Talmud translation

The translation of the Talmud has made things more accessible for non-Jews to read. Congressmen and Senators were on hand for the presentation to the Library of Congress. Eric Cantor was the only Jewish Republican on hand for the ceremony. Norm Coleman should be ashamed. For the non-Jewish readers who have no utter idea what is going on, the Washington Jewish Week explains:

The publication of the final volume of Tractate Yevamot marks the culmination of a 15-year, $20 million effort that has seen as many as 80 scholars at a time working on the more than 35,000 pages in the series, in locations from New York to Baltimore to Cleveland to Jerusalem to Bnei Brak.

The project "introduces the Talmud to people who have never studied it," said Rabbi Nosson Scherman, general editor of Mesorah, the series' publisher. "It has never been done before in English with this depth and accuracy."

The Talmud comprises 36 tractates of rabbinic discussion and commentary on Jewish civil and religious law. Likely assembled between the first half of the third century C.E. and the year 499 C.E., it often expresses itself in a shorthand confusing to the uninitiated.

President George Walker Bush has appointed the ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, to be the new director of national intelligence. CIA Director Goss must not have been good enough to be the new director.

Senator Evan Bayh will be on CNN's Inside Politics today talking about whether or not he is running in 2008.

This is fantastic. Just when I thought I wouldn't be paying more money to the university, tuition jumps 16.7% for in-state students. Yo, Ernie, give us more funding, will ya? I'm a poor college student. State Treasurer Jonathan Miller and Secretary of State Trey Grayson get the picture.

Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Treasurer Jonathan Miller attended the rally and encouraged students to make their concerns known to their respective legislators. The two officials have joined together to make college more affordable for Kentuckians through a prepaid college tuition program.

"Double digit tuition increase are not acceptable," Miller said. He told students "you need help to get through to become our leaders."

Garden State: Every Film Student's Dream. Natalie Portman: Every young guy's dream date.

Who is Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings? Other than anti-gay, she is a divorcee who has kids in public and PRIVATE schools.

Known in those days as Margaret La Montagne, she was government relations director for the Texas Association of School Boards before teaming with Bush when he ran for governor in 1994. Although she always preferred to stay "under the radar," as she often put it, she quickly earned Bush's confidence and has remained one of his most influential advisers.

After a divorce from her first husband in 1997, she was a single mom for four years before marrying Robert Spellings, a lawyer-lobbyist who has offices in Washington and Austin. They live in the Virginia suburbs with her two daughters.

Mary, 17, attends a parochial high school, and Grace, 12, goes to a public middle school. "They tell me they keep me grounded," Spellings laughs. "I'm in rarefied air of the seventh floor of the Department of Education, and in the president's Cabinet and all of that, but they still yell at me."

Who are the top candidates of choice in Georgia? Aren't they forgetting the other 49 states who make this decision?