Circus Assange

It´s been an interesting week following Circus Assange.

The extradition hearings that have taken place in London have given Julian Assange, his defense-team and his supporters ample opportunity to try to muddy the waters by conjuring up one objection after another against Swedish justice, Swedish judges and prosecutors and Swedish laws.

Sweden is not some 'hell-hole' with a dodgy legal system. Sweden is a democratic country, we have an independent judiciary and prosecutors that are independent from the ruling powers. Sweden is in fact a nation under the rule of law, we do not have "kangaroo courts" or a feminist lobby deciding the outcome of court cases.

The Swedish rape-laws are much the same as the British, the key word is "consent" not whether a condom has been used during penetration or not (sigh). We believe in the right of everyone - man or woman - to chose with whom we want to have sex, when and under what circumstances. If consent has been given it cannot be taken back after the fact (deeper sigh). Whether or not a condom has been used does not constitute rape.

Claims have been made against Assange by two young Swedish women. The claims have to be investigated by the Swedish prosecutors. Assange should be willing to assist with that investigation. He will of course have the right not to answer any questions that he believes would incriminate him in anyway whatsoever.

If the prosecutor after the investigation finds that there are reasons to believe that the claims are enough to bring charges against Assange she has to do so. After that it is up to the court to decide if - given all the evidence and facts that has been presented to the court during the course of the trial - if it finds that the prosecution has fulfilled it´s burden to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.

Assange claims he is innocent and also says that he has the evidence to prove it, despite not knowing what the allegations him are as he hasn't been charged yet..

By appearing to be willing to use any legal maneuvers to avoid coming to Sweden Assange is giving the appearance of knowing that he is guilty of the allegations. He will loose a lot of support by this.

...and all the while this circus is going on the two women are vilified and harassed with their names, pictures and tweets posted all over the Internet by members of the media, the John Pilger´s, the Naomi Wolf´s and the Naomi Klein´s of this world and all the rest of the "Based on what I have read in the press, on the Internet or on the bathroom-walls I so feel that this must be a conspiracy and the charges must be trumped up"-mob.

Oh by the way, Sweden cannot extradite a person to another country without the prior consent of the country that has extradited that person to Sweden, neither can Sweden ever extradite anyone to a country where they risk the death penalty.

But hell, I don´t know why I waste my time, this is no longer about facts, it has become a religion with Julian as God. 

WikiLeaks has my support all the way, but the organization´s co-founder Julian Assange has lost it.

Valentine´s Day in SecondSweden

"Heartily Welcome to the 2011 Valentine’s Day Party in Swedish SecondLife on February 14th, 2011

As has been customary for many years there will be a huge RED party on Valentine´s Day this year also. The party is on Monday February 14th, 2011, and starts at 11 AM SLT.

It will be an evening in RED and an evening of compassion, warmth and caring!

We have two DJ´s, we have live artists and we have great cash prizes to win.

It all takes place at the most Swedish place in all of SecondLife, the Second House of Sweden (also called "The Swedish Embassy"), the Swedish commercial success in cyberspace and in SecondLife.

The contests will be BEST IN RED! - The jury consists of Annabella, Ewa, PirateJenny and Tina (PetGirl). The jury's decision is final! Just live with it!

This is the program for the evening - isn't it wonderful!
11:00 AM - Starting off with DJ PJ (PirateJenny)
12.30 PM - Live artist: JennySue Crosby
01:30 PM - Live artist: Nici Chrome
02:00 PM - DJ Mazey Blackwell

The Awards Ceremonies for best in RED will take place at 02:00 PM after which DJ Mazey will make us party until we fall asleep - it is after all a Monday evening.

Landmarks and (SLurl):http://slurl.com/secondlife/Swedish%20Orientation/165/180/26

All are heartily welcome
Annabella, Ewa Aska, PirateJenny and Tina (PG)"

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This should be a great party, I am so sorry I cannot attend it but fear not clan McMillan will be represented at the party by my amazing brother in-law Andrey S. Messmer.

Treat my BIL well, my friends and countrymen, for he is a rare gem and close to my heart!

At Grenouille Inn

Blanche and I at Grenouille Inn (Photo courtesy of Blanche Argus)

Let me first of all nip the rumors in the bud before they start spreading too far.
1) No, Blanche and I did not color coordinate before meeting at the inn for the Mannen Darkstone event.
2) No, I did not change my sexual preferences overnight or "bridge the gap for an evening" so to speak. However we did make up after our most recent run-in even if we didn't make out.

Mannens voice was beautiful and he sounded as great as he does on his websites, which wasn't strange because he unfortunately didn't sing live. This made me a bit disappointed at the time (So sorry, Apollon Allen) but the choices his closest and longest fans had made of which music should be played showed the wide spectrum of this amazing singer/songwriters talents.

I have some things to say to Mannen and I really, really mean this in the best possible way; Mannen, with your God-given talents you can have a great career in both SecondLife and in real life, but this will only happen if you can muster the courage to start doing it live, at the very least as "singback". I suggest you get some coaching and start in a small way, with your closest friends and the patient Swedes.

Of course you can also chose to be a strictly recording singer, Mannen, but then please see to it that the venue you "perform at" announces the event as such.

Lastly, if at all possible, get help with your scheduling and coordinating of real life with SecondLife so you are always at the venue 15-30 minutes before your time slot. There are a chosen few rock bands and singers who get away with being late to their sets. These are usually the ones where both the performers and their audiences are high as kites all the time. (This piece of my mind may be really unfair because shit happens to us all the time, but this was the first of your events I had myself come to in time - then again I am audience, we don´t count and therefore have that privilege.)

I look forward to listening to you really sing for me in the future Mannen and wish you the best of luck with your musical career.

"Love"

VENTURA ARTE & JARDIN PRESENTS:

*•.¸'*•.¸ ♥ ¸.•*´¸.•*
         Love
¸.•*¸.•*´ ♥ `*•.¸`*•.¸

FEBRUARY 3-28
Opening Celebration Sunday February 13. 1 pm slt featuring the sultry jazzy stylings of Ms. Gina Gracemount

FEATURED ARTISTS:
In  gallery:
Eves Rodenberger
Jocgart Larsen
Trinidad Anatine
Kira Westland
Domitalia Jinx
Carlotta Ceawilin
WickedV Carver
Trill Zapatero

Sculpture garden:
Eliza Wierwight
Fuschia Nightfire
Miso Susanowa

The grounds of Ventura change with each exhibition to enhance the current show; wander the grounds and enjoy the creativity of the following content creators: Kriss Lehmann; dop Kidd; Uni Ninetails; Mikatsuki Matov; Alir Flow; vitrail illiois; capo freenote; syrdin morrisey; Julia Hathor; Winter Thorn; ben stravinksy; Minke Bailey; Aisuru Rieko; alzahra ames

Secondlife continues to be an amazing experience because of the talents of the artists and content creators listed above.

Thank you all for sharing your talents and creativity.
Mariposa Upshaw,
owner/curator Ventura Arte & Jardin

Limousine to The Gallery

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The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation) encourages everyone to visit this event although it does not have the formal or financial support of the foundation.

Thank You, Everyone

I had a wonderful day yesterday, from the start until the end! Yes I know I had made my mind up to have just that, but you all made it so easy for me.

Photograpy: Mats Almlöf

I will not mention anyone special, because I see it it was a team effort! You may not have known you worked as a team and you may not have known what any other person actually did, but on my end it was altogether beautiful, strong and supportive.

It was a collective effort, so I now want to say thank you to you all. Each and everyone of you that I spoke with yesterday, everyone I danced with and all I interacted with in some way whatsoever.

SecondLife is so beautiful and wonderful on such days. They may be few and far between but as long as one knows that these days are there it´s worth waiting for them.

Valentine´s Day Teaser

Don´t make other plans for Monday February 14th, the traditional Valentine party at the Swedish Embassy in SecondLife is on and absolutely everyone is invited, and our International friends in particular..

This party is a collaboration between the Swedish Institute, the blog "Tinas universum" and was made possible by the arduous work of Annabella, Ewa and Tina (PetGirl).

This is going to be an awesome party I am sure, it usually is!

I am so sorry I am going to miss it myself due to being out of town that day. I emphatically refuse to use my work laptop for private entertainment purposes, my employer knows way too much about my private life already.

More information to follow.

Happy Rezday, Fride!

Today is the rezday of one of the really positive, strong and vibrant forces of nature in Swedish SecondLife, my friend and Lucia-DJ the lovely and charming Midnattsdotter "Mid" Fride.

 
As many of you already know Mid has her own club called "Frides" where she and her crew hosts great parties and live music events. It was actually at a live music event at Frides that I first got acquainted with the music of awesome strum Diesel.

Mid will be celebrating her rezday with a swim wear party at her beach, please see the poster below for more information.

T

Take me to Fride´s beach party!