The terrorists have struck back for the death of Zarqawi. Two American soldiers were captured and tortured. Beheading them might have been the only unintended mercy for them. The new leader reportedly did the deed personally, no doubt as proof of his bravery and dedication to their cause.

Under our system which still operates under historically Christian principles, our soldiers are ordered not to mistreat prisoners or civilians and are punished if they do. We have two cases under investigation now where military personnel may be tried for the murder of civilians.

In one case, the men had been kept in shackles for an extended period as though convicted already, even though the civilians died during a fight which started when a bomb killed one soldier. There is even evidence that the weapons that killed the civilians were of the type that the terrorists use instead of the kind used by American soldiers. Still, we bend over backwards, even violating the soldiers' basic rights, to make sure that the troops know that they must be careful to follow the rules about treating civilians with care.

There was some speculation that the two captured soldiers may have been hesitant to protect themselves because of this. The terrorists have no such qualms. Their religious and military training encourages them to kill even by hideous means. If that doesn't illustrate the difference between Islam and Christianity, I don't know what would.

A freak storm drenched parts of Texas and Louisiana with massive rains leading to flash flooding in the affected area. The summer remains unseasonably hot and humid. Locally, we are still having daytime highs in the mid to upper 90 degrees F and have had ozone alerts. The rain earlier this week wasn't nearly enough to keep the garden watered. I'm wondering just how bad it is going to get in August.

Things are not going well at all for my ABWA chapter. Our last meeting had too few members present to conduct any business. We are now seriously considering disbanding the chapter if we can't get more members signed up and get the current members to participate in more chapter activities. It is a problem with many ABWA chapters now that there are so many women in many different careers that they can opt to join a group focusing on their specialty.

I finished a scarf and am still working on the third child's sweater. I think I'm just going to have to set up the sewing machine and work on those new shirts somehow. It is nearly the third year anniversary of getting the fabric for them, and my wardrobe is pretty tired.

I don't know how the time passes so quickly. I've barely started on my list of things to do today, and I've been working for about three hours already. I found a free to do program, Easy To-Do, at http://www.xanadutools.com. I highly recommend this program for its ease of use and clear presentation screen. It has enough options to allow for project planning and scheduling right there, too.

I loaded the schedule from my organizer into it and couldn't believe how long it is. No wonder I can't get everything done. I haven't even put the memo list holding future projects onto it.

The red warnings of missed deadlines are glaring on the screen, eased only by a Priority setting which allowed me to put the most urgent stuff high on the list where it is sitting in a big red block. I couldn't see how badly stacked up things were on the organizer's single item screen.

I had to drop two online classes that were nearly over and I hadn't even started them. The email notices got lost in the backed-up todo folder in my email program. I've got a lot of stuff to weed through . . . oops, the garden needs weeding, too. Let's see if this new to do program helps to put things into better perspective and order.