BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Today for my birthday - my friends were quite wonderful. But best of all was my children - who made and decorated a cake for me, did a magic show for me and got me thoughtful and lovely gifts that showed they have a tremendous amount of empathy and insight into their mother's character. I always worry that since my divorce as well as being disabled (and the disability is getting worse) I am not able to give my children what they want or be with them as much as they'd like. Of course those are my fears, not theirs. One of my children wrote this for me... it will be one of those MUST SAVE items every Mother has. After 12 years of infertility treatment, and then this particular child having severe 24 hr a day colic for 7 months - proved how worth it every single step of the way was.  And this child, after years of dreaming a big dream and very hard work - was accepted to Bronx Science . And what wonderful people my children are turning out to be. From my child, for my b...

(repost from 2008) by Alan M. Dershowitz As Israel celebrates its [61st] birthday, the world should recognize the enormous gifts the Jewish state has given the world. Israel has exported more lifesaving medical technology to the far-flung corners of the earth than any nation of comparable size. It has done more to protect the environment, to promote literature, music, the arts and sciences, to spread agricultural advances and to fight terrorism within the rule of law. Israel has created a legal system that is the envy of the world, with a Supreme Court that is open to all with few, if any, restrictions on its jurisdiction. As America's most liberal Supreme Court Justice William Brennan observed when he visited Israel in 1988: "It may well be Israel, not the United States, that provides the best hope for building a jurisprudence that can protect civil liberties against the demands of national security. For it is Israel that has been facing real and serious threats to its securi...