Dennis Prager has written an excellent article on the term Islamophobia:

Whoever coined the term "Islamophobia" was quite shrewd. Notice the intellectual sleight of hand here. The term is not "Muslim-phobia" or "anti-Muslimist," it is Islam-ophobia—fear of Islam—yet fear of Islam is in no way the same as hatred of all Muslims. One can rightly or wrongly fear Islam, or more usually, aspects of Islam, and have absolutely no bias against all Muslims, let alone be a racist.

The equation of Islamophobia with racism is particularly dishonest. Muslims come in every racial group, and Islam has nothing to do with race. Nevertheless, mainstream Western media, Islamist groups calling themselves Muslim civil liberties groups and various Western organisations repeatedly declare that Islamophobia is racism.

And:

Even granting that there are people who fear Islam, how does that in any way correlate with racism? If fear of an ideology rendered one racist, all those who fear conservatism or liberalism should be considered racist.

Of course, some may argue that whereas conservatism and liberalism are ideas, Islam is a religion, and while one can attack ideas, one must not attack religions. It is, however, quite insulting to religions to deny that they are ideas. Religions are certainly more than ideas—they are theological belief systems—but they are also ideas about how society should be run just as much as liberalism and conservatism are. Therefore, Islam, or Christianity, or Judaism, or Buddhism should be just as subject to criticism as conservatism or liberalism.

However, the only religion the West permits criticism of is Christianity. People write books, give lectures and conduct seminars on the falsity of Christian claims, or on the immoral record of Christianity, and no one attacks them for racism or bigotry, let alone attacks them physically. The head of the Anti-Defamation League announces that conservative Christians are the greatest threat to America today, and no one charges him with racism or Christianophobia.

The statement may be an expression of hysteria and of ignorance, but not of racism. But if one says that Islam does not appear compatible with democracy or that the Islamic treatment of women is inferior to the West’s, he or she is labeled a racist Islamophobe.

I have a confession: I fear Islam and Islamist ideas, but I respect and admire Muslims and Muslim culture. I suppose that makes me an Islamophobic Muslim-lover?

What do you call the emotion of two straight men falling for each other? Well, Peter Hartlaub says "man crush".

Jag anar en struktur. Vi måste genast göra en maktanalys.

From an article in the Daily Telegraph:

Two Russian vessels—including an atomic icebreaker—are expected to reach the Pole this afternoon.

There they will release two mini-submarines which will drop a metal tube containing a Russian flag onto the seabed. The release is likely to take place tonight or tomorrow morning, according to organisers.

The gesture, while symbolic, marks an escalation of the growing international dispute over who owns the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240 mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region. It is thought to contain rich oil and gas deposits.

Moscow believes the research mission will prove that the ridge is a geological extension of Russia, and can therefore can be claimed by Russia under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Elton John, who turned 60 earlier this year, wants the Internet shut down. To the Sun he says:

The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision. It’s just a means to an end. We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet. I mean, get out there—communicate. Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet. Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging.

Sir Elton is a grumpy old man living in the past.

The British University and College Union is considering a boycott against Israeli academics after a proposal from Tom Hickey (picture), chair of the UCU and philosophy lecturer at University of Brighton. He explains why in an article published by the British Medical Journal:

No Israeli college or university has publicly condemned what is being done in the Occupied Territories in the name of every Israeli citizen. Some Israeli educational institutions have established campuses for settlers on illegally confiscated land; others conduct archaeological digs on land from which Palestinian farmers have been expelled.

Some Israeli colleagues have spoken out against the occupation. But these are the heroic few. They risk their professional careers and being ostracised.

Our boycott debate is accused of infringing academic freedom. It does so, and that is to be regretted. The pursuit of scientific and artistic advance without hindrance is indeed crucial for human improvement. But academic freedom is not an absolute value taking precedence over all else. The values of human life and dignity are the ultimate objectives, and sometimes these may not be entirely compatible with the principle of untrammelled academic freedom.

On the note that the anti-Jewish British academics are hypocrites, Dr Hickey writes:

We are accused of unfairly singling out Israel—the Jewish state—and hence of being anti-semites. We are asked why we do not propose a boycott of other states whose policies are barbaric and inhuman, such as China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Zimbabwe.

But whether a boycott is appropriate in such places depends on the merits of each individual case. In the case of Israel, we are speaking about a society whose dominant self image is one of a bastion of civilisation in a sea of medieval reaction. And we are speaking of a culture, both in Israel and in the long history of the Jewish diaspora, in which education and scholarship are held in high regard. That is why an academic boycott might have a desirable political effect in Israel, an effect that might not be expected elsewhere.

In other words: hit the Jew where it hurts the most. But, like every politically correct academic with a strong bias against Jews, Hickey does his best to camouflage the anti-Semitism:

This is illogical and contrary to the facts. Most people who spoke in favour of the motion at the our congress are Jewish, as are the members of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine. The response of Israel’s defenders is to say that such people are not proper Jews—that they are “self-hating Jews.” Jewishness thus becomes transformed from a cultural or religious identity into an ideological position.

This is a classic. I know it well. Every time I speak about gay rights, some religious opponents bring up the fact that quite a few homosexuals themselves denounce homosexuality and opt for a life of celibacy or semi-heterosexual marriage. This is supposed to convince me that my demands for equal rights are not valid. Hickey does the same thing. He refers to a few Jewish intellectuals and says that their support of a boycott of Israeli academics legitimises the proposed action. This, however, does not change the fact that those who advocate a boycott of Israeli academics do single out Jews and Jewish institutions. If their aim were to make the support for military occupations difficult, they would boycott not only Israel, but also China (Tibet), Armenia (Nagorno-Karabakh), Morocco (Western Sahara), Pakistan (Kashmir), Russia (Kuril Islands), and Turkey (Northern Cyprus).

I don’t think Hickey and other boycott-activists care that much about occupation. Their argument thrives on millennium-old anti-Semitism. If they really bothered that much about military occupation, they would not make up excuses for not taking the same action against all countries that hold occupied land by force.

I was happy to see that two prominent Swedish academics oppose any plans for a similar boycott by Sweden’s universities. I can imagine that the hardcore left that rule much of Swedish academia would love to boycott Israel. Some of them would probably even consider sending money to Palestinian terrorist organisations.

We got into town quite late in the afternoon. We had planned a visit to the Pride Park, but when we realised they wanted 40 euros in entrance fee, we decided to give it a miss. Instead, we strolled about in the streets. At one point, I snapped this panorama picture of Stockholm’s Old Town.

Early in the evening, we ate a nice dinner at Side Track, a small gay pub not far from Pride Park. There, we ran into two old friends. They are two thirds of the gay rap group Backroom Matches. I snapped this photo of them. To the left is "crazy-looking" V-Gurra, standing in the middle is Makkan, and to the right, in a yellow T-shirt, is my husband.

Now it’s official:

The Swedish Lutheran Church will march for the first time in the Gay Pride parade in Stockholm under the slogan "Love is stronger than everything", the Church announced on Thursday.

"For the first time ever, the parade at the Pride festival will have a delegation from the Swedish Church," it said in a statement.

The parade will go through the streets of the Swedish capital on Saturday.

The Church said the delegation would include about 30 people including two deans from the Stockholm and Uppsala cathedrals.

I am sure the Church’s decision pleases God.

The Economist’s obituary of Ingmar Bergman.

According to parody newspaper The Onion, President Bush has approved a streamlined version of the Bill of Rights that pares its ten original amendments down to six:

"The Bill of Rights was written more than 200 years ago, long before anyone could even fathom the existence of wiretapping technology or surveillance cameras," Ashcroft said. "Yet through a bizarre fluke, it was still somehow worded in such a way as to restrict use of these devices. Clearly, it had to go before it could do more serious damage in the future."

The president agreed.

"Any machine, no matter how well-built, periodically needs a tune-up to keep it in good working order," Bush said. "Now that we have the bugs worked out of the ol’ Constitution, she’ll be purring like a kitten when Congress reconvenes in January—just in time to work on a new round of counterterrorism legislation."

"Ten was just too much of a handful," Bush added. "Six civil liberties are more than enough."

OK, it’s a joke. The problem is that it’s not a too far-fetched story.

Religionhistorikern Simon Sorgenfreis skriver om homosexualitet och islam.

Today was the day for the annual Stockholm Pride Parade. With about 50,000 participants and predicted half a million spectators, the parade was the biggest ever in Stockholm according to Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, and The Local.

My husband and I were both tired after the Mega Bear Party last night, so we slept until noon. As we stay at my husband’s sister in a suburb about half an hour from the city centre, we thought we might miss the start of the parade. But we managed to get there well before the march began, which gave me an opportunity to snap some photos of some of the many sections in the Pride procession.

Surrogate motherhood is illegal in Sweden. These gay men want the laws changed. I second that. If you want join the fight for Swedish men’s right to be fathers without mothers, here is the website. It’s a struggle not only for gay men, but for all men. We want what women take for granted!

A message to Islamist regimes: Stop the killing of homosexuals!

Gay and lesbian police officers.

Gay and lesbian soldiers serving in the Swedish Armed Forces.

The obligatory leather men.

Qruiser, the largest gay online community in Scandinavia. A branch of QX Publishing House.

Spectators in the street when the parade has passed.

I never visited Stockholm Pride when I lived in Amsterdam. The reason was that Amsterdam’s gay community celebrates Pride the same week, with the parade on the same Saturday.

When I looked through the Dutch newspapers earlier this evening, I found these nice pictures of Amsterdam’s Pride Parade on Het Parool’s website.

From the Zimbabwean Herald:

In a Government Gazette published yesterday, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said the President had given his assent to the two laws in terms of the Constitution.

"The following laws, which have been assented to by the President, are published in terms of Section 51 (5) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe: Suppression of Foreign and International Terrorism Act (Chapter 11:21) (No. 5 of 2007), Interception of Communications Act (Chapter 11:20) (No. 6 of 2007.)"

What is this? Here’s a clue:

The Interception of Communications Act allows Government to monitor the Internet, mobile and fixed phones to sift for information it deems subversive or used for organised crime.

The Suppression of Foreign and International Terrorism Act seeks to punish people engaged in foreign or international terrorist activities or mercenaries.

The Interception of Communications Act allows certain communications to be intercepted or monitored in the course of their transmission through telecommunications or the postal service.

In other words, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe approves a new surveillance law that allows him to monitor the Internet, telephones, and traditional post. All in the name of fighting terrorism. The problem is that the biggest terrorist in Zimbabwe is the president himself. Unfortunately, many democracies now have the same surveillance laws, which makes it difficult to criticise totalitarians like Mr Mugabe.

Stockholm Pride is over for this year. Today, my husband and I will go back to Malmö. Now we have two weeks to relax before Copenhagen Pride begins on 18 August.

From The Local:

Less is more when it comes to universities. That at least is the opinion of Anders Flodström, newly appointed University Chancellor at the National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket). Flodström has indicated that he would like to see today’s fourteen state-run universities pared down to a more manageable five.

The physics professor made the short move this summer from the grand surroundings of the Royal Institute of Technology to the rather less salubrious offices of the education agency. But what he may have lost in architectural grandeur he has more than gained in influence—as University Chancellor he is responsible for ensuring that Swedish third level education maintains a high standard.

While Swedish universities remain relatively strong they are no longer among the best in the world, according to Flodström.

Stronger constellations are required if Swedish institutions are to produce professionals and researchers capable of competing with those in the United States or emerging nations such as China. Universities in Denmark and Finland have already begun moving in this direction, he noted.

I second that. During the past two decades, socialist governments have used higher education as a method for lowering the rate of unemployment. Creating new universities was part of this strategy. The result is that the quality of education is at an all time low. If nothing is done about this, Sweden will suffer in the future while gifted students seek education abroad.

Pictures of a nude prostitute posing in the throne room at the Danish Parliament have caused some stir in Denmark. From the Copenhagen Post:

The royal reception rooms at parliament are normally a place where one dresses up to the hilt, but for one woman, they proved the ideal place for a dressed down photo shoot—a very dressed down photo shoot.

Seven pictures of the stark-naked prostitute, aged 43, appear in this week’s issue of tabloid Se og Hør. Amongst the total of 29 she took, the most likely to cause the royals to cringe next time they hold court are one with the woman sitting astride the arm rests of the kingdom’s throne, one of her sprawled across the table used during state councils and one of her in an acrobatic pose atop the chair the queen sits on when awarding medals.

Digital photography experts said the pictures were likely genuine, as the angle of the shadows on the woman’s body were the same as those in the rest of the room.

The court had no comment about the pictures, stating that they are not responsible for security at the reception rooms, which are located at Christiansborg Palace, the house of parliament.

The Socialist Left does its best to defend Hugo Chávez’s every move towards totalitarianism. Mr Chávez is already a dictator since the National Assembly granted him the power to rule by decree on 31 January this year. But like all despotic dictators, Chávez wants more. Therefore, he suggests a change in the law that would make it possible for him to be dictator for life. The Guardian writes:

The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has announced his intention to change the country’s constitution, allowing him to rule indefinitely.

The socialist leader used his weekly television programme, Hello President, to confirm widely anticipated plans to scrap the limits on presidential terms.

Mr Chávez said the expected change—which must be agreed by parliament and approved by voters in a referendum—would enhance democracy.

I think all adults interested in international politics recognise the Socialist newspeak. Every communist dictator has styled himself democrat. We also know the newspeak from the official names of communist countries: North Korea calls itself the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, former East Germany called itself the German Democratic Republic, and the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot changed the official name of Cambodia to Democratic Kampuchea. None of these socialist dictatorships was even remotely democratic.

Like his predecessors in Europe and Asia, Hugo Chávez wants to change not only the legislation; he wants to change the people. For that reason, he now suggests socialist propaganda in the school textbooks:

Under the current law, the Venezuelan president must leave office when his presidential term expires in 2012. By then, he will have been in power for 13 years.

Mr Chávez had earlier admitted that indefinite re-election would "naturally cause controversy", but said the system was used in many European and Asian countries.

Last month, he announced plans to expel foreigners who criticised his government while in the country, ordering cabinet ministers to monitor statements by visitors and deport them if they "denigrated" his leadership.

He also told the armed services to reflect socialist values, and said education officials must purge the "perversity of capitalism" from school textbooks.

Michael Moynihan is definitely one of Reason’s best writers. Nearly everything he writes is witty and funny. The opening paragraph of his latest contribution to the Hit & Run blog is no exception:

I have long hoped that the miserable, humorless culture warriors of the right—those who saw the Teletubbies as Bronski Beat for tots, yet mistook the homoeroticism of Judas Priest for an Albion-inflected brand of satanism—would concede defeat and allow the rest of us to carry on enjoying our GG Allin records. But let us not forget that our comrades on the left also have a Bozellian streak.

Spot-on!

In this weeks issue, The Economist reviews Alberto Barrera Tyszka and Cristina Marcano’s newly translated book about Hugo Chávez. It was originally published in Spanish in 2004. I quote the article:

As a politician Mr Chávez is a cool strategist, though a sometimes reckless tactician. He is a natural showman with the talents of a televangelist. The authors are surely right when they say that the "root of Chávez’s power resides in the religious and emotional bond" he has forged with ordinary Venezuelans, especially poorer ones. In the tradition of the televangelist, that bond has survived its creator’s metamorphosis from austere crusader against corruption to a man who clearly enjoys power and its perquisites. Nowadays, the book notes, Mr Chávez sports designer clothes and Cartier watches—and a growing personality cult.

This bond has allowed him to pull off the remarkable trick of posing as the leader of the opposition to his own incompetent government. Along with all this goes a certain kookiness: the authors cite several sources who say that Mr Chávez believes himself the reincarnation of Ezequiel Zamora, a 19th-century caudillo, and that he leaves an empty chair at meetings for the spirit of Símon Bolívar, the hero of Venezuela’s independence.

Yes, Hugo Chávez has the qualities of a successful preacher. Nearly all socialist dictators have. It is no coincident that people such as Lenin, Mugabe, Castro, and Guevara are worshipped like saints. Socialism in itself holds many of the merits of religion. It offers an overly simplified explanation to human hardships and promises a better tomorrow if everyone repents. Socialism is the perfect mass-market ideology. (Think of the success of people like Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, and Naomi Klein.) Anyone can grasp the message without reflection.

In the book review, the most interesting and to-the-point observation comes in the following passage:

Mr Chávez has also enjoyed much luck. He has been underestimated by opponents. He is still in power today because of a massive oil windfall. Had his predecessors benefited from today’s oil prices Venezuelans would almost certainly not have abandoned their 40-year experiment with a two-party system in favour of an outsider like Mr Chávez.

Roger Jönsson, den svenska socialdemokratins svar på Chief Wiggum, fortsätter sitt krig mot alla som vill reformera svensk narkotikalagstiftning. Han har hittat en artikel om en kvinna i Wisconsin vars barn råkat komma över mammas LSD och skriver med kraft på sin blogg:

Detta är något för alla de som vill göra knarkinnehav lagligt att fundera på. Hur gör man så att barn och unga inte får tag i knarket om folk ska ha knark hemma?

Detta är alltså vad som finns kvar efter flera år av intensiv agitation mot en liberalare narkotikalagstiftning? Att vanliga hem är fulla av knivar, plastpåsar, lösningsmedel, färgrester, lim och farliga mediciner försvinner liksom i upphetsningen efter att ha funnit ett exempel på legaliseringens faror. På vilket sätt händelsen i Wisconsin är kopplad till lagligt knark framgår inte. För som vi alla vet så är LSD förbjudet i USA.

The term libertarian is not as known in Sweden as in the English-speaking world, so when a reader emails and ask what it means, I think it is a sincere question. The Oxford Dictionary defines libertarian as "an adherent of libertarianism". That is a bit silly, since it does not give any hint of what it means. Cambridge Dictionary says it much better:

Libertarian [is] a person who believes that people should be free to think and behave as they want and should not have limits put on them by governments.

For a longer, in-depth definition, I recommend the article on libertarianism in the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

Signaturen "Queerdiktatorn" på Syrrans blogg skriver:

Ett foster är inget barn utan bara en liten växande slemklump. Som en cancersvulst. Och de opererar man gärna bort.

Fortsätt så och opinionen för fri abort är hotad på allvar. Idiot.

An organisation known for its methods of violence against the police and political opponents defends its unannounced participation in the Pride Parade in Stockholm on Saturday. They claim to fight for gay rights. But with friends like this criminal gang of teenage commie-fascists, Sweden’s gay movement needs no enemies. I suggest the Pride organisers do whatever they can to prevent them from taking part next year.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Despite describing Jewish musicians and Russian composers as "subhuman," and claiming that Jewish art "never existed," Adolf Hitler listened to their music in secret, it was reported Tuesday.

The recently-revealed record collection of the "Fuhrer" showed that he listened in private to Tchaikovsky, Borodin, and Rachmaninoff. Also discovered was, most surprisingly, a Tchaikovsky violin concerto featuring the violinist Bronislaw Huberman, a Polish Jew who was officially declared an enemy of the Third Reich and who fled Vienna in 1937

From the Guardian:

He expelled Jewish and Russian musicians from concert halls during the Third Reich, claimed in Mein Kampf that there was no independent Jewish culture, and referred to Russians as sub-humans, yet at the same time Adolf Hitler listened to their music in secret.

Around 100 gramophone records which apparently belonged to the Nazi leader have been discovered in the attic of a house outside Moscow owned by a former Soviet intelligence officer.

The collection reveals that while Hitler was publicly heralding "racially pure" German music, his musical taste may have been more closely aligned to the artists he ostracised.

Hitler’s passion for Richard Wagner is well documented: however this collection contains works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Borodin which are worn and scratched from frequent use.

There is a record of a Tchaikovsky concerto performed by Bronislaw Huberman. While Hitler (who, it was said, needed his music to relax) would have been listening to the Jewish violinist, Huberman himself was in enforced exile; he fled Vienna in 1937, a year before the Anschluss, and was publicly declared an enemy of the Third Reich. Music by the Austrian Jewish pianist Arthur Schnabel is also among in the collection.

Aside from these recordings, which have stunned historians, many of the Nazi dictator’s collection is dominated by predictable recordings by Wagner, Beethoven and Bruckner.

It’s a bit like Leonid Brezhnev’s secret and forbidden passion for Coca-Cola.

The September cover of the American Radar Magazine has caused heated controversy in Britain and elsewhere since it depicts Prince Harry in his underwear. Normally I am no fan of boxer shorts, but in this case, it’s the thumbs up.

Yesterday I came across one of those online political tests. The first statement read:

If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.

To this the test taker is supposed to agree or disagree. It is absurd. To answer the question one must first accept that the interests of trans-national corporations do not serve humanity. But the truth is that in most cases the interests of big business and humanity at large are the same. I think I speak for most libertarians when a say that we are free-markeeters because it primarily serve humanity.

Update: A commenter suggested I look at question #8 in the FAQ. This is the test authors take on the issue:

Your proposition on globalisation suggests that corporations and humanity can’t both benefit.

This one sometimes ruffles feathers on right wings. What the proposition actually suggests is that humanity should be the priority.

Critics argue that there’s no conflict of interest. Transnational corporations naturally and unfailingly serve humanity by serving themselves. In enriching business, the argument goes, globalisation will always subsequently benefit humanity. Prioritising humanity would only limit the ability of the corporations to inevitably do greater good. So advocates of this trickle down approach should simply click ’strongly disagree’ We don’t see the problem.

The record, however, makes clear that there have often been spectacular conflicts of interest between coporate enrichment and humantity. Halliburton, Enron and the tobacco industry’s research cover-ups are perhaps the best known examples. Others are detailed at The 10 Worst Corporations of 2006 and Corpwatch.org.

On the other hand, for the comparatively few who tell us that corporations can never serve humanity, Milton Friedman argues the case for unfettered market forces.

The judges of Britain’s most prestigious literary award, the Booker, raised some eyebrows yesterday when it announced the titles on its longlist. From the Guardian:

Judges for this year’s £50,000 Man Booker prize threw one of the most remarkable surprises in its 39-year history at the public and publishing industry last night. They tore up nearly all predictions and disregarded virtually all star literary novelists with new books under their belts.

Waterstone’s called it a giant-felling list. The news will produce as much shock among literary agents as authors—and the editors who entered them with some confidence for yesterday’s long list.

Gone, for the most part, are the household names and in their place come four debut novelists who are among the lesser known authors on the reshaped longlist.

The judges issued a list of 13 books (smaller than the 18 of recent years) containing only one expected title: Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach. That novel instantly became William Hill’s 3/1 favourite to win the prize.

The short list will be announced on 6 September and the winner on 16 October. The longlist reads as follows:

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker
• Self Help by Edward Docx
• The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
• The Gathering by Anne Enright
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
• The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
• Gifted by Nikita Lalwani
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
• What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
• Consolation by Michael Redhill
• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha
• Winnie & Wolf by A. N. Wilson

From the Washington Blade:

Three churches that split from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in a dispute over a gay bishop are asking the state Supreme Court to weigh in on who controls the parishes’ buildings.

The petition comes a little more than a month after an appeals court ruled the buildings should be placed under control of the diocese, reversing lower court rulings in favor of the parishes.

St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. David’s Church in North Hollywood pulled out of the six-county Los Angeles Diocese in 2004, following the ordination of a gay bishop in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

They announced they were placing themselves under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Church in Uganda.

This is a result of religious homophobia gone completely mad. Peter Jasper Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda have marketed their African Anglican Churches globally as the church that hates homosexuals the most. They hate gay people so much that they cannot even accept money from people not hating gay people. Listening to the two African bishops, one might get the impression that Christ did nothing but campaign against same-sex love. (The truth is that there are no records of him ever touching the subject.) For this they have been hailed as rewarded by several hyper-conservative Christian organisations. In the United States, the homophobes have torn the nation’s oldest Protestant denomination apart because they cannot accept the election of one openly gay bishop from New Hampshire.

Like all bullies, Akinola and Orombi rewrites facts and history to make themselves underdogs. In an interview published by World Magazine, Orombi justifies the gay bashing by claiming that "the first Anglican martyrs in 1886 were burned to death in large part because they refused the homosexual advances of the king". The article continues:

Sexual practices that depart from Scripture, Orombi said, "are not a boxed-up thing for the Western world. It’s a human failure to understand God’s primary design and His calling on us. … Do you think the prostitutes are so happy because they are there where they are? This is the injustice of humanity. We tell them it is sin. We don’t want to call it anything else. The problem in America and the Western world is they don’t want to call it sin. They want to give it another name. We don’t want this."

Decades of scientific research have proven that homosexuality is programmed into the brain. It is part of God’s design just as much as body length or skin colour. To say that same-sex love is sinful is to favour the human authors of the Bible before God. Furthermore, it is to choose the vague words of Paul before the words of Christ himself.

To be completely honest, I don’t think most Christian churches care much about the Bible. The problem with all organised religion is that it cares more about its own structure and influence than seeking God and live according to the core message of its scriptures. That is why, I think, so many Christian organisations place such great emphasis on making life difficult for homosexuals. Jesus never told them to do so, but history has shown that organisations gain strength from imaginary enemies.

From an article by Willem Buiter, professor of European political economy at the London School of Economics, published by the Financial Times yesterday:

As an economist with a strong commitment to personal liberty and responsibility, my preference would be to see all illegal drugs legalised. The only exception would be substances whose consumption leads to behaviour likely to cause material harm to others.

Following legalisation, the pro-duction and sale of these drugs should be regulated to ensure quality and purity. They should also be taxed, as are tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. Greater resources should be devoted to educating the public, especially children and teenagers, about the health hazards associated with the drugs; more money should be spent on the rehabilitation of addicts.

Ideally legalisation should occur simultaneously in a number of neighbouring countries, preferably at the level of the European Union. When the Netherlands became an enclave of tolerance of drug use, drug users from all over Europe congregated there.

The principle-based argument for legalisation is that behaviour that harms others ought to be criminalised, not behaviour that hurts only the person engaged in it. It is not the government’s job to protect adults of sound mind from the predictable consequences of their actions.

He goes on to describe how Islamist terrorists profit from the illegal trade in narcotic drugs, then finish the article with this:

So legalise, regulate, tax, educate and rehabilitate. Stop a losing war, get the government off our backs, beat the Taliban and deal a blow to al-Qaeda in the process. Not a bad deal!

Indeed!

(Via Henrik Alexandersson.)

This is me outside Krusty’s studio in Springfield after I’ve been Simpsonised.

According to an online quiz, I’m a 96% feminist who "just thinks that men and women should be treated equally". And, by the way, another test tells me that my kissing technique is amazing. Not that I didn’t know, but it’s nice to have it in print.

Maggie Fox of Reuters reports:

Women who get cosmetic breast implants are nearly three times as likely to commit suicide as other women, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

The study, published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery, reinforces several others that have shown women who have breast enlargements have higher suicide risks.

Loren Lipworth of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee and colleagues followed up on 3,527 Swedish women who had cosmetic breast implant surgery between 1965 and 1993. They looked at death certificates to analyze causes of death among women with breast implants.

Only 24 of the women had committed suicide after an average of 19 years, but this worked out to triple the risk compared to the average population, they reported. Doctors who perform cosmetic breast surgery may want to monitor patients closely or screen them for suicide risk, Lipworth said.

Socialdemokraten Stefan A. Johansson i Helsingborg publicerar idag ett utkast till en motion på sin blogg. Texten är nästan identisk med den debattartikel som den högerkristne Mats Tunehag från Livets Ords tidning Världen Idag publicerade i Svenska Dagbladet den 1 augusti. Båda menar att man inte borde se extra allvarligt på hatbrott. Att systematiskt misshandla homosexuella eller muslimer är alltså inte värre än ett vanligt krogslagsmål. Det kan man naturligtvis tycka, åtminstone om man helt bortser ifrån att det nästan alltid är samma grupper av människor som råkar ut för organiserat hat och våld. Det är helt enkelt inte särskilt vanligt att svenska män med ljusbrunt hår blir utsatta för våld och glåpord bara för att de är svenska män med ljusbrunt hår. För fjollan eller blatten är det annorlunda.

Tunehag hatar muslimer och homosexuella. Han försöker blanda bort korten i sin debattartikel genom att diskutera åsiktsfrihet. Han skriver om en "hatbrottsprincip" som skulle göra påståendet att homosexualitet strider mot Guds skapelsetanke till ett hatbrott. Så är det naturligtvis inte. Lika lite som att hävda att David Hume har rätt när han antyder att religiositet är ett tecken på jagsvaghet.

Tunehag påstår vidare i sin artikel att "hatbrottskategorin tar oss in på subjektiva områden där åsikter kan kriminaliseras, som att påstå att homosexualitet inte är medfött eller att Muhammed var en krigshetsare".

Men riktigt så enkelt är det naturligtvis inte. Påven blev inte fälld i domstol för att han citerade en text som hävdade att Muhammed var krigshetsare. Inte heller har någon blivit dömd för att ha påstått att homosexualitet är ett val. Båda åsikterna är lika legala som att citera Arthur Schopenhauer när han skriver att "ingen i regel tror mindre på kristendomen än påven".

Med detta sagt medger jag att det finns stora problem med att ha en hetslagstiftning. Jag har därför alltid motsatt mig lagen om hets mot folkgrupp och är tveksam till särlagstiftning vad gäller hatbrott. Men det är skillnad mellan att vara mot dessa lagar av principiella, frihetliga skäl och att raljerande argumentera mot förekomsten av hets och hatbrott.

Detta sistnämnda är dock precis vad Tunehag och Johansson gör när de skriver att dessa brott statistiskt sett är "myggor jämfört med de stora elefanterna våldtäkter, våld mot närstående, misshandel, inbrott, stölder, med mera".

Det är sant att de homofobiska brotten utgjorde endast 0,26 promille av det totala antalet brott år 2006. Men våldsbrotten med dödlig utgång uppgick bara till 0,07 promille samma år. Om man ska avgöra hur allvarligt ett brott är bör man nog inte ägna sig åt statistik på det sätt som Tunehag och hans socialdemokratiske kamrat gör.

Via the Swedish-Israeli blog Al Hamatzav I found an excellent leader in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In short, it remind us that the Communist Left’s call for a boycott of goods from Israel is an exact copy of the National Socialists’ call for a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses in Europe in the 1930s. It is no surprise really; communist-style socialism and Nazi-style socialism are nearly identical.

If you are able to read Danish (and most Swedes are), here is a quote from the article in Jyllands-Posten:

"Boykot Israel" består af et ubehageligt sammenrend fra den yderste, uforbederlige venstrefløj, men har dog også deltagelse af enkelte socialdemokrater. Forstår de da ikke, at de leger med ilden?

I Nazi-Tyskland endte det i første omgang i Krystalnatten, den 9. november 1938, da års nederdrægtig hetz mod jøderne kulminerede. Senere fortsatte det som bekendt over i Auschwitz og Holocaust. Hvordan kan tænkende mennesker agere så historieløst, at de helt ned i den sproglige formulering gentager uhyggen fra dengang?

Antisemitismen er på march i Europa i disse år. Det hænger sammen med den muslimske indvandring. Men det skyldes også, at venstrefløjen nu tilsyneladende føler sig stærk nok til åbent at vise sit had til den jødiske stat, som man har bekæmpet siden grundlæggelsen.

Antisemitismen er ved at være stueren i Europa – igen. Der siges ting om jøder og Israel, som for ikke så længe siden ville have været utænkeligt. Den umiddelbare anledning er den ulykkelige konflikt i Mellemøsten. Det hedder sig besværgende, at det er antizionismen, man vender sig imod. Det er spil for galleriet. Det uforfalskede jødehad er på march.

Volden i Mellemøsten tilskrives ensidigt Israel. Man lukker øjnene for, at Israel er regionens eneste demokrati, omgivet af en stenørken af arabiske diktaturstater. Ikke alt, hvad Israel foretager sig, er lige lykkeligt. Men det har som udgangspunkt sin rod i den terror, som ikke mindst palæstinensere gennem 60 år har sluppet løs mod Israel.

Israels venner må erkende, hvad der foregår. Det nytter ikke at tro, at de frygtelige erfaringer fra Anden Verdenskrig er eviggyldige. Tidsånden er imod Israel, i hvert fald i Europa.

Derfor: Støt Israel. Køb israelsk.

The final sentence reads: "Therefore, support Israel. Buy Israeli goods." And I urge you to do just that. Fight the communists’ anti-Semitic boycott by ordering some nice things from online shops in Israel. Here are a few websites that can help you help Israel:

• The Israeli Partnership
• Shop in Israel
• Israel Shop
• Israeli Products
• Support the Israeli Economy

The picture shows a bumper sticker available here.

From an article in The Onion:

Reeling from countless relationships gone awry, blind dates from hell, and one-night stands that were about one night too long, the American people received help Monday in the form of tart-tongued but shrewdly perceptive gay friend Garrett Blaine.

At a White House Rose Garden ceremony, President Bush named Blaine, 30, U.S. Romance Counselor-General. Charged with dispensing no-nonsense relationship advice to more than 250 million Americans, as well as providing citizens with a shoulder to cry on, Blaine will summon every ounce of his energetic, outgoing personality and gift for outrageous one-liners.

"All Americans-not just stylish urbanites-should have access to a sassy, supportive gay sidekick with whom they can share their romantic trials and tribulations," Bush said. "It is as basic a right as a good education or complete medical coverage."

American parody newspaper The Onion is a daily must-read. Now the paper publishes a series of hilarious articles focusing on homosexuality in America:

• New Dad Thinks Baby Might Be Gay
• Massachusetts Supreme Court Orders All citizens to Gay Marry
• Small Town Holds Annual Gay Shame Parade
• Denver Optometrist Not Sure Why He Has Gay Cult Following
• Gay Man and Unattractive Woman Form Tight Bond

(Picture from the annual Gay Shame Parade.)

Jag gissar att läkaren tänkte något i stil med: "Killen har ju tatueringar, så han måste vara en knarkare. Skit i honom. Sådana ska man inte dalta med. Nu måste jag skynda mig så att jag inte missar Hasselamötet med Birgitta Rydberg. Underbar kvinna… Stark och frisk."

Denmark is well known throughout Europe for its hard stand on asylum seekers and immigration. This is partly linked to the success of the Danish People’s Party, which the Swedish Left often labels a far-right political party. This is only partly true. Above everything else, it is a semi-racist, collectivist, and nationalistic big-government party. But things may be about to change in Denmark. The Copenhagen Post reports:

Just back from summer holiday, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the prime minister, unveiled a new plan to allow a wider range of employees access to Denmark’s labour market.

Noting that a lack of qualified workers threatened productivity and weakened public service levels, Rasmussen proposed easing certain aspects of immigration legislation.

Current regulations require people seeking entry to Denmark on a work visa to earn DKK 450,000 (€60,400) per year, but Rasmussen would like to see that limit lowered to DKK 300,000—the typical salary for a craftsman.

The prime minister also recommended overhauling the country’s ‘green card’ system to make it easier for well-educated workers to gain employment. A massive campaign to attract Swedes, Germans, Poles and citizens of the Baltic countries to Denmark would be enacted.

Rasmussen explained that the revised immigration strategy would help position Denmark in a globalised world.

"I don’t envision a Denmark where everybody is the same," Rasmussen said. "It’s exciting to have a society where people with various backgrounds are here as long as they work, provide for themselves and contribute to Danish society."

Rasmussen’s proposal earned praise from the opposition’s Social Liberal Party, but the government’s parliamentary ally, the Danish People’s Party (DF) was more guarded.

DF’s party leader, Pia Kjærsgaard, suggested that rather than opening up Denmark’s borders, salary levels for jobs in the public sector should be increased, making them more attractive to people already living in Denmark.

The Onion’s new must-have T-shirt is available in XX-Large. Hilarious.

A man kills his girlfriend and has sex with her body. I don’t know why I write about this. Maybe because it puts all homophobic talk about perversions and "acts against God" into perspective.

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Health, was sacked by President Thabo Mbeki for attending an AIDS conference in Spain without permission. However, most people assume Mr Mbeki seized the opportunity to rid himself of a politician who had shown herself prepared to openly criticise the government’s approach to HIV and AIDS.

Yesterday, Madlala-Routledge arrived back in South Africa to a hero’s welcome. The Cape Times reports:

She arrived at Cape Town International Airport yesterday afternoon unaccompanied by aides or family, and eschewing the VIP lounge for the ordinary arrivals hall.

She was met by SACP, Cosatu and Treatment Action Campaign activists, as well as a large media contingent.

With her fist clenched defiantly in the air—Winnie Mandela-style—she posed for photographs and toyi-toyied briefly as supporters sang her praises, before proceeding to her official car.

According to the Handbook for Executive Members, she is still entitled to the perks of her position for a month after she leaves office, including a bodyguard/driver and official residences. It is not clear whether she will opt to make use of these for the entire period.

Supporters sang and danced inside and outside the arrivals hall, waving makeshift placards, saying "Thabo Mbeki: Stop Aids Denial" and "Fire Manto, Not Nozizwe".

TAC activist Vathiswa Kamkam, clutching a poster questioning why Mbeki had fired a "woman leader in Women’s Month", said she was embarrassed by his action.

"The president is firing a person who is doing her job well, who is showing leadership in all health issues and on HIV and Aids. I am so embarrassed, as I am also an ANC member."

(Photo by Howard Burditt.)

The race to the Arctic continues. After Russia put a small underwater flag on the North Pole, claiming it is part of geographical Russia and therefore Russian territory; the Danes are about to launch their own investigation. They believe the Pole might in fact be a geographical part of Greenland, which is Danish territory.

Danish scientists head for the Arctic ice pack on Sunday seeking evidence to position Denmark in a race to claim the potentially vast oil and other resources of the North Pole region.

Russia sent two small submarines to plant a tiny national flag under the North Pole last week. Canada, the United States and Norway also have competing claims in the vast Arctic region, where a U.S. study suggests as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas could be hidden.

The monthlong Danish expedition will seek evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range, is attached to the Danish territory of Greenland, making it a geological extension of the Arctic island.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt promised further tax cuts in his annual speech at Vaxholm earlier today. "If we get this through then the Alliance [i.e. the centre-right coalition government] will have brought about the greatest rise in living standards ever for low-earners," he said.

This is excellent. The proposed tax cuts are far from enough to make the world’s most tax-burdened people justice, but it would make a big difference to low-earners forced into poverty by heavy taxation.

Do you suffer from fear of losing your election? Are you terrified voters will discover you’ve done noting to improve their lives? Maybe it’s time you talk to your spin-doctor about Incarcerex. It gives you instant election anxiety relief by letting voters believe you are doing something about the drug problem.

Every move made by Chinese citizens is to be monitored by the communist authorities. All in the name of fighting crime. This is the final blow to privacy. Today it is China, but I would not be surprised if Europe and America follow suit. With politicians no longer bothered with ideological issues such as civil liberties and the right to privacy, we cannot rule out similar schemes in democratic countries. This is what happens when the interests of the state take precedence over the interests of citizens.

From the New York Times:

At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognise automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity.

Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.

Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial "one child" policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.

Security experts describe China’s plans as the world’s largest effort to meld cutting-edge computer technology with police work to track the activities of a population and fight crime. But they say the technology can be used to violate civil rights.

Blogger Magnus Lindberg explains (in Swedish) why Israel needs roadblocks and checkpoints in the annexed occupied West Bank.

The extremely popular American blog Daily Kos (it’s more like an online community of people devoted to socialism—as Europeans know the term) runs a wiki, i.e. a collaborative website that can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. This wiki goes by the name dKosopedia, and introduces itself as a political encyclopaedia. From the welcome page:

The dKosopedia is written from a left/progressive/liberal/Democratic point of view while also attempting to fairly acknowledge the other side’s take.

OK, it doesn’t claim to be objective, it is bias in favour of the Left, but it has a benevolent attitude towards others. Fair enough. However, my search on Ayn Rand in this political encyclopaedia revealed something quite different:

Ayn Rand is a 20th century writer and political philosopher perceived as the mother of Objectivism, a philosophy which argues for a cold-blooded, emotionally distant quasi-libertarian world in which you place no reliance on anyone other than yourself, and help no one other than yourself. Her most famous work is the tedious 1961 "Atlas Shrugged"

So much for "fairly acknowledge the other side’s take". It’s a bit like the infamous and utterly hollow Fox News slogan "fair and balanced", but coming in the opposite direction.

To my knowledge, Rand never suggested it would be wrong to help others, only that it ought not to be a duty or imposed on citizens by the government. In fact, she helped her husband financially for years. She did so because she wanted to, because she loved her husband. What she said was that altruism is wrong since it puts other people before you. Knowing this, one must assume that the person who wrote this wiki article on Ayn Rand thinks that those not engaged in systematic self-sacrifice are emotionally distant.

I really like Mozilla’s Firefox. I like this web browser because it’s open-source and websites look nice on it. But I have had some problems with it, and must confess that I have used it as my standard browser for short periods only. Now I’m running Apple’s Safari.

Just now, I read on the O’Reilly blog that more people have problems with Firefox on Mac. And on Guardian’s technology blog, Jack Schofield writes that 75% of those downloading Firefox don’t become active users. What happened to the immense success of Firefox?

In the Sydney Morning Herald, I found a funny column about some of the women many girls look up to. The writer is mean, but the point is that rich and seemingly glamorous women like Donatella Versace (right in picture above) and Victoria Beckham (picture below) lead horrible lives and should be abandoned as role models.

From the article:

Forget jail. We’ve just discovered the perfect deterrent for recalcitrant good time girl Lindsay Lohan, a copy of this week’s Famous magazine. While Lohan relaxes, I mean detoxes in rehab (yep, she’s in there again), we highly recommend she take a long look at the magazine’s pictures of Donatella Versace for an alarming example of the effects of long-term partying.

"Drugs ate her nose", Famous reveals of the Italian designer, comparing a picture of her relatively normal looking snoz in 1995 to one taken this year, where it looks a lot like the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River recently.

The article moves on to Mrs Beckham:

Still with the rich and thick, Who magazine presents a six-page cover story on the "Spice Girls Body Panic". The born-again popettes are reportedly in a frantic rush to get into ’shape’ for their upcoming reunion world tour.

The group’s resident fattie Victoria Beckham is intent on slimming down, Who says, after a Spanish waiter told the magazine that she ate nothing but pineapple and strawberries during dinner at a posh restaurant in Madrid a few weeks ago.

Fellow band mates Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown offer more handy tips for those wishing to fast track their anorexia, including "controlled sleep deprivation"—Halliwell’s secret fat-fighting weapon. Brown is a beacon of rationality in comparison, blasting the kilos on a diet of egg whites and salad.

Äntligen en vänsterpartist jag kan hålla med.

Jasmine Willis, a teenage girl in Britain, was rushed to hospital after overdosing on coffee. From the Daily Mail:

The 17-year-old downed seven double espresso coffees while working in the family’s sandwich shop and was left "burning up and hyperventilating".

Student Jasmine Willis, who thought the coffees were single measures, said the effects of the espresso were so severe her actions left customers bewildered.

She said she started laughing and crying for no reason while serving them, but after being sent home by her father Gary the medical symptoms started. She developed a fever at home and was unable to breathe properly.

Jasmine, of Stanley, County Durham, was rushed to the University Hospital of North Durham after her cousin called the paramedics. Doctors confirmed she had overdosed on caffeine and after monitoring her condition allowed her home a few hours later.

If she had used cannabis, the exact same symptoms would have been labelled "psychosis" and exaggerated in prohibitionist propaganda.

In the Swedish political debate, which is very different from the debates in America and even Europe, many socialist leftists discuss liberalism, libertarianism, and conservatism as if there were no differences between the ideologies. As a result, it is not uncommon that leftist debaters label George Bush a liberal. To Americans, this is completely mad terminology, but it makes sense in a country where the Left is still dominated by people sharing many core ideas with Lenin.

Swedes calling Bush a liberal often think of his tax cuts. People on this side of the Atlantic Ocean tend to see only this side of Bush’s tax politics. With the exception of costs linked to the Iraq War, Bush’s vast spending of taxpayers’ money is less known. Therefore, this might come as a surprise to many: the Cato Institute predicts that George W. Bush will go down in history as the biggest taxer and the biggest spender ever.

If I were an American, I would worry a great deal about this.

(Seen in Picture is Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt shaking hand with US President George Bush after a meeting at the White House.)

Från en artikel i gårdagens Svenska Dagbladet:

Förrförra året kritiserades Världskulturmuseet i Göteborg när man plockade ner ett verk där citat ur koranen blandades med sexuellt laddade bilder och Fatemeh Gosheh fanns bland de protesterande.

– Jag är muslim och kämpar för yttrandefriheten. Det måste bli mer debatterande om hur viktig den är. Vi muslimer måste lära oss vad den innebär, vi kommer från kulturer där yttrandefriheten inte är så stark, säger hon.

Detta är mycket viktigt. Extremvänstern vill som bekant tysta alla liberaler med sitt tjat om islamofobi, men den liberala kritiken har egentligen aldrig handlat om islam utan om den kvasireligiösa kultur som inte tillåter demokrati, mänskliga rättigheter, yttrande- och pressfrihet.

Who needs television on sleepless nights when you have a global blogosphere of writers with every possible interest? Via Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, I found Street Anatomy, a blog devoted to medical illustrations with an interesting article about Fritz Kahn (1888-1968), a German-Jewish gynaecologist, artist, and popular science writer. Apparently, he is considered the founder of conceptual medical illustration.

From the article:

Kahn produced a series of books during the 1920s on the inner workings of the human body using metaphors of modern industrial life. His modernist visualisation was fitting since he was writing during a time of great industrial and technological change, especially in Germany.

Medical illustration before this period was very literal in its representation. Medical illustrations were used mostly in medical education and so the body was portrayed as accurately as possible mainly from cadaver dissections.

The article continues:

While medical illustration was slowly spreading across America, Fritz Kahn was gaining great popularity in Germany with his successful 5 volume textbook on anatomy and physiology entitled Das Leben des Menschen; eine volkstümliche Anatomie, Biologie, Physiologie und Entwick-lungs-geschichte des Menschen (1926). [translation: The life of humans; a popular anatomy, biology, a physiology and a history of the development of humans]

The 5 volume set had over 1500 images including a poster of his famous illustration, Man as Industrial Palace

Kahn’s illustrative style was heavily influenced by the modern artistic movement, which flowered in the early 20th century. Such styles include Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism, and Futurism.

Kahn spoke the public’s language both rhetorically and visually, which made him successful at what he did. He had a huge impact on medical illustration for the public and on illustrations of the body in commercial graphics.

His overly conceptual style did have its shortcomings of course. Oversimplifying the complex structure of the human body into the cold lifeless structure of a machine may have had little educational value in the end. But if his goal was to educate the public of the basics of human function, then a mechanical metaphor would suffice. Like machines, we need fuel, need to regulate temperature and pressure, and above all need to be maintained to function optimally. Even today we are hard pressed to escape the model of the body as machine. We still often refer to the heart as a pump, joints as hinges, and the brain as a circuit board.

I googled Fritz Kahn and found more pictures and information on a website entitled Dream Anatomy.

The Economist writes about Denmark’s enthusiasm for bridges:

A love of bridges is understandable in a country with 400 islands. Denmark boasts two of the world’s most impressive: the Great Belt bridge linking east and west Denmark, and the Oresund bridge spanning the strait between Sweden and Denmark. Bridge-lovers are rejoicing after the government announced plans for the biggest bridge yet: a 19-kilometre (12-mile) colossus across the Fehmarn strait between Denmark and Germany.

The hope is that the bridge, with four motorway lanes and two rail tracks, will be a fast artery linking Copenhagen with Hamburg. Construction is expected to start in 2011 and finish in 2018. Yet the plan has triggered worry and envy. Worriers, notably the far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), are miffed that Denmark is to pay the €4.7 billion ($6.5 billion) cost alone. The government says taking sole financial responsibility (and ownership) was the only way to win German agreement. Envy is seen in calls for a new Kattegat bridge to cut the three-hour train journey between Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, to 30 minutes. This would cost twice as much as the Fehmarn link. Yet politicians are making encouraging noises.

Once the bridge over the Fehmarn strait is completed, the journey between Malmö and Hamburg will take less than two hours by high-speed train. Now it takes four hours since the ferry slows things down. Too bad it will we will have to wait another ten years.

From the Washington Times:

D.C. resident John Lockwood was conducting research at the Library of Congress and came across an intriguing Page 2 headline in the Nov. 2, 1922 edition of The Washington Post: "Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt."

The 1922 article, obtained by Inside the Beltway, goes on to mention "great masses of ice have now been replaced by moraines of earth and stones," and "at many points well-known glaciers have entirely disappeared."

"This was one of several such articles I have found at the Library of Congress for the 1920s and 1930s," says Mr. Lockwood. "I had read of the just-released NASA estimates, that four of the 10 hottest years in the U.S. were actually in the 1930s, with 1934 the hottest of all."

Reacting yesterday to word that certain European governments and officials are suddenly trying to abandon their costly "global warming" policies, Royal Astronomical Society fellow Benny Peiser, of the science faculty at Liverpool John Moores University in Great Britain, recalls the teachings of Marcus Aurelius: "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

A general speaks up: Gays of America are pure and rare like gleaming diamonds. "One gay man’s life is worth seven soldiers’," he says.

(From the Onion News Network.)

From The Local:

A Swedish former Guantánamo Bay prisoner has given up on attempts to sue the United States government for damages.

Mehdi Ghezali was imprisoned in the American military base on Cuba for more than two years.

"We haven’t got any further with this case since the American law firm we were working with withdraw," said Ghezali’s lawyer Anton Strand.

Strand and his colleagues at Peter Althin’s Stockholm law firm had been trying for three years to contact a US law firm that would pursue a case against the American federal government. Ghezali said he wanted compensation for being kept in Guantánamo for two years without trial.

The Swede eventually found a firm willing to take the case on, but it dropped out shortly before the deadline for bringing a case expired.

Aaron Israelson skriver en utmärkt ledarartikel i dagens Expressen. Läs!

Äntligen! Sveriges enfaldigaste nostalgisosse försvinner från etern. Jag hoppas verkligen att Sveriges Radio och Studio Ett rekryterar en fredagskrönikör som inte enbart drömmer sig till tillbaka till 1970-talet, Palme och DDR-Sverige.

A commenter on Reason’s blog speaks his mind after Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (aka "Kos") defines his "libertarianism" in a televised interview broadcast yesterday:

First the progressives stole the name ’liberal’, now they want to steal ’libertarian’. Can’t they just leave our names the fuck alone.

I feel the frustration. I follow the Daily Kos website and in my terminology it’s a socialist blog. The opinions expressed by Kos and his co-writers bear no resemblance to liberalism as the world outside the United States knows it. If these leftists hijack the term libertarianism too, what should true liberals like me call ourselves? Neo-Anarchists, perhaps?

The Arctic drama continues:

Swedish researchers have joined Danish colleagues in an attempt to establish Denmark’s claims to parts of the Arctic region. The expedition follows the planting of a flag on the underwater Lomonosov Ridge by a Russian expedition last week. The expedition, led by Swedish icebreaker Oden, set off from Norway on Sunday. It is being led jointly by Martin Jakobsson of Stockholm University and Christian Marcussen of the Geological Survey of Denmark.

The Danes claim that the ridge is on the same continental shelf as Greenland, which is a Danish territory. They hope that the expedition will prove the country’s claim to the area.

Background:

• Russia Claims North Pole
• Denmark to Claim North Pole

From the WorldNetDaily website:

Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, says a Dutch bishop.

Tiny Muskens, the bishop of Breda, told the Dutch TV program "Network" Monday night he believes God doesn’t mind what he is called, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.

The Almighty is above such "discussion and bickering," he insisted.

Muskens points to Indonesia, where he served 30 years ago, as an example for Dutch churches. Christians in the Middle East also use the term Allah for God.

"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years," Muskens said. "In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can’t we start doing that together?"

I have spent the afternoon at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University. After two years at the Philosophy Department, I will transfer here in September. Most people familiar with the centre associate it with its education for future ministers in the Church of Sweden. I have no plans for priesthood, but as part of my specialisation in the Philosophy of Religion, I will engage in a yearlong course at the department. This is how the centre describes Religious Studies on its website:

In Religious Studies you face questions that deal with the very existence of humankind. How do different worldviews affect us and the situation in the world? What are the arguments for and against the existence of God?

This is a subject designed for those who are interested in acquiring a broad knowledge of the different fields of religious studies. The courses are suitable for students who aim for careers as a researcher, teacher, as well as positions in for example cultural organisations and international aid organisations. In Religious Studies there are courses that introduce you to the perspectives and methods of behavioural sciences in connection to religious studies. You also get the opportunity to learn more about ethics and the philosophy of religion.

The core curriculum of Religious Studies also promotes international relations, equality and the acceptance and understanding of ethnic minorities. It allows you to improve your capacity for critical analysis of religious dogma and moral reflection. It also provides tools for the interpretation and understanding of the role of religions and personal life philosophies for individuals as well as for societies, historically and in modern times.

(Seen in the pictures are the department entrance and a small part of the library book collection.)

Jag känner att jag borde skriva något om Marie-Louise Ekholm, moderaten i bibelbältet som vill stoppa ungdomars "kompisknullande", men jag orkar inte. Kan bara berätta att jag är av rakt motsatt åsikt. Jag tycker att alla borde ha minst en knullkompis.

From news website Breitbart.com:

News audiences are ditching television and newspapers and using the Internet as their main source of information, in a trend that could eventually see the demise of local papers, according to a new study Wednesday.

"As online use has increased, the audiences of older media have declined," Harvard University professor Thomas Patterson said in a report on the year-long study issued by Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

"In the past year alone… newspaper circulation has fallen by three percent, broadcast news has lost a million viewers," said the study, entitled "Creative Destruction: An Exploratory Look and News on the Internet."

Meanwhile, the numbers of people using the Internet as a news source have increased—exponentially, in some cases.

Traffic to websites that post news produced by a third source, including search engines and service providers, aggregators, such as topix.net or digg.com, which use software to monitor and post web content; and blogs—increased across the board between April 2006 and the same month in 2007.

Monthly visitors to Digg.com, an aggregator which lets users decide on site content, skyrocketed in the 12 months to April 2007, from two million to more than 15 million.

Other online news sources grew more modestly, with user rates growing by 14 percent for community websites and six percent for blogs.

The Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN websites between them have about 100 million monthly visitors, far outpacing user numbers on websites of major television networks, which averaged 7.4 million visitors a month.

"Brand name" daily newspapers, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, averaged 8.5 million monthly visitors.

But newspapers in medium-sized to small cities saw either a drop in or no change to the numbers of visitors to their websites, which have already taken readers from hard-copy editions.

The authors of the study predict that many small newspapers could have difficulty holding on to even their web audience, and counsel that they include "national and international news in the mix."

I used to read newspapers habitually every morning until I moved to the Netherlands in 1999. The Dutch-language newspapers were too difficult to understand and the English-language newspapers available where too expensive. So, I stopped reading the daily news on paper and began to browse the newspapers’ online editions instead. I have predicted the end of traditional newspapers for some time now. I see no reason for anyone to pay money for news on paper and morning delivery when the same information can reach your RSS-reader instantly via well-managed websites and blogs.

I welcome the end of newspapers. The only worry I have is that the journalistic quality will suffer when fewer people pay for news. On the other, advertisements have been the biggest source of income for traditional newspapers for many decades. The subscription fee barely pays the delivery. With this in mind, I don’t think we need to worry too much about the future of quality journalism.

Background: “Hugo Chávez Plans Lifelong Dictatorship”

(Cartoon by Cox & Forkum.)

After reading an article about Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (I must confess that I’m impressed by his achievement as a blogger), I read the Wikipedia entry on "Daily Kos" and found this funny little piece:

During the 2004 U.S. election campaign, Daily Kos readers gave approximately $500,000 in user donations to fifteen Democratic candidates denoted as most needing funds. The candidates were Tony Miller, Ben Konop, Daniel Mongiardo, Richard Romero, Samara Barend, Jeff Seemann, Nancy Farmer, Ginny Schrader, Jan Schneider, Lois Murphy, Jim Newberry, Brad Carson, Tony Knowles, Stan Matsunaka and Richard Morrison. All of these candidates lost.

Ha! Progressive losers.

From The Local:

Two Muslim groups have indicated their willingness to exhibit controversial sketches by artist Lars Vilks after galleries in western Sweden declined to show the artworks for fear of Islamist reprisals.

Inspired by Sweden’s recent ‘roundabout dogs’ craze, Vilks composed a series of sketches portraying the Muslim prophet Muhammad as just such a creature.

The well-known artist took his pictures to galleries in Värmland and Bohuslän. Both however refused to show the drawings on the grounds that the security risk was too great.

But now two groups—the Secular Muslims in Sweden (Semus) network and the magazine Minaret – have taken a joint decision to exhibit the sketches.

“This will take place at an established musical and cultural venue in Stockholm. Negotiations are underway and I think it will be ready at the beginning of next week,” Semus spokesman Hooman Anvari told news agency Tt.

Background: “New Muhammad Drawings Banned from Gallery”

 

I inget annat europeiskt land är det så accepterat att förneka kommunismens brott som i Sverige, menar Kjell Albin Abrahamson och exemplifierar med en artikel i Biblioteksföreningens medlemstidning. Två skolbibliotekarier, Jonas Aghed (bild till vänster) och Juan Vega (bild till höger), på Brännkyrka gymnasium i Hägersten ondgör sig i artikeln över att "en högerlobbying med mcarthyistiska förtecken" vill informera om kommunismens brott. Detta menar de är ett "oroväckande" tecken i tiden. Vad är det då för information Aghed och Vega vill undanhålla skoleleverna. Abrahamson skriver:

Om vi tittar enbart på sovjetiska medborgare så dödades 32 miljoner människor av kommunismens politiska repressalier. Siffran är inte framtagen av Per Ahlmark utan framräknad av den officiella ryska regeringskommission som presidenten Vladimir Putin tillsatte. Slavisten Staffan Skott, Sveriges störste expert på kommunismens illgärningar, anser – med stöd av utländska forskare – att under 1900-talet har kommunismen dödat 150 miljoner människor runtom i världen. Siffran kan jämföras med de 40 miljoner människor som dödats under 1900 talets alla krig. Det är alldeles självklart att kommunismens brott måste uppmärksammas mer. Speciellt i Sverige.

Men vänta nu! tänker de politiska historierevisionisterna i vänsterpartiet. Det är ju liberalerna som är fascister och marknaden som dödar massorna, inte kommunismen som vill ge allt åt alla.

From time to time, my inbox is swamped with homophobic emails. Normally, it’s a single deranged person who wants to get even after I have pulverised him or her in some online chat room. Most commonly, it’s the lazy intellectual Christian who never read more than the back cover of his mass-market edition of the Bible but still thinks he knows everything there is to know about theological interpretation. An interesting feature of many of these emails from angry Evangelicals and Catholics is the bizarre use and knowledge of hard-core pornography and weird sexual practice. I suppose the idea is that I will recognise defeat and accept that gay people are perverse after looking at a picture of two men urinating on each other. If one gay man does a thing like that, all gay men must be doing it.

Anyhow, some of these emails are very funny. Today I received an email from an angry man who had read an article I wrote about American philosopher David Bradshaw and his claim that homosexuality is immoral on the same grounds as bestiality because both practices violate the body’s moral space. Bradshaw’s core argument is that God created the human body for a purpose and that every sexual act diverging from this divine intent is immoral. In short, my counter-argument reads that even if we assume that God exists and have a purpose for our bodies, we cannot know what this purpose is and must presume that the strong emotions and pleasures linked to sex are in themselves purposes. Therefore, true sexual morality cannot be sought in the bodily functions but in the situations in which people practise sex. If all participants are mature enough to act of free will, neither God nor society ought to label the act immoral.

After reading my article, the angry emailer assumes that I defend the right to rape children and animals. I will burn in hell, he writes.

Now, I don’t care much about slander in private email conversations. I have debated controversial issues like gay rights and drug legalisation since I was a teenager. It has made me thick-skinned. What makes this particular email different is a link to a video clip of American military surveillance of an Iraqi man having sex with a donkey. Maybe I’m morbid, but I really think it’s ironic when a person who calls me a "defender of bestiality" sends me a video clip like this. Unfortunately, this strange behaviour is symptomatic for the angry homophobe.

 

First this:

In June, Coulter went on ABC’s "Good Morning America" and said she had learned her lesson after being blasted for suggesting in a joke before the Conservative Political Action Conference that Edwards was a "faggot." "If I’m gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot," Coulter said.

That prompted Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, to call in to MSNBC’s "Hardball" and challenge Coulter directly. "I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely to stop the personal attacks," Mrs. Edwards said.

Now this:

Former Sen. John Edwards on Friday fired the latest round in his ongoing verbal feud with Ann Coulter, calling her a "she-devil" at a public event before quickly adding that he shouldn’t engage in name-calling.

Edwards, D-N.C., was railing against the right-wing media—including Fox News and Rush Limbaugh—when he reminded a crowd in Burlington, Iowa, that his wife stood up to Coulter in a public spat earlier this summer.

"We know these people. We know their game plan. They’re going to attack us personally," Edwards said. "They attacked Elizabeth personally, because she stood up to that she-devil Ann Coulter."

For the record, I think both Edwards and Coulter are idiots. But if I had to pick one, I would go for Coulter. At least she is funny.

(Caricatures of John Edwards and Ann Coulter by Cox & Forkum.)

Don’t try to blog about serious things when you’re drunk and just had a political discussion with a self-pitying, commie-chic numbnut. Use pictures to get your message across.

En läsare har skickat en fråga via epost:

Jag läser dagligen ett antal bloggar: din, Johan Ingerö, Henrik Alexandersson, Neo osv. Som synes är jag intresserad av liberala idéer, men det är ett resonemang jag inte får till: prostitutionsfrågan. Jag är av ståndpunkten att prostitution borde vara tillåtet, och följaktligen bli betraktat som vilket annat yrke som helst. Om man postulerar detta hamnar man (jag) i problem i en helt annan del av den politiska diskussionen.

Jag är nämligen förespråkare för att man skall bli tvungen att ta ett jobb man inte vill ha för att försörja sig, och att det inte är någon rättighet att ha ett intressant jobb, utan en ynnest. Då hamnar man i läget att man skulle kunna tänka sig en situation där en bordell söker medarbetare, och det finns arbetslösa som tvingas in i prostitution på grund av det sätt vi konstruerat vårt samhällssystem. Detta är enligt mig en absurd slutsats.

Som doktorand i teoretisk datavetenskap (tillämpad matematisk logik), förstår jag också att vi med en sådan slutsats har en felaktig utgångspunkt någonstans. Problemet är bara att jag inte kan ringa in den. De möjliga kandidaterna är:

1. Prostitution bör var lagligt.
2. Av det ovanstående följer att man skall betrakta prostitution som ett normalt yrke.
3. Man har rätt till a-kassa om man inte hittar ett jobb.
4. Man förlorar rätten till a-kassa om man inte tar ett ledigt jobb.

I mina ögon är alla ovanstående punkter rimliga, men eftersom någon måste bort så blir jag nog tvungen att säga 2. Har jag rätt? Vilken väljer du?

Ja, du har valt rätt. Det följer nämligen inte av punkt 1 att man måste betrakta prostitution som ett normalt yrke. Faktum är att det finns ganska många yrken som är lagliga men som arbetsförmedling och andra myndigheter inte tvingar folk att söka om det strider mot deras moraliska övertygelse. Ett sådant exempel är barnmorskor som inte vill befatta sig med abort. De slipper söka jobb som innebär att de arbetar med detta. Andra exempel är erbjudanden om att bli blodgivare eller försöksperson till ny medicin. Detta ger pengar, men eftersom det innebär ett intrång i den egna kroppen får inte socialtjänsten tvinga socialbidragstagare att lämna blod och delta i medicinska experiment.

Det finns alltså ingenting som säger att det som är lagligt också måste betraktas som normal. På samma sätt måste det naturligtvis vara med prostitution. Det är också så det fungerar i Nederländerna och Tyskland där bordeller är lagliga.

Revolutionen fordrar koncentration, därför måste vi avstå från kompisknullande. Så resonerar en reaktionär kommunist som är aktiv i KPML(r).

Things are beginning to improve for Sweden’s centre-right government. In the latest opinion poll from research agency Sifo, the liberal-conservative block gets support from 44,6% of the electorate. The socialists are still ahead, but the margin is shrinking. From The Local:

Support for the government has increased in the August, according to a new poll, although the left-wing opposition still leads by nearly 8 percent.

The new poll from Sifo also shows the far-right Sweden Democrats increasing their support. The party scored 3.7 percent in the survey, meaning it needs only a small rise to take it over the 4 percent threshold that would gain it a seat in parliament.

The Sweden Democrats are strongest in southern Sweden. In the Malmö area, 11.5 percent of people say they would vote for the party if an election was held today. In the rest of Skåne and neigbouring Blekinge, the party is supported by 7.7 percent of voters.

"The Zionist regime is the standard bearer of invasion, occupation, and Satan," president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said at an Islamist conference on Saturday.

I suppose Ahmadinejad knows Satan better than most.

The Venezuelan dictator spoke of fellow dictator Castro on his weekly propaganda television show on Saturday:

Chavez, a close ally of Castro, has frequently provided information about the health of the ailing Communist leader who temporarily stepped aside after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery a year ago.

"On the Internet rumors are circulating that Fidel Castro has died," Chavez said during his weekly Sunday broadcast. "Fidel is producing, he is writing."

I guess brain death doesn’t count.

Wonkette is one of the funniest, yet most informative, political blogs around. Just now, I read through the Wikipedia article about Wonkette and found this on Ana Marie Cox’s editorship:

Under her tenure, Wonkette was known for its sharp, sarcastic, intelligent voice and for its mixture of heady political discourse with repeated references to gin and anal sex.

It hit me that that’s the kind of blog I want to write. So, from now on, I will try to analyse everything political from a sex-mad, alcohol-related point of view. Nah, maybe not. But it’s tempting.

I know it is a propaganda stunt, but I cannot resist nudity. Besides, the picture is really nice. My favourite model is the guy to the right at the very front. His head is in a slightly different position from the rest of them, and his buttocks are nice and firm.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Hundreds of people posed naked on Switzerland’s shrinking Aletsch glacier today for US photographer Spencer Tunick as part of a Greenpeace campaign to raise awareness of global warming.

Tunick, perched on a ladder and using a megaphone, directed nearly 600 volunteers from all over Europe and photographed them on a rocky outcrop overlooking the glacier, which is the largest in the Alps.

Later he took pictures of them standing in groups on the mass of ice and lying down. Camera crews were staged at five different points on the glacier to take photographs.

Glaciers are sensitive to climate change and have been receding since the start of the industrial age but the pace of shrinkage has accelerated in recent years.

The environmental group Greenpeace, which organised the shoot, said the aim was to "establish a symbolic relationship between the vulnerability of the melting glacier and the human body"

Lek med tanken att den borgerliga regeringen bestämde sig för att släcka ner alla oberoende media och att Sveriges Radio och Sveriges Television beordrades att på bästa sändningstid visa program där Fredrik Reinfeldt oemotsagd fick prata i timmar. Anta vidare att riksdagen övertalades att skriva över all lagstiftningsmakt till statsministern och att det kort därefter stiftades lagar som förbjöd besökande utlänningar att framföra kritik mot Reinfeldt. Tänk er också att den statliga valmyndigheten blev en del av statsrådsberedningen och endast bestod av tjänstemän rekryterade från moderaternas rikskansli. Föreställ er att svensk polis började misshandla oppositionella och att regeringskritiska demonstrationer besköts. Lägg till detta att Reinfeldt föreslog en grundlagsändring som gav honom möjlighet att styra landet lagligt livet ut.

Tror ni att vänstern skulle acceptera detta? Knappast. Ändå är det precis denna utveckling som Erik Svensson och en lång rad andra "progressiva" vänsterbloggare hyllar i Venezuela.

Vad beror det på att så många accepterar fascism i socialismens namn? Jag tror att allt bottnar i etisk relativism. Det är denna som gör det möjligt för somliga att acceptera förtryck under vissa givna omständigheter men samtidigt bekämpa den under andra, liknande omständigheter. Relativismen går som en röd tråd genom socialismen. Det är därför vänstern var kollektivt blind inför Saddam Husseins förtryck men noga noterat varenda snedsteg som den amerikanska armén gjort sig skyldig till i Irak. Det är därför man med stor upprördhet kan förfasa sig över kristdemokraternas abortkritik samtidigt som man låtsas omedveten om att islamistiska grupper i Mellanöstern systematiskt mördar kvinnor som vill bli fria från patriarkalt förtryck. Det är relativismen som gör det möjligt att gå i Prideparaden och samtidigt hylla Che Guevara trots att han systematiskt mördade massor av bögar i Havanna. Förtryck är bara förtryck ibland.

En anledning till att jag lämnade vänstern var insikten om att socialism är orättvisa. Trots pratet om jämlikhet så handlar socialism om det motsatta. En ideologi som är beredd att acceptera förtryck om det sker i en viss kontext är inte rättvis. Min övertygelse om att människor är lika mycket värda oavsett kulturell hemvist gjorde det omöjligt för mig att stanna i vänstern. Om man menar allvar med att alla människor är lika mycket värda och har samma legitima krav på att leva i frihet så kan man inte liera sig med relativister. Vänsterbloggarnas Chávezhyllningar är bra påminnelser om socialismens inbyggda orättvisa och det människoförakt denna föder. Men risken är att många låter sig luras. Det är ju lätt att hylla fascistiska experiment på andra sidan jorden om man själv bor i trygga Sverige. Det är därför liberaler måste stålsätta sig mot relativistiska strömningar och envist slå vakt om alla människors objektiva rätt till frihet. Detta är vår viktigaste uppgift.

Tips: Missa inte Danne Nordlings blogginlägg om grupptänkande.

Oh, what the hell, I surrender. I can’t get enough of Spencer Tunick’s pictures of naked people posing for global-warming awareness. I’m hooked on a Greenpeace propaganda stunt.

From The Economist:

When Simón Bolívar, South America’s Venezuelan-born independence hero, wrote a constitution for the brand new country of Bolivia, it featured a lifetime president. So it should come as no surprise that Hugo Chávez, who claims to be a latter-day Bolívar, is proposing to let himself be re-elected indefinitely to his country’s presidency.

The plan to abolish presidential term limits is part of a bundle of constitutional changes unveiled by Mr Chávez on August 15th. These would remove the last remaining checks and balances to presidential power in Venezuela. They would strip the Central Bank of all autonomy, allowing the government to spend the country’s foreign reserves. The government would be given power to expropriate private property by decree, and to promote co-operatives and state enterprise.

State governors and mayors will still be subject to term limits—otherwise they might become caudillos, Mr Chávez said recently, without irony. They will be sidelined by new communal councils, dependent on the presidency. Another proposal is to reduce the maximum working day to six hours. "Now we are headed straight towards socialism," Mr Chávez said.

Straight towards socialism indeed.

Hurricane Dean is gaining strength as it is heading towards Mexico. CNN reports:

A Category 5 storm is the most extreme level on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the standard measurement for hurricanes. Such hurricanes can have a storm surge of more than 18 feet [5.5 metres] and are powerful enough to take off roofs, uproot trees and wipe out buildings.

Dean is expected to pour 5 to 10 inches of rain on the Yucatan, Belise, Guatemala and Honduras. Some areas could see up to 20 inches [0.5 metres]—enough to "cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the hurricane center said.

Meanwhile, El Universal reports that authorities in the Mexican Tabasco province are ordering evacuation of people living closer than three kilometres from the seashore.

A common expression suggests that people rarely are as stupid as they look. However, a resent article by Swedish hard-core feminist and know-it-all Maria-Pia Boëthius proves she’s an exception. Her looks flatter her.

A new study shows that half of dogs and cats in Britain are now overweight. I blame fish and chips with rémoulade. I have seen Londoners serve it to their pets.

I am getting old. I realise that after reading that Oasis released their third album, Be Here Now, ten years ago today. I remember buying the album in a Stockholm record shop on the day of its release. It feels like yesterday. I still enjoy listening to it from time to time. However, I have always favoured their first album, Definitely Maybe, which was released in August 1994.

Strange feeling this—getting old.

Yesterday, Swedish media reported that Sweden has more cancer survivors than any other country in Europe. The welfare-state propaganda spin machine immediately tried to link the survival rate to high taxes and government investment in cancer care. I listened to the news broadcasts and read a handful of newspaper articles about the study, yet I found no one reporting that the United States has the most cancer survivors in the world. Well, I suppose that would kill the spin.

(Click on picture to see the table in full size.)

År 1658 ockuperades Skåne av svensk militär. Under decennierna som följde plundrades och brändes skånska byar. Drygt tusen år av historia slogs sönder av en systematisk svensk statsterrorism. Kyrkor förstördes, gravar grävdes upp, böcker brändes, folkbokföring raderades ut, släktklenoder beslagtogs, språket kriminaliserades och kulturföremål fördes till Stockholm. De svenska härjningarna fortsatte in på 1720-talet. Men ända in på 1900-talet fanns ett folkligt motstånd som bland annat yttrade sig i att skånska barn fick lära sig läsa med hjälp av danska biblar och att man i folkmun envisades med att använda gatunamn från den danska tiden.

Nu, nästan 350 år senare, publicerar en stockholmsk antisemit ett inlägg på sin blogg i vilket han liknar dagens konflikt i Mellanöstern vid en fiktiv dansk attack mot Skåne. Av texten gissar jag att personen i fråga inte ens vet att Skåne är ockuperat område och skåningar som fördömer palestinsk nationalism faktiskt vet vad de talar om när de säger att man tyvärr måste acceptera att länder sällan skapas genom demokratiska processer. Invånare i tidigare Ostpreussen, Nordirland, Sönderjylland och Sicilien är andra exempel på folk vars land blivit ockuperat och som, om än motvilligt, efterhand kommit att acceptera den nya nationsbildningen.

Även om bloggarens liknelse haltar rejält kan det vara intressant att titta närmare på den:

I ett flyganfall dödades minst en Moderat-medlem i Skåne nära gränsen till Danmark på onsdagen, sade andra moderater och boende i närheten.

En talesman för den danska krigsmakten bekräftade ett flyganfall mot en grupp skåningar i gränsområdet. "Vi sköt och träffade dem", sade han.

På tisdagen dödade danskarna tre vuxna skåningar och två unga pojkar vid robotattacker mot staden Malmö. Dagen före dödades sex moderatmedlemmar av robotar.

En medlem i Folkfronten för Skånes befrielse dödades i en strid med dansk militär nära Höganäs vid kusten på tisdagen, uppgav svenskt säkerhetsfolk enligt nyhetsbyrån AFP.

Sedan det senaste skånska upproret började hösten 2000 har över 5800 människor dött i våldsamheter, den allra största delen av dem skåningar.

Är man sådär lagom ytlig så fungerar det kanske, men för att den fiktiva konflikten mellan skåningarna och Danmark verkligen ska likna den mellan palestinierna och Danmark så måste vi göra några tillägg. Den kanske viktigaste komponenten är att Folkfronten för Skåne har som uttalat mål att utrota det danska folket och därför regelbundet skickar självmordsbombare till Köpenhamn i syfte att döda civila. Helst på bussar, bröllop, skolor och marknadsplatser. En annan sak vi inte får glömma att lägga till bilden är att skåningarna blivit erbjudna danskt medborgarskap men att Folkfronten för Skåne vägrat acceptera Danmarks rätt att existera. Folkfronten för Skåne menar att hela Danmark tillhör Skåne och vägrar acceptera några kompromisser som inte gör Köpenhamn till huvudstad i det nya landet Skåne. Vidare menar Folkfronten för Skåne att samtliga de tjugo miljoner människor som har skånska förfäder ska få "återvända" till Danmark och ersättas ekonomiskt för den egendom som deras förfäder förlorade när de valde att emigrera istället för att stanna och sköta om sin markegendom.

Som sagt, liknelsen haltar. Den fungerar inte riktigt eftersom den framstår som så absurt. Men å andra sidan är de palestinska terrororganisationerna precis så absurda i sina krav. De vill ha något som inte är deras med argument som härhör från metafysiska vidskepelser snarare än rättmätiga egendomskrav. Såväl palestinierna som stockholmska antisemiter borde istället lära av exemplet Skåne såsom det ser ut i verkligheten. Men det är nog att hoppas på för mycket.

Here we go again. According to news agency AFP, the wanted terrorist ring leader is still with us:

A top Taliban commander said Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is alive and well, according to US-based analysts monitoring extremist publications.

“All praise be to Allah, he is extremely healthy and active,” the commander Mansour Dadullah said in a video interview, according to a transcript of the video’s English subtitled translation, released Tuesday by the analyst IntelCenter.

Dadullah, whose brother Mullah Dadullah was also a top commander in the Afghanistan-based militants and was killed this year, said he had been contacted by Bin Laden, the man blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

“I received a message from him in which he advised me ‘I must follow Mullah Dadullah and continue the same activities so that the mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) may not weaken,’” he said, according to the transcript.

The video is dated June 15, 2007, Intel Center said.

The rumours of Osama bin Laden’s health and whereabouts are now almost as tedious as the buzz surrounding junkie-starlet Lindsay Lohan.

From the Guardian:

The Iraqi prime minister declared today that his country could "find friends elsewhere" after the US president, George Bush, said there was "frustration" with his government’s slow progress.

Nuri al-Maliki hit back after both Mr Bush and the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, bluntly said the Iraqi government had to do more to end sectarian bloodshed and accommodate Sunni rivals in power.

The war of words capped another bleak day for the US military in Iraq which saw 14 soldiers die in a helicopter crash blamed on mechanical failure.

Speaking in Damascus on the final day of a trip to Syria, Mr Maliki scathingly dismissed the criticism and warned the US not to interfere in Iraqi politics.

"No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people," he said.

Mr Maliki is right. His government is elected by the Iraqi people. Democratisation and human rights legitimised the war, so if the democratically elected leaders believe they can create a state that guarantees basic civil rights, then they should be left to handle the situation. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Iraqis could manage the war against the terrorists by themselves just yet. On the other hand, the US troops don’t seem too successful either.

New research published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry shows drug taking is not a matter of choice for long-term users:

Drug users who can’t kick the habit can blame a dysfunctional brain for their addiction, according to new research.

A study by the University of Melbourne has found long-term drug users have difficulty controlling impulses because their frontal cortex is impaired. The two-year study found opiate users needed to use more of their brain to resist impulses in a test of self control than those who were clean.

The findings shed new light on why drug addicts find it so hard to quit, despite the health consequences. "Drugs can capture and hijack some parts of the brain," said Dr Murat Yucel, a lead researcher in the study. "In this study we found the frontal cortex, an area that is essential for exercising control over thoughts and behaviours, was working inefficiently. These findings may help explain why it takes addicted individuals enormous effort to exercise control over their drug taking behaviour in the face of adverse consequences and why they are vulnerable to relapse into uncontrolled, compulsive patterns of use."

Next, researchers will examine whether reduced brain function is a consequence of addiction or a contributing factor that makes some people more vulnerable to drug abuse. Earlier studies have suggested that the risk of addiction is in fact due to individual, biological characteristics of the brain.

From an article by Gerald M. Steinberg in the Jerusalem Post:

For years, the United Nations and the European Union have provided major funding and assistance for radical Palestinian NGOs and their supporters, allowing them to exploit the rhetoric of human rights, "civil society," international law and peace to promote the opposite.

An illustration of the damage that results from this combination is provided by the meeting, scheduled for the European Parliament in Brussels on August 30-31, to be run by the UN’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. This committee is "the main UN forum where all NGOs interested in the Palestine issue can meet."

The title is certainly high-sounding—International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace. But, as noted by UN Watch, "the UN’s Palestinian Division runs a tightly-controlled operation that accredits only anti-Israel NGOs and speakers. Without altering the virulently anti-Israel nature of their meetings, the organisers instead seek to mask their activities." Moreover, to add credence to their cover, they invite specially approved Israelis—a select group of radicals who openly espouse hatred of Israel, claiming the license to do so because of their citizenship.

And:

The speakers list is secret, but in previous years it included Jeff Halper from the EU-funded Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD), allied with Sabeel, a center for Palestinian liberation theology; Raji Sourani from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights; Michael Warschawski of the Alternative Information Center; and Jamal Juma Ja’afreh from the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

To their credit, the Polish members of the European Parliament from different parties have announced that they will not participate. Bronis aw Geremek, a Polish MEP, was quoted by the Polish Web site, Europa21, as declaring: "Although there is no official statement that Israel must be pushed down to the sea… the choice of subjects and the attitude toward the problems show that it will be a biased, conflict-generating conference. Actually we can call it anti-Israeli."

Europe’s taxpayers pay for this nonsense. It’s embarrassing.

Advocate General Juliane Kokott has advised against Internet providers revealing the identity of people suspected of illegally sharing copyrighted material, which could result in the European Court putting a stop to Swedish plans to crack down on online piracy. But the Swedish government refuses to back down. A spokesperson for the Minister for Justice made a statement to The Local:

“We believe that our proposal is compatible with the directive. We are now awaiting the result of the case in the European Court of Justice. We are also waiting for responses to our consultation exercise.”

Background: “EU Court May Protect Pirates’ Identity”

Arthur Schopenhauer on truth:

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

On nationalism:

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

On human shortcomings:

Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.

On marriage:

In our monogamous part of the world, to marry means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties.

On martyrdom:

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

On painful intelligence:

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence come increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

Ours is bigger than yours—flag that is.

The situation for gays and lesbians in Nigeria, Uganda, and Cameroon are getting worse as the governments step up their efforts to fight homosexuality. Groups of Christians and Muslims have launched homophobic riots, which has resulted in many arrests and death threats. Suspected homosexuals are denied legal counsel and are forced to confess under torture.

American journalist Doug Ireland has more.

Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chávez claims Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao and Bonaire). The Caribbean islands are situated less than forty nautical miles off the Venezuelan coast and form autonomous parts of the Netherlands since the seventeenth century. In a speech on 15 August, Chávez told his puppet parliamentarians that everything within 200 nautical miles from the coastline is Venezuelan territory. The Dutch government strongly dismisses Venezuela’s claims on the islands.

(Via Johnny Rosengren.)

Several times have I heard radical feminists announce that males are no longer needed in human society. With modern technique, women can manage reproduction by themselves. Only a handful of males are needed to produce enough sperm to fertilise many thousands of women. On the other hand, men who wish to become biological parents are dependent on women willing to give birth to their children. Nature has made it impossible for males to become pregnant. But maybe things are about to change?

P. Z. Myers, a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota Morris, has written a truly interesting article on male pregnancy. "I started this by speculating that it would be possible for human males to play a much greater role in childrearing," he writes. "Now I’m beginning to think this could actually have some dramatic effects on human society and human biology. Science should frighten the conservatives!" I bet it will.

It sounds feasible to me. Zygotes are aggressive little parasites that will implant just about anywhere in the coelom—it’s why ectopic pregnancies are a serious problem—so all we need to do there is culture a bit of highly vascularised tissue in the male abdomen that will serve as a secure home for a few months. We’ll have to play some endocrine games, too, which may effect his love life but will also prepare him to lactate post-partum. There’s the minor anatomical problem that the vagina is a unique tissue, and no, the urethra is not homologous or analogous (fortunately; we wouldn’t want to have to push an 8 pound baby through the penis, even if female hyenas can manage it)—but that’s what c-sections are for. Given money, time, and a few weird volunteers, it could be done.

Speaking of radical feminism. From Reuters:

A woman set fire to her ex-husband’s penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was “difficult to predict.”

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

“It was monstrously painful,” the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. “I was burning like a torch. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

Seen above is the painting The Death of Socrates by French artist Jacques-Louis David. I found it on a website when I searched for some information about Plato. As I saw the picture, I instantly remembered a discussion about the importance of heroic death I once had with one of my teachers. I remember arguing that the main reason Jesus became the central figure of a new religion sprung from Judaism was his decision to sacrifice himself. I know I exemplified this with Socrates’s death, how his decision to voluntarily drink a mix of the poisonous hemlock made such an impression on his followers that they wrote down everything he had taught them. I told my teacher that I suspected Jesus knew about Socrates and in fact was a copycat. Now I know that Greek philosophy was studied by many in Jerusalem at the time and that Jesus, a student of historic text material, must have known about Socrates’s shortcut to academic stardom.

Folkpartiet är i farten igen. Denna gång med ett förslag om tvångsvård av gravida missbrukare. Från dagens ledare i Expressen:

Men tvångsvård och polisjakt på missbrukare, parad med vårdbrist, har skapat en fasansfull svensk modell. Vi har legat i Europatoppen vad gäller dödsfall bland narkomaner.

Att föreslå ännu mer tvångsvård i ett läge då man inte ens kan tillgodose den vård missbrukarna frivilligt söker, är antingen mycket cyniskt eller mycket dumt.

En av ledamöterna i fp:s partistyrelse är Birgitta Rydberg, sjukvårdslandstingsråd i Stockholm och hård motståndare till sprutbytesprogram. Hellre att narkomaner dör av aids än att de får en enda ren spruta av staden’på något annat sätt kan man inte tolka hennes politik.

Sprutbyten till gravida efterlyser vi inte. Men sprutbyteskliniker tycks fylla en viktig social funktion. Vårdgivare och missbrukare får en förtrolig och kontinuerlig kontakt. Det borde vara guld värt när det gäller att hjälpa gravida missbrukare.

Men sådan pragmatism och humanism är ingenting för fp:s partistyrelse. Tvång, tvång och åter tvång är liberalernas osannolika melodi.

Det är så ledsamt att bevittna hur "liberaler" solkar ner liberalismen med repressiva idéer.

Most Swedish parliamentarians treat the political and moral dilemma of Internet piracy as a no issue, but to young Swedes it is probably the most important political issue of all. The opponents’ arguments are often trivialised by activists on both sides. Today, Bobbie Johnson, the Guardian’s technology correspondent, paints a portrait of three Swedish piracy activists:

Filesharing and illegal downloading has been a big issue for media companies since the late 1990s. But while pioneering services such as Napster and Kazaa were closed down by the courts, the campaign against The Pirate Bay has failed to make a breakthrough.

The crux of the defence is that The Pirate Bay operates like any internet search engine: it points to downloads, rather than hosting any illegal content itself. Under Swedish law this has so far made it immune to prosecution.

"I don’t like the word untouchable, but we feel pretty safe," said Mr Sunde. He thinks that European enmity towards the Bush administration has bolstered support. "The US government is losing popularity every day in Europe, and people don’t want to see us give in to them."

Their apparent invulnerability to prosecution has made them heroes of the internet piracy movement, but not everybody feels the same way.

"I certainly don’t see them as romantic pirates: it’s out and out theft," says John Kennedy, chief executive of the international music industry body IFPI. "It’s pure, ruthless greed—or total naivety."

But the group’s supporters around the world say they are vexed with what they see as the "corruption" of the media industry.

"This is already happening—you cannot stop it," says Magnus Eriksson of Piratbyran, the Swedish thinktank which helped start the website in 2003. "But the thing is that the people who download the most are also the ones who spend the most on buying media. Media companies already know that they have to change."

Damn this! My husband and I were planning a trip to Copenhagen later today for the annual Pride Parade, but now I’ve been up all night listening to the Chemical Brothers and a bunch of international radio programmes from the past week. My husband has slept through it all and will probably want to party with the Danish queers. I don’t think I can find the strength to join him. It’s not my fault. I blame the MP3-format and my iTunes. I had nothing to do with this. I’m a slave to a structure—it’s beyond my control.

Swedish newspaper Norra Skåne has gone public with an announcement of Fidel Castro’s death. However, these are still unconfirmed rumours, probably originating from exiled Cubans in Florida. NBC reports:

Nothing unusual has been reported from Havana. However, Miami is ablaze with rumors, NBC News reported.

On Thursday, Cuba’s foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, said rumors about Fidel Castro’s deteriorating health are untrue. Roque told reporters in Brazil that the 81-year-old was still in charge of Cuban affairs. He said Castro is "being informed and consulted constantly."

Roque made the comments to reporters while attending the Forum for East Asia-Latin American Cooperation in Brazil.

Cubans were hoping Fidel would make a public appearance during his birthday celebrations nearly two weeks ago.

Castro has not been seen in public for over a year since he transferred power to his brother after surgery.

British human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is considering the arguments.

The Christian Right is weak in Sweden. Less than ten per cent of the population attend church every week. This doesn’t mean that the ideas of the Christian Right are absent in Sweden. Far from it. The best example is ECPAT, an organisation whose members are mostly Christians and socialists. The combination might seem odd, but it’s logical since the Swedish Social Democrats tend to be social conservatives.

ECPAT says it’s working to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation, but like many branches of the American Christian Right, this organisation does more than care for children. In fact, it’s a conservative campaign centre that has more in common with the late Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority than a regular human-rights organisation. ECPAT never misses an opportunity to warn the public of gay men, pornography, and a liberal attitude towards sex. Normal human sexuality is portrayed as dangerous and immoral.

The latest example is general-secretary Helena Karlén’s (picture above) tongue-lashing at underwear manufacturer Sloggi. She says that paedophiles will take advantage of an advertising campaign with people taking pictures of themselves in Sloggi underwear.

Although both men and women are invited to post pictures on Sloggi’s website, Sweden’s state-sponsored feminists have joined ECPAT’s war on immorality by labelling the Sloggi advertisements "a sexist porn trap for young girls". It’s as if the boys did not exist. Ironically, many of the protesting feminists are known for their objection to heteronormativity.

The Local has more.

In World Net Daily, I read about David Parker, a hero of the Christian Right and a man so filled of rage against gay people that he is prepared for martyrdom—or possibly psychopharmacological treatment. From the article:

A Massachusetts man handcuffed and hauled to jail after he objected to a public school teaching his kindergarten-age son about homosexuality and refused to leave a meeting has gone to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking justice.

The man, his wife and another family are battling what they describe as a court order for segregation, after a judge ruled if they didn’t like the school’s advocacy for homosexuality, they could take their children and leave.

They also are arguing that U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf’s statement that "as it is difficult to change attitudes … after they have developed, it is reasonable for public schools to attempt to teach understanding and respect for gays and lesbians," actually is unconstitutional.

How can teaching children to respect homosexuals be unconstitutional? Well, according to a spokesperson for the anti-gay organisation Mass Resistance, the reasoning goes something like this:

"Wolf makes the odious statement that the Parkers’ only options are (1) send their kids to a private school, (2) home-school their kids, or (3) elect a majority of people to the School Committee who agree with them. Can you imagine a federal judge in the Civil Rights era telling blacks the same thing—that if they can’t be served at a lunch counter they should just start their own restaurant, or elect a city council to pass laws that reflect the U.S. Constitution?"

Eh?! No one is refusing the Parker family anything. The issue here is that they want less than others. In my book, discrimination is the exact opposite. When "blacks" were denied access to the same restaurants as whites, they were deprived of something offered to everyone else. The Christian Right is offered a place at the same table as everyone else but refuses to accept it. That is their choice.

(Seen in picture are David Parker with his wife Tonia.)

For about 10 years I smoked cannabis regularly if not excessively. In the evenings I’d get home from work and have a joint to unwind, and I smoked about the same amount at weekends. I used it to help me relax and sleep better. About five years ago I stopped doing it—I just got out of the habit. Now I keep reading about the effect that strong grass like skunk can have on mental health and all the reports have got me worried about the long-term health implications of dope. I’m a 39-year-old woman and recently have had quite unpleasant bouts of anxiety and insomnia—might this be caused by my smoking? Can you have a delayed reaction, and are there any other long-term effects?

The Guardian has let three experts on cannabis answer this question sent to the newspaper by a worried reader. It strikes me how sensible the answers are, and how very far from the Swedish hysteria and scare tactics the British debate on cannabis is. I would especially want to highlight Psychiatry Professor Robin Murray’s answer. Dr Murray’s research is often deliberately distorted by Swedish prohibitionists who wish to exaggerate the harmful effects of cannabis use. Here is the Professor’s answer in full:

The risk of smoking cannabis is a bit similar to that of drinking alcohol. Most people who drink alcohol, and most people who smoke cannabis, don’t come to any harm. However, just as drinking a bottle of whisky a day is more of a hazard to your health than drinking a pint of lager, so skunk is more hazardous than traditional forms of cannabis, such as herb or resin, because it may contain three times as much of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

The adverse effects of cannabis use are different to those you describe. They usually start with either memory difficulties or paranoid and suspicious ideas, and can progress to psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. These symptoms usually come on while the individual is still smoking, and there is no good evidence that smoking cannabis can cause either anxiety or insomnia.

I learned from the news yesterday that Greece struggles with several enormous forest fires caused by arsonists, but I could not imagine the massive scale until I saw this satellite picture. It is truly unbelievable. John F. L. Floss of the Associated Press reports:

Firefighters backed by aircraft dropped water and foam on the birthplace of the ancient Olympics Sunday to stop wildfires from burning the 2,800-year-old ruins, one of the most revered sites of antiquity.

But the fires burning for three straight days obliterated vast swathes of the country and the death toll rose by 11 on Sunday to 60. New fires broke out faster than others could be brought under control. Desperate residents appealed through television stations for help from a firefighting service already stretched to the limit and many blamed authorities for leaving them defenseless.

"Fires are burning in more than half the country," said fire department spokesman Nikos Diamandis. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for Greece."

In a week from today, I begin a new course in Religious Studies at Lund University. I will not become a theologian; my goal is to specialise in the Philosophy of Religion. While most contemporary philosophers in secularised Europe show little interest in this field, I think it’s one of the most interesting, not least because world politics is still influenced—perhaps even controlled—by religious beliefs. Furthermore, it’s a fact that religion in the number one motivator for many totalitarian leaders—and their opponents.

Last week I received an email from a reader in Britain. He asked me if I think God can exist logically. I wanted a few days to think about his question, and decided over the weekend that I will take the opportunity to write down my thoughts on God and religion before I begin my new course. In the next few days, I will post a series of entries entitled "On God and Human Ontology".

Here is the reader email:

I have just read your latest blog and notice that you are taking a course in philosophy. Unfortunately I am not a philosopher, but I am interested in becoming one (after all, wouldn’t most people like to believe they existed for a reason?) To this end I have just read "Philosophy for dummies" by Dr Tom Morris, who uses the book to represent his theist point of view. I was going to write to Dr Morris to tell him why I do not agree with some of his arguments and conclusions (I am currently reading "Logic for dummies" to help me support my reasons for disagreeing with him) but I doubt I shall ever get a reply to any letter I send as very rarely get replies to letters, or emails I send to people, but I still have hope, hence this email.

Do you believe in God? I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I believe the answer to have a profound effect on "the meaning of life". Dr Morris obviously does, but I found his reasoning as to why God exists to be lacking. I found Mark Rowland’s athiest arguments in "The Philosopher at the end of the universe" much more convincing, but his conclusion that the meaning of life is to be "beings towards death" totally meaningless. Dr Morris relies on Pascal’s wager to ultimately persuade his reader to start believing in God, but I think this is dogma in disguise: "Believe in God or you shall go to hell". I was sent to Roman Catholic schools and this is what was taught and you could not question it. I found this out at an early age when I asked my first question born from logic to my Religious Education teacher. My question was based on this logic:

• Both God and the devil exist.
• God made everything.
• Therefore God made the devil.

When I asked where did the devil come from if God made everything the response I got was one of extreme anger. That was not a question I was allowed to ask. You must believe in God without question or you shall go to hell.

Further logic can be used to strengthen an atheist position in the following way:

• Theist argument—God exists because so many people believe he does.
• Athiest counter argument—if God exists, howcome not everybody believes he does, especially if he is omnipotent and omniscient. Sending his only son to die so that everyone would believe does not make sense, especially as it has not worked—atheists exist (and agnostics). If God is omniscient, atheists and agnostics would not exist.

Can the only sensible conclusion to this argument be that God is not omniscient, or that he does not exist?

This leaves the theist in a weak position. He would not concede that God is not omniscient—his only argument would be that God has a reason for not wanting everyone to believe in him—God wants to test people.

But if he is omniscient this does not make sense.

Conclusion—on the surface, logic hands victory to the atheist. The theist has to resort to fear tactics (Pascal’s wager).

So what am I? Do I believe in God? Answer: No. I don’t believe in God. I know he exists.

Would you be interested to find out why I know this (it’s a very long story)? What do you believe the meaning of life is?

Yesterday, Iran’s government made a formal complaint about Swedish artist Lars Vilks’s drawings of the prophet Muhammad. The Iranian foreign ministry said the sketches are offensive to the Prophet.

Background: “New Muhammad Drawings Banned from Gallery”

The Netherlands has seen increasing political and religious extremism is the past few years. Now the government has decided to tackle the problem. Toby Sterling of the Associated Press reports:

The Dutch government will spend $38 million over the next four years to prevent both the growth of Islamic fundamentalism and right-wing nationalism, an official said Monday.

The emphasis will be on funding existing programs at the neighborhood and school levels for what the government sees as a "growing problem" of the radicalisation of Dutch youth, said Interior Affairs Minister Guusje ter Horst.

The number of racist incidents in the Netherlands spiked sharply after the November 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist, according to the Anne Frank Institute, which monitors hate crimes. A cycle of retaliatory attacks between native Dutch and Moroccan immigrants ensued.

But from 2005 to 2006, the number of reported racist attacks fell 10 percent to 265. There were 62 recorded attacks against Muslims and Islamic buildings—the most targeted group, the institute said.

Ter Horst said the goal was not to combat extremist groups—a job for law enforcement and intelligence agencies—but to prevent them from forming.

About time, if you ask me. The political climate in the Netherlands turned nasty after the brutal killings of Pim Fortuyn and van Gogh. However, I don’t think it’s the government’s job to fix the public opinion. What is needed is a new start, a way back to the liberal attitude so closely associated with the Netherlands.

The Sloggi campaign has been cancelled in Sweden. ECPAT and other social conservatives won; liberty and the many Swedes who enjoyed the advertisements lost. As a Swedish national, I am truly ashamed. Sweden has become a haven for stuck-up puritans.

Background: “The Swedish War on Immorality”

Here we go again, yet another conservative politician known for his anti-gay "family values" has been arrested after a sordid attempt to live out his hidden passion for men. They just never learn, do they? Well, it’s become apparent to me that many conservative leaders are in fact talking about themselves and their secret hobbies when they speak of the "homosexual agenda". When they warn the public of irresponsible promiscuity they really know what they are talking about. The problem is that they use psychological projection to hurt ordinary gay men.

The Senator has good taste though. Sergeant Dave Karsnia of the Minnesota Police is a real looker.

From The Local:

Sweden’s Chancellor of Justice Göran Lambertz has ruled that it is perfectly acceptable to insult the dialect spoken by most people in the south of the country.

Skånska—often known as Scanian in English—is a guttural dialect bearing many similarities to Danish. With its uvular fricatives and pharyngeal diphtongs, the dialect can often appear impenetrable to outsiders.

To Aftonbladet columnist Alex Schulman, however, the dialect is not just difficult to understand—in a recent column he described the speech patterns of residents of Skåne as being somewhat akin to vomiting.

"To speak Skånska is to puke a little", he wrote.

To be honest, I only speak Scanian when I talk to my parents. In most situations, the communication is smoother when I use Standard Swedish with its slightly nasal pronunciation.

With the exception of Texas, the United States turns against the death penalty. The Economist reports:

Asked by pollsters whether they think murderers should be put to death, two-thirds of Americans say yes, down from four-fifths in 1994. If asked to choose between the death penalty and a life sentence with no chance of parole, however, they are evenly divided. Life that means life is relatively new. Before the 1990s, juries used to worry that if they did not send the man in the dock to his death, he would be freed to kill again after a decade or two. Now nearly every state allows the option of life without parole (Texas introduced it only in 2005). For the first time last year, a Gallup poll reported that a slim plurality of Americans found this option preferable to a capital sentence (48-47%).

Campaigners against the death penalty have been making their case state by state, with little fanfare but some success. The number of executions has fallen by 46% from its modern peak in 1999, to 53 last year (see chart 1). Two-thirds of states executed no one last year, and only six carried out multiple executions. The number of death sentences has fallen even more sharply, by 60% from a peak of about 300 a year in the mid-1990s.

I welcome this trend. The death penalty is cruel and brutalises the society that practises it. It might be argued that a person who has killed someone else deserves to die, but the problem with this strict contractarian argument is that the only one entitled to perform the act is already dead.

(Photo shows the lethal injection table at San Quentin State Prison in California.)

Pakistan joined Iran today and issued a statement protesting the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Swedish newspaper on 18 August. According to the statement, Swedish Chargé d’Affaires Lennart Holst has said Sweden "fully shared the views of the Muslim community". From the Pakistani statement:

"Regrettably, the tendency among some Europeans to mix the freedom of expression with an outright and deliberate insult to 1.3 billion Muslims in the world is on the rise."

Nonsense. The only true insult is opportunist rulers’ deliberate distortion of civil liberties.

According to the news agency Reuters, Chinese officials say the country’s one-child policy has helped the fight against global warming by avoiding 300 million births. Are we beginning to see a wave of totalitarian legislation justified by climate alarmism?

Senator Craig signals a moral stand against gay marriage from his toilet cubical.

Cartoon by Tom Toles of the Washington Post.

Background: “Senator Craig’s Handsome Policeman”

Are you a fan of 24? The New Republic publishes parts of the manuscript for the seventh season.

Ahead of Australia’s first national conference on Muslim university students, Tanveer Ahmed, a psychiatric registrar and a graduate of the University of Sydney, urges universities to resist politicised Islamist groups seeking special treatment on campus. These groups are very quick to cry racism, he says, and it’s now clear that British universities have inadvertently lent support to the growth of home-grown radicalism by giving in to this kind of campus pressure:

Politicised Muslim groups might seek to build their profile by pressuring a university to allow a certain speaker on campus, for example.

Dr Ahmed said another pattern was for these Muslim groups and leftists to ally themselves.

"I remember going to a protest (in Sydney during the recent Hezbollah-Israel conflict in Lebanon) and seeing environmental groups going Allah Akhbar (God is great) in harmony with some Lebanese groups,’’ Dr Ahmend said.

"The God is great line wasn’t about religion, it was about social protest."

It’s a well-known fact that socialists are joining forces with radical Islamists. We see the same thing in Europe. Anyone who dares to speak up against Islamic fascism is labelled a racist by leftist groups. The risk of being stigmatised silences people, and that lays the ground for true racism to flourish in a near future. To hardcore socialists these might be irrelevant fears as class warfare is their main priority, but to liberals who wish to protect universal civil liberties it is.

The madness continues:

Two American priests were consecrated Thursday as Anglican bishops in Kenya, the latest in a string of conservative priests who are defecting to African churches in a dispute over gay clergy.

Bill Atwood of Texas and William Murdoch of Massachusetts left the Episcopal Church—the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion—because it allows the ordination of gay priests.

"The gospel … must take precedence over culture," said Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, one of 10 Anglican leaders or representatives who attended the ceremony in Nairobi’s All Saints Cathedral. "Homosexual practice violates the order of life given by God in Holy Scripture."

Note the Archbishop’s choice of words. Homosexuality has nothing to do with culture. Religious scriptures, on the other hand, have everything to do with culture. The defecting Anglicans pick the Bible before God’s creation.

Precis som väntat gör nu de muslimska personerna som känner sig hånade över en kritstrecksritat hund, flaggbränning och brännande av docka föreställande statsminister Reinfeldt.

Utanför Nerikes Allehanda demonstrerar man och säger: – Väldigt många är upprörda, men vi har uppmanat alla att genomföra en lugn demonstration. Vi lever i det här samhället och kräver samma respekt som vi visar alla andra medborgare i det här landet, förklarar Abdul Rahman.

Japp. Respekten ni får av mig är: tyck vad ni vill, det är er rätt. Men att bränna flaggor och dockor föreställande statsministern är lågt och ointelligent, lite grann "där hjärnan tar slut tar nävarna vid".

Jag är personligen inte direkt förvånad över att det ska brännas flaggor och demonstreras och krävas ursäkter till höger och vänster, det verkar vara det sättet man anser vara det korrekta i sammanhanget. Nu väntar jag bara på attackerna mot ambassaderna med brandbomber och kanske en och annan bomb mot andra liknande länders (vars flaggor ser lite liknande ut) ambassader eller företag. För det är ju egentligen det det handlar om tror jag. Islam har visat sig vara en ganska enkelspårig religion som egentligen inte vill nåt annat än att alla andra måste dö i Allahs namn. Respekt för andra ingår inte i Islam, det finns bara ett rättesnöre att hålla sig efter, och hur vi än vrider och vänder på oss så sitter vi på fel sida om den. Vi ligger ju inte med näsan i mattan flera gånger om dagen, våra kvinnor är fria varelser med egen sexualitet bland annat.

Om man nu tittar noga på dessa människor som står och bränner flaggorna så uppkommer en fråga i mitt huvud. Dessa männsikor verkar inte ens veta vad Sverige är, inte ens att det är ett litet skitland i norra delarna. Kanske är det därför som Svenska flaggan är grön med gult kors.

Dock, härmed måste jag erkänna att jag känner mig oerhört kränkt när man inte ens kan skilja mellan blått och grönt på svenska flaggan och jag undrar nu vad jag ska hitta på för att få utlopp över att min landskänsla har kränkts så oerhört. Ska jag kanske måla en flagga i blått för att likna Pakistans flagga och gå ut och bränna den? Ska jag måla plakat och demonstrera mot flaggbrännande/skändandet genom att bränna en niddocka av Mohammed? Gör det mig mindre kränkt? Nej, naturligtvis inte, det får mig ju bara att framstå som ganska korkad, samt att det hela sjunker till sandlådenivå.

Det har dock fått en reaktion hos mig, och om det var det man var ute efter så var det effektivt. Jag har numera tappat näst intill allt förtroende för Islam och börjar se den med nya ögon som en människofientlig religion, samt att jag kommer att hjälpa till att upprätthålla nya nidbilder och förhåningar av Mohammed, den hunden!

JP Rosengren