oops!

It would appear that I missed my own blogiversary. Well, happy blogiversary to me about a week and a half late (It was back on the 15th of this month.).

If you just can't wait for more Heroes

I found a site that has a little info on the next 3 episodes of Heroes. Not really spoilers, more like what the TV Guide might have as a description. And it does say that the info could change. For all of you Star Trek fans out there, Nichelle Nichols is scheduled to be on the Oct. 15th episode. Enjoy!

This is bothersome on so many levels

Via the BBC - Germany 'drops CIA extradition'

Germany has dropped a request to the US to extradite 13 suspected CIA agents accused of abducting a German citizen, officials and media reports say.
A justice ministry official reportedly confirmed an article in the German weekly Der Spiegel that said the US had refused the extradition request.

[. . .]

A spokeswoman for the justice ministry in Berlin told the Associated Press news agency Germany had decided against passing on to US authorities the extradition demand of the prosecutors in Munich.

[. . .]

"Mr Masri has pursued litigation for civil damages here in the US and this litigation is ongoing," he said.

"To date, US courts have barred his suit based on the US government's assertion of state secrecy concerns."

[. . .]

Mr Masri says he was kidnapped in Macedonia in 2003, flown to a secret jail in Afghanistan and tortured there.

He says he was detained for five months before being released in Albania after the Americans realised they had got the wrong man.

Okay, where to begin? The US sends CIA agents to kidnap a foreign national, take him to another country, and torture him. I have a problem with that right off.

Next, the man doesn't seem to have any legal recourse in his own country or in ours. This too seems wrong. The German are apparently afraid of pissing off the US, which seems a little odd at this point, but that's how they are telling it. And the US seems to have very little sense of justice anymore because everything has become a matter of national security. Where (or when) will it all end?

You are what you eat

Via CNN - If we are what we eat, Americans are corn and soy

Proteins and fats in your food are incorporated into your body and brain with potentially profound effects on your health and even your behavior.

[. . .]

"We are what we eat with respect to carbon, for sure. So if we eat a particular kind of food, and it has a particular kind of carbon in it, that's recorded in us, in our tissues, in our hair, in our fingernails, in the muscles," Dawson says.

[. . .]

"We're like corn chips walking because we really have a very, very large fraction of corn in our diets, and we actually can't help it because it's an additive in so many of the foods we find on the market shelves," Dawson says.

[. . .]

Americans also eat an extraordinary amount of soybean oil, another key ingredient in most processed foods.

Now apparently Europeans don't eat as much processed food as we Americans do. It makes me wonder, what the heck do they eat and how, as an American, do I avoid processed food. Also, it would seem that we could avoid anti-depressants if we just ate more fish.

Our bodies need a balance of omega-6 fatty acids like soybean oil and omega-3 fatty acids like fish oil, Hibbeln says. Over the last century, our diets have shifted almost completely to omega-6 fatty acids.

"It's quite likely that most of the diseases of modern civilization, major depression, heart disease and obesity are linked to the radical and dramatic shift in the composition of the fats in the food supply," Hibbeln says.

Our brains are composed of fatty acids, and an absence of omega-3 fatty acids can actually change our behavior, according to Hibbeln.

Hibbeln's research suggests diets containing omega-3 fatty acids found in fish reduce depression, aggression and anger, while improving mental well-being.

Now my question is, what if you eat fish that has been fried in soybean oil or corn oil? And I thought soy was supposed to be good for you anyway. Who knows anymore?

Melting Ice - Heating Debate

Via the BBC - Ice loss opens Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the high Arctic.

Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, Esa says.

It says this made the passage "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.

[. . .]

Scientists have linked the changes to global warming which may be progressing faster than expected.

Whether global warming is due to human activity or just natural cycles, it would seem that the Northwest Passage opening up is a big deal. It seems clear that we going to have to learn to deal with the repercussions of these climate associated changes whether we like it or not. I find it interesting that it is already causing some international debate and disagreement.

The opening of the sea routes are already leading to international disputes.

Canada says it has full rights over those parts of the Northwest Passage that pass though its territory and that it can bar transit there.

But this has been disputed by the US and the European Union.

They argue new route should be an international strait that any vessel can use.

And I'm sure there will be more unforeseen circumstances that arise from these global climate changes that will require international attention and negotiation as time goes on.

So soon?

It is hard to believe that tonight is the season finales for Monk and Psych. It seems like they just started back, and in the grand scheme of things they did. The "new season" that is now ending just started in July. Oh well, I guess I'll have something to look forward to in January. Maybe I'll buy the first season of Psych on DVD so I can at least see the reruns, and I'm not normally a rerun type person.

Is there much interest in Fred Thompson?

Looking at my blog traffic, I have to wonder how much interest there really is in Fred Thompson at this point. Thanks to this post I wrote back in June, and the subsequent link I got from buzzfeed.com, my blog traffic has tended to almost directly parallel interest in Fred Thompson. When the media starts talking about him, my traffic increases drastically. Looking at my sitemeter, Fred's announcement of his official candidacy only garnered a 3 day spike in my blog traffic with a sharp drop off after that. In the past, the increased traffic has tended to last longer and taper off more slowly. Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but I found it interesting.

The Via Media

WaPo - Democrats Push Toward Middle On Iraq Policy

Democratic leaders in Congress have decided to shift course and pursue modest bipartisan measures to alter U.S. military strategy in Iraq, hoping to use incremental changes instead of aggressive legislation to break the grip Republicans have held over the direction of war policy.

As an Episcopalian, I have to admit that I'm fond of "the middle way." And really, if one is thinking logically, it was apparent that this day would eventually come. One can only do the same thing for so long without success before realizing that a different path is the only viable option. This is a democratic society after all, one designed to protect the rights of the minority as well as the majority. And this is true in Congress as well as society as a whole. It only makes sense that the Democrats in Congress would eventual come around to the notion that compromise is the best answer here, if not the only answer.

This, however, I find quite irritating:

MoveOn.org, a liberal activist group that has spent months pressuring Republicans to turn against the war, is now threatening to turn on Democrats who temper their positions.

I don't understand why MoveOn.org would prefer continually banging their heads against the wall to some incremental change. Isn't incremental change still "moving on"?

I couldn't resist

I know, I haven't blogged anything in over two weeks and I end my silence with something like this, but I just couldn't resist.

The question is: Do you know how American beer is like making love in a canoe?