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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 Sept. 15, 2009 / 26 Elul 5769

‘Here, the people rule’

By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | On the CBS "60 Minutes" Sunday night, President Obama tried to allay concerns that his headlong rush to get a health care bill enacted defies the time-tested axiom that haste-makes-waste: "I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it."


The comment may have been intended as just a colloquial way of describing the responsibility that the chief executive will have for making the new health system work. Against the backdrop of myriad other aspects of this presidency, however, a more literal - and worrying - interpretation seems in order.


Mr. Obama's remark prompted a pointed response by Weekly Standard editor William Kristol on the magazine's website: "No, Mr. President. It's not about you. If legislation passes, you don't own it. We all own it. Any health care bill will become part of the U.S. Code, not simply an item on the Obama White House web site. We will all feel its effects. We are all responsible for the future of our country. Here the people rule."


With those four words - "Here the people rule" - Mr. Kristol has identified what's most grievously wrong with President Obama's agenda. In myriad ways, some great, some small, the new administration seems increasingly to be supplanting the nation's fundamental constitutional arrangements and the institutions built upon them. The trajectory is unmistakably in the direction of certain people ruling, specifically the President.


Reduced to their essence, the endangered order can be defined as a government of, by and for all the people, one rooted in the principle that power must be exercised, pursuant to the rule of law, in representative and accountable ways. Thanks to these constitutional arrangements and institutions, the people's rule here has been assured for over two hundred years.


In the place of such quintessentially American principles and practices, however, we increasingly confront power over our economy and society being concentrated in the hands of faceless federal bureaucracies and - worse yet - those of appointed and generally unvetted "czars." [The more we learn about some of the latter, like the erstwhile "Green Jobs" czar (or, more aptly, "commissar") Van Jones, the more unsettling such a concentration of power becomes.]


The checks and balances on the executive built by the framers into the co-equal legislative branch have withered, particularly when the same political party controls both the White House and both chambers on Capitol Hill. Legislation is now routinely adopted without careful deliberation, let alone real debate. With increasing frequency, votes are taken without an opportunity afforded to lawmakers even to read the massive bills they are asked to approve. The only way one of the most controversial proposals ever considered by any Congress, namely Mr. Obama's "reform" of health care, will be approved is if the Senate disregards its own traditions and rules designed to protect the rights of the minority.


Perhaps even more worrying is the embrace by Team Obama of a still-greater affront to American sovereignty and self-governance: transnationalism. The notion that laws, regulations and rulings promulgated by foreign bureaucracies, organizations and courts should be considered to have equal standing, if not more, than those produced pursuant to the U.S. Constitution and Code further undermines the latter. Mr. Obama has begun to populate the executive and judicial branches with transnationalists like Harold Koh, Eric Holder and Sonya Sotomayor, making it increasingly probable that those unrepresentative of and unaccountable to Americans will be exercising ever-greater influence over our lives and fortunes.


Mr. Obama's characterization that he will "own" the "reformed" health care system speaks to another, more intangible but increasingly vexing factor in his presidency: the practice known in totalitarian systems as the "cult of personality" whereby, as Wikipedia puts it, "a country's leader uses mass media to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise."


To be sure, all American presidents are the subject of intense press attention and public interest. Still, the extent to which the incumbent has received, with few exceptions, decidedly and sustained favorable treatment from the mass media is unprecedented. The effect is compounded by, for example, the phenomenon of what amount to Obama shrines in every airport bookstore, magazine racks full of periodicals with covers featuring one or more members of the First Family and Pepsi ads imitating the president's campaign posters and themes.


Perhaps the most dramatic example of the upending of the traditional relationship between Americans and their government is captured in the video released earlier this year that featured dozens of Hollywood celebrities led by actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. The participants urge us to join them as they "pledge to be a servant to our President and to all mankind."


Now, this can be chalked up to nothing more than ditsy folks in Tinsel Town enthusing about the arrival of an administration that shares their politics and deserves their unalloyed support. Still, the notion that these prominent figures are popularizing - namely, that the relationship between the President and the public should be one of the ruler and his servants - is wholly incompatible with the American Constitution and system of government it prescribes.


Worse yet, it seems consistent with the aforementioned affronts to the principle that "Here the people rule." If this pattern persists, the thousands of our disaffected countrymen and women who descended on Washington last week will be but a small foretaste of a rising determination to restore government truly of, by and for the people.


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 Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the Reagan Administration, heads the Center for Security Policy. Comments by clicking here.

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