How some of the most prominent libertarians in America will vote.

(Via Johan Norberg.)

A music-producing friend asked if I could advertise the forthcoming new album by Swedish band Maze of Time on my blog. Well, I don’t know anything about my readership’s taste in music, but I promised my friend I would help. So here is the title track “Lullaby for Heroes” from Maze of Time’s new album:

More information here.

I have a heavy workload right now. Four articles to finish before Monday. To help myself focus on what is important, I have borrowed one of my parents’ houses. There I can be by myself, in solitude. The house has no Internet connection, which means I will not post any new entries or answer any emails until I get back on Friday or Saturday.

“Apple Inc. is donating $100,000 to fight Proposition 8, which seeks to end same-sex marriage in California by amending the Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman,” the San Francisco Chronicle writes.

This is quite funny. He simply took Ashley Todd’s bogus story and replaced Barack Obama for John McCain.

That was the teachers’ job in communist East Germany, a country with a totalitarian system many ill-informed Germans still praise:

Every German schoolchild learns to revile Hitler, but what about Erich Honecker, boss of communist East Germany? He was not a dictator, or so most teenagers from eastern Germany seem to think. And the dreaded Stasi, which jailed and tortured citizens who stepped out of line? Just an intelligence service, say young easterners. These findings, from a survey of 5,200 schoolchildren by Berlin’s Free University, dismayed those who think national identity and democratic values rest on shared judgments about the traumatic past.

The ignorance is unevenly spread. Young western Germans know more of East Germany’s history. In Bavaria just 39% of schoolchildren had “little or very little” knowledge; in Brandenburg 72% were ill-informed. A third of eastern German students thought that Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt, two western giants, actually governed the east.

Stupidity fuels the growing communist movement in Europe.

The Obama camp doesn’t like WFTV after this interview. Understandably so, I guess. Nevertheless, the journalist is actually on to something. Spreading the wealth is a Marxist idea. However, it’s an idea Karl Marx shared with many left-wing liberals.

(When Americans use the term “liberal”, they tend to refer to this sort of social liberalism. Europeans, on the other hand, associate “liberal” with classical liberalism, which Americans call libertarianism. The slightly different terminology is a constant cause for confusion in transatlantic dialogue.)

The German government will not accept EU plans for airport see-through cameras. “This method cannot be implemented in Germany, as it violates all limits of embarrassment,” says Max Stadler of the Liberal Party.

Good. I hope the European Commission listens.

It appears King Karl XIII of Sweden (1748-1818) shared my interest in male genitalia. It has been disclosed that he drew penises in his diary. This was most certainly a taboo interest in his time; but in my opinion, it is an aesthetically justified hobby. Penises are beautiful, and men—regardless of sexual orientation—should take pride in them.

An example of the odd things people does to get attention: McCain volunteer Ashley Todd carved an inverted “B” on her cheek and bruised her eyes to fake an attack by Obama supporters.

Full story at Hot Air and Michelle Malkin.

Yesterday I wrote about Mormons spending millions on the campaign against same-sex marriage in California. I illustrated the entry with a picture from Men on a Mission, a calendar with Mormon men posing semi-naked to raise money. In my entry, I wrote that the money they got from the calendar sale financed the church’s missionary work. I was wrong. The men donate the money to charity.

Men on a Mission does not support Proposition 8.

George Will: “The almost erotic pleasure of spending money that others have earned and saved is one reason people put up with the tiresome aspects of political life.”

Spot on.

This press release from the Catholic League seems a bit, well, strange to me.

In the October 19 episode of Fox’s “Family Guy,” characters Brian (the family dog) and Stewie (the family child) travel in a time machine to rescue Mort Goldman (a Jewish family-friend) from the Nazi invasion of Poland. After Brian and Stewie disguise Mort as a priest to get him out of the country, a Nazi officer asks Mort, “Are you sure you’re a real priest?” Stewie replies, “Yeah, yeah, I can vouch for him, he’s real. He’s molested me many, many times.”

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:

“To its credit, the Fox News Channel has criticized its broadcast sister station, Fox, for what happened on last Sunday’s episode. But the criticism only dealt with the implication that Nazis would have supported the McCain-Palin ticket. However, there is also the matter of slandering all gay priests. While it is true that most of the molesters in the Catholic clergy have been gay, most gay priests are not molesters.

“A disturbing pattern has emerged on ‘Family Guy.’ On at least three occasions, it has mocked the Eucharist, and now it is targeting gay priests. The brains behind these assaults is Seth MacFarlane. He is not only the show’s creator, he is a big Barack Obama supporter. This may explain his animus against McCain-Palin, but it is not clear why an Obama fan would find it necessary to beat up on gay priests. After all, Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, just yesterday said he is against Proposition 8, the California resolution that would limit marriage to a man and a woman. Thus did he lay down stakes with the radical gay community.

“Whatever the motive, the juvenile scripts that MacFarlane is associated with could benefit from some fresh material. Make that material that doesn’t bash Catholicism, as well.”

Since when does the Catholic Church care the slightest for the well-being of gay priest?

In 2007, Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez nationalized all major electricity companies. State ownership plays a key roll in his socialist effort to end capitalism. This has resulted in constant power failures. Now it seems the breakdown of Venezuela’s electricity services might cost the Chávez regime support in the upcoming local elections.

Once again, socialist ideology has proven a failure when implemented. Socialism simply cannot deliver—which has been the case so often the statement should be considered an empirically verified fact. Of course, hardcore Marxists will keep dreaming about their utopian society. Reality plays no role in their minds; it is all about ideology for the sake of ideology. But I think ordinary Venezuelans are beginning to lose faith in socialism when everyday things like shopping for food becomes a struggle:

“Our refrigerators have burned out so we can’t shop for the week, we can only shop for one day at a time,” said Nestor Pacheco, 39. “The situation is serious.”

(Seen in picture is one of the many murals the Chávez regime has ordered. The Venezuelan ministry of culture spends millions on wall paintings of Hugo Chávez with socialist heroes from the past.)

“Editorial boards in every major newspaper in the State of California have encouraged readers to vote no on Proposition 8,” the Box Turtle Bulletin reports. In fact, only one Californian newspaper endorses the proposition that would ban same-sex marriage.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has mobilized followers to give an estimated 77% of donations to support California’s proposed marriage ban,” the Advocate writes. Why are the Mormons so opposed to same-sex marriage? Considering what devastating effect the “one man, one woman” definition of marriage has had on their culture, I thought they would know better.

(Seen in picture is the cover of Mormons Exposed, a calendar with Mormon men posing semi-naked to raise money for their missionary work.)

I forgot to comment on this when the news broke yesterday:

A Swedish government agency is refusing to assist the police in an ongoing investigation concerning a person suspected of infecting a woman with HIV.

Under current legislation, a person with HIV risks spending one to ten years in jail on assault charges if he or she knowingly has unprotected sex with another person.

“The criminalization of HIV makes preventive work more difficult. Also, sentences are very tough,” Ragnar Norrby, director-general of the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI), told newspaper Dagens Medicin.

In a reversal of its previous policy, the disease control institute has recently refused to cooperate with prosecutors who requested information on a person suspected of spreading HIV.

“It is now our view that spreading HIV should not be classified as an offence,” Jan Albert, SMI head physician and regional manager, told Dagens Medicin.

“It is at least as much the responsibility of the individual person to understand that unprotected sex involves risks,” he added.

According to Ragnar Norrby, the threat of prosecution leads many people infected with HIV to remain anonymous, making it more difficult to trace the spread of the virus.

I have long argued for the law to be changed. The current law is counterproductive and hurts people living with HIV. I wrote about this in February.

I guess some would say this group of conservatives give voice to a contradiction. I don’t agree. Conservatism is fundamentally about scepticism of new and radical proposals, not about unwillingness to change per se. In this election, I think it makes sense to many conservative Americans to vote on Obama.

I have made some changes to the website’s style and design. If you are a regular visitor, the website might look strange if your browser has stored the old stylesheet. If so, I suggest you reload. In most cases, this will do the trick.

By the way, as some of you might have noticed, my webfeed have a new URL. I migrated from Feedburner to Google a couuple of weeks ago. This should not affect subscribers as the old URL is redirected automatically. However, if your feed reader doesn’t list new entries, then put in the new URL:

http://feedproxy.google.com/aqurette

I have replaced the old URL with the new throughout the journal to avoid confusion.

Swedes generally think of themselves as good English-speakers. This is rarely the case. Most people in this country speak English with a heavy and very distinct accent, and many tend to simply translate Swedish words, expressions and jargon in a way that makes native English-speakers raise an eyebrow. This mixture of Swedish and English is known as Swenglish—and I think it’s fair to say most Swedes are excellent at it. Sometimes Swengling causes more than raised eyebrows though. I just found this hilarious example on The Local’s blog:

Sweden’s Infrastructure Minister Åsa Torstensson had a rude moment at a recent traffic safety conference:

Yes Sweden will absolutely keep the prick system. The prick system has been working very well in Sweden.

The “pricks” to which the minister refers are perhaps better rendered as “points”, as in the sort of points added to the driving licence of a traffic offender.

A new opinion poll from the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion suggests a majority of likely Californian voters support a ban on same-sex marriage. However, as the Catholic anti-gay campaigners they are, the “pollsters” could not resist spinning the question and the result to their advantage. The Box Turtle Bulletin has the details:

California voters will be asked to vote yes or no on the following:

8. ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITIONAL AMENDMENT. Changes California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that only marriage between a man and woman is valid or recognized in California. Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.

One would expect, then, for a poll seeking voter intentions to ask a question that reasonable approximates the ballot question. It should reference same-sex couples and discuss eliminating rights. Marist asked the following:

Proposition 8 is the “Limit on Marriage Constitutional Amendment.” It amends the California constitution to say that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. If the election were being held today, would you vote yes or no on Proposition 8?

That’s not the same question. The name given by Marist may fit well with their religious agenda, but it isn’t on the ballot. And no where in Marist’s question was any indication that same-sex couples would have their rights eliminated.

More here.

A new landmark for gay animals.

Here is a man who plays the banjo. Freakish.

The communist party lives next door to the psychiatric clinic in Södertälje, a Swedish town about 60 kilometres south of Stockholm. I figure it’s a convenient arrangement for everyone.

The financial crisis has boosted the ego of European communists. Less than two decades after the demolition of the Iron Curtain, the ideology that once turned half of Europe into misery is gaining strength from a new generation unfamiliar with past atrocities. But old habits die hard, and the German communist party is now suggesting imprisonment of bankers will solve the ongoing crisis. The young people should be warned: imprisonment was the solution to all problems in communist East Germany. The self-proclaimed “progressivism” of contemporary German communism is just the same old totalitarianism re-branded.

I found this example in an article on American fact-checkers. From The Economist:

Politicians are not stupid; they leave themselves wiggle room. In a typical ad, every sentence is true, even if the overall impression is misleading. One of Mr Obama’s, for example, talks of a factory closing in Pennsylvania and its equipment being shipped to China. Mr McCain “sold out” the workers, the ad claims. He voted against cracking down on China’s unfair trade practices. In fact, the factory closed because it made cathode ray tubes, which no one wants any more, and the “equipment” was only spare parts. So Mr Obama is talking poppycock when he blames Mr McCain for lost jobs. But is he lying?

Anders Svensson is one of Sweden’s most prominent communist bloggers. In an entry posted on Saturday, he claims that the socialist left has had no problem with terrorism in Europe since the Second World War. Instead, liberals are to blame for terrorism. In a comment, I asked him to name these liberal terrorists, what liberals terrorist groups have killed civilians and kidnapped opponent? In his reply, he suggests IRA and ETA are two of these liberal groups. So I did some research, and guess what, both groups are socialist. Here is my latest comment to Mr Svensson’s blog (partly translated to English):

From Sinn Féin’s (the political branch of IRA) website:

Sinn Féin, the only all-Ireland party, is committed to achieving a 32-County democratic socialist republic and the end of British rule in Ireland.

From the Council on Foreign Relations:

ETA, which is pronounced “etta,” is a leftist group that conducts terrorist attacks to win independence for a Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France. ETA stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means “Basque Fatherland and Liberty” in the Basque language. Spain has resisted ETA and the idea of an independent Basque homeland. When the group formed in 1959, its founders focused on Gen. Francisco Franco’s suppression of the Basque language and culture. More moderate Basque nationalist organizations, including the Basque Nationalist Party, the Partido Nacionalista Vasco, were denounced as collaborators by ETA, which evolved by the 1960s into a revolutionary Marxist group.

There’s no such thing as liberal terrorism. In fact, I don’t think there has ever been any terrorist group in Europe not inspired by socialism.

Seen in the picture is an ETA mural in the Basque province. Note the red star. It’s the international symbol of socialism, which is also present on Mr Svensson’s blog.

Update: Anders Svensson erased my latest comment from his blog. I figure the facts were too damaging to his anti-liberal agenda. It’s back again.

An Ohioan hangs a Barack Obama doll in KKK-robe from a tree in his front lawn. The Star of David painted on the doll’s head is obviously meant to give the Jewish community the chills.

It’s been expected for quite some time (I mentioned it in August), but this still got to hurt the Republican camp:

Colin Powell, George Bush’s former secretary of state, has thrown his support behind Barack Obama’s bid to be America’s next president in a further blow to the Republican party.

Obama was a “transformational figure,” Powell, 71, said on the TV programme Meet the Press. “I think we need a president who is a generational change and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama.” Obama had captured the enthusiasm of young Americans, Powell added.

Obama was better suited to handle the nation’s economic problems as well as help improve its standing in the world. “I have watched him over the past two years as he has educated himself,” Powell said. “I’m confident he’ll be ready to take on these challenges.”

First it was John McCain’s Joe the Plumber, now it’s Markos Moulitsas’s Martin the Mailman. American politics seems very focused on that average worker nowadays.

From the same article on Daily Kos I learn that fundraising to beat Proposition 8 in California has been more successful than anticipated. That’s well needed as the Christians from all over the US are mobilizing against marriage equality in the state. And their work has resulted in a shift in public opinion. The latest polls suggest the anti-gay camp is ahead.

More information about Proposition 8 here.

You can’t make this stuff up:

You can’t sue God if you can’t serve the papers on him, a Douglas County District Court judge has ruled in Omaha.

Judge Marlon Polk threw out Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers’ lawsuit against the Almighty, saying there was no evidence that the defendant had been served. What’s more, Polk found “there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant.”

Chambers had sued God in September 2007, seeking a permanent injunction to prevent God from committing acts of violence such as earthquakes and tornadoes.

The senator said today that he is considering an appeal of Polk’s ruling.

A new report suggests the incidence of Australian piracy has trebled in eight years. American and British television series are the most popular downloads.

Personally, I want all drama series to be available online. Television is so last century.

A few hours ago, a mob of 500 left-wing socialists stopped a legal open-air meeting in Malmö organized by the Sweden Democrats, a party with links to far-right socialist groups. The police tried their best to avoid violence, but the meeting had to be cancelled due to growing turmoil.

Angry mobs stopping others from expressing their opinions is a growing trend in Europe. In recent years, a number of gay-pride events have been cancelled after violent attacks from groups opposing gay rights. The violent attack on free speech we saw in Malmö today had nothing to do with opposing gay rights, but it is a result of the same line of thinking: a large group of people turn up at political event in order to make it impossible for their opponent’s voice to to be heard.

In my opinion, this is the lowest form of political activism. It’s for people with no faith in their own argument.

Fascist leaders gather in Austria for today’s state funereal of Jörg Hieder, who was one of the Europe’s most despicable neo-fascist politicians. Hieder’s mourning fans not only compare their late leader with Princess Diana and Dalai Lama, they also fallow Nazi-socialist tradition by blaming the Jews for his death.

Why would any European vote for a Nazi-inspired politician? I think we find the answer in this article from the Guardian:

In the Pumpe pub on Benediktiner Platz in Klagenfurt, drinkers sit around whispering about how Haider died. The figure “142” is repeated often. That is the speed (in kilometres an hour) at which he was driving when he crashed his VW Phaeton on Saturday night. The news has by now filtered down that he was drunk at the wheel.

“Some say he was criminal because he was drunk, but that’s an insult,” says Christa, a 17-year-old who was among the country’s new young voters (the voting age is 16), who gave her support to Haider’s BZO in elections two weeks ago. “He did so much for everyone.”

Does she think he belittled national socialism? “Well, I don’t really know what that is,” she replies. “If you mean, was he right to lock up foreigners, yes, because people with a criminal tendency have no place here.”

There you have it. Young Europeans don’t know what national socialism is, just as many of them don’t have the faintest idea about communism. That is why they vote for racists, anti-Semites, and class warriors.

I don’t have time to elaborate on this now as I’m on my way to the pub, but Box Turtle Bulletin has the latest homophobic spin on the Californian teacher whose pupils attended her marriage.

Andrew Sullivan: “Perhaps the nastiest thing one can do to a fellow blogger is to rip him apart and fail to provide a link.”

Swedish blogger Jonas Morian has voiced this frustration whenever his nutjob antagonist Bengt Silfverstrand attacks him. And rightfully so—it’s nasty not to link.

Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin in the early 1930s. He left for the United States about the time Hitler came to power in Germany. I photographed this plaque on the house he lived in when he wrote the two novels that would later inspire the gayest of musicals: Cabaret.

I agree with Andrew Sullivan, this latest advertisement from the gay-rights camp in California is too lame. Speak up! Be specific—and don’t fear mentioning gay people.

Who is this Joe the Plumber? Many asked that question when watching the final presidential debate yesterday. John McCain referred to this man several times, and Barack Obama—who supposedly met the plumber—did so too. The media was quick to search for Joe, and the Cincinnati Enquirer found him in Ohio:

He is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business who came to symbolize the notion of “spreading the wealth” in Wednesday night’s third and final presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

Earlier this week, when Wurzelbacher got a chance to speak with Obama when he visited Toledo, he told Obama that his tax plan would keep him from buying the business that currently employs him.

Apart from the hilariously corny fixation on Joe, the debate didn’t offer much. I think Obama won, but McCain did pretty well too. However, I think McCain is too far behind to pose any real threat to Obama.

More interesting is what happens in the senatorial race in Mississippi. The Democrats, who often praise themselves for being progressive, are running a dirty and homophobic campaign. From Ronnie Musgrove’s campaign website:

Musgrove Supported Ban On Gay Adoptions: In March 2000, Musgrove supported a ban on adoption by homosexuals or same-sex couples. The ban not only pertained to adoptions in Mississippi, but also ensured that Mississippi would not recognize adoptions by gay individuals or couples from other states if the parents moved to Mississippi.

The state will not recognize an adoption if the parent falls in love with someone of the same sex? To me that’s pure evil.

Thank God for political nerds with spare time enough to create funny websites like this one.

I have head about new drugs to help young transsexuals but did not know how they worked until now. From an article by Hanna Rosin:

A recent medical innovation holds out the promise that this might be the first generation of transsexuals who can live inconspicuously. About three years ago, physicians in the U.S. started treating transgender children with puberty blockers, drugs originally intended to halt precocious puberty. The blockers put teens in a state of suspended development. They prevent boys from growing facial and body hair and an Adam’s apple, or developing a deep voice or any of the other physical characteristics that a male-to-female transsexual would later spend tens of thousands of dollars to reverse. They allow girls to grow taller, and prevent them from getting breasts or a period.

This is excellent progress that will help many people.

On 4 November, Californians will vote on a Christian initiative to ban same-sex marriage. Until a few weeks ago, the gay-rights activists seemed to be backed by a majority. Since then, the anti-gay Christians have gained support and are now in the lead. Christian groups are running a dirty campaign, suggesting the referendum poses a choice between homosexuality and God.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports from the battleground, and publishes this table of bible quotes used to legitimize anti-gay legislation:

Personally, I am repulsed by the constant focus on theology whenever gay issues are debated. No one would ever reduce a civil-rights issue to a discussion about bible interpretation had it concerned any other group of people.

“Mickey Mouse tried to register to vote in Florida this summer,” the St. Petersburg Times reports. Hilarious.

If you are able to read Swedish, I recommend this article by Rickard Falkvinge.

Speaking of gay sex and HIV (see earlier entry), this Dutch court case is bizarre:

The prosecution says the three promoted gay sex parties on the internet, then drugged and raped their guests and injected them with HIV-infected blood.

Twelve of the alleged victims have tested positive for HIV.

The three defendants, all HIV-positive, deny the charges. They face up to 21 years in prison if convicted.

They are charged with assault, rape and possession of illegal drugs.

The court, in the northern city of Groningen, heard that the three men allegedly drugged their party guests with a combination of ecstasy and a date rape drug before sexually assaulting them and injecting them with their own HIV-positive blood.

I once met a man who told me he used to mix his own semen with the food he served at dinner parties because it turned him on. I then thought that was about as disgusting a bodily-fluid fetish could be—obviously, I was wrong.

Paul Krugman on the news of his Nobel Prize: “To be absolutely, totally honest I thought this day might come someday, but I was absolutely convinced it wasn’t going to be this day. I know people who live their lives waiting for this call, and it’s not good for the soul. So I put it out of my mind and stopped thinking about it.”

“There is not enough evidence to show that circumcision reduces the risk of AIDS in sex between men, researchers are reporting, even though previous studies in Africa have shown its pronounced benefit in reducing AIDS from heterosexual sex,” the New York Times writes. The newspaper reports on a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will be published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Damn it! After reading about WHO’s assessment that circumcision reduces the risk of HIV transmission I was hoping it would apply to gay men too. Not that I would ever have unprotected sex, but it would have been nice to know it meant a slightly lower risk for me.

There is some related good news from Australia though:

As new figures revealed a surge in syphilis rates, a study by Sydney scientists has found that rates of the disease are higher among men who have not had the procedure.

Circumcision did not appear to offer any protection from other sexually transmitted infections like HIV, gonorrhoea, chlamydia or genital warts.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales tracked 1427 homosexual men, two-thirds of whom had been circumcised, over three years with regular testing for infections.

They found no association between infection and circumcision status for any disease except syphilis, they told the Australasian Sexual Health Conference on the Gold Coast today.

American gay-rights activist Chris Crain reports from the São Paulo mayoral election.

Update at 21:25: Oops. It’s Chris’s co-blogger Kevin who reports from Brazil.