Father's day is over for another year. It was my second father's day. It was my first father's day since the passing of my dad.

It was a nice day with Di, Adara and Bartholomew. I got some cool presents (including a plush Firefox) and had an enjoyable lunch at Dante Ristorante Italiano in the courtyard of Leichhardt's Italian Forum.

But I feel I should dedicate Father's Day to the fathers of Breslan, in southern Russia. Those hundreds of fathers who lost children because of that terrible atrocity perpetrated by rebels and mercenaries in their school. Children who were captured, locked up in oppressive conditions, and had their school building booby-trapped. On the first day of a new school year.

No cause, however noble or otherwise, can even begin to justify the capture and slaughter of innocent children. It was truly horrifying watching the gun battles and general mayhem on the news channels on Friday night. I can recall few acts of terrorism or war as sickening as this.