It’s no surprise that a top Republican is against civil rights and liberties, but somehow it’s refreshing to hear Donald Trump acknowledging that is all comes down to bigoted feelings. Most other people tend to camouflage their homophobia with references to God, the Bible, or biology and nature.

In this Fox News interview, he goes on to talk about Muslims being a problem in the world today. Watching Trump and Bill O’Reilly is like watching Dumb and Dumberer.

Watch the video below or go here.

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I don’t know what to make of this. I suppose it’s a good thing that the Catholic Church recognises the Jews’ right to the land of Israel, but it seems odd to read about Christians discussing the status of the Jews. This is, of course, a theological matter. Traditionally, Jews have considered themselves chosen by God to keep the laws of Moses—to be more holy and righteous on behalf of humankind. But in Christian tradition, the Jewish chosenness has often been seen as an attempt by the Jews to be superior, which in turn has led to a number of anti-Semitic atrocities. I can’t help but wondering what exactly the Catholic Church thought about when they decided to recognise the Jews as the Chosen People.

Read more about it at the Jerusalem Post.

“In 1734, David Hume, a bookish 23-year-old Scotsman, abandoned conventional career options and went off to France to Think Things Over,” Howard Darmstadter writes in Philosophy Now. “Living frugally and devoting himself to study and writing, he returned after three years with a hefty manuscript under his arm.” No matter you opinion on Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, it is one of the most interesting books in philosophy history.

Andrew Copson explains Percy Bysshe Shelley’s argument in the Guardian, “If you have seen or heard God, then you must believe in God. If you haven’t, then the only possible reasons to believe in God are reasonable argument or the testimony of others.”

I think it’s an interesting argument. It corresponds to my own view on just about everything. Only if you have first-hand experience of something, you can know it exists. About everything else, we must accept as true the fiction that best serves our needs or that best corresponds to our beliefs.

A group of top Israeli politicians will travel to the United States to study Jewish life in America, Haaretz reports. The group wants to understand why there is a growing gap between American and Israeli Jews.

I think this is great. In my opinion, America has a lot to teach Israel about diversity and the separation between religion and state. The ultra-Orthodox in Israel has made Judaism their own, and the democratic state has allowed it to happen. But contemporary Judaism is diverse; it holds both Jewish atheists and Jews who are stringently religious. Therefore, it is vital for Israel to get rid of the Chief Rabbinate’s power over such matters as marriage, burial, and conversion.

The Parents Television Council, the Christian Right’s media watchdog, is continuing its war against programming on American television that doesn’t fit its “family values” and sensitive moralism. Now the organisation is upset about a nudity clause in the actor contracts of two new TV series, Good Christian Bitches and The Playboy Club.

Personally, I want more nudity on television. I think the human body is beautiful and see noting immoral in showing it off.

Read more about it at Deadline.

American pornographer Corbin Fisher—known for its niche of bareback (unprotected) sex—has decided to file a lawsuit against people who share their films and pictures illegally on the Internet. Corbin Fisher makes gay pornography, and it is assumed that many of those who enjoy its products illegally are closeted gay men—teenagers not yet strong enough to come out, and bisexual men and others who depend on a heterosexual front. In a letter to Queerty, a gay teenager says he will kill himself if he is outed by Corbin Fisher:

I have been scared to death every since I heard about this. I live with my family and if they find out about this, I feel I will end my life. My family senses something is wrong, they keep asking me what has happened, I have not been able to eat and I am paralyzed with fear. If a letter comes, they will know immediately it is true and they will know this is what the terror they have been reading in my face is, I will not be believed if I try to say, like they have offered that, I was looking at ‘straight’ porn. I will be thrown out of the house, with nowhere to go and no options.

Read more about it here.

The anti-Israel lobby has lost a friend. The author of a UN report on the 2008 war between Israel and Hamas has changed his mind about who is to blame. Read what Richard Goldstone writes about the Goldstone Report in the Washington Post.

Civil liberties hit a blow on Thursday when South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the military criminal code, which punishes homosexual behaviour with up to one year in prison, is constitutional.

Read about it at Towleroad.

Jillian Steinhauer is writing about an untold side of Dalí’s art in Forward.

As regular readers know, I have thing for skyscrapers. Tonight, I was at a meeting in Malmö’s tallest building, known as Turning Torso. I snapped a photo of the view of the city port with my mobile.

Today’s the big day. Three weeks of well-prepared field studies in San Francisco begins tomorrow (well, not really until the day after tomorrow). Today, I woke up too early, which is not good since I would do well with more sleep before my long journey. I have seventeen hours of travelling ahead of me. Hopefully, I can get some sleep on the flight from Washington to California. Would like to go out for a beer when I get to the Castro.

Considering the nine-hour time difference between Malmö and San Francisco, I managed to adjust pretty well. I woke up at 4 o’clock and headed out for breakfast at Starbucks. My camera is not made for dark venues, but I snapped two pictures a Castro Street on my way to the café where I’m at right now. Blogging is addictive; it didn’t feel go not being able to do some all day yesterday. But now I’m connected again. Day one in San Francisco will be devoted to some getting-to-know-the-place. By first interview is scheduled for tomorrow.

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From the life of a compulsive blogger with narcissistic tendencies.

“A proposal to grant some marriage benefits to same-sex couples and others who can’t legally marry, such as siblings, is winning little support in Rhode Island’s debate over legalizing gay marriage,” San Francisco Chronicle reports. I recognise these so-called alternatives from the Swedish debate and I never liked them. The idea is that same-sex couples and gay people generally should enjoy equal rights. On the there can’t be any compromise.

I hate all pictures of myself, but this one I hate a tiny bit less than most. Me standing at the top of Twin Peaks with San Francisco’s downtown area behind me.

In a press conference on Monday, Iran’s unelected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Iran is a “friend with all nations and governments against the Zionist regime” and predicted that American president Barack Obama will face “a future more shameful than his predecessor”. Ahmadinejad is upset about the success of the Israeli democracy and Obama’s call for democracy in Iran. Nothing enrages a fascist like the success of freedom.

“Russian ‘oligarch’ and Jewish philanthropist Alexander Mashkevich announced on Wednesday his intention to found a Jewish version of Al-Jazeera,” the Jerusalem Post reports. “Every day and every hour people get negative information about Israel,” he says. “Therefore, the most important thing is to represent Israel on an international level, with real information.”

Here’s a picture from yesterday afternoon. The great rainbow flag at the junction of Castro, Market, and 17th Street. Makes be feel at home.

A new study by the Williams Institute suggests that about 3.5% of the population in the United States are lesbian, gay or bisexual. That equals to about eight million people. The study also found that nineteen million Americans (8.2%) report that they have engaged in same-sex sexual behaviour and nearly 25.6 million Americans (11%) acknowledge at least some same-sex sexual attraction.

Read more about it at 365 Gay.

A new poll from the International Peace Institute suggests 63% of Egyptians are in favour of the peace treaty with Israel. Only 14% oppose it. Furthermore, 82% support liberalisation of the country and the economy, while only 10% have a favourable opinion of the head of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Read more about it at Commentary.

Today I interviewed the president of the queer-Jewish congregation Sha’ar Zahav. Afterwards, I travelled by tram down Market Street to downtown and made some shopping.

The trend is clear; about a billion Muslims are to be collectively punished for the actions of some. In the West, people—often but not always of the political right—try to overachieve each other in Islamophobic rambling. Muslims are portrayed as primitive, barbaric, and free to treat as subhuman beings.

Glenn Greenwald takes a closer look at Glenn Reynolds’s hostility towards Muslims. Reynolds is not just anyone. As one of America’s most read bloggers he has influence. But he is not unique. I see this trend in Europe, too. In Sweden, where I live, we have Lars Vilks, a self-obsessed artist who in a recent article argues in favour of repeated burnings of the Koran in public. People seem increasingly incapable to distinguish between criticism of Islam and the Arab countries’ lack of democracy on the one hand and Muslims and Arabs on the other.

Muslims are individuals like you and me. Whenever you hear people talk about Muslims being violent, barbaric, primitive, etcetera—remember that Muslims are individuals just like you and me. How would you like to take responsibility for every stupid thing ever done by someone sharing your religion, ethnicity, group identity, or nationality?

“The discovery of a 5,000-year-old skeleton that was buried in a peculiar way has researchers suggesting the prehistoric man found outside modern-day Prague could have been gay or transsexual,” Mike Barber writes. “But archaeologists and anthropologists are urging those in the media who have dubbed the skeleton a ‘gay caveman’ not to rush to any Neanderthal-like assumptions.”

Well, I’m no archaeologist, but what is Neanderthal about assuming that there would be hard evidence of a prehistoric gay identity out there? The problem with science is that scientists are heteronormative in their approach to new findings. I know of a similar case with examine graves of Nordic Vikings who appeared queer. Although some male couples were found to be buried as husband and wife, the mainstream archaeologists to this day try fight the idea that these men were gay and buried as married couples because they were. The same thing with rune stones talking about men loving men. Must be about intense friendship, the heteronormative archaeologists say.

A picture from last night. At a bus stop in the Castro, someone has written, “Jesus hates civil rights.” I’m not sure this is true, Jesus seemed to care quite a lot about those stigmatised in his time, but I know for sure that many of those who claim Jesus’s legacy hate civil rights.

The homophobic lobby in Uganda is so bizarre. Not only does its propaganda talk about gays recruiting straight people, now it claims that the gays pay straight people to join them.

Read more about it at Queerty.

“A Jewish organisation is celebrating Passover two weeks early, proclaiming freedom from Glenn Beck’s television show,” USA Today reports. Many American Jews are upset over Beck’s use of Nazi language, attacks on Holocaust survivors, and his habit of comparing Reform rabbis to radical Muslims. In public statement, a group called Jewish Funds for Justice writes, “This Passover, let us celebrate the expanded freedom in our public discourse.”

In an article discussing Sam Harris’s book The Moral Landscape: How Science can Determine Moral Values, Giles Fraser writes, “What is presented as Harris’s big new idea is really just reheated utilitarianism with wellbeing in place of pleasure.” My point exactly. When I read Harris I find nothing not already been said by utilitarian ethicists. If utilitarianism is the atheist answer to theist ethics, the theists have nothing to fear. Personally, I’m far too much of an individualist to accept any claim on moral truth simply because it is has been universalised.

Read Fraser’s article at the Guardian.

Gail Collins writes of Donald Tump that he is a master at being able to say imaginary things with total certainty. That’s a useful skill when you’re making a political career on a fairy tale about Barack Obama not being born in the United States.

This is so silly. According to new rules in Britain, gay men are now allowed to donate blood, but only if they have not had sex with anyone for the past ten years. Ridiculous. Officially, doctors will tell you that it takes three months for a HIV test to be certain. In reality, however, research has found that in most cases, modern test can determine if someone has caught HIV after about two weeks. Furthermore, all donated blood has to be tested for HIV. To demand of gay men that they be celibate for ten year is only a way to bar gay men from donating blood without actually putting the discrimination in print.

Some pictures from the Castro a took when I walked through the neighboured today. Fist Castro Street, then the view from a hill nearby, and finally the street I live in.

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Louis Marinelli was the driving force behind a bus tour around parts of America to “protect marriage” from gays and lesbians, Religion Dispatches reports. During the tour, he met gay activists who protested his work and he gradually began to see them as people. “Even though I had been confronted by the counter-protesters throughout the marriage tour, the lesbian and gay people whom I made a profession out of opposing became real people for me almost instantly,” Marinelli now says in an interview. “For the first time I had empathy for them and remember asking myself what I was doing.”

Read the interview at Good as You. Do also visit Mr Marinelli’s blog here.

The Florida pastor whose burning of the Koran enraged radical Muslim to killing people seems set to cause even more harm. Now he says he wants to hang the Prophet Muhammad in effigy. He is also planning a demonstration against Islam in Dearborn, Michigan. The town is home to the largest Muslim community in the United States. Anyone who still thinks this has to do with criticism of religion and not outright hatred of Muslim people?

Joe Jervis has more.

In between interviews, I spend much time sightseeing in the city. Here are three pictures of places I visited yesterday. Today I have been busy with work. About that I will write later.

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Had it been April Fool’s Day, this piece of news had been dismissed as a bad joke. But it’s for real. Read about it at 365 Gay.

Swedish blogger and gay-rights activist Micke Kazarnowicz reports that Sweden’s Save the Children (Rädda Barnen) has hijacked Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better”-campaign to address issues of bullying and abuse of children. A number of famous Swedes appear in videos telling young people that it gets better. The message of the original campaign is turned straight and the homophobia that drives gay youth to suicide drowns in this Swedish campaign targeting all kinds of abuse.

To make matters worse, the Swedish branch of Save the Children has a history of homophobia. It has publically opposed all major LGBT-reforms in Sweden. According to Save the Children, gay people are unfit for parenthood and marriage equality is a threat to children’s welfare.

There is nothing more in English yet, but Micke Kazarnowicz has more in Swedish here.

Good news from back home (I’m in San Francisco). Refusing to be a voiceless victim of Save the Children’s attempt to make the campaign straight, Micke Kazarnowicz and the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (RFSL) launch the original concept in Swedish to help strengthen gay youth.

Go to the campaign website here.

The lunatic from Harare has had yet another one of his homophobic outbreaks.

“We don’t worry ourselves about the goings-on in Europe,” Mugabe said at a funeral. “About the unnatural things happening there, where they turn man-to-man and woman-to-woman. We say, well, it’s their country. If they want to call their country British Gaydom, it’s up to them. That’s not our culture. We condemn that filth.”

Well, how big of racist fascist responsible for the death of tens of thousands to allow Europe to embrace civil rights, which is something he himself couldn’t care less about.

A number of studies in recent years have indicated that people with HIV who are successfully medicated are no longer infectious. San Francisco has therefore adopted a new policy, which will offer treatment to everyone diagnosed with HIV.

“The infection rate among men who have sex with men could be lowered by more than 60 percent over the next eight years if everyone diagnosed with an HIV infection began taking antiviral drugs right away, instead of waiting for signs of a weakened immune system,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Dan Savage writes about what must be the most mentally insane defence of child rape. Catholic Bishop Roger Vangheluwe has admitted to raping his nephew over a period of thirteen years. The abuse began when they boy was five years old and continued until his late teens. In his defence, the bishop states that the boy wanted it.

Read more about it at Time and Huffington Post.

Queerty, one of my favourite gay blogs, has decided to kill itself, owner David Hauslaib reports.

Jennifer Vanasco has more here.

The campaign is brand new in Sweden, but the first few videos from ordinary gay Swedes telling gay youth that it gets better are posted online. Here are two of them.

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From Mattiaz Andersson:

From Micke Kazarnowicz:

A group of Islamic radicals is set on forcing people in Tower Hamlets to surrender to Sharia Law. The group threatens women who do not cover their faces and has put up posters declaring East London as gay-free zone.

Read about it at the Sun and the Daily Mail.

“The production of the new iPhone will start in July/August and the smartphone will look largely similar to the iPhone 4,” Reuters reports. For a Apple geek like myself, this is good news.

Brent Hartinger thought it a topic worth some attention. I agree.

“The destruction of Sodom had nothing to do with homosexuality,” Bishop Charlie Braun writes in this article on what the Christian Bible says about homosexuality.

Ken Peterson, a Republican from Billings, Montana, wants to criminalise gay people who recruit heterosexuals. He acknowledges that he has never seen this happen, but he imagines that the gay people do this. Peterson also wants to ban the public display of homosexuality. Being gay is something you are only entitled to be being closed doors in the privacy of your own home.

It seems popular nowadays to demand of minority groups that they hide in their homes. In Sweden, the militant atheists want to make religion a solely private matter, and in America, the conservative Christians want gay people to hide. No one has the right to demand that people who differ from them go into hiding.

A fun story from the Jerusalem Post. A man who was given food not kosher for Passover ignored the tradition to sell the goods back to the Jews after the festival.

Religion is closely linked to humanity. Although not all human beings are religious in the more narrow sense (I would argue that no one is completely irreligious), no human culture without religion exists. The Economist reports about new scientific research into religion. None of the scientist has yet to come up with the final answer to why religion plays such an important role, but this is a theory:

One theory of the origin of religion is that it underpins the extraordinary capacity for collaboration that led to the rise of Homo sapiens. A feature of many religions is the idea that evil is divinely punished and virtue is rewarded. Cheats or the greedy, in other words, get their just deserts. The selflessness which that belief encourages might help explain religion’s evolution.

Personally, I think this might be right. Much of religion is about altruism, and interestingly enough, the atheist movement has embraced this in its utilitarianism—an ideology they now intensively try to make “scientific”. I don’t believe altruism is good, but I do believe that helping other for the benefit of self is—and that is precisely what many religions offer.

The most interesting thing in the article is the note about agnostics and atheists think like Buddhists.

I had some ambitious plans to write some kind of online travel journal during my stay in San Francisco, but time is precious and I decided not to blog my stay here. This is probably good because people’s travels are rarely interesting for anyone else to read about. Anyhow, today I want to share some pictures I took at the Golden Gate Bridge.

By the way, the time stamps on the blog are set to Central European Time, local time in San Francisco is now 16:25 on Saturday, 23 April.

I’m travelling to Sweden tomorrow. An 18-hour flight from San Francisco. And what do I find when I look through today’s news if not an article in the Christian Science Monitor about traffic controllers falling asleep and the increased risk of flying.

We’re so used to the idea of straight actors playing gay character that it’s not really interesting any more. However, there are those who are gay in real life and act straight in front of the camera. The blog After Elton lists twelve gay actors who took on straight roles.

A revolutionary communist group has invited Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled to speak in Stockholm on 1 May. Khaled, who holds fascist ideas and has expressed a wish to eliminate the Jewish people, is best known for her involvement in the hijacking of a civilian European aeroplane in 1969. She is now a member of the Palestinian National Council.

My last full day in San Francisco. I spent part of it in Sutro Heights Park, where I snapped this picture facing south.

The judge who ruled against California’s ban on same-sex marriage is gay and that has angered the homophobic lobby. In retrospect, the homophobic activists wish they had asked him to disqualify himself. I guess a case involving racism cannot be judge by someone who has any experience of racism either. In the hatemongers mind, only straight, white men can rule on matters of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Ignorance is bliss.

I’m back in Sweden after three weeks in California. I haven’t done any blogging for a few days. Simply tired and need a break from the news. Besides, everything seems to be about the royal wedding in Britain anyhow. I will disconnect from the world until next week. Back on 2 May.