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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 Jan. 1, 2010 / 15 Teves 5770

Not much to show for year's work

By Wesley Pruden




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The bad news for Barack Obama is that everyone, even here in Baghdad on the Bay, Ground Zero of Dreamland, says he must improve his performance in the new year. The good news for Barack Obama is that there's lots of room for improvement.


The president graded himself the other day, telling Oprah that he thinks he deserves a B-plus for his first year, and if he gets ObamaCare through Congress, he should get another full grade. He may be the only man in America who thinks he's an A-minus president. But Mr. Obama grew up in the era of grade inflation, and he no doubt aced his course work in Self-Esteem 101.


California, as every Californian will tell you, is the origin of the fads and fancies that inevitably spread across the continent; San Francisco is where the Pied Piper of Southside Chicago might have led the cult to a suitable jumping-off place. This is where the true believers of the left exude the most noxious fumes. Where better to spend Christmas, er, the Holiday, with all the fruits and nuts to plumb the depths of what remains of ObamaLove. Nagging doubt, if not yet disillusionment, lurks in unexpected nooks and crannies.


Everyone here expected to be married to his plumber, electrician or mechanic by the end of year 0001 A.O. (anno obamanie) . Man would make love, not war; all disease (including cancer, high cholesterol, Christianity and unregistered guns) would have been banished; every bathhouse would be crowded again; every Guantanamo prisoner rehabilitated and settled with 40 acres and a mule; the globe would be cooling; immigration abuses resolved; and best of all, the works of the evil Texas cowboy would be but a distant, fading memory.

Letter from JWR publisher


Didn't happen, except for the global cooling, which turns out to be the work of a Force greater than even Barack Obama. Everyone here works to keep the chatter confined to the latest hot movie, restaurant, art gallery or other shrines to the immediate gratification that is the all-consuming goal of the Good Life. When a visitor from the real world introduces the name of the president and his works, there's an embarrassed mumble, shuffle and shrug, and the embarrassee darts away to look for a carrot stick to stir in the avocado dip. A skeptic with a conservative bent has never had such Christmas fun.


But the season, like the year, has been no fun for the president, who is beginning to look a lot like George W. Bush to the Nancy Pelosi red-hots. Even the Detroit underwear bomber stinks in these precincts. Suspicion grows that Mr. Obama's attempt to love-bomb the Muslims in the Middle East into clasping the hand of friendship is not working. Events have mocked the frilly Valentine the president dispatched to Arabia in his inaugural address: "To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect … we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."


A hail of insulting sticks and stones came flying back at him. A spokesman for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sneered the ultimate insult, that the new president was no better than his predecessor: "Obama is the hand of Satan in a new sleeve. The Great Satan now has a black face." This might have deterred Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan, but Mr. Obama merely ordered more love-bombing. He begged for engagement "grounded in mutual respect." He wrote love letters, one to Khamenei himself, full of schoolboy pleading as if begging someone he met on the Internet to go to the senior prom with him. When it became clear that the Ahmadinejad regime had stolen the national election, there was nary a discouraging word from the White House.


Soon it was off to Cairo for the promised Arabian Apology Tour, to admit that America was at fault for all the misunderstandings and hurt feelings. He promised America would do better. He even stopped off in Saudi Arabia to bow deeply to the king. If he thought this would bring the terrorists to the mourner's bench, he didn't accomplish anything. Neither did his warning to Americans not to "leap to conclusions" after a Muslim officer drunk on sentiments of jihad killed 13 innocents at Fort Hood, Texas.


What is abundantly clear at the end of Obama Year One is that the radical Muslims who have sworn to kill us still want to kill us. Mr. Obama imagined his honeyed words would invite an unclenched response. All he got last week, obvious even to a San Francisco Democrat, was an answer in a terrorist's dirty underwear.

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.

JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

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© 2007 Wesley Pruden

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