BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I hate liars. Honestly HATE them. What people who lie to me are saying is that I wasn't worth the truth. My father, of blessed memory, told me all the time that I had the "curse of being his daughter." Which meant being "unable to lie or being governed by the truth." He got that right. I can't lie even when it would be in my best interest. I was a good actor but in real life I am a terrible liar. I just can't keep things straight if I lie. So why bother? And my Nana, of blessed memory told me, "no one likes a truth teller." Right again. Judaism has a lot to say about truth and lying: ...Dishonesty and deception are serious crimes in Jewish law. The Torah explicitly demands that one should "Distance himself from a false matter." There are, however, situations in which Jewish law permits or even demands that one engage in deception... Recently, a psychology study found that the average person lies about 150 to 200 times per day. A...

Since Nunn knew Ross could physically defend herself, did he bring a gun this last time? By Ashlee Clark, Bill Estep and Amy Wilson (KENTUCKY) After months of trying to use the legal system to protect herself from her former fiancée, 29-year-old Amanda Ross was found shot to death early Friday outside her home in downtown Lexington. Hours later, the man she feared, former state representative and one-time gubernatorial candidate Steve Nunn , was taken into police custody at the edge of the Hart County cemetery where his parents are buried. Nunn had slit his wrists after placing mementos on his parents' graves, officers said. Nunn was charged with six counts of wanton endangerment of a police officer after police say he fired a .38-caliber handgun when officers began arriving at the cemetery. Nunn, 56, was listed in fair condition in a Bowling Green hospital late Friday. Lt. Douglas Pape, Lexington police spokesman, said Nunn was a person that detectives "would like to talk to...

What's it going to take for the public and law enforcement to GET IT!? She tried a court order. She had him arrested. She took all the legal steps she could right up to the day her ex-boyfriend shot her dead in a parking lot. By Megan Twohey and Liam Ford Cindy Bischof thought her breakup with a longtime boyfriend would go smoothly after he agreed to move out of her house. But Michael Giroux quickly turned hostile, writing up a plan to destroy her home and following through with it. Terrified after Giroux, 60, spray-painted every wall and piece of furniture in her Arlington Heights home last spring, the 43-year-old real estate broker moved swiftly to secure a protective order from a Cook County (Illinois) judge that prohibited him from contacting her. When he violated the order on two occasions, including an attempt to hang himself on her patio, she didn't hesitate to press charges that landed him in jail for two months followed by home confinement. To relatives and prosecutors...

DIVORCE HELL Take it from me, divorce is not fun. Especially from an abuser. In this case they both appear to be abusive. Orders of Protection are not fun either. So, what was THIS jury thinking? Warring couple wanted split, but jury sez no go BY NANCIE L. KATZ, JOTHAM SEDERSTROM and BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Simon Taub beams after jury said his wife, Chana (below), can't divorce him - which may seem a strange reaction, considering the couple's warring ways. Their love may have died, their house may be divided, but New York's most notorious battling couple is going to have to stay married - by decision of the jury. In a divorce battle that has gotten more and more bizarre, Chana Taub asked a Brooklyn Supreme Court panel to dissolve her 21-year marriage to Simon Taub. Both listened in stunned silence Tuesday as the jury said they could not separate. The squabbling spouses each immediately claimed the other was going to resort to murder to do what the court d...