Oscars
Million Dollar Baby deserved the Oscars. I still can't recommend the film. It is just too depressing.
I've read some blogs from Australia and England that complain about the time of the broadcast. In England it was in the middle of the night. In parts of Australia it was at a funny time on Monday night. Now, England has its (hey, I used it correctly) own Oscars type show that I cannot remember the name of at the moment. I bet if the U. S. Oscars broadcast at a friendlier time, they wouldn't feel the need.

BTK
I was born in Wichita Kansas. Now this guy has been grabbed in a town just north of Wichita. Either his daughter's DNA helped capture him or not. Some of the details are sketchy right now. I hope justice is served in this case. Kansas has a death penalty, but it doesn't apply because the last killing took place before it was reinstated. I find that disappointing.
I feel like I lost my home town. Now when you mention Wichita, I think of this prick instead of the place where I was born. Hopefully, that will wain.

Syria and Lebanon

At intervals throughout the evening fresh groups of demonstrators, wrapped in the red, white and green colours of Lebanon's flag, marched into the square chanting slogans accusing Syria of murdering Mr Hariri, who died with 16 others in a massive bomb attack outside a nearby hotel. As the crowd swelled, impromptu debates broke out beneath the statue's uplifted torch of freedom. ... Syria maintains that its presence is still necessary to prevent renewed civil war and that it will withdraw when asked to do so by the Lebanese Government - an unlikely request considering that Lebanese governments are traditionally reliant on Syria. SMH

They are right about someone needing to stick around to keep the place from boiling over. It would, ironically, have to be a similar situation to the one in Iraq. Hopefully, the number of terrorist attacks would not be as high in Lebanon.
I'm reading on blogs and hearing hints in the MSM that people in the Middle East really like the idea of Democracy. a blogger in Iran actually said some of the students say they want the U. S. to invade. They are exaggerating, I'm sure. Egypt is making some election reforms. I'm not sure what they really mean to the electorate. Time will tell. They might be the start to something good though. I say the best way to export Democracy is "Bay Watch".
One of the blogs had a photo posted from Beirut. It was a protester with a small sign that read "Hey Syria, who's next?" Nice.

Word of the day
matrilinear (matrilineal): Man takes woman's name upon matrimony. (roughly)