Yes, I'm catching the opening of Return of the King tonight. Some friends and co-workers and I are going to go out to dinner and get schnockered -- er, get prepared for the big three-hour blowout. I'm going to have to deal with the giant spider this time around, but actually CGI spiders don't look realistic enough yet to scare me that much. I hope.

Bill Cork just employed Tolkien to defend a cardinal who advocated humane treatment for Saddam Hussein. Along the way, he said pretty much what I was thinking about all that. Other noteworthy posts I've seen lately on Saddam's capture include Iraqi blogger Zeyad discovering his own Stockholm Syndrome (here and here); J. Collins Fisher trying to stop her knee from jerking; and Jeanne d'Arc pondering how Saddam should be tried. I don't have time to do much commentary myself (and I don't have anything that interesting to say, really), but all those are worth reading.