Today is Europe Day, which was established in 1985 as a day for commemorating the Schuman declaration of 9 May 1950. This day is ignored by most Europeans, except for the Europhiles and Eurosceptics who take the opportunity to honour or ridicule the European Union.

Personally, I’m a very critical friend of the European project. I like the idea of a federal Europe and think a new, minimalist constitution would be the best way to set the limits for the EU’s federal, supranational parliament and commission. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats and politicians writing the treaties have a very different idea about the EU than I have.

Last night I went for a drink with some friends. When I waited on the bus home, I noticed a wall covered with posters next to the bus stop. I realized that tourists would be excused for thinking that this is a communist country. Every poster on the wall had some link to tiny but aggressive communist organizations. As you can see in the picture, famous extreme left-wing mass murderers appear on most of the posters.

The irony is that the men and women who put these posters on the wall would have been imprisoned or killed had their totalitarian ideas been implemented. Without the liberal system of democracy they hate so intensely, none of these posters would ever see the light of day.

Today is the fifth day of Iyar, and Israel celebrates sixty years of statehood.

“The government today defied the advice of drug experts and upgraded cannabis from class C to class B,” the Guardian writes. The newspaper article continues say that the “decision to upgrade the drug went against the recommendations of the government's scientific experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.”

But who cares about silly and irrelevant things like facts when there is a war on drugs to fight? Swedish governments of the past thirty years never bothered about scientific facts. If people want to believe cannabis is a dangerous gateway drug that kills, then that is what it is.

At first, I admired Hillary Clinton’s determination, but after yesterday’s big loss in North Carolina, I just think she’s silly and stubborn.

OMG!

I’m all for this type of protest:

Police on Monday afternoon arrested a 27-year-old yeshiva student for undressing in a Bat Yam supermarket, wearing only a sock to cover his genitals, to protest a recent controversial court ruling which permitted the sale of chametz in some businesses.

Since Israel was declared an independent Jewish state in 1948, conversion to Judaism is not only about the religion itself. Being a Jew—by choice or by birth—means you have the right to settle in Israel, to make an aliyah. But things are not that easy. Rabbis of various denominations do not always recognize each other’s converts. I’m no expert on this, but I understand that the subject is a constant cause for annoyance. (I will never forget the furious hour-long monologue one of my friends held on the subject after a service at the CBST in New York.)

Now things seem to be more complicated still. From the Jerusalem Post:

Last week, a panel of three haredi, non-Zionist rabbis belonging to the High Rabbinical Court, the state’s highest rabbinic institution, caused an upheaval in the Orthodox rabbinical world after publishing a caustically incriminating indictment of the head of Israel’s Conversion Authority, Rabbi Haim Druckman, who is a religious Zionist.

The haredi judges’ decision effectively annulled retroactively hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of conversions performed between 1999 and 2003 by Druckman.

I don’t know what—if any—consequences this will have for those converts that have made their aliyah, but I guess questioning their conversion is harmful enough.

Some words are used so carelessly that they lose all meaning. Apartheid seems to be one of them. At least that was my first thought when I read that Iran’s government thinks it’s the victim of Western “nuclear apartheid”.

Starbucks won’t have it:

Laissez-faire. It’s a policy that made Starbucks vastly successful. But don’t try to put that phrase on a customized Starbucks Card.

The cards are supposed be personalized to reflect customers’ tastes and uniqueness. They are available in a range of colors, often given as gifts and used by regular customers who prefer to prepay for their java.

But when my friend Roger Ream, president of the Fund for American Studies, received a Starbucks gift card for Christmas, he found there was a limit to how personalized a card could be. His card required him to customize it on the company’s Web site. So he went to the site and requested that the phrase “Laissez Faire” be printed on his card. A few days later he was informed that the company couldn’t issue such a card because the wording violated company policy.

Update: In the end, Starbacks did allow for “Laissez Faire” to be printed on their gift cards.

About six months ago, I came across a blog that fascinated me more than most. The writer was a young Swedish man who was about to convert to Judaism. I don’t know who the man is in real life, but reading his blog made me feel like I did. Corny, I know; but that is an effect some well-written blogs have on me.

When I turned on the feed aggregator today, I found a new entry in which the soon-to-be-Jewish blogger announces that he, after standing before a Bet Din (religious court), is now a Jew. I know it’s silly being happy for someone you don’t know, but I am.

Although I’m a very secular man and a fierce critic of religious superstition, I have always defended the right of anyone to be religious. I think there is something particularly attractive about conversion because it is a choice.

As regular readers of this blog know, I am very fond of the Jewish people and its culture. Some might think this is odd considering my somewhat hostile attitude towards religion. But there are three reasons for this. First, I had many Jewish friends growing up. Second, as a gay man I see that our enemies are often the same and use similar prejudiced arguments against us (“the Jewish/gay lobby controls politics”, “media is controlled by Jews/gays”, “Jews/gays threaten the majority culture”, etcetera). I know many feel uncomfortable about this comparison, but this is how I see it. And third, I seriously think Judaism is the sanest of the three Abrahamic religions. When I discuss ethical questions and theological matters with people of faith, I always get the friendliest response from the Jews. With Judaism’s long tradition of Talmudic commentary on the Torah, I find that even Orthodox rabbis are more open-minded than most contemporary Christians and Muslims.

I congratulate my anonymous Jewish friend on his conversion. You picked the right religion.

Postscript: Here’s a link to his new, post-conversion blog.

Update at 18:29: By the way, if I was to become a Jew, I would pick this society.

Øresund and the bridge linking Malmö to Copenhagen yesterday afternoon.

I received an email from a reader in Egypt. He says the gay community in Cairo is very excited about a new underground film entitled “All My Life” (طـول عُـمري). The trailer can be seen here:

What will the Muslim Brotherhood say about this?

I think this is quite impressive. A gay-pride parade in Eskilstuna, a Swedish town with a population of 60,000, attracted 1,500 participants this weekend.

“Senator Barack Obama appeared to win the Democratic caucuses in Guam on Saturday, defeating Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by seven votes,” the New York Times reports.

Seven votes! What happened to the Obama revolution?

On this day in 1945, the last of the so-called White Buses transported rescued political prisoners to Malmö in Sweden. From the History Research Guide:

White Buses was a humanitarian effort headed by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte that by the end of the Second World War saved thousands of Norwegian and Danish resistance fighters from German concentration camps. The name comes from the buses that were used, and that were painted white, with a red cross on the sides and on their roof.

In September 2007, a monument was raised in Malmö as a memorial to the survivors and those who saved them. About an hour ago, I snapped a few pictures of this memorial. When a stood in the square surrounding the monument, I tried to imagine what it looked like sixty-three years ago when newly liberated prisoners from the Nazi concentration camps arrived in the hundreds.

I publish some of the pictures below.

(Via The Atheist Jew.)

Postscript: Here’s the Atheist’s Wager.

From Forward:

Meet Hannah and Philip Schein, undercover investigators for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Now, for the first time, they are going public with their identities.

Since 2002, the Scheins have taken on about 20 undercover cases, as well as others they have conducted publicly. The targets of their stings have run the gamut from an egg farm managed by Trappist monks, to a Canadian bear-baiting operation that has supplied fur to the British Royal Guards, to songstress Beyoncé Knowles, once an enthusiastic wearer of fur.

But thanks to their background and their knowledge of the laws of kashrut, Hannah, 33, and Philip, 43, have come to specialize in investigating kosher slaughterhouses. Indeed, PETA had not investigated kosher operations until the Scheins came on board; since then, the group has been involved in about eight such cases. Philip in particular has been credited with becoming an expert on kosher slaughter.

I know many people feel very strongly about animal welfare and therefore oppose kosher slaughter, but as I have written before, I cannot see how this could be more cruel than the slow and painful death animals suffer when shot by hunters in the wild. And knowing PETA, my guess is that they like to target the kosher abattoirs because cattle soaked in blood makes dramatic pictures that generate more paying members.

Malmö’s inner harbour a few hours ago.

Charlie Weimers denies ever comparing same-sex marriages to human-animal relationships. I accused him of this in an entry yesterday.

In my defence, I want to stress that I acted on information received from a source I considered trustworthy.

I apologize to Mr Weimers for making my harsh comment.

Marxism and nationalism have much in common with fundamentalist religion. It is therefore a mistake for any secular state to actively try to replace religious identities with nationalistic sentiment and class-war rhetoric.

In its review of Noah Feldman’s The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State and Mark Juergensmeyer’s Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to Al Qaeda, The Economist makes some good points:

If you are trying to make people risk their own lives and take the lives of others, then calling the enemy “infidels” (or, literally, demonising them) is more effective than calling them foreigners or class enemies.

And:

As any thieving Balkan warlord knows, decent people often kill in the name of a half-forgotten national cause and for a religion in which they hardly believe. Using both tricks at once is especially effective.

This is why secularists cannot afford to be naïve about religion in our time. The liberal democracies managed to defeat Marxism because they were able to offer a system more successful in everything communism promised but could not materialize. The problem in the contemporary battle between fundamentalist religion and liberal democracy is that the former appear to offer a better deal. To succeed, secularists must become better at addressing cultural issues. It’s time for missionary work.

After more than a month of alleged counting, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has revealed the result of the presidential election. Only a fool would take them for being correct.

In this mock election, the de facto dictator Robert Mugabe got 43,2 per cent to democratic challenger Morgan Tsvangirai’s 47,9. One might think that would be it—that Mugabe is out. But the beauty of the scheme is that, with the rigged result, no one managed to get half the votes, which allows for a second round.

While the Electoral Commission pretended to do its job, Mugabe loyalists intimidated those who voted for his opponent. People living in opposition strongholds have been beaten, killed, or forced away from their homes.

Conservative candidate Boris Johnson has won the London mayoral elections, the Evening Standard reports.

“Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises,” Reuters reports.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

(Via the ranting Sandmonkey.)

Malmö City Library a few hours ago.

I never browse the Internet for pornography. However, about five to six days a week I accidentally come across dozens of homepages with adult material. I swear I never stay more than half an hour at these immoral websites.

On those rare occasions when I look at filth on the Internet, I sometimes find amusing articles. I found one today when looking through the latest entries on Fleshbot. It’s about Italian mega-porn-star Rocco Siffredi’s new film entitled Eskade: The Submission:

According to Siffredi, “Eskade” seeks to “capture the essence of female domination” in a crazy plot about an ancient game involving orgiastic gatherings, sexual slavery and mysterious vials filled with womanly juices; we are also promised that the journey through this twisted sexual labyrinth includes mice, scorpions, beautiful women, toilet sex, gangbangs, Omar Galanti in semi-drag, and lots of sodomy. Sounds like the only thing missing is cake! Mmm, cake.

This film I have to see. With all those scary things, it must be better that Seven.

Here’s the link, but it’s not safe work and certainly not family friendly!

ABC News made a social experiment recently. They monitored the bystander reactions to affectionate same-sex couples. In Birmingham, Alabama, a woman called the police about two men kissing. Spontaneously, I felt this was a sad reaction to something so harmless. But I valued it differently after reading this comment:

“If 911 calls are because two guys are kissing and holding hands on a bench, that’s great news! I mean, there’s not much real crime happening if 911 calls are placed because two guys are kissing every once in a while. And that is awesome!”

In the debate on same-sex marriage, opponents often refer to a “homosexual lifestyle” they claim is incompatible with family values. Their argument doesn’t acknowledge the impact discriminatory legislation has had on gays and lesbians; what it meant not being able to raise a family in a homophobic society.

The opponents of gay rights routinely refuse to see that the sex-driven queer culture is not that different from the heterosexual equivalent. Straight men and women look for sex in bars and nightclubs, too. And the only thing that separates the gay bathhouses from the straight swingers clubs is the gender of those participating.

Allowing gay people to get married would normalize same-sex family life. I think that is what scares the homophobes the most. They want us to be freaks.

On 27 April, the New York Times published an article about a new generation of gay men who—unlike my generation—is able to form open, stable, and publicly recognized relationships from early adulthood. Read it here.

I must say I envy the young gay men of today. When I was a teenager, so much energy was wasted on hiding my love life and to fear for violence and stigmatization. The progress in the past fifteen years is truly amazing.

The youth organization of the Swedish Christian Democrats (KDU) elected Charlie Weimers as their new chairman yesterday. It is probably a good thing for them since the party’s base consists of conservative Christians who consider hating minority groups a virtue. Mr Weimers is perhaps best known for his extremely hostile homophobia. For one thing, he likes to compare gay people to animals by suggesting same-sex marriages are equal to sexual relationships with cats and dogs. With Weimers in charge, we can expect more insults of the kind in the future. After all, the inability to acknowledge the obvious differences between gays and animals could logically result in demands for incarceration. I bet Charlie Weimers would love that.

Update: In a comment to this entry, Charlie Weimers denies the accusation and says he never compared same-sex marriages to human-animal relationships. I acted on information I received from a source who wish to remain anonymous. I apologize to Mr Weimers for making my harsh comment.

In a comment on his own blog Athens & Jerusalem, the pseudonym Withywindle writes, “Conservatism is a human thing—mutable and imperfect.”

I like this modesty about many true conservatives. They are willing to admit to flaws in their ideological standpoints in a way advocates of other ideologies rarely are.