Andrew Sullivan makes a plea to gay voters:

This is telling to me:

An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes—race, gender, etc.—that shouldn't trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.

So he took a different tack: "Now I'm a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.

"I hear people saying things that I don't think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian," he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.

To hear someone defend gay and lesbian dignity and equality from a Christian perspective and to do so in the context of a largely African-American crowd, is much, much more than any candidate for the presidency has ever done. It's a break through. If it were just words, it would be one thing. But he has now done this repeatedly in front of black crowds, when he didn't have to. And he has put his specific commitments in writing in an open letter.

It's time to be candid about this—because gay voters, in my judgment, could make the difference in Ohio and Texas and Vermont and Rhode Island. There are very large gay communities in Texas' cities, and Ohio has the sixth largest gay community in the country. A plea: Do not sleep-walk into that voting booth with vague good feelings about the Clintons. Walk into that booth with eyes open and see what gay people have in front of them.

Now you may have many reasons not to vote for Obama, and no gay voter should vote on one issue. But solely with respect to gay matters, there is simply no choice here. Obama's positions, candor, courage, generation and religious embrace of us are dispositive.

(Photo by Shannon Stapleton, via Reuters.)

The Swedish Social Democratic Party has bought the domain name "borgarsvin.se", Björn Pedersen reports. "Borgarsvin" is a pejorative word and an insulting epithet often used by hardcore communists. It derives from the term Bourgeoisie, which is synonymous with "middle class" and found in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Sweden's Social Democrats are very fond of negative campaigning. In the 2006 election they ran blogs that discredited the opposition leader by insinuating he is a paedophile.

I think we can expect an even dirtier election campaign in 2010. The name-calling has just begun.

Yesterday, Barack Obama published an open letter to gay Americans. I quote a paragraph I think is particularly important:

As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples—whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. Unlike Senator Clinton, I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate. While some say we should repeal only part of the law, I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOMA does. I have also called for us to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and I have worked to improve the Uniting American Families Act so we can afford same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married couples in our immigration system.

Read Obama's letter in full here.

Portrait of Heath Ledger by Vincent Fantauzzo, nominated for the Archibald Prize.

More in Swedish here.

Mark Fiore is concerned.

From Wonkette:

To most American political fanatics, Ron Paul is just a goofy hobbit whose hilariously doomed online presidential campaign provided standout entertainment in a year that offered a wealth of hilariously doomed campaigns.

But to many of his constituents in Texas Congressional District 14, Ron Paul is just a blame-America-first attention whore who completely ignores the people who put him in office. There are no Democrats running in the 14th District primary next Tuesday—so if Ron Paul loses, he will have the honor of being a double loser in the eyes of his beloved constituents. With this in mind, Wonkette enthusiastically endorses Chris Peden for Congress.

Of course, Wonkette is not serious about its endorsement, but I couldn't resist paying Peden's website a brief visit. I only had to read the first paragraph to realize the man is no friend of mine. I quote the paragraph, with my own elucidations in square brackets:

My name is Chris Peden. I'm a Pro-Family [he hates gay people and single parents], Pro-Life [he puts foetal rights before women's rights] Christian conservative [meaning: his church is right, yours is wrong] who believes in free markets [good], smaller government [good], and individual responsibility [but not individual liberty!].

Not only Wonkette endorses Peden, so does a bunch of Texas pastors. A letter of endorsement is published on the website. I just love the opening phrase, "Greetings! Jesus is Lord!"

I wonder if Jesus, too, endorses Peden?

(This is the kind of silly writing the combination of Wonkette and good wine makes me do.)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Everybody has understood that Iran is the number one power in the world. Today the name of Iran means a firm punch in the teeth of the powerful and it puts them in their place."

Unfortunately, he's right. The cowardice of the democratic world results in a walkover victory for tyrants like Ahmadinejad.

The answer is, no one knows for sure. McCain was born to American parents in the US-controlled Panama Canal Zone. That makes him a US citizen, but does it make him a natural born one? From the New York Times:

Mr. McCain's likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a "natural-born citizen" can hold the nation's highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

"There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent," said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. "It is not a slam-dunk situation."

I fear the worse. Imagine the entire election campaign being about a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the issue.

(Seen in picture is a fragment of a historical map of the Panama Canal Zone.)

As most young gay men in Stockholm in the mid-1990s, I was a regular visitor to the nightclub Huset. The club does not exist any longer, but QX commemorates its twentieth birthday anyway.

Did people really look like this in 1988?

For the first time ever, a euro buys one dollar and fifty cents. It's good for Europe's self-esteem, not so good for Europe's export and tourist industries.

I'm too busy for blogging today, running between meetings and lectures. Even so, I take a minute to recommend an article by Anders Wallner published in Swedish newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet. He writes about the mishandling of asylum cases in the Swedish court system. He explains how he as a juror has witnessed how colleagues have made racist remarks and voiced prejudiced opinions about the people they are supposed to hear in a fair trail. Although I have no experience from asylum cases, I do recognize the bias attitude from criminal court.

I did not have an opportunity to watch last night's debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. However, taking from the many comments I have read on blogs and in the press, I think Clinton lost. If so, I think we now see the beginning of the end of the Clinton campaign.

The New York Times has more.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times writes about an interesting poll that suggests John McCain is a likely winner in November:

In head-to-head contests, the poll found, McCain leads Clinton by 6 percentage points (46% to 40%) and Obama by 2 points (44% to 42%). Neither lead is commanding given that the survey, conducted Feb. 21-25, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The Arizona senator is viewed favorably by 61% of all registered voters, including a plurality of Democrats.

Early this morning, my husband and I went to the opening of the annual book sale. Among other books, we bought Julius Widemann's Logo Design. Not surprisingly, it's a book about the design of logos. In it we found a hilarious picture of Zion Graphics's design for Pee & Poo, which are stuffed toys for children.

The Swedish blog Rogntudjuu! has an entry on Palestinian propaganda and media stunts that is well worth reading. With plenty of pictures to show how the Pallywood producers operate.

On two occasions, I have written about Palestinian authorities deceiving international journalists. If interested, you find my two entries here and here.

In an attempt to combat American "cultural imperialism" and the "dictatorship of Hollywood", Venezuela's despotic ruler Hugo Chávez has decided to root out the English language. From the International Herald Tribune:

President Hugo Chavez's government is taking its battle against U.S. "imperialism" into Venezuelans' vocabulary, urging state phone company workers to eschew English-language business and tech terms that have crept into the local vernacular.

Through a campaign launched Monday, newly nationalized CANTV hopes to wean employees and others from words like "staff" ("equipo"), "marketing" ("mercadeo") and "password" ("contrasena").

Stickers and banners printed up by the company exhort Venezuelans to "Say it in Spanish. Say it with pride."

The Communications and Information Ministry said in a statement that Venezuelans must recover Spanish words that are "threatened by sectors that have started a battle for the cultural domination of our nations."

Other English words targeted include "mouse" ("raton"), "meeting" ("reunion") and "sponsor" ("patrocinador")—all of which have become acceptable in business circles in various Latin American countries.

Señor Chávez is truly the Don Quixote of Latin American politics.

I'm staying up late to watch the Oscars. It's a commercial break right now, so I thought I could take the time to link to an interesting article about the film industry and the Internet. DVD sales figures are down, and so are the download times.

"A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet has flown between London's Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts," BBC News reports.

I wonder what the anti-capitalism environmentalists will come up with next? The global-warming scare gave them a new set of arguments against commercialism and air travel, but if competition in the free market generates an environmentally friendly solution, the eco-Marxists must rethink their arguments. But I'm not worried, I bet they will find some other problem that only a socialist command economy can solve.

More in Swedish here.

The Associated Press and the Washington Post report about the latest violation of the religious laws in the world's number-one theocracy:

Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested after allegedly flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported.

The country's religious police arrested the men Thursday night, alleging behavior that included dancing to pop music blaring from their cars and wearing improper clothing, according to the Okaz newspaper, which is deemed close to the government.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice runs the religious police, who are charged with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Its members patrol public places to make sure women are covered and not wearing make up, the sexes don't mingle, shops close five times a day for Muslim prayers and men go to the mosque and worship.

We can't have men flirting with women willy-nilly in the Prophet's hometown, can we?

On a serious note, could it be more obvious that religious law derives from a political ambition to control natural human needs?

Egypt's government has ordered the cancellation of a planned match between the Egyptian and Danish youth football teams. The cancellation is a protest against Danish newspapers republishing a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

When will the totalitarian regime in Cairo learn that democratic governments don't control the media like they do? I'm getting tired of silly fascists.

Ralph Nader could be poised for another third-party presidential campaign.

I'm sure John McCain would welcome that.

Listen to these moving testimonies from survivors of ex-gay ministries and therapies.

Every year, thousands of young men and women are forced by their parents and religious leaders to undergo unscientific therapy in order to cure their homosexuality. A few of them decide to lead a heterosexual life, many more are traumatized for life, no one is "cured". This ongoing torture of young gays is, in my mind, one of the most immoral aspects of contemporary Christianity. It is conducted and legitimized by people who refuse to accept that every individual is as much part of the creation as any other.

"Sharia is nothing but a human concoction of medieval religious opinion, largely archaic and outmoded and irrelevant to life today. Most sharia contradicts the letter and spirit of the Koran, distorts the transcendental text," says Taj Hargey—who is an Islamic theologian at the Muslim Education Centre in Oxford—in an excellent article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

I think Hargey is right. Sharia is politics, a tool used by Islamists who wish to use the religion in order to control the people.

How he went from Jesus-loving Christian to a fun-loving infidel in one afternoon.

Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten runs a series of articles on the increasing number of people convicted for using or growing cannabis. Money and resources that could have been used to curb violent criminality are burned on harmless pot smokers. This is a result of the zero-tolerance policy on drugs.

Alan Wolfe has written an interesting article published in the March issue of The Atlantic. Accompanying the article is a graph showing the link—if any—between wealth and religiosity. I quote a part of the article that comments on Europe:

Last October, the Pew Global Attitudes Project plotted 44 countries according to per capita gross domestic product and intensity of religious belief, gauged by the responses to several questions about faith (a rendition of the Pew data appears on the opposite page). The pattern, as seen in the Pew study and a number of other sources, is hard to miss: when God and Mammon collide, Mammon usually wins.

Toward the right edge of the graph—in the realm of the most-prosperous countries—and at the very bottom lies western Europe, where God, if not dead, has only a faint pulse. Islam, to be sure, is increasingly prevalent in countries such as France and Great Britain, and one can also detect a slight uptick in Christian religiosity across much of the Continent in the past decade or so. But at the same time, the region's last significant pockets of concentrated religiosity are collapsing. Fifty years ago, Spain and Ireland were two of the most religious countries in Europe; now they are among the least. Not long ago, Spain was governed by a fascist dictator in close collaboration with the Catholic Church; now it allows both gay marriage and adoption by gay couples, making it as liberal as Massachusetts. Ireland once gave us, in the form of James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, one of the most chilling depictions of damnation in world literature; these days, Dublin's churches are emptying out, and the few parishioners are apt to be Polish immigrants, most of whom presumably came to Ireland to nourish their bank accounts, not their souls.

Eastern Europe lies to the left of western Europe on the graph. Poland is of course well known for its religiosity; the Communists who governed the country for nearly half a century tried to suppress the Church but were ousted by Solidarity, in large part a faith-based movement, with the encouragement of a native-son pope. But most of the countries of eastern Europe, though poorer than their counterparts in the West, are not very different from them in religious terms. And increasing prosperity in eastern Europe may lower religiosity even more.

Alan Wolfe's article in full here. Click on graph to enlarge it.

President Bush dances alongside President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf while visiting Liberia on 21 February 2008. Video clip from Reuters.

Update: I just remembered an earlier blog post with a video clip of President Bush dancing.

"Sweden's chief heraldists remain dissatisfied with a decision by the Nordic Battlegroup to remove a lion's penis depicted on its coat of arms," The Local reports.

Background here.

The debate is over. In my opinion, Clinton won the debate. I think she won on her experience in foreign affairs and firm stand on Cuba. Obama's eagerness to talk to dictators makes him weak in my eyes. The democratic world shouldn't make life easier for tyrants.

Although Clinton won the debate, I don't think it's enough for her to win the party's nomination.

(This entry ends my live commentary on the CNN debate in Austin, Texas.)

What if the superdelegates don't choose the Democratic nominee favoured by voters?

Clinton: The party will unite behind whomever is elected.
Obama: I think it is important the primaries and caucuses count for something.

Corny question, predictable answers.

Is Obama ready to be Commander in Chief?

Clinton: I have experience from a number of international conflicts. I am ready to make difficult decisions from day one.
Obama: I would not be running for president if I did not think I was ready to be Commander in Chief. I think Clinton was wrong to support the Iraq war. At that moment I was better suited to be Commander in Chief.

Silly question in my opinion. Of course both of them think he or she is the better candidate.

Would you consider stopping raids on undocumented immigrants?

Clinton: Yes, but let us do it the right way. I would like to see more federal help to places like the border area in Texas. I would introduce a bill to legalize immigration in my first hundred days as president.
Obama: It is absolutely crucial that we tone down the rhetoric on immigration. We need a reform that includes border control and crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. We need a reform that makes it possible for immigrant to apply for legal status. We need to improve our relationship with Mexico and make sure jobs are not lost on their side of the border.

If elected president, would you be prepared to sit down with the new Cuban leader?

Clinton: Yes, if there is evidence that change is happening in Cuba.
Obama: Yes, would talk with the Cuban leader. However, I would not meet the new leader until we have seen some progress in Cuba.

(This entry begins my live commentary on the CNN debate in Austin, Texas.)

A man complains to Dr Helen Smith:

We're tired of the way the media portrays us as either abusive, career-driven, slovenly, or one of the myriad of other male stereotypes. We're tired of the barrage of abuse that we may or may not deserve.

I feel the frustration of my straight brothers. No kidding, I think it's time for a masculinist response to feminist man bashing.

My take on the subject here.

By cartoonist Dick Locher.

"The American Civil Liberties Union has joined a Naperville high school student in her fight to wear a T-shirt that expresses opposition to homosexuality on moral grounds," the Washington Blade reports.

What will all those conservatives who hate the ACLU more than Satan say about this?

Shlomo Benizri, a Shas member of the Israeli Knesset, blamed gays for recent earthquakes in a debate yesterday. He said, "A cost-effective way of averting earthquake damage would be to stop passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the State of Israel, which anyways causes earthquakes."

I like the response he got from Mike Hammel of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association:

"This is a sad competition that shows how dark Shas MKs are," he said. "On one had, it is said that a religious MK doesn't believe that earthquakes are caused by God," he added. "On the other hand, it is flattering that he attributes supernatural powers to us."

Gay people rock the world. I knew that.

Wolf Blitzer:

The political momentum is clearly with Barack Obama. He has been impressive. But don’t count Hillary Clinton out yet—she has a formidable political machine and lots of ardent supporters.

Obama has won ten contests in a row—almost all of them by significant margins. But Clinton still has time to come back between now and March 4, when there are major contests in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. There is no doubt she is facing an uphill struggle, but it would be premature to say it’s over.

I say that as a reporter who has seen Bill and Hillary Clinton bounce back before.

I think Blitzer is right. Clinton is the underdog, and popular psychology tells us that people tend to sympathize with struggling underdogs. Obama's winning spree might hurt him at the end of the race.

According to the New York Times, John McCain had a romantic relationship with a female lobbyist eight years ago.

Good for him.

Professor Ted Goldberg of Stockholm University has written an excellent article on Sweden's failed drug policy. The article is in Swedish and available here.

This hilarious reader comment accompanies the article:

Jag åkte runt i skolor och höll föredrag om narkotika/amfetamin tillsammans med närpolisen. I en skola höll vi en kväll föredrag för föräldrar. För att demonstrera hur hasch ser ut hade polisen med en haschkaka. Den fick gå runt. När vi packade ihop, kom vi på haschkakan. Den var borta. Tacksamt kändes då vårt arbete mot narkotika!

(Bilingual blogging is no hit, I know. I apologize to my non-Swedish readers for the inconvenience.)

Foreign Policy and the Centre for a New American Security have surveyed more than 3,400 active and retired officers at the highest levels of command about the state of the US military. Among other things, they were asked what steps they were prepared to take in order to tackle the alarming shortage of new recruits. It turns out they would prefer foreign nationals to gay Americans. To me, this is one clear example of the devastating effect irrational fear of homosexuality has on society.

From Seattle Times:

Barack Obama cruised past a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in a Democratic presidential race for the ages.

It was Obama's ninth straight victory over the past three weeks—with results unknown from the Hawaii caucuses—and left the former first lady in desperate need of a comeback in a race she long commanded as front-runner.

And:

Clinton made no mention of her defeat, and showed no sign of surrender in an appearance in Youngstown, Ohio.

"Both Senator Obama and I would make history," the New York senator said. "But only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice."

In a clear sign of their relative standing in the race, most cable television networks abruptly cut away from coverage of Clinton's rally when Obama began to speak in Texas.

If Hillary Clinton doesn't win Texas on 4 March, she must admit defeat.

He's the winner.

I just read about Jim and Anna Marie's unconventional marriage on CNN's website:

When her husband of more than a decade revealed he was gay, Anna Marie Will was surprised—but not shocked.

Her husband, Jim, had never fit her stereotypical idea of the sports-loving, macho, straight guy, and the two had even gone to gay bars with a friend who was gay. But that didn't mean she was prepared for the news.

"Neither one of us had a clue—he didn't know what being gay meant for him. ... He needed to figure that out," recalls Anna Marie Will, of Sacramento, California. "I needed to figure out what his being gay meant for me, and whether I could incorporate that into my life and my marriage."

What they did know was that they believed in their marriage and wanted to make it work. Jim Will's revelation in 2001 began a three-year process during which they sorted out their feelings for each other. Ultimately, the couple, whose daughter turns 15 in March, decided to stay together.

This arrangement is not as uncommon as one might think. Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet ran a series of articles on the same topic only a week ago. Seven people were interviewed about their homosexuality and how coming out affected their families. I link to the articles, which are written in Swedish:

1. En andra pubertet
2. Livet vände på en fest
3. Vill bara vara queer
4. Unik insyn i mäns hemliga liv
5. Pappa, kom ut
6. Eva avslöjade sin man på homosajt
7. Regnbågspappa i radhuslängan

This just in: John McCain and Barack Obama win Wisconsin primaries.

At a visit to the European Parliament, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said it might be time for a new referendum on Sweden joining the single European currency.

In the event that Denmark joins, I think a large majority in southernmost Sweden will be in favour of a currency changeover. That would probably be enough to overtake the Eurosceptic votes of northern Sweden.

I would welcome a new referendum if the Danes vote in favour of joining the euro.

More in Danish here.

At last! The 81-year-old dictator leaves office. To bad he didn't retire decades ago.

The day after Europe witnessed the birth of a new Muslim nation, Andreas Malm, one of Sweden's most notorious defenders of Islamist terrorism, writes an article in Dagens Nyheter accusing the democratic world of Islamophobia. As most liberal-bashing communists in Europe, Malm refuses to see any humanitarian motive for European and American intervention in the Middle East. Every action taken to halt totalitarian tyranny of states like Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq is reduced to some sordid demand for cheap oil.

It's unfortunate that many people fall victim of this rhetoric, because what Malm and others like him refers to as Islamophobia has rarely anything to do with genuine dislike of Muslim. In fact, it's the other way around. To people like Malm, the sufferin