Everything old is new again, the old saying goes – and anyone who was around for during the 1930s must be having a sense of deja vu. It’s gotten to the point where this parody of Herbert Hoover’s famous line, “Prosperity is Just Around the Corner,” seems like it was written last week, not in 1932! But if we’re looking for guidance from the oldies to navigate the new, harsh realities, I rather like this one, written during World War II, evoking a spirit of facing tough challenges head-on. …

What Chanukah means to me (besides candles, miracles, etc.): Spending money on outings, spending money on gifts, spending money on days at the mall. What Chanukah means to the kids: Writing cards to their grandparents. Notice a theme here? We love holidays, but they can be expensive – and who’s got money to spare this year? The kids are wonderful, and we want them to have a good time. But with the way reality is biting these days, it pays to be prudent. So, we’re looking to cut costs …

When Santayana coined the phrase, “he who does not know the past is condemned to repeat it,” he had no idea it would apply to the internet. And when JFK (supposedly) said “if you don’t know where you’ve been, how can you know where you’re going,” he couldn’t possibly have been referring to the World Wide Web. Or could he have known anyway? Remember that bit about “we will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade”? Both those adages – plus another one, …

Now that the election in the U.S. is over, we’re gearing up for our own poll – and as usual, security weighs heavily for local voters. Israelis feel that we’re at the epicenter of world terror – that nowhere else in the world is as dangerous, except for Iraq, Africa, and a few other places you wouldn’t want to live anyway. There’s always something to worry about here, the conventional wisdom says. But on one day recently, Israel looked a lot safer than many other places, when seen through …

Elections are breaking out all over – there’s one in the U.S. next week, and now that the campaigning is over, our own politicians are busy analyzing the tactics used by Obama and McCain. It turns out that Youtube and other video sites were important forums for the candidates. Both sides produced slick-looking videos that were watched by millions, and supporters of each posted thousands of others. While any schnook can post anything on Youtube, the official videos for both campaigns were slick – just like their …