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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 3, 2006 / 9 Menachem-Av, 5766

Thoughts on the passing scene

By Ben Wattenberg


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | We are agog at the new inventions of our times: computers, new medications, you name it. But the late Herbert Stein, a former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under Richard Nixon made a different case: That the late 19th and early 20th century were the times of the greatest invention: telephones, airplanes, automobiles, air-conditioning, the telegraph, indoor plumbing and so on.


I think Stein was probably right.


Herb was a colleague of mine at the American Enterprise Institute. The management once suggested that we share a secretary. Stein, one of the few economists with a sense of humor, said drolly: "Sharing a secretary with Wattenberg is like sharing a canoe with an an elephant."


Probably right again.


American diplomats


I have often traveled under the auspices of the US Government --- particularly what was then called the United States Information Agency. In the field these guys were great. I was in Moscow with my then-wife at a "night-club." I asked one of the USIA guys, Alan Coombs, to take our picture. We returned to our six person booth. Alan was at an inside seat. A Soviet military man with lots of stripes (A general?) started yelling at Alan Coombs our helper-outer. The officer leapt across the booth and grabbed the camera, saying (in Russian) that pictures couldn't be taken of Soviet military men. Coombs jumped back at him and salvaged our camera. A hero!


It's back at home that the diplomats get the reputation (often deserved) of being softball-playing striped pants cookie-pushers, too often willing to accommodate to that mystical "world public opinion."


Income


There is always a great argument about how many people are "in poverty" and whether the number is growing or sinking. Inflation rates and the CPI are often cock-eyed or subject to varying interpretations. The best way to see it, as I see it, is to see what people have. Today, more people have air-conditioners, cars, living space, television, books --- than ever before. That's good.


Can Democrats be hawks?


In 2003, Donna Brazille, a tough-minded liberal, co-authored an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. She said that Democrats ought to model themselves on the Sen. "Scoop" Jackson, quintessential liberal hawk. She said that Dems have been "AWOL on National Security." Yada, yada, yada. Now, Sen. Joe Lieberman is being scalded because he has supported the President's policy on Iraq. The Dems talk the talk, but they ain't walking the the walk.


Nepotism


Nepotism is supposed to be bad. But it's everywhere, and it should be. A politician's son/daughter may follow in his/her footsteps. It may well be the most important thing that can be bequeathed. My own family is heavy on writers, editors, artists, musicians. We try to help each other, but some object: They want to be weighed on their own merits. OK. But the truth is that we learn from our home environment, whether we like it or not.


This is true among business types, shoemakers, bakers and candle-stick makers. And a good thing it is.

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.

Comment on JWR contributor Ben Wattenberg's column by clicking here.


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