is aging genetically controlled.

On 8/11/06, Xenophile wrote:
(...)
> How many of history's dictators died of "old age?" They usually die
> well before the infirmities of age catch up with them.
(...)

Are you sure? Right now I remember a lot of dictators dying of old
age: all the leaders of the old Soviet Union, as well as Mao Tse Tung,
Pol Pot and Kim Il-Sung. Apparently Castro and Pinochet are going
through the same path. In fact the only dictator that right now I
remember dying of non-natural causes - suicide, in his case - was
Hitler. (Who some may not consider exactly a dictator, for as far as I
remember he ascended to power through democracy.)

And, of course, if you consider as dictatorships all the countless
absolute monarchies that existed throughout millenia of human history,
then the number of "dictators" dying of old age would skyrocket.

On the other hand, even though democratically elected leaders stay
only four or five years in power, I remember a lot of them dying of
assassination or suicide: Kennedy and Lincoln in the U.S., Vargas in
Brazil, Rabin in Israel, and... I think that there was also a Swedish
or Norwegian leader who was murdered, wasn't it?