Existing home sales fall to 6-month low

your home lost about 5% of its value from this time last year, which is better than expected: Existing home sales dropped nearly 4% from last year to the lowest rate since last November. Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to drop 5.9 percent to a 4.80 million-unit pace from the previously reported 5.05 million-unit rate. When a 4% decrese in sales is "better than expected" you know the economy is in real trouble via americanthinker.com image via break.com

Wal-Mart women denied discrimination class action - updated

If one is unemployed... one has time to study... and better himself or herself. Our culture is set up this way. To merely say that men make more is to obscure the truth... which is that statistically men must overcome obstacles to get to that employment. No government or judicial can account for this kind of economic complexity in our culture. women make less, but are more likely to be employed. giving women equal pay because of affirmative action will not employ men... in fact it would probably hurt a woman's job opportunity. obviously it is complex... and therefor there are no conspiracies against women.

Betty Dukes, left,
and plaintiff Christine Kwapnoski
were two of the named plaintiffs in the case

The Unsolved Problem of Labor: In a dissenting opinion, the court's four liberal justices agreed the Wal-Mart case did not merit a class action, but would have taken a less narrow view of the requirements for a class action suit over back pay.

...meanwhile it is men who are statistically out of work.

The US Supreme Court has dismissed the largest class action lawsuit in history, ruling against women alleging discrimination by US giant Wal-Mart.

The court ruled that 1.5 million women who said they were paid less because of gender must pursue action individually.
Plaintiffs had sought to unite more than a million women in their effort.

The court accepted Wal-Mart's argument that the women work in diverse jobs in stores across the US and do have not enough in common for a class action. via bbc.co.uk
who can men sue?

The first Hebrew Bible concordance, in Google Books

1581 edition of the very first Hebrew concordance, Meir Netiv, written by Yitzchak Natan (Isaac Nathan) ben Kalonymous in 1447.
It is interesting because of why he wrote it.
He was heavily involved in arguing against Christian missionaries to the Jews and Jewish apostates. They would quote chapter and verse for their arguments, but Jews couldn't easily answer them - because the division into chapters and verses were a Christian innovation!
Isaac Nathan therefore wrote the first Hebrew concordance of Tanach to aid Jews in arguing back (and exposing fake quotes that Christians at the time would use.) This was one of the first Jewish publications that used the Christian chapter and verse system.


Another innovation was that this concordance alphabetized the Hebrew words by their root word, so it was easier to find a specific word.
If you want to find all Torah commentaries in Google Books written before 1600, click here.

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

very useful... today!

Palestine Is Not A Liberal Cause

... ... ... ... ...The Huffington Post Monitor has created some posters illustrating ...Palestine Is Not A Liberal Cause...here is one of them h/t Daled Amos

Islamic Imam declares that necrophilia is halal

yucky... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ............ ... ... ... ......... ... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ...... ... ... ... ............ ... ... ... ......... ... ... ... ENJOY! H/T blazingcatfur via Bare Naked Islam

The growing Clarence Thomas ethics problem LOLZ... there wasn't one

Friendship of Justice and Magnate Puts Focus on Ethics by Mike Mcintire of nytimes.com

New York Times investigative reporter Mike McIntire penned a hit piece on Justice Clarence Thomas for Sunday’s front page, trying to find a controversy in the funding by a friend of Thomas of a cultural museum in the justice’s hometown of Pin Point, Ga.: “The Justice and the Magnate – Friendship and Museum Project Put Focus on Ethics.” But looking past the loaded headline and lacings of ominous word choices like "ethically sensitive," one is hard-pressed to find any hints of actual wrongdoing on the part of Justice Thomas.
Prominently placed, hostile investigations of conservative-friendly groups (that lead nowhere) are a specialty of McIntire’s. His front-page story from March 2011 accused a Tea Party group of pushing the agenda of an Indonesian corporation fighting U.S. tariffs. In September 2010 he went after the group Americans for Job Security, another group with Tea Party ties.

” Whelan pointed to a double standard in Supreme scrutiny and challenged anyone “to argue that Thomas’s friendship with, and generous favors from, someone who has had no interest in cases before the Supreme Court is somehow more problematic than Ginsburg’s interaction with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.”

via newsbusters.org

1. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges—which, as the article notes, does not formally apply to Supreme Court justices—sets forth canons of ethical conduct that are reasonably looked to, at least presumptively, as a benchmark for the conduct of justices (even if one reserves the possibility that those canons might apply somewhat differently to justices or that some of the sub-rules inevitably involve arbitrary line-drawing).

Canon 4 states that a “judge may engage in extrajudicial activities, including law-related pursuits and civic, charitable, educational [and other specified types of] activities,” but that “a judge should not participate in extrajudicial activities that detract from the dignity of the judge’s office, interfere with the performance of the judge’s official duties, reflect adversely on the judge’s impartiality, lead to frequent disqualification, or violate the limitations set forth [in Canon 4’s sub-rules].” Canon 4.C in turn states:

A judge may assist nonprofit law-related, civic, charitable, educational, religious, or social organizations in planning fund-raising activities and may be listed as an officer, director, or trustee…. Otherwise, a judge should not personally participate in fund-raising activities, solicit funds for any organization, or use or permit the use of the prestige of judicial office for that purpose.

via nationalreview.com

[A]s this Los Angeles Times article from 2004 discusses, Ginsburg authorized the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund to name a lecture series after her—the “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture Series on Women and the Law”—and she “gave opening remarks” and introduced the speaker at the fourth installment of that series. The NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund took part (and, now rebranded as Legal Momentum, continues to take part) regularly in litigation before the Supreme Court: its database identifies its participation in a dozen or so merits cases during the first four years of the lecture series (including Lawrence v. Texas, Grutter v. Bollinger, and Gratz v. Bollinger), and a similar or higher level of participation in subsequent years (including Gonzales v. Carhart). Ginsburg took part in all those cases.…
According to the LA Times article, legal ethicist Monroe Freedman said that Ginsburg’s affiliation with the lecture series “crosses the line,” and legal ethicist Geoffrey Hazard called it “inappropriate.” By contrast, legal ethicist Stephen Gillers called it “a judgment call.” For present purposes, I see no need to resolve whether Ginsburg acted unethically. My much more modest point is simply that nothing underlying even the wildest smears that the Left has directed against Thomas and Scalia comes anywhere close to Ginsburg’s conduct.

I likewise challenge anyone to argue that Thomas’s friendship with, and generous favors from, someone who has had no interest in cases before the Supreme Court is somehow more problematic than Ginsburg’s interaction with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. via nationalreview.com
image via blog.reidreport.com

If there is anything that bothers me in the points McIntire raises, it is Ginny Thomas’s political fundraising.... Half of Washington knows this trick. Tom DeLay pioneered it when he started a foundation, told big donors to give money to it, and put his wife and daughter on its payroll.  Others like Newt Gingrich soon followed suit. It may now be seem as standard operating procedure by DC types, but it is a sleazy maneuver, and at the very least public officials should be subject to full disclosure of their entire household income. via frontburner.dmagazine.com

40,000 Israelis want to remove God from IDF memorial services

I could of sworn the intention of Israel was to create a Jewish State. Should not the failings of individual Jews be a private matter?

Online petition calls on Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz to revert to original version, which gives no mention to God.

The argument over the wording of the IDF’s memorial prayer has gone up a notch, with over 40,000 people signing an online petition by Monday night calling on Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz to revert to the original version that gives no mention to God. Yehudit Bialer, whose son Yoram was killed in the line of duty in 1969, initiated the petition on Thursday, in wake of the recent report on Haaretz that Gantz had decided on the long-standing issue of the opening of the Yizkor text recited at military ceremonies. via Jerusalem Post By JONAH MANDEL and image and h/t Israel Matzav

500 New Apartments to be Built in the Eastern Portion of Jerusalem For...

Arabs.

For the first time since 1967, the Jerusalem Local Building and Planning Committee discussed a large housing project and master plan for infrastructure for east Jerusalem’s Arab residents, located in Arab e-Sawahra, between Jebl Mukaber and Abu Dis.
The project included 500 new apartments on 1,530 dunams (153 hectares) as well as a school, country club, and new highway. Also included in the project was a plan to retroactively legalize 2,000 apartments in the neighborhood.
Due to infighting in the coalition, a vote on the project was postponed for two weeks to a month.
Despite the fact that the master plan was initiated by the municipality, it faced nearly universal opposition by the coalition. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is facing challenges from the haredi factions, who are furious over his pick of City Councilor Rachel Azaria (Jerusalemites Movement) to be an additional deputy mayor.
City Councilor Meir Margalit (Meretz) hailed the project as the first time the municipality had taken meaningful steps to solving some of east Jerusalem’s persistent problems.
He said the project was expected to win initial approval, but that at the last minute the vote was delayed, ostensibly to give Barkat time to smooth over the coalition crisis and bring the haredim on board with his project.
“This is all dependent on internal politics in the municipality and the relationship of the mayor with the haredim,” said Margalit, who said the atmosphere at the meeting was “very tense.”
If it doesn’t pass, “Arabs are going to come out of this very frustrated,” said Margalit. “If they start to build illegally no one can blame them.”

Will the world call this illegal?

via challahhuakbar.blogspot.com

Simply Jews: "As a Jew" explained

The anti-zionist Jew says “asaJew” in order to turn opinion against the majority of her fellow Jews. She wants to say that because she doesn't find something to be antisemitic, for example, and she is a Jew, and she speaks as a Jew, then they should accept that it isn't antisemitic. Because if a Jew says something isn't antisemitic then it can’t be. Right? intentions via simply jews  and image via mind spark enigma

Palestinian Arab family killed - by NATO. Where are the condemnations?

A Palestinian family of four was killed in a NATO airstrike Monday on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry explained in a statement published Tuesday on the government news agency Wafa, that the International Red Crescent Association had relayed the news. The family, according to Wafa’s report, had lived in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, before moving to Tripoli. Palestinian ambassador to Libya Atif Udah told Ma'an radio the family was in a three-story building targeted by a NATO air attack. He identified the victims as Abdullah Muhammad Ash-Shihab, his wife Karima and his 6-month-old twins Khalid and Jumanah. - Ma'an

Libya accuses NATO of 700 civilian deaths via thisislondon.co.uk

double standard!

Some 19 civilians were claimed to have been killed in that airstrike, which came only a day after another errant airstrike from NATO killed 9 civilians. NATO insists that they hit a military target on Monday. MORE via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Prof. Alan Dershowitz at Oslo Symposium 2011

....Statues by Gustav Vigeland in Frogner Park in Oslo.

..... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ........... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... ..... ... ..... .....