A Bad Idea That I Need to Put Out Again

I was re-reading The Third World War: The Untold Story and the parts about the use of penal soldiers (literally, men taken directly from prison) as shock troops in meat-grinder campaigns, and thinking about how it can happen here.

The idea: a company that privately runs prisons for the government merges with a "defense contractor" which is actually a mercenary army. In order to foment a war to drum up business, they shanghai a number of hardened criminals from lock-up and send them, totally untrained and unsupported, in a raid on a nation like Cuba or North Korea or Iran where they are guaranteed to be killed when they arrive. Just a very sick version of Ten Little Indians.

Some Surprising Nutritional News, via Yahoo

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some may see a cup of tea as soothing but chocolate is more likely to lower one's blood pressure, German researchers reported on Monday.

Foods rich in cocoa appear to reduce blood pressure but drinking green and black tea may not, according to an analysis of previously published research in the Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association.( Read more... )

But don't start gobbling up chocolate bars just yet, wrote study author Dirk Taubert of the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany.

Treats such as dark chocolate might be substituted for other high-calorie desserts, based on the study's findings, but "we believe that any dietary advice must account for the high sugar, fat and calorie intake with most cocoa products.

"Rationally applied, cocoa products might be considered part of dietary approaches to lower hypertension risk," he wrote.

I have the suspicion that chocolate keeps me crazy, but I had no idea it's also keeping me alive. I guess I should stop trying to break my addiction to the stuff. It's not as bad as smoking or booze or hardcore drugs.

FP