Everybody knows about the relaxed attitude towards cannabis in the Netherlands, but not as many knows about the progressive heroin policy in Switzerland. For the past fourteen years, heroin addicts have been able to receive their drug on prescription. It’s been a huge successs for both addicts and the wider community. “Thanks to this policy we don’t have open drug scenes anymore,” says a spokesperson for the Swiss Social Democratic Party in an article published by the Huffington Post.

Tomorrow, on 30 November 2008, voters will decide in a referendum whether or not to make the current policy permanent. The latest opinion polls suggest the Swiss will vote in favour of prescription heroin. I think it would be a great if they do.

I found this is the New York Times:

For sale: a vast tunnel complex in central London. Former tenants include Britain’s secret service, the famous hot line between America and the Soviet Union during the cold war and 400 tons of government documents. The asking price is $7.4 million.

I remember fantasizing about living underground as a young and very peculiar teenager. I think I got the idea from a film—I can’t remember which one.

Never trust a person with a website. At least that’s true for Belgian politicians.

When you’re Arianna Huffington you don’t have to be polite to the little people.

When nothing else works in a debate with atheists and sceptics, theologians and religious apologists often turn to the argument that people need faith in divinity to cope with evil. “If we accepted the atheist claim that there is no God, how do we explain the sacrifice of a mother who lost her child?” a Swedish theologian once asked me during seminar. I don’t remember my exact response, but I acknowledged that he was partly right; to explain the death of a child with science and rationality seem both heartless and inadequate compared to consolatory ideas about greater meaning and God’s will. Problematic for apologists, however, is that evil and heartbreak are so often caused by religion. In the—still ongoing—terror assault on Mumbai, innocent people are being killed indiscriminately in the name of God. Newspapers tell their stories:

Gunjun Nagpal had been celebrating her 31st birthday at the Golden Dragon restaurant in the Taj Mahal hotel when two gunmen sprayed her table with bullets. She, her mother and her father were killed instantly. Kamal Nagpal, Gunjun’s cousin, said her family had been wiped out. “My sister is hanging on for dear life. She’s the only one left. We are victims but who is bringing the war [to India]?”

The terrorists most surely think they are doing God’s work and that the people they kill are legitimate victims for a greater good. I cannot stop but thinking that it’s somewhat perverted that priests and rabbis will give them right when comforting the survivors in the days to come.

Commie hippies and reactionary environmentalists will observe “Buy Nothing Day” tomorrow, so I suggest friends of trade and liberty shop more than usual. I will head to the mall for my annual Christmas shopping.

(Seen in the picture is a Bristol hippie on Buy Nothing Day 2007.)

A few days ago, I criticized a Swedish blogger for only posting pictures of feminine-looking men. Now I thought I would show him and everyone else what a truly beautiful man looks like. Here is a picture of 42-year-old actor Matthew Fox, best known as “Jack” in the TV-series Lost. He is a man, and he is better looking than any of the young men the gay media thinks we all like to dream about. Youth is overrated; and in my opinion, so are the clean-shaven faces and the hairless bodies so many desire.

Indian authorities say 125 people have been killed and 327 people have been injured in the ongoing Islamist terror attack on Mumbai so far. Hundreds of innocent people are still trapped inside the buildings kept by the terrorist.

Imagine what the world could be like without religion.

I got an email from a reader in New Zealand. He wants to know if there are any other Swedish blogs in English. I know of only two: The Local’s newsblog and Johan Norberg’s bilingual blog.

Are there any Swedish blogs in English I have missed? Please let us know.

Mamma Mia! is Britain’s fastest-selling DVD ever. People simply cannot get enough of ABBA. Amazing.

“I no longer recognize marriage,” Tom Ackerman writes on his blog. “It’s a new thing I’m trying. Turns out it’s fun.”

He’s right—it is funny:

Yesterday I called a woman’s spouse her boyfriend.

She says, correcting me, “He’s my husband.”
“Oh,” I say, “I no longer recognize marriage.”

The impact is obvious. I tried it on a man who has been in a relationship for years,

“How’s your longtime companion, Jill?”
“She’s my wife!”
“Yeah, well, my beliefs don’t recognize marriage.”

Fun. And instant, eyebrow-raising recognition. Suddenly the majority gets to feel what the minority feels. In a moment they feel what it’s like to have their relationship downgraded, and to have a much taken-for-granted right called into question because of another’s beliefs.

Just replace the words husband, wife, spouse, or fiancé with boyfriend, girlfriend, special friend, or longtime companion.

In the past decade or so, environmentalists have scared us with horror stories about our planet rapidly warming up. Unless we immediately replaced those light bulbs and refrained from air travel, we were doomed to fry for our sins. The only problem was that the nightmare scenario painted by alarmists never seemed to materialize. Put simply: the thermometers refuse to confirm the global warming. Bummer!

In an article published today, Bjørn Lomborg writes that the global temperature is actually dropping:

The most obvious point about global warming is that the planet is heating up. It has warmed about 1 degree Celsius over the past century, and is predicted by the United Nations’ climate panel (IPCC) to warm between 1.6 and 3.8 degrees during this century, mainly owing to increased carbon dioxide. An average of all 38 available standard runs from the IPCC shows that models expect a temperature increase in this decade of about 0.2 degrees.

But this is not at all what we have seen. And this is true for all surface temperature measures, and even more so for both satellite measures. Temperatures in this decade have not been worse than expected; in fact, they have not even been increasing. They have actually decreased by between 0.01 and 0.1 degrees per year. On the most important indicator of global warming, temperature development, we ought to hear that the data are actually much better than expected.

Likewise, and arguably much more importantly, the heat content of the world’s oceans has been dropping for the past four years where we have measurements. Whereas energy in terms of temperature can disappear relatively easily from the light atmosphere, it is unclear where the heat from global warming should have gone—and certainly this is again much better than expected.

Is there a link between cleanliness and wickedness? Well, a new study by Simone Schnall of the University of Plymouth suggests “washing with soap and water makes people view unethical activities as more acceptable and reasonable than they would if they had not washed themselves”. From The Economist:

Physical purification ... produces a more relaxed attitude to morality. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Pontius Pilate is portrayed in the Bible as washing his hands of the decision to crucify Jesus. Something to think about for those who feel that purification rituals bring them closer to God.

(Via the blog of the clean-scrubbed Niclas Berggren.)

This is promising:

President-elect Barack Obama has yet to attend church services since winning the White House earlier this month, a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors.

On the three Sundays since his election, Obama has instead used his free time to get in workouts at a Chicago gym.

I was too pessimistic in my earlier entry on this subject. I was also wrong about one thing: Venezuela’s democratic opposition won five—not three— constituencies in yesterday’s local elections. There is more good news still:

In all, pro-Chávez candidates won 17 of the 22 states up for grabs. Many of his victories were in relatively sparsely populated rural states, but also reflected his support in most of the country.

The losses were Mr. Chávez’s second setback at the polls in the past year, after the defeat of a proposed constitutional overhaul last December that would have enhanced his powers. The results will put opponents of Mr. Chávez in charge of areas with more than a third of Venezuela’s 26 million people.

This is the trend we see in many countries: rural people vote for politicians with the most authoritarian and illiberal image, whereas urban people vote for democrats, liberals, and libertarian conservatives. Hopefully, we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Chávez regime.

And now to something more disturbing.

A Venezuelan friend emailed a while ago. He explained that the rural areas voting heavily for Chávez to the most part are the same areas the regime has stripped of all independent media. The poor in the countryside only have access to state media, which is controlled by Chávez loyalists. State television in Venezuela airs several hours of Chávez speeches and propaganda shows daily. In the election campaign, state media spent hours humiliating the opposition by broadcasting wiretapped private phone calls and demeaning gossip. According to my friend, one state-owned local radio station had a former girlfriend of the opposition leader talking about the politician’s impotence and acne problem while a Chávez supporter cracked jokes about it. The show was rerun every day the past week. Neither the opposition leader nor his campaign spokesperson were given the opportunity to respond.

“Rolf Wolff, dean of the school of business at Gothenburg University, called on the government to nationalize Volvo Cars to safeguard the pool of knowledge on which the Swedish auto industry is based,” The Local writes. This is complete madness. The Swedish car industry has failed, but that’s not the taxpayers’ responsibility. I’m a strong advocate of the separation of state and commerce.

Read Rolf Wolff’s article in full here.

Pastor Ed Young challenged the married couples in his Texan congregation to have sex every day for a week. That’s the kind off worship I like.

Yesterday’s local elections in Venezuela offer both good and bad news. After a dirty campaign—which included Hugo Chávez using the government intelligence agency to record his opponents’ private communication for him to broadcast on state television—the regime loyalists won all but three provinces. However, the Chávez camp did not manage to win some of the most populous cities in the land, which means the capital will be run by the democratic opposition.

Ironically, Chávez was quick to give his critics right by making it obvious that Venezuelan socialism is all about the president’s delusions of grandeur:

President Hugo Chavez’s opponents made important gains in Venezuela’s local elections, capturing the Caracas mayor’s office and three of the most populous states, but his allies won a strong majority.

With more than 95 percent of votes counted, pro-Chavez candidates kept gubernatorial posts in 17 states, while the opposition won five states. Chavez trumpeted his party’s domination of Sunday’s vote as a sign to continue driving Venezuela toward “21st-century socialism.”

“The people are telling me: ‘Chavez continue down the same road,’” he said, hinting that he has not abandoned plans for constitutional changes that would expand his powers, push the economy toward socialism and allow him to run for re-election indefinitely.

(The italics are mine.)

In European leftist media, Israeli fear of Islamist terror is often portrayed as somewhat irrational and paranoid, and it is always said to be self-inflicted. Israel is the bad guy no matter what. But honestly, would any of these journalists be comfortable with a situation where their country’s outspoken enemy triple its missile arsenal in only two years? I think not.

A life-size statue of mad mass-murderer Che Guevara will be on display in New York until 1 May 2009. I think this portrait makes the man’s character more justice.

This story has everything. No novelist could make this up.

Two lesbian women, who belong to “a blood-drinking vampire subculture”, killed a teenage girl. They were caught and sent to the same prison, where they now are known for snogging in public, demanding raw meat to eat, and feeding off each other.

Makes HBO’s True Blood seem naturalistic and down-to-earth.

I found this comment on Gawker and post it here because I think it’s quite funny:

If my boyfriend bought me a house, I’d be okay with it, but I’d passive aggressively bitch about the problems with the house for the rest of our relationship.

OK, it’s Sunday, it’s freezing cold outside, there’s nothing but reruns on television, and I’m bored. My apologies for taking it out on you with this nonsense blogging. I realize that some mindless blogging won’t help. What I need is someone to nag. Perhaps it would be a good idea to buy one of those abused and traumatized dogs Animal Rescue sell off cheap to do-gooders with no lives. It’s about time I realize I’m one of these people. If I do get a dog, I will name the bitch Katrine Kielos and train it to attack pram-pushing women. That would add more drama to my dull winter Sundays.

From the New York Times:

New evidence from radar surveys by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter strongly suggest that the lobes are pure ice in the form of glaciers, buried under a thin layer of soil and rock. If so, there may be an enormous amount of ice on Mars apart from the poles, potentially providing a convenient resource for human missions.

With this much water, I’m sure human life on Mars will became a reality in only a generation or two. Cool.

Burundi’s parliament has approved a new penal law that makes gay people criminals.

I say no.

But people have different ideas about cybersex. I just read about a British woman divorcing her husband after she caught him having virtual sex with a prostitute in Second Life. In my humble opinion, the woman is an idiot. Internet sex is about fantasizing and allowing yourself to “do” things you may not want to do in real life. It’s only a problem if it replaces real-life sex. Of course, no one should stay in an unhappy relationship no matter what is the cause. But people who are jealous of their partner’s masturbation objects are doomed to be unhappy in all relationships—they better get over it or join their partner online. I’ve heard threesomes and swingers’ parties are frequent in Second Life.

Personally, I’m not much for cybersex. I prefer pictures of male beauty. (My husband can relax; I won’t leave him for Ryan Phillippe anytime soon.)

A Long Island school has renamed itself Barack Obama Elementary School in honour of the president-elect’s historic rise to the presidency, CBS News reports.

I second Eugene Volokh’s opinion. It seems a bit premature.

Does graffiti make you a delinquent person? A new Dutch study led by Kees Keizer of the University of Groningen suggests it just might:

His [Dr Keizer] group’s first study was conducted in an alley that is frequently used to park bicycles. As in all of their experiments, the researchers created two conditions: one of order and the other of disorder. In the former, the walls of the alley were freshly painted; in the latter, they were tagged with graffiti (but not elaborately, to avoid the perception that it might be art). In both states a large sign prohibiting graffiti was put up, so that it would not be missed by anyone who came to collect a bicycle. All the bikes then had a flyer promoting a non-existent sports shop attached to their handlebars. This needed to be removed before a bicycle could be ridden.

When owners returned, their behaviour was secretly observed. There were no rubbish bins in the alley, so a cyclist had three choices. He could take the flyer with him, hang it on another bicycle (which the researchers counted as littering) or throw it to the floor. When the alley contained graffiti, 69% of the riders littered compared with 33% when the walls were clean.

Australian authorities have launched a radio advertising campaign designed to “stop people calling an ambulance for ‘crises’ such as broken fingernails, dropped pillows or pizza cravings”. It gets worse:

Paramedics are reporting increasing instances of callers faking symptoms so they can be taken by ambulance to hospital, only to skip off to the nearest shopping centre after enjoying a free ride.

What’s wrong with people?!

When reading conservative media, one might get the impression that the gay lobby runs everything in America. This map, however, gives the true picture. Forty states have laws discriminating against the gay minority. The gay lobby is nowhere to be seen.

Map copied from the Freedom to Marry website.

A self-proclaimed “leading thinker in stuff about robots” offers some tips on how to solve the big social problem with robots running amok and killing people. Here’s the highlight of his extensive list:

• Make sure all robots have prominent big red buttons on them that deactivates them.
• Never give the robots artificial intelligence by merging the minds of different serial killers.
• Have a limit of five weapons per robot.
• Never give the robots access to time machines.
• Don’t have the robots’ programming give them a hundred points per person they kill.
• Never make a robot monkey.
• Install Vista on the robots so no killing spree can last longer than a few minutes without them needing to reboot.
• Make sure killbots have a preset killing limit.

Print out and save the list for the next time you build a robot.

The Times has the list:

1. Kim Jong-il
2. Ferdinand Marcos
3. Nicolae Ceausescu
4. Saparmurat Niyazov
5. Idi Amin
6. Joseph Stalin
7. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
8. Saddam Hussein
9. Mobutu Sese Soku
10. Suharto

My personal “favourite” (if that’s the appropriate word) is the Ugandan autarch Idi Amin, whose craziness brought him to claim the style of King of Scotland.

A number of philosophers of religion had hoped Albert Einstein’s E=mc² formula would be proven wrong to leave room for divine powers. But he was right: mass can be converted into energy, and energy can be converted into mass.

I have never heard of anyone dying from too much deodorant—until now.

Lisa Malkiewicz wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times. I take the liberty of posting it here because I share her dream and think she expresses what many people feel about contemporary religion:

I’m a straight married mommy, and I’m sick of the claims by supporters of Proposition 8 that they aren’t “against” homosexuals and that the proposition didn’t take away anyone’s rights.

Proposition 8 was discrimination, pure and simple, and the powerful institutions and people who backed it are bullies. Honest, loving, tax-paying Californians were stripped of their rights by a misinformed majority vote.

I am sick of claims that homosexuality is bad for families. Contrary to what church leaders say, homosexuality is not an abomination. Ignorant, hateful doctrine that turns parents against their own children is an abomination.

I dream of a day when churches preach love and tolerance, and then match their actions to their words.

I dream of a day when only the marriage of church and state is banned.

“President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military’s decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks,” the Washington Times writes. Perhaps I’m too much of a pessimist, but I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing comes of this.

Shocking activism at Murray State University in Kentucky:

On Friday, members of the Murray State Alliance performed live homosexual acts on campus in the Free Speech Zone. Many students were shocked, but not necessarily as the name the event implies.

Students performed acts such as reading, studying and hanging out to raise awareness about the lifestyle of gay members of the Murray State campus.

Public reading and drinking coffee—it’s that homosexual lifestyle.

As a devout Anglophile with a superb satellite dish, I watch a lot of British television. Right now, a government-sponsored organization promoting organ donation runs a campaign called “Tell a Friend”. According to the campaign advert, it’s a big problem that many people don’t share their opinions on organ donation with friends and relatives. This, in turn, results in ill people in need of a liver or heart transplant die while on a waiting list. By telling our friends what we think about donating our organs, we just might help a fellow human being in the future.

When I read through my list of favourite bloggers a while ago, I noticed that Jonas Morian has posted a video clip of a similar campaign. This one from California. He posted it because he wants his readers to register their wishes with the Swedish Council for Organ and Tissue Donation. That’s a good idea. I did so a few years ago because I didn’t want to leave that decision to my husband or parents. Besides, if it were up to them, they would probably approve of organs being taken from my body the minute I give up breath. I don’t want that. In fact, I don’t like the very idea of organ donation.

My friends and relatives know how I feel. But by expressing my thoughts online, all they have to do is search my blog if ever in doubt.

Oh, and while on the subject—I don’t want anyone else’s internal organ in my body either! I would rather die than wake up with body parts from some dead person. Now you know.

The International Herald Tribune brings good news for Islamists and revolutionary anti-Semites worldwide:

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

What I fear the most about Barack Obama in the White House is that Iran will be given free hands to develop nuclear weapons. I can think of nothing else that would jeopardize world peace more than that. I have said it repeatedly on this blog: someone must put an end to Iran’s plans before it’s too late.

Reb Bradley is a pastor and an author who specializes in helping parents raise their children to become superstitious conservatives. He is worried about so many young Americans being liberals. He thinks good, old conservative parents have failed when their children grow up to be men and women with political and social ideas different from earlier generations. To help parents bring up a new generation of traditional dogmatists who put deity before humanity, he has written a book wittily entitled Born Liberal, Raised Right. The book will help readers deal with such burning topics as:

• Why America has suffered such moral decline in the last 50 years.
• Why so many children raised in good homes grow up with values so different from their parents.
• Why so many young conservatives voted for Obama in this last election.
• Why the crime rate began to grow when parents began applying the wisdom of Dr Spock.

To illustrate the nightmarish situation of young should-be conservatives voting for the evil Mr Obama instead of God’s favourite, the publisher has picked a cover picture of a toddler wearing a Che Guevara playsuit. Good choice, because, as we all know, there has never been anyone so eager to embrace liberalism as the Marxist rebel who set out to rid Cuba of American intellectuals, domestic entrepreneurship, man-on-man action, and Hollywood’s moral decline.

Seriously, I know that the Americans have distorted political terminology beyond recognition, but I simply cannot stop laughing when conservative Americans illustrate liberalism with the world’s most famous communist. It’s like illustrating Christianity with a picture of Buddha.

I photographed this sticker I found on the bus an hour ago.

In a response to Obama’s victory, an al-Qaida spokesperson called the president-elect—along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—“house Negroes”, the Huffington Post reports.

But wait! I thought al-Qaida wanted peace and harmony between all people and opposed all racism. That’s what the radical segments of the Socialist Left in Europe has said since they began rallying against the United States and its allies after 11 September 2001. I feel cheated.

Added at 20:23: Oh, I just remembered. “House Negro” is what Swedish socialists habitually call Nyamko Sabuni, the Minister for Integration and Gender Equality. However, hardcore communist bloggers have explained that calling a black person “house Negro” is not racist—if the phrase is pronounced by a communist or Islamist, that is.

Gunnar Bergström, one of the many prominent Swedish Marxists who defended the slaughter of innocent Cambodians in the name of communism, has apologized for his mistakes. Better late than never, I suppose.

On his official website, the next president of the United States has published a list of reforms to make America better for gays and lesbians:

• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. Barack Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.
• Fight Workplace Discrimination: Barack Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees’ domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. Obama also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: Barack Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
• Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.
• Expand Adoption Rights: Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.

Remarkable.

Hillary Clinton has accepted the offer from president-elect Barack Obama to become the new Secretary of State, the Guardian reports. It’s an excellent choice. Few American politicians are better known internationally. Mrs Clinton is a divisive figure domestically, but in global politics, she is not.

With the help of Cuban-backed intelligence services, Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chávez has recorded his opponents’ private conversations, which the regime now broadcast on state television to humiliate the opposition:

Government wiretaps of opposition politicians usually remain secret, restricted to the ears of spooks and ministers. But in democracy Venezuela-style, everyone gets to listen in.

President Hugo Chávez has filled the airwaves with tapped conversations of his political foes to embarrass and apparently intimidate them in the run-up to regional elections. State TV has broadcast the recordings, enhanced with comic sound effects, in a barrage of attack adverts that would make even Karl Rove blush.

The prime target has been Manuel Rosales, an opposition leader who is tipped to become mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second city. One advert features him discussing buying expensive jewellery, along with sound and visual effects of rings and a Cartier watch.

Another advert plays a conversation with Rosales negotiating the purchase of cattle, to a backdrop of mooing sounds and cartoon pictures of coins.

Other politicians, as well as journalists and diplomats, have found private conversations, as well as photographs and video images, broadcast on state TV.

Things like this only happen in totalitarian countries. And no one is more totalitarian than Hugo Chávez. None of his many socialist fans in Europe would accept a liberal or conservative government to do to them what the Chávez regime does to liberals and conservatives in Venezuela. But it is well known that socialists are only democrats in opposition.

As from 1 January 2009, transvestism, sadomasochism, fetishism, and gender identity disorder will be struck from Sweden’s official list of medical diagnoses.

An artwork by Douglas Coupland. I want the motif on my duvet cover.

On 27 October, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed two galaxies more than 400 million light-years from Earth. This is only one in a long line of photographed galaxies, but what makes this picture especially interesting is that the shape of the galaxies suggests an unimaginably large collision took place quite recently, i.e. only a few billion years ago. Scientists think the ring of stars was formed after the galaxy on the left passed through the galaxy on the right.

(Image by NASA and ESA.)

Only one in three prefers the opposition leader.

I don’t mind the annual Gay Pride events that take place every summer. I never participate in the parades though. I prefer to be the quiet spectator. (My body dressed in nothing but briefs is best kept out of the public eye.) However, I wouldn’t mind protest against the injustice of discrimination, so had I been in America today, I would probably have joined one of the 300 rallies demanding marriage equality.

(I pray to the non-existing God that these rallies won’t be taken over by leftist loons and meaningless arguing with the craziest elements of American Christianity.)

British newspaper The Economist asks the question in an article headline. My answer would be that he acts as a socialist due to conservatism’s lack of direction. In other words, the French president is no Marxist, but as conservatism is more an attitude than a political theory, his politics derives from France’s socialist mindset. Being conservative in France is to talk and behave like a Marxist much in the same way being a conservative in America is to talk and behave like a devout Christian. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to Edmund Burke’s thoughts on evolutionary history per se, but I do think the lack of ideological direction is a problem for conservatism. That is why conservatives must always be judge by their friends. Conservative politicians need some libertarian entourage.

I know, this is gallows humour, but I think Mark Oppenheimer’s take on the fact the elderly tend to vote against gay rights is funny. The article asks the question which minority group will see one of their own in the Oval Office next:

Yes, I know, we may already have had a gay president—Lincoln is a much-nominated candidate for closeted commander in chief—but if we’re talking about an openly gay president, it won’t be for a while. Still, we know what to do to improve a gay candidate’s chances: murder an old person. Younger generations are far more tolerant of homosexuality; we know, for example, that voters under 30 opposed California’s Proposition 8. When the time comes, voters may feel more comfortable with a lesbian president than with a gay man, given the stereotypes about lesbian monogamy and domesticity. Top candidate: a young woman, a college freshman somewhere in the progressive Midwest, maybe Wisconsin or Minnesota, who just worked her ass off for Barack Obama and is planning her run in 2048.

Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address on 20 January 1949:

Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters.

Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and fairness.

Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labour as the chattel of state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.

Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of those abilities.

It’s brilliant and spot-on. Anyone who claims that communism is anything but an elitist ideology with no respect for people knows nothing about it.

(Seen in picture is Truman’s official presidential portrait painted by Greta Kempton.)

Swedish gay media reports from the first same-sex marriage ceremonies Connecticut.

From The Economist:

There are any number of reasons for the Republican Party’s defeat on November 4th. But high on the list is the fact that the party lost the battle for brains. Barack Obama won college graduates by two points, a group that George Bush won by six points four years ago. He won voters with postgraduate degrees by 18 points. And he won voters with a household income of more than $200,000—many of whom will get thumped by his tax increases—by six points. John McCain did best among uneducated voters in Appalachia and the South.

From a Swedish perspective, it’s fun to see how Social Democrats act as if they had anything in common with Barack Obama. All studies show that it’s the people voting socialist in Sweden are as rural, uneducated and socially conservative as those voting Republican in America. It has been a tradition among Social Democrats to favour leaders with no education to attract unscholarly voters. The Republican Party should avoid doing the same mistake if they want to win back the intelligentsia.

The Los Angeles Times wonders where the angry gay Americans who now take to the streets were before the Californian referendum on same-sex marriage. Dan Savage has the answer:

Most gay people grow up desperately trying to pass, to blend in; most of us flee to cities where we can live our lives in relative peace and security. We don’t go looking for fights. And most gay people walk around without realizing that they’ve internalized the dynamics of high school hells some of us barely survived: it’s better to pass, to stay out of sight, to avoid making waves, lest you attract negative attention, lest you get bashed.

But once you get bashed, once someone else throws the first punch, then you fight back—what other choice do you have?

Gays and lesbians were active in the fight against Prop 8—thousands of us. But the great gay masses marching in the streets over the last week didn’t perceive Prop 8 as an attack until after it was approved.

I don’t know, maybe the humour be lost on some readers, but this short video clip of “Shirtless German Soap Boys” contains so many stereotypes it’s hilarious. It’s so gay—and so very German.

Wales and Scotland are slowly breaking away from the United Kingdom; maybe they are paving the way for a complete reshaping of Britain’s political map? In the Guardian, human-rights activist Peter Tatchell contemplates an independent Cornwall:

Cornwall was once separate and self-governing. If the Cornish people want autonomy and it would improve their lives, why shouldn't they have self-rule once again? Malta, with only 400,000 people, is an independent state within the EU. Why not Cornwall?

Yes, why not? Personally, I would vote in favour of Scanian independence from Sweden if I could.

The Swedish Parliament has approved a new law making it easier for non-Europeans to apply for a work visa. It may not help the many illegal immigrants who already work and live in Sweden, but it’s excellent news to those who wish to come here legally in the future.

A Sacramento businessman doesn’t understand why his donation to a deceitful and homophobic campaign angers people:

A week after a majority of voters passed the controversial measure to ban same-sex marriage, the conflict continues—in the courts, at protests and in personal attacks.

“I’m frustrated by what’s going on,” said Dave Leatherby, owner of the Leatherby Family Creamery in Sacramento, commenting on the protests and court battles.

“Let’s move on. I always told my children that once a rule was made, you have to abide by it. I think it should be the same in this circumstance.”

Leatherby and his family donated about $20,000 for the passage of Proposition 8. A devout Catholic and father of 10, Leatherby supported the measure for religious reasons. He said his business has been targeted by bloggers as a result, and that he is particularly confused because his business has participated in the annual gay pride Rainbow Festival.

The WebPreneur blog has put together a list of the best libertarian blogs. It’s a heavy American bias, but I guess that’s to be expected.

I found a few blogs on the list that might enter my sidebar blogroll.

“Gay and lesbian couples exchanged vows in Connecticut on Wednesday to cheers from smiling friends and proud relatives as the state became the nation's second to allow same-sex marriage,” Reuters reports.

Watch it here.

This is good news:

Superior Court Judge Jonathan Silbert has scheduled a hearing at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday [that’s today] in New Haven to enter the final judgment in the case that allows same-sex marriages in Connecticut. Once the hearing ends, couples can pick up marriage license forms at town and city clerk’s offices.

It’s unclear how many couples will get married. The state public health department says 2,032 civil union licenses were issued in Connecticut between October 2005 and July 2008.

I know many conservative Christians hate gay people. I’m emailed proof of it every week from people who want to tell me what a deviant person I am and how much Jesus hates me. These are not people who know me. They don’t care who I am or what I’m about. They just google phrases like “gay marriage” and send insulting emails and post comments signed with silly things like “The Coalition against Homosexuals and Paedophiles” (I’ve received about twenty emails and comments from this anonymous group).

But my emails are nothing compared to the hatred expressed online. Conservative bloggers not only take pride in California’s re-established marriage inequality, they do everything they can to humiliate the gay community. The latest example is the kind of cartoons seen above.

Of course, there are segments of the gay community that deserve criticism. Yesterday, I wrote about a group of anarchists in Michigan who interrupted a religious service and threatened churchgoers. These stupid and immoral criminals deserve everything they get. But these groups represent no one but themselves. They are to the gay community what Westboro Baptist Church is to the wider Christian community.

To compare gay-rights activism to the racism of Ku Klux Klan is not only a witless insult, it’s also ironic as the latter argued against interracial relationships with much of the same arguments conservative Christians use to label homosexuality deviant and unnatural. Vague and out-of-context Bible quotations were used back then too. So, ironically, the homophobe who drew this cartoon accuses gay activists of acting like Southern Christians did only two generations ago.

Update at 9:38: Admittedly, there are a few pro-gay nutjobs too.

I have followed the news from NASA’s Phoenix with great interest since it landed on Mars in May this year. But now it’s over. Winter is coming to the part of Mars where the Phoenix is, so there is no longer sufficient daylight to charge its batteries. From the Guardian:

It has been a busy five months. In that time, Phoenix has sent back more than 25,000 images. It has verified the presence of water-ice under the surface. It has operated the first atomic force microscope ever used on another world. It has found small quantities of salts that could be substrates for life. And it made the puzzling discovery of perchlorate salts.

Phoenix’s final twitter read “01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000”, the binary code for “triumph”. And her controllers added “MarsPhoenix is finally frozen in the Martian arctic plain. Veni, vidi, fodi.”

If your Latin is rusty that means “I came, I saw, I dug”.

Farewell, Phoenix!

This is probably the single best reform of Sweden’s current government:

Currently, nearly all apartments in Sweden are purchased through cooperative housing associations (bostadsrättsföreningen).

Rather than purchasing an apartment outright, buyers instead purchase a share of the association, an asset which then gives them the right to live in a particular dwelling.

The association maintains actual ownership of the apartment, as well as the building’s common spaces, grounds, and physical structure.

The system allows housing associations to set certain restrictions on the rights of the tenant-owners who have purchased the right to live in a particular apartment to modify or sublet their dwelling.

But in a proposal sent to the Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) on Tuesday, the government has proposed changes to current laws which would allow people to purchase apartments outright rather than through a cooperative housing association.

The new law would give buyers of owner-occupied apartments (ägarlägenheter) rights similar to those currently available to people who purchase a house, including the option to sublet and ownership of the title to the dwelling.

Power to the people!

A group of gay anarchists attacks a church and interrupts a service in Michigan. This is precisely the kind of activism that will make people turn against the gay community. This criminal gang has now handed the conservative Christians the victimhood the sought for so long.

By the way, it’s funny how even the most obviously communist-influenced people become “liberal” in American right-wing press.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: “It is unfortunate, but it is not the end because I think this will go back into the courts. It’s the same as in the 1948 case when blacks and whites were not allowed to marry. This falls into the same category.”

The Governor is absolutely right. The ban on same-sex marriage falls into the same category as the previous ban on interracial marriage. I have argued this very case many times: it’s the same mixture of biological and theological arguments against “unnatural love” repeated.

Related articles from the archives:

• Homofobi (An essay in Swedish)
• Judicial Activism and Civil Liberties
• Forty Years with Interracial Marriage
• Marriage Equality in America

Blogging has entered the mainstream, writes The Economist. And yes, I think it’s correct: the contemporary blogosphere is not what it once was. Nowadays, a few A-list bloggers are de facto mainstream media. A trend in recent years has seen many devoted bloggers turn their blogs into platforms for collective blogging, with the result that their distinct online personality has gone missing. With this in mind, I think there a couple of things bloggers like myself should think about as we go forward.

Firstly, we must learn not put too much into statistics. To count readers is important to newspapers that must sell subscriptions, but it should not be as important to the regular blogger. Yes, it’s fun to have many readers and high rankings on search engines, but if that is the only thing that matters, everything will become about the most eye-catching headlines in order to get those incoming links. And honestly, I believe we are many that share the judgement that some of the most read blogs are also the corniest. Bloggers who work too much on generating incoming links tend to be tediously predictable.

Secondly, I think it’s important not to go impersonal. Anyone can find the latest news online, but no one but you can give your take on what is happening. In the dawn of the blogosphere, this was what it was all about: people expressing views that would otherwise not be heard. That’s what I like about a blog: the distinct voice of smart person. Of course, group blogs are fine too, but only if they focus around a particular subject.

Mohamed Omar, editor of Swedish Islamic magazine Minaret, has written a must-read article on the threat Wahhabism poses to Europe. Unfortunately, it’s in Swedish, and I don’t have the time to translate it in full. But in short, he argues that the lack of experienced Muslim theologians makes teenage boys an easy target for the extremist Islamists who feed their mind with violent Wahhabite ideas.

I welcome Mr Omar’s article. I have studied religious terrorism at Lund University, and I know what devastating effect Wahhabism has on the wider Muslim community. Sadly, the political circumstances are such that non-Muslims are afraid to address the problem of fear of being labelled Islamophobes. So, the fight against this disgusting teaching of fascist theology must be fought from within the Islamic community itself.

The Dutch make plans for the future:

Today, just as they have for centuries, the Dutch need more land to house an expanding population. They also need to confront a new threat to their lands, roughly two-thirds of which lie below sea level: the specter of rising ocean levels associated with global warming.

So a government commission recently proposed pushing out the Netherlands’ shoreline to meet the challenge of an increase in the ocean’s levels; another commission proposed the construction of islands off the Dutch coast, like barrier reefs in the North Sea.

One such commission, inspired by Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which built several islands off its coast to form giant palm trees as part of a major urban development plan, suggested a bit whimsically that the Dutch islands be given the shape of plants, specifically tulips. One waggish blogger, alluding to the Netherlands’ traditional tolerance of marijuana, suggested cannabis leaves instead.

I think cannabis leaves would be way cooler than a boring old tulip.

Nightmareish.

A blog for my liking.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi, an Arabic-language newspaper in Britain, reports that Osama bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will “outdo by far” the attacks on 11 September 2001. I bet the Islamists and their communist friends are thrilled at the prospect of more bloodshed.

Barack Obama will move swiftly to do away with the federal restrictions on stem-cell research, the Guardian reports.

Excellent! Religious ideas about stem cells being human life have halted the development of new life-saving drugs for far too long already.

All American presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama. By illustrator Patrick Moberg.

Blogging will be slow today as I’m spending the day watching HBO’s John Adams, a miniseries based on David McCullough’s book about the life of John Adams and the first fifty years of the United States. I’m halfway through, but there are still six hours to go before I’m finished. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you do. It’s superb.

Read more about it at HBO’s John Adams website.

According to the CNN exit polls, 4% of the American electorate self-identified as gay or lesbian. That means about 4.8 million gays and lesbians votes. McCain got 1,310,893 votes from the gay community.

Swedish pastor Åke Green partook in the campaign against Proposition 8 in California. He has become something of an international hero to the homophobic movement after he was prosecuted for hate speech. Although the legal case against him had nothing whatsoever to do with same-sex marriage, Christian organizations in California used it to insinuate that marriage equality would result in religious speech being criminalized. The fact that Åke Green was acquitted even under the strict Swedish hate-crime legislation never seemed to decrease his propaganda value. On the contrary, the distortion of his case seems to have worked wonders.

Sherri Shepherd of ABC’s The View is proof of the devastating Åke Green effect.

More goodies for sad American gays to rejoice in.

Jared Polis from Colorado will be the first openly gay congressman who was out when elected for the first time.

It is important for the gay community to focus on the good things and not get too depressed and angry after the setback in California and Florida.

According to Google Statistics, these were the top ten US news sources on Election Day:

1. Drudge Report
2. Huffington Post
3. Gallup
4. Real Clear Politics
5. Rasmussen Reports
6. Rush Limbaugh
7. Politico.com
8. FiveThirtyEight.com
9. CNN Politics
10. Daily Kos

The Drudge Report phenomenon is fascinating. Matthew Drudge really dominates the American blogosphere (if you can call his website a blog). Interesting, too, is that—with the exception of CNN—mainstream media is not present on the list. Where are the New York Times and the Los Angles Times? Instead of these traditional news sources, people turn to Arianna Huffington, Rush Limbaugh, and Markos Moulitsas for the latest political development.

Added at 5:19: Speaking of Google Statistics, I had a record amount of visitors on 5 November (my statistics follow Central European Time, so election night in the US was post-midnight in Europe). The pictures from the Democratic Party’s celebration in Copenhagen were particularly popular, with more than 13,000 views. Overall, the readership has gone up in the past few months after a temporary drop about six months ago. The majority of my readers are Americans. The other top-ten nationalities are Swedish, British, German, Dutch, Canadian, French, Israeli, Danish, and Turkish. My blog is tiny compared to the big ones, but with 500+ feed subscribers and about twice as many unique visitors a day, I’m satisfied. Reader comments are few, but I think that has to do with comments being moderated. I know people don’t like that; it slows things down too much. But considering the absurdity of some comments I refuse to publish, I don’t want to risk being sued for hate speech.

I have noticed an increasing number of non-spam press releases in my email, which suggests my blog is considered interesting for these people and organizations. This is particularly the case for gay-related organizations. I have developed a regular email conversation with gay people in all corners of the world. And on a few occasions, I have been the first in Europe to report on developments in South America and Africa. Gay newspapers have picked up on this, and I know Europe’s main gay publications are reading my blog, which—I must admit—boost my self-esteem.

Thank you all for reading my blog!

About this, from here.

Andrew Sullivan reflects on the Californian plebiscites:

I’m happy to say that Proposition 2 passed, providing minimal humane protections for pigs, chickens and other farm animals. How odd for people to restrict cruelty for animals and simultaneously inflict it on some humans.

Well, to care more for animals than humans is not that uncommon. Hitler loved his pets, so did Stalin—and Pol Pot is said to have ordered the beheading of a man who forgot to walk his dog. I’m not comparing Californian voters to these mad dictators, I’m simply making the point that people often care more for animals than fellow humans.

The gay-rights movement faced a setback in California on Tuesday when a slim majority approved an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage, but things are looking increasingly good in New York:

When New York State voters are given three choices on the gay marriage union:

• 42 percent say same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry;
• 31 percent say these couples should be allowed to form civil unions, but not marry;
• 21 percent say there should be no legal recognition of same-sex unions.

There is a significant gender split, with 48 percent of women and 34 percent of men supporting same-sex marriage. A total of 63 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independent voters support either same-sex marriage or civil unions.

New research suggests cannabis might prove therapeutic for traumatic brain injury, inflammatory bowel disease, allergic contact dermatitis, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, among others. From Slate:

This isn’t the first time marijuana has tantalized the world as a possible wonder drug. In recent years, compounds in cannabis or related molecules have been shown to slow the growth of lung tumors in mice, decrease hardening of the arteries in rats, and boost the egg-binding capability of tobacco smokers’ sperm. Research on the receptors that THC and other cannabis compounds attach to—and the nitty-gritty mechanisms by which they exert their effects—has been booming. So has work on native molecules, called endocannabinoids, that bind to the same sites. These molecular interactions affect a wide range of functions, from appetite to inflammation to the perception of pain.

Has anyone informed the legislators?

Martin Durkin on the popularity of human-made global warming:

In Europe, the toffs (Prince Charles and his gang) are green because they have lost their position in society. The intellectuals—teachers, lecturers, scientists are green because they don’t have the status they used to. (Not long ago, a professor would have been someone important, had a big house, maids etc). These days, plumbers make more money.

It’s not easy to explain this properly in a few lines, but this I think is the real basis for all those anti-modern green prejudices.

They hated all the factories and cars long before global warming came along. The importance of global warming is it linked what otherwise would a have been a disparate bunch of prejudices and gave them some moral impetus.

Spot on. Study the people who are in favour of the “blame capitalism”-theory of global warming and you find the same old reactionaries who always opposed individual liberty and the free market. It’s a coalition of conservative aristocracy and leftist intellectuals.

I’m not saying global warming is not real. My position is that we shouldn’t bother about it too much. Humans can adjust to a new environment more rapidly than to permanent poverty in a “green” society resembling medieval Europe. Besides, fossil fuel must go regardless of global warming. To send money to dictatorships in the Middle East and South America is simply not sustainable. But we need oil to keep the economy going and create financial strength enough to develop the new alternatives. To prevent people from travelling and consuming by adding new taxes and restrictions will only prolong our dependence on fossil fuel.

On election night, it seemed almost certain Al Franken would win the Minnesota senatorial race. Well, things didn’t really turn out the way Mr Franken wanted. After the first count, he is 477 votes behind Norm Coleman, his Republican opponent. On top of this slap in the face, he now has to wait until December for the result of the mandatory recount.

I paid a visit to the Barack Obama website to see if the president-elect had posted a message to his supporters. He had, but what caught my attention was the new banner. It’s awfully messianic, don’t you think? Like some poster advertising a brave-heroes-save-all film. Tacky.

The Boston Globe reports:

Voters yesterday overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100. The change in the law means someone found carrying dozens of joints will no longer be reported to the state's criminal history board.

With about 90 percent of the state's precincts reporting last night, voters favored the Question 2 proposition 65 percent to 35 percent.

The Swedish prime minister announced yesterday that although the government is divided of the issue, same-sex couples should be able to marry in Sweden before the summer.

Read more in Swedish here.

“Voters approve Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriages. With more than 95% of the vote counted, the measure leads 52.1% to 47.9%,” the Los Angeles Post reports.

It’s a shame discrimination will now be part of the Californian constitution.

Added at 20:44: Andrew Sullivan comments:

Yes, it is heart-breaking: it is always hard to be in a tiny minority whose rights and dignity are removed by a majority. It’s a brutal rebuke to the state supreme court, and enshrinement in California’s constitution that gay couples are now second-class citizens and second class human beings. Massively funded by the Mormon church, a religious majority finally managed to put gay people in the back of the bus in the biggest state of the union. The refusal of Schwarzenegger to really oppose the measure and Obama’s luke-warm opposition didn’t help. And cruelly, a very hefty black turnout, as feared, was one of the factors that defeated us, according to the exit poll. Today this is one of the solaces to a hard right and a Republican party that sees gay people as the least real of Americans.

But I realize I am not shattered. My own marriage exists and is real without the approval of others. One day soon, it will be accepted by a majority. And this initiative in California can and will be reversed, as California’s initiatives are much more fluid than those in other states; and the younger generation is overwhelmingly—2 to 1—in our favor. The tide of history is behind us; but we will have to work harder to educate people about our lives and loves and humanity.

At this moment, Obama has 220 electoral votes. He needs 270 to win. Seen above is the electoral college map. In a few moments, California, Oregon, and Washington State will stop voting. The atmosphere is stiff here in Copenhagen.

Al Franken, one of the wittiest, yet most annoying, comedians/writers/politicians in America seems to be winning the senatorial race in Minnesota.

I had some problems with the Internet connection, but here are some pictures from the event I’m attending right now. Hopefully the Internet will work better from now on. So, I’m live from the Democratic Party’s election night celebration in Copenhagen, Denmark.

View the advertisement here.

Bill Clinton: “Please vote ‘no’ on 8. It’s unfair and it's wrong.”

I second that plea.

They just love being her.

Tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock, I will discuss the American election with Peter J. Olsson, newspaper Kvällsposten’s political editor, at an event organized by Swedish think-tank Timbro in Malmö. Here is the address:

Restaurang Elephanten
Dockplats 16
Malmö

In a few hours, I will travel to Copenhagen and join the Democratic Party’s Election Night Celebration. I’m not sure how much I will be able to blog during the night. There seems to be some uncertainties about the status of the wireless Internet connection. If I’m unable to post anything during the actual event, I will post an election-night-in-review special tomorrow.

To my American readers: vote, vote, vote! Give your favourite Swedish political pundit the drama he wants!

Gay couples are in hurry to get married before Wednesday, when the ban on same-sex marriage will take effect if a majority of Californians vote yes on Proposition 8 in today’s state referendum.

Imagine if this referendum had been about any other minority group.

Swedish socialists are obsessed with the income gap and want more of government redistribution to even it out. As a libertarian, I am opposed to any such policy because it infringes on individual rights and makes the citizen a means to an end. Of course, individual rights means nothing to socialists; to them, people are merely interest groups waiting to be pampered by an enlightened, omnipotent elite.

Most Swedes are not socialists, but many are strong advocates of egalitarianism. The socialists know this and appeal to people’s sense of fairness when they imply that a growing income gap means less money to the poor. But this is not true. The rich are getting richer, but it is because they are increasingly successful at what they are doing, not because they somehow take money from the poor.

I just found this graph from Statistics Sweden. It shows the development of disposable income in Sweden between 1995 and 2007. The yellow line marks those who do not work (full-time students, unemployed, people on sick leave, etcetera) and the red line marks those who work. As you can see, the gap between the two groups is widening, but everyone has increased their income during the measured period. The wealthy are getting wealthier, but so are the poor.

Andrew Sullivan is urging the American people to vote for Barack Obama tomorrow. Sullivan, who cannot vote himself because his HIV-status disqualifies him from American citizenship, makes his case for Obama in an essay published on his blog:

The world will soon remember why it resents America as well as loves it. But until this unlikely fellow with the funny ears and strange name and exotic biography emerged on the scene, I had begun to wonder if it was possible at all. I had almost given up hope, and he helped restore it. That is what is stirring out there; and although you are welcome to mock me for it, I remain unashamed. As someone once said, in the unlikely story of America, there is never anything false about hope. Obama, moreover, seems to bring out the best in people, and the calmest, and the sanest. He seems to me to have a blend of Midwestern good sense, an intuitive understanding of the developing world that is as much our future now as theirs’, an analyst’s mind and a poet’s tongue. He is human. He is flawed. He will make mistakes. His passivity and ambiguity are sometimes weaknesses as well as strengths.

But there is something about his rise that is also supremely American, a reminder of why so many of us love this country so passionately and are filled with such grief at what has been done to it and in its name. I endorse Barack Obama because I will not give up on America, because I believe in America, and in her constitution and decency and character and strength.

When on the subject, here is The Economist’s endorsement of Obama.

Two Swedish women, Sandra and Sarah, had their Hindu wedding ceremony near the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra, India. The Local reports:

The priest, Dharm Das, initially refused to “marry” the pair but relented after they gave an offering to the temple and said they would be his life-long disciples, reports said.

“Although the Hindu system of marriage doesn’t allow such relationships or marriages, I am impressed with the love that the two women have for the monument of love,” Das told the Mail Today.

“They had also argued that their Swedish society allows such kind of marriages.”

Current Swedish law allows for same-sex couples to register civil partnerships, but stops short of allowing homosexual marriages outright. The government is currently considering a new legislative proposal which would give same-sex marriages equal footing with those between heterosexual couples.

Conservative Swedish blogger Dick Erixon wrote something about a McCain lead. Well, I don’t think so:

With less than two days to go before polls open, the contenders’ support is estimated to be:

• Obama, 53%.
• McCain, 42%.

I have to stay up all night to finish an article before deadline. I don’t mind; I like being up at night. But after a few hours in front of the computer screen, I needed a break and decided to take a midnight walk and enjoy an ongoing outdoor exhibition best seen by night.

From the City of Malmö’s website:

The By Light 2008 project in Malmö has involved the whole spectrum of skills—light designers, suppliers, students, artists and others to contribute with new ideas to the illumination of a park. One of Malmö’s central classic parks, Slottsparken (the Castle Park), has been the arena along with the adjoining castle gardens Slottsträdgården (the Castle Gardens). These green rooms are used to test new technology, new design ideas, installations and concepts or to learn and discuss in seminars and courses.

The by light project contains of four parts: the light of the park, the light of art, tentative light and the light of way.

Another victim of religious fascism:

An Islamist rebel administration in Somalia had a 13-year-old girl stoned to death for adultery after the child's father reported that three men had raped her.

This is quite funny. A Canadian comedian convinced Sarah Palin she was talking to French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

From today’s leader in the Los Angeles Times:

The campaign promoting Proposition 8, which proposes to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, has masterfully misdirected its audience, California voters. Look at the first-graders in San Francisco, attending their lesbian teacher’s wedding! Look at Catholic Charities, halting its adoption services in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal! Look at the church that lost its tax exemption over gay marriage! Look at anything except what Proposition 8 is actually about: a group of people who are trying to impose on the state their belief that homosexuality is immoral and that gays and lesbians are not entitled to be treated equally under the law.

That truth would never sell in tolerant, live-and-let-live California, and so it has been hidden behind a series of misleading half-truths. Once the sleight of hand is revealed, though, the campaign’s illusions fall away.

Take the story of Catholic Charities. The service arm of the Roman Catholic Church closed its adoption program in Massachusetts not because of the state’s gay marriage law but because of a gay anti-discrimination law passed many years earlier. In fact, the charity had voluntarily placed older foster children in gay and lesbian households—among those most willing to take hard-to-place children—until the church hierarchy was alerted and demanded that adoptions conform to the church’s religious teaching, which was in conflict with state law. The Proposition 8 campaign, funded in large part by Mormons who were urged to do so by their church, does not mention that the Mormon church’s adoption arm in Massachusetts is still operating, even though it does not place children in gay and lesbian households.

Do you think the liberal newspaper exaggerates? Look at this propaganda video. My Swedish readers will notice how badly translated the interview with Åke Green is, and how abused his court case is.

Read the leader in full here.

Californians don’t seem too eager to ban same-sex marriage, but it’s still too close to call.

Poll details here.

Jeff Flint, an anti-gay campaigner in California, says there is nothing misleading about quoting Obama this way.

Yeah, right.

(Via Michael Petrelis.)

This infantile appeal to ignorance is so pathetic:

“John McCain! Not Hussein!”

So goes the latest popular chant on the campaign trail with Gov. Sarah Palin, demonstrated at a morning rally in central Florida.

I had expected to follow the American election via the television set in my living room, but instead my husband and I will join the Democrats Abroad (the overseas branch of the US Democratic party) at their election night celebration in Copenhagen.

I’m neither American nor Democrat, but I think this will be fun nonetheless.

Straight after the election-night party, I will attend a breakfast discussion on the US election. That event is in Malmö, and it is arranged by the think-tank Timbro. I think there are still tickets available for the event if any of you locals are interested to join us.

If Sweden were a state in America, Barack Obama would win it big. According to a new opinion poll by Gallup, 64% of Swedes would vote for Obama while only a mere 6% would vote for John McCain. Overall, Obama is ahead in most—if not all—EU countries.