This is the time of year that drives me the craziest. The kids all have spring fever, and Tuesdays are the worst. They’ve been in school all day, and now they have to come straight ot religious school with barely a break between. That’s why I try to have my curriculum finished by mid-April if possible, or as early as I can get the kids past their mastery skills.

Today, I wanted to test them on the alefbet. You would think that they wouldn’t have any trouble with the letters at all, but I know there are still a couple of letters that each of them blank on. It’s either a blind spot thing or just a fourth grade thing. They read spectacularly for me on Sunday, so well that I went home thinking that yes, I really did manage to teach them to read Hebrew on a higher level by the end of the year.

So the alefbet test: I held up a flash card, and A. said, “Underarm sweat!”

Sigh.

Fourth graders.

They drive you crazy, and they keep you humble.

Good for you, Star-Ledger. And good for you for also using the J-word.

Federal investigators last night arrested six Islamic radicals who were planning a heavily-armed attack against soldiers at Fort Dix as part of a jihad against America, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In a statement released this morning to confirm a report on The Star-Ledger’s Web site, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the men planned to “kill as many soldiers as possible.”

You have to love the way these brilliant warriors of Mohammed were snagged:

The men - several of whom were in the same family - had videotaped their practice sessions in the Poconos, the source said. That videotape, in which they railed against America, led to their arrests.

The men made the mistake of bringing it to a retail store, seeking to get a copy burned to a DVD, according to one of the sources. A store employee who later watched the tape called the FBI who began immediately investigating.

The AP, of course, can’t stomach the truth of calling an Islamist an Islamist.

Six men described by federal prosecutors as “Islamic militants” were arrested on charges they plotted to attack the Fort Dix Army base and “kill as many soldiers as possible,” authorities said Tuesday.

So they have to include this at the end of their story:

The description of the suspects as “Islamic militants” was causing renewed worry among New Jersey’s Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim men from New Jersey were rounded up and detained by authorities in the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, but none was connected to that plot.

“If these people did something, then they deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer who represented scores of detainees after the 2001 attacks. “But when the government says ‘Islamic militants,’ it sends a message to the public that Islam and militancy are synonymous.

“Don’t equate actions with religion,” he said.

Sure. Just because terrorists call it “jihad” and talk about killing soldiers in the name of Islam doesn’t mean it has anything to do with religion.

Let’s not forget that the Islamic community of Paterson, NJ, was where several of the nineteen hijackers stayed before 9/11. This won’t be the last arrest of jihadis in New Jersey.

As a fitting sequel to the bloodcurdling description of savage acts by the Zionists doing their best to empty Jerusalem of its Arab inhabitants, here comes a less emotional report by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies:

The growth rate of the Arab population in Jerusalem is almost double the growth rate of the Jewish population, data published by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies revealed.

Out of approximately 720,000 Jerusalem residents, the Jews constitute 66 percent of the population. According to the institute, if this trend continues, in 2020 the Jewish population will drop to 60 percent and the Arab population will reach 40 percent, and in 2035 it will reach 50 percent.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews.