Che Guevara, the revolutionary Marxist responsible for the killing of thousands of people—most of them innocent peasants and homosexuals (symbols of the decadent bourgeoisie)—is honoured with a statue in his native Argentina. Makes me sick.

Not good:

A 2006 Anchorage Daily News story, said of Palin: “She’s not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay, but that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment.”

Some press reports following the McCain campaign announcement have repeated that right-wing rhetorical flourish that has Palin declaring that she has gay friends. That softer image is not what some Alaskans saw.

“That’s just completely wrong,” said Allison E. Mendel, the attorney who brought the 1999 case. “She spoke on radio programs all throughout the campaign saying, ‘I want a constitutional amendment, I think these things are only for a man and a woman.’ … I don’t think she’s ever said a friendly word about gay people, that they ought to have health benefits like other people do or anything along those lines.”

It’s a trick question. Paul Jackson tries to get it right.

By the way, I have similar experiences from my years in Amsterdam. Every time I pointed out that I wished the Netherlands wasn’t so overwhelmingly bureaucratic, I felt I hurt the Dutch person who asked the question. My years abroad made me realize how difficult it is not to offend people’s sense of national pride. I’m sure this knowledge helps me when I talk to foreigners.

The television newsheads’ initial reactions to McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as vice presidential running mate, according to Democracy in America:

• Who?
• Only two years in office? In the second-least-populous state in the country? This makes the Obama-lacks-experience argument very hard to harp on for John McCain.
• Someone under investigation for a minor scandal in her state?

Andrew Sullivan: “McCain’s pick was the most pro-gay move any Republican has made since George H.W. Bush added hate crimes against gays to the national statistical base.”

More here.

Gay Republicans are thrilled. In a statement, Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon says:

“Alaska Governor Sarah Palin can help Sen. McCain win this election by appealing to independent and young voters. She’s a mainstream Republican who will unite the Party and serve John McCain well as Vice President. Gov. Palin is an inclusive Republican who will help Sen. McCain appeal to gay and lesbian voters.”

More here.

John McCain surprises:

After weeks of speculation about his choice for vice-president on the Republican ticket, John McCain bypassed the names most often mentioned, such as Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. On Friday August 29th he chose a little-known candidate—Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska for less than two years.

But:

Although she is popular with conservatives, Ms Palin will not be able to cement the evangelical wing of the party to Mr McCain in the same way that the selection of Mr Pawlenty would have done through his strong ties to the National Association of Evangelicals.

I think McCain hopes his choice of running mate will woo disappointed Clinton supporters. I’m not sure it will work. To use the phrasing of a teenager I know: “It smells of effort.”

One of the books I read this summer was the anthology The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens. It contains many read-worthy articles on religion. The one article I liked the best is entitled Memorial Service and was written by Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) in 1921:

Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a day when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today? And what of Huitzilopochtli? In one year—and it is no more than five hundred years ago—50,000 youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered at all, it is only by some vagrant savage in the depths of the Mexican forest. Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had no human father; his mother was a virtuous widow; he was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that she carried on with the sun. When he frowned, his father, the sun, stood still. When he roared with rage, earthquakes engulfed whole cities. When he thirsted he was watered with 10,000 gallons of human blood. But today, Huitzilopochtli is as magnificently forgotten as Allen G. Thurman. Once the peer of Allah, Buddha, and Wotan, he is now the peer of General Coxey, Richmond P. Hobson, Nan Petterson, Alton B. Parker, Adelina Patti, General Weyler, and Tom Sharkey.

Speaking of Huitzilopochtli recalls his brother, Tezcatilpoca. Tezcatilpoca was almost as powerful: He consumed 25,000 virgins a year. Lead me to his tomb: I would weep, and hang a couronne des perles. But who knows where it is? Or where the grave of Quitzalcontl is? Or Tialoc? Or Chalchihuitlicue? Or Xiehtecutli? Or Centeotl, that sweet one? Or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love? Or Mictlan? Or Ixtlilton? Or Omacatl? Or Yacatecutli? Or Mixcoatl? Or Xipe? Or all the host of Tzitzimitles? Where are their bones? Where is the willow on which they hung their harps? In what forlorn and unheard of hell do they await the resurrection morn? Who enjoys their residuary estates? Or that of Dis, whom Caesar found to be the chief god of the Celts? Or that of Tarves, the bull? Or that of Moccos, the pig? Or that of Epona, the mare? Or that of Mullo, the celestial jack-ass? There was a time when the Irish revered all these gods as violently as they now hate the English. But today even the drunkest Irishman laughs at them.

But they have company in oblivion: The hell of dead gods is as crowded as the Presbyterian hell for babies. Damona is there, and Esus, and Drunemeton, and Silvana, and Dervones, and Adsalluta, and Deva, and Belisama, and Axona, and Vintios, and Taranuous, and Sulis, and Cocidius, and Adsmerius, and Dumiatis, and Caletos, and Moccus, and Ollovidius, and Albiorix, and Leucitius, and Vitucadrus, and Ogmios, and Uxellimus, and Borvo, and Grannos, and Mogons. All mighty gods in their day, worshiped by millions, full of demands and impositions, able to bind and loose—all gods of the first class, not dilettanti. Men laboured for generations to build vast temples to them—temples with stones as large as hay-wagons. The business of interpreting their whims occupied thousands of priests, wizards, archdeacons, evangelists, haruspices, bishops, archbishops. To doubt them was to die, usually at the stake. Armies took to the field to defend them against infidels: Villages were burned, women and children were butchered, cattle were driven off. Yet in the end they all withered and died, and today there is none so poor to do them reverence. Worse, the very tombs in which they lie are lost, and so even a respectful stranger is debarred from paying them the slightest and politest homage.

(Portrait of H. L. Mencken by Nikol Schattenstein.)

Jim Lindgren makes a good observation:

I think that was the best delivered acceptance speech I’ve heard since at least Reagan. Reagan perhaps had a little more heart in his delivery; Obama’s style is cooler. But then, in prepared remarks Obama comes across as smarter when he talks than Reagan did, though not necessarily deeper.

For both men, their only weaknesses in prepared remarks were that (like almost all politicians) they too often tend to mine platitudes, just different sets of them.

Perhaps this quality explains why so many libertarians like both Reagan and Obama. Nah, maybe not, but it’s an interesting thought, although not necessarily flattering to libertarians.

Quote: “I’m living in mortal fear this speech will end. I want it to go on and on and on...”

C’mon, it wasn’t that great!

An emotional Andrew Sullivan thinks Obama’s speech was great and says America cannot throw this opportunity away:

Look: I’m biased at this point. I’m one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments, who has shifted out of my ideological comfort zone because this man seems different to me, and this moment in history seems different to me. I’m not sure we have many more chances to get off the addiction to foreign oil, to prevent a calamitous terrorist attack, to restore constitutional balance in the hurricane of a terror war.

I’ve said it before—months and months ago. I should say it again tonight. This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away.

Megan McArdle says the speech was a disappointment—“nothing we haven't seen before from Obama, or for that matter, every Democratic presidential candidate in living memory.”

Eli Sanders writes:

Here’s what I think: I think Obama was, as usual, near flawless in his delivery. I think the whole staging and pacing of it was a tremendous bit of political theater. I think that he avoided all the right things: soaring too high; overtly suggesting a comparison between himself to MLK on this anniversary of the “Dream” speech; coming off as too light-weight or without a taste for blood. I think the idea of opening the convention, by way of inviting the public to a giant stadium on the last night, was very smart, especially in a swing state such as this one. And I think Obama has set himself up very well for the next big moment: the debates. He’ll be respectful of McCain’s service and accomplishments, but he won’t shrink from pointing out McCain’s failures and the feebleness of McCain’s ideas.

Perhaps—or, quite probably—Obama could have delivered a more soaring, more intricate, more detailed speech. But he didn’t need to. He needed to prove he could speak to, and relate to, the average American. And he did.

I second that.

Here’s the speech in full. I think it’s good, not brilliant—but good.

In his big speech ending the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama said: “I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.”

It’s an accidental contradiction at best, a deliberately misleading message at worst. Only time will tell, I guess.

Lunatic commies and offensive anti-abortionists are not the only ones rallying at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Unlike the leftist fascists who wish for a bloody revolution, the marijuana activists are fighting a peaceful libertarian cause. I like.

(Via Reason.)

“If the Prime Minister decides to sing for the people of Sweden I wish he would least choose to sing lyrics that did not proclaim our lack of a need for education,” Metta Fjelkner of the Swedish Teachers Federation says in a foolish statement that makes me question Swedish schoolteachers’ knowledge of culture.

What did the Prime Minister sing that upset the teachers so? The answer is, parts of these lyrics from Pink Floyd’s The Wall:

When we grew up and went to school there were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could

By pouring their derision upon anything we did
And exposing any weakness however carefully hidden by the kids

But in the town it was well known:
When they got home at night, their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives!

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thoughts controlled
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave the kids alone
Hey, teachers, leave the kids alone!

All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall
All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall

Read the lyrics carefully—or better still, listen to it and watch the video. Are they really about proclaiming a “lack of a need for education”? I don’t think so. They are about child abuse dressed as education.

I wonder what Swedish teachers would make of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Perhaps a glorification of promiscuity and a tribute to carelessness?

Bill Clinton: “People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”

Sweden should join NATO, says the Liberal Party. I agree, even though I would prefer a common European defence system. It’s about time Europe was able to defend itself without America. It’s not as if we don’t have the money to do it, it’s only a matter of priority.

(Via Reason.)

Andrew Lansley of the British Conservative Party wants to tackle obesity. In a speech he will deliver later today, he says:

Tell people that biology and the environment causes obesity and they are offered the one thing we have to avoid—an excuse.

People who see more fat people around them may themselves be more likely to gain weight. Peer pressure and social norms are powerful influences on behaviour and they are classic excuses.

Our need, and not just in relation to public health issues, is to act on the environment, while fostering positive peer pressure and social norms. We have to take away the excuses.

Nor is this about telling people what to do. Tackling the environment should not be a licence to lecture people, because they have no excuse not to exercise, or eat their fruit and vegetables.

Nannying—at least among adults—is likely to be counter-productive. If we are realistic about the impact of social norms and peer influence in affecting behaviour, we must also realize that we should not be nannying people.

Providing information is empowering, lecturing people is not. So, no excuses, no nannying.

He’s probably right, but it’s tough love for those of us who are fighting overweight. And I don’t like the proposed stronger controls of food advertisement. It goes against the idea that people are free to act. Besides, I don’t know a single overeater who doesn’t know it’s a bad habit. Stricter rules for advertisers will do nothing to curb unhealthy eating.

(Via Tory Diary.)

I just watched Hillary Clinton as she addressed the Democratic Nation Convention. I think Barack Obama should be very pleased with it. Mrs Clinton mentioned his name several times and aimed directly at those of her supporters who are still bitter after the primaries. To my surprise, she was very clear on women’s rights and even gay rights. I know she appeared sincerely interested in these issues in her final campaign speech in June, but then I thought of it more as flirtation with the many women and gays among her supporters. Now I get the impression that she really, really cares about equality, which gives her credits in my book. In these days, when both leftist and rightist commentators spend much time trashing so-called identity politics, it is nice to listen to a high-ranking politician who dares to speak about the discrimination and ill-treatment people face merely because of irrelevant group characteristics.

I just listened to Michelle Obama addressing the Democratic National Convention, and I think she delivered everything expected of her. It was not political per se, but rather an emotional speech about her family, herself, and her love and devotion to husband Barack.

Her beauty struck me as I saw her on the podium. After an outright ugly Barbara, a stiff Hillary, and a dull Laura, America deserves a queenlike First Lady. Mrs Obama can be that person.

(Photo by Chris Carlson.)

Yesterday morning, a group of about fifty so-called animal-rights activists tried to sabotage top research into a cure for AIDS at the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control in Stockholm.

These insensitive idiots make me furious. Millions of people are suffering the deathly torments of AIDS and all they think about are some caged monkeys.

A bunch of ignorant American communists rallied outside the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, a few hours ago.

I just learned from CNN that six per cent of delegates at the Democratic Nation Convention are gay.

So much for the homophobic argument that acceptance would lead to human extinction.

Yesterday I wrote about Madonna’s tacky attack on John McCain. Now I learn that a McCain campaign spokesperson has replied:

John McCain’s campaign hit back at Madonna on Sunday after the pop diva kicked off her world tour with a concert that bracketed the US presidential candidate with Adolf Hitler.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds angrily condemned the segment of Madonna’s concert in Cardiff on Saturday that appeared to draw a comparison between McCain, Hitler and Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe.

“The comparisons are outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time,” Bounds said in a statement reported by Fox News. “It clearly shows that when it comes to supporting Barack Obama, his fellow worldwide celebrities refuse to consider any smear or attack off limits.”

“Swedish trade unions have lost 37,000 members in the first six months of the year,” The Local writes.

Could it be a second secularization for Sweden? I’m thinking, we replaced collectivist Christianity with collectivist socialism in the first half of the twentieth century. Perhaps this is stage two in a process that will end with the Swedes abolishing collectivism altogether?

Just a thought.

It seems the Democratic Convention—which opens in Denver later today—will be all about Bill and Hillary:

A successful presidential convention can give the nominee a five- to 10- percentage point bounce in opinion polls. But as Barack Obama and running mate Joe Biden chart their course across the swing states of the mid-west towards Denver on Wednesday, a large chunk of media attention will be eaten up by Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Many supporters of Mr Obama express private anguish over the prominent role he has conceded to the former president and first lady on three out of the four days of the convention this week. The democratic nominee starts off the convention with an insignificant 1- to 2- percentage-point lead over republican rival John McCain.

Mr Obama’s supporters fear that by stealing part of the show, the Clintons may also limit the opinion poll upside. “They got everything of substance that they asked for,” said one senior Democrat, who was not involved in either Mrs Clinton or Mr Obama’s campaign. “And they also got some extras.”

Tomorrow Mrs Clinton will give a keynote address to an audience of 20,000 in the Pepsi convention centre in downtown Denver. Bill Clinton will follow with his own prime-time address to party delegates on Wednesday. And on Thursday disaffected Clinton delegates will get the opportunity to make a symbolic roll call vote for her nomination.

In addition to these three concessions, Mrs Clinton negotiated the right to show a short film about her life that will air prior to her speech.

Long-time readers of this blog know about my fascination with skyscrapers and large-scale buildings in general. Last night I found a website that offers everything I could wish for. With pictures, diagrams, and details of skyscrapers from around the world it kept me awake for most of the night. Below is a screenshot image of the skyscraper diagram for my hometown Malmö. Not many skyscrapers here, but there are more planned for the future. And we are still the “tallest” city in Sweden by 73 metres.

But what is a skyscraper? Nerds disagree on a clear-cut definition, but I think Mr Gottesdiener is on to something in this article I found on Answers.com:

There is no precise definition of how many stories or what height makes a building a skyscraper. “I don’t think it is how many floors you have. I think it is attitude,” architect T. J. Gottesdiener told the Christian Science Monitor. Gottesdiener, a partner in the firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, designers of numerous tall buildings including the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, continued, “What is a skyscraper? It is anything that makes you stop, stand, crane your neck back, and look up.”

Some observers apply the word “skyscraper” to buildings of at least 20 stories. Others reserve the term for structures of at least 50 stories. But it is widely accepted that a skyscraper fits buildings with 100 or more stories.

Yes, size is not what matters—it’s all about attitude.

Every time I see this kind of vulgar and unjust propaganda, I sympathize with the man or woman being slandered.

I am a big Madonna fan, but this is tacky:

As Madonna kicked off her international “Sticky and Sweet” tour Saturday night, she took a none-too subtle swipe at the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president.

Amid a four-act show at Cardiff’s packed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian President Robert Mugabe—and U.S. Senator John McCain. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain’s Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Embarrassing. Is she aspiring to become the leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, or what?

I think this cartoon by Nick Anderson of the Center for American Progress gives a fairly just idea of what James Dobson’s work is about.

That’s what many young people say when they find out they are HIV-positive.

The number of newly infected gays is rising in most Western countries. Sweden is no exception. The Washington Blade has an article about the situation in US capital:

New data from the Whitman-Walker Clinic suggest that the number of infections in D.C. has jumped considerably just in the last year. The Clinic revealed earlier this month that the number of its clients testing positive for HIV jumped from 80 in the first half of 2007 to 266 in the first half of 2008—an unprecedented increase of 232 percent.

Clinic officials said the findings are particularly alarming because the total number of people tested so far in 2008, about 6,500, is roughly the same number it tested during the first half of 2007, meaning the spike in cases was not a result of testing more people.

Our-of-date and moralistic safe-sex information has no effect on the new generation of sexually active gay men with no personal experience of people with HIV. A new approach is called for. For one thing, the safe-sex message must be honest about what are the greatest risks. To begin with, it should stop warn of the negligible risk of catching HIV from oral sex and focus entirely on the dangers of unprotected anal and vaginal intercourse. The keyword is simplify.

According to a number of American news sources, Barack Obama has picked Senator Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate. I hardly know anything about the man, but I do approve of his position on gays in the military:

Joe Biden supports ending the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy. Twenty-four of the nations serving alongside U.S. forces in Iraq permit open service, and it has no negative impact on their forces or the morale of the soldiers. He believes turning away patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve solely because of their sexual orientation is wrong.

Amen to that.

The war between reason and religion has reduced Charles Darwin to an ideological stand. This is unfair to the man who in his lifetime astonished the scientific community with remarkable findings:

Darwin did not need evolution to make his name. His South American fossils were an immediate sensation, and he won high praise for a talk to the Geological Society arguing that the coast of Chile had been formed from uplifted sea floor. (The scholarly acclaim left him feeling, he said, “like a peacock admiring his own tail.”) He gained admission to the prestigious Athenaeum Club on Pall Mall, a few minutes’ stroll from Trafalgar Square; the first time “I sat in that great drawing room, all on a sofa by myself, I felt just like a duke,” he confessed.

This passage was taken from a written portrait of Darwin by The Atlantic’s Richard Conniff, which I think gives a fair idea of the man behind natural selection. It also provides some insight into Darwin’s private pondering. I particularly like this:

Along with career building, the Darwin of the post-Beagle years was considering the pros and cons of marriage. As an “object to be beloved & played with,” he thought that a wife would be “better than a dog anyhow.”

A wife better than a dog? I beg to differ.

Hmm...

Tomorrow night thousands of young men and women with the most fit, toned bodies in the world will mingle for the last time before they fly home. What might they get up to?

You could be excused for thinking this is a quote from the back cover of a Jackie Collins novel. But no, it’s the first paragraph of a Times article on Olympic athletes engaging in wild sex parties.

An interesting question. I think my answer is yes. In my experience, melancholy can cause much creativeness. I have written some of my best articles while depressed. To some degree, it seems the blue mind makes my senses sharper and my words more precise. At one point in my life, I ate anti-depressants. They never made me happy—only numb.

Eric G. Wilson has written a thought-provoking article about melancholy I would like to recommend. You find it here.

Finally, some sign of liberalism from within the Swedish Parliament! I was beginning to think every liberal MP had surrendered to Big Brother.

Another proof of the attitude towards gay relationships being normalized in America:

The nation’s largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards—featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. “Two hearts. One promise,” one says.

Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only U.S. states with legal gay marriage. A handful of other states have recognized same-sex civil unions.

The language inside the cards is neutral, with no mention of wedding or marriage, making them also suitable for a commitment ceremony. Hallmark says the move is a response to consumer demand, not any political pressure.

“It’s our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can,” Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell said.

Hallmark’s largest competitor, American Greetings Corp., has no plans to enter the market, saying its current offerings are general enough to speak to a lot of different relationships.

Hallmark started offering “coming out” cards last year, and the four designs of same-sex marriage cards are being gradually released this summer and will be widely available by next year. No sales figures were available yet.

Same-sex wedding cards at the local supermarket it nothing to be sniffed at. It’s huge progress. Not long ago, making gays invisible was the master suppression technique. This invisibility made homosexuality something odd and strange, and because few know about it, homosexuality was considered a rare phenomenon to most people. And to some extent, they were right; in order to survive or maintain dignity, most gay people hide their true nature in homophobic cultures. The suffering of gay people diminishes with every step towards normalization of homosexuality and same-sex relationships. Greetings cards at the supermarket will help that progress.

In the September issue of The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan explains why homophobic legislation is becoming intolerable to the younger generation:

The premise used to be that homosexuality was an activity, that gays were people who chose to behave badly; or, if they weren’t choosing to behave badly, were nonetheless suffering from a form of sickness or, in the words of the Vatican, an “objective disorder.” And so the question of whether to permit the acts and activities of such disordered individuals was a legitimate area of legislation and regulation.

But when gays are seen as the same as straights—as individuals; as normal, well-adjusted, human individuals—the argument changes altogether. The question becomes a matter of how we treat a minority with an involuntary, defining characteristic along the lines of gender or race. And when a generation came of age that did not merely grasp this intellectually, but knew it from their own lives and friends and family members, then the logic for full equality became irresistible.

I think he’s right, which is saw proof of the other days when a new study revealed that young evangelicals ditch their churches’ anti-gay agenda.

Read Sullivan’s article in full here.

“Berlin's memorial to the thousands of homosexuals persecuted and killed by the Nazis was damaged over the weekend,” Der Spiegel reports.

(Via Tor Billgren.)

On Sunday, I did something I rarely do. I accompanied my father to his childhood village of Glimåkra to listen to a lecture about local artist Erik Månsson (1893-1972). I had expected it to be a rather dull experience, but to my surprise, it turned out to be quite interesting. Normally, my father is not particularly interested in art, but the artist in question was his schoolteacher, so he felt a connection and wanted to learn more about the man he know only as a somewhat brutish and harsh authority figure.

After the lecture itself, we were invited to the first ever vernissage of Månsson’s art; which mostly deals with local myths, characters, and customs. It’s not the greatest art I have seen, but I found its originality fascinating. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera at home, but I managed to take a few decent pictures with my mobile.

Just when I was about to give up on the evangelicals, I learn of a new study showing progress among young Christians:

Young evangelicals are far more accepting of gay and lesbian lifestyles than their parents are: 34 percent of evangelicals between 18 and 29 think homosexuality “should be accepted,” compared with 24 percent of those from 50 to 64, according to the Pew Forum. While abortion remains a bright line for most evangelicals, some Christian-college students admit there’s even a bit of wiggle room there. Hillary Waters graduated in 2008 from Wheaton with a political science degree and spent six months in Zambia. She didn’t grow up as a Christian, though she considers herself one now. “I don’t really have an opinion on abortion. I just can’t imagine if you were a single mother of four kids and got pregnant,” she says. “I can’t really justify forcing someone to raise a child in that circumstance.”

There’s much talk about Barack Obama and John McCain appearing together for the first time this past weekend. The two presidential candidates were questioned by evangelical pastor Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church in California. A boring spectacle; the event manifests what I like the least about America and American politics—the influence of religion-based ethics. And as always, the rights of gay people are dependant on the superstitious’ interpretation of ancient myths. Both candidates said they opposed marriage equality, but Obama stressed that he is in favour of civil unions that would allow gay couples the right to visit hospitalized spouses.

Andrew Sullivan comments on McCain’s answer to a question about marriage:

He cites his own state's position on marriage—but his own state voted down an anti-marriage equality amendment. And again, he simply says that gay couples can make “legal arrangements,” and argues that gay couples should not be denied any of the rights of other citizens. But those “legal arrangements” can be overturned or removed by other family members without civil marriage rights. And he isn't asked about civil unions, the obvious follow-up. I get the feeling Warren simply wanted to get both on record against marriage equality. Again: no mention of the people whose relationships are the target of these amendments.

And on Obama’s answer to the same:

Obama makes the critical distinction between civil and religious institutions. But he and Warren duck the issue. The question is equality in the civil sphere. Warren opposes that equality; Obama favors it. And Obama sees that civil equality as compatible with Christianity. It is, of course. But what was depressing is the refusal of both men to speak of gay people as such, explicitly and clearly.

The whole thing makes me sick.

He should have resigned last year, before Benazir Bhutto was killed. But better late than never, I suppose.

Michael Phelps just secured his eighth Olympic gold in Beijing, and so surpassed Mark Spitz’s old record of eight seven gold medals at a single Olympics. Truly impressive.

It would be easy to dismiss the ad hoc-argument presented in this video clip as irrelevant nonsense had it not been for the many people who really believe it to be valid.

(Thanks Tor.)

On 11 August, Swedish newspaper Skånska Dagbladet published a homophobic article by conservative columnist Carin Stenström. Today the same newspaper publishes my reply. It’s not available online, so I post it here. I don’t have time to translate it, so I apologize to those of you who cannot read Swedish.

Den 11 augusti publicerade Skånska Dagbladet en ledarkrönika av Carin Stenström som aldrig kommit i tryck om den handlat om någon annan folkgrupp än homosexuella.

I artikeln hävdar Stenström att det finns en stor konspiration som tystar ner sanningen om att homosexuella har en särskild livsstil som leder till en lång rad unika infektioner och en mängd kroniska skador. Hon avslöjar inte vilka dessa dessa hemliga sjukdomar är utan fortsätter med att svepande hänvisa till forskning som påstås visa att medellivslängden för homosexuella män är avsevärt kortare än för heterosexuella. Några källor finns inte, men eftersom Stenström så sent som den 24 oktober 2007 skrev om samma forskningsresultat i tidningen Världen Idag antar jag att uppgifterna kommer från den homofobiska tankesmedjan Family Research Institute i USA.

Forskaren bakom studien heter Paul Cameron och har uteslutits ur alla vetenskapliga organisationer eftersom han systematiskt far med osanning i syfte att legitimera en kränkande behandling av homosexuella. Han är känd för att hävda att homosexualitet är en större fara för folkhälsan än rökning. Camerons forskningsresultat om förkortad medellivslängd bygger till största delen på dödsrunor i en amerikansk tidning för homosexuella. Studien tar inte hänsyn till att bara ytterst få och spektakulära dödsfall rapporteras i tidningen. Med samma metod skulle man kunna ”bevisa” att alla jägare dör i förtid genom att samla data från rapporterade dödsfall i tidningen Jaktjournalen.

I sin artikel jämför Stenström prideparaden i Stockholm med militärmarscherna i Sovjetunionen och Nazityskland. Det är naturligtvis ett hån att homosexuellas frigörelse kopplas till de regimer som mer än andra mördat homosexuella. Men det är tyvärr typiskt för den vulgärretorik som Stenström i egenskap av chefredaktör släpper fram i Världen Idag. Jag hade hoppats att Skånskan skulle visa bättre omdöme.

I have taken an extra course in English grammar this summer, and tomorrow I will sit the final full-day examination. When I’m done, I will celebrate—perhaps by a visit to Copenhagen Pride. So, don’t expect any blogging this weekend.

I was watching an old episode of Seinfeld last night. In one scene, Elaine and Jerry discuss who is the ugliest politician. Jerry says Leonid Brezhnev, Elaine says Charles de Gaulle.

I had forgotten what the two leaders looked like, so I searched the Internet to find out. After looking at a few pictures of the two, I say Jerry Seinfeld was right.

If this is true, it’s huge. A former Secretary of State and a high-ranking Republican endorsing a Democratic candidate in a presidential election would be a devastating blow to John McCain’s campaign.

Swedish gay magazine QX asked its readers to send in pictures from Pride events they visited this summer. About 250 pictures have been sent in so far.

This is my favourite. I think it would take a lot of imagination to come up with an outfit queerer than this rubber costume.

I sympathize and share her affection for men in briefs.

While I was on holiday busy with private matters, a new war began on the outskirts of Europe. I must admit the Caucasus is unknown territory to me. Until now, I knew only two things about Georgia: that Joseph Stalin was born there, and that it hosts an important oil pipeline.

According to international law, it is illegal to attack another sovereign country without the permission of the United Nations Security Council. I’m no friend of this law since it has proven a protection for tyrant dictators. Therefore, I would much rather see the UN replaced by an international organization for democracies. However, any such organization would not help the current situation in the Caucasus. Even if Russia’s democracy is restricted and authoritarian, I don’t think it’s bad enough to be labelled a dictatorship. And to my knowledge, Georgia is a democracy.

In the short run, negotiating a truce is the only way forward. Then, once the guns are silent, the international community must help Russia and Georgia agree on permanent borders.

(Map copied from the Guardian. Find it and accompanying information here.)

The war on drugs is based on show-off politics that does not work, says a former director of Britain’s anti-drugs unit. From the Guardian:

A former senior civil servant who was responsible for coordinating the [British] government’s anti-drugs policy now believes that legalisation would be less harmful than the current strategy. Julian Critchley, the former director of the Cabinet Office’s anti-drugs unit, also said that his views were shared by the “overwhelming majority” of professionals in the field, including police officers, health workers and members of the government.

He also claimed that New Labour’s policy on drugs was based on what was thought would play well with the Daily Mail readership, regardless of evidence of what worked. Downing Street policy advisers were said to have suggested stunts such as sending boats down the Thames to catch smugglers to coincide with policy announcements.

It is time to stop wasting taxpayers’ money on this ridiculous farce.

“A lawyer at the European University Institute in Florence has reported Sweden’s new surveillance law to the European Commission,” The Local reports.

Lawyer Robin Lööf believes the law—which allows the National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets Radioanstalt—FRA) to intercept all calls, emails and phone text messages crossing Swedish borders—to be in clear breach of fundamental rights governing the movement of goods and services in the European Union.

Good!

The Swedish Christian daily Världen Idag says the publication of an article by a well-known Nazi activist was a mistake.

One of the killed Georgian soldiers in Tskhinvali wore stockings, a Russian nationalist website reports in a mocking tone. It goes on to say that a photo of a named army official was found in the soldier’s pocket.

In my experience, cross-dressers make the best fighters. They have learned to cope with so much abuse that nothing keeps them down. So if you ever enrage a man in drag, run!

(Via Michael Petrelis.)

He’s my favourite Olympian. A fascinating man not only because of his beauty:

He has come a long way from the days when he was bullied endlessly about his oversized ears and lisp.

American swimmer Michael Phelps, who today collected his third gold medal in as many days, was also diagnosed as a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which ended up being a blessing in disguise.

He was prescribed the drug Ritalin and took to swimming, partly because both his sisters were accomplished in the pool, but also to find an outlet for his hyperactivity.

His mother Debbie said: “He never sat still. He never shut up; he would never stop asking questions. He just wanted to go from one thing to another.”

Phelps’ win in the 200 metres freestyle event means he has the joint highest ever number of gold medals, with nine over two games. But the 23-year-old from Baltimore has not finished. He has a chance at collecting five more this week and beating Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old record of seven golds in a single Olympics.

In today’s issue, the Swedish Christian daily Världen Idag publishes an article by well-known Nazi activist Jan Ermefjäll. In short, Mr Ermfjäll argues that Kabbalistic Jews are the root of a violent sexualization of society, which results in more rape victims and manifests itself through gay-pride parades.

Tor Billgren has more in Swedish here.

I’m still enjoying my semi-holiday, but I found this comic strip by Yaakov Kirschen and thought I share it with you. I think it’s a spot-on observation.

(From Dry Bones Blog.)

Not a week goes by without some email from Christians who want to remind me of the eternal flames that await me if I don’t give up my “homosexual lifestyle”. Taken from these emails it’s easy to get the impression that God only approves of marital vanilla sex, but according to the Bible, God is great fan of sadomasochistic role play as long as the slaves are religious:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. (Ephesians 6:5)

Warning: This entry contains satire.

According to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Iran’s judges want to reform the Iranian penalty code and outlaw the religious practice of stoning people to death. I guess we can expect to hear the Assembly of Experts express fears of moral decline presently.

She’s not only “hot”, she has a sense of humour too.

Albert Einstein in a letter dated 24 March 1954:

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

I don’t know how many times I have heard Christian apologists use Einstein as an example of a great scientist who believe in God.

The Swedish Tax Authority is about to close a deal with the Channel Islands that would allow it information on Swedes hiding money from their greedy government. “The Swedish state estimates it loses 46 billion kronor ($7.6 billion) in unpaid taxes annually due to income being shielded in accounts held in offshore tax havens,” The Local writes. Well, that’s a common misunderstanding. Important to remember is that it’s not the government’s money. Only the people with bank accounts in the Channel Islands are losing money.

My husband is very excited about his new iPhone, and not that it bothers him, but his new mobile is not kosher. Harry at Israelity explains:

During a recent visit to a used cellphone retailer near Jerusalem’s Davidka Square, a corner that’s situated on the border between the super-black Makor Baruch neighborhood and the spaghetti-strapped downtown, I overheard a Haredi man asking the salesman which of the phones he offers are “kosher.” Puzzled, I asked him if he intended to eat his phone, whereupon it was explained to me that some phones allow for streaming video (which might be lewd) and some do not (rendering them kosher).

Sundown at Lake Finja. I took the photo with my husband’s new iPhone after a late dinner yesterday.

Blogging is a drug. I promised myself that I would stay away from the Internet for two weeks, but here I am browsing on my holiday…

Boris Johnson, the conservative mayor of London, endorses Barack Obama. It comes as a surprise to many, but frankly, I think it makes sense as contemporary European conservatism is increasingly progressing towards social libertarianism. I feel the same way myself. After giving it some thought, I realized I would vote for Obama had I been an American citizen. I couldn’t stand the thought of voting for a conservative candidate whose agenda contains homophobia and sexism.

It takes more than low taxes to win the heart of a true libertarian.

Despite the rainy weather, hundreds of thousands of people came out to see the Pride Parade in Stockholm yesterday. I was not present myself, but taken from the pictures, I wish I had been.

(Photos by Micke Kazarnowicz.)