Yes, the final frame was almost right out of Planet of the Apes. But so what? I really wanted to see the top of the Statue of Liberty at the end of that amazing shot.

For those of us who still like the show, who watch it every week, it was a great mid-season finale (who the frack invented that stupid term?). As many others have said, Michael Hogan's performance (as Tigh) was not only Emmy worthy, but far outshined everything else happening in this episode. Which, considering everything else that was happening, is saying something. His story line, how he embraced his true nature in order to try and save humanity, that moment he turned and told Lee to kill him? Wow. That's all I can say.

But I really hate the Sci-Fi channel. Why do they make us wait months at a time - supposedly in the 'middle' of a season - to see new shows? When I saw the words "coming soon" after the preview last night I started yelling at the TV. Seriously, six months from now is "soon?"

Frack you, Sci-Fi.

I know we have this tradition of saying nice things about people when they die - with the possible exception of Jerry Falwell. But all of this nonsense about Tim Russert is quickly wearing thin. Yes, he was a nice guy, a decent media celebrity, by all accounts a good husband and father, and I have nothing bad to say about him personally.

But we keep hearing about how much of a 'normal' guy he was, how he never forgot his 'blue collar' roots, how he really loved his family, embraced his religion, and so on. Whenever I hear these kinds of things said about anyone, I always wonder why we celebrate normalcy. When did being being normal become its own kind of sainthood? When did excelling, being ahead of your time, or trying to change the status quo become something 'other' people do?

Our consecration of normalcy is what gave us George W. Bush (the President we'd like to have a drink with). It's what gives us American Idol year after dreaded year. It's what has given us SUVs and McMansions. It's why we are suffering under a Wal-Mart economy, global warming and an energy crisis. It's how racism, sexism and homophobia are created and nurtured.

Normalcy doesn't change anything, and marginalizes anyone trying to do so. It's why scientists are 'nerds,' environmentalists are 'hippies,' activists are 'protestors' and oil tycoons are billionaires. It is something to be avoided, not celebrated.

So yes, I'm all for saying nice things about the recently departed. Let's just avoid glorifying the very 'normal' embrace of the cultural status quo in the process.

All animal species are different, including humans. And every animal is different, in many ways, from others of its own kind. So difference is not the issue.

The real issue is the idea that our particular human differences put us on a higher moral plane, giving us the 'right' to rule the planet, and the other sentient creatures we share it with, as assumptive dictators, owing no moral consideration to the other, less sentient creatures. Hence, a non-human animal, because it is somehow 'lesser,' is considered either a pet or a main course.

But if our differences from the other animals were truly so great as to merit this higher worthiness of existence, then surely we would not be so violent, self-centered, easily distracted by shiny baubles, or as unashamedly, willfully uncurious as so many of us seem to be.

In other words, our intellectual superiority does not seem to translate into moral superiority. In fact, we just use our intellect to come up with more clever ways to be unregretfully unethical, and more clever rationalizations for our continued false sense of superiority.

First of all, the army corps of engineers clearly has organizational and actual engineering problems that need to be addressed and fixed. They were the cause of the devastation of New Orleans, not hurricane Katrina, and their organization has yet to really be held accountable for it. If, as some in the article suggest, they are really to blame for the midwest floods, then some oversight and accountability ought to happen.

Secondly, the idea of unlimited production, trade and growth of both goods and people is a fairy tale at best, and at worst lies at the heart of these floods and many other so-called environmental problems.

We cannot sustain the lifestyle that we have created in America, and we cannot simply continue to grow and grow and make more and more things and more and more people willy-nilly. Because we cannot continue to ship more and more 'stuff' in more and more barges, trains, semi trailers and airplanes indefinitely. We don't have the fuel, and in terms of the Mississippi river, we're already making irrevocable changes to it that we will almost certainly one day regret.

Instead of the fairy tale of unlimited growth, we need to embrace limited, necessary and sustainable growth, both in goods and in the human population.

Problems such as these floods will only get worse unless we change the way we think, act and live, and soon.