I am as good a Norwegian as you!!
HM King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway
May 27th, 1905
Sorry ... but no. No.
Posts
3 days ago
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Warsaw 2009: Stare Miasto revisited
If you remember my last post on Warsaw's Old Town (although, granted, it was quite a while ago ;-) I mentioned that the city suffered enormous damage in WWII, but that it was rebuilt, and that the job of reconstruction is showed off very impressively in the Stare Miasto. Wandering around its maze of streets and looking at its gorgeous facades it was hard to believe that the entire place was a ruin 60 years ago. In today's post I will show off some of those facades. Especially from Rynek Starego Miasta, the Old Town Square. There were soo many beautiful houses there, I could hardly stop looking. :-) Everywhere I turned my gaze there was some new lovely detail to be discovered. :-) Enjoy.
More pictures from Stare Miasto here.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Shoutout: Opplysningskontoret
Do you read Norwegian and want to get a good laugh? Do you follow current events? Take an interest in politics? Do you like Hallo i uken? Then the site I'm going to direct you to now may be right up your alley. If you always believe what you read and take everything literally, though, you should probably go somewhere else.
Go here to check it out.
This site is all in Norwegian, alas, but to give those of you who don't understand the language some idea, it's basically the Norwegian answer to The Onion. And it's totally hilarious. Their name, Opplysningskontoret, means 'the information office', but they're more in the business of disinformation. ;-) There are seven contributors and they all write well and are really funny. IMHO. :-) They have a way with words about them. But the funniest part is the comments sections, whenever someone stumbles on the place and thinks it's all for real. :-D
Some sample articles (my translation of the headlines):
* Cancer patient pulls himself together and goes to work
* Bankrupt Europe tricks Norway into hosting expensive nonsense festival
* Norway buys more overpriced crappy weapons, US still sulks
* Man marries fetus
* Dead people sick and tired of being quoted to support all kinds of bullshit
* More than 100 Norwegians will die every day
* Radical Islam considers position seriously after storm of criticism
Have fun! :-)
Go here to check it out.
This site is all in Norwegian, alas, but to give those of you who don't understand the language some idea, it's basically the Norwegian answer to The Onion. And it's totally hilarious. Their name, Opplysningskontoret, means 'the information office', but they're more in the business of disinformation. ;-) There are seven contributors and they all write well and are really funny. IMHO. :-) They have a way with words about them. But the funniest part is the comments sections, whenever someone stumbles on the place and thinks it's all for real. :-D
Some sample articles (my translation of the headlines):
* Cancer patient pulls himself together and goes to work
* Bankrupt Europe tricks Norway into hosting expensive nonsense festival
* Norway buys more overpriced crappy weapons, US still sulks
* Man marries fetus
* Dead people sick and tired of being quoted to support all kinds of bullshit
* More than 100 Norwegians will die every day
* Radical Islam considers position seriously after storm of criticism
Have fun! :-)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Oh, the irony!!
Who killed the electric car?
General Motors.
Who will kill General Motors?
The electric car.
You gotta laugh!! :-D
This is the first part of the movie, at the end of it there's a link that will take you to the next part, etc. :-)
General Motors.
Who will kill General Motors?
The electric car.
You gotta laugh!! :-D
This is the first part of the movie, at the end of it there's a link that will take you to the next part, etc. :-)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Just when I thought it was safe ...
... Nina Karin Monsen pops out of the woodwork again. I am SO sick of that stupid cow now. I was hoping she'd have crawled back under the rock she came out from, but no such luck. When I opened today's edition of Aftenposten while peacefully eating my lunch, there she was. And in an unexpected place - Si ;D, ie 'Say It', a page set aside for teens, and teens only, to express their views. Rarely has the Si ;D page's corner's sometime title been more apropos: 'The Fossil Corner'. Monsen is indeed a fossil, a relic of a bygone age. I can't remember reading the letter that she is responding to. But it doesn't matter, she's just regurgitating more of her inane drivel. How does she keep getting away with it?? 'Philosopher' my shiny metal ass. Don't we have any real philosophers in this country? Aren't they embarrassed by being associated with this person? Why doesn't a single one of them ever speak out against it? :-(
A word of explanation: Monsen is an opponent of the new Marriage Act that we now have in this country whereby same-sex marriages share equal status with hetero marriages. Yawn. I support the law simply because I am in favor of equal rights in society, and gay people aren't asking for anything to be taken away from anyone else, they just want a share in what straight people already have. That's obvious, right? Nope, not if you're a great big idiot like Monsen. She won an award recently - a freedom of speech award that she was given on completely false grounds, but that's another story - and part of that was a sum of money, namely 400,000 crowns. That's, let's see, about $65,000. Guess what she's spending the money on. Nah, you won't be able to guess that. I credit my readers with more sense. ;-) She's using it to finance a lawsuit against the Norwegian state, a lawsuit which will determine whether she and her husband are still married. o_O Yes, seriously. I can think of SO many ways that that money could have been better spent. There are people starving in this world. Dare I say it, little children, that Monsen claims to care soo much about, are starving to death right this moment. But hey, be my guest, lady. Flush your money down the toilet for all I care. Just don't expect people to take you seriously afterwards.
Anyway ... this woman is very religious, basically a fundie xian, and that's why she's so anti-gay. I don't buy for a second that she actually cares about the kiddies. If she does, she argues in their favor incredibly badly. None of her arguments hold water. It's amazing that she has the gall to call herself a thinker. (And to accuse others of 'thought failure', too ... but again, that's another story.) Today I'm mostly pissed off that she seems to not know and/or understand anything about history. She actually writes, in her letter in the paper today, that modern society is one giant adult conspiracy. o_O The new laws only give adults equality with adults. Of course they do!! Children have never had and will never have 'equal rights' with adults. And why should they?? They are not our equals, so why should they have equal rights? As adults we can and must care for them and make decisions for them ... and certainly that fact, which I will take to be indisputable, means that they cannot possibly be our equals in the eyes of the law. And as for this whole adult conspiracy thing, WTF is that about? You don't have to go back all that far before the concept of childhood didn't even exist. And then she ends her communication by saying that it's a bad thing that some adults see their own children as possessions or slaves. Yeah, that would be a bad thing if it was true. Do you want some coffee with your straw man, Monsen?
I just can't stand the way this whole issue has been debated. Oh, and just to make one thing clear: I don't have anything against Monsen believing the way that she does. I disagree with her, and I think she's full of shit, but I'm perfectly fine with her thinking that way. I just don't see why she has to be such a bitch about it. And I really resent the way she's fucked up this debate by making us all discuss the wrong questions. She, and those who agree with her, claim that the question we need to discuss is whether kids are screwed up by gay parents, with the underlying assumption that yes, they are. It's such a damaging environment for kids, no male role models, it's so unfair to the innocent children, etc, etc. She says that children with gay parents 'start life with a handicap' and so on. And as a result of all the hateful nasty things she says and the awful way she expresses herself the debate has become about gay people and what does who think about them and homosexuality is a bad thing (say some) and homophobia is a bad thing (say others) and, and, and. But this is turning the discussion upside down. These are kids that don't even exist yet - that's what we're discussing. So why are we talking about whether or not gay couples are capable of giving a child the love and care that it needs? The question we should be asking is this: is the experience of having parents of the same sex so traumatising to a child that it is better for that child to never be born?
That's a whole other question, isn't it?
But I will say this: I understand completely why Nina Karin Monsen does not want that question answered.
A word of explanation: Monsen is an opponent of the new Marriage Act that we now have in this country whereby same-sex marriages share equal status with hetero marriages. Yawn. I support the law simply because I am in favor of equal rights in society, and gay people aren't asking for anything to be taken away from anyone else, they just want a share in what straight people already have. That's obvious, right? Nope, not if you're a great big idiot like Monsen. She won an award recently - a freedom of speech award that she was given on completely false grounds, but that's another story - and part of that was a sum of money, namely 400,000 crowns. That's, let's see, about $65,000. Guess what she's spending the money on. Nah, you won't be able to guess that. I credit my readers with more sense. ;-) She's using it to finance a lawsuit against the Norwegian state, a lawsuit which will determine whether she and her husband are still married. o_O Yes, seriously. I can think of SO many ways that that money could have been better spent. There are people starving in this world. Dare I say it, little children, that Monsen claims to care soo much about, are starving to death right this moment. But hey, be my guest, lady. Flush your money down the toilet for all I care. Just don't expect people to take you seriously afterwards.
Anyway ... this woman is very religious, basically a fundie xian, and that's why she's so anti-gay. I don't buy for a second that she actually cares about the kiddies. If she does, she argues in their favor incredibly badly. None of her arguments hold water. It's amazing that she has the gall to call herself a thinker. (And to accuse others of 'thought failure', too ... but again, that's another story.) Today I'm mostly pissed off that she seems to not know and/or understand anything about history. She actually writes, in her letter in the paper today, that modern society is one giant adult conspiracy. o_O The new laws only give adults equality with adults. Of course they do!! Children have never had and will never have 'equal rights' with adults. And why should they?? They are not our equals, so why should they have equal rights? As adults we can and must care for them and make decisions for them ... and certainly that fact, which I will take to be indisputable, means that they cannot possibly be our equals in the eyes of the law. And as for this whole adult conspiracy thing, WTF is that about? You don't have to go back all that far before the concept of childhood didn't even exist. And then she ends her communication by saying that it's a bad thing that some adults see their own children as possessions or slaves. Yeah, that would be a bad thing if it was true. Do you want some coffee with your straw man, Monsen?
I just can't stand the way this whole issue has been debated. Oh, and just to make one thing clear: I don't have anything against Monsen believing the way that she does. I disagree with her, and I think she's full of shit, but I'm perfectly fine with her thinking that way. I just don't see why she has to be such a bitch about it. And I really resent the way she's fucked up this debate by making us all discuss the wrong questions. She, and those who agree with her, claim that the question we need to discuss is whether kids are screwed up by gay parents, with the underlying assumption that yes, they are. It's such a damaging environment for kids, no male role models, it's so unfair to the innocent children, etc, etc. She says that children with gay parents 'start life with a handicap' and so on. And as a result of all the hateful nasty things she says and the awful way she expresses herself the debate has become about gay people and what does who think about them and homosexuality is a bad thing (say some) and homophobia is a bad thing (say others) and, and, and. But this is turning the discussion upside down. These are kids that don't even exist yet - that's what we're discussing. So why are we talking about whether or not gay couples are capable of giving a child the love and care that it needs? The question we should be asking is this: is the experience of having parents of the same sex so traumatising to a child that it is better for that child to never be born?
That's a whole other question, isn't it?
But I will say this: I understand completely why Nina Karin Monsen does not want that question answered.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Must ... resist ... must resist ... argh ...
At Spaceworld at Tveita mall on Wednesday. I shall overcome ... !! Also, I shall buy my best friend C. the DVD peeping out in the left of the picture for her birthday in August. :-)
In other news, Raphael moved out yesterday. No, not out out - not away from me. Just out onto the balcony. :-) Summer has arrived here in Oslo and it's time for my little green-eyed monster to take up his outdoor residence. It's gone pretty well so far - he came inside twice last night to look for his pond, but settled down outside nicely once he'd been fed, and today he hasn't been inside at all. (I have the day off work because of Pentecost, look here, third paragraph. :-) Are you confused? Doesn't his having moved outside mean that the pond is actually outside too now? Yes. So why is he coming inside looking for that selfsame pond? Because he has a very tiny brain and over time it has been established in that brain where his pond is supposed to be. And it's not out on the balcony. So he climbs out of the pond and goes to look for the pond somewhere else. It'll take him a little getting used to. :-)
In other news, Raphael moved out yesterday. No, not out out - not away from me. Just out onto the balcony. :-) Summer has arrived here in Oslo and it's time for my little green-eyed monster to take up his outdoor residence. It's gone pretty well so far - he came inside twice last night to look for his pond, but settled down outside nicely once he'd been fed, and today he hasn't been inside at all. (I have the day off work because of Pentecost, look here, third paragraph. :-) Are you confused? Doesn't his having moved outside mean that the pond is actually outside too now? Yes. So why is he coming inside looking for that selfsame pond? Because he has a very tiny brain and over time it has been established in that brain where his pond is supposed to be. And it's not out on the balcony. So he climbs out of the pond and goes to look for the pond somewhere else. It'll take him a little getting used to. :-)
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