Image: Painting by French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).

The Alternative for Germany wants a ban on Muslim symbols, questions climate change, pushes for traditional “family values” (newspeak for gay bashing), wants to reintroduce military conscription and take Germany out of the euro.

The party represents the xenophobia, homophobia, and isolationism I dislike the most about populist European politics. Irk!

Image: Painting by French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).

The headline is a quotation ascribed to Dante Alighieri, although I haven’t been able to find information on from what poem it’s taken. I like it, nonetheless.

Image: Painting by Italian artist Raphael (1483–1520).

The Royal Danish Theatre as released the programme for the new season. There’re only two operas I want to see, Verdi’s Macbeth and Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann. So when I renewed my season ticket, it’s filled with ballet.

Image: The Ballet Class by Edgar Degas (1834–1917).

“Donald J. Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday with a landslide win in Indiana that drove his principal opponent, Senator Ted Cruz, from the race and cleared the way for the polarizing, populist outsider to take control of the party,” Jonathan Martin and Patrick Healy of the New York Times write. “After months of sneering dismissals and expensive but impotent attacks from Republicans fearful of his candidacy, Mr. Trump is now positioned to clinch the required number of delegates for the nomination by the last day of voting on June 7.”

America’s Silvio Berlusconi will be one of the two candidates for the presidency. May God save us all!

Today is a public holiday in Sweden, which I find a bit strange. In one of the world’s most secularised countries, Ascension Day is observed. But this gives me an excuse to post this lovely artwork from the fifteenth century.

Image: The Ascension of Christ, circa 1461, by Italian painter Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506).

Yesterday, when visiting the library to borrow William Dieterle’s 1939 film of Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, I walked by the section with Shakespeare plays and decided to reread Macbeth. It’s a stunning play, and it hit me that there must be plenty of painters who have made art of the many dramatic scenes. A quick search on the Internet confirmed this. Of the many paintings I found, this one in particular caught my attention. It’s Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head from 1793 by Swiss painter Henry Fuseli (1741–1825).

“You only need four letters to take a stand against the prejudice embedded in the English language,” Lorraine Berry writes in the Guardian.

For years, there’s been a heated debate about the word “hen” in Swedish, which is a gender-neutral pronoun that some find very provocative.

I’ve spent most of the weekend at the biannual congress of RFSL, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Rights. I was nominated for a seat on the national board, but the delegates decided to go for other candidates, so I lost the vote. I don’t cry myself to sleep over that. The important thing is that RFSL has board members who are qualified and able to do the very important job of protecting and promoting our civil rights, and I’m sure the new board will do that brilliantly without me.

On Friday evening, the City of Malmö invited everyone attending the congress to a nice dinner at the Town Hall. I snapped this photograph during dinner whilst contemplating having one of these crystal chandeliers in my bathroom.

Pete Kasperowicz of Washington Examiner reports about an address American Secretary of State John Kerry made to newly graduates at Northeastern University in Boston. I think he made some really positive remarks in his speech. Borders are impossible and unwanted.

Speaking of open borders, I found this article on the moral case for open borders some time ago. Worth a read.

From the European Union website:

Europe Day held on 9 May every year celebrates peace and unity in Europe. The date marks the anniversary of the historical ‘Schuman declaration’. At a speech in Paris in 1950, Robert Schuman, the then French foreign minister, set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would make war between Europe’s nations unthinkable.

His vision was to create a European institution that would pool and manage coal and steel production. A treaty creating such a body was signed just under a year later. Schuman’s proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.

“Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential ‘trending’ news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project,” Michael Nunez of Gizmodo writes. “…workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users.”

This is a problem much bigger than conservative news. With Facebook’s de facto monopoly on much of the news people get, the select of stories viewed can have major implications. To millions of people, the news not on Facebook does not exist.

“The contagious pressure to pretend that we know about things we don’t and like things we hate is exactly the kind of thing that stops people engaging with theatre: the feeling that, somehow, you haven’t done your homework,” Lauren Mooney writes in the Guardian.

I had that feeling when I was younger. I loved the theatre, but felt that I did’t know enough to be there. Then I realised that it’s all in my head. No one cares about my theatre experience but me.

“Political leaders in Moscow and Crimea protested against the song for, they say, criticising Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014,” The Local reports.

I’m just happy Russia didn’t win.

“According to new research a staggering one in 10 people have no problem checking their phone while they’re having sex,” Hannah Ferrett of the Sun reports.

For f**k’s sake!

The European Union is pursuing a similar goal to Hitler in trying to create a powerful superstate, top Europhobe Boris Johnson tells Tim Ross of the Telegraph.

To compare the greatest peace project in European history to a regime involved in the greatest industrialised genocide ever is simply disgusting! It’s obvious that Boris Johnson has lost the plot.

Ben Henry of BuzzFeed doesn’t have enough to do. This is stupid, but funny, too.

Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya, a well-known Turkish Islamist and creationist, has written a report on homosexuality for the Russian newspaper Pravda. It has all the usual lies seen in homophobic propaganda. The whole text is filled with moralistic language to give readers the idea that same-sex love is dirty, wicked, and dangerous. Here’s a telling paragraph:

Considering the matter in terms of morals and ethics, we encounter a higher rate of child molestation in same-sex couple households. It is a moral obligation to protect the interests of helpless children in our society. Extensive researches show that children of same-sex parents are more likely to experience sexual confusion and to engage in homosexual activities themselves that will eventually cause them to suffer from psychiatric disorders, substance addiction, sexual assault, suicide, and sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. In the US alone, government investment in the domestic response to HIV has risen to more than $24 billion per year.

For this reason, it is alarming to view the statistics in terms of same-sex marriage and the increase in the number of children they adopt. For example, 94,627 children live with homosexual couples in the US and the estimated total number of children living with at least one homosexual parent range from 6 to 14 million. Similarly in the UK, as of March 2015, the number of adopted children by gay parents skyrocketed in the last 12 months reaching a record high. There have been many recorded cases of sexual molestation of boys by their homosexual parents and many more unrecorded because they are ashamed or afraid to report it. Thus, it is important to note Pavel Astakhov’s—Russian Ombudsman for Children’s Rights—evocative comments regarding the molestation cases of same-sex couples in an interview: “Russian orphans always attracted foreign perverts because of accessibility. The foreigners were simply coming and taking children for money.”

“For Britain, exports to the EU make up 12.6% of GDP, whereas for the EU, exports to Britain are only 3.1%,” The Economist writes.

So much for the British europhobes’ mantra about Europe being dependent on trade with Britain.

Axel Schäfer, European affairs spokesman for Germany’s Social Democratic Party, comments Boris Johnson’s EU-Hitler comparison:

Like many other politicians in Germany I am speechless at what stupidity nationalism can trigger in seemingly intelligent people.

The European Union is a club which 28 member states have joined voluntarily, not by force, and which is made up of them, and not of Brussels. It is also a club in which Britain plays a leading role, and which would be unimaginable without British leadership.

It’s obvious to everyone who knows anything about Boris Johnson that his opposition to EU membership is an attempt to become British prime minister. Only about a year ago, the same Johnson spoke in favour of the EU. However, his EU-is-like-Hitler remarks can make his future premiership a nightmare as European leaders are rightfully upset. Jennifer Rankin of the Guardian writes:

One of the Europe’s most senior leaders has accused Boris Johnson of suffering from “political amnesia” and making “absurd arguments”, after the former London mayor drew a comparison between the aims of the EU and Adolf Hitler.

EU institutions have so far avoided getting drawn into the UK’s increasingly bitter referendum campaign, but Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said on Tuesday that he had to respond when he heard the EU being compared to the Nazi leader’s plans.

“A group of 51 Muslim states has blocked 11 gay and transgender organisations from attending a high-level meeting at the United Nations next month on ending Aids, sparking a protest by the US, Canada and the EU,” the Guardian writes. “Egypt wrote to the president of the 193-member general assembly on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to object to the participation of the 11 groups.”

“Bank of Spain figures show that the country’s public debt is now worth more than the value of the economy,” CNBC reports. “The bank said Wednesday that Spain’s public debt stockpile stood at 1.09 trillion euros ($1.23 trillion) in the first quarter of the year. That represents 101 percent of the country’s annual GDP—1.08 trillion euros—in 2015.”

The Eurozone needs a common economic government urgently.

“A handful of scientists around the United States are trying to do something that some people find disturbing: make embryos that are part human, part animal,” Rob Stein of NPR writes. “The researchers hope these embryos, known as chimeras, could eventually help save the lives of people with a wide range of diseases.”

Finally, Al Gore’s ManBearPig becomes real. Cool!

Last night, I saw the ballet Don Quixote at the Royal Danish Theatre. Beautiful dancing, but Ludwig Minkus’s music isn’t in my taste and the story is simply too absurd to make sensible on stage.

“Donald Trump wants to nominate a judge for the Supreme Court who argued that states should be free to make ‘homosexual sodomy’ an imprison-able offence,” Nick Duffy of Pink News reports.

One thing I find fascinating about the Republicans is the inconsequent approach to liberty. The love to make the libertarian case that governments shouldn’t interfere with private matters when it comes to economics, but then turn the table whenever the issue is in any way related to sex. Then it suddenly becomes the government’s business to dictate the most private of matters.

Needless to say, Donald Trump in the White House would be a nightmare for everyone truly a libertarian.

King Christian V of Denmark laid out Kongens Nytorv (“the king’s new square”), Copenhagen’s largest square, in 1670. The king can be seen on his horse at the centre, but the normally well-kept square is now the construction site for a new metro line.

Keyan Milanian of the Mirror writes:

Experts say sex robot prostitutes are just around the corner—and will help fight people trafficking and the spread of sexual diseases.

According to a bizarre paper in an academic journal, red-light districts will be transformed by 2050 with the introduction of the robotic sex workers.

Ian Yeoman, a scientist specialising in futurology, and Michelle Mars, a sexologist at the University of Wellington, co-authored a paper entitled “Robots, Men and Sex Tourism”.

Robotic sex workers? I don’t know if that appeals to me, but it is a fascinating world we live in. And yes, it would be good if all the nasty sex slavery were to end. But who would want to have sex with a robot?

Sijbren de Jong, a strategic analyst with The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, has written an informative article for the EU Observer. Seems Putin in more of a bully than a unifier. No surprise, really.

Seen above is the emblem of the Eurasian Economic Union. The ambition is obviously to make the whole of Europe and Asia part of Russia. In theory, that would be a great free trade union, but considering Putin’s behaviour, it’s more of a reminder of Soviet ambitions for world communism.

“A politician on the Isle of Wight says he wants to hire bathroom attendants to keep out homosexuals and pigeons,” Nick Duffy of Pink News reports.

I wonder how he thought the police would do that. Would there be a police officer at the bathroom entry asking people for their sexual orientation and possible attraction to children?

Image: The flag of the Isle of Wight.

“Pope Francis demonstrated his digital credentials on Sunday by holding an intimate meeting with YouTube stars, throwing his support behind popular beauty videos and encouraging his celebrity guests to help young people create virtual identities,” Rosie Scammell of the Guardian reports.

We knew the Pope likes fancy dresses, but beauty vlogs must be new for the Vatican.

So what is beauty? Well, there has been a long, philosophical debate about it since, at least, Plato. One idea I think is easy to grasp is the one David Hume expresses in A Treatise of Human Nature (2.1.8):

If we consider all the hypotheses, which have been form’d either by philosophy or common reason, to explain the difference betwixt beauty and deformity, we shall find that all of them resolve into this, that beauty is such an order and construction of parts, as either by the primary constitution of our nature, by custom, or by caprice, is fitted to give a pleasure and satisfaction to the soul. This is the distinguishing character of beauty, and forms all the difference betwixt it and deformity, whose natural tendency is to produce uneasiness. Pleasure and pain, therefore, are not only necessary attendants of beauty and deformity, but constitute their very essence.

Personally, I find that beauty works different depending on context. As for beauty of people, I can’t free myself from the attitude of the person I’m watching. A very masculine man often appeals to me even though he may have obvious physical flaws. In fact, imperfections might even make him more attractive.

Image: Portrait of Pope Leo X and his cousins, cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, by Raphael (1483–1520).

“New video footage of Harambe the gorilla suggests he was trying to protect a four-year-old boy who fell into the zoo enclosure just minutes before the 400-pound animal was fatally shot,” Jessica Chia, Myriah Towner, and Wills Robinson of Daily Mail report. “The clip shows Harambe standing guard over the boy in the corner of the moat, and the two even share a brief moment holding hands.”

It’s such a nice and tragic story. A care misunderstood as danger ending in brutal death.

Madness has hit the British Isles.

From the Guardian:

Albania’s prime minister has criticised Michael Gove, the justice secretary, for suggesting that the UK should adopt Albania’s relationship with the EU. Given that Albania wants to join the EU, Edi Rama said this was “ridiculous”. Rama told the World at One:

When I heard about it I thought it was a joke.

Then when I read it knowing that Mr Gove is one of the very intelligent persons in the UK politics I thought it was kind of weird because why in the world Brits would have to follow a model we don’t want for ourselves. We think it’s the other way round.

Talking about this new BBC—British Balkan Confederation—is really amazing, but not for serious politics. I am sorry to that because I have a lot of respect for Mr Gove as a person and it’s, let me say bluntly, ridiculous.

Earlier, writing in the Times, Rama said Albania had only limited access to the EU’s market in services, no passport for financial services, its banks could not operate across Europe in the way British banks can, and it was outside the EU customs union which meant it faced costly red tape.

In his speech last week Gove said:

There is a free trade zone stretching from Iceland to Turkey that all European nations have access to, regardless of whether they are in or out of the euro or EU. After we vote to leave we will remain in this zone. The suggestion that Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and the Ukraine would remain part of this free trade area—and Britain would be on the outside with just Belarus—is as credible as Jean-Claude Juncker joining Ukip.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May has said that Britain should withdraw from the European convention on human rights regardless of the EU referendum result.