suicide mission. Paul Kix in the Daily Beast reports that 28 women did so.
Political theorist Hannah Arendt ignited decades of debate when she coined the expression "the banality of evil," in reference to the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann. He wasn't extraordinary at all, she wrote, just a clerk doing his superior's bidding without question.
But what of Hitler himself? There, if anywhere, was a face that personified evil, contorted as it so often was by rage. But his secretary remembered him as thoughtful and kind — he was solicitous about her health, for example. It took years for her to come to terms with his fathomless evil — and her own complicity.
None of the great monsters of the past hundred years — Lenin, Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot — thought of themselves as evil. On the contrary, even when exhorting their followers to the worst extremes of human degradation, they did so in the name of a higher good. Hitler was purging the world of a dire threat, untermenschen (Jews, Gypsies, the mentally impaired, homosexuals, and Slavs), in order to usher in a golden age, the "thousand-year Reich." Even in the very last moments of his life, Hitler pointed to his war against the Jews as his greatest achievement. He was proud of the Holocaust.
The communists allowed as how in order to make an omelet, you had to break some eggs. In order to build the perfect society with universal prosperity and complete equality, some harsh measures would be necessary in the short term. But it was for a greater good. The brave dissident, Vladimir Bukovsky, noted mordantly that he had seen many broken eggs, but no one had ever tasted the omelet. One of Stalin's henchmen recorded, "Our great goal was the universal triumph of communism, and for the sake of that goal everything was permissible ... to destroy hundreds of thousands or even millions of people ... and to hesitate or doubt about all this was to give in to 'intellectual squeamishness' and 'stupid liberalism.'" One hundred million people in the 20th century were sacrificed to that particular ideal.
Robert Heinlein said that "Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal." Some are. Certainly those who commit tremendous crimes nearly always do so armed with elaborate self-justifications.
The unifying theme for the great killers is to dehumanize their victims first. Stalin targeted "kulaks," and "counterrevolutionaries." Hitler despised "Jewish vermin." Pol Pot loathed and derided "cosmopolitans." The soft-spoken bin Laden, his quiet style notwithstanding, denied the humanity of his victims with the word "infidel."
You cannot reliably detect evil in a face. But the attempt to dehumanize is always the precursor of dark crimes.
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Mona Charen Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
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