World's oldest woman dies at 115

BBC - World's oldest woman dies at 115

Julie Winnefred Bertrand was born 16 September 1891 in the Quebec mill town of Coaticook near the US border.

She was officially proclaimed the world's oldest woman, and the second oldest person, after the death of American Elizabeth Bolden in December.

She passed away quietly in her sleep in the retirement home where she had lived for the last 35 years, her nephew said.

She was older than my great-grandmother who was born in 1897 and passed away in 1986. The thing that I found most interesting about the story was this line:

She never married but she had suitors, said her niece Elaine Sauciere.

I was always impressed that my great-grandmother lived alone as a widow for 30 years, but for a woman of that generation to have lived her entire life without being married is impressive.

An Invitation

But an invitation to what? An arms race or treaty talks?

NYT - Flexing Muscle, China Destroys Satellite in Test

China successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said yesterday.

Only two nations — the Soviet Union and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in antisatellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid-1980s.

Arms control experts called the test, in which the weapon destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow an antisatellite arms race. Alternatively, however, some experts speculated that it could precede a diplomatic effort by China to prod the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.

It is kinda funny to me that the US likes to act like everyone else is causing the problems and we are just so virtuous and peace-loving, when in reality others are often just reacting to the threat we are posing in the international arena.

In late August, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that ignored calls for a global prohibition on such tests. The policy said the United States would “preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space” and “dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so.” It declared the United States would “deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.”

The logic seems to be that the world should just trust us to do whatever we want, where ever we want, but few others in the world should be granted that freedom. Hypocrisy!

Amusing

I was checking out some of the new features since I upgraded my blog template. Before if I clicked on a label that had more posts than would fit on the page there seemed to be no way to view the older posts. Now, with the upgrade, there is a link at the bottom of the page to the older posts. I was checking it out by looking at the posted labeled "personal interest" because there are so many of them. Anyway, when I got to this post I was amused by the picture of U2 at the bottom of the post. It just stuck me that it looks like Bono's crotch is offering a shining light to the world.

On a related note, I thought of a novelty t-shirt idea yesterday. It would say: "Help! My mind has fallen into the gutter and I can't get it out!"

Odd coincidence or crooked politician?

You decide. WaPo - Identity of Edwards Home's Buyers Veiled: Assisted-Living Magnates in SEC Probe Paid Candidate $5.2 Million

The grand 18th-century house had lingered on Washington's slowing real estate market for more than 18 months. The Edwardses paid $3.8 million in 2002 for the six-bedroom Federal-style house once owned by socialite Polly Fritchey, and they did substantial renovations. The final sale price was half a million dollars below the asking price but still $1.4 million more than the Edwardses paid four years earlier.

Okay, there is nothing wrong with making a profit when you sell your house. Everyone hopes (expects) to do that. He even sold it for less than his original asking price, which sounds quite reasonable if the house had been on the market for a year and a half without moving. The man wants to run for president and he needs the money. Sounds reasonable. But then there is the issue of the buyers:

The wealthy founders of the nation's largest assisted-living housing chain for seniors, the Klaassens are currently cooperating with a government inquiry in connection with accounting practices and stock options exercised by them and other company insiders. They are also the focus of legal complaints by some of the same labor unions whose support Edwards has been assiduously courting for his presidential bid.
. . .
Edwards was told the Klaassens' name "in passing" around the time the offer came in on Dec. 18, Palmieri said last night, but he did not investigate further and had no knowledge of their business until a reporter's inquiry Wednesday. Palmieri said Edwards had not delved into the Klaassens' background: "They left it to be done at arm's length, real estate agent to real estate agent."

One could still make the argument that nothing is afoul here. Who does background checks on the people they are selling their homes to? And why would Edwards want to make a deal that could potentially hurt his image with his desired constituency? He must be telling the truth that he didn't pay any attention to who they were, right? But then you get the kicker:

Edwards has run into controversy once before on a house sale. In 2002, he reached a deal to sell a Washington house to a U.S. lobbyist for Saudi Arabia and then refused to give back the lobbyist's $100,000 earnest money when the deal collapsed. At the time of the sale, the Saudis were trying to improve their image in Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Edwards was serving on the Senate intelligence committee.

Edwards said he did not know the buyer was a Saudi lobbyist until after the deal had fallen through.

So this sort of thing has happened before, with a similar excuse attached? One would think that if he had this same problem in the past he would pay closer attention to who he is selling to a second time around. Politicians can't expect to just behave like average people and not be scrutinized for it. They really need to show exceptional judgement, especially if they are trying to differentiate themselves from the current administration, which I would assume Edwards would be trying to do. This may not be a deciding factor in the primary campaign. I don't now how the public will react to the news, but it does make me have sincere doubts about his use of better judgement.

Is Corn Oil Deadly?

Apparently it can be if it is injected into one's buttocks. CNN reports: Beautician gets 15 years for deadly Mazola injection

A former beautician who injected cooking oil into a woman's buttocks as an anti-aging treatment, killing the client, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Martha Mata Vasquez, 39, who pleaded no contest in October to involuntary manslaughter, practicing medicine without a license and fraud, apologized during Wednesday's sentencing hearing.

"I'm very sorry to my family, and I'm sorry to them (the victims and their families)," the married mother of two said.

Vasquez had charged clients up to $1,400 for each injection of Mazola corn oil, claiming the "French polymer" treatment would reduce wrinkles, prosecutors said.

One has to wonder, why did she use Mazola corn oil? Did she really believe that it would do something beneficial for the these people? Did she just think that if you could consume it you could inject it? What is wrong with some people?

And the plot thickens

BBC - Rule by decree passed for Chavez

Venezuela's National Assembly has given initial approval to a bill granting President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months.

. . .

The bill allowing him to enact laws by decree is expected to win final approval easily in the assembly next week on its second reading.

Just more evidence that Chavez is consolidating an authoritarian regime in Venezuela, as Matthew Shugart so rightly pointed out in his comment here. Steven Taylor offers more such commentary here.

Nation-States

Today in the World Politics class I have been observing this semester, the professor talked about the difference between nations and states and what makes a nation-state. I was already familiar with the differentiation, and it reminded me of a discussion I had with my sister last week after Governor Schwarzenegger's inauguration speech. In the speech Schwarzenegger says:

And yet here in this nation-state of California, people from all over the world live in harmony. I call California a nation-state because of the diversity of our people, the power of our economy and the reach of our dream. Every race, every culture, every religion has been drawn to California.

When my sister told me what he said in the speech I responded with "that's ridiculous! It is obvious that the governor of California has no idea what a nation-state really is." (I then had to explain the difference to my sister.) Anyway, a state is a legally defined territory that has a government that is recognized by and can enter into diplomatic agreements with other states (there are other legal criteria, but I won't bore you with all the details.) A nation is defined by a homogeneous culture not a diversity of cultures as Schwarzenegger posits. A nation-state is when a state is made up of citizens that are all part of the same nation (as defined above). So technically speaking, California is neither a nation nor a state (in the international sense that the governor was alluding to) and is certainly not a nation-state. His argument simply illustrates his ignorance of terminology on the subject.

I would have mentioned that in class today if I were allowed to comment in class, but I'm not so I didn't.

I also would have said "not if it is held in place by art". I'll let the professor decide where that comment would have been interjected. :)

Cartoon of the Day

My oldest son has to find political cartoons once a week for school. Yesterday he found this one which I thought was particularly good, so I decided to share. This and other cartoons can be found at caglecartoons.com

Helping the homeless in France

BBC News - French bill to fight homelessness

The French cabinet has adopted a bill to create a legal right to housing, after a series of high-profile protests by campaigners.

The demonstrations prompted President Jacques Chirac to promise action in his New Year's address.

If approved by parliament, the bill will legally oblige local authorities to provide accommodation for the homeless from the end of next year.

People facing eviction or living in squalid conditions will also be helped.

The bill would also create a new repatriation and resettlement package to allow immigrants with no family ties in France to return home.

I'm all for a right to housing. I feel like if we call what live in "civilization" we should provide for the less fortunate. If we don't, can we really call ourselves civilized or are we just living by the law of the jungle.

This was not the thing that particularly struck me about this article. It was the last sentence of the blockquote above that really caught my attention. The "repartiation and resettlement package" makes me wonder. Is this an excuse to deport people or is it really just help for those that want to return to their home country? The article really doesn't say. It is just kinda stuck in there. It makes the deal seem all progressive and liberal, but I wonder if there is an ulterior motive attached.

An interesting timepiece

CNN - 'Doomsday Clock' moved forward

The world has nudged closer to a nuclear apocalypse and environmental disaster, a trans-Atlantic group of prominent scientists warned Wednesday, pushing the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight.

It was the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward, this time from 11:53 to 11:55, amid fears over what the scientists are describing as "a second nuclear age" prompted largely by atomic standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

It is all very dramatic indeed, but I doubt that we are seriously that much closer to atomic holocaust than we were yesterday. Now I will grant that I am no nuclear physicist, but I am a political scientist. Just because Iran wants to get nuclear weapons, it doesn't mean they will succeed, nor does it mean they would be any more willing to use them than anyone else who already has them. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see nuclear weapons go away, but until the big boys are willing to get rid of them, the little boys are going to want to get them too.

The article also notes some other instances when the hands of the clock have moved.

Since it was set to seven minutes to midnight in 1947, the hand has been moved 18 times, including Wednesday's move.

It came closest to midnight -- just two minutes away -- in 1953, following the successful test of a hydrogen bomb by the United States. It has been as far away as 17 minutes, set there in 1991 following the demise of the Soviet Union.

Like a Stone

The chorus of "Like A Stone" by Audioslave has been going through my head ever since I woke up this morning. I'm not quite sure why. Here is the chorus:

in your house i long to be
room by room patiently
i'll wait for you there
like a stone i'll wait for you there
alone

It is a good song, with some really interesting lyrics; some of which I can identify with, others not so much. I think, for some reason, this morning I particularly identify with the title.

34000 Civilians killed in 2006

NYT - Iraqi Death Toll Exceeded 34,000 in '06, U.N. Says

The United Nations reported on Tuesday that more than 34,000 Iraqis were killed in violence last year, a figure that represents the first comprehensive annual count of civilian deaths and a vivid measure of the failure of the Iraqi government and American military to provide security.

The report was the first attempt at hand-counting individual deaths for an entire year. It was compiled using reports from morgues, hospitals and municipal authorities across Iraq, and was nearly three times higher than an estimate for 2006 compiled from Iraqi ministry tallies by The Associated Press earlier this month.

Numbers of civilian deaths have become the central indicator for the trajectory of the war, and are extremely sensitive for both Iraqi and American officials. Both follow the tallies, but neither will release them.

We like to keep track of the number of Americans killed but it is important to remember how many Iraqi civilians are loosing their lives as well.

Afghan Civilian Heroes

CNN News - Afghan civilians stop terror attack at U.S. base

Two civilians thwarted an attempted terrorist attack Tuesday when a vehicle loaded with explosives attempted to crash through the front gate of a U.S. base in the Afghan capital, according to the U.S. military.

The two men, an interpreter and a security guard, dragged the apparent suicide bomber from the vehicle before he could detonate explosives, said Col. Tom Collins, the chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"I think it's a pretty amazing and heroic event," Collins said.

He said that at about 9 a.m. Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET Monday) a driver crashed his vehicle into Camp Phoenix, the base where the Afghan National Army and police are trained. The driver reached for what appeared to be a cord to detonate a bomb, he said.

"Amazingly, a couple of Afghans who just happened to be on the scene there realized what was happening," Collins said.

"Anyone's inclination would have been to run away but these guys are genuine heroes," Collins said.

It is always good to hear about bombing that are stopped. It is also good to hear that there are people willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to save other people.

Additionally, it is nice to have an example of people in the country we are trying to help that are willing to help us in return. I never doubted that they were there, it is just good to have an example to point to.

The Passive Personality Principle

BBC News - Spain seeks US soldiers' arrest

Spain has issued an international arrest warrant for three US soldiers accused of causing the death of a TV cameraman during the Iraq war.

Jose Couso, 37, died in April 2003 after a US tank fired on a hotel used by foreign journalists in Baghdad.

The US has admitted its tank crew fired at the Palestine Hotel but has cleared Sgt Thomas Gibson, Cpt Philip Wolford and Lt-Col Philip De Camp of blame.

How can they do that, you might be asking yourself. The person was killed in Iraq, how could Spain have any jurisdiction to file an arrest warrant?

Well, the answer is the Passive Personality Principle. This is one of the 5 customary practice principles of international law on jurisdiction. This principle holds that a state has jurisdiction when one of its own citizens or nationals is harmed, even if that harm happens in another country. The logic behind this principle is that states (countries) have the right to protect their citizens no matter where they go.

It is a controversial principle of international law and one that the United States strongly opposed until relatively recently. In 1985, when Palestinians hijacked the Achille Lauro and killed an American citizen, the US decided that it had the right to try the hijackers based on this principle. This does not, by any means, indicate that the US will recognize the right of the Spanish to try the American soldiers. They undoubtedly will not. However, the Spanish are well within their rights to try.

How is Castro doing?

Well, apparently it is unclear exactly what his health status is at the moment.

BBC - Castro 'worse after failed ops'
The odd thing to me is that no where in the story does it say where that quote is exactly from. It does say:

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in a serious condition after three failed operations, a Spanish newspaper says.

President Castro - who has temporarily handed power to his brother Raul - is suffering from a serious intestinal infection, the report in El Pais says.

The article continues on to give details of Castro's surgeries and condition (which I won't quote because it is sorta gross, but you can read the article for yourself if you'd like), but ends with the assertion 'No change', stating that the Spanish surgeon who attended to Castro in December says that his prognosis has not changed.

Whether one goes with the "worse" or the "no change" assessment of the situation, reading the details of his condition really makes it sound BAD.

Iran Courts Latin America

CNN - Iranian, Nicaraguan leaders meet, vow to work together

Ahmadinejad was in Managua as part of a whirlwind series of meetings with Latin America's newly inaugurated leftist leaders.

He visited fellow OPEC member Venezuela on Saturday, vowing with President Hugo Chavez to spend billions of dollars financing projects in other countries to combat the global influence of their common enemy, the United States.
. . .
On Monday, the Iranian leader will attend the inauguration of Ecuador's new president, Rafael Correa, and meet with Bolivian President Evo Morales. Both are both outspoken critics of the Bush administration's policies in Latin America.

I'm not quite sure what Ahmadinejad is hoping to accomplish here. I guess the idea is to make people nervous that they are "in our own backyard" like during the Cold War days. It never really worked out too well back then, now did it.

I did find this statement in the article rather interesting:

Ortega, however, did not match Ahmadinejad's confrontational rhetoric in his remarks Sunday.

The Nicaraguan president instead focused on how Iran and Nicaragua should work to help the developing world.

He spoke of "constructive agreements to combat hunger, unemployment and poverty."

While pledging close ties with Ahmadinejad, Ortega has tried to start his new government on a cordial note with the U.S. government.

Who would have thought that Daniel Ortega would be a voice of moderation in Latin America?

How do they do it?

How do people sit and watch T.V. all day long? Yesterday afternoon I spent 6 hours straight watching a marathon of Psych episodes. (The marathon was actually 7 1/2 hours long, but I missed the first 30 minutes and the last hour.) Anyway, before I had even sat through the first 4 hours I was getting a headache, and by the time I stopped watching I just felt totally "out of it". Now don't get me wrong, Psych, rocks, or else I wouldn't have watched them. I had never seen it before, but it turned out to be a really great show. I would recommend watching it, just not for 6 hours straight. Television can be a good and enjoyable thing, but I think I need to remember to partake of it in moderation from now on.

Sleuthing out trouble

Washington Post - Amateur Sleuthing Lands Grisham in Real-Life Court

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday that John Grisham must face a jury for his actions in a real-life whodunit.

From what I can gather from the article, John Grisham, best-selling author and lawyer, decided to try to find out who was sending anonymous letters to his friend's wife. In so doing, he used his position on the board of trustees of his son's school to obtain confidential information from school records. He then used that information against a person who later proved to be innocent.

Both sides agree that Grisham and Alan Swanson then obtained enrollment and medical release forms from the school filled out by Almy and stamped "strictly confidential." They provided the forms to the handwriting expert, who issued a report saying the letters "possibly" were written by Almy, the lawsuit states.
. . .
The lawsuit says that Almy provided handwriting samples to another examiner, who cleared her, and that she passed a polygraph test.

I personally think that he should be called out for that type of behavior. First, he's a lawyer so he should know the law. If it was illegal, he should have known it. Second, just because you write novels doesn't give you the the appropriate expertise to carry out a proper investigation. I don't know what the possible consequences are, I'm sure they are relatively minor, but I think he deserves to feel some repercussions from his actions.

Just for the record, I've read some of his novels, and I wasn't overly impressed.

Reacting to the Carter book

Washington Post - Carter Center Advisers Resign Over New Book

Fourteen members of an advisory board to the Carter Center in Atlanta resigned yesterday in protest over former president Jimmy Carter's best-selling new book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that they could "no longer in good conscience continue to serve."

Obviously, if what the former President has written bothers them that much they should disassociate themselves with him.

The resignations were the latest episode in an escalating controversy over the book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," published in late November. It has been criticized within the American Jewish community as tilting sharply toward the Palestinians. Scholars have found fault with his fact-checking on small and large points. At least one former Mideast negotiator expressed outrage over what he called "misrepresented" history.

I haven't read the book, so I can't actually speak to its bias or lack thereof, or its accuracy. However, I have two things on this point.

1) Many people have the tendency to assume that something that is not biased in their favor is biased against them, even when it is an honest attempt at a fair, unbiased appraisal of the situation.

2) I will say, as a trained historian, that history is often misrepresented by those who record it. The winners tend to write history and they like to portray it in the way that makes them look the best. This is nothing new. I'm not saying it is right, but it is a fact of life.

The deciding factor for board member Steve Berman, he said yesterday, was a passage on Page 213 that he quoted easily from memory: It was imperative, Carter wrote, that Arabs and Palestinians "make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals" of an internationally proposed peace accord "are accepted by Israel."

"What does that say to you?" asked Berman, a commercial real estate developer in Atlanta. "It says they can stop when they get their state. He's condoning terror as a means of obtaining the objective of a Palestinian state."

I'll answer Berman's question, it doesn't say to me what it obviously says to you. It says to me that the Palestinians need to make it clear that they intend to stop when they get their state. That does not mean that they have a free pass to continue bombing until they get their state or that Carter is suggesting that they should continue until they get their state. However, many believe that they won't stop even once they get a state. This is important. Many believe that the Palestinians want the state of Israel gone and that they won't stop until it is. And my understanding is that many do feel that way. It is one of Hezbollah's stated goals. However, I think that Pres. Carter is trying to convey the idea that if Palestine wants to succeed in its goal of achieving statehood, it needs to make it clear that getting rid of Israel is not its ultimate goal.

Now, as I said before, I have not read the book and I am not defending the book, per se. I can only comment on the article and the quote that Berman offers. He asked "what does that say to you" and I simply offer my opinion.

Parenting Woes

An update on yesterday's Oh, the Irony post.

I talked to a counselor today at the college of his choosing (and my alma mater) and found out that it is NOT too late for him to apply for the fall and still receive a full scholarship based on his ACT score. However, the bad news (and there is always bad news) is that his GPA may not be high enough to qualify for the scholarship even though his ACT score is. UGH! Again!