In Anticipation of a Punitive Attack

The Americans and the French have said that they are planning an attack to punish Syria for using chemical weapons in a "crime against conscience" that killed 1,429 people on August 21, 2013. This action is expected to take place during the weekend.

In response to this Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, President of Russia, has urged the Americans and the French to rethink their plans and consider the future victims that may follow on such a military action.

This is totally absurd and hypocritical coming from a bigoted bastard who has supported the murderous Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and his clansmen during the last two years while they have been slaughtering close to 150,000 of their own countrymen.

Putin and Russia have throughout the two years of bloodshed successfully blocked any action being launched by the United Nations against the atrocities and thus made the world stand helplessly by and witness the continued murdering and butchering going on, day after day, week after week, month after month for two whole years. 

Important Community Information

Today the most important community information that reaches Swedish households in a non-election year was dropped into my letterbox. It is of course - as every Swede knows - the latest IKEA catalog, this time the issue for 2014.

Every Swedish household gets it, most of them will look in it to check what's new, many will start planning what to buy, some will go to one of the stores to look at it and possibly buy it. No matter what they do or how much they get involved they will all know that the new catalog has arrived.

Thats what's called excellent goodwill and brand awareness, no one beats IKEA in those areas in Sweden.

You can browse the U.S. edition here, IKEA Catalogue of 2014

Happy Independence Day 2013

The American Declaration of Independence (declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain), which as all Americans know but perhaps not all my readers of other nationalities, was adopted by Congress on this day in 1776.

The preamble of that declaration says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Even if Thomas Jefferson's words are heavily influenced by religion and natural law philosophy they, to this day, express what those of us that believe in a democratic society based on full and equal human rights for all citizens still hold true. 

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I wish all my American readers a very happy Independence Day! 

Important Victories for Gay Rights in the U.S.A.

Two important cases were decided today by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).

The first case concerned the constitutionality of the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was an American federal law, enacted in 1996, that required that the federal state should only give recognition to opposite-sex marriages in the United States and also restricted federal marriage benefits to opposite-sex marriages.

The second case concerned the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections. The measure added a new provision, to the California Constitution, which provides that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." The United States District Court Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Proposition 8 on August 4, 2010, ruling that it violated both the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel later affirmed the decision that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Through the decisions delivered by SCOTUS today
1, the Defence Of Marriage Act (DOMA) was struck down as being unconstitutional by a 5-4 majority and
2. in the the Proposition 8 case the ruling was, by a 5-4 majority, that supporters of the measure did not have legal standing (did not have the right) to appeal the lower court's ruling, thereby leaving the earlier decision that the measure was unconstitutional standing and clearing the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.

HALLELUJA!!! 

Big Brother Is Watching Us

If our Big Brothers in the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is watching us there is really only one thing to do.

Photography by Hudson Wright

MOON THE NOSY BASTARDS! 

Thank you Edward Snowden for informing us about this, you are my hero! 

Just like Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning before you, you have brought the public's attention to the wrongdoings of the powers that be and their henchmen.

We always need heroes in our midst who, when they feel that something is utterly wrong, have the courage to act and to do the morally right thing. I hope that I will have the same courage if and when I find myself in that position.

P.S. If anyone is wondering if the ass above is mine I must coyly admit that it is NOT. Mine is a bit hairier and even more beautiful.

Excessive, Cruel & Unusual

On Tuesday Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, renewed his promise to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

The camp opened in 2002 as a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States to hold detainees it had determined to be connected with terrorism. As of March 2013 there remain 166 detainees remain in the camp. Approximately 100 of the detainees are currently taking part in a hunger strike protesting against being detained for years on end without being charged or put on trial and under conditions and with treatment that would be totally unacceptable if the camp was located on the U.S. mainland.

The president said he was going to raise the matter in Congress again, which I am sorry to say I do not understand.

The matter of releasing detainees, who aren't going to be charged or put to trial, cannot be a political decision but must rather be an administrative one, i.e. for the president himself or the Departments of Justice or Defense or agencies under those department to decide.

As those who have read this blog before already know I am an adamant supporter of president Obama in particular and the U.S.A. in general, the camp at Guantanamo and the conditions for the detainees are really one of my few major objections

Justice delayed is justice denied, which is not worthy of the United States or president Obama. Guantanamo Bay is a sordid stain on the American flag and a blemish on the International reputation of the United States, president Obama himself and his administration. So please Mr. President, shut the camp down and release the detainees or charge them and give them a fair trial as soon as possible. Justice has been delayed too long already.

I Am an American

For at least twenty minutes today, while listening to  President Barack Obama´s second inaugural address, I did become an American.

He had me from the get go; when he quoted the first line of the American Constitution "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

That quote is one of the most beautiful and hopeful I have ever seen in any founding document and Obama filled it with even more passion and life and hope.

I have always wanted and expected from my leaders that they be filled with a vision and passion and that they are able to instill that vision and passion in me and all around me. What I have gotten from Swedish politicians the last twenty years is base economics and nitty gritty-hopelessness. Give me what I need, hope, vision, passion and a social consciousnesses and I will follow. Of course economic realities must be handled in a responsible way, but that should never be the only point - or even the main point.

For twenty minutes I became an American and proud of it. I was filled with hope for the future and our ability to handle the problems we would meet together. 

Americans and Firearms

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The second amendment to the United States Constitution (Bill of Rights, adopted 1791)
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The poster above and the information below are from the Brady Campaign's website. The numbers and statistics are from 2010.

Gun Murders by Country
In one year, guns murdered 17 people in Finland, 35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States.

The United States has weak gun laws. The other countries have strong gun laws. 

Gun Murders by Country and Population SizeWhen the countries are compared on the basis of firearm homicides per 100,000 population, the United States remains an outlier.

In one year, the U.S. firearm homicide rate was:

• 5 times that of Canada
• 10 times that of Finland
• 13 times that of Germany
• 19 times that of Australia
• 24 times that of Spain.
• 44 times that of England and Wales

A 2010 study affirmed this pattern: U.S. homicide rates were 6.9 times higher than 22 other populous, high-income countries combined. For a summary of the study, see: http://bradycampaign.org/studies/view/191.

Guns Used in Crime = More Deaths
Research indicates that the overall rate of crime in the United States is comparable to the rates in other developed countries (see Crime Is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America). However, in part because of our weak gun laws, guns are used more often in crimes in the United States than in other countries, which means that more people die. This partly explains why, even when our homicide rates are low by historical U.S. standards, they still are far higher than comparable countries.

We Can Do Better 
The U.S. needs to do a better job of protecting its citizens from the dangers of guns by making it harder for dangerous people to get guns. We can start by requiring Brady criminal background checks for gun sales, including those at gun shows. Join us in this fight. Lives are at stake. Go to www.bradycampaign.org and sign up today!
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Addendum 12/16/2012, 05:50 PM
My initial reaction to such tragedies as the Newtown killing spree is always an utter disbelief that such a thing can happen and a then a deep sadness for the fate of the victims, their families and yes -  often enough also - for the perpetrators and their families. The initial shock is then followed by a longer lasting anger and passion concerning how something like this can happen and how we must act to stop it from ever happening again.

It seems like an open and shut case that these killings occur with such regularity in the U.S.A. due to the lack of political will to regulate the owning and selling of firearms, handguns and semiautomatic weapons.

How the American judiciary and politicians (historically and to this day) could interpret the second amendment in such a way as it is implemented today is a complete mystery to me.

When In Doubt, Take A Quiz

As a non-American citizen I will - to many of my American friends relief - have no say in the upcoming presidential election, but it was still a relief to see the outcome of this quiz.

You can take the quiz at I Side With...(url)

Ask and Tell

Photography by David Goldenberg

The United States has ended the military´s shameful and discriminatory “Don´t Ask, Don´t Tell” (DADT) policy.

DADT was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. 

From Wikipedia: The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. The restrictions were mandated by United States federal law. 

The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability."

The act prohibited any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces.

The act specified that service members who disclose that they are homosexual or engage in homosexual conduct should be separated (discharged) except when a service member's conduct was "for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service" or when it "would not be in the best interest of the armed forces".

The "don't ask" part of the DADT policy specified that superiors should not initiate investigation of a service member's orientation without witnessing disallowed behaviors, though credible evidence of homosexual behavior could be used initiate an investigation.
Yesterday the law repealing that shameful policy - signed by president Obama in July - went into effect, and the United States of America joined the other democratic nations of the world that allow Gay and Lesbians to serve openly and honestly in their armed forces.

This is a great victory for the LGBT movement as the Unite States government embraces equality over the policies of hatred and division, thereby putting an end to institutionalized homophobia in the United States military.

It also means that gay and lesbian servicemen now can talk about their lives and loves with other servicemen without lying or withholding information.

Watch this touching video of a young soldier telling his father he is gay.

We Should Also Remember

After the day of remembrance for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, it is only fair that we also take the time to remember the casualties of the post-911 era.

We must remember all the American soldiers that have fallen in the wars on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq and all the civilian casualties in both those wars.

May they all rest in peace!

Dressed for the occasion...

Happy 234th birthday, USA!