Apparently, the opposition to female genital mutilation is now considered "cultural imperialism" by some.

Moderate Party: 21.6%
Liberal Party: 6.6%
Centre Party: 6.0%
Christian Democrats: 4.4%
Government: 38.7%

Social Democrats: 46.2%
Green Party: 6.0%
Communist Left: 5.0%
Opposition: 57.3%

The latest opinion poll gives Sweden's centre-right government coalition support by less than 39 per cent of the voters. That's a disaster. In September 2006, the same four-party coalition managed to get a majority of the seats in parliament. Now they would get fewer seats that the largest opposition party alone.

I think one of the explanations can be found in the lack of ideology. Most high-ranking politicians seem to think ideology has no importance in modern society—they think it is outdated. I disagree.

I see an obvious connection between the Moderate Party's political triangulation and the decline of voter interest. Since Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt became leader of the party, he has used triangulation in order to take voters from the Social Democrats. In the beginning, it seemed a bold move that voters appreciated. However, over time—as the ideological differences between the liberal-conservatives and social democrats has turned blurry—people no longer see any significance in voting one way or another. That's why silly, little scandals get such an importance. When politics doesn't matter, when the Left and the Right are the same, tabloid journalism about who's kissing who in nightclub restaurants seem more important.

It's time to put an end to triangulation. It trivializes politics and turn political life into a farce. I want the centre-right coalition to rethink some of its policies and give the electorate a real choice in the 2010 general election. It's not too late to turn things around, but we have no time to lose.

Read more about the latest poll here and here.

Scandalous! Abortion questioner is declared Edwards supporter; Log Cabin Republican questioner is declared Obama supporter; lead toy questioner is a prominent union activist for the Edwards-endorsing United Steelworkers...

This has to be embarrassing for the CNN.

In a truly democratic society, people are free to do whatever they wish with their right to vote. Deciding not to vote in a free and fair election is a vote of sort and should be respected as such. Low turnout in free elections is not a democratic problem. In fact, I think it could just as well be interpreted as being the exact opposite. High-ranking European politicians and bureaucrats seem to be of a different opinion.

Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, wants to spend seven million of taxpayer euros on fighting low turnout at European elections. From the EU Observer:

Just days after only 29 percent of the Romanian electorate turned out for the country's first ever European elections, MEPs said that European political parties—currently numbering ten—should be able to use public money to finance political campaigns.

They also voted to set up political foundations. These institutions—to get €7 million in EU funds next year—will be politically affiliated to a particular European party and will be designed to get people talking about Europe.

Welcoming the news, EU communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom, who proposed the plans earlier this year, said "Europe really needs genuine debate and political controversy to engage citizens."

Ridiculous.

Right now, I'm watching the Republican CNN/YouTube debate in Florida. I will try to post comments on the debate. Bare with me, this is my first attempt at live blogging.
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2:33: Mitt Romney is a through-and-through populist. I don't like Mike Huckabee, but on the debate on tuition fees, I stand by him against Romney's disgusting populism.
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2:49: Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform asked the candidates if they oppose tax increases. Everyone answered yes, but Ron Paul was the only one who mentioned the need to cut spending. Good for him.
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2:54: Romney: "I'm proud to be pro-life." Who isn't? I never met anyone proud to be pro-death. (Yes, I know it's political spin terminology, but still...)
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3:01: Funniest blog comment so far: "Hi-def. Is it Thompson's worst enemy." From here.

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3:09: What would you do about deadly black-on-black crime in America? Romney: "Get more moms and dads. Family values." Yeah, that's something the president can bring about. Get real!
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3:14: I'm completely behind Rudy Giuliani on abortion.
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3:20: Do you believe every word in the Bible? Romney: "I believe the Bible is the word of God." Well, read the book and it's obvious that neither God nor Jesus second that.
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3:27: "Let us win, let us win!" is John McCain's message to the US troops in Iraq.
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3:31: McCain: "We're not going to torture people. We're not going to do what Pol Pot did."
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3:32: McCain to Romney: Life is not '24'. "I will never allow torture."
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3:36: Ron Paul on Iraq: "The best we can do to the Iraqis is to give them their country back."
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3:48: I have at least one reader!!! Someone sent me this cartoon a minute ago. (Thanks!) Suitable since Rudy Giuliani just now had to answer a question about him using the 9/11 terror attack as a ticket to the White House.

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3:51: Apparently American soldiers are so sensitive that they cannot even be in the same room as gays.
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4:01: Why won't African-Americans vote for the Republicans? Rudy Giuliani seems confused. Mike Huckabee takes over.
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4:06: I'm getting really bored with Giuliani babbling on about what he did as mayor in New York.
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4:09: Ron Paul just said he will not run as an independent. He's a Republican.
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4:12: The debate ends.

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4:17: In my opinion, tonight's winner is Mike Huckabee. I hate what he stands for, and I would never vote for him even if I could, but in the debate he came through as the sincere candidate.
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4:19: If I were an American voter and had to pick a candidates in tonight's debate it would be John McCain for his strong stand against torture.
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4:24: The debate is over and I have had my first live-blogging experience. Over and out.
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The End.

From the Guardian:

President Hugo Chávez is encountering unexpectedly strong opposition to a referendum on constitutional reform which would cement his rule in Venezuela, with violent clashes between rival demonstrations and security forces feeding a mood that the country is at a turning point.

According to opinion polls, the socialist leader could lose this Sunday's vote amid unease over his radical policies and ambition to stay in power for decades.

Defections from his movement's ranks and food shortages have galvanised a student-led opposition campaign which is due to climax at a final rally in downtown Caracas today.

The people of Venezuela seem less fond of Chávez than his fans in Europe and North America want us to believe. I don't want to appear too optimistic, but I truly hope the Chávez camp loses the referendum on Sunday. It would be a disaster otherwise.

"Madonna has horrified animal activists after dyeing her sheep blue, pink, yellow and green for a Vogue spread at their English country estate, in Wiltshire," Bre Horan of Australian Daily Telegraph reports. "Why is it necessary and what are they trying to prove? It is an irresponsible publicity stunt. It sends out the wrong message about how to use animals," an activist says to the newspaper.

(Via Henrik Alexandersson.)

A "beard cap" by Vik Prjónsdóttir. This winter's must-have.

Cynthia Johnston of Reuters reports:

The video-sharing Web site YouTube has suspended the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of what he said was brutal behaviour by some Egyptian policemen, the activist said.

Wael Abbas said close to 100 images he had sent to YouTube were no longer accessible, including clips depicting purported police brutality, voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations. YouTube, owned by search engine giant Google, did not respond to a written request for comment. A message on Abbas's YouTube user page, [link], read: "This account is suspended."

"They closed it (the account) and they sent me an e-mail saying that it will be suspended because there were lots of complaints about the content, especially the content of torture," Abbas told Reuters in a telephone interview. Abbas, who won an international journalism award for his work this year, said that of the images he had posted to YouTube, 12 or 13 depicted violence in Egyptian police stations.

Abbas was a key player last year in distributing a clip of an Egyptian bus driver, his hands bound, being sodomised with a stick by a police officer—imagery that sparked an uproar in a country where rights groups say torture is commonplace.

I understand YouTube doesn't want violence on their website, but I think there ought to be an exception for this kind of material.

Everyone should read Johan Norberg's article (in Swedish) on liberalism and the environment in Expressen. Where other intellectuals see proof of the most horrid dystopian nightmares, Norberg sees an opportunity for improvements.

Yoko Kubota of Reuters reports:

Twendy-One, named as a 21st century edition of a previous robot, Wendy, has soft hands and fingers that gently grip, enough strength to support humans as they sit up and stand, and supple movements that respond to human touch.

It can pick up a loaf of bread without crushing it, serve toast and help lift people out of bed.

"It's the first robot in the world with this much system integration," said Shigeki Sugano, professor of mechanical engineering at Waseda University, who led the Twendy-One project (http://twendyone.com) and demonstrated the result on Tuesday.

"It's difficult to balance strength with flexibility."

The robot is a little shorter than an average Japanese woman at 1.5 m (5 ft), but heavy-set at 111 kg (245 lb). Its long arms and a face shaped like a giant squashed bean mean it resembles the alien movie character E.T.

Twendy-One has taken nearly seven years and a budget of several million dollars to pull together all the high-tech features, including the ability to speak and 241 pressure-sensors in each silicon-wrapped hand, into the soft and flexible robot.

The robot put toast on a plate and fetched ketchup from a fridge when asked, after greeting its patient for the demonstration with a robotic "good morning" and "bon appetit".

Sugano said he hoped to develop a commercially viable robot that could help the elderly and maybe work in offices by 2015 with a price tag of around $200,000.

I need a robot to do my sandwiches. Where can I sign up for one?

While any hint of toleration of illegal narcotics is taboo in Sweden, organizations elsewhere have no problems with combining a harm-reduction message with reality. Not that everyone agrees, but still.

And here is another example of down-to-earth religiousness:

A British primary school teacher has been arrested in Sudan, accused of insulting Islam's Prophet by letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Mohammed, her school said on Monday.

Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, aged 54 from Liverpool, told Reuters they feared for her safety after receiving reports that young men had already started gathering outside the Khartoum police station where she was being held.

Teachers at Unity High School in central Khartoum said Gibbons made an innocent mistake and simply let her pupils choose their favorite name for the toy as part of a school project.

Jane Fowler thinks it's about time college students explain safe sex to their grandparents.

Oh, I agree. The elderly think they can fool us by acting all slow and judgemental when what they really think about is sex, sex, sex.

OK, I'm exaggerating, but I'm not kidding. A few years ago, I worked extra at a home for old people and discovered how deceptive their appearance can be. Many will not believe it, but some men and women in their eighties subscribe to pornographic movies on cable TV, order lubricant online, and have one-night-stands. So yes, safe-sex information is truly something for the elderly.

Mark Poole wrote this informative article about Sodom in 2005, but I haven't seen it before now. I think it's well worth a read for those still convinced that the sins of Sodom have something to do with homosexuality as we know it today.

Don't forget to read Göran Koch-Swahne's comment below the article itself!

My online journal is making a profit for the first time. It's not a huge profit (it's tiny), but the revenue from advertising and a modest private sponsorship will not only make ends meet, but actually give me some money to invest in further improvements.

This year has seen a few changes. In July, I began to use TypePad instead of the self-made semi-manual publishing tool I had used so far. That meant the cost of running this journal doubled. It was worth it though. Publishing entries is much easier now, and the new platform made it possible to allow trackbacks and reader comments—although I have to admit these are fewer than I anticipated.

This is still a small blog compared even to some of the most successful Swedish ones. However, over the past twelve months, the number of visitors a day has more than doubled, and the number of RSS subscribers has nearly tripled. That's a success of sort. An interesting thing is that most new visitors live in the United States, Israel, and Britain. Only about 40 per cent of visitors live in Sweden. A year ago that figure was closer to 60 per cent.

Finally, I want to thank all readers who support this journal by clicking on the advertisements. Thank you!

In the Washington Post, Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch write about the libertarian influence on American politics:

In April 2006, the Pew Research Center published a study suggesting that 9 percent of Americans—more than enough to swing every presidential election since 1988—espouse a "libertarian" ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." That is, a good chunk of your fellow citizens are fiscally conservative and socially liberal; in bumper-stickerese, they love their countrymen but distrust their government.

Sarah Tarnowski thinks Swedes suffer from a deeply-rooted commitment-phobia:

Swedish chain stores Ikea and H&M have enabled people around the world to buy fashionable clothes and bright, trendy furniture at knock-down prices. The cheap prices mean you can buy a t-shirt today and not worry about whether you will still like it a week from now.

But clothes and furniture are not the only things Sweden has turned into disposable goods—the country has also become a pioneer in disposable marriages, and has the dubious distinction of being the world's divorce capital.

While buying clothes and getting married may seem like two very different choices, some sociologists argue that the low-commitment attitudes to both are essential parts of the Swedish dedication to modernity.

Poll says Chavez loses Venezuela referendum lead, Reuters reports:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters oppose Chavez's proposed raft of constitutional changes to expand his powers, compared with 39 percent in favor, a survey by respected pollster Datanalisis showed.

Just weeks ago, Chavez had a 10-point lead for his proposed changes in the OPEC nation that must be approved in a referendum, the polling company said.

Despite the swing, company head Luis Vicente Leon said he did not rule out a comeback by the popular president.

Chavez has trounced the opposition at the polls on average once a year and can deploy a huge state-backed machinery to get out the vote, Leon said.

Dictator Chávez is not amused by the polls, which may be why he makes new threats. The Associated Press reports:

President Hugo Chavez warned his supporters on Friday that anyone voting against his proposed constitutional changes would be a "traitor," rallying his political base before a referendum that would let him seek unlimited re-election in 2012 and beyond.

Brandishing a little red book listing his desired 69 revisions to Venezuela's charter, Chavez exhorted his backers to redouble their efforts toward a victorious "yes" vote in the Dec. 2 ballot.

"He who says he supports Chavez but votes 'no' is a traitor, a true traitor," the president told an arena packed with red-clad supporters. "He's against me, against the revolution and against the people."

The last quote says it all, I think. Like a mediaeval king, Chávez really believes he is the people. That's only one step from declaring himself a god.

Via the Monkey Tennis Centre:

From the Red Cross First Aid Manual for Combatants, Gaza edition.

Lesson 1: Casualty with severed head:

1. Retrieve head from celebrating mob.

2. Carefully reattach head to neck as shown.

3. Remove video of beheading from internet.

4. Prop casualty up in a chair.

5. Call AP and Reuters, and get them to photograph the casualty, explaining to them that he's in excellent health, but has suffered mild whiplash in a car accident, and is having a nap.

6. When AP/Reuters have gone, remove head again.

7. Wait 24 hours.

8. Call AP/Reuters and tell them casualty has been run over by Israeli bulldozer.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: "Prime Minister John Howard has rung Labor leader Kevin Rudd to concede defeat after voters deserted his 11-year government in tonight's federal election."

John Howard's homophobia and racism have given liberalism a bad name in Australia. With him gone, Australia's liberal movement might be able to recover and reconnect with its liberty-loving roots.

Make the world better by purchasing something made in a poverty-stricken country.

It is quite chocking actually. The Associated Press reports:

The U.S. dollar dropped below the 108 yen level early Friday in New York for the first time since June 2005, reflecting the expanding credit crisis.

At 8:30 a.m., the dollar was quoted at 107.90-108.00 yen, compared with its 5 p.m. Thursday quotes of 109.11-14 yen in Tokyo.

In Asian trading on Friday, the U.S. currency tumbled to as low as 107.55 yen. Then it rallied to the upper 107 yen level in later London trading.

U.S. financial markets were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday while Japanese markets were closed Friday for a national holiday.

At 8:30 a.m. in New York, the euro traded at $1.4800-4810 and 159.80- 90 yen against $1.4813-4816 and 161.66-70 yen in Tokyo.

In earlier Asian trading on Friday, the single European currency reached $1.4968, the highest level since its introduction in 1999.

The war on drugs isn't really working, is it? You have to be extremely narrow-minded to think it is, which is exactly why the prohibitionist authorities (in this case the US Drug Enforcement Administration) want everyone to see this chart instead:

Read more on Michael Dobbs and Washington Post's "Fact Checker" blog.

The winners are in.

One of Malmö's canals at midnight; seen through a shaky camera.

(I prefer to label my blurry images artwork. It worked for Jackson Pollock—and I want to be a bipolar artist, too.)

The New York Times's "City Room" blog asked a few experts.

Laura Dern or Katherine Harris? You decide.

"The raw truth about power and ambition in Florida." Hm...

The Mayor of Yakima, Washington, has asked City Councilman Rick Ensey to resign after his wife posted some unfounded rumours on her private blog.

I have often wondered why so many of Sweden's socialist bloggers are keen on routinely erasing reader comments written by conservatives and libertarians. Luc de Clapiers (Marquis de Vauvenargues) offers a clue.

(Cartoon by John Cox.)

Mats Qviberg skriver om Ayn Rand:

Ingen som läst Rand kan med bevarad självaktning hävda att "pengar är roten till allt ont". Pengar är tvärtom symbolen för god vilja och respekt människor emellan. Människor förfogar över sitt eget intellekt och sitt eget arbete och byter dessa bara mot andras arbete och produkter på frivillig grund.

Det är alltså ingen slump att det heter goda affärer. Förmågan att skapa välstånd är vad som lyft mänskligheten och civilisationen. Den är inget att skämmas och be om ursäkt för, inte heller något att gömma bakom aldrig så motiverad generositet och välgörenhet. Som Margaret Thatcher en gång konstaterade hade ingen kommit ihåg den barmhärtige samariten om han bara varit barmhärtig, han hade pengar också.

Sveriges Television har problem med sina vinklade nyheter.

This is one of those extra busy days when there is no time for blogging. While on a short break between meetings, I noticed that Attila Toth's new blog "Kaffekoppen" comments on the food-shortage in Venezuela. I wrote about this most obvious failure of Chávez's neo-communism on 30 October 2007. In a world were despots like Chávez are idolized by the post-"Cold War" generation, it's very important that we who oppose totalitarianism speak out about the similarities between the new charismatic socialism and the Soviet-style socialism that made millions starve to death.

A teenage Saudi gang-rape victim who has been sentenced to six months in prison and two hundred lashes has decided to fight the verdict. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, applies a rigorous doctrine of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. It imposes strict segregation of the sexes and a host of restrictions on women, who may not mix with men other than relatives and must cover from head to toe in public.

The 19-year-old's identity has not been revealed but she has become known as "Qatif girl," after the Shi'ite-populated area of Al-Qatif in the Eastern Province she hails from.

After the rape in October 2006, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been in a car with a man who is not a relative.

The Higher Judicial Council granted a retrial, but, on November 14, a court toughened her sentence to six months in jail and 200 lashes.

The judges decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media," a court source told the English-language daily Arab News.

The court also revoked the licence of Lahem, a leading human rights activist. He has also been summoned by the justice ministry to appear before a disciplinary panel next month.

In the court's view, the girl, who was 18 at the time of the incident, was guilty because she was in the company of a male stranger who apparently had pictures of her she wanted to take back.

Read more here.

The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is suing the Russian Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov after he attacked an exhibit that featured a photo of two policemen kissing. AFP reports:

"The minister has offended the Tretyakov Gallery when he notably accused us of corruption," Valentin Rodionov told AFP. "On Monday, I filed suit against him."

Last month, Sokolov said the exhibit was a "disgrace to Russia" and singled out the photo of the two uniformed policemen locked in a passionate kiss as an example of pornographic material.

The minister then banned the photo, entitled "Kissing Policemen", from being included in an exhibition in Paris' La Maison Rouge which is running until January 20.

Background here, here, and here.

The New York Times presents its new building with pride. I don't blame them; their new home is spectacular.

Delaware State Police have arrested 26-year-old Ardonas Gilbert for running about naked on a Pennsylvania highway. Is this a new trend?

In general, men are more beautiful than women.* I know many people disagree with me on this, but I can see a purely aesthetic argument for being gay. Of course, not all men are beautiful all the time. In fact, some men seem to work very hard at making a slovenly impression. But with a tiny bit of effort, most men can be handsome.

One thing that is easy to do and work miracles is a nicely tied tie. Nine out of ten men look good in a shirt and tie. However, I sense that many men find it difficult to do a nice tie knot. Often they turn out too tight or too loose. When I married my husband I had to do his tie for him since he was unable to. And since then, I have heard many of my friends complain about the same thing. They never seem able to do a nice and comfortable knot.

A problem on the scale of global warming, I thought, and set about looking for help online.

And then, earlier tonight, I came across a website with easy-to-follow instructions on how to tie a tie. A "ties for dummies". Here is what it says about my favourite—the Windsor Knot:

The Windsor Knot is a thick, wide and triangular tie knot that projects confidence. It would therefore be your knot of choice for presentations, job interviews, courtroom appearances etc. It is best suited for spread collar shirts and it's actually quite easy to do.

While just about everyone can use this tie knot to tie his tie, it looks especially well on men with longer necks as its wide form shortens the perceived height of the neck a little bit.

And here's how you do it:

Good luck!

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* I often hear the opposite being stated as "a fact", so I allow myself to be a little provocative. Any claim like this is highly subjective anyway.

I don't endorse any political violence, but I do appreciate a witty name when I see it. From The Local:

Environmental activists in Stockholm have taken to sabotaging SUVs as a means of prompting motorists to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions.

On Monday night, ten vehicles in the capital were targeted by a group calling itself The Indians of the Concrete Jungle.

As has become customary in recent months, the activists made their point by letting the air out of the tyres of Sports Utility Vehicles. According to police, the tyres are sometimes slashed before the environmentalists move on to their next target.

Wittily nutty.

I want Christmas to be a happy occasion, so here's my gift to everyone I know.

The New York Times reports of a scientific breakthrough that could prove vital in the fight against cancer, Alzheimer's, and other life-threatening diseases. "Two teams of scientists are reporting today that they turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo," the newspaper writes.

A Swedish man is taking his employer of thirty-three years to court after he was sacked for buying sex from two prostitutes while on a business trip to China. I hope he wins.

Jag känner igen Patrik Anderssons berättelse allt för väl. När jag tagit upp Rättvisemärkt till diskussion har socialdemokrater och miljöpartister systematiskt försökt att ignorerar alla invändningar. Dock har det varit intressant att i mer informella samtal få medhåll i kritiken mot ett system som innebär att rika svenskar bestämmer hur fattiga arbetare i Sydamerika ska organisera sig och vad göra för sina inkomster. Sanningen är ju att svenska arbetare aldrig skulle kunnat ta sig ur fattigdomen om det inte vore för den frihet man nu gärna vill förvägra arbetare i andra länder.

(Via Dyslesbisk and Johan Ingerö.)

The choice is between a sexually intolerant God, or no god at all? Read Eric Scheie's rather interesting take on the issue.

An estimated 500,000 people have downloaded a ringtone of Spain's King Juan Carlos telling Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez to 'shut up' at the Ibero-American summit ten days ago. Spaniards have paid about 1.5 million euros for the royal ringtone.

Read more here.

Daniel Williams and Maher Chmaytelli report from the third OPEC summit in Riyadh:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez brought his revolutionary zeal to the cartel that controls 40 percent of the world's oil, urging fellow members at a weekend summit to fight against "imperialism'' and "exploitation.''

Chavez used the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to advance a struggle for the soul of the cartel. Countering him was the conference host, Saudi King Abdullah, who said the organization's goal was simply to produce prosperity.

Their contrasting visions elbowed aside the usual OPEC talk about production quotas and currency fluctuations. In the short term at least, Abdullah's vision is likely to prevail, said Ihsan Bu-Hulaiga, who runs a private business consulting firm in Riyadh and advises the Saudi government.

"OPEC has to do with oil; it cannot solve the world's problems with a political agenda,'' he said. "It would be putting its bread and butter at risk.''

Support for Chavez came from President Rafael Vicente Correa of Ecuador and from Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose nation is the target of a U.S.-led campaign of sanctions and pressure over allegations that it is pursuing nuclear weapons and destabilizing the region.

Chávez and Ahmadinejad, what a pair...

Dan Savage at Slog: "Sorry, no HIV vaccine. But we do have a new drug that will make your eyelashes longer."

For my own amusement only, I'm doing an extra course in Jewish humour this semester. I have always enjoyed the somewhat morbid and sarcastic humour that plays such an important part in contemporary Jewish entertainment. Therefore I jumped on the opportunity to study the subject.

One of the things we do in our seminars is analysing jokes and witticisms. Our teacher—a true enthusiast—is happy to provide some on the Judaism blog. Here's a rather long one he posted today:

Det svenska förbudet mot slakt utan bedövning kan komma att hävas av EU enligt norska Aftenposten. Detta skulle göra det möjligt för muslimer och judar att slakta djur på det sätt som religionen föreskriver.

Jag tycker det vore bra om vi blev av med dagens förbud.

Malmö's old town square early this morning. With the city's new—not yet decorated—Christmas tree in front of a controversial equestrian statue of king Karl X Gustav, the Swedish monarch responsible for the brutal conquest of Malmö and what is now southernmost Sweden. Many locals consider the statue an insult and would like to see it replaced by an earlier statue of Queen Margaret.

It was a cloudy, grey, and dreary morning, so the tree and statue look more depressing than they really are. In a few days they will be sparkling with Christmas decoration.

Poeten Aase Berg blev känd för mig då jag för en tid sedan läste om hennes engagemang i Surrealistgruppen. Expressen låter idag publicera ett mästerligt exempel på hennes surrealism. Läs och njut! Snurrigare än så här kan inte ett stycke prosa bli.

I have warned of a new Cold War for a long time. If Iran obtains nuclear weaponry, fascist Islamism will for the first time be a real threat to the survival of free, democratic nations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Therefore I have urged world leaders to do something about Iran before it is too late. Now, it seems, the time is up.

The Jerusalem Post reports that a new paper by Pentagon adviser Dan Goure suggests Iran has "hidden and scattered its nuclear facilities more effectively than previous intelligence has indicated". The same paper also suggests that "Israel is preparing to counter nuclear aggression by Iran by fitting out a fleet of submarines with atomic weapons".

If true, this means that the Cold War I have warned of is already here. The fascists in Tehran and their supporters around the world got the nuclear arms race they wanted.

Swearing on the 7 July 2007 broadcast of the global Live Earth concert has prompted nearly 150 complaints to the BBC. The word "fuck" was broadcast three times, and the words "motherfucking" and "fucking" were each broadcast once, the Independent reports.

I suggest people who cannot stand the F-word should stop watch rock concerts. It's not for you.

Perhaps a suitable cartoon comment to an earlier discussion?

(Cartoon by Graeme MacKay.)

If nothing else, it's nice with a positive outlook for a change:

There's an eery silence out there about what's going on in Iraq. It's almost as if the silence is, well, intentional. Here are just a few examples of what we're talking about, pulled from last week's developments:

• In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British Major Gen. Graham Binns said that attacks against British and American forces have plunged 90% since the start of September.
• Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reported that terrorist attacks of all kinds are down almost 80% from last year's peak—thanks directly to the U.S. surge of 30,000 new troops.
• Amid growing signs that even Iraq extremists have tired of terrorism and killing, a Sunni religious group closed down the high-profile Muslim Scholars Association because of its ties to terrorists.
• U.S. Major Gen. James Simmons, speaking in Baghdad, said Iran's pledges to stop sending weapons and explosives into Iraq "appear to be holding up." Roadside bombs, the leading killer of U.S. troops, have plunged 52% since March, he added.
• Perhaps most touching, according to a report from Michael Yon, who deserves to be the first blogger to win a Pulitzer Prize, Muslims are asking Iraqi Christians to return to help build Iraq.

  Iraqi Muslims recently crammed into St. John's Catholic church in Baghdad to attend a Christian service. According to Yon, "Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. 'Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.' "

• Finally, there's this from Douglas Halaspaska, a reporter on the Web site U.S. Cavalry ON Point: "I came to Ramadi expecting a war and what I found was a city that has grown from the carnage, and all its inhabitants—both Iraqi and American—healing. I was not expecting what I found in Iraq ... it was better than all of that."

Again, all this has taken place just in recent days, weeks and months. The positive news has become simply overwhelming.

Judge Norman Edmondson of the Ontario Court of Justice has declared charging people for simple possession of marijuana unconstitutional in Canada.

Weak US dollar makes cannabis smuggling less profitable. Will more expensive weed cause inflation in the United States?

Stephen Easton explains how the Marijuanomics works:

America borrows itself deep into the hole, ratchets up its trade deficits, buries itself beneath subprime mortgage debt, devalues its dollar with interest-rate cuts, and the currency plunges.

Meanwhile, Canada's economy booms on oil, foreign investors turn north for stability, and the "Loonie"—Canada's dollar, named for the bird on the coin—hits a 50-year high.

Suddenly, it's far more expensive to buy Canadian exports, legal or otherwise, and smuggling profits disappear.

"It's very simple," said Stephen Easton, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. "Canadian marijuana production costs are met in Canadian dollars, and those are worth more now."

Previously, he said, pot growers could produce a pound of potent "B.C. bud" for about $2,000 Canadian and, with the exchange rate, smugglers buying with U.S. currency could sell it for a hefty profit south of the border. In those days, an American dollar in Canada was like a 50 percent discount card, and there's nothing like a wholesale discount to bolster retail profits.

Production costs remain in the range of $2,000 Canadian, Easton said. But with the currencies at par, the profit margin is completely gone, unless Montanans are willing to pay 50 percent more for the prime northern bud. A smuggler's risks and transport costs are no longer offset by profit.

Ah, suddenly it all makes sense. This is how they should explain economics in school.

Blogge har överträffat sig själv. Killen har för mycket ledig tid, det saken är klar. Men det är kul läsning. Själv är jag tveksam till om den eventuella njutningen väger upp mot alla förberedelser. Skulle inte lite glidmedel i en varm hand ge samma effekt?

A highly advanced pilot helmet is currently being evaluated to fit the multinational Joint Strike Fighter.

The helmet provides a computerized symbology directly onto the pilot's visors; which helps the pilot fly and navigate the aircraft. It will even superimpose infrared imagery onto the visor, which allows the pilot to look through the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.

Read the press release from the British Ministry of Defence here.

From The Times:

Tony Blair has admitted for the first time that he ignored the pleas of his aides and ministers to deter President Bush from waging war on Iraq because he believed that America was doing the right thing. And he has acknowledged that he turned down a last-ditch offer from Mr Bush to pull Britain out of the conflict.

He has also revealed that he wishes he had published the full reports from the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) instead of the infamous September dossier about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction that so damaged him, and was almost certainly one of the factors that contributed to him leaving office sooner than he wanted.

In frank remarks in a BBC documentary, Mr Blair confirmed openly the belief of many of his closest supporters that he never used his position as America's strongest ally to try to force Mr Bush down the diplomatic rather than the military route.

Read more here and here.

It should come as no surprise, but a European study shows that people living in urban areas are happier than those living in rural areas. The Copenhagen Post writes about new research made by the Danish Building Research Institute that confirms the result.

Chief Researcher Thorkild Ærø says that many people living in rural areas harbour romanticized dreams of long peaceful walks in natural surroundings. However, the reality of modern rural life is that people are just as busy as city folk since they have to spend more time commuting.

A plump story from the Sun:

George the hedgehog looks more like a porky-pine after scoffing his way to four times the average size.

He was handed to a wildlife sanctuary in Leatherhead, Surrey, by householders worried he must have an illness.

In fact George, who weighs nearly five pounds and measures more than 31 inches around, was just fat.

Staff are putting him on a six-month diet.

No more milk for you.

I dagens Expressen svarar Nima Sanandaji vänsterpartiets riksdagsledamot Rossana Dinamarca som igår ifrågasatte behovet av kunskaper om kommunismens brott. Sanandaji skriver:

Kommunismen är den ideologi som i särklass har stått för såväl mördandet som förtryck av flest oskyldiga civila i världshistorien. Samtidigt har Sverige en historisk skuld till att så länge haft ledande politiker som förnekat kommunismens brott. Vänsterpartiet, det parti vars högkvarter i Stockholm köptes med pengar från Sovjetimperiet, borde en gång för alla erkänna att den ideologi som man så länge har stöttat i de många länder där den har införts, har lett till mord, förtryck och fattigdom.

Jag skulle vilja gå längre och hävda att kunskaper om kommunismen är viktigare än nästan något annat inom samhällskunskapen just för att vi fortfarande har etablerade partier som försvarar vänsterfascismen.

After weeks of negotiations, the ongoing World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva decided to second Cuban claims that American transmissions against the island country are illegal. From Media Network:

"Radio transmissions from an aircraft only toward the territory of another government, and without its consent, contravenes radio communication regulations," the conference decided. Diplomats interviewed by Prensa Latina said, "this is a firm rejection of measures implemented by the Bush government in the last years."

The plenary meeting also indicated that Washington has not stopped the prejudicial interference of Cuban broadcast services, despite several requests by the Radiocommunications Office. Regarding that, it urged the United States to adopt the necessary measures to resolve this and asked the International Telecommunications Union to inform on related progress in coming meetings.

After the remarks, the US delegation decided to withdraw from the agreement and, clearly challenging the meeting, said the illegal transmission policy toward Cuba will be maintained.

An interesting stand by the International Telecommunication Union (a United Nations agency for information and communication technologies) considering its mission is to promote "the ability to communicate freely" to ensure "a more equitable, prosperous and peaceful world".

Or maybe not... After all, the UN agencies are clubs for governments with no interest in liberty.

From the Guardian:

Iran has installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium—enough to begin industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel and build a warhead within a year, the UN's nuclear watchdog reported last night.

The report by Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will intensify US and European pressure for tighter sanctions and increase speculation of a potential military conflict.

The installation of 3,000 fully-functioning centrifuges at Iran's enrichment plant at Natanz is a "red line" drawn by the US across which Washington had said it would not let Iran pass. When spinning at full speed they are capable of producing sufficient weapons-grade uranium (enriched to over 90% purity) for a nuclear weapon within a year.

Iran is only a year away from nuclear weaponry. It's time for action.

France is once again hit hard by labour union strikes. Public transport is halted and people cannot get to work. The cost is enormous and affects ever part of civil society.

Why?

Well, officially the strikes are against government plans to end the special regimes that allow railway, electricity and gas workers to retire on full pension after only 37.5 years of pension contributions, rather than 40 years in the rest of the public sector. In reality, it's about President Sarkozy's overall determination to face down the opposition of left-wing conservatism to any change.

Read The Economist's take on the French strikes here.

Chad Lorenz's article on the death of email makes me feel like a dinosaur. On the other hand, who cares what teenagers think?

How fake identities, online bullying, and callous adults can persuade a child to commit suicide. Disturbing to say the least.

I know sexual abuse performed by women is often ignored as men are generally seen as stronger and more sexually aggressive. Still, this story is truly baffling. From The Local:

A 22-year-old woman has been found guilty of biting a man's penis at a fast-food outlet in Skövde in March.

The incident occurred after the woman approached the man and asked him several times if he would like her to perform oral sex on him. The pair were not acquainted and the man declined the offer. He then kept trying to reason with her as he turned his body away from her advances.

But the woman would not take no for an answer. Catching the man off guard, she pulled his trousers down and sank her teeth into one side of his penis. She then scratched him in the face.

Miljöpartiets Zaida Catalán skriver idag en utmärkt debattartikel om Hugo Chávez i Expressen. Hon har liksom jag och andra demokratianhängare fått ta emot mycket kritik från den lilla men aggressiva gruppen av Chávezanhängare på yttersta vänsterkanten.

Läs Cataláns artikel här.

Uppdatering (23:03): Konspirationsvänstern kunde naturligtvis inte hålla tillbaka. Här ett utmärkt exempel från en sann tok i tuff pose:

Zaida Catalan ondgör sig över att hennes bloggade kritik av Hugo Chavez mötts av mothugg och arga kommentarer från vänsterbloggare. Jag var en av dem som snabbt reagerade mot Catalans onyanserade påhopp på Chávez och Venezuelas demokrati. Catalan ser inte nyanserat på sakfrågan utan går i okunskap propagandaärenden för den amerikanska underrättelsetjänsten.

Naturligtvis. Tycker man att Chávez gör fel när han samlar all makt i Venezuela i sin hand så är man givetvis ett offer för CIA. Allt följer konspirationsteorins inbyggda logik. Wikipedia beskriver det bra:

Konspirationsteorier kan genomsyra hela det etablerade samhället. Vissa konspirationsteorier är harmlösa för det som angrips i teorin ifråga, andra har mer eller mindre hetsande politiska eller religiösa undertoner. I många fall gäller att det stöd som anförs för konspirationsteorier är vagt och mångtydigt, samtidigt som teorin är svår eller omöjlig att falsifiera. Den som tror på en konspirationsteori tycker själv att det sagda är "uppenbart" medan en utomstående inte kan se något samband alls mellan de hopsamlade indicier som anförs som bevisning.

Så är det. Lösa trådar bygger upp en teoribildning som inte går att bevisa vetenskapligt. Inte undra på att Naomi Klein fått sådan stjärnstatus i vänsterextrema kretsar.

The final result from yesterday's Danish election is in. With 94 of the 179 seats in parliament, the centre-right government coalition secured enough seats to stay in office. The centre-left opposition won 81 seats. The four remaining seats go to the representatives from Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. At least one representative from the Faeroe Islands is expected to side with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

I really shouldn't write this, it's mean, but I can't help myself.

Earlier today I had an informal little chat with a female colleague. We talked about this and that. Nothing serious. But then we discussed what kind of people we fancy and began to namedrop good-looking celebrities. That's when it happened. My colleague, whom I admire and respect, says, "I think David Hasselhoff is the sexiest man ever."

This was hours ago, but I can't stop laughing. I have always seen Mr Hasselhoff as a pretentious caricature of a sex symbol. I had no idea that some women actually think he's sexy.

I shouldn't mock my friend. It's not nice. So to humiliate myself, here's my list of good-looking celebrities:

1. Ethan Hawke
2. Edward Norton
3. Jonathan Rhys Meyers

By the way, I have always had a soft spot for Swedish journalist Fredrik Strage.

Swedish feminists demand the right to partake in sports activities with bare breasts.

"We want our breasts to be as 'normal' and desexualized as men's, so that we too can pull off our shirts at football matches," say two spokeswomen.

Georg Apenes, director of the Norwegian Data Inspectorate, says new scanning equipment that can see through air travellers' clothing is unacceptable.

I'm torn. On the one hand, I acknowledge the need for new security measures. One the other hand, the thought of security personnel being able to see through my clothes makes me feel very uncomfortable.

Here's more on the new scanning equipment.

"Ron Paul has become the most popular candidate among right-wing extremists, including white separatists, neo-Nazis, and conspiracy theorists who believe that 'the Zionists' were behind 9/11," writes Jewcy.com.

Iran's fascist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made threats against domestic critics of his nuclear programme yesterday. From the Guardian:

"If the domestic elements do not stop imposing pressure over the nuclear issue, they will be unmasked before the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad told students at Tehran's science and industry university.

"The conditions will not remain where we sit back and watch while traitors do whatever they want. One day, eventually, I will reveal what has happened behind the scenes on these issues. It will serve as a lesson for future generations and show what a fierce conflict has occurred."

If nothing is done about this man, we will soon see a new Cold War initiated by yet another well-armed tyrant. More and more Iranian students and intellectuals share my analysis, which is why Mr Ahmadinejad is making these new threats.

A Saudi prince has bought himself a new super-size toy. The Associated Press reports:

In the annals of excess, it could be a new high: a more than $300 million dollar, super-sized luxury airplane, bought and outfitted solely for the private comfort of a Saudi Arabian billionaire. Once done, the Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, will be a "flying palace" for Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the manufacturer announced Monday.

Airbus SAS would not give a specific price tag for the VIP double- decker jet, with its football field-length wings, saying only that it would cost more than the aircraft's list price of $320 million.

That doesn't even include the money the prince will spend to custom fit the nearly 6,000-square foot plane to include whatever he wants. The options include private bedrooms, a movie theater or even a gym with a jacuzzi. He'll also need a flight crew of about 15 to operate the luxury liner.

I want one too.

I knew it!!! The Simpson's Halloween Special 2002 about cloned Homers taking over Springfield is not as far-off as the episode writers might have thought. The Independent reports:

A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys, raising the prospect of the same procedure being used to make cloned human embryos.

Attempts to clone human embryos for research have been dogged by technical problems and controversies over fraudulent research and questionable ethics. But the new technique promises to revolutionise the efficiency by which scientists can turn human eggs into cloned embryos.

It is the first time that scientists have been able to create viable cloned embryos from an adult primate—in this case a 10-year-old male rhesus macaque monkey—and they are scheduled to report their findings later this month.

Autumn seen through a window at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University on 8 November 2007.

Gender inequality can be a problem for all businesswomen—even serial killers. From The Onion:

While she may not be making the nightly news or gracing the covers of Time and Newsweek, 46-year-old nursing-home worker Barbara Louise Huxley is a dedicated, ruthless killer. But in today's male-dominated world of remorseless slaughter, Huxley has been forced to murder twice as many innocent victims just to gain the public exposure and foster the widespread panic her male counterparts routinely enjoy.

The Associated Press reports:

The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."

Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.

"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.

Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.

Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, "Why don't you shut up?"

Hear! Hear!

Postscript: The Sydney Morning Herald has more.

"Adam and Eve would not have looked as promiscuous if they had had leaves this big."

Breaking News: Uptight presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has a sense of humour. It's not funny, but still.

Thinking lesbians are cute must be part of a major conspiracy. That's the message from Fox News's Bill O'Reilly.

Anyone who still believes homophobes doesn't preach hate?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's 95-year-old mother gets involved in he son's campaign. This is humorous considering McCain's age is often said to be his greatest weakness. He's too old to be president, people say. If he wins, he will be 72 when he takes office. Well, if he's anything like his mother, the age is no problem.

Northern Europe has seen some fierce weather the past few days. Britain and the Netherlands were hit the hardest.

The picture doesn't tell much, but I snapped it from my balcony in an attempt to document the weirdness of rain, snow, storm, thunder and lightning all at once. By the way, snowfall is extremely rare this early in southernmost Sweden. Where's global warming when we need it? (Note to self: Drive a few extra kilometres by car every day to speed things up.)

PostSecret has been elected the best blog in America. Who can resist reading anonymous people's most intimate secrets? I know I can't. I did, however, vote for Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish.

(The picture above was posted on PostSecret on 4 November 2007.)

What strange things people do to worship God...

Samina Malik, an airport worker in Britain who thinks of herself as a "lyrical terrorist", has become the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws.

She writes poems about beheadings of non-Muslims. She describes the Islamist attacks on the West as "poisoned bullets" capable of killing an entire street in her poetry. She has written about her desire to become a martyr. She also made a list of her favourite videos, with the "beheading ones" on number one.

The main building of Lund University Library at noon yesterday.

Eve Suurvee-Råstrand ("legitimerad psykolog, psykoanalytiker och psykoterapeut med flera decenniers erfarenhet av bland annat familjeterapi") berättar om sina farhågor för tidningen Dagen:

Är normen att man ska leva homosexuellt ser jag en tydlig risk för att, till exempel, en tonåring som speglar sig i en annan tonåring av samma kön börjar tro att de ska gifta sig. De allra flesta går igenom en så kallad homosexuell period i barndomen, de tidiga tonåren. Det är en period som inte är så sexuell, där små förälskelser uppstår gentemot det egna könet, för att sedan fortsätta, frigöra sig och gå vidare mot en heterosexualitet. Men man kan fastna i den homosexuella perioden i sin utveckling. Det ska inte uppmuntras. Och enligt mitt sätt att se uppmuntrar man det genom att upphöja homosexuell parrelation till norm.

Jag kan inte låta bli att skratta. Resonemanget är helt ofattbart. För vad hon säger är att samhällets normer skapar heterosexuella av personer som i en normfri kontext skulle valt att bli homosexuella. Utan samhällets normer skulle alla män vara bögar. Inte ens queerteoretikerna vågar vara så radikala.

För övrigt skulle jag vilja hävda att det där om en "homosexuell period i barndomen" är trams. De flesta barn vill vara normala – heterosexuella som alla andra. Alla bögar jag känner kan vittna om en heterosexuell period under vilken de gjorde allt för att övertala sig själva om att de nog egentligen gillar tjejer. Själv gick jag så långt att jag lyckades göra en tjej med barn. Den ultimata heterotrippen. Det hjälpte inte. Jag blev ändå inte kär i någon kvinna. Min heterosexuella period tog slut den dagen då jag inför mig själv vågade erkänna att föremålen för alla mina verkliga förälskelser var män.

Tillägg: Tor Billgren kommenterar också.

Katrine Kielos recension av Naomi Kleins nya bok avslutas med följande:

Människan ska anpassas till ekonomin och inte tvärtom. En antihumanism som nyliberalismen delar med kommunismen och som möjliggjort båda ideologiernas livsfarliga syn på människan som medel och inte mål.

Varenda människa som vet något om nyliberalism tycker nog som jag att detta är hysteriskt kul. Kommunistisk ekonomi innebär ju att människor vare sig de vill eller ej tvingas in i ett kollektivt ägande som administreras av en överhet. Genom en påtvingad altruism ska medborgarna offras för statsmaktens "högre mål". Nyliberalismen är kommunismens motsats.

Anledningen till att kommunister, socialdemokrater och nya moderater som Anders Borg tycker så illa om nyliberalismen är att den tillämpad innebär att ingen längre kan vara ett medel för att nå andras mål. Detta är naturligtvis en mardröm för kollektivister som dyrkar staten och tror att världens alla problem löses bäst med höjda skatter och fler byråkrater.

Men det politiska nyspråket är underhållande. Trist bara att så många på fullt allvar har köpt tesen att frihet är slaveri.

Tillägg: Johan Norberg har skrivit om en annan tokighet i Kielos bokrecension.

I wrote about the clashes this morning, but here is more on Chávez-style activism.

Mark Steyn:

It's fascinating to observe how almost any old totalitarian racket becomes respectable once it's cloaked in enviro-hooey. For example, restrictions on freedom of movement were previously the mark of the Soviet Union et al. But in Britain, they're proposing limits on your right to take airline flights to other countries—and, as it's in the name of environmental responsibility, everyone thinks it's a grand idea.

From the New York Times:

In traditional seats of Islamic learning, like Egypt and Iran, punishment against blatant homosexual activity, not to mention against trying to establish a gay rights movement, can be severe. These governments are prone to label homosexuality a Western phenomenon, as happened in September when Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, spoke at Columbia University. But far more leeway to dissect the topic exists in places where gay rights are more protected.

As a rule, gay Muslim activists lacked the scholarly grounding needed to scrutinize time-honored teachings. But that is changing, activists say, partly because no rigid clerical hierarchy exists in the West to bar such research.

Don't underestimate the intellectual work of oppressed Muslims living in the free societies of Europe and America. I think they will set a Islamic Enlightenment in motion.

A supporter of Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chávez points a pistol towards two opponents of the Chávez regime during clashes in Caracas on Wednesday.

Gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march in which 80,000 people denounced Chavez's plans for lifelong rule. At least eight people were injured.

(Photo by Gregorio Marrerro.)

Anti-gay Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney advertises on well-known gay website. By mistake, apparently. His campaign team explains:

Campaigns have been buying advertising on television for 40-plus years now; they've only been buying ads on the Internet for three or four years. It's more uncharted territory, and everyone's trying to figure it out.

Hm, yeah... What could a website called "Gay.com" be about?

I think Governor Romney's old habit of appealing to the gay community has come back to haunt him. Who said it's easy being reactionary?

Only moments ago, I learned that the Swedish Supreme Court has freed Leif Liljeström of charges of inciting hatred towards homosexuals. Mr Liljeström is the editor of a Christian website promoting anti-gay theology. His alleged crime was to allow a reader comment that stated that "men who cannot summon up the energy to abstain from intercourse with other men should be sentenced to death and hanged from posts in the town square". Offensive, yes. But hardly a crime. Worse things have been said about gay people. We are used to the hatred. We can take it.

I have also learned that the British government yesterday revealed plans to criminalize the incitement of hatred towards homosexuals. On 11 October, openly gay columnist Matthew Parris wrote this in The Times:

It's tempting to cheer Jack Straw's promise in the Commons this week that incitement to homophobic hatred is to be made a crime, along with incitement to racial or religious hatred. But I'm not so sure. Seriously threatening language—of any kind—is already a crime; but once the law starts limiting free speech in matters of honest opinion, where does it stop?

The Bible says homosexuality is an abomination; God puts the city of Sodom to the torch; the present Pope calls it a "disorder". Such views, however civilly expressed, are inherently hate-inciting, but should their expression be a crime? Then why should we remain free to sneer, in ways inciting hatred, at a person's being Welsh, or Irish?

"Spastic" or "cripple" are hateful expressions that nobody should use as insults, but if the use of "batty boy" or "queer" is to invite prosecution, what is the argument against making disablist insult a matter for the police too? And how about language that incites hatred of women?

Lines of absolute principle are hard to draw, but some groups may be so weak and fragile as to need the law's protection from hateful speech. I'd like to think we gays are no longer among them.

I second that. Hating homosexuals is important to many contemporary Christians. I pity them. Still, I'm willing to defend their right to continue expressing their hatred.

Today, The Times publishes a brilliant letter by comedian Rowan Atkinson. Read it here.

Read more about the Supreme Court ruling in Swedish here, here, here, and here.

From the Washington Times:

"The Victims of Che Guevera" poster, produced by the Young America's Foundation, centers on a collage that uses tiny photos of those killed by Cuba's communist regime to compose the face of the Marxist guerrilla, who has become a popular T-shirt icon.

"Che is one of the heroes that the left idolizes," said Patrick X. Coyle, vice president of YAF. "But a lot of kids don't know anything about him. We thought this would be a great way to highlight his atrocities."

A truly great initiative. I feel sick to my stomach every time I see someone with a Che Guevera T-shirt because I know what he did to people the Left claims to care about. For one thing, before the Cuban revolution, Havana was an oasis for gay men. When Guevera came to town, he emptied the bars and restaurants and executed the queers. It was not the rich he killed, it was the minority groups, the weak, and the poor. In fact, anyone who didn't agree with him was shot dead.

The Left takes every opportunity to condemn Hitler and "the Right" for doing the same in Europe, but they never say a word about the atrocities committed by Che Guevera in Cuba. This fascist they parade and idolize.

So much for Marxist solidarity.

From Gateway Pundit:

The two Egyptian policemen who sexually assaulted prisoner Imad Kabir with a broomstick were sentenced to three years in prison this week.

The violent scene of Imad writhing in agony as he was being sodomised with a broomstick was filmed and later circulated on the Egyptian blogs.

However, the victim of the violent police abuse has been sentenced to three months in jail for resisting the abuse. Still, it shows bloggers make a difference.

I hope every journal reader who shares my interest for the interaction between politics and religion have read The Economist's special issue on the matter. If not, buy it before the shops remove it from their shelves on Thursday evening.

There's still hope. Jennifer Vanasco has talked to an evangelical minister who is prepared to rethink the church's approach to gays and lesbians.

Last week, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said he wants Sweden to be a tax heaven for people on low incomes. Now the government introduces new tax rules that benefit those who leave Sweden for another country within the European Union. Makes no sense, does it?

Fred Kaplan thinks George Bush and Condoleezza Rice are to blame for the unrest in Pakistan. Personally, I always blame the dictators. In this case Pervez Musharraf.

Cartoonist Kevin Kallaugher's take on the Saudi state visit to Britain.

A new study of cannabis users who have never smoked tobacco concludes that cannabis-only adolescents show better functioning than those who also use tobacco. "Compared with abstainers, they are more socially driven and do not seem to have psychosocial problems at a higher rate," the researchers write.

Read more here.

From an article in the City Journal:

Britons also tend to suspect that Jews use the charge of anti-Semitism to divert attention from Israel's crimes. This is why, for so many in Britain, the suggestion that anti-Semitism is enjoying a renaissance seems not only false but sinister. Outraged to be accused of peddling bigotry, they begin to hate those who level that charge—who, they conclude, are part of a conspiracy against truth.

Thus Jews who seek to defend Israel find themselves in a trap. By complaining that attacks on Israel are anti-Semitic, they become examples of the supposed Jewish tendency to play the anti-Semitism card to suppress legitimate debate—and provoke yet more of the very prejudice that they are trying to combat. Such Jews find themselves in a situation that Kafka could have scripted.

I recognize this far too well. Whenever I criticize any of Europe's many anti-Semitic bloggers, I'm accused of playing the "Nazi card". Communists and Islamists get away with their hatred towards Jews by ridiculing those who point out that they are anti-Semitic.

Hilton Hotel in central Malmö about an hour ago. I snapped the picture on my way home.

I like the outdoor lifts.

I'm exhausted after a long day of lectures and meetings. The blog will suffer as I am too tired to write anything even remotely interesting tonight.

Under den mycket märkliga rubriken "Därför kan jag leva med mitt nej" skriver Roland Poirier Martinsson om varför han motsätter sig en lagändring som ger homosexuellas familjer samma status som heterosexuellas familjer redan har. Rubriken är märklig eftersom det är självklart att personer som inte själva drabbas av diskriminering kan leva med det.

Inte oväntat är det den katolska historierevisionism som legitimerar särbehandlingen. Som regelbundna läsare av denna blogg vet så var två personer med olika uppsättningar genitalier inte självklart för äktenskap inom den tidiga kristenheten. Ikoner och texter vittnar om att kristna äktenskap mellan män förekom. Homofobin blev en del av kristenheten först i samband med att den nya religionen islam blev allt starkare. Påhejade av bland annat teologen Peter Cantor (det var han som först "upptäckte" att sodomi betyder homosexuelitet) förklarade kyrkans män på 1100-talet att muslimer, judar och homosexuella var ondskefulla. Det organiserade hatet mot just dessa grupper är alltså ingen slump. Idén att utrota Europas judar och bögar hämtade Hitler från Vatikanen.

Nåväl. Detta var ett sidospår.

Det märkligaste i Roland Poirier Martinssons krönika är att han utgår ifrån att homosexuella motsätter sig familjen. Han skriver:

Att formalisera det samkönade äktenskapet för familjens skull – inte individens – stöter emellertid det samkönade äktenskapets förespråkare, eftersom det innebär att kärnfamiljens värde trots allt erkänns.

Jag blir konfunderad. Gruppen homosexuella rymmer människor med alla tänkbara åsikter. Det enda som möjligtvis förenar är medvetenheten om att vara en minoritet. Det finns en homokultur, men precis som med vilken annan folkgrupp som helst så deltar inte alla i den egna subkulturen. Detta tror jag Roland Poirier Martinsson vet, men han låtsas som om de som drivit äktenskapsfrågan var samma extremister som gärna förklarar kärnfamiljens död. Sanningen är den omvända. Det har hela tiden varit de religiösa och i grunden konservativa homosexuella som drivit frågan. Däremot har de vänsterradikala grupperna haft lättare för att få med sina partier och organisationer just för att de inte betraktat äktenskapet som något viktigt.

Att homosexuella vill kunna gifta sig är en hyllning till familjen. Inte nödvändigtvis den heterosexuella kärnfamiljen, utan alla sorters familjer som vilar på kärlek, ansvarstagande, sammanhållning och omtanke. För en växande grupp homosexuella betyder familjen också ett stabilt skyddsnät för de egna barnen.

Detta motsäger inte på något sätt det riktiga i att betrakta individen som samhällets minsta beståndsdel, tvärtom är familjegemenskapen individens möjlighet att hitta en plats i ett större sammanhang. Den som tror att liberal individualism omöjliggör gemenskap har fel.

As some readers might have noticed, I'm very much into Jewish-related things at the moment. Sorry if it bores you, but here's more. William Saletan of Slate Magazine writes about the controversial subject of Jewish intelligence. Is it genetic?

Here's a link to a related debate I wrote about on 30 October.

Det har uppstått en ovanligt intressant diskussion i den svenska bloggosfären. Det började med att Mattias Svensson gick till angrepp mot socialliberalismen i en artikel i Liberal debatt. Han menar att socialliberalismens svaghet är dess försvar för positiva rättigheter. På detta svarade bloggaren Lennart Regebro med att ifrågasätta skillnaden mellan positiva och negativa rättigheter. Nu har Blogge Bloggelito replikerat på Regebros två inlägg.

Underhållande söndagsläsningen.

I cannot think of a better way of spending the Sabbath than reading George Robinson's Essential Judaism. That's what I have done today. It's a superb book with information on everything anyone could ever want to know about the Jewish religion and its traditions.

Bahrain's Crown Prince says Iran is striving to acquire nuclear weapons. I have said it before and I will say it again: the democratic world must act now; it will soon be too late.

It's hard not to like Barack Obama when reading stuff like this.

Here's another example of Christian homophobia turning comedy. Sheila K. Butt (I hope for Ms Butt's sake it's a pseudonym) has written a children's book entitled Does God Love Michael's Two Daddies? The publisher, Apologetics Press, says this about the book on their website:

For the last 15 years, the homosexual community has been publishing children's books promoting homosexuality, starting with the book Heather Has Two Mommies. Other books such as Daddy's Roommate and My Two Uncles have followed suit. To our knowledge, no comparable children's book designed to combat the promotion of homosexuality is available on the market—until now. Does God Love Michael's Two Daddies? is a professionally designed and illustrated book that promotes God's love for all individuals, while at the same time showing, in a loving way, that homosexuality is wrong. This book has tremendous potential to positively influence the lives of thousands of children growing up in tumultuous and confusing times.

Hurrah! Finally a book for parents who want to teach their kids to pass judgement on other people based on their sexuality. I mean, what would the world be like if people accepted each other for what they are. We can't have that.

A reviewer at Amazon seems to get it:

Perhaps Ms. Butts can publish a coloring book with Michael's Two Daddies burning for eternity in the fire lake of Hell? I would have to buy my kids more red and orange crayons, but the lesson that homosexuals are lesser humans is worth the expense.

I second that. We all want the best for our children, right?

A jovial reader posted this review on the publisher's webiste:

I am in education and see the trend of teaching tolerance to our young people and this scares me. Fortunately, I am in a school district where these views are not pushed on our children, yet they are still exposed to these ideas in the shows on TV and movies which come out. Myself and some of the other teachers have been looking for a book with a Christian view of homosexuality and I was excited when I picked up my copy of Reason and Revelation to find this book. I ordered it and have shared it with some of my friends. We appreciate the straightforward, scriptural approach to the topic. We may not be able to share it with our children in the classroom, but we can share it with our own chilren, who can then take these teachings to school.

I share her anger. School is not a place for tolerance. Small children should learn condemnation from an early age so they can grow up to be ignorant adults—like Ted Haggard before he began experimenting with rent boys.

By the way, the answer is no. God doesn't love Michael's two daddies because they love each other, and that's bad.

Dan Savage has more here.

I have some problem with my archive page. Only the archive from my old, pre-July journal is visible. I don't know what's wrong. I will phone the technical support on Monday. Until then, use the search page if you want to find some old entry from the archives. The archives are not missing, it's only the archive page that's faulty.

Update: The problem has been fixed.

The western facade of Lund Cathedral this afternoon. It is the centrepiece of mediaeval Lund. I snapped the picture when I had just left the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, which is located in the oldest part of the university, only a short walk from the cathedral. The current cathedral was built in 1145, when an earlier cathedral from 1060 burned to the ground.

More on Lund Cathedral here. Official website here.

The last few days, I've been bombarded with emails from newsgroups. I guess some robot or antagonist has used my email address. In any case, it proves how simple it is to terrorize someone online. Perhaps I should scrap emails altogether and rely on carrier pigeons instead? Nah, that's no solution. I've seen Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds; I know they are terrorists too. I better learn to live with the frustration of being vulnerable.

If I'm slow in my response to reader emails, you know why.

A 52 per cent majority of Americans thinks homosexuality is morally wrong. One man in five thinks homosexuality should be illegal. A narrow majority of Americans thinks polygamy should be a crime. About 44 per cent pick creationism over evolution—with a strong consistent majority in favour of teaching both in schools.

This is some the results found in The Economist's poll on American attitudes towards so-called moral issues.

This is not the America I know. But then I have never visited the heartland. (The average American doesn't live in Chelsea, New York.)

To many Europeans, theses opinions are backwards. Favouring creationism over evolution or labelling gays immoral is enough to lose your job in the European Commission. However, I think it is important to reflect on why Europe and America hold different opinions on moral issues. I believe it has to do with the history of religion.

The first Europeans that migrated to America were often the most religious. They fled not only from poverty, but also from persecution by Europe's hierarchic churches. In most of Europe, religion was under strict control by kings, governments, and the Vatican. The Catholic Church—or the local, state-run Lutheran Church—forced its politics and liturgy on everyone. To many Christians, this was an insult. They wanted to worship God, not listen to the latest propaganda.

Even today, the religious landscapes are different on the two sides of the Atlantic. While many Americans built their identities around local, independent churches, the religious structure of Europe made it possible for governments to gradually replace this function of the church with nation states. Over the past two centuries, Europeans have learned to seek comfort in politics and the welfare state instead of the religious institutions—with politicians replacing both priests and civil society.

The state has no interest in issues such as homosexuality or polygamy. The state's only concern is ideas that threaten its supremacy. That, I think, is why so much effort has been put into fighting back libertarian ideas. To speak badly of big-government politics and the welfare state is the only "immorality" Europe cannot accept.

In short, I think the ideological gap between Europe and America can be explained by the differences in religious life. Classic Christianity stands strong in America, while the religion-style faith in government does not. When studying moral issues, it's apparent that questions of sexuality and marriage are more important to people who seek answers and comfort in the Bible than to people who seek answers and comfort in a nanny state.

(Read more about The Economist's poll here. Download the poll in full here.)

"Apple is smart to underpromise and overdeliver," writes Harry McCracken of Slate Magazine in his review of the new Mac X operating system, Leopard.

From The Economist:

Global capitalism has worked many wonders, but where in the free world can one see 10,000 children dancing in synchronisation, dressed as eggs? Such weirdness makes North Korea, a basket-case state, a must for a certain sort of backpacker. Tourist visas have been available for years; there is even a Lonely Planet chapter on the country. Some 2,000 Westerners will visit in 2007—a tiny number, but about four times the total in 2002.

Tours are tightly marshalled so that only highlights such as the "Mass Games" performance, home of the dancing eggs, are widely reported. Visitors must normally provide references proving that they are not journalists. But details are seeping out: blogs, Facebook groups and customisable Google Earth maps have made reporters of everyone and offer channels for unauthorised news from the closed country.

I know it has already been suggested that the blogosphere should be honoured the Nobel Peace Prize. I second that. Who, if not the bloggers, have done more to harm the totalitarian states in the past decade. While the socialist leader of North Korea wants visitors to report about dancing eggs, pictures of a nation tormented by starvation and communism spread around the world. Where there's bloggers, no borders exist.

The view from a hotel balcony in Ponta Delgada, Azores. Dusk over the Atlantic Ocean.

My father snapped this picture on a recent trip to the islands. I post it here because I think it has a majestic feel to it.