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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 Feb. 7, 2011 / 3 Adar I, 5771

Brothers Under the Skin

By Paul Greenberg




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It happens after every shocking act of violence against a public official. Or just a bitterly disputed election. Americans are told we must tone down our rhetoric. It's too wild, too provocative, and just plain dangerous.

This has been going on at least since the presidential election of 1800, which would have made the last one, in 2008, look like a model of civility. Politicians still fought duels in that supposedly golden age of civility. The country lost the greatest secretary of the treasury it ever had that way.

In a contemporary tribute to civility, Keith Olbermann is leaving his news show on MSNBC, which will come as a surprise to those who never noticed he was there. For nobody pretends MSNBC is the most watched network in the country. But he was a fixture there. A big fish in a little pond. Or rather muddy puddle.

Mr. Olbermann has been forgotten with lightning speed. Indeed, he was scarcely noticed when he was on the air -- except when he and Ann Coulter got into another catfight. Which was frequent but not very entertaining. Just a lot of mutual screeching. Lots of political commentary is like that these days.

Now if only somebody would find nice, quiet office jobs for Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, who tend to rant and rave, or at least smirk, from the other, rightward side of the political spectrum. It'd be nice if the rise of civility were a bipartisan phenomenon.

Despite their striking differences when it comes to the flashiest, most superficial of subjects, mainly politics but occasionally the larger culture, the Olbermanns, Becks and O'Reillys share a common, deadly-dull quality: a closed mind.

It's as if, in a world of ideas, they'd chosen only one kind to forever hone -- noisily, reflexively, endlessly. But at least they remain consistent: Whether liberal or conservative, they stay kneejerk liberals or kneejerk conservatives.

These polemicists of the air may generate a powerful current in American public opinion, but it's a closed circuit, lighting only one ever-sizzling bulb. Any light they shed is so confined it seldom extends beyond their own devoted fans.

This is the fate of all ideologues; they have no more contact with reality than the chained prisoners of Plato's cave, forever entranced with shadows, their vision distorted by their fixed positions.

But the analogy is scarcely fair -- to Plato's figures -- for the kneejerks of today's commentariat are scarcely prisoners; they have forged their own chains. Willfully.

In the end, these televised showmen fail the test that ought to be applied to every commentator on the passing events of passing days: Do they raise the standard of public discourse? Do they break through the bounds of conventional political commentary to rise above the battle below? Do they aspire to the level of a Burke or Tocqueville or the authors of the Federalist Papers? Or do they just mouth off?

Those founding fathers, lest we forget, were just writing for the newspapers of their time, yet they refused to pander to the lowest common denominators of public opinion. Their commentary on the ephemeral issues of their time would long outlast many of the issues themselves. We still read Madison and Hamilton today. Or at least the more discerning of us do.

Instead of pandering to public opinion, those gentlemen sought to raise its level to their own. Yes, they set a high standard for inky wretches to aspire to, but a commentator shouldn't settle for anything lower, not if he wants to retain the respect of his audience -- and his own.

Yet this much can be said for Olbermann, O'Reilly, Limbaugh and plentiful company: They do not represent their ideas, however limited, to be anything but opinion. They do not pretend to be objective. In that way, they're shining examples of fair merchandising. Unlike, say, today's New York Times, where the most effective editorial opinion may be found in the news columns. Or the "news" reports on NPR, where an honest commentator may be found entirely too honest and so have to go. (See the case of Juan Williams.)

At least the Keith Olbermanns and Bill O'Reillys are not in any way on the public dole, unlike the smoothies at NPR. Whatever criticism they merit, which is a lot, they're not doing their show on your tax dollar.

Paul Greenberg Archives

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