What Caught My Eye Today

Afghanistan - See if this sounds familiar... The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has repeatedly praised the work of the 24th MEU in fighting Taliban militants in Helmand Province. Ironic how the reward for doing a good job under hellacious circumstances is more of the same. How's that for motivation? The Pentagon announced in January that the MEU was being ordered to Afghanistan, largely because efforts to press other NATO nations to increase their troop levels at the time had failed. And so it would appear that those efforts continue to fail.

Olympics - President George Bush will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and will also visit South Korea and Thailand as part of the trip. Human rights groups and opposition politicians including presidential hopeful Barack Obama had urged Mr Bush to consider boycotting the ceremony. Several world leaders said they were considering boycotting the 8 August opening ceremony over Beijing's actions. The president has always maintained that the Olympics are a sporting spectacle and should not be politicized. It's a little to late for that, don't you think. Bush will also meet Chinese President Hu Jintao as part of his visit to China. I don't have any particular problem with Bush's decision on this. On this rare occasion, I find myself agreeing that the Olympics shouldn't be politicized. That being said, one wonders why he didn't make a commitment one way or the other until now. He's never been one to care much for what others might think of him, so why wait to announce his trip?

Law - The head of the judiciary in England and Wales said that Islamic sharia law could play a part in the legal system here. Say what? "There is no reason why sharia principles, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution," Lord Chief Justice Lord Nicholas Phillips said. There are already about a dozen sharia courts in Britain which are mainly used to resolve family disputes but they have no formal legal status. "It is possible in this country for those who are entering into a contractual agreement to agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law," the Lord Chief Justice said. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Downing Street office said of Phillips's remarks: "We think that British law should be based on British values and determined by the British Parliament." I like to think that I have an open mind about a lot of things, but the separation of church and state is one that I'm pretty rigid on. Religion and government go together about as well as oil and water. Sure they're both important, but that doesn't mean they should be connected at the hip. And that goes for all religions, not just Islam. Heck there are some Christian fundamentalists out there that scare me every bit as much as any Islamic extremist sect.

Watermelon - Here's a little nugget that I bet you don't know about this fruit. A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra. Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body's blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra. Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems. I'm not sure what all that technical stuff means, but if a slice of watermelon can help 'seal the deal' (if you get my drift), then hook me up with a double helping. One would need to eat about six cups of watermelon to get enough citrulline to boost the body's arginine level. Umm, okay. Hook me up with 3 double helpings. The problem you have when you eat a lot of watermelon is you tend to run to the bathroom more. Another issue is the amount of sugar that much watermelon would spill into the bloodstream — a jolt that could cause cramping. Oh good lord. This is way to complicated. Just give me the little blue pill for goodness sake.

Hurricane Season - So far it's been rather quiet on the hurricane front, though you would never know it from all the devastation caused by the flooding in the Midwest and wildfires on the West Coast. Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa with maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph. It's still too early to say if or where Bertha will hit land. The first named storm this year, Arthur, formed in the Atlantic the day before the season officially started June 1 and soaked the Yucatan Peninsula. It's pretty quiet in the Pacific as well. Tropical Storm Boris is dying out harmlessly in the middle of the ocean.

Tennis - Venus and Serena Williams won in straight sets to set up their third all-sister Wimbledon final and seventh Grand Slam championship matchup. Girls got skill, don't they? Yo, homeboys...yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you Andy Roddick and James Blake. Maybe you all should take a few pages from the Williams' playbook. You might just win a few more matches. It will be the first all-Williams final at any tournament since 2003, when Serena beat her older sister in the Wimbledon title match for the second year in a row. Serena holds an 8-7 career edge over Venus, including 5-1 in Grand Slam finals. Since Venus won the U.S. Open in 2001, Serena has won five straight of their major finals. I don't have any particular reason for doing so, but I'm kind of hoping that Venus wins.