Glass is half full?

I made the mistake of watching the news tonight. It was one big heavy what-are-we-going-to-do-with-this-world downer. It just seemed worse than usual. Besides the far away problems in Fallujah and the Ivory Coast (I haven't even discovered yet what all that is about), there's the problems that are a bit closer to home. Some bad shit went down in The Hague today when the police raided a house where they believed there were some suspected terrorists. While it was going on, the airspace around The Hague was even closed off. Early this morning an Islamic school was burned down in a small Dutch town, probably in retaliation regarding the death of Theo van Gogh. The news pointed out the many attacks on schools, mosques and churches that have taken place all over The Netherlands in just the past couple of months, but after the death of Theo van Gogh it seems likely that an endless cycle of retaliation acts could start, or has already started.

I try to be an optimistic person, and think how we've survived this long regardless of all the wars and horrible things we've done to each other throughout history, and that the current situations don't mean it's the end of the world. But then I think that the world should be a better place now, that we're smarter now, have more hindsight, we should have learned our lessons from our past and improved things and sure as hell learned to live with each other's differences. After the past couple of weeks though, it all just feels a bit hopeless, and I do start to wonder what the hell is happening to the world. I sound like a cynical old fart. Maybe I am.

It's definitely time for a vacation, just sit far away in a tropical paradise and forget about all this crap for awhile. It'll only be all too short.