Swedish readers should listen to Svante Weyler’s excellent radio column about migration, integration, and the respect for minority groups.

Soon, no one will be able to give first-hand witness to the massacre of 875,000 people at Treblinka. Personally, I think it will be increasingly difficult to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. We see the problem in Europe already with at growing ignorance of anti-Semitism. Nowadays, it is politically correct to blame Jews for everything from the Palestinian conflict to the economic downturn.

An unusual take on the pot business. Yes, I know, it’s Berkeley.

“A Ugandan judge has ordered a Kampala newspaper to stop publishing photographs, names and addresses of gay people,” the Guardian reports. The lists already in print have caused several cases of gay bashing.

An new survey shows a big majority of Israeli Jews wants a peace deal with the Palestinians.

The Republicans gain a majority in the House of Representatives. Good for them, I guess. I’m not sure it’s so great for those of us who want to see equality between gays and straights in America.

To be honest, tonight I’m more interested in the cannabis referendum in California.

Update: Andrew Sullivan is live-blogging to election.

An American organisation known as National Organisation for Marriage, which is entirely devoted to promote discrimination of gay people, says it has managed to remove all three judges that gave Iowa marriage equality. A sad day for everyone who believes in liberty and justice for all.

Update: Andrew Sullivan writes:

A very depressing result in Iowa as all three Justices who voted for marriage equality in the state constitution are removed after a brutal campaign against them by NOM. This has never happened before in Iowa’s history of allowing such votes since 1962. NOM is also trying to remove marriage rights from gay couples in New Hampshire—and they may have secured a veto-proof majority to rip gay couples legally apart.

This is the kind of mad hatred that makes me happy to live in Europe and not America. Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War and the defeat of Nazism and we find this organised hatred against a minority group in a Western democracy. It’s very depressing.

Update 2: More on NOM here.

The people vote no on 19.

I have bought myself a new computer, and in the migration from my old one, I lost all recent emails. If you have sent me an email in the past couple of weeks, please forgive me for not replying. If it was an important email, send me a reminder.

Is it not ironic that the bureaucrats at the European Commission have proposed a legal right to be forgotten?

For a few years now, Israeli politicians have avoided Britain because they risked being arrested and put on trail for war crimes. This is ridiculous, of course, but it part of the pro-Palestinian camp’s activism. Needless to say, Hamas politicians never face the risk of being “arrested” by activists.

Now the British Foreign Minister William Hague has said that Israeli politician don’t risk arrest.

The try to make it a statement against both bullying and homosexuality at the same time, but everyone with the slightest knowledge about the issues knows that condemnation of homosexuality means bullying gay people. Trying to separate homosexuality from homosexuals is like separating the dark skin from black people. If you make a statement that God hates dark skin, it is an attack on black people. Only morons can think otherwise.

In an article attacking the critics of political atheism, Per Dannefjord of the School of Social Sciences at Växjö University in Sweden writes that Nazism—an extremist ideology of deliberate and systematic genocide—is epistemologically sounder than religion. It says quite a lot about the atheist organisation Dannefjord defends in the article.

Eric Alterman spins on a survey showing that American Jews support the Democrats by a 66 to 31 per cent margin. This is interesting considering the popular portrayal of Barack Obama as unfriendly towards Israel. But, as Alterman points out, this picture may be targeting Christian voters, who are often more pro-Israel than the average Jew.

To compare Israel’s policies towards the Palestinian population to Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews is common in the propaganda war. Now the Jews who know what real apartheid fight back. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has gone online with a project it calls Let’s Talk Israel.

A member of the xenophobic Sweden Democrats called a bartender “fucking foreigner” during a visit to Iceland. Why go abroad if you hate foreigners?

Gay people protesting his agenda with a “kiss-in” will meet him. Good. There is nothing the papacy hates more than gay people in love.

A 51-metre tall statue of Jesus has been built in Poland. It’s bigger than the one in Rio. Hm, WWJS?

The second most important book in Judaism has been translated from ancient Aramaic into Modern Hebrew. It took the translators forty-five years.

He says Congress must act now before the new members take their seats.

Cool protest in Spain.

More here, here, here, and here.

The police have caught a man suspected of being the racist shooter in Malmö.

Since one of the most common infections has proven one of the hardest to combat, this could be a medical revolution.

Thousands of Jew could be stripped of their Jewish status following an investigation by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Shaul Farber writes:

When the Israeli Chief Rabbi’s counsel met last Thursday, the Attorney General’s office made clear that from a procedural perspective the conversion were valid, and that legally anyone who converted was completely Jewish. However, they raised a question about the signators on the conversion certificates.

Had the Israeli chief rabbinate simply offered to amend the signatures—a purely technical matter—then converts would have been protected and assured. In fact, at least two members of the Chief Rabbi’s Council suggested that this be done.

But the fundamentalists carried the day, and this at the expense of those who have converted. A small pack of extremists on the council insisted that the entire issue of conversion be reopened. And thus the investigative committee was formed.

It’s things like this that makes it hard not to like British Tory politician Ann Widdecombe.

Read More

A 27-year-old man in Saudi Arabia has been convicted of practicing homosexuality. He will be punished with 500 lashes and five years in prison.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• Israel plans 1,300 new homes in east Jerusalem. Reuters describes it as “Arab East Jerusalem”, which is only partly right. Jerusalem—all of it—is the Jewish capital and has been so for several millennia.
• Joe Biden says the sanctions against Iran “have had considerable effect in terms of aggravating Iran’s trade and financial operations.” Good. Question is if it has had enough impart on Iran to refrain from developing nuclear weapons.
• Mkhaimar Abusadawrites about the Hamas’s Islamisation of Gaza.
• One in four Israelis are poor. Most of them are Arabs or ultra-Orthodox Jews.
• Scandinavian architecture is returning to Berlin.
• Majority of Afghans wants peace talks with the Taliban.
• American comedian Steve Martin makes gospel song for atheists.
• The Catholic Church in Switzerland advertises for young, single men to become monks. An opportunity for men who can’t get laid to make a career of their celibacy.
• A Muslim man demands an apology from the Tokyo police.
• In America, it’s time for the annual war on Christmas. Bring out your guns, folks!
• A coming-out story from Botswana.
• Five hundred gay couples have married since Argentina legalised same-sex marriage.
• Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell has been fired after he harassed a gay man on the Internet. Good. I have followed this story, and it’s obvious that Mr Shirvell is an unusually, severely mad homophobe. Read more about it here.

Joel Marks defends his amoralistic position against two common objections. “Moral relativism,” he writes, “seems to me an oxymoron; for morality in its very concept and essence is supposed to be universal and absolute.” Well, that is not always the case. Before I began to study philosophy of religion, I, too, thought that morality must be universal. After all, this is what most contemporary secular philosophers tell us. But then I discovered that there are a number of moral codes with no universal or absolutist claim. Judaism is probably the best known, advocating one morality for its followers and close to none for the rest of humankind. Also, it is completely doable to accept that there are no objective morality and still reason about moral questions as if there were.

John Feffer has written an interesting article about the Islamophobic movement and the myths that make its views of Muslims:

Irrational fears are often rooted in our dimly remembered childhoods. Our irrational fear of Islam similarly seems to stem from events that happened in the early days of Christendom. Three myths inherited from the era of the Crusades constitute the core of Islamophobia today: Muslims are inherently violent; Muslims want to take over the world; and Muslims can’t be trusted.

Read the whole thing here.

British legislators created civil partnership as an alternative to marriage for same-sex couples. Now a straight couple in London wants to use the law. Peter Tatchell, a well-known gay-rights activist, says that it would be heterophobic not to allow the heterosexual couple the right to have a civil partnership.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• Binyamin Netanyahu confronts anti-Israel attitudes in America.
• The world-famous Chilean miners that were trapped underground for months have been invited to Israel.
• The Zionists killed Michael Jackson and stole the falafel.
• Germany invited anti-Israel agitator to speak at an anniversary ceremony of the 1938 Nazi-sanctioned Kristallnacht pogrom against Jewish communities. This is only the latest example of the campaign to link the Holocaust to Israeli politics and make anti-Semitism legit in Europe.
• Netanyahu says, “Jerusalem in not a settlement.” Good.
• Iraqi Christians fear extinction. I think it’s about time Europe stops treating Christian refugees from Iraq individually. There is a growing risk of genocide, and even if no single person can prove that he or she is personally at risk, they all are as a group of people.
• Hamas is targeting entertainment in Gaza. Islamism and fun don’t go together.
• A killer has been caught. The Daily Telegraph reports on the latest event in my hometown: “A Swedish man suspected of a year-long shooting spree against immigrants in the southern part of the country was remanded in custody on Tuesday on preliminary charges of one murder and five attempted murders.”
• A Christian woman in Pakistan has been sentenced to death after being convicted of defaming the Prophet Mohammed. Madness.
• An Indonesian Muslim politician is annoyed that he had to shake hand with First Lady Michelle Obama. Damn that protocol!
• Less than half of American Muslims support the building of a mosque at Ground Zero in New York.
• Barack Obama had a gay male nanny. I bet some Republicans will use this information in 2012.
• Mike Huckabee joins homophobic group. Wait, is this really news? It would be more of a story if he joined ACLU or HRC and began to talk about equality. That would be news. This is only what to be expected of a conservative Christian.
• Again, here is some non-news that entered the news: “cured” ex-gay men cruise for sex with men. Like we don’t know that? Without the religious fanatics, there would be no cruising.
• Madonna speaks out against gay bullying.
• The president of the Croatian football federation says there is no place for gay men in football. Apparently, you have to be into women to be able to play with balls.
• A celebration of Desmond Tutu and his support for gay rights.
• The Norwegian government wants to learn more about religion in order to better understand other countries. A great idea. Many other countries in Europe seem very ignorant about the importance of religion in many parts of the world. To me honest, Western Europe is the exception. We live in a secularist bubble fooling ourselves that the rest of the world thinks the way we do.
• Finally, I learn that there is an award called “Sikh of the Year”. Amarjit Singh Chandhiok got it this year.

Yesterday I took part in a seminar on sex and erotica in Hinduism. It was part of a series of seminars this semester on the bigger religions’ attitudes towards human sexuality. These two pictures were taken in a Hindu temple in India. They make the synagogues, mosques, and churches seem very dull indeed.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• Commercial communism. A new study suggests old East German communist brands must now focus on the West. I don’t mind communist brand as long as they are “retro”.
• Israel arrests senior Hamas politician.
• Barack Obama wants better relationship with Muslim nations.
• Muslim official blames Michelle Obama for handshake in Indonesia. What an insult!
• The Chilean minors will spend Christmas in Israel.
• Iraqi Christians were the targets in yet another attack yesterday. We are watching the beginning of genocide.
• More than thirty Catholic schools in New York are closing. Who wants to send their children to a Catholic institution these days?
• The Swedish police looked up eight men in a mosque.
• There is a new mosque in the Arctic. Cool. Literally.
• This is queer. A mother is giving birth to her gay son’s baby boy.
• An Australian school refuses to allow gay girl to bring girlfriend to prom.
• The San Diego police refuses to consider an assault a hate crime even though the perpetrators screamed “faggot” to the man they bashed. This is not unique to San Diego. Police do this all the time.
• America to give 150 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority. New bombs for the terrorists and more money on the Swiss bank accounts for the leaders.
• Israel has had 2.8 million tourists so far this year. In October alone, 404,000 tourists visited Israel. Impressive figures for such a tiny country.

From a disturbing press release:

On the 6th of November Kareem Amer was released from the Borj Al Arab prison, where he was held for years, and his official release was meant to be processed, however he was detained by the State Security Intelligence in Alexandria where he faced beatings by a junior officer as well as an order for his continued detainment.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• A farmer in Scotland has been sentenced for large-scale cannabis cultivation. It is not a unique case in any way, but it is yet another example of the effects of criminalisation and the gap between the law and what people want.
• The European Parliament will hold a conference on the Kurdish issue later this month. Good. Turkey is doing its best to shift focus to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to make the world forget about Turkish oppression of the Kurds.
• Anti-Semites are about to establish a pan-European organisation promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel. The Palestinian terrorism against Jews is not mentioned. The victims are blamed for the violence, as they were by European anti-Semites in the past.
• Meanwhile, a group of Nobel laureates have signed a statement opposing a boycott of Israel.
• Orthodox Jews tell gay teenagers that it gets better. More here.
• The family of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is preparing to bring him home from hospital.
• Nick Clegg says the Liberal Democrats got it wrong on Israel.
• Hamas breaks up Arafat memorial in Gaza. The old leader was not mad enough for the new leadership.
• Arab men attacked in Jerusalem hate crime. Despicable.
• Iraqi Christians seek help from their Muslim neighbours.
• Ralph Reed, a former executive director of the Christian Coalition, says Barack Obama must be more “Christ-like”, like Sarah Palin. God help us.
• Students at St Charles North High School in Illinois launch “Straight Pride”, but unlike gay pride, it is all about telling gay people that they are wrong.
• The gay rainbow flag was set on fire at Albion College in Michigan. I guess someone doesn’t like diversity. Flag burning is so silly I doubt anyone take it as an insult.
• Chinese director Lou Ye makes film about gay love in contemporary China. The regime in Beijing is not too pleased. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s first gay film set for release.
• Gay people in America are wealthier and better educate than straight people.
• The president of the Croatian Football Federation has apologised for offending gay people after he said that there was no place for homosexuality on the country’s national team.
• In a new report on gay people in the military, Pentagon says lifting the gay ban would pose minimal risk. It hasn’t in any other country, so why would it be a risk to American troops? I don’t get it.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• German football star wants gay footballers to come out.
• Colombia’s High Court rejects same-sex marriage.
• Gay birds forced to adopt a heterosexual lifestyle.
• San Francisco might vote on circumcision after a city resident is proposing a ballot measure that would ban the procedure. If successful, freedom of religion would no longer apply to San Francisco, as one of the most significant Jewish and Muslim traditions would be prohibited. Shame on the person who proposed the ban!
• Private pictures of girls were stolen from Facebook and published on a Swedish website that allows people to rank the girls by looks.
• A study by the New America Foundation suggests that Sweden threatens global economy.
• Historians say a common culture of remembrance is key to united Europe. I agree. It is only by remembering the history and the many years of constant unrest that we can value the work and progress of the European Union and other pan-European organisations.
• European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding says Europe’s treatment of its Romany population is scandalous. I second that.
• Exorcism is back in Catholic circles.
• Christians in Iraq live in fear of genocide after bomb attacks.
• Christian mob beats a 12-year-old girl because she has a “boy’s name”.
• In a referendum earlier this month, Oklahoma rejected Sharia law. As if anyone had even contemplated the idea of introducing Sharia law in the state.
• The US Supreme Court refuses to block enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military.
• Cindy McCain disagrees with her husband over gay rights. The former presidential hopeful John McCain is no fan of equality under the law.
• Iraqi gays flee to Canada. This has been going on for years now. We must not forget the gay people when the media focus is on the Christian minority.
• Gibraltar Supreme Court considers gay age of consent; it is 16 for straight people and 18 for gay people.
• There is a debate about whether or not to vaccinate only gay-seeming boys against HPV, a virus that can lead to cervical cancer in women and anal cancer in both sexes. I suppose the idea is that gay men have a higher risk of getting anal cancer, but it seems strange to guess boys’ sexual orientation at such an early age. Those of us who have worked with young gay men know that they come in all shapes and forms. It is true that many of the effeminate boys are gay and should be learned from start that it is OK to be gay. But effeminate behaviour is far from a rule applicable to all gay boys. It is not too uncommon that the most straight-acting boy around is gay. In may sound strange, but studies suggest that gay teenagers have more sex with the opposite sex than their straight peers. In my experience, most gay boys try heterosexuality before accepting their true nature.
• Yesterday I wrote about one gay film from China and another one from Malaysia. Now I learn that there is a new gay Bollywood production out today. Gay film is hot in Asia.
• The homophobic lobby in America sponsors a national day against gay people. It’s truly sick.
• A newly found mass grave raises ghosts of Romania’s Holocaust past.
• The police have arrested the Palestinian man who claimed he was God and hurled insults at the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.

Here is some news that caught my attention this midday:

• The British prime minister prepare for a fight with his own party over new EU legislation.
• The Russian prime minister is unhappy about European liberalisation of gas market. Why should we bother about him? Well, because Russia has a habit of turning off the gas for Eastern Europe every time the Moscow leaders don’t get their way. A contract means nothing to them.
• Japanese farmers protest against free trade. For some reason people seem to think that they will lose in free competition. “Our products and services are bad, so we must stop our customers from having a free choice.”
• Aung San Suu Kyi is free from her house arrest in Burma. Among the first thing she said, “I believe in human rights and I believe in the rule of law.” How can you not love a woman like that?
• The Israeli government has begun the building of a fence on the border to Egypt.
• America has offered Israel a package of incentives in exchange for a settlement construction freeze in Judea and Samaria.
• Israel sells 3,000 new homes in Jerusalem. It is tempting.
• The British Chief of the Defence Staff says we cannot defeat al-Qaeda.
• Four boys stabbed man twelve times because he was gay.
• Italian medical researchers have found that plenty of sex gives men long lives.
• Ugandan tabloids continue to harass gay people.

Big news for my Swedish readership. Worthless information for the rest of you. Mona Sahlin is the leader of the Social Democratic Party and she has been one of the party’s most prominent politicians since, well, forever. She unsuccessfully led the green-left opposition in the general election two months ago, and now she has been forced to resign.

I don’t have many good things to say about Mona Sahlin, but I will always admire her courage in the fight for gay rights. She defended our rights long before it became politically correct to do so. For that she deserves praise. Apart from that I can’t think of a single thing she has done right.

Here is some news that caught my attention this afternoon:

• While other European countries no longer deport Christian Iraqis, Sweden continues to do so. Time has an article about the Iraqi Christians in Sweden. I think Sweden ought to stop deporting members of this minority group.
• Socialist lunatic Hugo Chávez praises a general who says the Venezuelan army will not accept an opposition victory in the country’s next presidential election. Remind me again of the difference between this modern communism and the old, Soviet-style communism.
• Who wants to help fix the car that belongs to the Westboro Baptist Church? No one.
• Two million Muslims gather for hajj. Disco!
• Lebanon arrests radical Islamist cleric Omar Bakri. Good. The man is a psychopath.
• Scientists say marriage is bad for your sex life. It is science, so it must be true.
• A German funeral home is hoping to draw in gay clientele by offering erotic caskets.
• A senior Israeli intelligence official warns that Hamas has rockets that put Tel Aviv within range of its launchers.
• The conversion mess in Israel is getting even more surrealistic. Now the state wants to create a separate marriage law for converts. But maybe it is only a way to put pressure on the Chief Rabbinate. If so, it seems to have worked. However, the only long-term solution is for the state accepts all conversions as valid and introduces a civil marriage available for all.

A history lesson for the impatient.

Here is some news that caught my attention this evening:

• The Dutch prepare for the annual Hoerenbal, which doles out awards for top rent boys and prostitutes.
• Christians and Muslims mobilise against Pakistani blasphemy law.
• Gay war veterans protest “Don’t ask, don’t tell” at the White House.
• Research shows that gay people come out at younger age.
• Ex-porn star, ex-estate agent Fredrik Elkund will do reality television.
• Mumbai bans Bollywood gay film.
• She could be the most anti-gay candidate in America.

I think I linked to this before, but it is so important that a second time can do no harm. This could be a life-saving message to gay Jews in the Orthodox environment.

Read More

Here is some news that caught my attention this night:

• Conservative Fox News loudmouth Bill O’Reilly says New York Time’s problem is due to its concern for gay rights and drugs legalisation.
• Evangelical activist David Barton says gay people are “hypersensitive”. Well, it is easy to be that way after 1,500 years of oppression.
• Of the nearly 4,000 Republican state lawmakers expected to serve across America next year, none will be openly gay.
• With only a two-vote margin, the Lithuanian parliament has rejected a homophobic bill that would have banned the so-called promotion of homosexual relations. A second reading is expected in December.
• Human rights cause Tory anger.
• “Europeans are starting to realise that their governments are too big,” Slate’s Anne Applebaum writes. If only.
• Lord Blair of Boughton has some noteworthy things to say about religion.
• Couple to be lashed for sex in the United Arab Emirates. This is fascism.

Here is some news that caught my attention today:

• Palestinian terrorists fire new rockets into Israel. As always, the world remains silent until Israel returns the fire.
• “Peace activists” criticise a planned high-speed rail line in Israel. The mind of the so-called peace activist is truly perverted: fire rockets against Jews is fine; Jews building for modern train travel is despicable.
• British anti-Semites publish names of Israeli soldiers.
• She is at the centre of a deepening rift between the world’s two biggest Jewish communities. “It’s becoming a tyrannical Jewish state,” she says. This conflict between Israeli and American Jewry is a real threat to Israel—much bigger a problem than Palestinian terrorism. Thomas Friedman agrees with me. He warns that Israel is losing the American people.
• A Swedish doctor has been assaulted for being a man. He was attacked and kicked by the relatives of a critical ill woman who had just given birth. Sexism.
• Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to be arrested on suspicion of rape.
• America’s homophobic lobby objects to new hospital rules that would allow gay patients to be visited by their partners.
• The UN decision to remove sexual orientation from an anti-execution resolution may result in more gay people being killed. What is the use of UN? The organisation is a complete failure. The best would be for the democratic world to leave UN and create a new organisation for democracies.

These seventy-nine countries voted against gay people having equal protection from unjust execution: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belise, Benin, Botswana, Brunei Dar-Sala, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Seen in the picture is one of many executions of gay men that take place in the world every year. This one is from Iran. An activist sent the picture to me and many other bloggers. This is what it is about: a man falls in love with another man and the state kills him for it—now with UN endorsement.

From 365 Gay:

A Human Rights Watch spokesperson, Philippe Bolopion, said, “It’s a step backwards and it’s extremely disappointing that some countries felt the need to remove the reference to sexual orientation, when sexual orientation is the very reason why so many people around the world have been subjected to violence.”

Disappointing? It doesn’t even begin to describe what it is.

Here is some news that caught my attention today:

• Aliens abducted Archbishop of Canterbury? Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be ordained as a bishop, says Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, acts as if aliens abducted him and replaced him with someone with a completely contrary view on homosexuality. Interesting theory. It would explain a lot.
• Europe’s real problem is productivity. “Europe mustn’t use tough times as an excuse to delay reform,” Charles Roxburgh writes. “The model is Sweden, which responded to an economic crisis in the 1990s with a wave of reform from which it still benefits today. Europe should seize this crisis as an opportunity to transform the entire region.”
• David Cameron’s new conservative group in the European Parliament is in turmoil. Well, I told you so.
• The Pope says it is OK for male prostitutes to use condom. Interesting.
• John Travolta has a habit of hooking up with men at gay saunas in Los Angeles.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• Israeli Jews still haven’t forgiven Germany for the Holocaust. It may come as no surprise. According to a new poll, an overwhelming majority of Israelis still find it impossible to forgive Germany. I think most people realise that the Germans living today don’t have any guilt, but to forgive a nation is something altogether different.
• Israel in the OECD. “Israel is now a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development,” Haaretz reports. The membership agreement has been ratified and signed by both parties.
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad encourages girls to marry at sixteen. The Iranian dictator wants to lower the average age of marriage in the theocratic state.
• Condoms and the Catholic Church. The Guardian’s Stephen Bates has written a short history of the Vatican policy that has resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths.
• Muslim pupils learn to cut off hands of thieves. This is good news for Islamophobes and conspiracy theorists alike. The Daily Telegraph writes, “Muslim children are being taught how to chop off thieves’ hands and that Jews are plotting to take over the world at a network of Islamic schools.”
• Thailand about to legalise abortion? The discovery of 2,002 foetuses at a Bangkok temple has revived campaigns to legalise abortion in Thailand, the Bangkok Post reports. All experience shows that legal abortion is the only way to save lives.
• Pentagon to issue report on gays in military. The report will be publicised on 30 November when it is sent to the legislators. I would be surprised if Pentagon suggests anything but the gay ban being scrapped.

Here is some news that caught my attention this evening:

• There is nothing wrong with being naked. This is funny. “An internet video featuring naked Swedish high school students frolicking with farm animals and riding tractors on school property is nothing out of the ordinary for Sweden,” The Local writes.
• 1,800-year-old Roman bathing pool uncovered in Jerusalem. Archaeologists have found it in the city’s Jewish Quarter. The Israel Antiquities Authority says that the pool was probably part of a bathhouse used by the very same Roman soldiers who destroyed the Second Temple. Fascinating.
• Can the euro survive? Der Spiegel has an article on the subject. Personally, I am convinced that the euro will survive. The biggest threat is the talk about its failure. What Europe needs is a federal government.
• Would we be happier without God? That is the topic for a Guardian debate. Not that I think anyone could ever give an answer to the question. People believe in God for a number of reasons. For some it is a matter of life and death, for others it is only part of tradition. Also, when we say God, individuals define it differently. For some, it is a personal God, for others it is synonymous to nature, humankind, the universe, or all at one. Perhaps the most interesting about Guardian’s article is that I learned that Christopher Hitchens has challenged Tony Blair to a debate about God. I look forward to it.
• Catholic homophobia produced by gay priests. This is not exactly news to me. Closeted gay men have always been the most homophobic ones. But it is interesting nonetheless that a German theologian has said that much of the homophobia in the Catholic Church can be traced to the large number of gay priests who are attempting to suppress their sexual orientation.
• Australian majority in favour of same-sex marriage. The Australian Green party is predicting that gay marriage will soon become law as a poll shows 57 per cent of the public are in favour of the change. Great news. Gay Australians were the target of a very nasty hate campaign by conservative politicians only a few years ago. Perhaps the hatemongers went too far and made people realise that gay folk are people, too.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• The Pope’s praise of Pius XII sparks Jewish anger. The current pope, Benedict XVI, says about his predecessor that he did all that he could to save people during the Holocaust. This is not true. The fact is that the Vatican did nothing.
• Israeli parliament passes referendum law. The new law makes it more difficult for any government to make a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority. Any such deal must now be approved by the Israeli people in a referendum.
• Iran, North Korea, and Cuba indict America for human-rights abuses. I know, it is absurd. Three countries with absolutely no respect for human rights say the United States violates the very same rules they themselves couldn’t care less about.
• Euro in Estonia. When the European single currency is in turmoil, Estonia is preparing for its changeover on 1 January 2011. Bad timing, perhaps, but the Estonians seem eager to make the euro their currency.
• Circumcision battle in San Francisco. Nathan Thornburgh writes about the anti-circumcision movement that seeks to ban the Jewish Brit Milah. Regular readers of the blog know my opinion. I think it would be a gross violation of people’s religious freedom to ban circumcision. The state should butt out.

I drove through the city about an hour ago and the snow came falling from the sky for the first time this winder. I snapped this picture while driving.

Could this new drug beat the epidemic? I sure hope so.

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Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• The United Nations now accepts execution of gay people. In a vote yesterday, the United Nations removed a plea for gay people not to be executed. In a comment, Cary Alan Johnson, Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, says, “This vote is a dangerous and disturbing development. It essentially removes the important recognition of the particular vulnerability faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people—a recognition that is crucial at a time when 76 countries around the world criminalise homosexuality, five consider it a capital crime and countries like Uganda are considering adding the death penalty to their laws criminalising homosexuality.” Fascists corrupt the UN.
• Sweden has a new constitution. Among other things, the change strengthens minority rights and writes Sweden’s membership of the European Union into the national constitution. Good.
• The euro is a robust currency. I’m getting tired of the pessimists predicting the imminent collapse of the euro. They have done so since day one. So, it’s nice to read an optimist. “Europe is gripped by a sense of alarm, now that Ireland has become the second euro-zone country to ask for a bailout,” Sven Böll writes in Der Spiegel. “Pessimists claim that the crisis means the euro is finished. But that scenario is unrealistic—in reality, there is little to suggest that the common currency is about to disintegrate.”
• Sex in the Vatican. A new big-budget Canadian-Irish-Hungarian TV series centres on the notorious Pope Alexander VI.
• Vatican says everyone can use condoms to prevent HIV. A welcome shift in Catholic ethics.
• The drug that could prevent HIV. Media begins to write about the pill that could stop HIV. Time has an article about the latest development in the fight against HIV and AIDS. So does the New York Times here. Read more here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• Fight over abortion in Thailand. Thai Buddhism plays a key political role in maintaining the current ban on abortion in the kingdom, the Guardian’s Andrew Chambers writes.
• Orthodox Archbishop of Canada arrested by police on charges of sexual assault. What is it with these people?
• Swedish Nazi stole Auschwitz sign. The man is a nutjob and a danger to society. Let him spend a decade in prison.
• The euro is alive and kicking. “The euro as a currency has a long life, it is alive, well and kicking and more countries will be joining in the future instead of leaving," Secretary-General of the OECD Angel Gurria says. “The euro area is going to be growing and continue to be largest trading bloc in the world.” Wishful thinking or realistic prediction? Time will tell.
• Israel criticised by America over religious freedom. Non-Orthodox Jews are discriminated against in the Jewish state, a report from the US State Department says. This is true and the Israelis must do something about it.
• Secular Israelis unhappy about lack of religious freedom. Good.
• Norway’s raging anti-Semitism. “Norway’s case is unique because it is a country dominated by a political, media and cultural elite with deep-rooted anti-Israeli attitudes stemming from their political world view,” says Manfred Gerstenfeld, a senior researcher of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist trends in Scandinavia.
• “My girlfriend says I’m gay.” Well, it’s not news, but I liked the headline.

(Photo by Jochen Zimmermann.)

Here is some news that caught my attention today:

• Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair debated religion. According to the Guardian, 2,700 people paid to see the two debate religion. A majority favoured Hitchens’s atheism.
• The Israel-bashing game. Yusuf Kanli writes about the new anti-Israel rhetoric of the Turkish government. Islamism has a new friend on the European border.
• Novelist Martin Amis says Britain in anti-Semitic. He is right. The constant calls for academic boycott of Israel and Jews are common in Britain.
• Ragman is a Jewish superhero.
• Pope says biological homosexuality goes against God’s will. Strange. This goes against the Catholic ideology of natural law. Why would God make people gay if He disapproves? Could it be that the theology is wrong and nature is right?
• Rape can “cure” lesbians. American judge Joe Rehyansky thinks heterosexual soldiers should rape lesbians to make them straight.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• American diplomats referred to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Hitler. I guess the WikiLeaks guys want us to be upset, but the description of Ahmadinejad is entirely correct.
• Irshad Manji comments on the Sweden Democrats. “The political triumph of European racists stems from the abysmal abdication of leadership by European liberals,” she writes.
• Catholics fighting AIDS welcome the Pope’s new condom policy. Condoms are no accepted in the battle against HIV.
• Israel could strike Iran without American help. I wish they would.
• Israel recruits citizen advocates in Europe. Now, finally, the bloggers and journalists who have been accused of being on the Zionists’ payroll could be.

Here is some news that caught my attention this morning:

• Sarah Palin thinks Sweden is part of the United States. Well, that is Paul Constant’s spin on a tweet written by Palin.
• Swedish economy posts record growth. What happened to the dark ages that socialists claimed would follow a centre-right win in the September elections?
• The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Turkey have nuclear weapons. The information has become public knowledge after WikiLeaks published secret cables online. Great information for the enemies of democracy and free speech. In this age of global terrorism and hostile Islamism, the leaked information is a direct threat to our security. Think about that before you praise Julian Assange as a freedom fighter.
• The horror scenario of a break-up of the euro zone. Jens Witte writes about the disastrous consequences of a return to the Deutschmark.
• Iran has North Korean missiles. And they can reach Europe. Perhaps the attitude towards Israeli fear of Iran’s nuclear programme will be treated less nonchalant now.
• Atheism is belief based on myth. So says a Christian apologist and evangelist Ray Comfort in a comment about a new atheist advertisement campaign in America. It seems these quarrels over God’s existence brings out the worst in all religious realists.
• Men should be punished for abortion. The Bangkok Post has an interesting story. “The Social Development and Human Security Ministry is calling a public hearing to discuss proposed amendments to the criminal law to allow the punishment of a man if his partner has an abortion,” the newspaper writes. To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has suggested men should be responsible for abortion. Considering that men do not have control over women’s bodies, it is wrong. A fascinating turn of event, though.
• Most Americans want gays to serve openly in the military. A new opinion poll shows that 58 per cent favour allowing gays to serve openly in the military while 27 per cent oppose.
• Kenya’s prime minister wants all gay people in prison. “Any man found engaging in sexual activities with another man should be arrested,” Prime Minister Raila Odinga said at a rally on Sunday. “Even women found engaging in sexual activities will be arrested.” Homophobia is a growing trend in Africa. They simply cannot have love go unpunished.