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Does anyone know a good source about Jewish and Greek kinship terminology? I found some very interesting material about how most cultures of the world distinguish between "cross cousins" and "parallel cousins," also known as "ortho-cousins." A while back, I demonstrated on Free Republic how Jesus certainly had cousins named James, Joses and Judah; and that this James was one and the same as the apostle James; and that the Greek phrase, "the son of you," spoken to Mary indicates that Mary had no other children. Many believe that Jesus had James, Joses, Judah (and a fourth, Simon) were Mary's...

Here is video of President Obama diagreeing with Vice-President Joe Biden's statement yesterday that their administration "misread the economy." Obama prefers to say they had "incomplete information." . . . . (Watch Video)

The Pope has called for the world economy to be restructured in line with the principles of "love, truth and charity" in a new encyclical issued today. He urges the reformation of the United Nations and economic institutions to address the global economic crisis, which he links to relativism, globalisation and the abuse of modern technologies. The encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, interpreted variously throughout the document as charity or love in truth, is Pope Benedict XVI's third but his first on social issues. It is timed to coincide with the G8 in Italy and is intended to bring objective moral...

(IsraelNN.com) IDF widows will be able to remarry without fear of losing their IDF pensions, according to a legislative proposal just approved by a ministerial committee. After a long public and internal Knesset struggle, the widows of IDF soldiers need no longer choose between remarrying – formally or otherwise – and retaining a major source of support. Mualem: “Stop asking how much it will cost, but rather, What does the State of Israel want to happen with IDF widows?" The widows of terrorism victims are not included in the new amendment at present.

Two days after taking office, President Obama declared “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” Five months later, America has experienced a rude awakening. Promise after promise has been thrown to the wind in the name of political convenience. The most recent demonstration of the President’s deceit came in the form of a virtual town hall on July 1 that was marketed as an opportunity for the American people to directly ask the President about important issues using new media like Facebook and Twitter. In a press conference just hours before the event, Press...

This is a video from this years Arab International Festival taking place in the Islamic capital of the USA, Michigan. It was not enough that Sharia loving Muslims were able to stop Christians from handing out Christian literature in the festival, so they also had to gang up and punch other law abiding Christians. Things are starting to look like the UK here.

Former first cat Socks, the pet of President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, has been laid to rest at the Arkansas Governor's Mansion in Little Rock. A portion of the black-and-white cat's ashes were scattered in a flower garden on the west side of the mansion in the spring, according to the Northwest Arkansas Morning News.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top deputies have not formally asked for U.S. aid or permission for possible military strikes on Iran's nuclear program, fearing the White House would not approve, two Israeli officials said. One senior Israeli official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, told The Washington Times that Mr. Netanyahu determined that "it made no sense" to press the matter after the negative response President Bush gave Mr. Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, when he asked early last year for U.S. aid for possible military strikes on Iran.

Since Sarah Palin’s announcement on Friday, pundits from across the political spectrum have been in a frenzy, with pundits from across the political spectrum arguing over whether or not her career is over, speculating on her health and welfare, and pontificating on whether her decision is part of one grand political strategy which will either prove to be incredibly brilliant or completely foolish. I have been tempted but have avoided to write and comment on the reaction to Palin’s announcement. However, one article in particular struck me as particularly spot-on, a post by Jim Prevor over at the Weekly Standard....

[This article in "The Lancet" describes the system under which Obama's health-care system would allocate medical resources] Because none of the currently used systems satisfy all ethical requirements for just allocation, we propose an alternative: the complete lives system. This system incorporates five principles (table 2): youngest-first, prognosis, save the most lives, lottery, and instrumental value.5 As such, it prioritises younger people who have not yet lived a complete life and will be unlikely to do so without aid. Many thinkers have accepted complete lives as the appropriate focus of distributive justice: “individual human lives, rather than individual experiences, [are]...

Thomas Sowell, author of The Housing Boom and Bust, discusses the economics of the housing boom.

The video makes the case....Just say NO to Obama's health care!

Our Vice-President is proving once again that he is a couple of bottles short of a full Joe-Six-Pack. During the Presidential campaign season, Biden exclaimed that Israel would have to get used to a nuclear Iran. In April he he appeared on CNN warning Israel not to attack Iranian Nukes: With his brief comment Tuesday, Biden became the highest-ranking administration official to caution the Jewish state against a military strike. In the interview, Biden was asked whether he was concerned that Netanyahu might strike Iranian nuclear facilities. "I don't believe Prime Minister Netanyahu would do that. I think he would...

This week's "scare the heck out of you" post…

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras. That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints. "I think that's the whole point of this program," she told The Examiner. "It's designed to circumvent law enforcement -- law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives." (snip) Photo radar tickets generated nearly $1 billion in revenues for D.C. during fiscal years 2005...

Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their views haven't changed, more members of all three major partisan groups indicate that their views have shifted to the right rather than to the left.

"Though some of Ford's advisers might dismiss Reagan as an aging right-wing after-dinner speaker or as an evangelist exhorting the Republicans to abandon their sinful liberalism and return to the Faith of their Fathers, Ford took him seriously as the only threat to his own dream of an uncontested nomination. Ford, therefore, moved to take his potential rival into camp by making him a member of the administration. Twice the President dangled a cabinet post before Reagan's eyes, and twice the bait was refused. 'The first time, he offered me literally a choice of several cabinet positions,' Reagan recalled. 'In...

Forget what the commentators are saying. They’re wrong. On July 3rd, Sarah Palin at a press conference in Wasilia, Alaska began her campaign for President. Even on Fox News, commentators has spent days wondering if Palin’s announcement marks the end of her political career. Hogwash. Palin announced that she will neither run for re-election, nor will she sit as a lame duck. She will step down July 26. This was a wise – if highly unusual – move. Palin’s sparkling speech was unmistakably a campaign speech, although soft, indirect, and clever. She did not just announce her resignation. She forcefully...

In the wake of Sarah Palin's now well covered announcement last Friday that she will soon step down as Governor of Alaska, more than a few commentators have declared her political career over. While I'm not about to agree that her bizarre resignation represents a "shrewd move" -- it wasn't -- I do think proclamations of her political death are a bit premature. (snip) Looking at those numbers, I would argue that -- as of last week, at least -- Sarah Palin was the Republican best positioned to emulate the tactical model employed by Barack Obama in seeking the Democratic...

The Middle East is a hard place for idealists, especially for the Western liberal variety. My feelings of optimism for the region have been ground down over time like rocks under slow-moving glacial ice. Last time I visited Israel, at the end of the Gaza war this past January, I met Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. He sounded no less despondent than the Israelis I spoke to. “Listen,” he said. “We must stop dreaming about the New Middle East and coexistence and harmony and turning this area into Hong Kong and Singapore...I don't see a real peace emerging over here....