Whither, Cuba?
On the eve of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, and with Obama's recent decision to lighten travel restrictions to the island, the USA's failed Cuban policy has come back into focus. Obama was...
View ArticleThe Socialist Republic of Sweden (that's neither)
This week, Wyatt on The Daily show hilariouspair of reports on the 'evils' of Swedish Socialism. The Swedes appear to get the joke; as the videos have more-or-less gone viral there (the Swedish...
View ArticleConserativism, ruralism, populism and all that
Much has been said about it. Much will continue to be said about it. I'm talking about the marginalisation of the GOP, or what's already being referred to as their possible demise on the national...
View ArticleHe'll see everything, he'll... he'll see the Big Board!
In the classic black comedy "Dr Strangelove", George C Scott's General 'Buck' Turgidson breaks out in cold sweat over the prospect of letting the Soviet Ambassador into the Pentagon's "War Room", even...
View ArticleMeet Ahmed Zewail
It was with relatively little fanfare the White House announced the new members of PCAST - The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. To the extent it was noticed, trade rags tended...
View ArticleMore Fox outrage over faux secrets
Not too long ago, I wrote a diary entry on the ridiculous fake 'outrage' over the disclosure of the 'secret' torture memos. The ones we already knew all about.But now Fox News really outdoes itself,...
View ArticleYarr.. Pirate Party - coming soon to a country near you?
The results are in. In yesterday's European Parliament electons, the Swedish Pirate Party succeded in winning a seat, out of Sweden's 18 seats in the Parliament, with about 7% of the vote. A great...
View ArticleStopping involuntary sex change
That's probably the most attention-grabbing headline I've had the opportunity to write. For those of you trying to figure out what-in-god's-name-he's talking about, it's actually the environmental...
View ArticleGeorge Washington: President, General, Surveyor... Socialist?
There's a lot of throwing about of the term 'socialism' nowadays, mostly from the Wingnut quarters, and mostly in connection either with the bailouts, or with Obama's health care plan.What does...
View ArticleDefection in the Bundestag gives Pirate Party a seat - but do they want it?
German media is reporting that German MP Jörg Tauss is now defecting to the German Pirate Party (Piratenpartei), after leaving his party (the Social Democrats) in protest over Germany's new Internet...
View ArticleIran and moderate revolutions
Like everyone, I've been following the events unfolding in Iran. And thinking about them. Most of what I would say has already been said, likely better, by others. In sorting out my arguments for why...
View ArticleHealth Care, Lies and Videotape
Imagine you slip into a coma in 1995 and wake up a decade later. After getting over the initial shock of the country having gone straight to heck, you start settling in. Let's pretend that once you've...
View ArticleThe Obama Doctrine
Obama just killed the Cold War myth, and not a moment too soon. In the speech he gave in New Economic School in Moscow yesterday he said, among other things...within a few short years, the world as it...
View ArticleHomophobic censorship passes in Lithuania
Bad news, reported via the BBC: MPs overturned a presidential veto of the child-protection law, which critics say could institutionalise homophobia.The legislation would ban the public dissemination of...
View ArticleThe big health-care-debate accounting fraud
I'm not an economist or accountant. I'm a molecular physicist. As such, I do a sort of accounting as well: I do thermodynamics, which is basically the subject of how energy moves around.The First Law...
View ArticleJoe Biden, Ukraine, NATO, Russia Cossacks and some history..
Joe Biden's been to Ukraine and is now headed for Georgia. What's up with the former Orange Revolutionaries? NATO membership, Russian relations.. what's it all about?The Ukrainian majority decisively...
View ArticleDebating health-care with a Swede...
So yesterday when I was talking to one of my Swedish friends we broached the subject of American politics, since he's aware that I'm pretty well-versed in it.The fact that Obama's planning to reform...
View ArticleColbert and Movits!
Wow, as something of a self-proclaimed representative of Sweden here on Kos (being half-Swedish), as well as a Colbert fan (aren't we all?). So it's slightly embarassing that I missed that Colbert had...
View ArticleDailyKos goes fear-mongering
Fear-mongering. That's my immediate reaction to today's Green Diary here on DailyKos, and the Emagazine article it quotes at length.I care deeply about the environment. I also happen to be a scientist....
View ArticleSarah Palin's nightmare
So we all heard Sarah Palin's horror story about "death panels" who'd determine whether or not her baby Trig with Down's syndrome would be allowed to live under Obama's 'socialist' health-care...
View ArticleChild abuse and New Zealand
So, I noticed that last week's referendum results in New Zealand went largely unnoticed here on Kos. The non-binding referendum, forced by public petition, was on whether a relatively recent law...
View ArticleThe Muslim threat to Europe
Yup, that's my topic for today. I was reminded of it when I read Johann Hari's recent post explains the many reasons why he believes the Republican party is turning into a cult of sorts.. Among their...
View ArticleCNN thinks you're an idiot, you know...
I caught Crooks & Liars once again calling, like so many others, for CNN to dump Lou Dobbs.Personally, I got to thinking why I haven't actually seen his show. I figured it out pretty fast. See,...
View ArticleThe AP touts the Neocon world view. Again.
Once again, the AP shows blatant right-wing bias, now on the subject of Obama's changed plans for the missile defense. Their headline:"Poles, Czechs: US missile defense shift a betrayal"That's simply...
View ArticleWhat the Norwegians were thinking
Okay, so I want to put in my few cents on Obama's Nobel Prize. Being half-Swedish and an academic to boot, I happen to know a thing or two about the prizes. I've been to the banquet at Stockholm city...
View ArticleTruth is, the Nobel committees don't give a s--t.
Here I was with a long diary on the state of European and Scandinavian Social Democracy that I was looking forward to not having anyone read, when this whole Nobel thing came along and upset my...
View ArticleA new and clever way to do desalination
A lot of folks get skeptical when they read about a new technological innovation that's promising to save the world or whatever. I can sympathize with that - it's the goal of every start-up out there...
View ArticleDeepak Chopra vs. Quantum Mechanics
The opposition to science doesn't seem to know any party bounds. On the right, global-warming skepticism is the rule, evolution a minority 'opinion', and if WorldNetDaily is to be believed, soy turns...
View ArticleDear Michael Moore
Dear Michael Moore:I read your diary. While I can't claim to be any kind of official representative of the Swedish government, I am however a half-Swedish American, who's lived in both countries for...
View ArticleCould we give Syria some attention?
Today (Thursday) President Obama intends to give a speech on US foreign policy in the Middle East. It's believed that he will outline a vision of the new US policy in the wake of the Arab Spring.In the...
View ArticleYesterday we stood together in mourning, tomorrow the fight continues.
As an American-Swedish dual citizen, I was on vacation in Sweden, having just returned from a trip over to Finland, when the news of the bombing and massacre in neighboring Norway broke. It affected me...
View ArticleAn economic success story you're not likely to hear about
The Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland) have long served as models for worldly progressives everywhere. They're indisputably some the most left-leaning of the developed,...
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