I must admit that the criticism of Islam seem a bit harsh, but the writers of the “What Would Muhammad Do?” website are on to something important nonetheless. However, we must remember that both Islam and Christianity are missionary religions that share much of the same theological justifications for violent methods. Unlike some of Islam’s critics, I believe that Islam can adapt to peaceful and democratic methods just as Christianity did during the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. We must not forget that Europe only a few hundred years ago held many of the values now associated with Muslim countries. Our development from savagery to modernity began with the Enlightenment and its intellectual challenges to religious superstition. Many of the qualities most of us associate with contemporary Christianity did not play any significant role to Christian people prior to the Enlightenment. When mocking Muslims that call Islam the religion of peace, we should be fair and acknowledge that tyrannical Christians once did the exact same thing.

Now, with this said, I still want to stress that the historic facts mentioned here offer no excuse to Islamists who wish to pervert Islam by reducing it to savagery. There is no rule stating that every religious movement must go through the same mistakes before it matures enough to accept liberty and universal human rights.

(Picture and link found via Erik Svansbo.)

According to Mingle², this blog is not for people under the age of eighteen. If you want a well-mannered Swedish libertarian, I can recommend Johan Norberg. His blog is considered safe for all ages. Now you know.

An article in The Economist suggests that gay life in America is becoming more suburban, contented, and dull:

Gary Gates, a Californian academic, has been mining census data to determine where gays live in America. He observes several trends. First, the number of openly gay households is growing five times faster than the population as a whole. The last full census, in 2000, counted nearly 600,000 same-sex couples. Five years later, the American Community Survey (in which the Census Bureau quizzes a statistically representative sample of 1.4m households) estimated that that number had increased by 30%, to 777,000. Mr Gates reckons the bulk of the increase is because as tolerance spreads, more gay couples are willing to be counted.

The increase was most pronounced in the Midwest, with Wisconsin showing an 81% jump in the number of same-sex couples and Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and Indiana also among the ten fastest-growing states in this respect. What this means, perhaps, is that gay America is becoming more like Middle America. ”Much of the stereotype around gays is a stereotype of urban white gay men,” says Mr Gates. ”The gay community is becoming less like that, and more like the population in general.” Gay couples are still more likely than straight ones to live in cities, but the gap is smaller than popularly believed, and closing. In 1990, 92% of gay couples but only 77% of American households were in what the Census Bureau calls ”urban clusters”. By 2000, the gay figure had fallen to 84% while the proportion for households in general had risen to 80%, a striking convergence.

This must be troubling news for the Christian Right. How can they continue the scare of a ”homosexual agenda” when all it means is that same-sex couples do the exact same things as their straight friends?

Mohammad Asha—a 26-year-old medical doctor qualified in Jordan and working in the North Staffordshire hospital in Stoke-on-Trent—is one those arrested in connection with the series of failed terrorist attacks in England and Scotland the past couple of days. Several newspapers report on the arrests:

• Daily Mail
• The Times
• Daily Telegraph
• The Economist
• New York Times
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Washington Post

Meanwhile the New Zealand Herald reports that seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis were killed by a suspected al-Qaeda suicide car bomb attack in the province of Marib in Yemen yesterday. In my opinion, this kills the argument that global terrorism would go away by itself if Britain, the United States, and other democratic nations stopped trying to put an end to totalitarian regimes in the Middle East. Spain did just that after the socialists won the latest general election. It did them no good. The Islamist terrorists are still after Spanish blood.

Embedded blogger Michael Yon reports from the killing fields in Iraq:

As we passed through the village, Captain Combs pointed out the nice houses, saying the people had been simple farmers with comfortable homes and lives. Until al Qaeda came.

Horrific as the report is, it’s still nice to read someone who doesn’t act apologetic for al-Qaeda by blaming the United States.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, both ruthless totalitarian rulers known for their bigoted ideas and brutal methods, met yesterday:

The two presidents—whose countries are members of the OPEC oil producing cartel—earlier attended the ceremony to start building a methanol facility with an annual capacity of 1.65 million tons on the Islamic Republic’s Gulf coast.

”Iran and Venezuela—the axis of unity,” read one of many official posters at the site near the port town of Assalouyeh, showing the two leaders hugging each other and shaking hands.

Ahmadinejad—who came to power two years ago pledging to revive the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution—hailed the event as a step towards boosting ”brotherly” ties of the two ”revolutionary” nations. Iran is embroiled in a worsening nuclear standoff with Western powers.

Chavez, who last week pushed two U.S. oil giants out of his country as part of his self-styled socialist revolution, said: ”This is the unity of the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean Sea.”

The despots are advancing. I suppose the Socialist Left will celebrate with champagne and strawberries.

This is a picture of a gay family participating in the festivities at Europride in Madrid on Sunday. The T-shirts read: son, father, father, son. Photo by Kim Rytoft for QX.se.

When I read Christopher Hitchens’s review of Ian McEwan’s novel On Chesil Beach last night, I came across a moving article about my favourite novelist published by The Times in March. McEwan’s life appears to be almost as intriguing as his fiction.

This news alert just came from BBC News in London:

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston has been freed from kidnappers in Gaza after almost four months in captivity.

Television pictures showed Mr Johnston, 45, leaving a building and entering a white car, accompanied by armed men. He said he was tired but in good health.

During his time as a hostage, three videos were released featuring images of Mr Johnston or of his belongings.

Calls were made for his release in rallies worldwide and in an online petition signed by some 200,000 people.

Mr Johnston was handed over to officials of the Hamas administration, reports say.

Finally, some good news for the British after days of grimness following the terrorist attacks on London and Glasgow. I hope the other hostages kept by militant Islamists in the Gaza Strip will be freed presently.

Update at 4:11 GMT:

Media around the world cover the story. Here are what some of the major newspapers’ first reports:

• New York Times quotes Johnson after the release:
  

  ”Sixteen weeks kidnapped.” It was ”sometimes terrifying,” he said, describing how ”countless times I dreamed of being free and then woke up in the same place.”

• The Times writes:
  

  Amid mounting concern over the safety of Johnston, shooting broke out yesterday at a checkpoint manned by Hamas when two men from the clan behind the kidnapping ran through the cordon to break into the besieged area. ”You should be warned that in the next couple of days, we want to finish it,” Abu Subhi, a member of Executive Force, the Hamas police, said. ”We have decided to cut the electricity and water and there are roadblocks all around. Anyone who comes out, we arrest them.”

• Daily Telegraph quotes Johnson’s first phone call to the BBC:
  

  ”I am hugely grateful to all the people, an amazing number of people, that worked on the Palestinian side, the British government, the BBC from top to bottom, and the huge amount of support from BBC listeners.”

• Jersusalem Post writes:
  

  Asked if he would return to Gaza, which he had covered for three years, Johnston replied, ”After many months of kidnapping, I think I need a break.”

I say he deserves a break—a nice long holiday as far away from the Gaza Strip as possible.

The opening of the Declaration of Independence reads:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

On this day in 1776, Britain lost its greatest colony to independence because the mad King George III refused to treat his American subjects with courtesy. The rebellion against the tyranny of the monarch resulted in one of the finest literary examples of Enlightenment philosophy and liberal politics:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain Inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

The King of England lost something valuable that day, but many people of the world gained something even more precious—no longer could the utopian vision of a nation built on liberty and equality be dismissed as an unrealistic dream. Change is possible; history is not predetermined.

Matthew Yglesias and the people commenting on his blog were in a humorous mood yesterday.

Syrran, a Swedish socialist blogger, finds it difficult to socialise with people who hold political beliefs that differ from her own. I recognise this from the time I spent with various leftist organisations in my youth. I remember reading about Karl Marx’s struggle with the imperfection of people who did not see the class structures fabricated through his “philosophical materialism”, which resulted in his followers’ eagerness for educating the masses by force. Allowing people to decide for themselves how they wished to lead their lives were seen as bourgeois. Freedom was only possible when people no longer sought for anything that diverged from the party line.

To me it’s obvious that Marxists share many of the characteristics of regenerated Christians and others with strong religious beliefs. I was once like that myself, so I know the feeling. It’s not easy being open to other people if you cannot lay off preaching.

Magnus Norell, an expert on global terrorism at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, has written an excellent article published in today’s Dagens Nyheter. He concludes that Islamist terrorism is not a result of American, Israeli, and European foreign and security policies, but rather a sign of an intra-Islamic conflict. Competing terrorist groups pick their targets by the effect it will have on their potential followers.

Sweden’s current legislation on artificial insemination enables married women to get hospital treatment on the taxpayers’ expense. In an article published in Dagens Nyheter, utilitarian philosopher Torbjörn Tännsjö argues in favour of the law being changed to allow unmarried women the same treatment if they wish to become single parents. Dr Tännsjö says that the social norm of two parents living together cannot be justified unless it is provable that the lives of the children born to single parents are disagreeable to the extent that it could be argued better if they had not been born.

I think Dr Tännsjö is on to something important. I do not like the system of state-financed insemination for all, but I do think it is important to let go of the idea that parenthood should be restricted to certain social circumstances. The only limitation nature puts on parenthood is the initial need for male and female gametes to meet. The rest is culture—values, norms, and tradition.

The concept of family has been hijacked by people who advocate traditional heterosexual marriages. This restriction is not based on nature. A quality of humankind is the ability to look past genetics and biology. The best example of this is the widespread tradition of adoption. Throughout human history, children and adults with no biological connection have formed successful families. The popularised expression that blood is thicker than water has been proved invalid repeatedly. Blood may be thicker than water, but love is thicker still. And love has nothing to do with methods of conception. A good parent is one who is able to love a child unconditionally. And I see no reason why a single woman (or man) would be incapable to do that.

This just in—cigarettes are dangerous. They might even kill us:

The European Commissions is expected to propose before the end of this year that all cigarettes sold across the EU should be self-extinguishing to help prevent smoke-related domestic fires that kill around 2,000 Europeans each year.

And if you think it’s only another example of madness created by overpaid Brussels bureaucrats with too much time on their well-manicured hands, think again:

New York State in the US was the first place to legislate on fire-safe cigarettes, while Canada and eight other US states have already followed suit. Australia is considering passing a similar law

Thank God we live in a nanny-state culture! What would we do without it? (We could buy better ashtrays or stop smoking altogether, but that stinks of effort. Nah, let the legislators have their fun.)

Från Kvällsposten:

– Vi ger aldrig tillstånd till något party där det misstänks förekomma knark. Under min tid som polis har en ravefest aldrig beviljats, säger Tommy Hallgren vid Malmöpolisens tillståndsgrupp.

De har aldrig gett tillstånd till en ravefest, men ändå vet de att det skulle vara mycket narkotika på festerna om de tilläts. Svensk polis behöver inte bugga folk, de är telepatiska siare. Nåväl. Tur är att ingen tycks bry sig om de där polistillstånden. Det dansas vilt ute på åkrarna.

Islamist terrorists have more in common with the sectarian communists that terrorised Europe in the 1970s than with ordinary Muslims of today. In fact, the analyses done by communists and Islamists are nearly identical. Unfortunately, the Western response to terrorism appears to confirm the terrorists’ dualistic worldview, which is why it is important not to give in to totalitarian temptation. This, in short, is—I think—what Islamology professor Jan Hjärpe says in an interview broadcast on Swedish public-service radio yesterday.

The link between the extreme segments of the Socialist Left and the Islamist movement is apparent to anyone who studies contemporary terrorism. Both groups loathe Western capitalism and liberty. The radio programme was interesting, and I recommend it to anyone able to understand Swedish. You can listen to it here (mp3).

Update 2:58 GMT: The programme is not available online yet. I linked to last week’s programme by mistake. Sorry about that.

One thing I do when I’m not blogging is reading books. Here is what I’m reading this summer, for entertainment and studies. A book I consider one of the most important in the history of the philosophy of religion is William Paley’s Natural Theology. The title is somewhat misleading. It is a book about theology, but it is primarily a book about the teleological argument for the existence of God and what is now known as creationism. When philosophers and other academics discuss creation versus evolution today, they tend to trivialise the debate by making it an issue for or against the ideas held by the Christian Rights. That is an altogether different debate.

Simultaneously, I’m reading Charles Darwin’s classic The Origin of Species. When Darwin wrote this book, he was both inspired and unsatisfied by Paley’s argument from design. Unlike many of those debating creationism today, Darwin was humble to the idea.

I recently bought M. A. S. Abdel Haleem’s new Oxford translation of the Koran (Qur’an). I have read the Koran in both English and Swedish before, and after skimming through this book, I second the eulogistic reviews in the British academic press.

For pure pleasure, I read Giles Foden’s two African novels The Last King of Scotland and Zanzibar. Foden is one of Britain’s best writers. When he is not writing suspense novels, he works for the Guardian.

And finally, Feminist Theory: A Philosophical Anthology, edited by Robin O. Andreasen and Ann E. Cudd. Although feminism is interesting, I must admit that the reading of this book has more to do with an essay I must finish before August. It is, however, a very good collection of essays and articles by many of the most prominent feminist thinkers.

(Click on the cover picture if you want to read more about the book.)

A new Ynet-Gesher survey suggests that most Israelis would accept their son or daughter’s homosexuality:

In answer to the question, ”How would you respond if your son or daughter informed you that they have homosexual tendencies?” 43 percent stated that they would be very sorry but would accept their child and the child’s partner as they are, while 30 percent stated that ”if this is what is good for him, I have no problem with it,” making a total of 73 percent who said they would accept their child’s homosexual tendencies.

In contrast, 15 percent said they would be very angry with the child but would maintain the minimal contact necessary, and 12 percent stated that homosexual relations are in the category of ”be killed rather than transgress” and that therefore they would cut off contact with a gay child.

This is cool. The blog Daddy Types explains how to knit an iPhone. If I ran a large-scale retailer like IKEA or Wal-Mart, I would start mass production immediately. Nerds have kids too.

The Swedish police want to blacklist file-sharing website The Pirate Bay over child pornography:

”After complaints from the public we have been able to establish that there is child pornography on Pirate Bay,” wrote the head of the National Criminal Investigation Department’s IT crimes unit Stefan Kronkvist in a statement.

He said that The Pirate Bay would be placed on the National Police Board’s blacklist if the material was still in place next week, but no formal decision has yet been taken. The blacklist means that Sweden’s internet operators, of which there are 15 including Telia, Tele 2 and Bredbandsbolaget, could block access to the site.

Instead of arriving at the site, visitors would be redirected to a page where they would be informed that the site was used for distributing child pornography.

What is worrying is that the police did not bother to contact the website owners, which suggest that the whole operation is a revenge on Pirate Bay for a much-publicised police raid last year that caused much embarrassment to then Justice Minister Thomas Bodström (picture). Mr Bodström is now heading ECPAT, an organisation working to eliminate child pornography.

Med slogans som ”Ge fan i min anus” och ”Pedofili? Nej!” planerar svenska nationalsocialister och högerkristna att hetsa mot deltagarna i Stockholm Pride som börjar om tre veckor. Tor Billgren rapporterar om förberedelserna.

I have decided to take a few days off. I have a million things to do, and family and friends to attend to. I will be back soon. A final thought before I turn off the computer:

Yesterday I read a newspaper article about Zimbabwe under president Robert Mugabe. The paper listed some facts about the country. After decades of socialist ”reforms”, Zimbabwe now has the highest inflation rate in the world (4,500%), and nowhere are there as many unemployed people (80%). Astonishing figures, don’t you think? It makes me think. I have really tried hard do find one, but it seems to me that socialism cannot produce a single successful example. Ironically, despite evidence of the contrary, the Socialist Left in Sweden and Europe still think height-inflation politics would combat unemployment.

Some people simply refuse to learn. Irritating as this stubborn stupidity is, in a liberal society we have to live with that.

On 7 March, I began to use Feedburner, an external feed provider, because I was thinking about moving my blog to a new server. Now the move is about to happen. To most of my regular readers—and everybody using online feed readers like Bloglines, My Yahoo, Netvibes, Google Reader, etcetera—nothing will change. The RSS feed and web address will be the same. But those of you who still use the pre-March feed must make a change in your RSS reader now. I know there are still about 30 of you. Please, make sure you use the following RSS address:

aqurette.com/feed

Update: This entry was updated in September 2012 when the new RSS feed at “aqurette.com/feed” was introduced.

Yesterday, I wrote about my plans for a short holiday, but I changed my mind. The rainy weather doesn’t allow for any real holiday anyway, and I prefer Internet to television. So, I decided to bring the blog move forward by a couple of weeks instead. I had scheduled the move for the end of July, but now it’s done, and here it is. Welcome to my redesigned journal!

Some practical information:

1. The old blog archive can be found here.
2. Unfortunately, all old permalinks became invalid when I redirected my domain name.
3. My contact information is unchanged. Use the same email as before.
4. The new journal permits reader comments. However, to avoid spam and abuse I must approve every comment before they are published. But hey, I’m a libertarian, which allows for pretty much anything you throw at me.
5. It is now possible to TrackBack. The address can be found under each entry.

Although I have tried to do a workable design, I expect some problems in the first few days. If you notice something that seem wrong, please send me an email so I can fix it.

Many thanks for reading my journal.

Links updated on 21 August 2008.

Ella Bohlin, leader of the Young Christian Democrats, has outraged party members after kissing another woman in public. According to a prominent political blog, people in Bohlin’s own party think she is giving in to the gay lobby.

The Christian Democrats often complain over accusations of homophobia. I wonder why…

It’s been the battle since the dawn of the computer era. Even though I worked for a big PC manufacturer for nearly four years, I’m a devoted Mac fan.

Political correctness sometimes makes it impossible to grasp reality:

Mr Brown’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that ministers had been given specific guidelines to avoid inflammatory language.

"There is clearly a need to strike a consensual tone in relation to all communities across the UK," the spokesman said. "It is important that the country remains united."

He confirmed that the phrase "war on terror"—strongly associated with Mr Blair and US President George Bush—has been dropped.

Officials insist that no direct links with Muslim extremists have been publicly confirmed by police investigating the latest attempted terror attacks. Mr Brown himself did not refer to Muslims or Islam once in a BBC TV interview on Sunday.

I recognise this attempt to hide the true ideological causes of terrorism. In debates and at university seminars, I often come across people desperate to conceal the obvious link between communism and fascism. They use the very same method of adapted terminology.

(The cartoon comes from Cox & Forkum.)

Erik Svansbo:

För mig är skillnaden mellan socialism och liberalism framför allt att man tror på empiri, att saker och ting ska kunna styrkas. För socialister är det viktigaste vad man tycker, sen om det fungerar eller inte verkar vara sekundärt.

From single-cell organism to beer-drinking bum in less than a minute.

About a week ago, I watched Clint Eastwood’s The Flags of Our Fathers on DVD. It is a film about the Battle of Iwo Jima and tells the story of how one of the most famous war photographs in history became an enduring symbol of American heroism. The picture, which portrays five marine soldiers who raise the American flag on the Japanese island, were used as propaganda tools by the United States government to lift the morale of the American people and raise money for the war effort.

The pictures of war are manipulative, and it is not always easy to know what is true and what propaganda. A debate about the use of resent pictures from the war in Iraq has sparked some debate in Sweden. Billy McCormac of think tank Timbro has voiced some criticism of Sweden’s public television network SVT News’s broadcasting of a sceptical segment on the US military’s chance discovery of a nightmarish, Iraqi orphanage charged with the care of disabled children. From McCormac’s article:

In a routine sweep, American soldiers had found and rescued 24 emaciated boys dying a slow and agonizing death in appalling squalor and unimaginable filth, some cruelly chained to iron beds. The soldiers recorded the grisly scene with a digital camera.

CBS Evening News reporter Lara Logan—a seasoned war correspondent with Kevlar-vest experience from conflicts in Kosovo and Afghanistan—broke the shocking story, which of course spread furiously across the airwaves and Internet.

And though Sweden’s nine o’clock news anchor expressed appropriate disgust and dismay at the images of defenseless children sadistically starved to brink of existence, it took only seconds for reporter Stina Blomgren to call into question the journalistic integrity of the photos. After all, U.S. servicemen had taken them. Blomgren then noted, ominously, that no one knows how CBS got their hands on the images.

Blomgren asked an American journalism professor living in Sweden, Karin Becker, to comment on the journalistic aspects of the story. Becker began by declaring that the pictures were not taken by professional journalists, but rather by men in uniform.

Soldiers, said Becker, view the mainstream media as anti-military and therefore use alternative channels to bring their story to audiences at home.

Blomgren was quick to add that U.S. command is more than happy to portray its soldiers saving innocent children, not least given the Iraq invasion’s tremendous unpopularity, the high military death toll in recent weeks, and the ongoing troop “surge” meant to restore order and get things back on track.

The story depicts American soldiers as heroes and humanitarians, the journalism professor explained. Thus she implored the media to handle these pictures—aired by American media outlets and originating with American soldiers—with extreme care. In other words, the orphanage story may be a staged and/or well-timed public relations stunt.

Though I believe a healthy journalistic skepticism to stories emanating from armed conflicts is warranted and crucial, it would appear that this rigorous treatment extends almost exclusively to positive news.

If memory serves me well, Swedish television did not consult journalism professors when the media began airing the stomach-churning images of prisoner abuse at the hands of Americans stationed at Abu Ghraib—photos taken by soldiers. And I’m fairly confident that Swedish reporters did not wring their hands over the journalistic integrity of these images or over how they had found their way into the hands of American media outlets.

I think he is right. Swedish media is bias against the Iraq war and the United States. I saw the segment discussed, and I second McCormac’s impression of it. However, Stina Blomgren of SVT News has a point in her reply:

The images were extremely disturbing and powerful; they showed American soldiers entering an orphanage in Iraq, where they found a group of children who were starving and clearly suffering pain.

We at Aktuellt decided late in the afternoon to broadcast the images on the 9pm news.

As the footage was captured by American troops at war, rather than a journalist, it was treated with extra care. This is imperative when dealing with sources that are not independent.

We also decided to include in our news broadcast a discussion of the fact that images may be used for propaganda purposes by parties to war. There is certainly no lack of historical precedents.

For this reason we asked Karin Becker, a professor of journalism at Stockholm University, to evaluate the footage from Iraq and the role it might play in the ongoing conflict. Karin Becker reinforced the assessment that the media should treat with caution any materials received from parties to war.

She is right; images like these tend to be propagandised. If I were in charge of the US Army’s public relations department (I assume they have one), I would milk everything of this story.

He is wicked, fat, nasty, load, and obnoxious. He is adorable.

Our freedom of expression is threatened by the Swedish police and powerful politicians. They use the moral outrage caused by child pornography to limit access to websites that have absolutely nothing to do with child molestation. We must all help to stop this before it is too late.

If you are able to read Swedish, then I suggest you read this important article by Oscar Swartz.

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe’s latest attempt at command-economy socialism has brought the once prosperous nation to the brink of collapse. The situation is sustainable. Unless short-sighted do-gooders aid the Mugabe regime by sending food to Zimbabwe, I predict a revolution or coup d’état in the next few months. The Times’s Jan Raath reports from Harare:

Zimbabwe’s descent into chaos gathered pace yesterday as many shops ran out of food and thousands of workers were left stranded when bus drivers were arrested for allegedly overcharging.

State-imposed price controls that force retailers to sell goods for a fraction of their value have left supermarket shelves bereft of groceries.

The crisis deepened when the Government closed all private abbatoirs in an attempt to take control of the supply of meat. By yesterday meat products had vanished from sale around the country after the Government cancelled the licences of the private slaughterhouses because they had stopped delivering meat they had been ordered to sell at half price.

Last night workers jostled at bus stops to squeeze into open trucks to return home after police arrested more than 100 drivers who refused to cut fares. The drivers claim that they cannot afford to buy petrol, which is mainly acquired on the black market because state-regulated petrol stations have run out of supplies.

I second this prediction:

Thomson Marwire, who sells cell-phone cards on the street, said that he had not joined the rush. "I have no money," he said. "This is not going to last," said one company executive. "Fuel is going to run out and there will be no deliveries, no services. The people who are benefiting from this legalised looting will be the same people throwing stones in a few weeks."

I wish Victoria, Sweden’s future monarch and head of state, the best on her 30th birthday.

(Photo by Andres Wiklund.)

This entry is all about claiming my blog at Technorati.

I just had to see if I could post a blog entry from my mobile phone. Inspired by Andrew Sullivan’s series of window-view pictures, I snapped this photo from my balcony.

RFSL is the only gay-rights organisation in Sweden with any real influence on politicians and government authorities. Much of what they do is brilliant, and I am personally involved in some of their safe-sex work. However, RFSL as a political organisation is hopelessly lost to the extreme left. If you are not a hardcore socialist, you are treated as something of an animal. And if you dare to voice an opinion not adjusted to the latest social theory and politically correct terminology, well then you are given the silent treatment at best.

In my experience, few organisations host more bullies than RFSL. Self-righteous arrogance and egocentric, quasi-intellectual claptrap is significant for the present leadership. My tip to all young gays and lesbians is to stay away from RFSL. You don’t need them.

With great interest, I have noticed how RFSL lost nearly half its members in less than ten years. Only a handful of my friends are card-carrying member. What has happened is that RFSL’s close ties with the Social Democrats and the communist Left Party has paid of with increasing government funding over a number of years. The organisation that once fought for gays and lesbians now fight for Mona Sahlin and Lars Ohly on the taxpayers’ expence. The organisation no longer needs members, which suits the elitist leadership.

It’s no secret that RFSL leader Sören Andersson regularly dines with both of these party leaders. That’s OK, I suppose. The problem is that he is using his position to slander liberals and conservatives for no other purpose than to promote his socialist friends.

When I talk to my liberal and conservative friends in the Moderate Party, they often complain about the situation. They tell me about their frustrated feelings after meeting representatives from RFSL. It is not uncommon for RFSL leaders, local as well as national, to assume the worst of non-socialist politicians. Often they are so hostile that a mature conversation becomes impossible. I know non-homophobic politicians who avoid public discussions about gay-rights issues because they fear being bombarded with Nazi accusations.

Well, things are quite good for gay people in this country. We don’t really need RFSL any longer. Nearly all political parties are in favour of equal rights, and with the exeption of loony fascists and marginalised fragments of the Christian Right, no one openly advocates hostility towards us. In fact, most people are more tolerant than RFSL.

Today I read that RFSL is complaining about former footballer Glenn Hysén will give an inaugural speech at Stockholm Pride. The reason is that Mr Hysén in 2001 hit a gay man who groped him.

I think I speak for most people when I say that I fully understand why Hysén reacted the way he did. I’m not saying it’s OK to hit someone for that reason, but it does not make one a homophobe disqualified from addressing people at a Pride event.

I’m a proud member of the spectacular and dazzling Generation X that made irony a way of life. I hate the snobbish oh-so-serious-all-the-time generation that came after us. Can’t stand it. However, my way of thinking sometimes gets me into trouble. This happened last night when I found a list of the handsomest men at Almedalen Week. Is this for real, or is it irony? I must know. I can’t sleep until I know.

A best-video nominee?

From Breitbart.com:

A new al-Qaida videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom.

The bin Laden clip, which lasted less than a minute, was part of a 40-minute video featuring purported al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan paying tribute to fellow militants who have been killed in the country. It was posted by the group’s media production wing.

Bin Laden glorified those who die in the name of jihad, or holy war, saying even the Prophet Muhammad "had been wishing to be a martyr."

Andrew Sullivan writes about Bear Week in Provincetown and explains what bear culture is about:

In part a celebration of mature masculinity—untweaked, unshaven, full-bellied masculinity. Simultaneously, it’s an attempt to subvert a little of that masculinity. The atmosphere is almost aggressively gentle, good-humored, accepting, and friendly. These are not men trying to impress anyone, ro to throw their considerable weight around. Mostly over forty, these men are not traumatised by having a gut or some flab. They’re not afraid that back-hair tumbles over their collar. They’re not afraid to embrace their sexual orientation as fully as their gender. They are what happens, I think, when an entire generation of gay men reach maturity having always been out of the closet in large numbers, already over much of the psychological damage of past generations, and eager to move forward, together, and have some fun.

I like.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Teheran will remain steady in pursuing its disputed nuclear program, and hopes the UN Security Council won’t sanction it for this, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

"The nuclear activities of Iran continue in a defined and clear framework," spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said at his weekly news conference.

He dismissed earlier reports that Iran had slowed down the pace of its uranium enrichment program.

A fascist regime with nuclear weapons should be enough to make anyone sleepless. Unfortunately, no one outside Israel seems to take the matter seriously. Too bad, because I believe the world will change dramatically once Iran has the bomb. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, antidemocratic despots will be able to strike out the entire free world. The fascists will run the agenda, and we will not be able to do anything out of fear.

Yesterday, Lennart Frantzell, a Swedish blogger living in California, wrote about Andrew Higgins’s article In Europe, God Is (Not) Dead, which was published in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. Mr Higgins writes about Sweden and how independent evangelical churches flourish while state-controlled, "monopoly churches" struggle to fill even a few seats:

Consider the scene on a recent Sunday at Stockholm’s Hedvig Eleonara Church, a parish of the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran institution that until 2000 was an official organ of the Swedish state. Fewer than 40 people, nearly all elderly, gathered in pews beneath a magnificent 18th-century dome. Seven were church employees. The church seats over 1,000.

Hedvig Eleonara has three full-time salaried priests and gets over $2 million each year though a state levy. Annika Sandström, head of its governing board, says she doesn’t believe in God and took the post "on the one condition that no one expects me to go each Sunday." The church scrapped Sunday school last fall because only five children attended.

Just a few blocks away, Passion Church, an eight-month-old evangelical outfit, fizzed with fervor. Nearly 100 young Swedes rocked to a high-decibel band: "It’s like adrenaline running through my blood," they sang in English. "We’re talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

Why this sudden interest in Christianity? Well, Mr Frantzell and other socialist-minded people prefer to make up some imaginative conservative conspiracy, but I think one of Higgins’s interviewees is on to something more profound:

A big impetus to the return of faith is fear of the future, says Elisabeth Sandlund, editor of Sweden’s main Christian newspaper, Dagen. In Sweden and across Europe, old moorings are coming loose as cradle-to-grave welfare systems buckle. "People want something solid to hold on to," says Ms Sandlund.

I think this is correct. People need something to believe in. Christianity was once pushed aside by a socialist welfare ideology that provided what religion normally offers people. Not only did it promise to provide for everybody, it also gave answers to the many shortcomings and obstacles people struggle with in everyday life. Where Christianity says that Satan beguiles us to do evil things to others and ourselves; big-government socialism says that invisible social structures oppress people and make us do destructive things to others and ourselves. The structures replaced religion, and politics replaced worship.

What has happened in Europe the past decade is that the welfare states that promised heaven on earth have failed to deliver. As a result, religion seems attractive again. We need to believe in something, and when metaphysical social structures don’t stand the test, we might as well return to old-school Christianity.

Personally, I don’t see any difference between people who believe in universal patriarchy, class struggle, or creationism. It’s all about putting your faith in structures formed by humankind to elucidate the complexity of social chaos. My guess is that the growth of Christian groups in Sweden and Europe can be explained by the migration among groups with similar metaphysical theories.

The Swedish Tax Agency has developed a new web crawler that will monitor the online activities of Swedes throughout the world. I don’t have anything to hide, I pay my taxes, but this government surveillance truly scares me. We are not there yet, but this is one step closer to totalitarianism.

From the Cato Institute’s blog:

The socialist government of Norway is leading a new campaign against tax havens. Norwegian workers can be thankful, though, that the state pension fund is not consumed by the same big-government ideology. According to a Norwegian newspaper, the oil-enriched fund invests billions of dollars in tax haven companies, thus ensuring that more money actually winds up in the hands of retirees rather than politicians.

Actor Ricky Gervais has some problem with his masturbating, time-confused agent.

A new trend is that people buy their drugs by mail order. The Swedish Customs are worried because they don’t have enough dogs to sniff through all packages from abroad.

I wonder if it’s possible to get home delivery?

Good news from the Jerusalem Post:

With 18 months left in US President George W. Bush’s second term, the White House is now leaning in favor of military action on the burgeoning Iran nuclear crisis, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported Monday.

The report said that no decisive action was expected before next year, but quoted a Washington source as saying, "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."

More from the Guardian:

The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively. They are also reluctant for Israel to carry out any strikes because the US would get the blame in the region anyway.

"The red line is not in Iran. The red line is in Israel. If Israel is adamant it will attack, the US will have to take decisive action," Mr Cronin said. "The choices are: tell Israel no, let Israel do the job, or do the job yourself."

Make no mistake about this issue. What the United States now has the opportunity to stop is nothing less than a new cold war. Striking Iran’s nuclear facilities would be like striking Hitler’s war machine a few months before the invasion of Poland.

Sharia law would be the end of the family most closely linked to Islamism.

The Onion reports from the campaign trail:

In an effort to jump-start a presidential campaign that still has not broken into the top Democratic tier, former Sen. John Edwards made his most ambitious policy announcement yet at a campaign event in Iowa Monday: a promise to eliminate all unpleasant, disagreeable, or otherwise bad things from all aspects of American life by the end of his second year in office.

"Many bad things are not just bad—they’re terrible," said a beaming Edwards, whose "Only the Good Things" proposal builds upon previous efforts to end poverty, outlaw startlingly loud noises, and offer tax breaks to those who smile frequently. "Other candidates have plans that would reduce some of the bad things, but I want all of them gone completely."

I think Mr Edwards is on to something here—bad things are bad. Unless they are good, that is.

A poll suggests that only 37% of Tories support party leader David Cameron’s suggestion that any future married couples’ tax allowance would also benefit same-sex couples who had entered civil partnerships. The debate on the Conservative Home website is interesting to read and shows a party that has moved very far from the homophobic jargon of the 1980s.

"How to Survive a Bear Attack" from Kids in the Hall.

("Bear" is gay slang for a man who embrace natural body hair and rugged masculinity.)

Som trogna läsare av min blogg vet så skriver jag emellanåt mycket om Venezuela och hur landet blivit en diktatur under Hugo Chávez. Förutom mitt förakt för allt totalitärt så har jag särskilda band till landet genom vänner som rapporterar. I slutet av maj och början av juni blev det extra mycket skrivet om Venezuela då regimen beslutat sig för att släcka ner sändningarna från den enda TV-kanalen som inte kontrollerades av Chávez själv. Jag återkommer nu till ämnet, på svenska, eftersom Ali Esbati har skrivit om saken. Jag har skrivit en kommentar på hans blogg, men jag har inga förhoppningar om att den blir godkänd för publicering. Esbati tillämpar nämligen samma politik som Chávez. Jag lägger därför ut min kommentar också här:

Det finns ingen som förnekat att RCTV kunnat sända via satellit. Det skrev New York Times, venezolanska oppositionen och flera insatta svenska bloggare (exempelvis jag själv) redan då Chávez beslagtog RCTV:s frekvens för att kunna sända ytterligare en statlig propagandakanal.

Chávez mediapolitik har hela tiden gått ut på att marginalisera regimkritikerna. Genom att ta bort den sista oberoende TV-kanalen från det marksända nätet finns det nu inte någon möjlighet att nå ut med analyser, kultur och annat till de bredare folklagren. Bara en mycket liten samhällsgrupp har tillgång till RCTV via satellit och kabel. Regimkritisk media har ungefär samma möjligheter att nå ut i dagens Venezuela som TV3 hade någon gång i början av 1980-talet.

Jag är rädd att många verkligen tror på det som Ali Esbati och andra skriver. Ideologiska skygglappar gör det säkert lätt för många av hans beundrare att sålla bort allt som skrivs av liberaler och demokratiaktivister, men en faktakoll visar att svenska vänsterbloggare ljuger nästan varje gång de skriver om Venezuela under Hugo Chávez.

Read Sakine Madon’s leading article (in Swedish) about her recent confrontation with the puritanical, war-on-drugs sect Hassela in today’s Expressen.

An article published by The Economist suggests that levels of happiness are correlated with wealth.

From Towleroad:

This French tourism ad meant to attract Londoners to Paris sure got my attention. The French tourism site, C’est So Paris, notesd that the "ad uses offbeat wit and the Rugby World Cup to show the world that Paris is also the capital of humour. The Paris region will be hosting several World Cup matches, including the final at the Stade de France."

Hm, maybe it is time for a trip to Paris…

This news is not new, it was published in December last year, but I came across it just now and felt I had to post it in my journal. I am stun. I cannot believe anyone can be stupid enough to spend taxpayers’ money on parties in honour of a dictator who has killed thousands of people. From the Daily Mail:

Ken Livingstone is planning a "massive festival" across London to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution.

The event, to be staged in 2009, will involve street parties, sports venues and some of London’s leading museums as well as the closure of Trafalgar Square.

The king of mad homophobia is back:

In a letter to the Casper City Council on Monday, the Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church restated his intentions to build a monument in Casper, the home of slain gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

Phelps protested Shepard’s 1998 funeral and members of his family protested in Casper in 2003 after the council declined them permission to install a monument on city property. Phelps had asked permission on Oct. 2, 2003, while the city was debating what to do with its Ten Commandments monument.

On Monday morning, the city dedicated a historical monument plaza, which includes the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Phelps said he would be willing to make his monument resemble the six others and would include a picture of Shepard and the engraving: "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21, in Defiance of God’s Warning: ’Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’ Leviticus 18:22."

The most repulsive man of British politics will face an eighteen-days suspension from Parliament:

George Galloway should be suspended from the Commons for 18 days, a committee of MPs recommended yesterday, after the parliamentary standards commissioner said it was likely that the outspoken Respect MP knew a charity appeal by him was partly financed through Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi dictatorship.

Sir Philip Mawer, the commissioner, said he had "no evidence" that Mr Galloway directly and personally received money from the Saddam regime via diverted funds from the UN oil for food programme. But there was "clear evidence" that his Mariam Appeal "did benefit" from money from Iraq through its chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, who donated £448,000 of the £1.4m raised by the appeal.

I suggest they send this fascist-loving MP to the loony bin.

The only gay in the village cannot find his favourite magazine. From BBC’s "Little Britain".

Read Björn Johnson’s excellent article on drugs and HIV in today’s Expressen.

The euro is stronger than ever against the US dollar. It is good for the European morale, not so good for the European economy.

Apparently, the rumour was right:

In an interview with Hizballah’s Al-Manar TV earlier this month, Ahmad Jibril, founder and leader of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, revealed a shocking conversation he recently had with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his staff.

Said Jibril: “When [Abbas] came to Damascus with his team, I asked them: ’What happened to the investigation into the death of [Arafat]? Is it conceivable that when [former Lebanese prime minister] Rafiq Hariri was killed, all hell broke loose, but the death of Yasser Arafat, is not investigate?”

Jibril, like many Palestinians, readily accepted the notion that Israel had assassinated Arafat, and wanted the Palestinian Authority to conduct an official investigation concluding as much. The response from Abbas’ aides changed in an instant Jibril’s view of his deceased mentor.

“They were silent, and then one of them said to me: ‘To be honest, the French gave us the medical report, that stated that the cause of [Arafat’s] death was AIDS.’”

Ali Esbati:

Jag kan nog säga att “upptäckten” av Jan Myrdal i mitten på 1990-talet betytt mer för min egen världsbild, språkuppfattning och politiska utveckling än någon annan läsning.

Yummy!

Israel is a fascinating country in many respects. One thing that strikes me all the time is the strange mix of conservative values and progressive modernity. Marriage is a good example. On the one hand, Israel recognises foreign same-sex civil unions; on the other hand, traditional Jewish law is still enforced. But this order may be about to change:

Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar gave his approval Wednesday for civil marriages in cases where both bride and groom are gentiles according to Orthodox Jewish law. Amar’s decision paves the way for civil marriage legislation, albeit limited, in a state in which Orthodoxy has a monopoly over marital and divorce laws.

Jewish law accommodates a marital arrangement between two gentiles, calling it a Noahide Covenant [brit noah] after the biblical figure Noah. Before publicizing his position, Amar reportedly consulted with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who also backs Noahide Covenants. Yosef’s backing opens the way for Shas—the only religious party in the government coalition and, consequently, a potential obstacle—to support the legislation.

It remains to be seen whether Israel Beiteinu will settle for only a partial solution, applicable only if both bride and groom are gentiles, to a situation in which tens of thousands of FSU immigrants, many of whom are their constituents, cannot get married in Israel because they are not Jewish nor belong to any other religion.

Edina Monsoon finds her long-lost son in a New York bookshop. From BBC’s "Absolutely Fabulous".

I am soft for skyscrapers and modern urban architecture. Yesterday The Local published an article about one of the more spectacular buildings in Malmö, my hometown:

One of the tallest accommodation blocks in Europe, Turning Torso is the leading light of the newly created Western Harbour area of Malmö. It’s one of the most spectacular and luxurious apartment complexes in the world, with interiors priding the best of Scandinavian design, and a view that is, literally, breathtaking. It is the defining landmark of a new, vibrant region, the Öresund region of southern Sweden and greater Copenhagen, with a total of over 3.5 million inhabitants.

Turning Torso is built as a series of cubes spiralling around a central column that gives the appearance of a person’s twisted body. It took the Tower of Pisa hundreds of years to reach an effect that is nowhere near as spectacular as this is. It reaches 190 metres above sea level and consists of nine cubes with five storeys in each cube. There are 54 floors altogether, housing 152 apartments in the top seven cubes and with offices in the bottom two.

It was a huge blow to Malmö Airport when Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget-airliner, announced that it would cancel the routes to Dublin, London, Barcelona, Madrid, and Marseille by November. The airport has struggled since the Oresund Bridge opened in 2000. With less than twenty minutes by comfortable express train to Copenhagen Airport, people prefer this option to Malmö Airport, located about half an hour east of the city centre by car.

Sir Humphry explains the British approach to the European Union. From BBC’s "Yes, Minister".

From the Washington Post:

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said he will participate in a much-anticipated report due to Congress in mid-September but "to do a good assessment," he said, he would need 45 more days. Odierno cited "significant success" over the past four weeks in military operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq and in the training of the Iraqi security forces, and said there has been movement toward political reconciliation.

Asked why support at home continues to wane, Odierno said: "All I can do is tell you what is going on. I cannot make anyone listen."

Odierno, Crocker and the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, appeared in separate videoconferences yesterday to deliver identical messages on behalf of President Bush’s strategy: Progress is being made in Iraq, but the strategy needs more time than Congress and the American public appear willing to give.

A couple of weeks ago, paranoid socialist dictator Robert Mugabe ordered Zimbabwean shops to lower their prices by half, saying businesses were part of a Western-sponsored conspiracy against his government. As a result, panic spread and shops were emptied of basic commodities. The economy is now on the brink of total collapse. But, as if this was not bad enough, Mr Mugabe yesterday decided to outlaw petrol purchases with foreign currency. Cris Chinaka of the Cape Times reports:

Zimbabwe has scrapped a scheme allowing fuel purchases with foreign currency, removing one of the few remaining ways for people to acquire petrol in a country struggling with a crumbling economy. The facility is also used by foreign diplomats and officials working for international aid organisations.

[…]

In a statement broadcast by state media yesterday, a committee enforcing the controversial price cuts said the government had banned foreign currency coupons allowing people to get scarce petrol from private oil companies or individual importers.

"The Task Force is giving all coupon holders two weeks from today, within which to acquit their coupons. No new fuel coupon sales should be made forthwith," it said. No reasons were given for the move, and both government and private oil companies were not available for comment.

From the Guardian:

The former French president Jacques Chirac was yesterday questioned by a judge over a party financing scandal dating back to his time as Paris mayor, the first time in modern France a former president has been quizzed in a corruption investigation.

Two months after he stepped down and his presidential immunity ended, Mr Chirac finally faced investigators who have been waiting for 12 years to question him over allegations that money was siphoned off the Paris city hall budget to pay workers for his own political party. It is the most serious of a string of potential legal problems facing the 74-year-old ex-president.

Politicians lose control when the debates move online.

Snus is many Swedes’ drug of choice. It’s supposedly a macho thing to many men. To others it’s almost a patriotic stand since most of Europe is snus-free. The safety of snus consumption has been questioned repeatedly, and the National Institute of Public Health refuses to label snus safe. Today, Slate sums up a recent snus study published in the Lancet:

The researchers followed more than 125,000 Swedish construction workers, for 12 to 26 years, who were nonsmoking users of snus. They found no increase in oral or lung cancers, compared with nonsmokers who did not use any form of tobacco. But they did find an approximately double risk of developing pancreatic cancer, resulting in about 40 more cases of this disease in the 125,000 snus users. Other studies of snus users in Sweden show only tiny increases in heart disease and stroke, two conditions that are significantly higher in cigarette smokers. It would appear, then, that snus—though not risk-free—is safer than smoking.

Now you know. Snus on.

Advocate General Juliane Kokott, an advisor to the EU’s highest court, has said that Internet service providers are not obliged to hand over information about people suspected of illegally sharing copyrighted material online. From the EU Observer:

The case was brought by a Spanish music and audiovisual association—Promusicae—after telecoms and internet provider Telefonica refused to hand over names and addresses linked to computers, which the music association believed used peer-to-peer file sharing tool KaZaA to illegally distribute copyrighted songs.

Promusicae wanted the personal data so that it could start taking legal action against the file sharers, but Telefonica claimed that it could only turn over such information as part of a criminal prosecution or in matters of public security and national defence.

A Spanish court hearing the case referred the issue to the ECJ for guidance on how to interpret EU law on the subject and Ms Kokott’s legal opinion is the advice for the ECJ judges who will eventually rule on a recommendation for the Spanish court to take.

The final court decision is expected later this year. Once it comes out, it could form the basis for similar decisions throughout the 27-member EU bloc.

Breitbart.com reports that President Bush has "signed an executive order governing interrogation of terrorism suspects, prohibiting cruel and inhumane treatment, humiliation or denigration of prisoners’ religious
beliefs."

This is great new for those of us who support the global fight against terrorism and totalitarianism. The interrogation methods used by the United States have been one of the things that has made this stad difficult. To fight terrorists with terror is to give in to the enemy.

Andy gives Shane a masturbation lesson. From Showtime’s “Weeds”.

From an article in The Local:

Sweden’s Catholic church has apologised for sex attacks against a child that were committed by a priest 50 years ago. The apology emerged in the form of an advertisement in the newspapers Göteborgs-Posten and Dagen.

The attacks are said to have taken place over a period of a couple of years at the end of the 1950s. When the victim tried to draw attention to what was happening the church protected the priest and the case was hushed up.

To me it is completely evident that boys should not be circumcised. Now it seems that an increasing number of Jews agree with me. From Forward:

While the United States is one of the few industrialised countries in which a majority of newborn boys are circumcised, recent surveys show that the American circumcision rate, which was close to 90% in the 1960s, is now at only 57%. But even though the national rate has declined, circumcision remains the norm in all major Jewish denominations; most newborn Jewish boys have either a traditional brit milah or have the procedure performed at a hospital. Nevertheless, a small but vocal minority of Jewish activists have begun to question the importance, and even the morality, of circumcision. Some have even begun using alternative "bris-less" brisses to welcome their sons into the world.

Yes, let the boys keep their foreskin.

Five years after the Venezuelan coup d’état against Hugo Chávez, the victims got their day in court. If they had succeeded, Venezuela would have been something very different today. But they failed, and now Chávez has metamorphosed from democratic president into despotic dictator.

Tor Billgren has the list.

The Burj Dubai building in the United Arab Emirates is what I call a true skyscraper. Barbara Surk reports:

Developers of a 1,680-foot [512 metres] skyscraper still under construction in oil-rich Dubai claimed Saturday that it has become the world’s tallest building, surpassing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.

The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and its planned final height has been kept secret. The state-owned development company Emaar Properties, one of the main builders in rapidly developing Dubai, said only that the tower would stop somewhere above 2,275 [694 metres] feet.

When completed, the skyscraper will feature more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.

Truly impressive.

Larry and Jeff discuss women with big vaginas. From HBO’s "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

I will spend the coming week at my family’s country cottage. I need a few days in solitude to complete an essay on feminist theory. The place has neither phone nor Internet connection, which is part of its charm. It is a bit like travelling back in time. However, I might answer emails and do some blogging during my visits to the local library.

Sitter i sommarstugan och lyssnar på P1 Morgon. Blev så arg. Är tvungen att mobilblogga trots att det är dyrt. I ett inslag om sexköp fick två förbudsförespråkare komma till tals men ingen kritiker. Det går inte att vara mer partisk än P1 i detta reportage. Som om inte detta vore nog så kör man ett nyhetsinslag om brittisk cannabispolitik i vilket man kallar kritikerna för drogliberaler. Detta ord används bara av dem som vill smutskasta förbudskritiker. P1 går de moralkonservativas ärenden.

Med anledning av gårdagens upprördhet har jag anmält Sveriges Radios reportage om prostitution till granskningsnämnden för radio och TV. Så här motiverar jag min begäran om prövning av programmet P1-Morgon:

På morgonen den 25 juli 2007 sände Sveriges Radios P1 ett mycket vinklat reportage om prostitution i Bryssel. I inslaget intervjuar Camilla Wahlman två personer som båda tagit mycket tydlig ställning för förbud i den europeiska debatten om sexköp. Först intervjuas Colette de Troy från European Women’s Lobby, därefter den svenska EU-parlamentarikern Carl Schlyter. De båda får oemotsagda beskriva sina meningsmotståndare utan att dessa får komma till tals. Debatten trivialiseras sålunda, och radiolyssnare utan erfarenhet från belgisk och nederländsk samhällsdebatt får bilden av att en enig europeisk kvinnorörelse står mot en växande sex- och slavindustri. Detta är mycket missvisande. Faktum är att de som hårdast driver krav på legalisering i Europa är organiserade sexarbetare. I Sverige finns en gren av denna rörelse som heter SANS (www.sans.nu).

Några av de vanligaste argumenten för en legalisering nämns visserligen av reportern i inslaget, men i förbudsanhängarnas version. Därför menar jag att reportaget om prostitution i Bryssel strider mot kravet på objektivitet. Oavsett vad man tycker i enskilda sakfrågor bör man kunna kräva av Sveriges Radio att de försöker ge en objektiv bild av pågående samhällsdebatter inom Eu.

Communists and others who adore Hugo Chávez do their best to camouflage or trivialise Venezuela’s move towards totalitarianism. When the Chávez regime decided to close the only independent television station earlier this year, I was called a liar and exaggerator after saying that this was an action taken by a mad dictator in order to silence every opposition. But recent developments have proven me right. Chávez’s media politics is all about control and establishing a one-man state. From an article in The Economist:

It is not clear how depriving most of the poor, who lack cable and satellite, of what was their favourite channel amounts to "democratisation of the air-waves", as the government claims. TVes, the new state-run channel which now occupies RCTV’s Channel 2 slot, has struggled to reach a tenth of its predecessor’s rating. TVes is supposedly a public-service station. But it has swiftly scrapped the newscasts it had commissioned from an independent producer. They were of poor quality, but the reason given by Lil Rodríguez, the channel’s director, was that: "The editorial line must be determined by the company."

Perhaps foreseeing increased take-up of cable and satellite, the information minister suggested that these channels may soon be obliged to carry the (frequent and interminable) speeches to the nation of Mr Chávez, which all free-to-air television and radio stations must broadcast.

According to a new study published in The Lancet, smoking a single cannabis joint raises the danger of future mental illness by 40%. The Daily Mail writes:

The authors of the latest study, the most comprehensive of its kind and commissioned by the Department of Health, said: ’Policymakers need to provide the public with advice about this widely-used drug.

’We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life.’

The analysis does not look at the age at which schizophrenia is likely to develop. However, previous studies have shown that smoking the drug as a teenager raises the risk of developing schizophrenia in one’s twenties or thirties.

The researchers, from four British universities, analysed the results of 35 studies into cannabis use from around the world. This suggested that trying cannabis only once was enough to raise the risk of schizophrenia by 41 per cent.

However:

Cardiff University researcher Dr Stanley Zammit added: ’Even if cannabis does cause an increased risk of developing psychosis, most people who use cannabis will not develop such an illness.

’Nevertheless, we would still advise people to avoid or limit their use of this drug, especially if they start to develop any mental health symptoms, or if they have relatives with psychotic illnesses.’

My experience of smoking cannabis tells me that it does affect one’s mind, and I do believe heavy consumption can cause mental illness. Still, I am very sceptical about studies like this since they tend to be exaggerated. Other studies have shown that people with mental problems tend to self-medicate by using alcohol, cannabis, and narcotic drugs. All studies I have read suggest that people in this group are the ones who develop psychosis and schizophrenia.

American police officers make the case for legalizing drugs.

Part One:

Part Two:

Raúl Castro, Fidel’s brother and Cuba’s acting president, delivered a speech yesterday. Among other things he said:

“No one, no individual or country, can afford to spend more than what they have. It seems elementary, but we do not always think and act in accordance with this inescapable reality.”

Swedish left-wingers call this kind of reality-based politics “economism” and “neo-liberalism”. Maybe they will change their minds now that Cuba’s communist government has refuted one of Leninism’s core ideas by accepting the fact that people cannot spend money they don’t have.

It might seem insignificant, but what Raúl Castro said yesterday is truly groundbreaking coming from a communist.

(Photo by Jose Goitia.)

In the past, I never cared much for photography. But about a year ago, when I bought a new mobile phone with a built-in camera, I discovered how fun it could be to snap digital pictures and publish them online. Unfortunately, the camera was never good enough for those really nice things I wanted to capture. The resolution was mediocre at best. Hopefully this will change now, because today I bought myself a real camera: a Sony DSC-S700. It is not the best camera on the market, but compared to what I have now and considering I’m not a professional, it’s a great improvement. Expect more of my own photos to be published in this journal.

A new OSCE report entitled Governing the Internet warns of online policing, calling it "a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes—democracies and dictatorships alike—seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear."

Enligt Politikerbloggen hotar socialdemokraten Jan-Anders Lindfors de anställda på ABB i Karlskrona som inte vill vara med i LO. Han motiverar detta på följande sätt:

"Jag vill bara vara tydlig och informera om konsekvenserna när man inte är med i facket. De ska inte tro att de kan göra som de vill, bryta mot övertidsregler och annat. De ska inte förvänta sig något."

Jag hatar LO. Länge har jag försökt vara pragmatisk och med stor ansträngning försökt intala mig att landets största fackföreningsrörelse nog ändå vill väl’men jag kan inte bärga mig längre. Jag känner en uppriktig avsky inför just LO. Detta ska inte blandas samman med min inställning till fackliga organisationer i allmänhet. Det är ofta både bra och rätt att löntagare liksom andra med gemensamma intressen organiserar sig. Likaså är systemet med kollektivavtal långt mycket bättre än många andra länders lagstiftningsmodell. Det som gör Lo till en äcklig organisation är att den inte längre bryr sig inte om löntagare. Det är en maktorganisation som finns till för dess egen skull och som livnär sig på främlingsfientlighet, protektionism och allmänt förakt för alla som inte håller käft och lydigt ställer ställer sig i kön. Sverige behöver inga brukspatroner som tvingar arbetarna på knä’vi har LO-pampar som Jan-Anders Lindfors.

Earlier today, I wrote about a new study that, according to Daily Mail, suggests that a single joint might trigger schizophrenia. Now I read about the same study in the Los Angeles Times. But the tone of the article is quite different. I quote:

“It’s not as if you smoke a joint and you’re going to go crazy,” said Richard Rawson, who directs the Integrated Substance Abuse Program at UCLA and was not involved in the study.

But he cautioned: “It’s definitely not a good idea to use heavy amounts of marijuana.”

The researchers found that the risk for psychotic illnesses did appear to increase with dose, suggesting that stopping marijuana use would decrease risk, said coauthor Dr. Stanley Zammit, a psychiatrist at Cardiff University and the University of Bristol in Britain.

Psychotic illnesses include schizophrenia and disorders with such symptoms as hallucinations or delusions.

Well, I think everyone who ever lived through a night of heavy drinking has experienced moments of delusion. This is something altogether different from the grave and life-long mental illnesses the Mail wanted to link to a few drags on a spliff.

In a country of sixty million people and over two million pot smokers, the researchers behind the latest cannabis study estimate that about 800 new cases of psychosis (i.e. temporary delusion, in most cases) could be prevented by reducing marijuana use.

It is not the first time the newspaper headlines following a new study on cannabis has turned out to be bogus. But who will know? Media is not likely to report that the dangers of cannabis use are minuscule compared to tobacco and alcohol.

Do you remember the 2004 Lancet study that blamed the United States for at least a hundred thousand civilian deaths in Iraq? It sparked exhilarated feelings among anti-Americans and Saddam Hussein fans around the world. Finally, they had "scientific proof" that suggested that neo-conservative democratisation was a deathly business. Hurrah!

Well, the scientific proof was based on some very unscientific methods. Not that the looniest left-wingers bothered about that, but it made the rest of us question the world’s best-regarded medical journal. It simply doesn’t matter how many Iraqi doors you knock on, you cannot make any scientific claims based only on estimates from people with nothing to go on except their guesses. That is a bit like asking the local hairdresser for her opinion on global warming and present what she says as meteorological evidence.

The cartoon comes from the Cox & Forkum blog. Read more about the death-toll survey on Michelle Malkin’s blog.

It is the Sabbath, so what could be more suitable than a picture of Malmö’s synagogue. I snapped this photo with my new camera when I walked through the city earlier this afternoon.

I was planning some furious commentary on the Christian Social Democrats’ Pride Week advertisement in the Swedish gay press, but I got distracted by spontaneous, spiteful laughter after reading the English-language presentation on their website. I know, I should stick to lambasting the two-faced politics of this organisation; and remind everyone wooed by their nice and open-minded image of the moral support the Christian Social Democrats give to Arab Islamists that routinely slaughter gays and lesbians. But hey, it’s Saturday night, and what better way to humiliate a bunch of silly hypocrites than to quote them? This is how the Christian Social Democrats describe themselves:

Politcs is a tool to change the world. Nothing more or less. But if you want to change the world you have to know what you want. You have to be able to define and tell your visions.

This is why politics is also about telling stories. To tell the story of the past, present and the future. To tell the story of injustice that needs to change, the story of the heories and the good values that have to remain strong and be encouraged. The story of how beathiful the future could be.

One of our most important stories is the story of justice, and how justice can be achieved. "Carry eachothers pain" is one of our basic ideas. We believe that justice can come when people care for eachothers pain and well-being. Justice comes through cooperation and love for the other. Together we can make things better and easier for eachother.

The Christian social democrats wants to challange our biggest party in sweden, the Social Democrats to rethink, to have the courage to be radical in order to make better changes. We don’t want the social party to be stuck in traditonal patterns of governance. This is why the Christian Social Democrats should offer alternative solution in swedish politics. We see ourselves as the critical voice in the society that questions mainstream politics in our own party, the Swedish Social Democrats.

May I suggest a qualified translator, a dictionary, and a zero-tolerance approach to punctuation?

As part of his presidential campaign, John Edwards, the trial lawyer that made a fortune on lawsuits against hospitals, is playing the "I’m the underdog"-card and pretending he is a friend of poor Americans who cannot afford health care. Well, it might be worth pointing out that it was Mr Edwards and his colleagues that made health-care policies unaffordable to many. The money hospitals and insurance companies paid in out-of-court settlements do not only finance Mr Edwards’s presidential campaign, but also his six million dollar estate in North Carolina.

How I loathe wealthy class-struggle agitators.

A new study by the New Zealand Educational Institute found that removal of corporal punishment in schools causes rise in violence against teachers. The New Zealand Herald reports:

The study also found more than 50 per cent of teachers and more than 25 per cent of school support staff reported "aggressive verbal confrontations" with pupils.

Bob McCoskrie, national director of conservative family lobby group Family First, said a Justice Ministry report late last year showed serious youth violence had increased by 27 per cent since 1996.

"All of these young people have entered a system of education and society where discipline and responsibility are being replaced by the politically correct nonsense of childrens’ rights," said says Mr McCoskrie.

"It is significant that as schools have removed corporal punishment, schools have become more dangerous. School yard bullying by pupils on other pupils and staff is now the new form of ’corporal punishment’ in schools.

I do not agree with Mr McCoskrie’s attitude towards children’s rights. Of course, children have rights, and not being caned is one of them. However, children need to be disciplined. If not, they turn on each other and the victims of bullying will suffer even more. We see this problem in the Swedish schools, where children can do pretty much what they want without any reprimand whatsoever.

Märta Wennerström, a Swedish gallery owner, has censured artist Lars Vilks’s drawings of the prophet Muhammad because she feared Muslim anger. Meanwhile, anonymous people are posting threats addressed to Mr Vilks and call for terror attacks against Sweden on the Muslim online community Sindbad.

I refuse to give in to Islamist bullies, so I publish the banned drawings here. If you have a blog of your own, I suggest you copy them.

Read more (in Swedish) on Ulf Pettersson’s blog

According to an article in the New York Post, Madonna is considering leaving the Warner Music Group in favour of life without a traditional record contract. I think this is cool. And it’s not only Madonna. Artists, novelists, musicians, and other creative people are going independent. It used to be that you were dependent on a contract with a big publisher or recording company to make your stuff available to a larger audience. Nowadays, the Internet has made it possible for just about anyone with great talent to get an audience.

This development is probably what I like best about the time we live in now. I am old enough to remember a time without Internet and online publishing, and I know how many were burned in the struggle to get a few talent agents’ attention. Often people with great artistic skills gave up because they had nowhere to expose their work. Nowadays, they build a website, write a blog, publish video clips on YouTube, and sell their stuff through Amazon and iTunes.

Maybe I’m overly sensitive, but the tone in an article published by the Los Angeles Times bothers me. It’s about Cairo-based, Muslim sex therapist Heba Kotb. She has become quite a celebrity since she began her late-night show on Egyptian television. I suppose it’s groundbreaking and a positive thing. What bothers me though is that the Times completely disregard the fact the Ms Kotb is an outspoken homophobe. A few weeks ago, I listened to an interview with Kotb on a Swedish radio programme about religion, and it wasn’t pleasant. Her opinions are not as liberal as suggested in the Times article.

You can download the Swedish radio programme here (mp3).

(Photo by Asmaa Waguih.)

On the opening day of Stockholm Pride, the newspaper Dagens Nyheter publishes the result of a new survey by gay-rights activist Bengt Held. It found that a vast majority of Swedish MPs are in favour of same-sex marriage. Only the Christian Democrats, which is one of the smallest parties in Parliament, are overwhelmingly against giving same-sex couples the possibility to marry. When asked if they were in favour of same-sex marriage, 66% of the MPs representing the Moderate Party answered yes. A further 20% said maybe. Only 14% rejected a marriage reform. My party has truly changed in the past decade. Ten years ago, only the party’s libertarian minority was outspoken friends of gays and lesbians. It is nice to see how some of the more hostile homophobes from the past now come out in favour of equal rights.

Ingmar Bergman, Sweden’s most famous stage and film director, has died at the age of 89 at his home on the island of Fårö.

(Photo by Magnus Skoglöf.)

Update: From the New York Times’s obituary:

Through more than 50 films, Bergman’s vision encompassed all the extremes of his beloved Sweden: the claustrophobic gloom of unending winter nights, the gentle merriment of glowing summer evenings and the bleak magnificence of the island where he spent his last years.

Bergman, who approached difficult subjects such as plague and madness with inventive technique and carefully honed writing, became one of the towering figures of serious filmmaking.

He was "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera," Woody Allen said in a 70th birthday tribute in 1988.

Bergman first gained international attention with 1955’s "Smiles of a Summer Night," a romantic comedy that inspired the Stephen Sondheim musical "A Little Night Music."

"The Seventh Seal," released in 1957, riveted critics and audiences. An allegorical tale of the medieval Black Plague years, it contains one of cinema’s most famous scenes—a knight playing chess with the shrouded figure of Death.

"I was terribly scared of death," Bergman said of his state of mind when making the film, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the best picture category.

The film distilled the essence of Bergman’s work—high seriousness, flashes of unexpected humor and striking images.

Tomas Hemstad beskriver vad jag känner inför varje pridefestival jag besöker:

I Sverige har vi på papperet väldigt lite kvar att göra när det gäller grundläggande rättigheter för homosexuella – för transpersoner finns det en hel del arbete kvar. Men under Pride kommer jag ibland på mig med att tappa bort självmedvetenheten. Jag kan lägga en arm om en pojkvän eller en flört utan att ett av mina ögon registrerar vad som händer runt omkring mig. Jag kan med hög röst diskutera hivlagstiftning eller vilket cruisingområde som har bäst raggningspotential utan att behöva känna att varje ord jag yttrar registreras av omgivningen. Jag kan, på ett plan, vara mig själv för en liten stund. Trycket att censurera sig eller ändra sitt beteende kommer både inifrån och utifrån hbt-samhället.

Jag har märkt att även mycket liberala heterosexuella inte förstår hur knepigt det faktiskt är att leva som homosexuell i Sverige. Ständigt får man höra att allt är så likställt och tolerant, men ändå är det så att man riskerar glåpord och våld så fort man visar minsta tecken på "bögighet" i offentligheten. Jag och min man har helt slutat försöka vara det minsta avslappnade utanför hemmet. Det går helt enkelt inte att kramas, kyssas eller hålla hand utan att någon kommer fram och vill slåss. Så är det. Inte bara i Malmö, utan i Stockholm, Göteborg och Köpenhamn också. Små saker som mina heterosexuella vänner aldrig behöver tänka på är för mig omöjliga att göra i offentlig miljö.

Det finns ett stort problem med den utveckling som Stockholms pridefestival tagit de senaste tio åren. Festivalen har heterosexualiserats. Förr, i början och mitten av 1990-talet, då jag var ung bög i Stockholm, var media och den politiska eliten tämligen ointresserade av veckan (som då hette Frigörelseveckan). Paraden var ganska liten och många med mig tyckte att det var en ganska pinsam tillställning. Det roliga var dock att de fester och jippon som arrangerades var homo till hundra procent. Numera springer det heterosexuella par och riksdagsmän överallt. Det är naturligtvis bra sett ur sett politiskt perspektiv. Men personligen tycker jag det var lite roligare när man kunde suga av killar i bajamajorna utan att behöva tänka på att Mona Sahlin och ett gäng från tidningen Vi Föräldrar kanske står och väntar i kisskön utanför. Det är sådana mentala bilder som gör sexlivet svårt för en queer bög som jag.

Men jag tycker det ska bli kul att åka till Stockholm Pride och återse gamla bekanta. Det var flera år sedan jag var där senast. Jag sticker på onsdag. Räkna med mycket bilder på bloggen i slutet av veckan.

PS! Rubriken borde locka läsare. Särskilt om jag pingar Intressant.

What do you know about Ingmar Bergman? Take the Guardian’s online quiz to find out.

Nashi, a cult-like organisation of Russian youths loyal to the stone-faced President Putin, are encouraging their members to have sex and procreate at camp. From an article the Daily Mail:

Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp’s mass wedding. "They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia".

Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where they can start procreating for the motherland.

With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult. But this organisation—known as "Nashi", meaning "Ours"—is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.

I have seen enough films and plays directed by Ingmar Bergman to know that the man would appreciate some comedy following the announcement of his death. Here is French & Saunders’s Bergman parody.

Could the new Airbus A380 make all other aeroplanes too dull? Australian Qantas Airways thinks it might. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Qantas is about to give itself the sort of problem that most airlines dream about: a new product aboard a new aeroplane that makes all its other aeroplanes, if not obsolete, then second-rate, as far as its customers are concerned.

Who will want to fly on a Qantas 747 jumbo again after flying on one of its Airbus A380 super-jumbos from next year?

In terms of comfort and in-flight facilities, the A380 unveiled by Qantas this week is likely to cause a mini-revolution. Up and down the cabin, from economy to first class, it will be a better offering than anything that has gone before it.

The article goes on the list some of the new facilities:

• Wide-screen monitors in all cabins with digital picture and sound quality
• Audio and video on demand with more than 100 on-demand movies, 350 television selections, 500 audio CDs, 30 PC style games, as well as a selection of audio books and radio channels
• Language tutorials
• Deloitte Leadership Academy
• Online duty free shopping
• Moving maps, text news and weather
• An intuitive graphics system allowing users to navigate through entertainment options or in-seat communications easily
• Wireless connectivity throughout the aircraft
• In-seat access to email and the Internet, telephone and SMS
• USB and RJ45 ports as well as PC power for all seats
• An external camera giving a pilot’s eye view of take-off, landing, and cruising

I can’t wait to get aboard.

It has been a mad day in Malmö City Court. Nearly twelve hours of non-stop proceedings can make anyone regret ever saying yes when asked to serve on a jury. Tonight I’m beat and need to go to bed early. Tomorrow afternoon, I will have a few hours kill on the train to Stockholm. And what better way to kill time than to blog.