The artist’s 1915 portrait of himself. Expressionism at its best.

I have written a reply to the article published by Sweden’s Ombudsman for Children on Saturday, which I blogged about here. It’s in Swedish, and you can read it here.

It feels nice when sane people react to intolerance. Following the article by the Sweden’s Ombudsman for Children, in which he demands a ban on Jewish circumcision, four articles have appeared on newspaper Dagens Nyheter’s website:

• Intoleransen slår mot redan utsatta grupper
• Tendensiös och ovärdig felcitering
• Bristande insikt om två av världsreligionerna
• Också andra operationer görs av kulturella skäl

All of them in Swedish, all of them are good!

Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter states: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

Read more at Think Progress.

The painting The Elephant Celebes (1921) by German artist Max Ernst (1891–1976). Surrealism at its best.

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has published my response to the Ombudsman for Children.

This blog will not be updated for a week as I’m travelling. First, I will go to Stockholm to see the Royal Opera’s new Parsifal, and then, I will continue to Boden for three days of pistol shooting. I’m back online next weekend.

Seen in the picture above is a stage design for the third act of Wagner’s Parsifal from the 1880s.

The week began with a meeting at a new gay club in Malmö where I took a picture of this lovely painting on the wall.

The day after, on Tuesday, I went to Stockholm to see Wagner’s Parsifal at the Royal Opera. A magnificent performance with Katarina Dalayman as Kundry. I took this picture from my seat.

In one of the breaks, I paid a visit to the Golden Hall, a truly spectacular room.

On Wednesday, I travelled to Boden to spend Thursday and Friday at the shooting range. I took this picture during a break.

On Friday, just before leaving northernmost Sweden, I took this picture from the window at the old Boden Engineer Regiment, which is where I lived during my short stay.

From the Guardian:

She once observed that, given her way of working, and a fair wind, she had probably five books in her. Her third, The Goldfinch, 771 pages long, is published next week.

The title refers to a painting, a delicate small masterpiece of realism, by the Dutch artist Carel Fabritius, pupil of Rembrandt, who was killed by the great Delft explosion, when a gunpowder store in the city blew up. Nearly all of his paintings were destroyed along with him.

Seen above is the painting by Carel Fabritius (1622–1654).

Bishop Antje Jackelén became the first ever female archbishop of the Church of Sweden Today.

It’s the youngest Booker winner in the prize’s history with the longest ever winning novel.

Update: More from the Guardian.

“A Dutch diplomat has been attacked at his home in Moscow by two men who forced their way into his house,” Dutch News reports.

Jews in Sweden are among the most likely in Europe to hide their religious affiliation, a new European study shows. I’m not surprised. Sweden is very hostile to religion in general and to minority religions in particular. Many Swedes pride themselves in religious ignorance, which is what the Ombudsman for Children recently did in an article published in Dagens Nyheter, in which he states that the Jewish bris violates human rights. Judaism is routinely described in the negative by people in power. Adding to this, Sweden also have a significant problem with more hands-on anti-Semitism.

I found this in an article by Warren Krug on a website of an organisation called Lutheran Science Institute:

The evidence from paleontology is overwhelming that there were once living on earth some large, now likely extinct, creatures which we call dinosaurs.

Update: No, I don’t believe this myself—I think it’s funny.

“Council of Europe chief Thorbjørn Jagland has distanced himself from a controversial resolution of the pan-European human rights body that calls for regulation of circumcision practices, after Israel blasted it as ‘racist’,” AFP reports.

“A quarter of respondents in a major survey of Jews from nine European countries said they avoid visiting places and wearing symbols that identify them as Jews for fear of anti-Semitism,” Jerusalem Post writes.

I wrote about the same survey in an entry earlier today.

The Serpent’s temptation of Eve according to the Biblia Pauperum, a richly illustrated Bible for the illiterate poor.

The quote I used for headline comes from an episode of The Simpsons where Adam (Homer) is introduced to Eve (Marge).

This caught my attention:

Before he had a heart transplant 20 months ago, Cheney was a seriously ill man who had undergone several life-saving procedures, including the implantation of a defibrillator. Cheney had that replaced in 2007 and his doctor, cardiologist Jonathan Reiner, with whom he wrote the book, had the device’s wireless function disabled so a terrorist couldn’t send his heart a fatal shock.

Who needs a bomb when you can switch people off with a keyboard and an Internet connection.

Read the article in full at CBS News.

This is beautiful. Watch it here if the embedded video doesn’t work.

Read More

Normally, I don’t post videos of cute animals, but this is different.

Read More

It’s so absurd that niceness and ignorance would somehow excuse oppression, which is basically what Jean-Claude Killy says.

The Local reports that a pastor dressed up as an elk conducted a sermon this Sunday.

A new Gallup survey suggests growing support for legalised cannabis in America.

“Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has launched what it says is the first market index and portfolio based on gay-friendly policies,” France 24 reports. “The LGBT Equality Index ranks companies by how well they respect the rights of employees and other members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.”

“Swedes told to stay home as monster storm nears,” the headline of The Local says. I’m sitter here at my desk by the window listening to the wind and rain roaring outside. Somehow, it’s cosy to being able to witness the force of nature from this side of the window.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again moved to dismiss concerns about gay athletes attending the Winter Olympics, Pink News reports.

“The Yesh Atid Party in Israel on Tuesday introduced legislation to allow same-sex couples equal rights to straight couples,” Pink News reports.

Israel currently recognises same-sex marriages formed abroad.

“A Swedish court of appeal acquitted a man with HIV after he had been sentenced to a year in prison for having unprotected sex with four women despite knowing that he was infected with the virus,” The Local reports.

Until now, it’s been a crime for people living with HIV to engage in unprotected sex even though their medical treatment made it safe. It’s taken a long time for Sweden to realise that HIV is no longer as big a treat that it was in the mid-1980s when these laws were written.

This is overall a good document. I particularly like this part:

Individuals, have the right to decide for themselves whether and how they wish to manifest their religion or belief. Limitations to this freedom have to be strictly interpreted.24 Manifestation of one’s religion or belief can take many forms. This includes the right of children to learn about the faith/belief of their parents, and the right of parents to teach their children in the tenets of their religion or belief.

This is perhaps the most controversial as many European secularists who dislike religion tend to love state interference and use children as a tool for breaking up families.

From Breitbart:

Officials say a suicide bomber detonated on an empty beach in front of a hotel in the Tunisian Mediterranean resort town of Sousse. He was the only fatality. An employee at the hotel told the BBC the blast occurred at 09:45 local time (08:45 GMT) close to the Riadh Palms hotel and that no-one was hurt except for the bomber.

All suicide bombers are stupid, but some are more stupid than others.