History in the making.

"He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you."
-Nietzsche

I guess I should make note here of last night's historic event, the execution of Saddam Hussein. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it, to tell you the truth. You'll get no argument from me that he deserved to die, and while I believe his trial was a farce, and the charges upon which he was tried and convicted akin to sending Al Capone up for tax evasion, I do believe justice was done. But at what cost, and with what hypocrisy? I note that the execution very conveniently (and, I venture, very intentionally) saw no Americans present. But is there anyone who believes that actually means the United States was nowhere behind the scenes? Very carefully it was reported that Bush was asleep at the time of the execution, but of what significance is that detail? While many are undoubtedly happy to see Saddam's death, does it make them any more sympathetic or friendly towards the United States? And on the other side of the coin, do those who despised our presence in Iraq from the start now just have yet another reason to hate us and our involvement? I'm not even going to go into the apparent irony (in my eyes, anyway) of the fact that our own President is arguably guilty of the same charges on which Mr. Hussain was tried, convicted, and executed. Not that I'm advocating hanging the guy, I just wonder what makes one man a monster for his actions and another... well, certainly not a hero, but still less than a monster.

2007 is upon us, and the world of so-called civilized humans is still so barbaric, in so many ways. As much as I pray to the Great Perhaps for anything, I pray that my daughter and unborn child will inherit a better world than what we have now. Not a worse one, at least.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I have sick girls. Munchkin woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon with a low-grade fever, which we've been keeping down with children's Tylenol. She slept in this morning and seems better--odd that the only real symptom was a little fever, other than that she's seemed okay, if a little more cranky than usual. Meanwhile, Heather's starting up with the morning sickness, which for her is more like all-day sickness. So far it hasn't seemed too bad, she just hasn't had an appetite for certain things. Hopefully it won't get much worse than this!

The weekend looks pretty boring, since we're not sure if munchkin's sick and Heather doesn't feel too good. This morning we did go out to a park not far from here, for a little walk and playground time for munchkin. After that we went to lunch (Firehouse Subs, mmm), then to Office Depot to try to score a free pack of CD-R's (out of stock already, oh well), and then Goodwill (a thrift store, for those who might not know) for a quick look around. In Goodwill there was an interesting character--a guy who was going around generally being obnoxious, cracking bad jokes and spouting his life story. Apparently he'd just gotten out of prison after a 5-year stretch for armed drug trafficking. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing I'd announce to a store full of strangers, y'know? He said he'd had a stash of money that "the sheriff's department didn't find," which is what brought him on this madcap shopping spree at the thrift store. And unless I heard him wrong (unlikely--he was the sort of guy lacking much in the way of a volume control) he said he was the father of five sets of twins plus four 'singles'. That's FOURTEEN children. Let's hope the fact that their father has been behind bars means that they won't follow in his footsteps. Or maybe he was making everything up--I'd almost hope for that!

Okay, time to.. um, do something else. Hope everyone is having a good weekend out there!