Supreme Revenge

As you probably know, a country cannot be a member of Council of Europe (not to be confused with European Council) if it practices capital punishment; the organization is meant only for relatively civilized nations. (Admidetly, savages such as USA (see further) are sometimes granted observer status.)

Curently in the USA there are 73 people on 'death row' who commited their crimes when under 18 years old. 'The Boston Globe' has an article on Supreme Court's recent deliberations on constitutiality of death penatlies for minors (who are deemed not mature enough to have a beer or consent to sex). According to the article, one of the Justices, "Anthony Kennedy, appeared to be skeptical about banning death sentences for 16- and 17-year-olds, citing ''chilling" examples of gruesome murders committed by 17-year-olds." Obviously, the Justice (and not only he, alas) does not comprehend the difference between justice, penalty and Old Testamen-style revenge.

Deliberations were witnessed by Chinese Chief Justice. He was pleased to anounce that the People's Republic has renounced this barbaric practice (Somalia did that some time ago), leaving the USA the last country in the world to institutionally kill people for crimes they commited as children (they gave up on retarded criminals two years ago).

Let me also remind you that more than 100 death row inmates were recently exonerated by DNA tests. If you are USA citizen due to vote soon, please also remember how your half-wit extremely poor excuse for President gloated describing how a female Texan awaiting lethal injection begged for mercy, which he, as a Governor, naturally denied. He found it very funny. (Speaking of injections, AFAIK a physician has some role in conducting death penalty; have they forgotten their Oath of Hippocrates?)

The Worst Mexican President Ever

Rafael Barajas (El Fisgón) writes:

The typical Mexican political boss has an inclination toward violence and cruelty; he despises legality and intellectual activity, has a personal history of alcoholism and dissipation and lies systematically. Sound familiar?

He goes on to note how in this age of globalization one of truly global-impact processes, that of American presidential elections, is, regretably, not globalized.

I kind of feel similar: I am affraid I will be thoroughly affected by the result of what passes for elections in the US of A. That's why you will probably find several more posts here on the topic geographically over an ocean, but potentially almost as important for everyone as our own elections.

Boom! (again)

My friend Zvonči was leaving Paris for Zagreb today, so I went with her to the CDG airport. We were walking down the length of long and narrow terminal 2B concourse trying to locate appropriate passport control booth (this particular terminal is organised so that you first go through passport check, and only then to check-in), when we encountered several police or airport security guys clearing an area of the concourse perhaps 10 meters long. As luck would have it, that area contained the booths we were after. Luckily, there was plenty of time - Zvonči likes to leave herself wide margins. Anyway, we went outside for a smoke and saw wide assortment of uniformed and armed guys (local police, airport security, gendarmes, army, CRS (but not funny-looking ones like Asterix and Obelix here) clearing the segment of sidewalk and directing buses and taxis to stop a bit further down the access road. All this was done firmly, but at leisurely pace and without a bit of nervousness.

We thought at first they were preparing for arrival of some dignitary or celebrity whose VIP status would warrant keeping public at bay, but after a while a guy with 'Civil Security - Bomb Squad' (actually, 'Deminage' or something like that) on his jacket walked in. After nothing further happened for twenty minutes or so, we went in search of other passport checking booth, located it, verified that Croatian's check-in can be reached from there, and I waved Zvonči good-by. When I exited, the length of blocked sidewalk still stood between me and RER station. Instead of taking a local shuttle bus, I decided to wait. After a minute of so a muted 'bang' was heard from the building. Another minute later the blockade of the area was lifted.

The cause of this was probably an abandoned piece of luggage, which French police handles (I learned later) by covering it with something like huge armored garbage bin and detonating a small explosive charge inside. The point is, no terminal evacuation, no dramatic PA announcements, no three-hour delay, no 8 o'clock news. Routine reaction to routine potential threat, exactly as drastic as necessary, no less, no more. Those black-clad CRS guys and their brethren seem to know their job, and nobody is trying to collect political or professional brownie points by overreacting.

Who Gets Hit on the Head

'Forbes' has an article on steroids being more harmful than useful in treating head injuries. While mildly interesting as kind of medical trivia I like to read about, what makes the article appearing in the blog is this:

In general, Roberts said, "there is little clinical research in brain injuries. Most treatments for brain injuries are unproven. They may be useless or harmful as well."
Roberts contended there is a lack of interest in head injury research because "the people who suffer these injuries tend to be poor." Many of the injuries are caused by person-to-person violence, he said, and "there is a strong relationship between pedestrian injuries and poverty. Poor people are the ones who walk around, and they are the ones most likely to by hit by an automobile."

In other words, better to spend research money on something important, like liposuction.

Boom!

Apparently, a medium-sized bomb detonated this morning in front of the Indonesian embassy in Paris, barely three blocks from the apartment where I stay (no serious injuries reported, luckily; only some flying glass cuts). I did not hear a thing, despite one of my bedroom windows facing in the direction of the embassy. I must be working too hard...

Stigla je Zvonči

Danas je stigla Zvonči, i ostaje oko tjedan dana. Nisam je dočekao na aerodromu, nego na aerodromskom autobusu, što mi Jaca ne kani zaboraviti. Odmah smo se dali u veliko šetanje, od kojeg se još oporavljam. Slike po svoj prilici tek po povratku u Zagreb.

Da Vinci without a Codebook

I saw yesterday on CNN's pretentiously called "Insight" program a segment on Dan Brown's incredibly well selling novel "Da Vinci Code", "controversy" surrounding it and what the Church has to say. Hordes of "codehunters" visiting the book's locales were also covered. Here is an article that contains perhaps half of the program (that is, almost everything except the most interesting parts where actual specialists talk about early history of Christianity). BTW, to see what kind of industry has sprung around the novel, just search for it on Amazon.

(Warning: mild spoilers ahead) Now, I don't think too high of the novel: research is sloppy, style so-so, the "code-breaking" part almost childish. As for research, if the author is too lazy to learn how GPS locators work, describe Louvre's Great Galery accurately or invest more that one sentence in claim that Dead Sea Scrolls contain New Testament texts, it will somehow make suspension of disbelief harder. OTOH, it in not necessary to repeat twenty times that the Church changed quite radically in its early centuries, that authentic apocryphal (so to say) gospels exist or that religion is not "naturaly male-dominated" (though, judging by the novel's success, it seems to actually be news to many).

Anyway, what I wanted to harp about is this CNN's sentence: "The book supposes that [...] one of the fastest growing movements in the church, Opus Dei, is populated with plotters and assassins." Well, it does not. Actually, one of my main complaints to the novel is that it depicts the Church in general and Opus Dei in particular as angels at best and well-meaning but missguided sincere believers and victims of knowledge-seeking vilains at worst. Give me a break! (BTW, the elided part of the sentence is about quite popular theory of Mary Magdalene being Jesus wife - nothing new here, either.)

Update: I just saw Da Vinci's "Madonna of the Rocks", the Louvre version (in the Grand Galery packed like a metro car - it was the first Sunday of the month, meaning free admission). Well, Brown's interpretation might have something to it...