In the Midst of Life....

Today's political cartoon is courtesy of Michael Ramirez who 'toons for Investors.com. Click the link above.


Life goes on. The Boy has been to the neurologist, to the opthomologist, and is getting lined up with social services, additional medical benefits, another EEG, and vision services for school. Its amazing that we find time to get all this done, but it has to get done: school and ulpan start September 1st.

While I've heard many complain about Israeli bureaucracy, what I haven't heard but witnessed myself is the help every day workers give those of us who are baffled; the efficiency of the medical system; the richness of resources available to those of us who have special needs kids. Maybe I've just been lucky, but so far the socio-medical system here offers a lot more than what we could get in the States -- it's a pleasant surprise.

While my Hebrew is taking baby steps towards communication, I find myself baffled by the literature that comes in the mail. Each document requires a visit to my ulpan, or my forgiving neighbor, or my son's tutor, to find out if this is something important or just a notice or a summary of an appointment already kept. The only encouragement I get is the news--I find that I now understand about one word every few minutes instead of one word every thirty minutes.

Our temporary houseguest of the last two weeks left Tuesday--he was a delight to have, despite being bombed out of Tzfat and his studies up there. Our hope is that he made it out of London before the Heathrow shutdown......he told us he was going to 'spend the day in London' before heading out for California. Last we heard, no one headed anywhere out of Heathrow on Thursday, so we're hoping he left Wednesday night.

I'm pleased, as we all should be, that the plot to commit mass murder mid-air was foiled....but the root cause, as the LLL pundits put it, needs to be addressed: in the radical jihadi world, terrorism pays. Western Civilization needs to wake up and do something to make sure it doesn't pay any more.

We are all waiting for Iran's 'response' to Western Civilization's demand that it cease nuclear weapons production, which 'response' is scheduled for August 22nd. My bet? That 'response' will take the form of a mushroom cloud at a test site in Iran--or worse, over Tel Aviv.