Super-Sized

In downtown Cincinnati yesterday, Black Fist leader Kabaka Oba was fired at and shot 3 times shortly after addressing city council. The Black Fist is a militant activist group that has been accused of being anti-Semitic. The 48 year old was is in critical condition at University Hospital today. Howard Beatty has already turned himself in and admitted to shooting Oba, after he allegedly threatened him just outside city hall. Beatty claimed self-defense saying that Oba had threatened him Sunday at the broadcast of a television show. The two men have had a long standing dispute, and it all culminated yesterday afternoon. The claim of self-defense seems shaky especially when police found no weapons in Oba's car, and due to the fact that Beatty had a restraining order which prohibited him from being within 500 yards of Kabaka. This shooting comes just a day after police have committed to cracking down on crime in the crime-riddled, poverty stricken area of Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine. The last two days police have made over 100 arrests from drug possession to parking tickets. We can only hope that this program helps to clean up the streets, and does not incite racial tensions or prejudices that could lead to violence that have a history in Cincinnati.......

Well good news for American fast food junkies who enjoy stuffing their faces with super-sized portions of french fries and chicken nuggets. A study released Wednesday showed that fast food fries and chicken are fattier in the U.S. than they are in other countries. The culprit behind this is vegetable oil that is high in trans fat used for frying chicken and fries. While McDonalds and KFC claim that the reason for varying degrees of trans-fat in their oil is based on consumer taste from restaurant to restaurant, the real answer is that oil that is high in trans-fat is cheaper than a healthier (if that’s at all possible) alternative. The difference between America, Europe, and Russia was not small either "At a New York City McDonald's, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo was found to contain 10.2 grams of the trans fat, compared with 0.33 grams in Denmark and about 3 grams in Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic." While many have petitioned and pleaded the FDA to limit the amount of trans-fat allowed in food, the FDA will not impose these sanctions that most European nations mandate. Even more maddening is the fact that switching to canola, corn, or soy vegetable oil would not only be healthier, but it would just cost an average of $.01 per food order. I suppose this price is too high though. It will be much more cost effective for us to pay billions of dollars in healthcare to support the 127 million adult Americans (not to mention the 15% of children) who are not just overweight, but obese......

The Tigers dropped another close one to the White Sox yesterday 4-3, Shelton hit his sixth home run of the year but it wasn't quite enough. The Reds managed to have more errors than hits yesterday committing 5 and only managing 4 hits. Its tough to win ball games when its barely a when you commit 12 errors in 8 games. Edwin Encarnacion leads the way with 5 errors committed thus far. As if this weren't enough Griffey came out of the game yesterday with soreness in his right knee. The news is easier to bear though knowing that the Pistons shellacked the Cavs 96-73 last night.