I�m in a hurry today, and have no major issue to expound upon today, so instead I offer these quick tidbits:

Gwenyth Paltrow got married in a secret ceremony. This should have been a media event! The ex of both Ben Affleck and Brad Pitt? Getting married? But it wasn�t. See, Jenny dear, you can keep a wedding secret if you want. Emphasis on �if you want". I suspect that Miss Lopez wants public adoration more than she wants married (again).

I awoke this morning to a news story on NPR about a human rights organization criticizing the U.S for causing more Iraqi casualties than necessary because of the Army�s use of cluster bombs. More interesting, I thought, were some of the other things they had to say. Like how this was the more humane war in recent history. Civilian casualties were kept very low, and this was mostly attributed to the professionalism of the U.S. troops, the rules of engagement that we adopted and followed (for the most part), and even restrained use of cluster bombing by the Air Force and Marines. Wow. A human rights organization pointing out that we fought a war by rules and won, against an opponent who didn�t, and continues not to, follow rules. I admit, I didn�t know if you could still win a war that way. I�m glad to know that the good guys still win.

Of course, the emphasis of the story on NPR was that thousands more civilian casualties could have been prevented. Yeah, if Saddam Hussein had surrendered. You know what else could have saved thousands of civilian lives? If nobody had flown planes into the World Trade Center.

I�ve got a big Christmas party to attend tonight. It�s thrown by friends who are really proud of this annual event. In the past, this party has gone strong into a third day. I remember, one year, everyone laying around the floor on Saturday morning bemoaning that fact that someone had to leave the apartment and acquire more liquor. This reluctance to leave, even momentarily for so noble a cause, was part not wanting to get fully dressed, part not wanting to go out in the cold, and part astonishment that we had gone through a weekend�s worth of liquor in the first night. But mostly it was separation anxiety. Nobody wanted to leave the group and miss anything. That�s the mark of good friends and a great party. I can�t wait.