I always get a little annoyed when the stores start advertising "last-minute" gifts...usually about a week or two before I begin my Christmas shopping.

 

It's usually at about this time that I begin to point out to all who will listen that the true meaning of Christmas is not trees or lights or presents, but the birth of Christ. Those who know me very well may recall me pointing out that there are "Twelve Days of Christmas" referring to the time between Christmas and Epiphany (which gives me until about January 6th by my calculation).

 

All this by way of saying, I'll know the "last minute" when I see it and if the packages arrive before January 6, well, all right then.

 

Hope you, too, are having a relaxed holiday season and focusing on the important things.

 

I find myself oddly ambivalent regarding news of the capture of Saddam Hussein. Yes, he was the evil leader of a corrupt and repressive regime. Yes, the world -- and Iraq, certainly -- is a better place without him. But, no, he and his regime never posed any real threat to our security or the security of the world. And yet the Bush administration, on demonstrably shaky grounds, made his removal a national priority at ruinous cost in both lives and dollars. 

 

The world is filled with evil, but unless I've missed something, the United States has not been charged with policing it. We can and should abhor evil where we find it and we should work to eradicate it, but it saddens me that our leadership finds unilateral armed intervention to be an acceptable means for affecting change.

 

Where to next, George?