The Swedish government will take part in the European Union–Africa summit in December even if Zimbabwe's despotic leader Robert Mugabe attends, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has said.

I'm embarrassed by this decision. Sweden should join Britain and boycott the summit. Mr Mugabe is a mass-murderer who deserves no recognition, and the EU leaders should stand by their own decision not to allow the man to enter European territory. European leaders ought to be shamed for their soft approach to totalitarian regimes.

Das Reichstagsgebäude (parliament building) in Berlin on a sunny September afternoon. Home of the might and power of Germany.

The official website here.

Lennart Järlebro may have a solution to the pressing issue of lamppost corrosion. Finally!

We must discriminate gay people in order to prevent those who really hate gay people from gaining strength. In short, this is what Elisabeth Sandlund of the Swedish Christian daily Dagen writes in a leading article.

I recognize this line of thinking from the 1990s, when prominent Social Democrats launched similar ideas in order to halt the success of the racist party Ny Demokrati. Restrictions on immigrants were legitimized by fear of identical restrictions being imposed by other political parties in the future.

The problem with this is that any measures can be justified. There are small groups of Islamist radicals in Sweden that would love to behead Mrs Sandlund for being a Christian woman not wearing a burqa. Perhaps we ought to do the work for them in order to prevent these groups from achieving political power? Of course not. That would be absurd. And so is Elisabeth Sandlund's article.

Who needs food when Hummers can be run on state-subsidized petrol? From the New York Times:

Venezuela is grappling with Latin America's highest inflation rate, about 16 percent. The local currency, the bolívar, has plunged almost 50 percent in unregulated trading this year, reaching a record low of about 6,000 to the dollar in October (the official rate is fixed at 2,150 to the dollar.) Gasoline is one of the few products subject to price controls here that is in relatively ample supply. Newspapers have been filled recently with tales of consumers struggling to find milk. Last month, eggs were scarce.

Can you smell the socialist success? (It's the miasma of food in short supply.) Of course, the far left refuses to acknowledge that Chávez's triumph over liberty has anything to do with the price of oil, but most people seem to think otherwise.

The newly renovated Brandenburg Gate in Berlin seen against the afternoon light.

Saul Singer is one of Jerusalem Post's best columnists. I while ago, he sparked a debate among Jews on the sensitive subject of conversion. In his latest column he addresses his opponents:

Even if, by statistical acrobatics, it is possible to claim that the Jewish population is stable in absolute terms, it cannot be denied that we are shrinking in proportion to the global population and to the countries where Jews live. This shrinkage is even more pronounced with respect to the developed, educated world, which is growing much faster than the total world population.

There is a limit to how much the numbers can be cooked. The combination of low birthrates, high assimilation and negligible conversion cannot add up to sustainability. We are not a species, but if we were, we would have to place ourselves on the "endangered" list.

In this context, it is mind-boggling that so many Jews seem to fear growth more than they fear becoming a historic anecdote, or worse. Even if attitudes toward conversion changed, is there really a danger of there being too many Jews? Where exactly is the flood of potential adherents that justifies barricading the floodgates? How can Jews simultaneously fear being overwhelmed with newcomers while wondering who would want to be Jewish?

I think Mr Singer is absolutely right.

Motståndarna till en könsneutral äktenskapslagstiftning brukar alltid framhålla att det unika med heterosexuella äktenskap är att de kan resultera i barn. Ett problem är att kyrkornas liturgi inte speglar detta syfte med äktenskapet utan av tradition fokuserar för mycket på Jesus' politiskt korrekta bögsnack om kärlek. Tor Billgren har därför hjälpt den konservativa kristenheten genom att föreslå en ny liturgi för heterosexuella äktenskap:

Frågorna
Inför Gud och i denna församlings närvaro frågar jag dig NN: Vill du ta NN till din hustru/man och ligga med honom/henne på det att ni må föröka er i nöd och lust?

Bön över ringarna
O Gud, du som är alltings skapare och Herre, välsigna NN och NN i deras äktenskap. Låt denna ring för dem vara tecknet på deras löften om att fortplanta sig. Genom Jesus Kristus, din Son, vår Herre.

Löftet
Jag NN,
tar dig NN
nu till min hustru/man
att föröka mig med
tills döden skiljer oss åt.

Äntligen får barnperspektivet vara med!

Hillary Clinton leads in a poll. This time as the top choice when people were asked which major 2008 presidential candidate would make the scariest Halloween costume.

The 368-metres tall Berliner Fernsehturm (television tower) by night. The pride of communist German Democratic Republic.

I snapped this picture after my husband and I had enjoyed the breathtaking view of Berlin from the top of the tower.

Che Guevara's hair was sold at an auction for $100,000 last week. Why would anyone pay for a dead man's hair?

I received many emails asking for more after I posted the Matzah rap video. Unfortunately, I don't know of anything else like it, but here's some Jewish music for you. It's not humours as the Matzah rap, but it's quite unique. I mean, how often do you come across a formerly Orthodox Jew turning R&B artist? Ari Gold is just that. Visit his website here. Read more about him here.

I think it sounds a lot like an upbeat George Michael.

The United States is trying out new bombs while the rhetoric against Iran is getting stronger. Iran's nuclear programme is now the focus of attention in Washington, according to Sarah Baxter in The Times.

In the recent election campaign, the far-right Swiss People's Party used a poster with a black sheep being kicked off a Swiss red-and-white flag. Just now, I read an article in Der Spiegel about German far-right National Democratic Party and noticed their campaign poster deliberately apes the controversial Swiss election poster. "We're cleaning up in Hesse!" says the poster with a black sheep being kicked off the State of Hesse's red-and-white flag.

I must admit that the use of black sheep is a smart move. The far-right neo-Nazis know their potential voters are racists and bigots. They also know that people in general would not stand for outspoken racism. So, what they have done is to use a pictorial language that speaks directly to the racist mind but could also be understood as a reference to the well-known saying referring to criminals.

Background: "Racist Party Strengthened in Switzerland"

On 7 September I discussed social power with the philosophers Åsa Andersson and Magnus Jiborn at Malmö University. Our discussion was recorded by Swedish Radio and will broadcast nationally tonight at 17:03, right after the five o’clock news. The programme is entitled "Filosofiska rummet". A podcast version should become available here tomorrow.

Read my take on the discussion here.

A few minutes ago, the Moderate Party conference voted in favour of same-sex marriage. This means that there is now a massive majority in favour of a reformed marriage law. Sweden will soon join Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Spain, and the Netherlands as a country that allow for homosexuals to marry on equal terms as heterosexuals.

Update: More on the decision here.

The last few days have seen a hostile Swedish debate on same-sex marriage. A Christian group has advertised against gay families being recognized by the state, which in turn has provoked Sweden's largest gay-rights group to protest. The debate about the homophobic advertisement has turned ugly, and few seem able to focus on the issue itself. Conservative Christians feel they are badly portrayed in the media while gay people feel their families are being unjustifiably attacked. In short, no one is happy and everyone is hurt.

Later today, the Moderate Party conference will decide whether or not to support a reformed marriage law that will allow for same-sex couples to marry.

Kristina Lindquist tycks ha blivit liberal. Hennes inlägg i äktenskapsdebatten är i varje fall genuint liberalt.

Pingstledaren Sten-Gunnar Hedin är upprörd och skriver i ett meddelande:

Vi förstår nu att vi inte kan räkna med det skydd som en objektiv journalistik erbjuder minoriteter i länder där pluralismen är en självklarhet. I Sverige är det bevisligen accepterat att publicera påståenden om att vi är odemokratiska, homofoba och rentav nazianstrukna. Det har nu visat sig att när det verkligen gäller då vänder så gott som varenda ledarskribent, kulturredaktör och politiskt korrekt journalist oss ryggen.

Jag börjar bli innerligt trött på alla dramatiska utspel från såväl den kristna högern som RFSL. Det blir bara metadebatter hela tiden. Ingen tycks längre diskutera sakfrågan, utan allt handlar om hur det politiska samtalet ska gå till.

Hedin har samma rätt som andra att uttrycka sina åsikter. Han tycker inte om homosexuella för att han anser att kärlek mellan personer av samma kön strider mot Guds intentioner. Vi utpekade ska antingen avstå från ett kärleksliv eller finna oss i att bli behandlade som mindre värdiga medborgare – ja, helst ska vår existens reduceras till passiva finansiärer av en premierad heterosexuell livsstil.

Jag tycker detta är en vidrig åsikt. Jag tycker vidare att den bygger på orättvisa inte minst för att Hedin och andra som förfäktar den sällan tillhör de drabbade. Det är ju inte han som blir diskriminerad, och det är inte Pingströrelsen som förvägras praktisera sin religiösa övertygelse. Det är homosexuella familjer och kyrkor som den liberalkatolska som får sina naturrättsliga krav på frihet kränkta. Men, återigen, han har moralisk rätt att hysa och uttrycka dessa åsikter.

Med rätten att yttra sig gäller alla. Vi som blir angripna av den kristna högern har samma rätt att uttala vår åsikt som Hedin har. Därför gör vi inget fel när vi påpekar att Hedin är homofob. Han är det eftersom den åsikt han och andra framför i äktenskapsdebatten bygger på antagandet att barn med heterosexuella föräldrar är mer värda än barn med homosexuella föräldrar.

An American woman writes about her experience of dating Swedish men. From the introduction:

When Isabel March arrived in Sweden from America, she set out to find her own blond bombshell. But dating US-style left her ill-prepared for dealing with the strong, silent types she found in Scandinavia.

Personally, I like men that let me do the talking.

Tomas Lappalainen skriver om ett nytt nummer av tidskriften Glänta som behandlar kända författares erfarenhet av narkotika. Artikeln är skönt befriad från den vanliga moralismen.

The Jews have the Star of David. The Christians have a cross and a fish. The atheists felt they missed something and decided they wanted a symbol too. The Friendly Atheist reports that the Atheist Alliance International Convention has picked a winner. Nice. The symbol now has its own website:

Atheists Alliance International is an umbrella organization for a large number of atheist, humanist, freethought groups around the world. At their 2007 conference, attendees were asked to vote for their favorite atheist symbol from among 6 choices which had been determined by a committee. The winner is the symbol above.

Stefan Olsson är som vanligt upprörd över att heterosexuellas mytbildning om sin egen överlägsenhet ifrågasatts. Denna gång av Fanny Ambjörnsson och Ingeborg Svensson i Svenska Dagbladet. Själv tycker jag att det är en mycket bra artikel. Bäst gillar jag slutet:

Att vara heteronormativ innebär att uttryckligen premiera vissa liv framför andra. Att framhålla vissa relationer som mer betydelsefulla än andra.

Mer specifikt handlar det om att uppmana människor att leva i reproduktiv heterosexuell tvåsamhet och samtidigt sända signaler till alla andra att deras liv är mindre värda att skydda, värna och legitimera.

Heteronormativitet strider alltså, enligt vår uppfattning, mot idén om människors lika värde. Och det är definitivt inte ett uttryck för barnens bästa.

Som vanligt är läsarkommentarerna till artikeln mer avslöjande. När man läser debattartiklar som berör ämnet homosexualitet är det annars lätt att glömma bort hur tarvlig homofobin egentligen är. Så på något besynnerligt sätt är det nästan befriande att läsa kommentarer som denna:

"Män som gillar att sätta på andra män i aschlet passar inte att uppfostra barn." (2007-10-25 23:28)

Där har vi kärnan i hela kampanjen mot homosexuellas rättigheter. Det är analsexet som varit den röda tråden i homofobins historia ända sedan Moses tid. Homofobin grundar sig på en oförmåga att skilja mellan en specifik sexuell praktik och kärlek mellan människor av samma kön. Det förklarar också varför så få riktar samma kritik mot heterosexuella som praktiserar analsex.

From The Local:

One of the key issues to be voted on at the conference is a proposal to allow gay marriage—something the leadership is keen to push through. If, as seems likely, the conference adopts the motion, the Christian Democrats will be the only party not to support a gender-neutral marriage law.

Supporting gay marriage would also serve to complete the Moderates' transformation from a traditional conservative party to a more centrist organization, but it is a big step for traditional-minded members.

Anti-gay marriage supporters, drawn mainly from the Catholic and evangelical churches, have this week taken out adverts to urge politicians to reject the proposal. Among those involved in the group is Anna-Maria Corazza Bildt, wife of Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. While most ministers have expressed support, former prime minister Bildt has refused to state his position on the issue.

I think the party will vote in favour of same-sex marriage, but I know a few that would be uncomfortable with such a decision. On the other hand, quite a few that would be just as uncomfortable with the party conference voting against a reformed marriage law.

I listened to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt when he addressed the Moderate Party conference earlier today. Boring. I know where he's coming from, I understand his pragmatic arguments, and I know he wants to win the next general election. But I want more! I want much lower taxes, speedy deregulation, and smaller government. I want a party leader who dares to speak up for free markets and open borders. I want a party that is proud to defend individual liberty and the idea of a laissez-faire economy.

I guess I want too much and should settle for the little good that is on offer. I just wish there were more room for brave ideas in Swedish politics. We can't all be cowardly conservatives with socialist ideals.

Read more about Reinfeldt's speech here.

Tories with a sense of humour. They announced the prize yesterday, and today they had a winner.

Considering the last few days of raging homophobia in Sweden I though this picture from Berlin might be appropriate. This monument commemorates the many thousands homosexuals killed by the Nazi regime. It was erected in 1989 at Nollendorfplatz (another is planned near the Brandenburg Gate not far from the Jewish Memorial). "Totgeschlagen – Totgeschwiegen" means "Killed – Hushed Up".

The smaller sign underneath tells us that the oppression began in 1933 when the National Socialists forced all gay men in the Nollendorfplatz area to register. Later these men were forced to wear a pink triangle, which the Nazis used to identify homosexuals in concentration camps.

Signaturen "Mamma" (24 okt 2007 kl 23:47) kommenterar könsneutrala äktenskap på Expressens hemsida:

Bevara äktenskapet mellan man och kvinna. Bevara kärnfamiljen. Jag förstre inte varför homosexuella skall vara med i debatten överhuvudtaget! Om mina barn kommer hem med någon av samma kön säger jag: Hej då!

De kallar det kärlek.

Tidningen Dagen har rätt. De som vill att äktenskapet ska vara förbehållet dem som älskar någon av motsatt kön måste självklart få annonsera i Stockholms tunnelbana.

Vi homosexuella måste lära oss att leva med att många hatar oss. Det bara är så. I Sverige och delar av Västeuropa har det under ett par årtionden blomstrat upp en accepterande kultur. Det har gjort att många av oss glömt att hatet och föraktet mot oss går som en röd tråd genom Europas historia sedan medeltiden, då den kristna kyrkan bestämde sig för att utpeka oss som särskilt syndiga människor. På mindre än femtio år har Sverige gått från statligt sanktionerade försök att utrota oss till att diskutera könsneutrala äktenskap. Det är stort. Vi måste glädjas över framgången och inte låta oss nedslås av en illvillig kampanj.

Mitt tips till alla som blir upprörda av Svenska Evangeliska Alliansens kampanj mot likabehandling är att inte låta sig provoceras. Riv inte ner affischerna. Hota inte avsändarna. Bråka inte med SL. Hacka inte hemsidor. Försök istället att förlåta dem som vill oss och våra familjer illa. De vet inte vad de gör.

As from 2008, all prisons in Sweden will be smoke-free.

I wonder what they will do with those on life sentence who violate the smoking ban.

Perhaps I should apologize to my international readers for posting so many entries in Swedish lately. One reason for this shift to Swedish is that an important debate about same-sex marriage has unfolded prior to the Moderate Party congress, which opens tomorrow. I have tried to follow and comment on the debate.

För er som inte känner till Carin Stenström så kan jag berätta att hon arbetar för Livets Ords tidning Världen idag. Hon är dessutom återkommande krönikör i Skånska Dagbladet där hon idag skriver följande under rubriken "Hyckleriet kring äktenskapet":

En lagstiftning ska vara normerande, den ska också vara allmängiltig. Lagars ska omfatta en majoritet av medborgarna, de ska inte stiftas för att tillfredsställa olika minoriteters önskemål. Äktenskapet, som alltså gäller man och kvinna, omfattar en idé, om samhällets överlevnad. Äktenskapet är inte ett tomt ceremoniel som kan ändras efter de trender som tillfälligt råder. Äktenskapet är inte diskriminerande. Var och en som vill gifta sig har den möjligheten, den som inte vill kan göra så som kulturradikalerna alltid förespråkat: leva som man själv önskar.

Av detta korta stycke lär vi oss följande:

• Det är helt okej att ignorera minoriteters intressen. Skulle exempelvis handikappade klaga på för höga trottoarkanter bör beslutsfattarna ignorera deras krav. Majoriteten har ju ben att gå med och klarar trottoarerna utan problem.
• Om några har en idé om hur samhället bör se ut ska denna ha prioritet framför verkliga omständigheter. Att anpassa lagstiftningen till samhällsutvecklingen är att ge vika för tillfälliga trender. I förlängningen innebär detta att demokratiska val är fel eftersom det som gällde i tidens begynnelse fortfarande gäller.
• Lagstiftning som kräver av människor att de har vissa biologiska egenskaper är inte diskriminerande. Kirurgiska könsbyten och kemiska pigmentsförändringar har gjort det möjligt för bögar och blattar att anpassa sig till majoritetskulturen.
• Att förvägras ingå ett avtal är detsamma som att vara fri att ingå vilket avtal man vill. Frihet enligt denna definition fungerar lite som att kunna välja vilken färg man vill under förutsättning att den är brun.

Det riktigt komiska med Carin Stenström och vännerna i Livets Ord är att de resonerar precis tvärtom när deras egen minoritetsställning missgynnar dem. När det exempelvis handlar om kristna friskolor heter det att staten inte ska lägga sig i hur föräldrar uppfostrar sina barn. Jag önskar att Stenström drev den linjen konsekvent och erkände även andra minoriteter det skydd som hon kräver för den kristna högern.

The Los Angeles Times reports that firefighters are now battling blazes in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties. Meanwhile, President Bush has declared a state of emergency in Southern California, paving the way for federal aid to help fight the region's wildfires. Bush's declaration follows a request made by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for federal assistance.

The NASA satellite picture is taken from the US Air Quality's "Smog Blog". Photo below by Robert Durell.

From an article by Richard B. Woodward in the Guardian:

Anyone looking for sex in a public place is in effect asking to be looked at and perhaps found out. The likelihood of exposure - of being recognised by a partner or featured one day in the police blotter - is so high it should be factored into any sexcapade in a city park or an airport restroom. For some, this calculation no doubt stokes the heat of the encounter. Anyone who just wants to get it on with a stranger can usually do so in relative privacy. That's why God invented escort services.

The American public's fascination with the Larry Craig case has a lot to do with the insane risks he allegedly took in his quest for sex and, of course, the delicious hypocrisy of a family-values US senator caught in a bathroom stall with his pants down. The arrest report also turned a flashlight on the rituals of a hitherto underground world. The elaborate codes that initiate gay dalliances in public restrooms, the toe-tapping and under-the-partition hand wipes, were news to many and probably invented, as were those in espionage tradecraft, to heighten the illicit thrill for the participants as well as to cloak the action from the uninformed.

Kohei Yoshiyuki's photographs of Japanese having sex at night in Tokyo's public parks, which ran at the Yossi Milo gallery in New York and now moves to the Doug Udell gallery in Vancouver on November 22, are revelatory in much the same way. They would simply be tawdry and exploitive if they weren't also, like the Craig saga, so odd and funny. The behaviour they record has to my knowledge never been recorded before on film. In an essay that accompanies a reissue of The Park, the long out of print book that for most people has been the only source until now about Yoshiyuki and his work, the critic, Vince Aletti, calls them "among the strangest photographs ever made".

Photo by Kohei Yoshiyuki. More available online here.

Det kanske märkligaste inlägget i debatten om en reformerad, könsneutral äktenskapslagstiftning publiceras idag i Svenska Dagbladet. Det är Jan Myrdal som skriver att förnuft och känsla talar emot en könsneutral äktenskapslagstiftning:

Att den ömsesidiga försörjningsplikten inom äktenskapet kan missbrukas av myndigheterna vid sjukdom, invaliditet och ålderdom vet vi. För en av mina vänner som blev gravt handikappad gick det så långt att han tvang sin hustru begära skilsmässa och flytta från honom för att han skulle kunna få vård i hemmet.

Men det hindrar inte att denna ömsesidiga försörjningsplikt formaliserar en grundläggande och nödvändig trygghet även i de livets svårare tider vi alla kan räkna med att få uppleva.

Så långt kunde man möjligtvis tänka sig att lagstiftningen gjordes könsneutral. Även om allt tyder på att det – trots det relativt stora antalet skilsmässor – finns stor skillnad mellan heterosexuella och homosexuella relationer vad gäller varaktighet och partnerbyte, vilket komplicerar ett nytt enhetligt och könsneutralt äktenskapsregelverk.

Men till det kommer ytterligare något. Det heterosexuella förhållandet är specifikt. Kvinnan kan bli gravid, föda barn.

Som jag förstår Myrdal så menar han att bögar är slampor och att lesbiska inte kan eller bör blir gravida. Han skriver i debattartikeln att faderlösa barn inte bör finnas i lagstiftning då deras existens kränker barnens rättigheter. Blir det barn utanför det traditionella äktenskapet gör staten alltså rätt om den låter offra dessa "oäktingar" i syfte att värna barnen som kollektiv.

Det är nog inte bara jag som tycker att detta är en extremt reaktionär idé. Men den är samtidigt typisk för den av Marx och Hegel inspirerade kollektivism som jag i alla sammanhang kämpar emot.

Det är om detta all frihetskamp handlar. En modern lagstiftning måste ta hänsyn till individuella omständigheter och den pluralism av familjer och livsstilar som samhället rymmer. Dagens Sverige liknar inte det homogena Sverige som fanns för bara några decennier sedan. Homosexuella är bara en av flera folkgrupper som inte längre finner sig i att offras för andras större ändamål. Vill man inte ägna sig förtryck återstår bara två val: antingen görs äktenskapsbalken om så att den erkänner andra relationer än de traditionellt heterosexuella, eller så avskaffas äktenskapsbalken till förmån för juridiskt bindande kontrakt mellan myndiga individer.

Från Expressen:

Men även om det lutar åt ett ja, kan tongångarna på stämman bli hårda om homosexuellas rättigheter.

– De ska inte få styra hur alla andras äktenskap ska fungera. Det kommer ju in en faderskapsprövning som berör alla andra par. Vi får gå ned till socialen och meddela att vi är fäder, och sådant trams. Det där är trams från a till ö, säger Göteborgsmoderaternas ordförande Johnny Magnusson.

Är det bara jag som inte förstår vad Johnny Magnusson pratar om?

Rumours say former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is named as the European Union's first-ever president while Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt might become the EU's foreign affairs chief.

Read more on EU Observer's website.

My Judaism teacher showed me this video and now I can't get the music out of my head.

A cartoon from 2004 by Chris Britt.

I can't get around it. There is something utterly deranged about rewarding people for killing themselves. I don't think it's a coincident that so many socialist extremists defend Islamist ideology. Communists and Islamists share the idea that sacrificing yourself for a greater good is a heroic act. To Europe's communists, Mohamed Atta is just another Andreas Baader. The reason for killing innocent people is not important as long as the victims can be linked to capitalism or some despised phenomenon. The leftist ethics says that people have no rights, they are given rights (by the Left).

"Om det skall bli något slags talibanstyre i det här landet, som folk verkar vara rädda för så måste det antingen bli det genom val, eller genom statskupp. Några terrorattentat här och där gör knappast någon skillnad."

– Mr Brown

(Så ser alltså solidariteten med de svaga ut i praktiken.)

While the election result in Poland is comforting, the result of the Swiss election is a cause for concern. From the International Herald Tribune:

After a campaign troubled by violence and widely criticized as racist, Switzerland's far-right Swiss People's Party strengthened its position as the biggest single party in Parliament on Sunday, according to initial electoral projections.

The outcome seems unlikely to lead to any dramatic shifts in government or policies. As Pierre Weiss a candidate of the center-right Liberal Party, put it, "All of the main forces of yesterday will remain the main forces of tomorrow."

Still, he agreed with other analysts that the gains by the Swiss People's Party portended more of the polarization that Switzerland's previously placid politics has experienced in the past four years, straining its tradition of consensus and leaving cracks in its carefully nurtured image abroad as a bastion of tolerance and humanitarian values.

The Swiss People's Party, or SVP, which campaigned on an aggressively anti-immigrant ticket featuring posters that showed white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag, received about 29 percent of the vote and 61 of the 200 seats in Parliament, projections showed, up from 27 percent and 55 seats in 2003. It was comfortably ahead of the Social Democratic Party, which dropped from 23 percent of the vote to 19 percent and was projected with 43 seats, as opposed to 52 in the most recent Parliament.

Among centrist parties, the projections showed the Free Democratic Party finishing with a smaller vote and 31 seats in Parliament, 5 fewer than last time, and the Christian Democrats also with 31 seats.

With about 44 per cent of the votes, the centre-right Civic Platform seems to be the winner in today's general election in Poland. From BBC News:

Ballots are being counted in Poland after voting in the country's early general election, with exit polls predicting a defeat for the government.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's conservative Law and Justice Party polled about 31%, while the centre-right Civic Platform, has 44%.

The election was called two years early after Mr Kaczynski's coalition collapsed over a corruption probe.

Turnout seemed substantially higher than the 12-year low in the 2005 poll.

The prime minister's twin brother, Lech Kaczynski, is Poland's president.

The Law and Justice Party (PiS) has pursued former communists and adopted a sceptical approach to the European Union, while Civic Platform (PO) has promised a more business-friendly administration with closer ties to Europe.

Congratulations to Poland.

Only a few weeks ago, the Burmese struggle for democracy was on the headlines around the world. Now, things are back to normal, which means constant fear for the people in Burma.

Today, the New York Times published an article about everyday life in the Burma—or Myanmar, as the junta restyled the country in 1989.

A new poll shows a majority of Swedes want to abolish the current system of conscription.

About time, if you ask me. Conscription played an important role in the past, when war never seemed far off. Nowadays, things are different. The threats are no longer posed by neighbouring countries, but by terrorist organizations and totalitarian regimes far away. To keep ourselves safe, we need more intelligence, a secure infrastructure, a well-developed Internet defence, and professional soldiers. Relying on large amateur armies is a thing of the past.

The national socialist Sweden Democrats has launched a campaign against immigration and asylum seekers. All in the name of the Swedish-style socialist model known as "Folkhemmet".

"For the first time in Sweden we have a populist xenophobic political movement in the local councils, built on the premise that the municipalities' problems are immigrants' fault," says Ulla Ekström von Essen, historian and contributor to a Board of Integration report on the Sweden Democrats.

Read more in Swedish here.

One of Britain's major piracy websites has been shut down, the Guardian reports.

Remember Joseph Massad? I wrote about this anti-gay academic at Columbia University on 26 September. Now James Kirchick of Independent Gay Forum has written an excellent article about the man and his conspiracy fantasies. A quote:

Massad does not consider that the reason why Arab homosexuals may not "express a need for gay politics" might be because they would be killed if they did.

It ought to be obvious to most that this has something to do with it. Only a true believer can think otherwise.

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says she knows exactly who wants to kill her.

Canadian physicists at the University of Guelph have discovered evidence of water just beneath the surface of Mars.

Igår satt jag som moderat ledamot i ett möte med skattenämnden i Malmö. Som vanligt var det en ganska trist tillställningen med en lång rad ärenden av ganska triviala överklaganden. Någon ville skriva av sin digitalkamera eftersom den användes i det egna företaget, en annan ville att stödstrumpor skulle klassificeras som skyddsutrustning och därmed bli avdragsgilla. Småsaker.

Vad som däremot fick mig att häpna var en rad ärenden som handlade om avdrag för resor till och från arbetet. Att skatteverket har egna utredare som i praktiken arbetar som detektiver var inte nytt för mig, däremot blev jag chockad när jag insåg hur långt man är beredd att gå för att ta reda på detaljer i människors privatliv.

I syfte att kunna ogiltigförklara ett par tusenlappar i yrkat avdrag för resor så kan en utredare ägna timmar åt att ringa till arbetsgivare, uppdragsgivare, familjemedlemmar, kollegor, bilreparatörer och bilprovningen. Jag insåg under mötet att Skatteverket har befogenhet att ta reda på precis allt om enskild medborgare. Övervakningssamhället är redan här. Det är bara kamerorna i sovrummen sam fattas.

Om du vill göra ett avdrag för resor riskerar du att nekas detta om dina uppgifter inte överensstämmer med Svensk bilprovnings anteckningar om hur många kilometer bilen rullat det senaste året. Har du skrivit fel med bara någon mil riskerar du inte bara avslag på dina avdrag utan dessutom ett skattepåslag med tio procent som straff för felaktig uppgift. Samma sak om din arbetsgivare inte kan verifiera precis var du befann dig vid en specifik tidpunkt för arton månader sedan. Skulle det dessutom vara så att din fru eller man råkar säga att du nog var hemma den där oktoberkvällen för två år sedan så kan Skatteverket besluta om att din tjänsteresa ska beskattas trots att du med biljett och hotellkvitto kan bevisa att du inte befann dig i hemmet. Det är nämligen så – och detta är vad alla måste förstå i kontakten med Skatteverket – att om det finns den minsta indikation på att du som medborgare kan ha fel, då har du fel. Någon välvillighetsprincip existerar inte här. Finns det två uppgifter som talar mot varandra så väljer Skatteverket alltid den som missgynnar dig, oavsett hur vag den avgörande uppgiften är.

Mitt tips till alla som vill göra avdrag för arbetsrelaterade resor är att kolla bilens mätarställning, spara vartenda kvitto, skriva dagbok över vilka du träffar och när, skaffa vittnen och skriv in dig i varenda gästbok du hittar. Och se för guds skull till att din sambo alltid svarar ja när Skatteverket ringer och frågar om du var på tjänsteresa den där dagen för tre år sedan!!! Tänk också på att spara all denna information i fem år. Skatteverket kan när som helst få för sig att granska dina gamla deklarationer - och gör det också!

Om du inte har alla kvitton, mätarställningar och vittnesmål i ordning så är mitt nödtips att du uttrycker dig så vagt du bara kan i alla kontakter med Skatteverket. Då kan de inte straffa dig för felaktiga uppgifter. Använda därför alltid uttryck som "kanske", "uppskattningsvis", "sannolikt" och "förmodligen". Tydlighet straffar sig nämligen oftast.

Glöm inte att du kan överklaga alla beslut till skattenämnden. Det är inte en garanti för att du får rätt, men ibland händer det att tjänstemännen tvingas ge vika – i synnerhet i de fall Skatteverket gått för långt i sin iver att beskatta privatpersoner och småföretag. Skattenämnden är den enda mänskliga instans i denna annars helt byråkratiserade myndighet.

Sweden's Migration Court has ruled that there is no conflict in Iraq. As a result, Iraqi asylum seekers can be sent back to their peaceful and harmonious homeland.

Yes, I'm sarcastic.

According to predictions made by the City of Malmö, my home will be flooded as the sea level rises about 2.3 metres over the next century. Of course, I will not be around to take the worse hit, but if the predictions are right, things might become critical for my neighbourhood within fifty years. If nothing is done, the area I live in may be uninhabitable in only a few decades. Interestingly, the city planners don't seem to take global warming and sea level rising seriously. The areas most vulnerable to flooding are projected for new buildings. So if the predictions are right and nothing is done to protect land from the sea, people will have to get used to flooding. Fortunately, the Dutch have had to deal with this for centuries, and I can't see any reason why southernmost Sweden, Denmark, and other low-lying areas could not learn from them. If the global-warming alarmists are to be taken seriously, we should plan for dikes to prevent the sea from flooding urban areas.

Seen below is a map of Malmö's coastline with the areas in danger of future flooding marked in red, orange, and yellow. Read more in Swedish here.

At least twenty people are reported killed and sixty wounded after two bombs hit crowds greeting returning Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, BBC reports.

This is most likely the work of some truly deranged Islamists. I guess the extremist segments of the Socialist Left are already writing articles calling the terrorists "progressive".

Update (19/10 at 2:29): The New York Times reports that more than a hundred people are dead.

Moderaterna i Stockholm svänger i fråga om rena sprutor till narkomaner. Utmärkt.

Idag kunde man dessutom i Sydsvenska Dagbladet läsa en mycket bra artiklel av Björn Johnson. Han skriver om de många försöken att misstänkliggöra sprutbytesprogrammet.

"The Swedish labour force spent more hours at work than ever before in September," The Local reports. "With 151 million hours per week spent in the workplace, the figures for September were 2.5 percent higher than the same period last year. The number of hours worked is the highest since records began in 1963."

This is the sort of news Sweden's socialist opposition don't want you to read about.

This is funny. From the New York Times:

Stephen Colbert has announced his candidacy for president on "The Colbert Report," tossing his satirical hat into the ring of an already crowded race.

"I shall seek the office of the president of the United States," Colbert said Tuesday on his Comedy Central show as red, white and blue balloons fell around him.

Colbert, 43, had recently satirized the coyness of would-be presidential candidates by refusing to disclose whether he would seek the country's highest office—a refusal that often came without any prompting.

Shortly before making the announcement, Colbert appeared on "The Daily Show" (the show that spawned Colbert's spin-off) and played cagey, claiming he was only ready to consider a White House bid. He entered the studio set pulled by a bicycle pedaled by Uncle Sam and quickly pulled out a bale of hay and a bottle of beer to show that he was "an Average Joe."

Colbert said his final decision would be announced on a "more prestigious show," which turned out to be his own.

Mr Colbert says he will run as both a Democrat and Republican, and only in South Carolina. Hilarious.

I'm no fan of Dan Brown's novels, but I share the author's fascination with secret archives. And what could be more intriguing than the hidden treasures of the Vatican? Torie Bosch of Slate Magazine has written an article about this.

Cato Institute's vice president for research writes about Klein's new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Ibland undrar jag om Dick Erixon förstår vad han själv skriver:

Nu måste de som kallar sig liberaler börja lära sig grundläggande filosofiska fundamenta: en människa är en person, en handling är en handling och religiösa dogmer är trosläror.

Det är roligt med cirkulär bevisning. Vem skulle inte skriva under på att en handling är en handling? Problemet är bara att det inte säger något om vad en handling är och därför blir en helt meningslös definition. Nåväl. Erixon försöker försvara Ayaan Hirsi Alis allt för långtgående fördömanden av islam genom att försöka skilja religionen från dess utövare. Han gör en relevant liknelse med Åke Greens kända predikan om homosexualitet. Vad Erixon helt missar är att islam definierar en muslim på samma sätt som homosexualitet definierar homosexuella. Om man säger att man vill utrota islam eller homosexualitet så säger man per automatik att man vill utrota muslimer och homosexuella. Det är naturligtvis fullt möjligt att denna utrotning inte sker genom våld, vilket jag gissar är vad Erixon menar när han gör skillnad på människa och handling. Förbjuder man islam och homosexualitet så kan naturligtvis människorna fortsätta finnas kvar, men inte som muslimer eller homosexuella. Det är därför bara tom retorik att försöka göra åtskillnad mellan människor och de handlingar som definierar dem.

Läs mer hos Erik Svansbo och Louise Persson.

I used to be a heavy smoker. From my earliest teens to my mid-twenties, I smoked all the time. Lighting a cigarette was the first thing I did in the morning and the last thing I did before going to bed. Smoking was such an important part of my life that I gave cigarettes the priority when I was skint—I preferred starvation to being without nicotine.

About ten years ago, I quit smoking. I was sick and tired of the unhealthy habit. One thing I was not prepared for was the effect it had on my body weight. In less than twelve months, I gained about fourteen kilograms. I have not been able to get back in shape since. So instead of unhealthy smoking, I now have to live with unhealthy overweight. Therefore it's quite depressing to read about a new study that says obesity is more dangerous than smoking and will dramatically shorten the lives of millions. If this is true, I made a mistake when I stopped smoking.

Stefan Fölster and Fredrik Bergström have studied the Swedish welfare system and found this:

Nearly 95 percent of Swedes admit that they abuse the country's public services and benefits systems. Only 5 percent never bend the rules, according to a new study carried out by two senior economists.

Some 16 percent of those polled said they had seriously cheated the public sector, for example by claiming unemployment or sick benefits to which they were not entitled. 95 percent admitted maximizing use of the system by legal means, for instance by exploiting loopholes.

That is the welfare state for you. No surprises really. People adjust to the system they live in.

Read more in Swedish here.

I would love to travel with the new Super Jumbo Jet, but I think $110,000 is a bit much to pay for a trip. That is what 38-year-old Julian Hayward has paid for a ticket on the first A380 flight from Singapore to Sydney.

Read more here.

President Bush has angered the Chinese government as he met with the unofficial leader of occupied Tibet. The Australian reports:

George W. Bush held talks with the Dalai Lama last night after China rebuffed the Tibetan spiritual leader's high-profile visit to the US by putting off a meeting among world powers on Iran's nuclear crisis.

Mr Bush chose to meet the exiled Dalai Lama at his White House residence rather than the Oval Office, apparently to avoid the full wrath of China, in their third encounter since the US leader took office in January 2001, officials said.

"I wanted to express my appreciation to President Bush since he really took seriously the situation in Tibet," aides quoted the Dalai Lama as saying after the talks. "We have developed a close friendship."

From the Guardian:

Against all the odds, and seeing off competition from favourites Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones, rank outsider Anne Enright was tonight awarded the Man Booker prize for her "powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book" The Gathering.

I haven't read the novel, but normally the Booker winner is a sure bet for a good read.

Morning traffic in the Israeli city of Ashkelon was interrupted today. Not by a suicide bomber, but by a naked 42-years-old man: "The man later shocked motorists further when he removed his underwear while blocking traffic," Ynetnews reports. After a medical checkup at the hospital, the police handcuffed the man to his bed in order to prevent the men from walking about naked in the evening traffic as well.

This is the kind of civil disobedience I like. Palestinian youth could learn from this man.

(Photo by Zion Pashut.)

Venezuela's socialist dictator Hugo Chávez signed a trade agreement with his Cuban counterpart yesterday, which he hopes can make the two nations "form a confederation of republics, two republics in one, two countries in one". From the Guardian:

The new trade deal is part of Mr Chávez's push for a so-called Bolivarian trading zone, also comprising Bolivia and Nicaragua, and intended as an alternative to US free trade pacts.

Yesterday, the US state department spokesman, Tom Casey, said he was "delighted that Fidel Castro has had an opportunity to discuss things with his good friend President Chávez", adding: "It's too bad that in almost half a century of misrule in Cuba, he's never had the same conversation with his own people."

I think Mr Casey's comment is spot on. Not that the nearly dead and hopelessly self-absorbed Fidel Castro will understand the sublime insult—but still.

"Amost intoxicating to see the Nobel committee do something honorable and creditable for a change," Hitchens writes in Slate. "It's as though the long, dreary reign of the forgettable and the mediocre and the sinister had been just for once punctuated by a bright flash of talent. And a flash of 88-year-old talent at that, as if the Scandinavians had guiltily remembered that they let Nabokov and Borges die (yes, die) while they doled out so many of their awards to time-servers and second-raters. Had they let this happen to Doris Lessing as well, eternal shame would have covered them."

Richard Brunstrom, a senior police officer in Britain who made a call for the legalization of all drugs, including heroin, has been backed by Lord Ramsbotham, a former chief inspector of prisons. "The present regime has failed in every way," Ramsbotham says. "If you look at prohibition of alcohol in the US, it failed. The Chief Constable's suggestions must be considered seriously. We've got to stop the dealers who cause so much misery for society. … I used to reckon that 80 per cent of those people received into prison were misusing a substance of some kind when they came in. The amount of acquisitive crime connected to drug abuse is immense. That is why there needs to be a new approach."

Read more here.

The priest suspended by the Vatican I wrote about on Saturday now insists he was only pretending to be gay. Yeah, right!

Airbus has officially handed over the first A380 to Singapore Airlines today. This is the biggest aeroplane ever built, featuring 471 seats in three classes. It makes the Boeing 747 look tiny. Cool.

(Photo by Jean-Philippe Arles.)

From The Local:

The Swedish government is to crack down on the role religion plays in independent faith schools. The new rules will include a ban on biology teachers teaching creationism or 'intelligent design' alongside evolution.

"Pupils must be protected from all forms of fundamentalism," said Education Minister Jan Björklund to Dagens Nyheter.

I'm not sure this is the right way to go about it. Those who defend creationist ideas must provide some evidence to justify their claims, but to rule it out completely is only a sign of arrogance. I support the secular government and think state schools should be free from religious theories, but I also support parents' right to put their children in whatever school they want.

"How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity."

I second these words by William S. Burroughs, which is precisely why I feel uncomfortable around politicians advocating collectivism. I don't care if these politicians call themselves liberals, conservatives, or socialists. Often I come across socialists—especially social democrats—who seem to think that I defend every move made by the Moderate Party, which I represent at the local grassroots level. That is not how I see politics. My number one priority is to fight those who seek to produce conformity.

The latest opinion polls confirm the problems of the centre-right government coalition. If a general election were held today, only about 42 per cent of the electorate would vote for any of the four parties. I especially notice the Moderate Party's slump in the polls.

I think it is about time the party seriously rethinks the triangulation strategy. It will be impossible to explain to voters why they should support a party so eager to adjust to its socialist opponents. I am fully aware of the fact that conservatives and socialists share many core ideological stands on the role of the state, but the electorate deserves more than two political blocks that constantly act as copycats. Sweden needs more loudmouth libertarians—people who refuse to accept the collectivist ideology embraced by socialists and conservatives alike.

The blog will probably be quiet today while I finish a paper on Judaism. I'm back on Monday.

There have been some hurt feelings among conservative Christians in America after the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco had a poster of the Last Supper. Ironically, the boycott talk made the fair attract an even larger crowd than normal. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin is upset, but can't refrain herself from posting a link to the funniest report from the fair I have read. It contains many pictures of sexual nature. If blurred pictures of men engaged in oral sex make you uncomfortable, this is not for you. You have been warned. Here is the link.

The religious dildos are hilarious. Do people actually use them, or is it just for the bedroom shelf?

Click on pictures to enlarge.

A high-ranking Catholic priest has been suspended after admitting his is gay on Italian television. Had he admitted being a rapist with an appetite for alter boys, he would have been promoted. Sexual violence against children is one thing, but love between adult men is more than the church can stomach.

Aftonbladet idag skriver att en av Amsterdams främsta turistattraktioner nu förbjuds. Magic mushrooms! Jag har alltid trott att det var Rijksmuseeum eller Van Gogh museeum eller varför inte Anne Franks Huis som var de främsta turistattraktionerna. Magic mushrooms ligger inte med på listan. Men det är väl så man ser på Holland med svenska ögon. Knark och prostitution är allt som Holland och speciellt Amsterdam erbjuder.

Nå, jag ska klargöra ett par saker runt detta med Paddos som de kallas här i Holland.

1. Att kalla det en av Amsterdams främsta turistattraktioner är dumt, bara dumt. Det skulle betyda att svamparna borde ligga på toplistan över attraktioner som folk på semester i Amsterdam vill göra. Det i sin tur betyder att, eftersom det en normal turistsäsongsvecka, då Amsterdam ökar sin befolkning med cirka 50%, i runda tal 400 000 mer människor. Av dessa 400 000 människor som är här skall då runt 50% använda Paddos. Det betyder att vi skulle ha 200 000 människor vandrande på gatorna i Amsterdam höga som "Silja Line"-båtar. Varje vecka!

Sen finns ju Paddos i hela Holland, inte bara i Amsterdam. Högsta Paddo-bruket ligger inte i Amsterdam, utan i en helt annan del av landet.

Nu ligger ju siffran på användare av paddos väldigt lågt och man ska komma ihåg att holländare oftast vet hur man handskas med dom. Det gör inte turister, vilket leder till nummer två.

2. Orsaken till varför paddos nu förbjuds är inte problem bland de holländska brukarna. Det är på grund av de dumma turisterna som inte fattar vad dom kan förvänta sig av en svamp.

Här har vi då ett antal olika svampar med mer eller mindre hallucinatoriska effekter. Några av dessa finner man även i så kallade "Party Pack" som innehåller 5 eller 6 svampar av olika varianter beroende på styrka. På dessa party packs står det att det är för flera personer, varför det kallas just "Party pack". Om vi sen tar en dum engelsman som köper ett sådant paket för sig själv och äter svamp nr 1. Fem minuter senare känner han ingenting, varför han tar svamp 2, känner fortfarande ingenting och smäller så i sig svamp 3, 4 och 5 eftersom han tror att han är immun mot hallucinogenerna i svamparna. Eftersom han redan är rätt packad, så forstätter han att dricka öl och helt plötsligt slår effekten till. Svamp nr 1 har börjar få effekt. Han börjar känna sig lite hög. Nu tar det ett tag innan svamp 1 har nått sin fulla effekt, men innan dess slår svamp 2 in. När så svamp 1 når sin fulla effekt slår även svamp 3, 4 och 5 in. Nu kan man ju bara gissa vad denna man känner och ser. Fyrtiofem minuter senare har alla fem svamparna nått sin kulmen och kommer att ligga där ett par timmar. Under denna tid får personen panik medan hallucinationerna slår totalt bakut. Fem svampar är mer än vad man ska äta. Vad vi pratar om här är en massiv överdos.

Det här har hänt, inte bara en gång, utan ett antal gånger de senaste månaderna. Det slutar med att engelsmännen får psykoser och försöker döda någon eller kastar ut alla möblerna i hotellrummet, eller sig själva för den delen. Samma sak med dansken som körde bil upp mot Nieuwmarkt på gångvägen, plockandes alla stolpar med sig, medans folk fick kasta sig undan, och den unga franska flickan som rusade ut bland bilarna på motorvägen och dog, påkörd av en bil i 100 km/h.

Sammanlagt har det varit åtta sådana här fall detta år (som jag har lyckats luska reda på). Alla dåd utfördes av engelsmän - förutom dansken med bilen samt fransyskan som trodde hon var en bil. Fransyskan dog, en engelsman som hoppade ut från hotellrummet dog, medan de andra numera är hemma i sina länder och jobbar med sina jobb, som om ingenting hade hänt - förutom att de fick dryga böter och inte får komma tillbaka till landet på ett par år.

Nu har alltså holländska regeringen beslutat att Paddos ska förbjudas. Detta främst som en följd av att fransyskans föräldrar har stämt Amsterdam för att dottern köpte Paddos (hon var i laglig ålder, 19 år) och åt för många av dom. Diskussionen har startat hårt här nere, varför ska holländare bli straffade för vad dumma turister gör? Jag kan bara hålla med om det, för om det vore så att en turist i Sverige skulle dö av att ha snusat upp tre snusdosor på en halvtimme så skulle nog inte Sveriges regering gå ut med ett förbud mot snus.

Förbudet mot Paddos ska börja den första januari 2008 och redan nu börjar folk samla in för att sälja på svarta marknaden. Det försvinner inte, utan blir bara lättare att få tag på. Förmodligen kommer det att bli ännu fler psykotiska människor i framtiden eftersom - och detta antar jag bara - det inte kommer att finnas varningstexter på askarna. Dessutom tror jag knappast att de som säljer svamparna på gatorna kommer att fråga kunderna om du känner till riskerna med att äta Paddos. Till detta kommer kvaliteten sannolikt blir sämre vilket förmodligen ger värre skador och fler dödsfall.

En liten varning till er svenskar som vill åka ner till Amsterdam, "drogernas paradis på jorden". Kom ihåg: köp endast ifrån butikerna (coffee shops) annars är risken stor att du får dåliga varor. Köp aldrig från någon på gatan. Tänk på att kokain inte är lagligt. Det är väldigt olagligt och du kan få mycket hårt straff om du ertappas med det. Sen är det bara fem gram cannabis som är det lagligt innehav för eget bruk, så försök inte köpa ett hekto hasch ifrån en coffee shop. Ett innehav av ett hekto hasch kan ge dig upp till fyra års fängelse.

Slutligen vill jag framhålla att det finns andra bra turistattraktioner i Amsterdam än att äta Paddos, så till författaren av telegrammet vill jag bara säga: Du kan kontakta mig för en "Dagje uit" där jag kan visa dig Amsterdam och dess kanaler och museum, och om du skulle vilja ha en svamp framåt kvällen så går det att ordna. Jag menar, du är ju ändå en svensk på semester i Amsterdam! Men jag kan inte lova dig att kvaliteten är så bra efter den första januari 2008.

JP Rosengren

Fighting off the taxman with guns and booby traps is a bit extreme even for me, but on an emotional level I can understand where the Browns are coming from. British newspaper The Economist writes about libertarian protesters and how they may be linked to presidential hopeful Ron Paul. If I were an American Republican, I would probably vote for Mr Paul in the primary.

That seems to be the question on every political commentator's mind the day after Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Price. According to an informative article in the New York Times, former president Jimmy Carter, who won the prize in 2002, is one of those who want to see Gore in the White House. Personally, I prefer him to stay where he is.

This is why capitalism can be defended not only by libertarian rights theory but also by utilitarian ethics. The rich employ the poor who in turn become richer and begin to employ others. Capitalism benefits humankind more than any other economic system has ever done. Globalization brings people together.

Professor Björn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center writes:

Gore told the world in his Academy Award-winning movie (recently labelled "one-sided" and containing "scientific errors" by a British judge) to expect 20-foot sea-level rises over this century. But his Nobel co-winners, the IPCC, conclude that sea levels will rise between only a half-foot and two feet over this century, with their best expectation being about one foot - similar to what the world experienced over the past 150 years.

Likewise, Gore agonises over the accelerated melting of ice in Greenland, but overlooks the IPCC's conclusion that, if sustained, the current rate of melting would add just three inches to the sea level rise by the end of the century. Gore also takes no notice of research showing that Greenland's temperatures were higher in 1941 than they are today.

Gore also frets over a predicted rise in heat-related deaths, without mentioning that rising temperatures will reduce the number of cold spells, which are a much bigger killer than heat. The best study shows that by 2050, heat will claim 400,000 more lives, but 1.8 million fewer will die because of cold. Indeed, global warming will actually save lives.

Read Lomborg's article here.

A buzzworthy compilation about a man who knows how to hypnotize chickens.

Update: What the American bloggers say about Al Gore here.

From the Daily Kos blog:

As the smearing and ridiculing of Gore and NASA scientist James Hansen by the global warming deniers prove, greedheads and ideologues will stand in the way even when megadisaster looms. They began their rancid challenge to those who warned us about global warming more than two decades ago, and they have yet to surrender their campaign of self-interested falsehoods. You can count on many of the biggest liars to repeat some of those falsehoods today. To solve the crisis, even to ameliorate it, requires trashing their BS and shoving them aside. We have Al Gore to thank for his relentless effort to popularize the message that can help us achieve that.

The boldface is mine. Find it interesting that all leftists are so keen on silencing their opponents. It's the Chávez-style free speech—no debate, only sermon.

When I read the Norwegian Nobel Committee's citation in awarding the Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC, one paragraph in particular caught my attention. The fight against global warming is linked to peace because it prevents "increased danger of violent conflicts and wars". Interesting. What it means is that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded for a pre-emptive attack of sort. Maybe Israel or the United States will get the Nobel Prize if they stop Iran from develop nuclear weapons? I would definitely support that.

As I wrote yesterday, I will never forgive the Norwegians for this. Al Gore has done nothing to promote peace. He made a movie. That's it.

Read more here.

From the Norwegian Nobel Committee's citation in awarding the 2007 Peace Prize:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind.

They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states.

And:

Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing.

His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.

By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world's future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind.

Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee is appointed by the parliament, which in turn is controlled by socialists. My guess is that the action they think is needed can be summed up as ever-bigger government managed by politicians eager to control every aspect of human life.

David Adam of the Guardian writes about the nine scientific errors a British judge found when scrutinizing Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth.

In a Salon interview, Doris Lessing explains how she recovered from communism:

The interesting thing is to ask yourself this question: Why were the Europeans bothered about the Soviet Union at all? It was nothing to do with us. China had nothing to do with us. Why were we not building, without reference to the Soviet Union, a good society in our own countries? But no, we were all—in one way or another—obsessed with the bloody Soviet Union, which was a disaster. What people were supporting was failure. And continually justifying it. That had a disastrous effect on—this is another cliché, forgive me—progressive thinking of every kind.

"The old values of individualism, capitalism, and egoism must be demolished. New values must be created, and that can only be done through education," says Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. Therefore, his regime wants socialism forced on students.

Mr Chávez's brother Adán, who is the education minister, was asked recently about what would happen to the 40 per cent of voters who have consistently opposed the president. He said those who were "not oligarchs" would soon recognize their error.

I suppose the idea is to turn the children against their parents in an attempt to eradicate every thought of true democracy. Get them young—that is how socialists in power normally try to prevent problems caused by individuals who think for themselves.

Read more in The Economist. Here's a quote from the article:

The government has neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the leaked draft curriculum. But its contents chime with many official statements. It says that children will be taught that capitalism is "a form of world domination" associated with imperialism. They will learn about liberation movements, but only socialist ones. Their study of Latin American economic integration excludes the Andean Community; the president cancelled Venezuela's membership of this because it was dominated by "neoliberal" thinking.

By their mid-teens pupils will need to show "a critical attitude towards any attempt at internal or external aggression". They will also have to develop "community-information mechanisms" (ie, say opponents, a network of spies) to defend national sovereignty. Officials admit that this is an ideological project, but so are all education curriculums, they say.

Already, according to the education ministry, 150,000 teachers have taken part in courses to prepare them for the new "Bolivarian Education System", recently defined by the president as "red, very red". Even those sympathetic to the idea remain confused, however, because they have yet to receive a copy of the curriculum. Nonetheless, the new approach is being gradually adopted by state schools, and will be applied to private ones next year. About a fifth of Venezuelan children are taught in private schools, and the government says that these will not be abolished. But the president has warned them that if they decline to implement the new curriculum they will be taken over by the state.

"Jag är oerhört ödmjuk när jag fattar politiska beslut."

– Chatrine Pålsson Ahlgren i Studio Ett

The Guardian has put together a webpage with information about Doris Lessing, who has won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2007.

Swedes prefer the English language to the Swedish, at least on television.

An open letter signed by 138 Muslim scholars urges Christian leaders to focus on the common essentials of Islam and Christianity. This, the scholars say, in an effort to save the world. Personally, I'm not sure the world is worth saving if the most religious leaders are allowed to control it.

Read this lecture by Dr Matthias Kuentzel and ask yourself if you think it's such a great idea:

Islamism is not motivated by a concept of reason but by a cult of death. It does not strive for emancipation but for oppression. It uses the flag of anti-colonialism to promote antisemitism. It is true that today there is no other anti-capitalist or anti-Western movement that is able to mobilise and influence so many people. Bin Laden’s latest message builds on this reality. But it is for this very reason all the more essential for every responsible person to draw an inseperable line between a concept of change that is rooted in the traditions of the Enlightenment and emancipation, and a concept of change that is aimed in a fascist way at destroying the development of societies and the freedom of the individual. You can be in favor of or against Islamism and Fascism but you cannot be anti-Fascist and pro-Islamist at the same time.

Perhaps quarrel is better than consensus just as war is better than a world run by fascists?

The Swedish Academy just announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2007 is awarded to the British writer Doris Lessing.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce on Friday who gets this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Apparently, Al Gore is the bookmakers' favourite. I will never forgive the Norwegians if they honour Mr Gore with the Nobel Prize.

I have been travelling all day, which is why I haven't posted anything since this morning. Besides, I'm a bit distracted by pain at the moment. I just had a wisdom tooth extracted from my lower jaw. My mouth is bleeding and I'm not allowed to eat proper food for another day. Must admit that I feel a bit fretful.

Yesterday, I learned that the Moderate Party is now in favour of rent regulation. This policy decision is a big mistake. Rent control is costly and hit the poorest the hardest. It is simply not fair that people living in run-down areas should be forced to pay the same rent as those living in the most attractive neighbourhoods. The Moderate Party can do better than adopting failed socialist policies in order to avoid new smear campaigns of the Union of Tenants. I hope the party will have a serious rethink.

Sitter på tåget på väg mot Stockholm och läser Sydsvenska Dagbladet. Kunde inte låta bli att fnissa högt när jag läste Pontus Kyanders artikel om det nationalsocialistiska sabotaget mot en utställning som just nu visas på Kulturen i Lund.

På golvet ligger två av Andres Serranos stora inramade fotografier ur serien "A History of Sex" slängda, en av dem med bildsidan mot golvet, den andra med bilden uppåt. En blond dvärgflicka som tittar rakt ut, och en mans styva lem. Bilden är så gott som oskadd.

Uppenbart var denna konstkritik med yxa och kofot inte riktad mot blonda, småväxta kvinnor. På väggarna kan man tydligare läsa vem den var riktad mot: homosexuella män, svarta, och kvinnor som bryter mot könsrollsstereotyperna. Det är bara de som fått slagen riktade mot ansiktena, i en primitiv och urgammal ritual av bildförstörelse.

Följaktligen lär man sig mer om de muskelstinna representanter för det manliga släktet som höll i redskapen än om föremålen för deras ilska: de är homofoba och misogyna, och med en dos amatörpsykologi kan man också dra slutsatsen att de har en fasad av narcissistiskt uppumpad "manlighet" som bara hjälpligt skyler deras osäkra sexuella identitet. De är män som trivs med män. Raseriet mot bögarna har en lustig bumerangeffekt.

(Foto av Ingemar D Kristiansen.)

This is funny. Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister let her press secretary to take her place for a live online chat session with the readers of one newspaper while she herself was interviewed by another newspaper.

Citat:

Man [liberalerna] hävdar att man i liberal anda accepterar folk att leva som de vill, försörja sig som de vill – som kommunist, munk eller judisk fruktplockande kollektiv – samtidigt som man höjer rösten för att förbjuda tiggeriet som verkligen är en utmanande försörjningsform för kapitalet.

Om man bortser från det lögnaktiga påståendet att liberaler vill förbjuda tiggeri så är detta ett hysteriskt roligt exempel på hur trivial tillvaron ter sig för en vänsterextremist. Jag kommer osökt att tänka på ett avsnitt av The Simpsons: "Hi, I'm Troy McClure. Did you know that the hole's only natural enemy is the pile?"

While politically correct Swedes love to blame the transport industry and laissez-faire capitalism for global warming, statistics show that more people than ever before are taking flights from Sweden to foreign destinations. In my experience, these are often the same people. It's OK to be a leftist environmentalist during hot summer days, but when the temperature drops, it's nice to take a trip to sunny Thailand.

Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are popular the Arab world. All of them are untrue, but some of them are more imaginative than others. The following is an example of the latter.

Ramadan Adassi of the Palestinian terrorist group the al-Aqsa Brigades claims that White House intern Monica Lewinsky was an Israeli Mossad implant sent to destroy President Clinton's career after he pressured the Jewish state to evacuate territory. And he offers his advise to Mrs Clinton:

"If Hillary goes too much against the Zionist interests, she will face the same conspiracy like her husband who fell into the trap of Lewinsky. I have no doubt [Lewinsky] was planted by the Zionists, who wanted to send a message to all future American presidents—do not go against the Israeli policy. Bill Clinton made the Oslo agreement and promoted peace but the Israelis did not give him a chance."

I don't trust anything published by World Net Daily—(just take a look at the slanderous headline in the screenshot above!) It's the news source of the Christian Right and is as mad as the Muslim radicals it works against. However, the article gives another example of the many similarities between Islamist propaganda and the Socialist Left when a terrorist leader says American policy is based on oppressing poor and innocent people.

This is exactly the newspeak used by every fascist and communist. Freedom is slavery; liberty is oppression. Welcome to the mind of the totalitarian.

One third of Italian men over thirty still live at home with their parents. Now Economics Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa wants to lure them away from home with a tax break worth one thousand euros. Strangely enough, Mr Padoa-Schioppa's critics in parliament seem more upset about him labelling the adult men "big babies".

Jag har aldrig deltagit själv, men vad jag förstår av andra så erbjuder Stureakademin ett år av väldigt trevliga samtal och föreläsningar om liberalism. Håkan Tribell, som ansvarar för verksamheten, vill att jag för vidare att det nu är dags att anmäla sig till kursen som börjar i januari 2008. Ansökan ska vara inlämnad senast den 1 december 2007.

Läs mer på Stureakademins hemsida.

Conservative evangelicals only really care about three political issues: opposition to abortion, gay rights, and stem-cell research. According to a New York Times poll, 59 per cent of white evangelical Republican primary voters said they could not support a candidate they didn't agree with on issues like abortion or same-sex marriage. In other words, the religious opposition to individual liberty and equal rights is more important than fighting terrorism and a healthy economy. This is why they cannot stand Rudy Giuliani and fear his success. Unlike the other Republican candidates, Mr Giuliani supports gay rights and women's right to a safe and legal abortion. Leaders of the Christian Right threaten to back a third-party candidate if Giuliani becomes the Republican presidential candidate. I hope they do. With the religious extremists gone, it would be possible for the Republican Party to go back to be the liberty-loving party it once was.

Read more here.

Just now, I read a disturbing article by Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat of The Times. It's about Ahmed, a mentally deranged Iraqi man living in Syria. Ahmed wants to be a suicide bomber and kill innocent people. "There is nothing stronger than my love for God and seeking martyrdom," he says.

Ahmed is obviously a suicidal psychopath. If people like him had settled for slicing their wrists, contemporary Iraq would be a flourishing democracy.

Ahmed and his fellow psychopaths say they only target Americans. This is not true. From the article:

Fewer than a quarter of suicide bombers succeed in blowing up coalition forces, who are relatively well shielded behind concrete barriers or the armour plating of their vehicles.

The bombers are much likelier to be deployed against Iraqi Shi'ites; soldiers, police, officials or even civilians. According to academics who have studied the Sunni insurgency, the main aim is not to avenge the destruction inflicted by US forces, but to broaden the sectarian divide, perpetuate the cycle of hatred and undermine confidence in the ability of the Shi'ite-led government to restore order.

Apologists for Islamist terrorism often say that the suicide bombers in Iraq are locals fighting occupation. However, the truth is that most of the terrorists are Saudis:

According to Mohammed Hafez, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri and author of Suicide Bombers in Iraq, the Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom, the influence of the Saudi Wahhabis is key to any understanding of the phenomenon. His study of 139 suicide bombings found that 53 were carried out by Saudis, compared with 18 by Iraqis, seven by Syrians and four by Jordanians.

The Saudis had already fought foreign jihads in Afghanistan, Bos-nia and Chechnya, Hafez said. In Iraq they exploited the culture of martyrdom established by Palestinian suicide bombers. The targeting of so many Shi'ites has been consistent with their beliefs.

"Wahhabi tradition sees the ascendancy of Shia as [a] worse evil than occupation by infidels, because Shia are heretics and apostates," said Hafez.

Supporters of a democratic Iraq must realize that Wahhabism is the problem, not Arab culture or mainstream Islam. It's the ideology of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab that stands in the way of a peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

Jag blev häpen när jag lyssnade på Sveriges Radios mediamagasin Publicerat. Första halvan av programmet består av en intervju med Johanna Parikka Altenstedt som berättar om hur illa hon mådde när bloggare kritiserade hennes hot om att avslöja Isabella Lunds identitet. Jag måste erkänna att jag blev chockad över den totala bristen på självkritik. Hon verkar inte förstå att det var hennes provocerande beteende som föranledde den massiva kritiken mot henne. Istället riktar hon hård kritik mot de media som ifrågasatt henne. Det är tydligen helt i sin ordning att utnyttja en människas utsatta situation.

Jag brukar lyssna på Publicerat. Det kan orimligt ha undgått någon att programledaren Åke Pettersson är mycket negativt inställd till bloggar, internet och medborgarjournalistik. Det är de gamla medierna och de gamla arbetsmetoderna som står i centrum. Detta är säkert helt naturligt för ett program som vänder sig till äldre journalister, men det blir inte sällan löjligt när ett aktualitetsprogram behandlar två decenniers utveckling med aktivt ointresse. Det är nog i ljuset av detta man får se intervjun med Parikka Altenstedt. En möjlighet öppnade sig för ännu ett dystopiskt inslag om den anarki av åsikter och uttryck som är bloggosfären. Budskapet från Åke Pettersson är detsamma som alltid – gammalt är bra, nytt är dåligt.

När chocken lagt sig inser jag att den gamla maktjournalistikens företrädare genom sitt agerande har visat att de fruktar bloggarna. Jag tror det förlorade tolkningsföreträdet har gjort många äldre journalister bittra.

Blogge har skrivit mer här. Radioprogrammet finns i poddversion här.

Reason's Michael Moynihan writes an article about Sweden in The American.

(Via Henrik Alexandersson.)

In only a few days, the Conservative Party has gone from being a sure loser to a likely winner. Considering this development, it's very unlikely that Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls an early general election in Britain.

Read more here and here.

"Competition protects consumers far better than regulation. What I got from Ayn Rand was how she describes the chilling and creepy way regulators work," says John Stossel, one of many who will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the novel Atlas Shrugged later today.

Read more here.

Homophobes often label their hate family values. The truth is the opposite. This case proves a perfect example. The state of Utah rather force four siblings apart than allow their gay uncle and his partner to care for them.

If you have had any problems accessing my journal this evening, it's due to some adjustments I've made to the templates. Since I began using new blogging software in July, minor things like the date format have annoyed me. I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to following the recommendations of the Oxford Style Manual. Therefore, I could no longer tolerate the date format. If I had not made the change, the date for this entry would read "October 06, 2007", now, however, it reads "6 October 2007", which is the correct form according to Fowler and Oxford University Press.

Anyhow, changing the template meant I had to republish the entire weblog. That's what caused the downtime.

This morning, the socialist opposition submitted a motion to the Swedish Parliament demanding same-sex marriage legislation. With only the Christian Democrats against such legislation, a clear majority in parliament is in favour. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is a strong proponent of same-sex marriage, but the government cannot put forward a bill as long as the Christian Democrats block the idea.

Mona Sahlin och Pär Nuder presenterar idag socialdemokraternas skuggbudget på Dagens Nyheters debattsida.

Vinnare:
Statliga byråkrater
Maktkåta politiker
Passiva bidragstagare
Välbärgade pensionärer
Ineffektiva högskolor

Förlorare:
Vanliga arbetare
Innovativa företagare
Alla som har ett hem
Fattiga ungdomar
Ofrivilligt arbetslösa

Det ska löna sig att vara svag och passiv. Åtminstone om man tillhör en viktig väljargrupp. Socialdemokratin tjänar på orättvisa.

"Technology is bringing rapid advances in memory. What society needs now are new ways to forget." From an article by Jessica Winter of the Boston Globe:

"We used to have a system in which we forgot things easily and had to invest energy in remembering," says Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "Now we're switching to a system in which we remember everything and have to invest energy in order to forget. That's an enormous transformation."

Personally, I have turned my online journal into something of an external memory reserve that allows me to forget minor things I know might come in handy one day (such as a link to an article about the advantages of amnesia).

Written by Karl Kraus. Drawn by John Cox.

Efter gårdagens inlägg om Erik Wijk besökte jag hans hemsida och fann en länk till en äldre artikel av honom och Åsa Linderborg. Jag vill minnas att jag kommenterat artikeln tidigare. Hursomhelst så är det ett lysande exempel på hyckleri. Precis som alla andra artiklar av de båda så är denna fylld av meningslösa adjektiv och tramsiga påståenden som att liberaler använder "historieförfalskningen som metod". Vad jag dock främst hakar upp mig på är ett sönderslitet citat av Herbert Tingsten från 1936, alltså från tiden före andra världskriget. Trots att Tingsten inte själv betraktade sig som liberal förrän 1941, beskriver Wijk och Linderborg honom som "den genuint liberale". Det är uppenbart att denna historieförfalskning syftar till att ge styrka åt påståendet att kommunismen till sin natur skiljer sig från fascismen. Det gör den inte. Höger- och vänstersocialism bygger i allt väsentligt på samma premisser - grupp mot grupp, klass mot klass , ras mot ras, etcetera.

För den som inte ägnar sig historieförfalskningen som metod finns det mer typiska citat från den genuint liberale Tingsten. Här är ett från Dagens Nyheter den 6 juni 1947:

"I praktiken har såväl nazism som kommunism blivit liberalismens och demokratins fiender. Det är likheterna dessa båda rörelser emellan, icke olikheterna som blivit avgörande. Medlet har varit detsamma: diktaturen, det fullständiga undertryckandet av medborgerlig frihet, den genom hårdhet och masspåverkan säkrade lydnaden. Drömmen om statens avskaffande har förtonat ur kommunismens ideologi, diktaturen har rättfärdigats som permanent statsform, som den sanna demokratin."

Only two days ago, everything seemed set for an early general election in Britain. Things might change though, as a new opinion poll suggests Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck. I would be surprised if Prime Minister Gordon Brown has the guts to call an election. In my book, he will always be one of Tony Blair's dull minions.

More on the latest polls here.

I don't know what good it will do, but Lydia Hartunian has declared 15 November 2007 an American holiday for atheists, agnostics, and people of faith who want a genuine separation of church and state.

The Swedish Data Inspection Board has rejected proposed new measures against Internet piracy. Read more in Swedish here.

Norwegian clergymen say they will defy the church and begin to marry same-sex couples.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who made headlines four years ago by refusing Communion to John Kerry, says that anyone administering Communion is morally obligated to deny it to Catholic politicians who support an abortion-rights position contrary to church teaching. Therefore Burke would refuse Communion to Rudy Giuliani. When asked if the same would apply to politicians who support the death penalty, he said, "It's a little more complicated in that case."

Since when, I wonder? The Vatican opposes the death penalty on the same grounds as abortion. No one but God is allowed to kill any human being. This just proves that Raymond Burke is a prideful hypocrite. And according to Catholic teachings, pride is not only a deadly sin, but also what caused Satan's fall from heaven.

I was browsing through the blogosphere and care across this:

Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true.

The bitter education of Mark Steyn:

Incidentally, I stopped writing for the [New York] Times a few years ago because their fanatical "fact-checking" copy-editors edited my copy into unreadable sludge.

According to the latest Washington Post poll, Hillary Clinton has jumped to a 33-point lead over Barack Obama, getting a full majority for the first time in any national survey about the Democratic presidential field and topping her main rival among every major slice of the electorate. Clinton is now backed by 53 per cent, Obama by 20 per cent, and John Edwards by 13 per cent.

Read more here.

The European Court of Justice has ruled Sweden's ban on the private importation of alcohol breaches European law.

Nattväktarstaten är namnet på ett utopiskt samhälle i vilket alla människor oavsett bakgrund äger det viktigaste produktionsmedlet och dess produktion; alltså den egna kroppen och det egna arbetet. Kommunister, fascister och andra kollektivister föraktar nattväktarstaten som idé eftersom de anser att staten har moralisk rätt att göra vad den önskar mot sina medborgare. Allt som individer producerar inom ett givet geografiskt område har majoritetssamhället eller den bäst organiserade pöbeln rätt att bruka som den önskar. Så ser den ideologiska motsättningen ut. Det är därför inte särskilt märkvärdigt att en radikal kollektivist som Erik Wijk startat en grupp på Facebook i syfte att likna Timbro vid terrorister. I hans värld är terrorism detsamma som att värna universella mänskliga rättigheter. Helt logiskt är sann demokrati för en kollektivist detsamma som att göra medborgarna beroende av statsmakten och dess funktionärers nyckfullhet. Den som som inte lyder överheten saknar rätt.

Att denna uppochnervända terminologi utgör själva kärnan i allt Erik Wijk företar sig borde alla liberaler som läst någon av hans många debattartiklar begripit för flera år sedan. Jag har trots detta noterat att många liberaler irriterat sig på Wijks tilltag. Jag kan förstå reaktionen, men jag tror faktiskt vi frihetsvänner gör bäst i att ignorera brunfascisternas billiga provokation.

The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on the first step towards long-lasting peace today. Good news, but I cannot stop being pessimistic considering the proven madness of Kim Jong Il, the communist ruler of the North Korean necrocy.

(Photo of Kim Jong Il studying female soldiers taken from a Chinese military website.)

According to the New York Times, the US Justice Department issued a secret document in February 2005, which included an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the CIA. The document provided "explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures."

Torture has never worked. It's immoral and wrong under any circumstances. It only serves to sadistically humiliate the enemy.

The picture on the New Yorker's cover proves an excellent example of cartoon commentary. Several contemporary political sandals in one.

This article from Der Spiegel upsets me. Nothing makes me rage like cowardly fascists terrorising defenceless civilians: "Please don't believe what the junta says," a young Burmese man whispers to the foreign journalists. "The repression is continuing every night. When there are no more witnesses, they drive through the suburbs at night and kill the people." From the article:

The young man wanted to tell his story quickly. He knew that he couldn't let himself be caught doing so—otherwise he could soon find himself in jail or dead. He comes from South Okalapa, a huge township east of Yangon, where there is hunger and misery. Most of the monks who demonstrated against the regime last week came from there. After the junta's troops finally crushed the unrest in the city center on Saturday, they took their brutal revenge in Okalapa on Sunday.

It was around midnight when the long convoy of military vehicles drove into the district. They contained police officers from the anti-insurgency unit and the so-called "Lome-Ten," a unit of gangsters and ex-convicts, who do the regime's dirty work.

They surrounded a monastery on Weiza Yandar Street. All the roughly 200 monks living there were forced to stand in a row and the security forces beat their heads against a brick wall. When they were all covered in blood and lay moaning on the ground, they were thrown into a truck and taken away. "We are crying for our monks," said the man, and then he was gone.

This is the result of the Burmese revolution. A Buddhist monk has paid the price of opposing tyranny. It reminds me of the pictures from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, i.e. the pictures the "peace-loving", anti-American Left works so hard to eradicate from our memory. This is moral relativism at work.

Read more about the junta's crackdown on democracy activists here.

American senators urge Arab states to end anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement.

From the New York Times:

Cooling his heels outside a popular nightclub here recently, Jesper Froberg stubbed out his cigarette and reached for a less harmful pleasure: smokeless tobacco, neatly packed in tiny pouches that look like miniature used tea bags.

"I'm really concerned about my health," said Mr. Froberg, a maître d'hôtel, who tries to limit his smoking. "This stuff is safer than cigarettes, it's discreet, and it's really good."

Now this form of tobacco is coming to America, in the midst of an intensifying debate over how to define "reduced risk" tobacco products and how to market them. On Wednesday, a House committee is scheduled to hold hearings on whether the Food and Drug Administration should be given the power to regulate tobacco.

Snus (rhymes with loose) is a moist ground tobacco that a user tucks between the cheek and the gum. Unlike chewing tobacco and moist smokeless tobacco—commonly known as dip—snus requires no spitting. Thanks partly to its popularity here, Sweden has the lowest smoking rates in Europe. It also has fewer incidences than its neighbors of smoking-related diseases, including lung and oral cancer.

My husband is a snuser. It's far better than smoking, although I personally think it smells bad and gives the users' teeth a brownish colour they could do without. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not already addicted to nicotine.

I wrote about snus and its health aspects on 20 July.

A slide show by German photographer Thomas Dworzak.

(Via Andrew Sullivan.)

A new study might explain why some conservatives are a bit slow:

Taken together, our results are consistent with the view that political orientation, in part, reflects individual differences in the functioning of a general mechanism related to cognitive control and self-regulation. Stronger conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with less neurocognitive sensitivity to response conflicts. At the behavioral level, conservatives were also more likely to make errors of commission.

(Via Neo.)

Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance writes in Foreign Policy:

A "drug-free world," which the United Nations describes as a realistic goal, is no more attainable than an "alcohol-free world"—and no one has talked about that with a straight face since the repeal of Prohibition in the United States in 1933. Yet futile rhetoric about winning a "war on drugs" persists, despite mountains of evidence documenting its moral and ideological bankruptcy.

Read the whole article here.

Swedish Social Democrats had a Brussels hotel room covered in human excrement. "There were faeces on the carpet, on the toilet door, on the external door, on the chair and on the wall," receptionist Rashid bin Hach says to newspaper Expressen.

Read more in The Local.

Fake columnist Bonnie Nordstrum of parody newspaper The Onion is a happy polytheist:

He can save any sinner He wants, and I can worship any deity I want. But we are still together. Some may think it's strange, but I'm no longer worried about other people's unenlightened moralizing. My spiritual life is better then ever! I love God—heck, I love all of them—and I am one deeply, deeply fulfilled woman.

Hilarious. It's David Hume's Natural History of Religion taken for an extra spin.

At least he's straight. If he'd groomed an adult male instead if a 14-year-old girl, he would have been sacked immediately.

Quote from The Local:

One major effect of climate change would be an increase in erosion in large parts of the country, particularly along the coasts. Around 1,800 km of coast is in the danger zone, with 150,000 properties at risk of losing the ground from under their foundations. A further 150,000 homes are at risk of being affected by landslides.

I live in block of flats less than a kilometre from Öresund. If I were one of those hysterical alarmists who believed every word of the report on climate change Bengt Holgersson presented to the government on Monday, I would probably expect to wake up in open water any day now. But somehow I can't take the report seriously. Or rather, even if the effects of climate change are true, I can't take the suggested measures seriously. It's so silly to think that Sweden can prevent flooding by appointing "climate-adaptation committees" in every county. If we want to do something genuine, we should do what the Dutch have done for centuries—build dikes and create polders.

Jag gillar Roland Poirier Martinssons krönika i dagens Svenska Dagbladet. Ville bara få det sagt. Jag vet inte, men jag får känslan av att han blivit mer ödmjuk i sin ton sedan han flyttade till USA. Det är mindre av konservativa försvarstal för censurstaten numera.

I'm not much for patriotism, but this story I picked up via Instapundit is sweet:

Last Wednesday, while flying from Phoenix to the Alamo City on U.S. Airways Flight 207, a San Antonio man, Gil Anderson, witnessed something memorable.

Shortly before takeoff, he overheard a flight attendant tell a young uniformed soldier sitting in front of him:

"A lady in first-class wants to switch seats with you."

The soldier accepted the offer and walked up to the first-class section.

"When the lady came back to our area, I had a tear in my eye," Anderson said when he phoned this column soon after his plane landed. "I gave her a little round of applause.

"Then, by golly, everybody in that area started applauding," he said in a voice tinged with emotion. "It was a very moving moment."

Acknowledging the applause of Anderson and the other passengers, the first-class lady said simply:

"I did it because he deserves it."

Kenneth Denby of The Times tells the story about bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta's brutal crackdown in Burma:

Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause.

Since last month Ko Latt, 28, his friends Arca, Eye, Sun and Superman, and scores of others like them have been the third pillar of Burma's Saffron Revolution. While the veteran democracy activists, and then the Buddhist monks, marched in their tens of thousands against the military regime, it is the country's amateur bloggers and internet enthusiasts who have brought the images to the outside world.

These Burmese bloggers deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

Quote:

Can anyone imagine George Bush coming to Tehran and then criticizing the Islamic Republic's policies in a speech? Is it plausible to imagine George Bush speaking about wiping Palestine off the map? Could George Bush talk about sending democracy to Tehran in Tehran? Would George Bush even be provided with security or would plain-clothed operatives be sent to "spontaneously" attack him?

From the Iranian blog خیابان شماره ۱۱. Translation here.

According to a friend in Hollywood, Lionsgate announced on Friday that the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is back on, with Angelina Jolie as Dagny Taggart and Brad Pitt as John Galt. It will be released a few weeks before Christmas next year.

Sad news reaches me from America. John Cox and Allen Forkum will no longer publish editorial cartoons on their joint weblog. I have enjoyed and republished their work since I began blogging. Thanks for the laughs, guys!

Andy Samberg and Adam Levine profess their love for Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From NBC's Saturday Night Live show.

New research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies suggests that men and women who start to live together too early in their relationship risk wasting years and ending up single. Meanwhile, research made by Professor Janeen Baxter of the University of Queensland suggests that male cohabitants do more housework than their married counterparts.

Now we know why so many outspoken advocates of "traditional marriages" are men.

The Fo Guang Shan ("Buddha's Light Mountain") order will open New Zealand's largest Buddhist temple to the public tomorrow. "We want our temple to help reduce some social problems," says the nun Man Wang to New Zealand Herald. "We believe we can do it through education and teaching people how to lead good lives."

Among other things, the temple will accommodate facilities where the police can hold crime-prevention meetings.

I'm a secularist, but I do nonetheless think this is a brilliant example of organized religion at its best. In many so-called welfare states, people tend to turn to the government for quick-fix solutions to complex social problems. As a libertarian, I'm highly sceptical about any government interference and thus welcome civil initiatives.