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It baffles the mind how, people you once adored and gave so much to, people that were the center of your universe, are shown to be such perverse liars and manipulators. And when unmasked you know what they do? They accuse you of the things they themselves did, and are prone to do. No regret, no remorse, no guilt. Just plain pathological lying.

Horrible, sick, mean little people, that kill our faith in the goodness of Mankind.

With the election day approaching, one issue that comes up and is debated to exhaustion is that of the Swedish model. From left to right of the political spectrum, different definitions and approaches are thrown around, always confusingly.

But exactly what is the Swedish model, and where is it heading? Rarely have I see an article that echoes so perfectly my personal experience as well as some disappointment with things Swedish as this one written by Johan Norberg on the Sumer 2006 issue of The National Interest. And as if it wasn’t enough, The Economist just came up with a very even article on the subject, entitled The Swedish model: Admire the best, forget the rest.

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I’ve been in this country for over seven years now. I was apologetic for the government from the very start and whenever I was called to vote, I voted their way. True, there were always things to be critical about, and I know few as critical about everything as me. But in the whole, I was satisfied.

Pan to this last year events. By now I’ve witnessed first hand on how easy it to defraud the state and, consequently, those who work hard and pay their taxes. In this country, as long as you are wiling to lie here and there, you are set up for life. There are no bounds and checks within the system. You can pretend you are studying while staying at home and procrastinating, that you will still receive all the perks that come with the territory. You can have houses and stock outside this country and still qualify for thousands of crowns of monthly benefits. You can live with a partner in your house and still qualify for help with your rent as if you were single. Even in my original country this would be called a scandal. Here it is called living la vida loca. Read the rest of this entry »

This one came just in. The UN Rights Council was elected, and guess which states they chose to fill a portion of the 47 places available. None other than China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia, the crème de la crème of human rights abusers in the world. Talk about having the fox guarding the chicken coop.

This sounds like a joke, a cruel joke on our account. On our account and on millions of faceless and voiceless people condemned to be oppressed by these and other criminal regimes. Incredibly, the Human Rights Council replaces the Human Rights Commission, in itself long considered to be a bad joke due to the awful rights record of its members. Yes, they were trying to improve the Commission, I kid you not.

Somehow the word nauseating keeps springing to mind.

This may be old news, but some time ago the Guardian newspaper compiled a list of the 10 sci-fi films of all times with the help of a panel of scientists and writers. The movie The Matrix, from directors Andy and Larry Wachowki, comes in 9th place, but is derided as being just good old-fashioned fun. While I must admit to not being the biggest fan of the movie, and I agree that science was not well served by it – as an example, the idea of feeding humans to use as batteries is ridiculous, since our body is tremendously inefficient when burning calories – there are strong philosophical and religious elements behind it that should have been examined.

To those who didn’t see the movie, the plot consists in the idea of machines from the future using a giant computer (the Matrix) to feed false sensory information to humans who live in vats. By “farming” humans, these machines can use them as power sources, or, in a nutshell, plain old batteries. The false sensory information allows the humans to believe they have normal lives, whatever that is. Neo is the central character of the movie, and is searching for a mysterious fellow called Morpheus (the Greek god of dreams). Neo also wants to know what is the Matrix. Of course that things aren’t that simple, and the machines try to keep Neo from getting his answers.

Read the rest of this entry »

The news will be met with relief by some, the epitome Judas being thrown around so often. But a “Gospel of Judas” has been found, putting into new light the man and his deeds. According to this gospel, Judas was only following Jesus desire when he betrayed him to the authorities. As with any document found centuries after being written, many experts are bound to doubt it’s veracity, but it will still create quite a stir within the religious communities.

We, common folks, shouldn’t worry though. Even if the word Judas stops having the same unambiguity and we can’t use it anymore to name the guilty of betraying with kisses in our midst, there are other candidates.

Mind the last canto of Dante’s The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, canto 34. Dante and Virgil meet Lucifer, the great Satan himself. In the mouths of his three monstrous heads lie three people, three souls:

“That soul up there which has the greatest pain,”
The Master said, ” is Judas Iscariot;
With head inside, he plies his legs without.

Of the two others, who head downward are,
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.

And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
But night is reascending, and ’tis time
That we depart, for we have seen the whole.”

So, we can still count with good ol’ Brutus and Cassius, two of the most influential sinners in the history of man. Not bad. Not bad at all.

But it starts to be annoying. Even the most beautiful things get to be too much sometimes.

This message is brought to you in collaboration with your friendly “weather complaints” department.

… and a warm hug to Margareta Winberg.

The equality minister Jens Orback got in the International Women’s Day bandwagon this 8th of March, and as he has been accustoming us, managed to keep the undivided attention of his anal retentive crowd while making the rest of us frown and laugh. Accompanied by lovely Margareta Winberg, a well known apparatchik nominated for life for the Razzie like award of the most dubious remarks about women men and equality, Jens came up with an amazing idea. Sweden, apparently, needs a gender equality agency. Brilliant Jens, you are the man. Because it is not as if there isn’t another equality agency already, like, say, the one slammed for being unequal. But this is a minor nitpick, as, after all, what are our taxes for if not to create agencies and populate them with fat, Aftonbladet armed lazy cats sharing the same political body odor? Read the rest of this entry »