France has long been one of the most illiberal countries in terms of drug policy. Along with Sweden, it has sought to block every attempt to have harm reduction replace criminalisation is the main strategy against problems associated with illegal drugs. It is therefore something of surprise to learn that France is considering opening “shooting galleries” for people addicted to drugs. I welcome this development and hope it will spread to Sweden and others countries where drug addiction is still seen as a crime best dealt with by policing and imprisonment.

I predict that France will follow Germany and shift its approach to drug taking. Forty years of zero-tolerance and criminalisation has only made matters worse for both individuals and society.

Faith schools have the right to discriminate against gay teachers. Fine by me. The problem is that I doubt it applies to other forms of xenophobic ideas.

I believe all employers should have the right to employ whomever they wish. Discrimination laws violate people’s liberties. To discriminate is still morally despicable, though. Name and shame those who discriminate, but don’t use the law to force them to submit.

There is a new man-god in Pyongyang.

A bizarre film that illustrates what happens when “science” becomes dogmatic. Killing those who question the theory of human-made global warming is part of a new British campaign.

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Progress in California.

Anyone who has had a confrontation with an anti-circumcision lobbyist can relate to this sarcastic portrait. From the article:

Essential tenets of the cult are that the foreskin is infallible and must be strongly defended. Nature makes no mistakes; therefore all parts of the body are perfect in design. Hence newborn circumcision is inherently wrong.

Moreover, they falsely assert that it is equivalent to female genital mutilation and is a violation of human rights. Unlike science, which is based on a utilitarian, meta-ethical analysis, the arguments of the anti-circs start from a deontological (moral absolutionist) position, thus prohibiting any compromise.

Any research that disagrees with their position is deemed flawed. References to support their claims are deceptive and they use statistical games to discredit good peer-reviewed scientific studies. They also claim that doctors who carry out circumcision do so as part of an “industry” with profit as the only motive. Another claim, contrary to scientific data, is that circumcised men are sexually and psychologically damaged and don’t realise it or are in denial.

Exactly. Talking to these people is like talking to religious anti-abortion activists. They are in most cases so convinced of their own superior ethics that no arguments get through. Everybody who questions them is labelled a bad person with no respect for children’s human right—and everyone who wishes to see a practice legal is assumed to love it. Self-interest is apparently the only motivator. Such things as parents’ rights, liberty, and diversity are not even on the map—or given complete opposite meaning: parents’ rights is then limited to the extent that there is no room for alternatives; liberty is redefined as the freedom to do what the prohibitionists say; and diversity is to assimilate into an image of the prohibitionists.

I defend Jewish and Muslim parents’ right to have their sons circumcised and women’s right to legal abortions not because I love it but because I believe the state should leave people be. What kind of libertarian would I be if I only defended those who do what I like?

A 17-year-old member of the Young Christian Democrats was physically attacked in Malmö yesterday by a man who accused him of “talking bad about Palestine” on Facebook. On the perpetrator’s Facebook-page, a message had been posted stating that the young Christian Democrat should die because his is a “Jew lover”.

I didn’t participate myself, but here are a few pictures of yesterday’s parades through central Malmö.

Where is the international outcry that follows when Israel does the exact same thing? Knowing the pro-Palestinian leftists in Europe, I think there is a twofold reason for this. Firstly, the Egyptians are Muslim and therefore good. Secondly, Egypt is not a democracy and therefore has no obligation to behave ethically correct according to democratic standards.

The Israelis are Jews and democrats and therefore wrong by default.

If nothing else works, there is always the “guilt by association” to fall back on. It works for the wicked every time.

I wonder what a Russian homophobe makes of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

According to ABC News, the Islamist terrorists are about to launch an attack on so-called soft targets in Europe. This means that they will attack civilian targets where people are unarmed and unable to fire back.

I figure Europe is a better target than both Israel and the United States. We are a continent of cowards indoctrinated with post-colonial guilt and a perverted tendency to side with fascism. If al-Qaeda attacks us, we will have leftist politicians and intellectuals telling us how we mistreated the poor in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Islamophobic politicians of Europe’s far right will do whatever they can to blame European Muslims. The one thing Europe will not do is to hit back against al-Qaeda.

This is quite funny. I never really understood why it is so important to have separate toilets for men and women.

Don’t lick, just put it in. Per Westerberg, Kent Härstedt, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Kent Härstedt, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Kent Härstedt, Kent Härstedt, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg, Per Westerberg… Blah, blah… Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, some Nazi, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm, Ulf Holm… zzzzz.

The perverts want to kill as many civilians as possible. Ordinary people are the targets.

The legendary gay club in New York has once again seen a series of vicious homophobic attacks. At least two men have been assaulted at the club. One of them was bashed while urinating in the bathroom.

Sweden Democrat MP Kent Ekeroth explains why he and his colleagues left the church during the bishop’s anti-racism sermon, “The church just couldn’t refrain from agitating against the Sweden Democrats.”

Ekeroth is a fool, but he is a cutie, so I post his new official MP press picture here for all perverts to enjoy.

No one knows what to do with the two females—one of which is a transsexual—who wish to work on the Mediterranean island. The law does not prohibit prostitution, but brothels are illegal. Their lawyer sums up the dilemma, “My clients are willing to pay social security, income tax, the works. They want to be fully licensed, you see. But we haven’t been able to find out whether local, Cypriot sex workers, do these things. If I had to guess, I’d say they don’t—but that’s the problem, no one knows the answer to these questions.”

There is one very simple solution to this problem—legalisation. It is the moralism surrounding sex and prostitution that causes these problems.

Forget the Middle Eastern peace process for a moment, Mr President. Bo needs you.

I love it when people focus on what is important.

I received some complaints about one of the entries I posted yesterday. The readers who sent me emails don’t like that I suggested Sweden Democratic MPs are Nazis. Well, I don’t believe they are Nazis in the sense that they subscribes to the ideas of Hitler, but the party they represent did just that not too long ago. In the 1990s, prominent members of the Sweden Democrats burned down refugee camps and intimidated gay people. It is not so long ago, and it would be foolish to now forget these violent attacks on human and civil rights only because the party has won seats in the Swedish Parliament.

I often label the Swedish Left Party as the Communist Party for a similar reason. The Left Party no longer describes itself a communist party, but what separates it from the Social Democratic Party is its history of loyalty to Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, and all the other commie dictators. And it still embraces revolutionary Marxist ideas about violence and terrorism as a legit method to gain political power and silence the opposition.

The contemporary Sweden Democrats doesn’t advocate genocide or anti-Semitism, but much of its political agenda is based on xenophobia, homophobia, and naïve collectivism. Muslims in particular are defined as a homogeneous group of people that is collectively responsible for radical Islamism and crimes committed by a few.

One reader wrote that I humiliated Sweden Democratic MP Kent Ekeroth with my remarks about his looks. Oh please! So I wrote he is cutie. I think he survives some gay affection.

One big step for liberty was taken when the Western High Court ruled that knife-carrying people in cowboy costumes are not violating Denmark’s strict weapons laws. If you plan a good stabbing, dress appropriately.

It’s a bit like Sweden’s law against prostitution. If you record your sexual act on camera, the act is considered art and the sex worker an actress and the whole thing is protected by the nation’s constitutional paragraph on free speech.

There’s not much room left for individual liberty in the Western world. Thank God for loopholes and creative judges.

An important message to young gay people contemplating suicide. It’s true; it does get better.

The Nigerian version of Sesame Street features a HIV-positive character. I think this is a brilliant way to visualise people living with HIV and teach others about the issue.

A writer and libertarian activist wins the most prestigious prize in literature.

Sam Harris is an atheist who is strongly opposed to multiculturalism and moral relativism. In Huffington Post, he argues in favour of a realist and scientific take on ethics. He writes:

Imagine that there are only two people living on earth: We can call them “Adam” and “Eve.” Clearly, we can ask how these two people might maximise their well-being. Are there wrong answers to this question? Of course. (Wrong answer #1: They could smash each other in the face with a large rock.) And while there are ways for their personal interests to be in conflict, it seems uncontroversial to say that a man and woman alone on this planet would be better off if they recognised their common interests—like getting food, building shelter and defending themselves against larger predators. If Adam and Eve were industrious enough, they might realise the benefits of creating technology, art, medicine, exploring the world and begetting future generations of humanity. Are there good and bad paths to take across this landscape of possibilities? Of course. In fact, there are, by definition, paths that lead to the worst misery and to the greatest fulfillment possible for these two people—given the structure of their brains, the immediate facts of their environment, and the laws of Nature. The underlying facts here are the facts of physics, chemistry, and biology as they bear on the experience of the only two people in existence.

The problem is that he—like all other moral realists—is limited by his own subjective values, which is exatly what he opposes. It is probably true that primitive species are limited by biology, but human beings are not. To assume that the most rational thing for Adam and Eve would be to create “technology, art, medicine, exploring the world and begetting future generations of humanity” one must first hold for truth that life itself has value and that a yet non-existing future is worth sacrifice in the present. If not, why assume that the best thing for a rational couple like Adam and Eve would be to continue living? It seems fairly rational to end one’s life in such an enviroment, does it not?

If I were to reply to Harris, I would say that human beings could not survive without its fiction-based ethics. We need to believe in a nonfactual purpose of life to have any rational reason for doing anything not immediately beneficial to ourselves. Once we have a satisfying set of beliefs, we can treat it as fact and begin to add value to the otherwise meaningless chain of acts that takes up our existence. This is why religion has been absolutely vital in all human cultures to date.

Yesterday, the Swedish Academy announced that Mario Vargas Llosa, a genuine freedom fighter from Peru, wins the Nobel prize in Literature. Today, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese democracy activist, has won the Peace prize.

Needles to say, the Socialist Left is not happy.

It will be interesting to see if China Daily will stop ignoring the Nobel Peace prize. If the Communist Party has any sense, it would allow an article about Liu Xiaobo.

Sreeram Chaulia of Asia Times wrote about China and Nobel Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo the day before the announcement.

The German government is one of many Western governments to demand that China allows Liu Xiaobo to receive his prize in Oslo.

I loved Oliver Stone’s original “Wall Street”. I know from interviews with the director that he intended it to be fierce criticism of capitalism and greed, but like many people of my generation, I saw nothing in the film that suggested capitalism and getting the most out of life are bad. It is true that the main character goes too far and breaks the law, but neither my friends nor I attributed this to the free market. Criminals exist in all system—communism, still capitalism’s main rival in the mid-1980s, was certainly no exception.

This afternoon, I saw Stone’s sequel to his 1987 success. In “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, Stone takes no chances. This time, all capitalists are sociopaths who care for nothing but money. The good guys are born-to-money non-profit idealists who are willingly being abused because they hold a higher, nobler morality. It is a sadomasochistic film of sorts.

No one can miss Stone’s message of capitalism being bad. That message is repeated in several versions over and over throughout the film. The free-market system is like cancer, it is corrupt, it is madness, and it does not produce anything of value to humanity. So why do we continue to trade with each other? Because we are made insane by the system. I suppose one must be a rich Hollywood personality with connections in Havana to see how mad we all are.

There are two good things to say about the film. One is that it shows the hypocrisy amongst top bankers who turn to the government for money when their bad investments threaten themselves. Free markets are fine to these people as long as they are not personally affected. As one character in the film points out, running to the government when your bank is facing bankruptcy is socialism.

However, the single best thing about the film is Shia LaBeouf. He is a brilliant actor and a pleasure to look at.

Jewish communities in America are joining the fight against homophobia. They are about to launch a campaign against discrimination and bullying of gay people. The initiative is a reaction to a series of young gay people having committed suicide after being bullied. The text now circulating in Jewish communities around America reads:

Do Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save Lives

As members of a tradition that sees each person as created in the divine image, we respond with anguish and outrage at the spate of suicides brought on by homophobic bullying and intolerance.

We hereby commit to ending homophobic bullying or harassment of any kind in our synagogues, schools, organisations, and communities. As a signatory, I pledge to speak out when I witness anyone being demeaned for their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. I commit myself to do whatever I can to ensure that each and every person in my community is treated with dignity and respect.

Hilarious headline from Christwire. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)

According to Paul Golin, this is the biggest divide in the American Jewish community. I think it applies to Europe, too. I think the same thing could be said about most, if not all, subcultures.

(Via Religion and State in Israel.)

China should listen.

It is the plea from Adam, a 13-year-old gay boy in America. Part of the ongoing It Gets Better campaign, which is an attempt to halt the wave of suicide attempts by young gay people in America.

A campaign called We Give a Damn features professional television advertisement with celebrities saying that they care if gay people think suicide is the only way to escape homophobia.

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The New Jersey Jewish Standard has decided not to run same-sex marriage announcements after the first such announcement was criticised by Orthodox rabbis. The editor writes, “Our subsequent discussions with representatives from that community have made us aware that publication of the announcement caused pain and consternation, and we apologise for any pain we may have caused.”

In other words, two men who announced their love for each other caused the rabbis pain and consternation. It is so unbelievably absurd that I cannot find words for it.

About a hundred police officers were injured earlier today in clashes with fascist groups that intended to attack a Pride Parade through the Serbian capital. The fascists responded to calls from the Serbian Orthodox Church, which in a statement said that gay people violate public morality undermine “the most sacred of Christian values”. I guess that sacred value is hatred of minorities.

The narcissistic Kim dynasty has a new top dog. His name is Kim Jong-un and is just as ugly as his two predecessors. He basically looks like a man-size condom in a military uniform.

Update: More pictures of Mr Kim here.

Identity politics in action. (Via Towleroad.)

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A grim report from Amsterdam in the Toronto Sun:

According to an “offender study” by the University of Amsterdam, there were 201 reports of anti-gay violence in that city in 2007—and researchers believe for every reported case there are as many as 25 unreported ones. Two thirds of the predators are Muslim youths.

My husband is in China and took this picture of a cat in a wall.

The Palestinians expect everyone to recognise their state but they refuse to recognise the Jewish state.

Congratulation to one of the international blogosphare’s pioneers.

Children should not be brainwashed into believing that gay people are equal to heterosexuals, says Republican candidate for Governor of New York, Carl P. Paladino.

Islamist terrorists threaten France.

Jews, atheists, and agnostics have the most liberal attitude. A large majority of white evangelicals oppose marriage equality.

More information here. The Economist has a nice chart.

I can’t understand why so many young people want to be famous. This must be hell.

A gay-rights organisation in America has 150,000 letters asking Boyd K. Packer to recant recent anti-gay statements. Wouldn’t it be better to simply tell the old fart to go to hell? That’s what I would have done. Oops, I think I just did.

In a column on Slate, Christopher Hitchens writes about all the people who should run for a job in politics but choose not to. He asks, “What normal person would consider risking their career and their family life in order to undergo the incessant barrage of intrusive questioning about every aspect of their lives since well before college?”

His name Howard Jacobson and he describes himself as “a Jewish Jane Austen”.

Yizhar Hess thinks the Orthodox monopoly is coming to an end in Israel as public opinion is changing and people grow accustom to progressively Jewish features like female rabbis. I hope he is right.

Live coverage of the ongoing rescue operation in Chile, where 33 minors have been trapped 700 metres underground for 69 days.

This is absurd.

You can tell that a straight woman wrote this.

The Jewish Week runs a story about the insane Christian sect known as the Westboro Baptist Church. It is not really funny, but along with the “there are no beanies in the Torah” part I could not refrain from laughing when I read this:

Despite inflammatory signs, such as “Your Rabbi Is A Whore” and “God Hates Fags” and “Obama is a Beast,” Phelps-Roper insisted her group loves all humanity and is trying to save people they consider sinners from damnation.

It’s love that makes them tell us that God hates us and that our rabbis are whores? Yeah, right.

Well, not everybody, but enough people to make the property market boom. I wouldn’t mind a nice flat in Tel Aviv.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the most insanely evil people on earth, is about to preach anti-Semitism near the Lebanese border with Israel. He is responsible for Hezbollah’s activities, he has killed and tortured thousands of Iranians, he is about to get himself a nuclear weapon, and he has promised to wipe out Israel. The world is not doing enough to stop this lunatic. It is about time someone took him out.

Kurt Loder has seen the new Jackass film:

Most of us think of a penis as having two purposes. But as we learn in Jackass 3D, the latest anarch-a-thon from Johnny Knoxville and his demented companions, this is a narrow view. In one of the movie’s many singular stunts—an interlude called “The Helicockter,” I’m afraid—we see that a penis properly equipped with a very long cord can pilot a remote-controlled model airplane high in the sky. At another point, in a demonstration of what would have to be called penis baseball, a ball is pitched, the penis takes a swing (size does matter here) and connects, and then—the topper—another player, unrelated to the penis, pops up brandishing the ball in his clenched teeth.

I’m torn. A film with penis baseball sounds fun, but do I want to see the Jackass men naked, again? Hm, well—no.

When newsman Rupert Murdoch held a speech at an Anti-Defamation League dinner earlier this week, he said:

In Europe today, some of the most egregious attacks on Jewish people, Jewish symbols, and Jewish houses of worship have come from the Muslim population.

Unfortunately, far from making clear that such behavior will not be tolerated, too often the official response is what we’ve seen from the Swedish mayor—who suggested Jews and Israel were partly to blame themselves.

When Europe’s political leaders do not stand up to the thugs, they lend credence to the idea that Israel is the source of all the world’s problems—and they guarantee more ugliness. If that is not anti-Semitism, I don’t know what is.

Mr Murdoch is right.

It is about time the regime in the enlightened communist monarchy of North Korea tells us democratic, freedom-loving suckers what’s what. I salute His Excellency, the Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love, for this initiative.

Watch the website here—and be amazed.

It reminds me of how Swedish Social Democrats work at retirement homes.

– I want more pills!
– You want socialism.

How I have waited for this. According to a fashion oracle in America, skateboards, T-shirts, and unemployment are so not in for men this season. Men who care about their attractiveness want a strong body capable of physical labour, a suit, and a job.

Must stop writing now. The computer is getting wet. I’m drooling at my mental picture of modern man.

EU Observer has a special webpage devoted to the issue. Plenty of interesting articles.

An 18-year-old man was convicted of murder this week. He said he killed his 10-year-old brother because he wanted to be like “Dexter” in the television series with the same name.

Had Plato been around, he would have used this case to prove his point about the dangers of fictional drama. Aristotle would have disagreed.

Sweden’s former state church, now restyled as “the national church”, which still counts seven million members (about 70 per cent of the population), has produced this video to promote one of its choirs. In short, it’s tits mixed with sacral music. In its black-and-white style, it resembles Madonna’s Erotica from 1993. Straight men will love this, I’m sure, but what would Martin Luther say?

Update: I have now been informed that the Church of Sweden did not make the video; it only distributed it to Swedish media to promote a guest appearance by the Belgian choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers. I stand corrected. It is not promotion for one of the church’s choirs, and it was not produced by the Church. However, the Church did distribute it to a number of Swedish blogs and newspapers.

Some suggest the party label itself the “Family Party”, others opt for “Freedom Party”.

Why not call yourself the Socially Conservative Party when everybody knows that this best describes your ideology? You dislike change, feel uncomfortable about non-religious minority groups, and oppose gender equality.

The new Dutch government considers a change in the law that would turn coffee shops into private clubs restricted for Dutch residents only. I think this would be a huge mistake, as the illegal trade in the street would take off.

A somewhat different father-son project. Cool, though.

I missed this story myself, but found it via Tor Billgren. More in English here and here.

I thought queer nationalism died with William S. Burroughs, but then I found this. I don’t think I will see a gay state in my lifetime, but to rule it out completely would be foolish. That is what people did about Zionism for a hundred years before the Jewish state was created in 1948. In the early twentieth century, people laughed at the Zionists and said their aims were completely unrealistic. History proved the critics wrong.

I must admit that I have played with the thought of a gay nation. In my five years of writing this blog I have received many emails from gay individuals who are trapped in a homophobic environment and fear for their lives. Most of them live in countries far from Europe and ask me for advice on how to get to Sweden or some other liberal place in the West. I feel bad for them when I send a reply that crushes their dream. To get asylum in Europe and America is very, very difficult for a gay person who cannot prove that his or her life is at stake. The immigration authorities send gay people back to countries where they risk being stoned to death if anyone suspects that they are not altogether heterosexual. Even otherwise liberal politicians can sometimes be heard defending this inhumane practice, saying that these refugees risk noting if they only learn not to boast about their sexual preferences and engage in an alternative lifestyle. As if being gay was some fashion statement—a matter of taste.

So yes, the idea of a gay state is not altogether a bad one. It would be nice to say to gay people in despair that there is a country for them, a place that will accept them for who they are from the moment they arrive. This is precisely what Israel offers Jews around the world.

The Swedish National Migration Board has denied WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a residence permit. Not that it will matter much, many reports from former colleagues suggest that WikiLeaks is in complete turmoil due to Assange’s arrogance and bad behaviour. Too much publicity tends to make people believe the hype about them. The WikiLeaks project is now a one-man show. I think we will look back on it in a few years and see that Julian Assange is the MC Hammer of new media.

Take a look at this video of Sam Harris’s speech at TED. He is arguing in favour of moral realism, but he seeks to validate his opinion by appealing to the audience’s feeling towards burqas and violent sexism in another culture. The objective value he tries to link to the facts he presents is that mistreatment of women is wrong. Who can disagree? I certainly cannot. But what would happen if Harris addressed an all-male Taliban audience? Would they too agree that the fact that women in their society are forced to wear burqas and are sometimes beaten and killed is morally wrong? I think not.

I’m not suggesting that Taliban society is equally good or bad to Western society. Far from it. Western society is superior on its merits. However, to have everyone claim moral objectivity makes no progress.

Update: According to a Newsweek article, Harris shuns the label “atheist”. Well, this makes sense. Atheists often say that it is irrational to believe in anything unprovable, and subsequently is the belief in God irrational. I often reply that the same thing goes for morality and that anyone who subscribes to these strict rules of rationality must deem ethics irrational, too. Therefore, I think Sam Harris’s coming out as a spiritual man makes sense.

Update 2: I like this part:

“I see nothing irrational about seeking the states of mind that lie at the core of many religions. Compassion, awe, devotion and feelings of oneness are surely among the most valuable experiences a person can have,” he writes. Over lunch, he says with a smile how much he looks forward to working on the next project, which will allow him to pull back, after six long years, and focus on things that support human flourishing. “Ecstasy, rapture, bliss, concentration, a sense of the sacred—I’m comfortable with all of that,” says Harris later. “I think all of that is indispensable and I think it’s frankly lost on much of the atheist community.”

Too much of the debate is focused on a realist account of God’s existence. If we look at many of the values promoted by religion, we find that not only do many belief systems share core ideas, but these fundamentals are present in most of contemporary ideologies as well. That doesn’t mean that these values are objectively true, but it does suggest that they stand strong in the free market of ideas.

Update 3: More here.

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If you cannot speech freely at the university, what is the point of the university?

A new survey published by Global Times suggests that only 9 per cent of the Chinese think Nobel Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo should be released from prison and allowed to travel to Norway. Meanwhile, 41.1% thinks China should ignore or downplay the prize, 33.1% believes Chine should accuse the Novel Committee of pushing a Western agenda, and 58.6% says Norway should apologise to China.

Personally, I think the whole survey is bogus. When the dictator calls, the people say what they think the dictator wants to hear.

Read more here.

What happened to the Republicans? How on earth can a person like Christine O’Donnell be allowed to represent the party in an election? Not only does she campaign against masturbation, now she appears to know nothing about the constitution and America’s secular tradition. To be honest, a lot of atheists have done their best to distort secularism to the extent that some believe it to be synonymous to atheism. However, anyone who knows anything about the United States knows that it has no state religion. For a very long time, this was what separated it from Europe and made it attractive for so many Europeans with a faith outside of the mainstream.

Bureaucrats from a Swedish municipality demand that a cosmetic retailer stop telling its customers about the use of cannabis in some of its products. They believe young people will start smoking pot otherwise. Luckily, the retailer ignores the demand. Good.

The police in Malmö now warn immigrants of a racist shooter.

From the calendar website:

A celebration of British nerdishness in all its glory.

A project about geeks, by geeks, in support of geeks, raising money for the UK Libel Reform campaign.

Too bad it’s only British nerds. I want Mark Zuckerberg in briefs.

I hate this.

Hundreds of units are under construction in dozens of settlements. I think it could hurt the peace process, but the settlers need somewhere to live, too.

Venezuelan de facto dictator Hugo Chávez and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad have a joint project. They want to destroy the only democracy in the Middle East.

Sweden’s third city fears a racist serial killer.

The latest developments in Swedish here.

More in English here.

Here.

With the support of extreme-left politician George Galloway and the fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe, Lutfur Rahman has become the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets.

The American president addresses young gay people tormented by bullies. His message is that it gets better. He is right; it does get better—in most cases anyway. But he is also right about another thing; it shouldn’t be OK to bully people. In my experience, the bullying of gay people is primarily legitimised by two ideas.

The first one is the religion-based idea that same-sex love and sex is against God’s will. It is a common belief in Christianity and Judaism, bit it’s not true. God loves gay people! Had King David been around today, the homophobes would have accused him of promoting the “homosexual agenda” when he spoke of his love for Jonathan. But he and his love was no mistake. God picked him among all his other brothers because he was different.

The second idea is a biological one and it’s popular among homophobes who like Darwinism. They say that because two people of the same sex cannot reproduce by themselves, homosexuality is wrong. Since they are often scientists who take observation for the truth, they admit that homosexual animals do exist, but they love to add that these animals is the exception and that homosexual behaviour can only be explained by what service it does to heterosexuals. If sexual selection among heterosexual individuals benefits from some individuals being gay, than it is OK to be gay.

These biologists are wrong. Evolution has neither purpose nor ethics. Whatever is doable is fine by nature. Even if all individuals would be gay, the species would survive as long as many enough reproduce—and you don’t have to be straight to produce offspring. Besides, what is ‘the truth’ in biology reflects noting but the observer. It’s no coincidence that ‘science’ so often confirms the values and culture of the scientists. Whatever your moral preference, there is a monkey to validate it.

People who point this out are often accused of being unscientific sceptics. Well, it is not the sceptic’s fault that so much of science is based on assumptions. If the homophobic biologists want to believe that nature has an opinion about human sexuality, it’s their choice. It has nothing to do with any objective truth independent from these people.

Watch Obama’s speak about bullying here.

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At least four gay people have been attacked after tabloid Rolling Stone named a hundred gay men and women and advocated their execution.

The American Rolling Stone magazine is protesting the use of its name in the hate campaign. Good for them.

Homophobia is institutionalised in Uganda. Politicians are campaigning against human rights for gay people. Ugandan MP David Bahati is one of them. He defends a bill that would legalise genocide. When asked what he would do if he learned that his brother is gay, he replies that he would report him to the police even if that meant lifelong imprisonment. Make no mistake; this is in no way different from sending people to prison for their race, gender, religion, or ethnicity.

Only a few minutes ago, reports came of new gunfire.

The police warn of public panic.

Shooting get international media attention.

Modern romance? More like bad romance.

The rumour has been officially denied, but Gizmodo’s Cyriaque Lamar thinks it’s what the studio would do even if the rumour were true. I would love a new trilogy, but I hope Lucas cuts down on the computer animated stuff and return to the style of the first three films. I still haven’t forgiven him for The Phantom Menace.

Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, praises Sayyid Qutb, the father of modern Islamism. Qutb wrote a book after a long visit to America, making the case against democracy and liberalism based on his observation of Western women being free to dress and behave as they wish. Horrific liberty, Qutb thought, and set about to warn the Arab world of the evils of freedom and individualism.

Mr Elibiary, who is supposed to help America fight Islamism, has expressed sympathy for Qutb’s core idea that a people ought to care more about God than each other; divine law should govern people’s lives rather than the law of the land. The goal of Islam, according to Qutb, is to conquer the world and eliminating everything and everyone non-Islamic.

In other words, Qutb’s take on Islam is the most savagely radical there is. This is the type of Islamic fundamentalism the Islamophobes think applies to all Muslims. Thankfully, it is only a tiny minority that subscribes to Qutb’s ideology. But it’s bad that this mad minority has a man in Homeland Security.

Men with a higher BMI are better in bed than slimmer men.

More here.

A new survey of the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland suggests a majority wants the church to marry same-sex couples, Swedish-language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reports.

An interesting interview on Britannica’s blog.

PS, I like to live in a time when encyclopaedias blog.

Inspired by the Americans who wore purple last Wednesday to show young gay people that they are all right, a group of activists in Sweden encourage people to wear purple tomorrow.

The Swedish gay community dress in purple today. We want to send the message to young gay people that it’s OK to be gay. You might face bullying now, but it gets better. In my opinion, being queer is a gift, but there is always the risk of loneliness and discrimination in a society that holds heterosexuality as its norm. By wearing purple today, we make ourselves visible. Hopefully, many young gay people will see people dressed in purple and realise that they are not alone. Gay people are everywhere and of all shape and form.

Join the Facebook group here.

I send a big hug to Micke Kazarnowicz for taking the initiative for a Swedish Purple Day.

Kenneth Lanneskog made the logo.

Update: QX has an article with more information and a collection of YouTube videos from the American ‘It Gets Better’ campaign.

Dutch Islamophobic MP Geert Wilders is honoured with a glossy magazine devoted entirely to him. Well, honoured is perhaps the wrong word. The magazine is mocking him pretty good.

The Netherlands is often regarded as one of Europe’s most modern and progressive countries. On many political and cultural issues, this is true; but what few people know is that the monarchy plays a far bigger role in Dutch politics than is the case in most other European kingdoms. A new survey of Dutch voters suggests that the country is now divided over the issue. About half the electorate wants to reduce the Queen’s role to a ceremonial position.

A Christian organisation in Colorado that supports the anti-gay bill in Uganda—which seeks to legalise genocide of gay people—has received federal funds.

Midland School District Board Member Clint McCance is angry with people who think gay people should not kill themselves. One of the things he wrote on his Facebook page reads:

It pisses me off though that we make a special purple fag day for them. I like that fags can’t procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other aids and die. If you aren’t against it, you might as well be for it.

Sympathetic fellow.

The American Human Rights Campaign wants him fired.

Update: He quit. Good. Hopefully, no school will ever have anything to do with him ever again.

All we know at the moment is that two explosives addressed to synagogues have been discovered onboard two aeroplanes.

Global terrorism has shown its ugly face again. This time no people were hurt. Or maybe is should say, so far has no people been hurt. The hunt is on.

Hopeful children from around the world want to tell Santa their wishes for Christmas.

I have bought myself a new notebook. It should arrive any day now. The computer I have used the past five years has been sold and I will deliver it to its new owner in a few days. To prepare it for the handover, I erased my feed aggregator as well as my bookmarks of international news sources. On Thursday, I was convinced that my new computer would arrive on Friday. When it didn’t, I was unable to do my daily routine of news browsing. I normally go through about a hundred online newspapers every day, but over the weekend I only managed a few since it takes so long to actually visit every single website.

What did people do before news feeds, I ask myself? Watch the news on television? Read printed newspaper? I don’t remember.

I have also ordered some new software that will help me blog. In an email, the company I ordered it form promises it will be delivered within five days. I’m not sure about that. It always takes that extra day, it seems.

In case the blog looks dead, it’s because I put myself in this position. I erased vital stuff on my current computer before I actually had a new one. Lesson learned for the future.