I am very grumpy--actually, I've been in a rage. A normal-enough reaction to all that's happened in the last five days alone. First, there are the world events.

9/8: Arab terrorists attacked a bus stop in Jerusalem and killed at least six civilians. (HAMAS claimed responsibility--but who can believe what they say?)

9/9: It became even clearer that Saudi Arabia played a significant role in 9/11, behind the scenes and in terms of how many Saudis actually belonged to Al Qaeda and flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

9/9: Israel pin-point targeted Hamas leaders who had long been living in luxury in Qatar. It remains unclear which or how many Hamas leaders were indeed assassinated. Such a strike is long overdue.

9/9: President Trump, who claimed to have had no advance warning of this, criticized Israel for having done so. Qatar is the banker for the Taliban and for Hamas.

9/9: Hamas has refused to surrender, refused to leave Gaza, refused to give up their arms--but has continued to claim that they have done so and that the absence of a temporary ceasefire is due to Israel. Part of whatever deal they may or may not have agreed to still includes the exchange of nearly a thousand Arab prisoners, many with blood on their hands, for about ten Israeli hostages--if that many are still alive.

9/9: The UN opened and began its hate-fest against Israel.

9/9: I hosted a wonderful Israeli psychoanalyst who has been working with the loved ones of Israeli hostages and other Israelis, including soldiers, who've been traumatized by both 10/7 and all that has followed. It was a great privilege to hear what he had to say--and to enjoy his grave and compassionate listening skills.

9/10: Russia flew drones over Poland. Is this the beginning of World War Three?

9/10: Israel attacked the Houthis, who have continued to launch rockets into civilian Israel.

9/10: America just experienced a political assassination in Utah. An Antifa, left-wing white male hater expertly shot and killed conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk. Is this the beginning of an armed Civil War? Have the radical wokesters begun an armed war against conservatives and Republicans? Many people on social media cheered for Kirk's killer, whose name is Tyler Robinson.

9/11: As day follows night, 9/11 came round again. Too few Americans remember or understand that this was an Islamic Jihadist attack on America and on the Judeo-Christian West.

9/11: UN Security Council united in condemning the Israeli bombing of Qatar (with U.S. support).

9/12: Israel began bombing Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion. Not a single Arab country has offered to take the Gazans in.

9/12: Terrorists ("militants") stabbed two Israeli civilians outside a hotel in Jerusalem. Hamas praised this attack.

All this stuff, including the earthquake in Afghanistan and the Taliban's orders that male rescuers not physically rescue any women--terrible as all this is--never undoes me. Only the small, up-close Stuff does that. Maybe it does so because I'm traumatized by covering the religious war against the West, against Israel, and against womankind for too many years. It’s only the small Stuff that gets to me. It should not matter so much, but oh, how it does.

9/8-9/10: Not to be underestimated, this past week I viewed two films that I've been asked to review. Both were moving, powerful, horrifying, and inspiring. One was historical fiction, two seasons' worth of the rise of Hitler's Nazis in Germany and how it affected Jews whom we've come to care about very much; the other film was about the Polish murder of Jews after World War Two ended in one small shtetl, coupled with the hot and long-lasting denial that this had ever happened. That cannot have improved my mood--but it's unusual that such works of art "get" to me.

9/8: As my readers already know, I finally acknowledged the loss of two long-time friends, perhaps for multiple reasons, but especially because of political differences. Worse: These once-cherished friends simply drifted away without realizing that they'd done so. Aging and health always play a role--but this is only a small part of the story.

9/8: My long-term aide and housekeeper suddenly has to return to Central Asia in order to nurse her mother after surgery. The search for someone else will take many hours in terms of finding someone and then training them.

9/9: The UN is in town, and all the diplomats' wives are double and triple parked on Madison Avenue, buying the most expensive Stuff in the world. At the UN itself, the usual hating on Israel has commenced. Traffic is impossible. Why isn't the UN housed in a Muslim country? Or in a European country? Why is American taxpayer money being spent on this failed and hypocritical institution?

9/8-9/11: An expected furniture delivery was delayed and then rescheduled for the worst possible day and then, at the last minute, adding salt to the proverbial wound, and with only a ten-minute notification, it arrived. I do not like any of it. Enough said.

Worse are publishing- and archival-related matters. This is too painful to write about.

And then there's this: I am increasingly unable and unwilling to keep inserting passwords; paying for every site that I read; paying for evermore streaming platforms; receiving information via portals; keeping up with all the texts and facetime requests. I barely have the time to watch or listen to those webinars I really want to watch.... I might be back to a typewriter or a goosequill pen and parchment paper. The techie invasion is overwhelming.

Thank you for listening. And how was your week thus far?