The Middle East crisis is still sizzling along. It didn't help that a UN post got blown up by the Israelis. It helps even less that the liberal media is trying to whitewash the fact that the terrorists were using the UN post as a human shield, which is what put them in danger. Using innocent civilians and observers as human shields despite the casualties among them is a common terrorist tactic to encourage the press to demonize the Israelis trying to deal with the terrorists and stop their attacks on innocent Israeli citizens.

The liberal press is thundering denunciations at those trigger-happy Israelis running wild to protect their citizens and soldiers from enemies coming across internationally recognized borders to attack and kill or kidnap them. You would think it was no big deal, even after the liberal press had also covered what torture too often happens to soldiers seized by terrorists.

The UN is trying to get together another peacekeeping force to send in there. It would actually be better for world peace if they waited until Israel finished off the terrorists, their weapons, and their bases, but the UN doesn't work that way. Despite the terrorists deliberately raining missiles loaded with deadly shrapnel onto Israeli citizens, they are going to intervene to save the terrorists from their just due.

There is one interesting possibility to a UN intervention after the terrorists have received a severe pounding by the Israelis. The last days prophecies indicate that Israel will be at peace right before a Russian and Arab invasion of the land. Given that the terrorists are Iranian proxies, a UN and European Union brokered peace would set the stage for this invasion, especially since the Russians do have a defense treaty with Iran.

The weather is sizzling a little less here this week. The week before, the daytime highs were topping 100 degrees F. The very air seemed to glow with a fierce clarity, and the plants drooped despite the hoses running all day from section to section. A cold front came through over the weekend and dropped the highs into the low 90's, closer to yearly norms. We aren't seeing much rain here, even though there is plenty of moisture and daytime heating would normally spark some thundershowers. The heavy gray clouds build but don't do much more than a sparse, brief sprinkle.

I've finally got enough mulch down to encourage the tomatoes and pumpkins to greater efforts. The tomatoes are setting more fruit and the pumpkin vines are starting to stretch across the mulch. I lost the butternut and buttercup squashes and half of the broccoli plants. The new bean plants struggled for their first week, then finally took hold and are spreading a green canopy over their bed. Two little watermelon plants are also holding on next to them. The plants must be growing deep roots to search for water.

The terrace plants are doing better with extra water and shade. I lost the dwarf lemon tree, but the dwarf orange and dwarf Key lime are growing well. I started some cabbage, dark red vinca and mixed coleus seeds to set out when it cools. The little cabbage and coleus seedlings came up last night, and one little vinca seed poked through the soil in its flat. The garden looks so bare that there is plenty of room to put in a few flowers. All the color is high atop the crape myrtles or spattered on the altheas.

My ABWA chapter is going to continue for another year. We have a strong president taking over, and she has already gotten the chapter program planning assigned for the next year. We're getting an early start on the fall membership drive, too.

We had early voting for our city and county last week, so the family had to get out and punch through an enormous ballot with dozens of offices to be filled. It is going to be a big mess if there is a big turnout for the regular election day, and with so many offices at stake it will probably be newsworthy enough to get out the reporters with earnest anticipation of reporting irritable, sweaty voters doing their civic duty despite the threat of heatstroke.

I've got to work in a shopping trip for next Monday. I didn't get all the shopping done last week because the car's brakes felt funny, so it got a trip to the garage for repairs and its maintenance checkup. I got the Easy Way produce trip and voting done, but not the other shopping trips.

I've got a child's sweater about three-quarters done, and I'm working on a furry bolero in blue and purple shades for me. I still haven't gotten the nightgowns done yet, even though another one frayed into indecency. The Easy-To-Do page has a chronic red overdue block at the top of the list with urgent yellow streaks slashing through the rest of the screen. The "Sew nightgown" task is floating in the sea of red, waiting for the sewing machine to be set up amid the heaps of crafts to do. Even using a filter for the most urgent items didn't help much. I'm just plain too ambitious to keep up with myself.