Courtesy of a blog with similar interests to mine, but a frightening amount of posts. Enjoy. I did.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Burkhas and prostitutes
Recently, France banned the burkha. Funnily enough, European countries are using the same logic about the burkha and prostitution.
In the case of the Islamic headscarf, the argument is that most women who wear one are being forced to, and therefore the burkha is an example of the subjugation of women. And besides, no woman in her right mind would want to wear one anyway. So they're banned.
In the case of prostitution, the argument is that most women who do it are being forced to, and therefore prostitution is an example of the subjugation of women. And besides, no woman in her right mind would want to do it anyway. So it's banned.
How neatly we've arrived at restricting people's freedom in the name of protecting their freedom. It's all based on a simple idea: the government knows better than individual women what they should be doing with their bodies. In this sense, the burkha ban is the exact opposite of any kind of gender equality, because it's based on the same old notion that women's bodies have to be regulated by the state. Women can't be allowed to choose what they wear or what trade they engage in, for their own good. Of course, by this logic women can be deprived of any rights.
And in both cases, the legislation diverts attention from the real problem. In the case of prostitution, it's undeniably true that there is human trafficking and forced prostitution in all European countries. Instead of tackling that problem, though, the powers that be in Europe are simply sweeping its visible manifestation off the street, and lumping in college students who perfectly willingly prostitute themselves with victims of kidnapping and slavery. The practical result is that victims of human trafficking can't seek help, because in the eyes of the law, they're criminals, not victims.
Similarly, Muslim women are being oppressed, "even" in Western liberal democracies. The "even" is in quotes because all women in Western liberal democracies are being oppressed, so it's hardly surprising that Muslims should be, too. However, the French government isn't addressing that issue at all; they're simply banning what they think is a visible manifestation of it. At the same time they're increasing the alienation of Muslims in their society by directly pitting the state against their religion, which, if anything, is going to make things worse.
I want to make one thing perfectly clear: Banning the burkha is not going to liberate a single Muslim woman anywhere. As long as nothing is done about the domestic abuse and subjugation that women in our society suffer from, passing laws on what they're allowed to wear isn't going to affect anything. With or without a burkha, a beaten and oppressed woman is still a beaten and oppressed woman.
Both of these examples simply show how disgustingly spineless our elected governments are. We consistently refuse to address real problems, but instead try to sweep them under the rug. If no-one can see a burkha in the street, we can conveniently forget that women are being abused, beaten and even murdered by their husbands and families. If no-one can see a prostitute soliciting on the street, we can forget all about the thousands of victims of human trafficking. The Finnish government is using similar logic to ban begging in the streets. Just get it out of sight.
We're not solving problems; we're just hiding them, and even worse, sacrificing individual freedom to hide them. It makes me sick that something like the burkha ban is being held up as an example of fighting for women's rights, when, if anything, it's the opposite.
In the case of the Islamic headscarf, the argument is that most women who wear one are being forced to, and therefore the burkha is an example of the subjugation of women. And besides, no woman in her right mind would want to wear one anyway. So they're banned.
In the case of prostitution, the argument is that most women who do it are being forced to, and therefore prostitution is an example of the subjugation of women. And besides, no woman in her right mind would want to do it anyway. So it's banned.
How neatly we've arrived at restricting people's freedom in the name of protecting their freedom. It's all based on a simple idea: the government knows better than individual women what they should be doing with their bodies. In this sense, the burkha ban is the exact opposite of any kind of gender equality, because it's based on the same old notion that women's bodies have to be regulated by the state. Women can't be allowed to choose what they wear or what trade they engage in, for their own good. Of course, by this logic women can be deprived of any rights.
And in both cases, the legislation diverts attention from the real problem. In the case of prostitution, it's undeniably true that there is human trafficking and forced prostitution in all European countries. Instead of tackling that problem, though, the powers that be in Europe are simply sweeping its visible manifestation off the street, and lumping in college students who perfectly willingly prostitute themselves with victims of kidnapping and slavery. The practical result is that victims of human trafficking can't seek help, because in the eyes of the law, they're criminals, not victims.
Similarly, Muslim women are being oppressed, "even" in Western liberal democracies. The "even" is in quotes because all women in Western liberal democracies are being oppressed, so it's hardly surprising that Muslims should be, too. However, the French government isn't addressing that issue at all; they're simply banning what they think is a visible manifestation of it. At the same time they're increasing the alienation of Muslims in their society by directly pitting the state against their religion, which, if anything, is going to make things worse.
I want to make one thing perfectly clear: Banning the burkha is not going to liberate a single Muslim woman anywhere. As long as nothing is done about the domestic abuse and subjugation that women in our society suffer from, passing laws on what they're allowed to wear isn't going to affect anything. With or without a burkha, a beaten and oppressed woman is still a beaten and oppressed woman.
Both of these examples simply show how disgustingly spineless our elected governments are. We consistently refuse to address real problems, but instead try to sweep them under the rug. If no-one can see a burkha in the street, we can conveniently forget that women are being abused, beaten and even murdered by their husbands and families. If no-one can see a prostitute soliciting on the street, we can forget all about the thousands of victims of human trafficking. The Finnish government is using similar logic to ban begging in the streets. Just get it out of sight.
We're not solving problems; we're just hiding them, and even worse, sacrificing individual freedom to hide them. It makes me sick that something like the burkha ban is being held up as an example of fighting for women's rights, when, if anything, it's the opposite.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Angelina Jolie IS Salt
The Verdict:GO SEE!
REVIEW:
Salt officially makes Angelina Jolie badass.
When she's not getting her guns (yes, plural) off every five seconds, she's jumping onto moving vehicles from other moving vehicles, blatantly disobeying the law and trying to (or not to...) assassinate presidents.
Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Changeling) takes on her toughest role yet as Evelyn Salt, a CIA Agent (is she?) who is accused of being a Russian spy (is she?). She goes on the run and when her husband is killed, Salt goes into a murderous, vengeful rage.
Salt is filled with twists and turns at every turn making it one thrilling ride.
Jolie is without a doubt is the star of the film but co-stars Liev Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate (remake 2004), X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as a colleague of Salt and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Redbelt, 2012) playing a relentless agent out to catch her---are great, Schreiber especially!
Prepare for your jaw to drop once everything about everyone is revealed (I'm so tempted to give out a hint of a spoiler for a character but I won't!).
Prepare for your jaw to drop twice during a well, jaw dropping scene involving handcuffs.
Only Jolie could pull off the character of Salt as well as she does.
Her last film before this action flick was the drama Changeling, where she beautifully plays a mother in the 1920's trying to find her missing son. Jolie is such a talented, chameleon actress, she can switch from a genre or character and make her role instantly believable.
She's no stranger to action films playing a girl who can kick butt better than the boys in films such as Lara Croft (2001) and Wanted (2007).
As Salt however, Jolie plays her most blood lusting role yet. She takes no prisoners in Salt, taking down so many men who are supposed to kill her, with the greatest of ease.
Is Salt the female Bond?
She seems to be.
And women moviegoers will be ready to embrace her.
At my showing, most of the audience were female (53% of women filled up theatres opening weekend) and afterwards, were pumped to see more (the bathroom talk was all about Salt/Jolie).
How the film marvelously ended (think: The Fugitive), the sequel to Salt is only inevitable.
~Trailer:
*The Stars:
Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofer
~Director:
Philip Noyce
~Music:
James Newton Howard
~Rating:
PG-13
*But there is a lot of violence making it on the verge of R-Restricted
~How Long:
~How Long:
1 hr. 39 mins.
~Opening:
7/23/10
FUN FACTS:
~Tom Cruise was originally supposed to play the title character, but as Edwin Salt. However feeling the role was too similar to his Mission Impossible character, he declined and Edwin Salt was eventually rewritten as Evelyn Salt for Jolie. She always wanted to play a female James Bond type character.
~Jolie did most of her stunts for the film.
~The film title Salt in Russia's Cyrillic alphabet translates into "Coat."
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Team orders
As I write this, the stewards are scrutinizing Fernando Alonso's win at the German GP. Team orders and so on.
Can we not get rid of this "team orders" stupidity already? F1 is a team sport. The constructors' championship, which determines the money teams get at the end of the season, is a team sport. In a situation like the one facing Ferrari at yesterday's GP, letting Alonso and Massa change places means that the driver who's still in the hunt for the drivers' championship gets more points, but the team gets the same amount. It just makes sense. Why, in the name of "sport", do we have rules that try to force teams to make irrational decisions?
Get rid of the whole rule. It doesn't actually affect anything, and only adds some camouflage to what teams are doing anyway. If the way Alonso won at Germany is wrong, then isn't Red Bull giving Vettel Webber's front wing also wrong? There was no penalty on that. What about when McLaren ran Kovalainen's car with a huge fuel load and gave Hamilton a more competitive amount of fuel? Wasn't that wrong too?
If teams want to favor one driver over another, they're going to. For teams to favor a driver who's way ahead of his teammate in the standings not only makes sense, but is universally acknowledged to be the way things are done in F1. Why do we have a silly rule that forces teams to pretend they're not doing what they're doing?
It's things like this that make F1 look so stupid.
**
What's just funny is Red Bull's Christian Horner.
Autosport: Horner: Ferrari move clear team orders
Can we not get rid of this "team orders" stupidity already? F1 is a team sport. The constructors' championship, which determines the money teams get at the end of the season, is a team sport. In a situation like the one facing Ferrari at yesterday's GP, letting Alonso and Massa change places means that the driver who's still in the hunt for the drivers' championship gets more points, but the team gets the same amount. It just makes sense. Why, in the name of "sport", do we have rules that try to force teams to make irrational decisions?
Get rid of the whole rule. It doesn't actually affect anything, and only adds some camouflage to what teams are doing anyway. If the way Alonso won at Germany is wrong, then isn't Red Bull giving Vettel Webber's front wing also wrong? There was no penalty on that. What about when McLaren ran Kovalainen's car with a huge fuel load and gave Hamilton a more competitive amount of fuel? Wasn't that wrong too?
If teams want to favor one driver over another, they're going to. For teams to favor a driver who's way ahead of his teammate in the standings not only makes sense, but is universally acknowledged to be the way things are done in F1. Why do we have a silly rule that forces teams to pretend they're not doing what they're doing?
It's things like this that make F1 look so stupid.
**
What's just funny is Red Bull's Christian Horner.
Autosport: Horner: Ferrari move clear team orders
Horner was adamant that Red Bull would not have acted in the same manner.
"No, we let our drivers race," he said. "Massa's still in this championship, or maybe he's signed a contract that says he's a number two driver, but I think that it's wrong for the sport."
Remember that one race when Vettel and Webber crashed? When Mark Webber's engineer told him that "Sebastian is faster"? Using the exact same words as Ferrari's "clear team orders"? Of course, Red Bull would never do something they already did this season.
Is Horner going to turn into another holier-than-thou "we would never do that, except when we do" manager? As if we need another one.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Happy birthday Tera Patrick!
Today is the birthday of one of the world's hottest porn stars, Tera Patrick. Happy birthday!
Surprisingly, she divorced her porn star husband last year, which I guess might mean she's single. She also wrote an autobiography, which I have to read. I've always had a weird fascination with autobiographies, no matter whose they are, if I can at least believe that they've actually taken a hand in writing it themselves and not had it ghost-written. Oddly, because I like actual autobiographies so much, I thoroughly detest the kind of semi-fictional biographies where the author starts making up stuff about what the person is thinking or feeling and whatnot. But anyway. Tera.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Law of the seven veils
I was going to blog about this French stupidity about banning Islamic veils on women, but it turns out I don't have to, because Martha Nussbaum already did for the NY Times.
That should cover the basics. In general, I find it hard to articulate how distasteful I find it that governments in the 21st century west are passing laws on what their citizens are allowed to wear. This time, we really are going back to the middle ages, because the last time these kinds of laws were passed was the sumptuary laws of the late middle ages.
Look how far we've come.
That should cover the basics. In general, I find it hard to articulate how distasteful I find it that governments in the 21st century west are passing laws on what their citizens are allowed to wear. This time, we really are going back to the middle ages, because the last time these kinds of laws were passed was the sumptuary laws of the late middle ages.
Look how far we've come.
Inception Perfection: Take 2
2
Of course I had to see Inception again.
The second time around, I was just as amazed as seeing it for the first time.
Things that confused me during the first viewing of it, make sense now (the roles of the characters and storyline were more clear). However I just couldn't wrap my head around other things still (how were all the series of dreams when Cobb's team started their inception job with Fischer seemingly taking place at the same time? Were they?).
I grasped the ending a lot more this time around, and I'm more sure of my answer to the questions, "Was it a dream? What it reality?"
The question that remains is, Will I see it again?
Yes!
I definitely want to see at least once more before it is taken from the theatres (and with how well the film is doing ($60.4 million made its first weekend) it should still be around until September, maybe even October I estimate).
One last question remains:
Will there be an Inception 2?!
Only Nolan knows for sure but Inception fans can certainly dream about it.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Character Assasination
Some of the gamers out there may remember an ambitious "roguelike" game called Slaves to Armok: God of Blood, developed by Tarn Adams from 2000 to 2005.
In 2002 he started working on a sequel, Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, and has worked exclusively on it since 2006. In the past eight years Dwarf Fortress has acquired impressive depth and list of features while still officially remaining in alpha stage. The game has also attracted a number of dedicated followers, exited at the prospect that it will "Drag the world out of the Dark age of Gaming kicking and screaming!"
Now it seems some Goon has decided to create a clone of Dwarf Fortress, called "Goblin Camp", in a move which has been perceived as a personal attack on Mr. Adams.
Goblin Camp is, not surprisingly, quite similar to Dwarf Fortress, as this screenshot demonstrates:
This picture shows a very early camp with a general stockpile for goods, a small farm for growing Bloodberries, a small workshop with an orc working in it, and a protective fence. There's not much else to the game yet, and it is this general dearth of features and lack of polish in a game in beta stage (remember, DF is still in alpha after eight years!) that has led some commentators to already write the game off.
Though Goblin Camp is ultimately developed by some Goon, he has opened the source code, and accepts additions and improvements from volunteer contributors. So far he has had programmers suggesting rewriting the whole thing, preferably in some other programming language, while some other suggestions for features are, well... see for yourself.
Here we see a more advanced camp with more stockpiles, more extensive fence, a bakery and a brewery. Bakery turns berries into pies, and brewery turns berries into wine.
Notice the brown '~' and '#' symbols near the left edge of the picture. They represent different depths of pools of filth; a great example of features internet forums can collectively come up with!
After your camp has reached this state, there's very little to do yet but watch your goblins harvesting berries and your orcs defeating the occasional attack by hostile animals.
Speaking of hostile animals: because, so far, animals can open doors, you have to come up with creative ways to protect your camp from attacks, like this maze entrance:
There's really not much else to say about the game or the Goon behind it. If you feel like wasting a few minutes of your time, here's the official website of Goblin Camp.
In 2002 he started working on a sequel, Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, and has worked exclusively on it since 2006. In the past eight years Dwarf Fortress has acquired impressive depth and list of features while still officially remaining in alpha stage. The game has also attracted a number of dedicated followers, exited at the prospect that it will "Drag the world out of the Dark age of Gaming kicking and screaming!"
Now it seems some Goon has decided to create a clone of Dwarf Fortress, called "Goblin Camp", in a move which has been perceived as a personal attack on Mr. Adams.
Goblin Camp is, not surprisingly, quite similar to Dwarf Fortress, as this screenshot demonstrates:
This picture shows a very early camp with a general stockpile for goods, a small farm for growing Bloodberries, a small workshop with an orc working in it, and a protective fence. There's not much else to the game yet, and it is this general dearth of features and lack of polish in a game in beta stage (remember, DF is still in alpha after eight years!) that has led some commentators to already write the game off.
Though Goblin Camp is ultimately developed by some Goon, he has opened the source code, and accepts additions and improvements from volunteer contributors. So far he has had programmers suggesting rewriting the whole thing, preferably in some other programming language, while some other suggestions for features are, well... see for yourself.
Here we see a more advanced camp with more stockpiles, more extensive fence, a bakery and a brewery. Bakery turns berries into pies, and brewery turns berries into wine.
Notice the brown '~' and '#' symbols near the left edge of the picture. They represent different depths of pools of filth; a great example of features internet forums can collectively come up with!
After your camp has reached this state, there's very little to do yet but watch your goblins harvesting berries and your orcs defeating the occasional attack by hostile animals.
Speaking of hostile animals: because, so far, animals can open doors, you have to come up with creative ways to protect your camp from attacks, like this maze entrance:
There's really not much else to say about the game or the Goon behind it. If you feel like wasting a few minutes of your time, here's the official website of Goblin Camp.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A guilty confession
Okay. My theory is that pretty much nobody really reads this blog. Frankly, I even doubt the guys posting links to what looks like an Asian dating website (but could be something much more sinister) actually read my posts here. So I think I can post just about anything.
When I was a kid in Finland, our house didn't have cable, so we never had MTV. The first time I really saw any MTV was when we moved to Denmark in the very early nineties. Heck, I remember people like Ray Cokes, who's apparently since turned into a Belgian. The first and only time a cartoon really blew my mind was when I first saw Beavis and Butthead. So MTV has a certain place in my heart, even if it's become rather silly since. Watching "MTV Finland" is usually quite painful. But because I still sort of care about MTV on some silly level, I kind of keep up with what's going on. I've even seen a couple of episodes of The Hills; enough to know that I don't understand why anyone would actually watch that show, let alone marry Spencer.
Having seen the Hills, when the next big reality thing came along, I did my best Jeremy Clarkson voice and asked myself: "How bad could it be?" And so I was watching Jersey Shore.
My initial reaction was that someone at MTV found out that rampant stereotyping of American-Italians sort of ended in the 1920s, and decided that it's high time it came back. Not only has the show pissed off just about every American-Italian advocacy group in the world and the residents of the Jersey Shore, but it has that same sense of astonishing unreality as The Hills. Every episode leaves you wondering: do people really live like this? And even more scarily: do young people watch this, and then get the impression that one is supposed to live like this?
Given that my generation doesn't spend all its time sitting at home and watching music videos in AC/DC shirts, I'm not really too worried. Maybe the most worrying thing I've taken from MTV is that on some level, I really do feel that the best possible summation of the political and human rights situation of Finland is "in my country, we have no bunghole". I can live with that.
Now, all things being equal this would just have been another post with me going on about what's wrong with TV and today's youth and so on, making me look middle-aged. But all things are not equal. At all. In fact, they're so unequal and in such a way that only my deep conviction that no-one will actually read this blog post permits me to actually get to the point of all this.
Ordinarily, I would have watched one or two episodes of Jersey Shore and then dismissed it all from my mind. However, I can't, because I'm in love. Now, when I say love I really mean the kind of strange attraction that a person sometimes feels for someone they see on TV or out on the street or wherever. In teenage terms, a crush. As I watched Jersey Shore for the second time it dawned on me that I'm in love with Jwoww.
When I was a kid in Finland, our house didn't have cable, so we never had MTV. The first time I really saw any MTV was when we moved to Denmark in the very early nineties. Heck, I remember people like Ray Cokes, who's apparently since turned into a Belgian. The first and only time a cartoon really blew my mind was when I first saw Beavis and Butthead. So MTV has a certain place in my heart, even if it's become rather silly since. Watching "MTV Finland" is usually quite painful. But because I still sort of care about MTV on some silly level, I kind of keep up with what's going on. I've even seen a couple of episodes of The Hills; enough to know that I don't understand why anyone would actually watch that show, let alone marry Spencer.
Having seen the Hills, when the next big reality thing came along, I did my best Jeremy Clarkson voice and asked myself: "How bad could it be?" And so I was watching Jersey Shore.
My initial reaction was that someone at MTV found out that rampant stereotyping of American-Italians sort of ended in the 1920s, and decided that it's high time it came back. Not only has the show pissed off just about every American-Italian advocacy group in the world and the residents of the Jersey Shore, but it has that same sense of astonishing unreality as The Hills. Every episode leaves you wondering: do people really live like this? And even more scarily: do young people watch this, and then get the impression that one is supposed to live like this?
Given that my generation doesn't spend all its time sitting at home and watching music videos in AC/DC shirts, I'm not really too worried. Maybe the most worrying thing I've taken from MTV is that on some level, I really do feel that the best possible summation of the political and human rights situation of Finland is "in my country, we have no bunghole". I can live with that.
Now, all things being equal this would just have been another post with me going on about what's wrong with TV and today's youth and so on, making me look middle-aged. But all things are not equal. At all. In fact, they're so unequal and in such a way that only my deep conviction that no-one will actually read this blog post permits me to actually get to the point of all this.
Ordinarily, I would have watched one or two episodes of Jersey Shore and then dismissed it all from my mind. However, I can't, because I'm in love. Now, when I say love I really mean the kind of strange attraction that a person sometimes feels for someone they see on TV or out on the street or wherever. In teenage terms, a crush. As I watched Jersey Shore for the second time it dawned on me that I'm in love with Jwoww.
I can't explain it, but there it is. I think she's kind of cute, but other than that? She has giant fake tits, a voice like a man and she gets drunk and punches people. Apparently, that's what I like!
I'm being uncharitable, as I could post a far better picture of her:
According to MTV, she's a 23-year-old New Yorker, who's "a party girl with zero self control". That's actually being polite, based on the first season... For whatever crazy reason, I think she looks lovely, and there's something about her that just pushes my buttons.
They'll start showing the second season soon in the States, so that means I'll be watching MTV Finland again this fall... Here's a gratuitous bikini picture.
So there, I've admitted it. Not only do I watch Jersey Shore, but I've fallen in love with Jwoww. That's the kind of person whose blog you're reading. A Jersey Shore fan's!
Oh, brother!
Catharsis feels good, and so do those pictures. I'll go take a cold shower now. We'll be returning to our regular pseudo-intellectual programming soon, but I'll still be thinking about her.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Hung out to dry
"Resigning themselves to no further action that day because of the magical fog, the opposing sides hung their sails out to dry. The fog actually contained no moisture, so this was a good opportunity to dry out the sails wetted by last night's squall. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the two parties found themselves facing each other in a flat calm, with all sails hung out to dry. It was a most unusual situation."
(original picture here)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Finnish blogger in prison
Two years ago, I wrote about a Finnish blogger, Seppo Lehto, getting a two-year prison sentence. His crime was creating several blatantly fake blogs that purported to be written by Finnish civil servants. We may be in a third world country, but seriously, when you google a politician and find a ridiculously racist, infantile and insulting blog that focuses on the writer's genitalia and confesses to him being a KGB agent, really, you probably figure it's a joke.
In short, anyone with the Internet literacy of a brick understood that the fake blogs were juvenile parodies. I thought no-one took them seriously until it turned out that the Finnish police did. Lawsuits were raised, and as Hesari put it at the time, the crime was deemed "exceptionally serious" and Seppo Lehto was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for "aggravated libel". He also has to pay tens of thousands of euros of reparations.
After the sentence was passed, Seppo went on the lam. According to Aamulehti, the police finally caught him this midsummer as part of a random DUI screening. That tells you everything you need to know about the Finnish police's alacrity in policing search warrants, by the way. He's currently doing time at the Turku prison.
I just thought I should put this out there. Here we are, peacefully reading and writing our blogs, while in the country I'm writing this in, a man is going through a multi-year prison sentence for blogging.
Here's the problem: I can't accept that. At all. Honestly, I have no idea if anyone reads this blog regularly, but if you do, you may recall a couple of posts I did on rape in Finland. In this one, I related the story of a Helsinki police officer who got a two-year suspended sentence for raping a minor. He used his badge to get into her home and raped her. So he didn't go to jail at all. A lot of similarly "fun" examples here.
In the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit to a certain personal bias. I did prison time too, for not serving in the army. If I'd spent six months playing war and raped an underage girl instead, I wouldn't have.
I live in a country that puts people in jail for blogging, but not for rape. There's no way I can express how wrong that is. And the fun thing is that no-one cares. Every time there's a high-profile rape case where the guilty party gets off with practically nothing, there's a storm of public outcry, but within a few days everyone's forgotten all about it and gone back to watching The Hills or True Blood.
That's the way civilization ends: not with a bang but with indifference.
In short, anyone with the Internet literacy of a brick understood that the fake blogs were juvenile parodies. I thought no-one took them seriously until it turned out that the Finnish police did. Lawsuits were raised, and as Hesari put it at the time, the crime was deemed "exceptionally serious" and Seppo Lehto was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for "aggravated libel". He also has to pay tens of thousands of euros of reparations.
After the sentence was passed, Seppo went on the lam. According to Aamulehti, the police finally caught him this midsummer as part of a random DUI screening. That tells you everything you need to know about the Finnish police's alacrity in policing search warrants, by the way. He's currently doing time at the Turku prison.
I just thought I should put this out there. Here we are, peacefully reading and writing our blogs, while in the country I'm writing this in, a man is going through a multi-year prison sentence for blogging.
Here's the problem: I can't accept that. At all. Honestly, I have no idea if anyone reads this blog regularly, but if you do, you may recall a couple of posts I did on rape in Finland. In this one, I related the story of a Helsinki police officer who got a two-year suspended sentence for raping a minor. He used his badge to get into her home and raped her. So he didn't go to jail at all. A lot of similarly "fun" examples here.
In the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit to a certain personal bias. I did prison time too, for not serving in the army. If I'd spent six months playing war and raped an underage girl instead, I wouldn't have.
I live in a country that puts people in jail for blogging, but not for rape. There's no way I can express how wrong that is. And the fun thing is that no-one cares. Every time there's a high-profile rape case where the guilty party gets off with practically nothing, there's a storm of public outcry, but within a few days everyone's forgotten all about it and gone back to watching The Hills or True Blood.
That's the way civilization ends: not with a bang but with indifference.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Make poverty history - done.
One thing I really respect Playboy for is the wide variety of people they give space to in their pages. I just got my copy of the August 2010 issue, featuring an interview with Cornel West, an outspoken African-American professor at Princeton. In that interview, he made the most astonishing comment I've ever read in Playboy.
Playboy: Won't there always be poor people in America?
West: It's hard to say. There are no poor people in Norway. There are no poor people in Sweden. It depends on how your society is organized.
I had to read that three times until I believed that it actually says what it says. A Princeton professor is seriously telling us that there's no poverty in Scandinavia.
I can't believe it. Has the man ever seen Scandinavia? At least a while back one of the things one might notice in Oslo was the heroin addicts living in the public parks. And I'm sure that if the esteemed professor cares to, someone can show him the homeless people living under the bridges in Stockholm.
The only way I can make sense out of his comment is that he doesn't understand definitions of poverty. Sure, neither Sweden or Norway officially have any percentage of their population under the international poverty line. That does not mean there are no poor people in those countries.
For example, according to Statistics Sweden, a government body, in 2008 every sixth child under the age of 6 in Sweden lives below the poverty line. Child poverty is also growing in Norway. Incidentally, out of a total population of around 300,000,000, the United States had 660,000 homeless people (Wikipedia: that's just about 0,002% of the population. Sweden, with a population of circa 9,000,000 had 17,800 homeless (thelocal.se): 0,0019%, or just about 0,002% of the population. It's funny that although Sweden does have much less poverty, absolute or relative, than the United States, the amount of homeless people is apparently the same.
Is Scandinavia really so mythologized in the United States that a university professor can say something like that with a straight face? Does he really imagine that the Scandinavian countries have come up with a magical formula to eliminate poverty completely?
Certainly I agree with his broader point, that to a large extent the amount of poverty in a society is a function of how the society is organized. But to say that there are no poor people in Sweden or Norway is just so downright ridiculous that I can't take the guy seriously.
Inception Perfection
The Verdict:
GO SEE! REVIEW:
Every so often along comes a movie that is just so ingenious that you still think about it long after it's over because it was that mesmerizing.
Christopher Nolan's (The Dark Knight, Memento) brilliant Inception is one of those films. Inception is simply perfect with its mind-boggling storyline, excellent cast, gorgeous, powerful score (so loud in fact, after I left my auditorium, I could hear the music from another Inception's auditorium playing from the escalators) and incredible cinematography.
The wonderful Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, Shutter Island) plays Dom Cobb, the Extractor who is sent on an "inception" job --- to implant an idea into someone's mind through their dreams. Robert Fischer Jr. is that someone, the Mark, played by Cillian Murphy (Red Eye, Peacock), son of corporate adversary to the mysterious Saito, the Tourist (Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha)--- the man who sends Cobb into Fischer's dreams. Accused of murdering his wife Mal, the Shade (Marion Cotillard, Public Enemies, Nine)--- who still is very much alive in Cobb's dreamworld, Cobb will be cleared of the charges from Saito and can return home to his two children if he successfully completes the job.
Cobb's colorful dream thieves team he recruits to help him include, Arthur the Point Man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Lookout, Stop-Loss), Ariadne the Architect (Ellen Page, Juno, Hard Candy), Eames the Forger (Tom Hardy, RocknRolla) and Yusef the Chemist (Dileep Rao, Drag Me to Hell, Avatar). Together they amazingly share the same dream with Fischer.
Inception is sci-fi, action, a thriller--- with a bit of romance entangled.
The dream sequences are just breathtaking and some chase scenes (at the hotel in particular) are reminiscent of the marvel The Matrix brought.
At times things do get confusing--- what's the dream? What's reality? But that's what makes Inception so much fun.
I left the theatre in a dream-like state, awestruck. A movie hasn't done that to me in a long time.
Even leading up the release, the thrilling trailer and sensational theatrical posters are the best I've seen in awhile.
Inception is a rare film that has the three ingredients that make a movie great: fantastic plot, actors and director. It is exhilarating from beginning to end and is the movie of 2010. If you only see one movie this year, see this. You will be thinking and talking about it after it's over. Inception will leave you nothing short of breathless!
~Trailer:
*Stars:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Tom Berenger
~Director:
Christopher Nolan
~Music:
Hans Zimmer
~Rating:
PG-13
~How Long:
2 hrs. & 28 mins.
~Opening:
7/16/2010
FUN FACTS:
~Brad Pitt and Will Smith were up for the role as Dom Cobb.
~In Nolan's first film Following (1998) the main character's name is Cobb.
~Nolan had the idea to make a movie set in the world of dreams since he was a kid.
~Inception took 10 years for Nolan to make.
~Inception is Nolan's third film revolving around memories, dreams, and sleep. His films Memento (2000) and Insomnia (2002) also deal with these themes.
~The music to Inception's trailer was done by Zack Hemsey and is entitled "Mind Heist."
~The real life definition of "inception" is: "the beginning of something" or "origin."
Släpper kopulerande laster över hela dina kopulerande glasögon
Hej, mina älskade lärjungar. Efter att ha spenderat ett år tillsammans med mina utomjordiska bröder och systrar har jag ånyo blivit bortrövad, så förvänta er en och en annan visdom från mina tentakler.
Till att börja med ska jag introducera eder till Wall Street-arbetaren Nick. Nick har en fäbless för att uttrycka sig på ett synnerligen mustigt sätt - minst lika mustigt och intellektuellt som Mel Gibson. Hans kanske mest kända citat är "Släpper kopulerande laster!", men sagt på engelska.
Precis som Mel är Nick involverad i filmbranschen. Över till vidare läsning:
Soundboard
MySpace (dock skapad av hans fans, med stor sannolikhet)
Jag bjuder även på en reklamvideo med den gode Nick.
Till att börja med ska jag introducera eder till Wall Street-arbetaren Nick. Nick har en fäbless för att uttrycka sig på ett synnerligen mustigt sätt - minst lika mustigt och intellektuellt som Mel Gibson. Hans kanske mest kända citat är "Släpper kopulerande laster!", men sagt på engelska.
Precis som Mel är Nick involverad i filmbranschen. Över till vidare läsning:
Soundboard
MySpace (dock skapad av hans fans, med stor sannolikhet)
Jag bjuder även på en reklamvideo med den gode Nick.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Happy birthday Justine Joli!
Again, I've been remiss in posting hot chicks to this blog. I'll make up for that by acknowledging fabulously hot US porn star Justine Joli. I will do this by posting pictures of her. Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Homophobia
As we've just had a spot of homophobic terrorism right here in the good F-I of Nland, I thought I'd remind people of where homophobia seems to originate.
There have, in fact, been a number of studies that show a clear link between a person's level of homophobia and the sexual arousal they feel from seeing gay porn, like this one. In a nutshell, there's empirical proof that suggests that homophobia in men comes down to an inability to handle one's own sexual urges.
Funnily, that makes stories like this Onion piece not only entertaining but borderline factual.
There have, in fact, been a number of studies that show a clear link between a person's level of homophobia and the sexual arousal they feel from seeing gay porn, like this one. In a nutshell, there's empirical proof that suggests that homophobia in men comes down to an inability to handle one's own sexual urges.
Funnily, that makes stories like this Onion piece not only entertaining but borderline factual.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Safety car stupidity
After the Valencia debacle, the FIA changed the safety car rules, and then changed them again.
The good part is that nothing like the Valencia fiasco should happen again, as the safety car will now always be deployed in front of the race leader. The bad part is that they're essentially fixing the wrong thing. The problem with what happened at Valencia was that the penalty for overtaking the safety car was a joke. Silverstone showed quite nicely that in many ways, a drive-through penalty is horrible. Alonso's drive-through knocked him clear out of the points, while Hamilton's drive-through didn't affect his standing at all.
The penalty for overtaking the safety car, or reckless driving behind a safety car that causes an accident, should be a black flag. Oddly, both my examples were perpetrated by the same guy. Both of them show a clear disregard for the rules in a situation that race control has deemed dangerous enough that a safety car has to be deployed. You already get disqualified for running a red light at the pits, so why on earth don't drivers get disqualified if they overtake the safety car?
The good part is that nothing like the Valencia fiasco should happen again, as the safety car will now always be deployed in front of the race leader. The bad part is that they're essentially fixing the wrong thing. The problem with what happened at Valencia was that the penalty for overtaking the safety car was a joke. Silverstone showed quite nicely that in many ways, a drive-through penalty is horrible. Alonso's drive-through knocked him clear out of the points, while Hamilton's drive-through didn't affect his standing at all.
The penalty for overtaking the safety car, or reckless driving behind a safety car that causes an accident, should be a black flag. Oddly, both my examples were perpetrated by the same guy. Both of them show a clear disregard for the rules in a situation that race control has deemed dangerous enough that a safety car has to be deployed. You already get disqualified for running a red light at the pits, so why on earth don't drivers get disqualified if they overtake the safety car?
Monday, July 12, 2010
"Go buy yourself a new phone!"
I was cleaning my home and suddenly my phone starts to demand my SIM-card. Trouble was that I never took my SIM-card out. Oh crap. I need to call someone for help... except I can't. So I went to my service providers vendor.
So I am there waiting for someone to notice me in the phone shop. This paragon of customer service calls me to come to him if I need any help. I walk over there and start explaining my problem. Luckily this man is mixture of engineer and economist - he has social skills of an engineer and a world view of an economist. Rare breed in customer service field, but not unknown. He decided to try if my SIM-card works in other phone and it did! So he quickly concluded that my phone must be broken and told me to go and buy a new phone. He sounded annoyed that I had bothered him.
I was somewhat stunned as I walked out of the shop without knowing what to do. Only after I was at home I noticed that he could have say... offered to sell me a new phone - I mean I was there in phone shop after all. Or maybe he could have been somewhat nicer. Not so today - luckily my phone started to work again later that day.
Note: I wasn't happy with earlier draft so this wasn't actually published on standard time as I couldn't edit the post from my now working phone, but I could edit time this post would be published.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Predator vs. Predator
The Verdict:GO SEE!
REVIEW:
Adrien Brody as a mercenary?
Kicking alien butt?
Yes.
In Predators, the third sequel in the Predator series, he does both.
And surprisingly he's believable.
Brody (The Pianist, Splice) plays Royce, a self-interested mercenary who falls from the sky and into a jungle.
He quickly finds out he's not alone. He's met by other people who have been brought to the jungle in the same way.
They soon find out that they are not on Earth but are on a alien planet and are hunted for game by inhumane aliens called Predators.
As personalities clash, the group struggles with leadership issues as they try to find a way off the alien planet.
Alice Braga (I Am Legend, Blindness) is great as Isabelle, the lone female, a sniper with heart.
Laurence Fisburne (What's Love Got to Do with it, The Matrix series) unexpectedly adds humor as Noland, a soldier who has managed to survive on the planet for years and as a result, has gone a little mad.
Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3, In Good Company) as Edwin the doctor, looks as out of place as Brody at first in an alien movie. His character is one to watch closely throughout the film.
The film has a dark feel to it and the alien world is so creepy, it makes you glad you're not one of the people trapped on it.
The aliens are merciless which is expected. They are huge, ugly and have some sort of glow in the dark vision where they can easily see and hunt their prey (humans). They can appear and disappear out of nowhere which makes them especially scary and have the ability to eradicate you if they mark one of their red dots on you.
By the unforeseen twist end of Predators, you will wonder who are the real predators, the Predators or the humans?
I call a tie.
~Trailer:
*The Stars:
Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
~Director:
Nimrod Antal
~Music:
Alan Silvestri & John Debney
~Rating:
R
~How Long:
1 hr. & 47 mins.
~Opening:
7/9/10
Finnish police want to ban Internet discussions
More on Matti Nikki's page in Finnish. Briefly, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation wants to put people in jail for engaging in Internet discussions that "take a seemingly approving view of so-called child sex". (my translation)
So much for human rights; we're not even allowed to talk any more if we say the wrong things. Over the last couple of years, more and more things people say on the Internet are becoming criminal offenses in this country. How do you fancy going to prison for a child pornography offense because you've said something that a Finnish policeman thinks is taking a seemingly approving view of child sex? If the cops get their way, you might soon.
So much for human rights; we're not even allowed to talk any more if we say the wrong things. Over the last couple of years, more and more things people say on the Internet are becoming criminal offenses in this country. How do you fancy going to prison for a child pornography offense because you've said something that a Finnish policeman thinks is taking a seemingly approving view of child sex? If the cops get their way, you might soon.
miss summer
Vintage embroidered sache $15.00
Vintage embroidered sache, urban outfitters high rise jeans
Simpla hål
Vet ni vad jag stör mig på? Fittor! Varför tvingas man gång på gång knulla ett hål som vid upprepade tillfällen fört urin ur en kvinna? I vissa fall petar man till och med i köttväggar som transporterat ett barn eller två till världen. Det är inget annat än befängt! Inte ens den utvärtes formen på fittan känns särskilt genomtänkt (ungefär som detta inlägg?) anser jag personligen. Ändtarmsöppningen framstår med sin enkla och självklara design som betydligt mer lämpad för penetration, bortsett från faktumet att något mycket värre än urin extraheras därifrån. Kort och gott ett simpelt hål. Rad Rat gillar när saker och ting är simpla. Speciellt hål.
Back in Blackson
Väl mött, kära läsare! Som ni mycket väl vet var det ganska länge sedan det förekom aktivitet här på Popped Collar. Jag och den kidnappade rymdvarelsen har varit tvungna att fokusera på andra saker ett tag, men P.C och ni läsare har konstant funnits i våra perverterade tankar. Nu återvänder jag, och med all säkerhet Ab också, med en uppsjö intressanta inlägg som kommer författas under sommaren. Det är dags att vårda vårt barn. Det är dags att poppa collarn.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Eclipse Shines
The Verdict:GO SEE!
REVIEW:
*WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*
The third installment in the highly popular teen oriented Twilight Saga films easily outshines its previous New Moon.
Eclipse is even heavier on the romance with loads of action compared to the first two Twilight movies.
Eclipse picks off where New Moon ended, with the charming, handsome vampire Edward (Robert Pattison, Remember Me) asking his one true love, stubborn, accident prone human Bella (Kristen Stewart, Into the Wild, The Runaways) to marry him.
But it doesn't start off with the two modern day Romeo and Juliet.
It begins ominously and dark (at first, I thought I was in the wrong movie) with an unidentified teen walking, then being chased by something unseen and superfast (by then I knew I was in the right movie).
He is bite by something (of course a vampire) and his transformation sets off the chain of events for Eclipse.
Eclipse focuses more on the Cullen clan again as it did in Twilight rather than the Quileute tribe as it did in New Moon.
Beautiful, bitchy (well to Bella at least) Rosalie (Nikki Reed, Thirteen) and quiet Jasper (Jackson Rathbone, The Last Airbender) have bigger parts and their origins of how they became vampires are revealed.
There is a new character, a girl werewolf, which is cool, Leah Clearwater (Julia Jones).
But it is all about vampires again although the wolves play a big part at the big battle toward the end.
Edward and Bella have their biggest intimate scene yet which fans should enjoy.
Afterwards he presents her with a engagement ring and properly proposes to her. It's a sweet scene.
Twilight fans ongoing battle, "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" is probably split up the middle in Eclipse.
Edward definitely won in Twilight, Jacob clearly in New Moon. But in Eclipse it's a tie. Every girl's favorite werewolf, hunky, faithful Jacob (Taylor Lautner, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D) wins on one hand for saving Bella in a scene where she's freezing cold in snow and he protects her with his body heat (the "hot" joke he makes here is the line of Eclipse) because Edward can't (he's a cold vampire remember).
But Edward wins on the other for saving Bella from Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, Lady in the Water, The Village) once and for all (the scene where he takes out Victoria is very un-Edward like, as he shows how vicious he can be in order to save the one he loves).
The battle scene between the newbie vampire army Victoria creates with the help of Riley (the teen at the beginning, Xavier Samuel) is pretty cool but it was short. I expected it to be a longer. Still, it's great seeing the Cullen vampires kick butt together and the Quileute werewolves help them out.
The very ending of the film is moving as Bella tells Edward the whole reason why she really wants to become a vampire. Her reasoning actual is a good one.
Eclipse was the first Twilight film I saw via theatres (I saw the first two via DVD) so it was a treat.
I'm so excited for the last film in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn to open.
It will be split in two parts, part one in November of 2011, part two, in November 2012.
Twilight is still my favorite of the series so far (I just love the origin), followed by New Moon then Eclipse.
I eagerly await to decide where I will place Breaking Dawn.
~Trailer:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810074301/trailer
*The Stars:
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Dakota Fanning
~Director:
David Slade
~Music:
Howard Shore
~Rating:
PG-13
~How Long:
2 hrs. & 4 mins.
~Opening:
6/30/2010
*The Stars:
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Dakota Fanning
~Director:
David Slade
~Music:
Howard Shore
~Rating:
PG-13
~How Long:
2 hrs. & 4 mins.
~Opening:
6/30/2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Gay conversion therapy
British Medical Association labels gay conversion therapy harmful, discredited
Following a year-long undercover investigation by a reporter, the British Medical Association has determined that “gay conversion therapy” is not therapy, is more harmful to patients than helpful, and should be banned.
Journalist Patrick Strudwick posed as a patient seeking “gay conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy” for a year. In his report on his experience, he described what amounted to psychological torture; Strudwick went to two conversion therapists. One, a Christian, focused on turning him to focus on her god and tried hard to convince Strudwick he’d been sexually abused. The other focused on explaining to Strudwick that he was somehow “wounded”, and that he had to find the source of those “wounds” to discover the roots of his sexuality.
Both of these “therapists” were licensed and receiving funds via the NHS. Strudwick learned that they use methods created by Joseph Nicolosi, the Christian Evangelical American founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.
Receiving funds via the NHS.
It's very fashionable to laugh about Christian fundamentalism in Europe, because it's something those wacky Americans do, and they're all idiots anyway. Maybe we should look a little harder at what's going on around here, too.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Bob Probert 1965-2010
Former NHL-player Bob Probert died on July 5, at the age of 45.
Probert is mostly remembered as a fighter and enforcer, and his penalty minute total of 3300 is sixth highest in NHL history, but it shouldn't be forgotten that he was also a damn fine hockey player. During his sixteen NHL seasons with Red Wings and Blackhawks he recorded 384 points in 935 games.
His best season was 1987-1988 with Detroit Red Wings. He did set the franchise penalty minute record with 398, but he also scored 29 goals and a total of 62 points in 74 games. In sixteen post-season games he added 21 points, the highest on the team. He was also selected to the All-Star team.
He was an exceptional player, and he will be missed.
Probert is mostly remembered as a fighter and enforcer, and his penalty minute total of 3300 is sixth highest in NHL history, but it shouldn't be forgotten that he was also a damn fine hockey player. During his sixteen NHL seasons with Red Wings and Blackhawks he recorded 384 points in 935 games.
His best season was 1987-1988 with Detroit Red Wings. He did set the franchise penalty minute record with 398, but he also scored 29 goals and a total of 62 points in 74 games. In sixteen post-season games he added 21 points, the highest on the team. He was also selected to the All-Star team.
He was an exceptional player, and he will be missed.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Gay Pride rally attacked in Helsinki
The fairly short list of terrorist acts in Finland just got a new entry.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, a bunch of nutcases attacked the Gay Pride rally in Helsinki last Saturday. They threw flares or smoke bombs at the marchers, and proceeded to spray the column with tear gas and pepper spray while shouting abuse.
As of this writing, three people are under arrest, and some half a dozen others are being investigated. The perpetrators are from all over Finland, so I'm guessing this was planned online. I know we have racist web forums; are there dedicated homophobic ones as well?
Some thirty people were exposed to the gas, with the youngest being an eleven-month old baby whose parents were watching the rally. The police are investigating this as multiple assault, but with Finnish legislation and sentencing the way it is, it's almost certain none of them will go to prison or face any real repercussions.
There's no two ways about it: this is terrorism. Attacking people at a public rally like this is despicable, especially considering what the rally was for. The idea of someone having a sexuality different from yours is grounds for violence? That's appalling.
Finland is a bit weird when it comes to sexual diversity. On the one hand, we are, by and large, a fairly open-minded country about these things. On the other hand, the cult of masculinity is incredibly strong here. For comparison, Stockholm had a turnout of 50,000 people for their Pride rally. Helsinki? 5,000. And I do think there's a reason for that. It's worth remembering that gay sex was a crime in Finland until the 1970s. Blasphemy is still a crime.
There are some ugly political trends in Finland these days, and one of them just went off the deep end. It's disgusting that on the day of the attack, the chairman of the Finnish Christian party said that her party is "willing to fight" against gender-neutral marriage in Finland. I see some of her fellow ideologists did.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, a bunch of nutcases attacked the Gay Pride rally in Helsinki last Saturday. They threw flares or smoke bombs at the marchers, and proceeded to spray the column with tear gas and pepper spray while shouting abuse.
As of this writing, three people are under arrest, and some half a dozen others are being investigated. The perpetrators are from all over Finland, so I'm guessing this was planned online. I know we have racist web forums; are there dedicated homophobic ones as well?
Some thirty people were exposed to the gas, with the youngest being an eleven-month old baby whose parents were watching the rally. The police are investigating this as multiple assault, but with Finnish legislation and sentencing the way it is, it's almost certain none of them will go to prison or face any real repercussions.
There's no two ways about it: this is terrorism. Attacking people at a public rally like this is despicable, especially considering what the rally was for. The idea of someone having a sexuality different from yours is grounds for violence? That's appalling.
Finland is a bit weird when it comes to sexual diversity. On the one hand, we are, by and large, a fairly open-minded country about these things. On the other hand, the cult of masculinity is incredibly strong here. For comparison, Stockholm had a turnout of 50,000 people for their Pride rally. Helsinki? 5,000. And I do think there's a reason for that. It's worth remembering that gay sex was a crime in Finland until the 1970s. Blasphemy is still a crime.
There are some ugly political trends in Finland these days, and one of them just went off the deep end. It's disgusting that on the day of the attack, the chairman of the Finnish Christian party said that her party is "willing to fight" against gender-neutral marriage in Finland. I see some of her fellow ideologists did.
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