What Caught My Eye Today

Life - For the first time, U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years although it continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span. Great, more justification to delay my planned retirement. The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death including heart disease, cancer, accidents and diabetes. Japan has the longest life expectancy — 83 years for children born in 2006. Switzerland and Australia were also near the top of the list. Life expectancy was up for both men and women, and whites and blacks. Although the gaps are closing, women continue to live longer, almost to 81, compared to about 75 for men. Speaking strictly for myself, I'm not sure I want to live much longer than that. My body is already in shambles. I don't even want to think about the wreck that I'll be by then. Among racial categories, white women have the highest life expectancy (81 years), followed by black women (about 77 years), white men (76) and black men (70). Health statisticians said they don't have reliable data to calculate Hispanic life expectancy. Now this I find fascinating. How could they not have reliable data on Hispanics. Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the number of years that Hispanics live calculated the same way that it is for every other ethnicity? Did Hispanics come up with some alternative way of aging that the result of the human race knows nothing about?

Iran - President Bush raised the possibility of a military strike to thwart Tehran's presumed nuclear weapons ambitions, speaking bullishly on Iran even as he admitted having been unwise to do so previously about Iraq. Of course he did. Dude is running out of time to start any more unprovoked wars. Come January, Bush won't be able to do this sort of thing anymore. Bush's host in two days of meetings at a baroque castle, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, made it clear that the European opinion was that military action against Iran is nearly unthinkable. So what do you think of the European stance--rationale and well-thought out or gutless and cowardly? I'm going with the former though I think its rather clear what Bush's opinion is. There is no indication the U.S. actually plans any sort of military action, and experts believe it would be an extremely difficult feat tactically for many reasons. Bush's back-and-forth talk appears designed more to both remind Iran that the U.S. is serious about keeping it from developing a nuclear bomb and to try to finally corral sometimes reluctant allies behind a common firm stand. It's no wonder that not many foreign leaders aren't shedding any tears over the fact that Bush will be out of office in a few months.

Iraq - Here's more from that same meeting in Germany...Bush repeated his lack of regrets about waging the war in Iraq. He publicly acknowledged a mistake, saying he had not explained well enough in the time leading up to the invasion that had tried to exhaust all diplomatic options first and that he didn't like the idea of war. Quick someone look outside the window and see if there are any pigs flying. "I could have used better rhetoric," he said, referring to terms such as "dead or alive" to describe Osama bin Laden and "bring them on" in reference to Iraq. Funny how people tend to take phrases like "dead or alive" and "bring them on" seriously when they are uttered by the leader of the free world. One last rant on this. If Bush is apologizing for the war in Iraq--again--why is he hellbent on prolonging it?

Pakistan - Boy, we're just making friends with everyone today... Pakistan's army and the U.S. military gave widely differing accounts of a clash on the Afghan border that left 11 Pakistani troops dead. U.S. officials said three aircraft launched about a dozen bombs against insurgents attacking into Afghanistan from Pakistan. They defended the air attack, saying the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan was retaliating after its troops came under fire about 200 yards inside Afghan territory. The coalition said it had informed Pakistan's army the troops were being attacked from a wooded area near the border where the troops were killed. The Pakistani army rejected the claim that insurgents attacked from inside Pakistan or from the direction of the Pakistani border post. It also denied the U.S. military gave prior notice before it opened fire. Maybe this is a spin on that old saying "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," except in this case, the U.S. is "keeping its friends close and its allies closer." You know, for all the bitching that Russia has been doing about former Soviet republics joining NATO, I'm thinking that maybe they shouldn't worry too much. If the U.S. and Pakistan are representative of the relationships between allies, Russia has nothing to be concerned about.