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June 17, 2013

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein: Black to the Future: American Apparel Gets Biblical

Patrik Jonsson: Minnesota Nazi: How did Nazi hunters miss Michael Karkoc?

Kate Irby, Ali Watkins, Trevor Graff and Kevin Thibodeaux: All the ways you're being watched
Don Lee: G-8 meeting will test NSA leaks' effect on U.S. influence

Patrik Jonsson: Fort Hood shooting: Judge nixes Nidal Hasan defense strategy. What now?

Stacey Burling: Why the stigma for migraine sufferers?

The Kosher Gourmet by Lisa Abraham: Does it work? 5 new kitchen gadgets put to the test

June 14, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget: Religious economics and being a ruler

John P. Martin: Hitler insider's missing diary found

Matt Pearce: NSA surveillance disclosure could affect court cases
Peter Tinti: US bounties changes strategy on (Wild, Wild) West African jihadis

Daniel Pendrick, M.D.: Memory loss? Old age may be the least of it

Lauren F. Friedman: But it's all natural! Should we have an instinctive preference for herbal remedies?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Streisand and Alicia Keys in Israel; "Girls" Stuff; Mel Brooks, Another TV special; Superman (who is Jewish) returns --- Israeli plays his mom

The Kosher Gourmet by Sharon K. Ghag : Bored with salad? Bling it up a bit (4 effortless recipes that will result in a 'WOW!')

June 12, 2013

Stephanie Hanes: Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect

Fred Weir: In tweak to US, Russia would 'consider' asylum for Snowden

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: What's so special about Omega-3 supplements?
Morgan Housel: What newspapers were saying when you should have been buying

Pete Spotts: How cockroaches evolved so as to bypass 'roach motels'

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: Deep-dish cookie: Warm, gooey and a little over the top

June 10, 2013

Joseph A. Slobodzian: Faith healing and third degree murder: Thorny legal case
Lindsay Wise: Few options for online users to avoid spying, experts say

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: There are plenty of nutritional food bargains out there
Harvard Health Letters: Can bariatric surgery control diabetes?

Zach Murdock: Superglue helps doctors save infant's life

The Kosher Gourmet by Celebrated chef Mario Batali : As good as grilling gets: Rib eye with dry mushroom spice rub

June 7, 2013

Rabbi David Aaron: Beating jealousy

Caroline B. Glick: Wounded . . . and dangerous

Clifford D. May: Al Qaeda vs. Hezbollah
Harvard Health Letters: Fighting back against allergy season

Kimberly Lankford: Grandparents who use FSA to cover grandkid's braces and other must-know info

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom:J ewish Tony Nominees/Tony Awards; Jewish Teen Actor In Sci-Fi Flick; Jewish singer in "Voice" finals

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: A tart filling so good it might not make it to the crust

June 5, 2013

John Rosemond: Mom, Dad: Talk More and listen less

Kristen Chick: Egypt court sentences 43 pro-democracy workers to prison

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Mushrooms Have Medicinal As Well As Culinary Value
Morgan Housel: Why you never learn from your investment mistakes

Don Lee: In China, kindergarten rivalry takes deadly turn

The Kosher Gourmet by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan: 30-Minute Coq au Vin isn't a dream

June 3, 2013

Molly Hennessy-Fiske: Military judge to consider letting Fort Hood shooting defendant represent himself

Richard A. Serrano: Pvt. Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks trial also a test for government

Mark Trumbull: Have degree, driving cab: Nearly half of college grads are overqualified
Kim Lankford: What to do when long-term care insurance premiums rise

Deborah Netburn: Study: Adults' mouth bacteria may help babies

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Contestant on 'The Voice'; Will Smith's 'Jewish movie family'; Bravo Gives Long Island Jews the Jersey Shore Treatment; Magicians and More

The Kosher Gourmet by Bill Ward: How to be as refined as the wines at a wine tasting

May 29, 2013

Andrew Connelly and Helene Bienvenu: The Little Synagogue that Refused to Die

Dennis Prager: The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie

David Clark Scott: Open war on teachers?
Morgan Housel: If you know only five things about investing, make it these

Sara Reardon: AGenome detectives change the donation game

Deborah Netburn: A one-way ticket to Mars? 78,000-plus and counting apply by video

The Kosher Gourmet by Bev Bennett: CHEDDAR AND CHERRY MUFFINS --- your mouth is already watering

May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

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


Jewish World Review April 7, 2010 / 23 Nissan 5770

The Eye of the Storm

By Paul Greenberg




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | There were some big doings in the nation's capital the other celebratory day. A new health-care bill had been passed at last. Whatever its official title, its unofficial one in the headlines was Landmark Health Care Bill. A festive signing was held in the White House with souvenir pens all around. The president couldn't get through his remarks without being interrupted by standing ovations. Happy Days Are Here Again!


All rites were observed in fulsome full, including the mandatory obscenity whispered into the president's ear by his vice. ("This is a big f——— deal.") Not since Andrew Johnson has the country had a vice president so sure to provide embarrassment on every public occasion. There's no ceremonial event Joe Biden can't make uncomfortable. The happy time when vice presidents were seen and not heard passed long ago. Regrettably.


It was all so Washington, 2010. Or maybe Rome. What a pity Tacitus is no longer with us. It would all be familiar to that Roman historian and gossip — the republic become empire, the fawning tributes from subjects to Caesar, the sports spectaculars and culture of celebrity, the Jewish wars, and most of all the pretentiousness. As for the mere populace, it watches and waits, warily.


A second, revised health-care bill and doorstopper correcting the first, and about as encyclopedic, was soon on its way to the president's desk. Call it an encore. Who could ask for anything more?


So is everybody feeling healthier now?


Didn't think so.


It's all over now, including the shouting. Only the clean-up awaits. And the litigation, of course. And the explanations of how all the provisions and counter-provisions fit together, if they do. And the presidential sales job continues. It never ceases. Instead of relief after all the debates and votes, a curious lull has set in. One thinks of New Orleans after Katrina had passed with what, at first, looked like only a glancing blow at the city. Decompression was setting in. People were coming back onto the streets....


Then the levees gave way.


So is this the calm after the storm or before one? Why not both? All is outwardly calm, inwardly apprehensive. As if this battered old republic and shiny new mass-democracy were waiting for the next shock wave to hit.


This is what it must be like entering the eye of a hurricane. The torrential downpour has ceased. The air is still. But for how long?

Letter from JWR publisher


The clean-up crews are already busy. The funny figures that got this Landmark Health-Care Bill and circus past the Congressional Budget Office will now have to be rectified. They have served their purpose, which was to pass the bill, not say how much it will really cost.


Surely no one believes the figures the administration submitted to the CBO. As one old hand at this kind of fiscal legerdemain described the whole, computerized process of obtaining the CBO's imprimatur: Fantasy In, Fantasy Out.


And surely no one, especially in government, believes those cuts in Medicare and in reimbursements to physicians and hospitals will ever actually go into effect. Those were for accounting purposes only, like the government bonds that are supposed to back up Social Security.


The higher taxes that will be needed to finance this Lehman Bros. of health care aren't scheduled to go into effect until the mid-term elections are safely past. Or maybe the next presidential election. Various benefits are to come first. How prudent, politically if not fiscally.


It's an old sell: Buy now and pay later, if ever. Just put the bill on what the Brits call the never-never. No one can know what all these thousands of pages of health-care legislation amount to, only that they'll need to followed by hundreds of thousands of pages of regulation.


Here's the only sure result of this whirlwind now being sown: more and more massive deficits. At last report, this 44th president of the United States was running up a national debt greater than all his 43 predecessors combined — and that was before Obamacare became fuzzy law. The sky ceased to be the limit long ago; we're far out in fiscal space now. Unmoored.


For the first time since my memory runneth not to the contrary, not just fiscal nerds but real live voters are beginning to take deficits seriously. Certainly the bond market is. There is talk of the U.S. government's losing its AAA rating. The U.S. Government. Investors are showing more confidence in Warren Buffett's bonds than Timothy Geithner's. At last people have started talking about the herd of elephants in the room. Maybe this isn't a lull in politics after all; maybe it's just shock setting in. Before the explosion of fury.

Paul Greenberg Archives

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JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.

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