The Distant Ocean

From idea to reality

Dov Weisglass famously said of the strangulation of Gaza that "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger."  And according to the Lancet, that idea is working!

A comparison of the indicators from the surveys over the past decade (1996—2006) shows that the prevalence of stunting has increased substantially. Stunting, low height for age, which is an indication of chronic malnutrition and a risk factor for poor cognitive development, has been rising since 1996, and, in 2006, was recorded in one in ten children (figure 2). Although in the West Bank between 1996 and 2006, stunting increased (from 6.7% to 7.9%), it was especially pronounced in the Gaza Strip, rising from 8.2% to 13.2%.

You can see a full accounting of the success of this and other similar Israeli ideas here.

But it would be wrong to judge Israel solely on the basis of Weisglass's callousness.  Even during the recent invasion of Gaza Israeli soldiers were always mindful of the nutritional needs of Palestinians, going so far as to leave behind something for them to eat:

There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned to house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and excrement in the refrigerator.

I witnessed this largesse for myself in a children's classroom in Jenin in 2002, where Israeli soldiers had left a discarded pan of food (or was it?) right next to their shit-filled bucket:

Was it just too inconvenient to stroll to the bathroom a few feet down the hall?  Or did this reflect a sincere, heartfelt desire to give hungry Palestinian children some Israeli leftovers?  You decide.

ISRAEL'S LEADING DOCUMENTER OF MILITARY EXCRETION : The above account of the Gaza refrigerator offerings was written by the principled and long-suffering Amira Hass, who in 2002 wrote a similar article about the Israeli invasion of the West Bank with the unforgettable title, "Someone even managed to defecate into the photocopier".

I love Congress

Since the 2007 enactment of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, I love Congress two days each year: the first Sunday in November and the second Sunday of March.  Thank you, benevolent overlords, for allowing us an additional daytime hour for one week in October and three weeks in March!

And no, I don't want to hear any scoffing about this.  I don't care if the Energy Policy Act of 2005 had a provision I've overlooked allowing puppy molesters to eat children.  I don't care if it was passed thanks to massive lobbying by the tobacco and gun lobbies.  I don't care if it somehow increases the size of the ozone hole.  These parochial considerations are entirely secondary to my enjoyment of 3600 seconds of additional sunshine.

Yay, Congress!

A bright and shining future

Former Reagan and Bush-the-Smarter Justice Department lawyer David Rivkin describes a bright and shining future:

It’s important to recognize that the commission’s most deleterious and dangerous impact would be to greatly increase the likelihood of former senior US government officials being tried overseas, whether in courts of foreign nations or through international tribunals. And the reason for it is because the matters to be investigated by the commission implicate not only US criminal statues but also international law and which are arguably subject to claims of universal jurisdiction by foreign states.

I have no doubt that foreign prosecutors would eagerly seize upon the supposedly advisory determination that criminal conduct occurred, especially if it is the only authoritative statement on the subject by an official US body as a pretext to commence investigations and bring charges against former government officials. If they were clever, and most of them are, they would argue that the mere fact that the commission was established vividly demonstrates that grave crimes must have been occurred and interpret UN non-prosecution of individuals concerned through formal prosecutorial channels as a mere technicality to be repaired by their own broad assertions of jurisdiction.

He says that like it's a bad thing.

Rivkin included more detail in his prepared statement:

...President Obama's charge sheet has already been started. By authorizing continued Predator missile attacks against al Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he has directly targeted those "civilians" with deadly force. That is a war crime.

I like the way this Rivkin fellow thinks.  Just imagine what a wonderful world we could have if we transformed all his dire warnings into official policy!

Apocalypse roundup

Remember those fires in Australia?

The deadly bush fires in Australia have released millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to more than a third of the country's CO2 emissions for a whole year, according to scientists.

But that's not going to be a problem because the pace of climate change doesn't exceed estimates, right?

Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates

CHICAGO, Feb. 14 -- The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. 

"We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Yeah, sure, but it's all China's fault!  Isn't it?

The full extent of the west's responsibility for Chinese emissions of greenhouse gases has been revealed by a new study. The report shows that half of the recent rise in China's carbon dioxide pollution is caused by the manufacturing of goods for other countries - particularly developed nations such as the UK.

Last year, China officially overtook the US as the world's biggest CO2 emitter. But the new research shows that about a third of all Chinese carbon emissions are the result of producing goods for export.

Well, ok.  But sky god Obama will save us, won't he?

Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s new top climate-change negotiator, wants to tamp down on the expectations. He talks tough and is all for the shift to a low-carbon economy, but he’s not an ideologue. And he may well be reflecting the White House’s pragmatism in the face of numerous challenges.

In a speech that Stephen Power reported in the Wall Street Journal , Mr. Stern said the road map of greenhouse-gas emission reductions laid out at a 2007 summit in Bali was simply too ambitious. “We need to be very mindful of what the dictates of science are, and of the art of the possible,” he said. The Bali targets – a 25% to 40% cut by industrialized nations by 2020 – were simply too ambitious. “It’s not possible to get that kind of number. It’s not going to happen,” he said.

This lowering of expectations seems to be part of the Obama administration’s message on climate change right now.

It's almost like he's saying we have to set "realistic and achievable" emissions limits and not "promise what we cannot do".  If only we had Al Gore instead of this Todd Stern nimrod we wouldn't be hearing that kind of doubletalk!  Oh, wait.

It's good to know that in these uncertain times, when there seems to be so little you can count on, the apocalypse is still coming along right on schedule.

The Palestinian housing crisis...

...has been going on a lot longer than ours. Here's the latest round:

"The owners of 80 houses in the al-Bustan neighbourhood [of annexed East Jerusalem] have received eviction notices saying that the structures will be destroyed because they are illegal," said Hatem Abdel Kader, an official responsible for Jerusalem affairs in the Palestinian government.

He said 1500 people were living in the threatened houses in the neighbourhood abutting the Old City.

He said several of the houses served with demolition orders were built before 1967, when Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan during the Six Day War but numerous extensions have been built since.

"The (Jerusalem) municipality used this as a pretext to issue the demolition orders despite appeals by the residents," he said.

But why didn't these scofflaws just get permits?

From 2000 until September 2007:

• For every construction permit granted to a Palestinian by the Civil Administration, 18 other buildings are destroyed and 55 demolition orders are issued
• More than 94% of requests submitted by Palestinians were denied by the Civil Administration
• 33% of all demolition orders issued against Palestinian structures were carried out as opposed to just 7% against the settlements
• Only 91 construction permits were granted to Palestinians, while in the same time period 18,472 housing units were constructed in the settlements (According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, completed construction in the Settlements from 2000 till September 2007)

Excuses, excuses.

So let me see if I've got this straight: Israel is planning to demolish dozens of illegal houses because the people in question had no right whatsoever to build there.  Now, I'm getting the unmistakable sense that there's some sort of subtle irony at work here, but I just can't seem to put my finger on it.  What a puzzle.  Oh, I know, I'll randomly quote from a United Nations Security Council resolution—that always helps to clear my mind when I'm having a mental block.  Let's see...how about resolution 446:

The Security Council, [...]

3. Calls once more upon Israel, as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories;

Hmm, it's not working.  Maybe resolution 465 will do the trick:

The Security Council, [...]

5. Determines that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity...

Nope, still nothing.  If anyone else can find the elusive, deeply buried irony here, let me know, ok?  Otherwise I'll be up all night trying to figure it out.

China attacks moon

And scores a direct hit:

Images released by the Chinese government show that the lunar satellite circled the Earth three times before traveling toward the moon and circling it twice before its crash. The government said the Chang'e I was controlled remotely and began to reduce speed about 45 minutes before the crash. Images show the lunar satellite breaking apart on impact.

The deliberate crash of the lunar satellite aimed to give China experience for a moon landing in two years and eventual launch of an unmanned lunar rover.

Yes, that's humanity for you: we go somewhere new and unspoiled and strew crap everywhere.  I think the Chinese should be more careful, considering the trouble Hercules had with the moon men.

I can't help but notice that Chang'e looks suspiciously like V'ger.  Wait, I can guess this one....