“Fumino Sugiyama will finally be able to marry his girlfriend of four years. He couldn’t before, because same-sex marriages weren’t recognised in Japan, and he is legally a woman,” The Japan Times reports. Great news!
Image: Flag of Shibuya.
“Though four fundamental forces—the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force and gravity—have been well documented and confirmed in experiments over the years, CERN announced today the first unequivocal evidence for the Force,” Cian O’Luanaigh of CERN reports.
The best April Fool’s Day joke I’ve read so far.
Image: Dr Paul Coxon on Twitter.
“Memories Pizza, a pizza shop owned by the O’Connor family in Walker, Indiana, says they’re happy Governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because it backs up their beliefs, and if they were asked to cater a gay wedding, they wouldn’t,” Andy Towle of Towleroad reports.
Unlike a ban on catering for gay people, the Bible has a ban on mixing dairy and meat, which is common on most pizzas.
Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes in the New York Times:
The United Nations is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. It was intended to be a temple of peace, but this once great global body has been overrun by the repressive regimes that violate human rights and undermine international security.
In 1949, when the United Nations admitted Israel as a member state, it had 58 member countries and about half had a democratic orientation. Today, the landscape of the organisation has changed drastically. From 51 member states at its founding in 1945, the institution has grown to 193 members—fewer than half of which are democracies.
It’s sad, but he’s right.
“Nearly every other Swede is in favour of a legal ban on begging, according to a new survey by the tabloid Aftonbladet,” The Local reports. “The opinion poll shows a dramatic increase in six months in the percentage who support such a ban.”
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel introduced a new demand Friday for the final phase of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, saying the completed deal must include an ‘unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist’,” Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times reports.
I second that!
“In defense of the state’s ‘religious freedom’ anti-gay discrimination law, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton explained to his critics that the Indiana gay community should be grateful they’re being openly discriminated against, because at least they aren’t being hanged like they are in Iran,” John Prager of Occupy Democrats reports.
Watch the video here.
“A former televangelist in Arizona posted a video of himself calling a Florida bakery asking for an anti-gay cake,” David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement reports. “Now the bakery owner says she is getting death threats from his supporters for refusing.”
There’s no end to some people’s stupidity.
On Thursday last, police in the State of Washington were searching for a man who pulled a gun on a woman after accusing Muslims of being violent, Kipp Robertson of MyNorthwest reports.
One could say that irony hit this man in the face.
At least eight young men who lived in one small Norwegian town have made their way to Syria to wage jihad alongside the Islamic State and other militant groups, Andrew Higgins of the New York Times reports.
The founders of PayPal, Google, Facebook, eBay, Napster, and Netscape are using their money to transform biomedical research with the objective to use the tools of technology to understand and upgrade the human body, Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post reports.
On 30 November, a bomb detonated at Malmö’s main police station, which is located only a few metres from my flat. My balcony and two of my living-room windows were destroyed. Now, some four months later, nearly all damage has been repaired. On top of that, spring has come in full force to Malmö this Passover and Easter.
Seen above is a photo I took from my new balcony a few minutes ago. Compare that to the photos I posted on 1 December.
“Tony Blair will enter the election campaign fray on Tuesday with the warning that Britain faces a period of instability not seen since the second world war if a Conservative victory results in a referendum on Europe,” Patrick Wintour of the Guardian reports.
“Putin is now more determined than ever to put a block on liberalism across the whole of the continent by funding anti-EU parties,” Cecilia Wilkström and three other Liberal MEP write.
Since three Palestinian groups are amongst the organisers, Jewish veterans are banned from marching, Haaretz reports.
“In the space of one generation, English has become the continent’s undisputed lingua franca,” Gareth Harding of EU Observer writes.
“British political leaders have traded blows about the merits of an EU referendum, after the business community appeared to back Tony Blair’s suggestion the referendum would cause ‘chaos’ and discourage firms from investing in the UK,” Benjamin Fox of EU Observer reports.
“French far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen made the shock announcement Wednesday that she would ‘oppose’ her party-founding father Jean-Marie Le Pen in regional elections due in December following his latest inflammatory comments,” Tony Todd of France 24 reports.
In Sweden, too, far-right activists are arguing amongst themselves as leading members of the Sweden Democrats’ youth organisation face mass expulsions.
Read about it at The Local.
The American Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has made a video advertising their organisation. For some strange reason, several large media networks have banned the advertisement. I guess the reason for this decision is fear of boycotts from Christian groups.
From the FFRF website:
A 30-second TV spot recorded by Ron Reagan for the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been refused by the three major networks, ABC, NBC and CBS. Meanwhile, the ads have been airing successfully on CNN last week and this week.
The banned ad says:
Hi, I’m Ron Reagan, an unabashed atheist, and I’m alarmed by the intrusion of religion into our secular government. That’s why I’m asking you to support the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest and most effective association of atheists and agnostics, working to keep state and church separate, just like our Founding Fathers intended. Please support the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.Hundreds of requests for information poured into FFRF after the CNN airings began last week.
This advertisement seems harmless to me. However, I think the call for freedom from religion is silly. That, to me, is like demanding freedom from expression. No one has the right to be protected from other people’s civil liberties. Governments that doesn’t make this distinction are doomed to violate basic human rights.
Watch the video here.
Matthew Drudge of Drudge Report on Twitter:
From the “City Room” at the New York Times:
Overheard on the subway:
Five-year-old to mother, referring to the people sitting across from her: “Why are they all so sad?”
Mom: “Oh, they’re not sad. That is just their subway face.”
I’ve often wondered what to call that special look people have on public transport. Now I know—it’s the “subway face”.
At a Catholic school in Des Moines, Iowa, 150 students walked out in protest after learning that Tyler McCubbin, a popular substitute teacher, had been turned down from a full time job because he is gay, Naith Payton of Pink News reports.
“President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday held their first in-person meeting since announcing their bid to restore diplomatic ties, a historic break from the nations’ Cold War past that Obama said could be a ‘turning point’ for the region,” Michael A. Memoli and Tracy Wilkinson of Los Angeles Times reports.
Michael Goodwin of the New York Post writes:
More than five years ago, a Clinton confidant matter-of-factly described for me Hillary’s Plan. She would resign as secretary of state after President Obama’s first term, write a book and then run for president again.
Check, check, and, with Sunday’s official launch, check again. Her to-do list is complete.
“Tommy Dahlman, a pastor who was also parliamentary candidate for the centre-right Christian Democrats last year, has publicly said homosexuality is a sin,” The Local reports.
For some reason this has become the big news in Sweden today. I don’t know why. This homophobic opinion about gay people has been advocated by bigoted Christians for centuries. However, he is wrong about the Bible’s view on homosexuality. There are examples in the Bible of loving same-sex relationships that are not described in a homophobic manner. One such example is the love between David and Jonathan, another example is the love between Naomi and Ruth. Furthermore, the verses said to condemn homosexuality all speak of men who are obviously heterosexual.
It would take almost half a day for a face mite to cover the distance from your ear to your nose, Ed Yong of Discover writes in an article titled “Everything you never wanted to know about the mites that eat, crawl, and have sex on your face”.
The surface of our skin is a fascinating microworld.
“Support for Tories rises three points to 39% as Labour drops two to 33%, Lib Dems remain at 8% and Ukip drops back two points to tie with Greens on 7%,” Tom Clark and Rowena Mason of the Guardian report.
The British election in May just might become a nail-biting event.
“Swedish military pilots have been ordered to fly a government plane carrying ministers between Arlanda and Bromma on at least six occasions since Stefan Löfven became Prime Minister last September, according to reports in Swedish newspaper Expressen,” The Local writes. “The distance between the two airports is 41 kilometres and the average journey time by car is about 30 minutes.”
Two things are fascinating with this story. Firstly, that the government is determined to close the city airport in Stockholm they themselves prefer, and, secondly, that the Green Party—one of two parties in government—is set on making us all feel bad about flying and therefore wants to make air travel more expensive.
Ah, the hypocrisy…
“Homosexuality is wrong, period,” the mechanic says according to Pink News. “If you want to argue this fact with me, then I will put your vehicle together with all bolts and no nuts and you can see how that works.”
All bolts and no nuts?
I’m watching the live debate on BBC and UKIP’s Nigel Farage just tried to woo the audience by saying that all housing in Britain should be reserved for British citizens. In other words, people who live and pay taxes in Britain should be divided between those who hold a British passport and those who do not. Thankfully, the audience doesn’t seem to buy into his xenophobia.
The problem with cash is that it gives people an easy and effective way of avoiding negative nominal rates, Lorcan Roche Kelly of Bloomberg Business reports.
“Hundreds more people are believed to have drowned when a fishing boat smuggling migrants to Europe capsized off Libya,” Patrick Kingsley, Alessandra Bonomolo, and Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian report.
I normally blog in English, but Swedish poetry is too difficult for me to translate, so I share this beautiful poem in its original language. Professionals have translated most of Verner von Heidenstam’s poetry into English.
Det låg en katt på loftet,
väl död sen fyra år,
och allt som finns kvar av stoftet
var skinn och ben och hår.
I nattens gråa strimmor
bland jägarhorn och grimmor
där stod med rivet kläde
och utan fäll och skacklor
på bjälkarna den släde,
den gamla gamla släde,
som fordom på sin mede
till ottan körts vid facklor.— Verner von Heidenstam (1859–1940), Sommarnatten
Image: A 1931 portrait of Verner von Heidenstam by Swedish painter Johan Krouthén (1858–1932).
“US lawyer Gene Schaerr, who failed to defend Utah’s ban on same-sex marriages last year, has warned that same-sex weddings would be to blame for 900,000 abortions,” Joe Williams of Pink News reports. “Writing for the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal last week, Schaerr claimed that a ‘reduction in the opposite-sex marriage rate means an increase in the percentage of women who are unmarried and who, according to all available data, have much higher abortion rates than married women’.”
This just might be the stupidest argument against legalised same-sex marriage I’ve seen so far this year.
“Gazprom lobbyists are saying that if EU anti-trust regulators crack down too hard, then Russia might retaliate on Ukraine,” Andrew Rettman of the EU Observer reports.
The Second Cold War is definitely a reality.
“A new defence strategy bid set to be unveiled by the Swedish government on Friday calls for increased co-operation with Nato,” The Local reports.
Closer ties are good, but Sweden should join NATO.
“It may be better known for banking than bohemia, but Switzerland is the happiest place in the world to live, according to the annual study published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network,” Natalie Paris of the Telegraph reports.
Pengelly of the Guardian writes:
A day after the Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said conservatives should “fall to our knees and pray” that the supreme court will not make same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states, comments from two attorneys who argued landmark cases on the subject suggested that prayer is indeed the last resort of those who remain opposed.
On Tuesday, the court will begin hearing oral arguments in same-sex marriage cases brought from four states. The case is expected to settle the legality of same-sex marriage in the US for good by June.
Cruz, speaking at the Iowa Faith and Freedom gathering in Des Moines on Saturday, also said: “We need leaders who will stand unapologetically in defense of marriage and life.”
Republicans likes Cruz are so pathetic. How on earth can allowing everyone to marry be a threat to marriage? It makes no sense and it makes conservatism seem stupid.
Ebba Busch Thor, newly elected leader of the Swedish Christian Democrats, has suggested that people with religious convictions should be allowed to refuse participation in abortion. This call for pluralism and individualism has caused some stir in the illiberal fringes of the atheist movement.
“People who believe in a fictional higher power and want to use their delusions in government, i.e. religious people should not be allowed to be politicians,” Dan Johannesson, medical doctor and hospital administrator at Kalmar County Hospital, writes on his official Facebook page. “From now on I refuse to offer treatment to Christians due to my personal inviolable belief that they are possessed by a daemon that may hurt and offend me.”
The irony is that Sweden’s atheist movement awards medical staff that follow their atheist conviction.
“Meet Susan Anne White, one of the most outspoken and controversial candidates in the upcoming council elections,” Adrian Rutherford of Belfast Telegraph reports. “The 55-year-old is standing as an independent in the new Fermanagh and Omagh district and is campaigning on what she says are the three most serious threats to society—the ‘destructive’ homosexual agenda, the growth of Islam and the ‘money-draining’ EU.”
“A man attempted to storm the courtroom at the US Supreme Court today, screaming the words ‘homosexuality is an abomination’,” Joseph Patrick McCormick of Pink News reports.
“Young rabbis educated abroad, with a stricter and less worldly approach, are replacing the old guard epitomised by Rome’s powerful Rabbi Toaff, who passed away last week,” Anna Momigliano of Haaretz reports.
It’s sad to see how the religious establishment in Israel is behaving like its equivalent in Islamic states. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate is in urgent need of reform. I first move should be to add a Reform and Masorti rabbi to the two Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis.
Image: Rabbi Toaff with former Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, photographed in 2007 by Mario De Siati (Wikimedia Commons).
Jessica Elgot of the Guardian writes:
Brendan O’Carroll, creator and star of the hit BBC1 comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys, has filmed a playful video calling on Irish voters to support same-sex marriage in Ireland at the referendum on 22 May, with Mrs Brown sending a touching message of support to parents of gay children.
The video has gone viral, with more than 2m views and more than 68,000 shares on Facebook alone.
“When two people love each other, you should allow them to get married. What’s all the fecking fuss?” Mrs Brown says, using the colourful language that has become the show’s trademark.
“The number of EU migrants living in Sweden and believed to be begging on the country’s streets has more than doubled since last year,” The Local reports.
Many people perceive this as a big problem, but I can’t see why Sweden should be saved from visual poverty.
“The prime minister said that Hungary’s passing a ‘three strikes’ law and actual life imprisonment had not been sufficient to deter criminals, and suggested that debates around a possible reintroduction of the capital punishment should be continued,” Daily News Hungary reports.
Madness!
Image: Detail from a fresco by Italian painter Pisanello (1395–1455).
In German folklore, the night of 30 April, when witches meet on the Brocken Mountain and hold revels with the Devil. In Nordic tradition, however, this night is less religious and instead marks the arrival of spring, which is celebrated by making bonfires.
Image: David Castor (Wikimedia Commons).
