13. mai 2003

Klingon interpreter story was urban legend Ouch! AP fell for it, and so did I. The story about the mental health organisation applying for a Klingon interpreter is going around the world as we speak. Some people in Oregon are having a great laugh. Oh well. It is still a very funny story. 2:24:41 PM    comment []

Canadian politician says 'fuck you' Canadian Tory John O'Toole shows his opponents the finger during a heated debate in the legislature. He tried to deny it at first, but TV pictures left little doubt. He later apologised. 2:18:55 PM    comment []

Two Norwegian peacekeepers shot in Afghanistan Just heard in the radio that two Norwegian peacekeepers with Isaf has been shot in Afghanistan today. One is in critical condition, the other with less serious injuries. There has been reports lately that the security situation in the country has been detoriating rapidly. 12:41:31 PM    comment []

Scappaticci denies being a British informer Freddie Scappaticci, who has recently been named as 'Stakeknife,' a British agent in the IRA top, has through his lawyer denied having any relationship to British intelligence. The lawyer also denies that he has been taken into protective custody, but says he has gone into hiding. You never know, of course. This could, as the lawyer suggests, be an attempt by British intelligence to bring the IRA into disarray and panic. Apparently, it has been successful. 12:38:50 PM    comment []

Riyadh attacks 'bears marks of al-Qaeda' Suicide bombers driving cars with explosives into four targets in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh killed at least 10 Americans and 10 persons of other nationalities, and it also injured at least 50 others. Colin Powell, shortly before travelling to the Saudi Arabia, said the "cowardly" operation bore all signs of being carried out by al-Qaeda. Powell is in Saudi Arabia to secure the country's cooperation with the Middle East 'roadmap.' Presumably, the US also wants to stengthen its commitment in the war on terror. On May 1, the US warned against non-essential travel to the country. One of Bin Laden's major gripes with the US is that it had forces placed in Saudi Arabia, which hosts the most holy places for Muslims. 12:20:46 PM    comment []

Faith based initiatives - a local case study The Bush administration has taken steps to allow religious charities to claim more federal money by weakening the constitutional wall between church and state in the US. Norway has no such wall, and we actually have a Lutheran state church. On the other hand, the population is very secularized, where it'd be a stretch to call as much as half of the population Christian, and average church attendence is no more than 3 per cent. Still, Christian institutions are historically an important part of Norway, and they play a significant role in some sectors. Many of them do extensive charitable work, some of them receiving money from taxpayers. One of them is the Evangeliesenter, a Pentecostalite-run organisation wholly owned by Lise and Ludvig Karlsen. Among other activities, the Evangeliesenter runs a detox clinic that since 1989 has received 203,8 million NOK (US$ 30M) from the state, and 57,4M NOK ($8.5M) from other public sources (ie. municipal or county level). This detox clinic has effectively had a straw into taxpayers' money, thanks to their  powerful friends in parliament, typically representatives for the Christian People's Party. This party is small in respresentation, but through effective coalition building they currently have the Prime Minister in Norway. To convince politicians to support this detox clinic, they make a number of claims that it is an effective institution with a 25% success rate. This compares, they say, to 11 % and 10 % for their largest (secular) competitors. Until recently, nobody has even asked where the pentecostalite institution obtained these numbers. When asked, they don't even know themselves, and can provide no evidence of any success rate. Their "advertising" refers to a public document, which points out that the two competitors, the Tyrili foundation and Veksthuset respectively, have a success rate of 42 % and 20 %. Sverre Nesvåg, a scholar at the well-reputed Rogalandsforskning who has evaluated detoxification in Norway, says:. "We have no documentation that they are better than any other institution, and really they are no therapautic institution. The Evangeliesenter is doing conversions, not detoxification." Professionals running other detox clinics in Norway are also deeply critical, as the Evangelisenter's work is not at all evaluated, and don't even have to document how they use the money. And while other clinics have to work hard to receive public money based on performance, the Christian 'clinic' receives large contributions with no strings attached. Parliamentaries are now saying they will look closer at how the taxpayers' money are used by charitable organisations. As of today, however, the Christian People's Party politicians stand by their support of the Evangeliesenter. (From a series of Norwegian articles in Dagbladet) 10:15:02 AM    comment []

Define irony I just got a piece of junk mail for an application that promises to block spam. 7:46:54 AM    comment []

How many from the blogsphere? "Thousands of brains removed illegally " (The Guardian headline) 7:03:02 AM    comment []

Right-wing nuts make "deck of weasels" It was bound to happen. NewsMax.com has issued a deck of playing cards with names of prominent opponents of the Iraq war, called "The United Nations of Weasels." France's Jacques Chirac is the "ace of spades" in what the rightists have dubbed "Saddam’s Weasel Brigade," with the beret of Republican Guard on their heads. The deck includes essentially anyone who did not support the military attack on Iraq, including actors like Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, Barbra Streisand and of course Martin Sheen. It also targets politicians including Teddy Kennedy, Kofi Annan, Vicente Fox of Mexico and Jean Chretien of Canada. The deck also includes Jimmy Carter as a "joker." The list also includes UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, who obviously is a "weasel" for not being willing to lie to the world. 5:14:13 AM    comment []

Is that supposed to be reassuring? "Jeffrey Archer does not lie "more than the average person," according to his wife." (Ananova) 3:02:57 AM    comment []

Man prefers prison to wife An 40-year old inmate in a prison in Vigevano, Italy, received a 72-hour home pass for good behaviour, and went home to meet his wife. After a short time, however, he phoned back to the prison to beg to get back to his prison cell before the time was up. The request was granted, and within an hour he was safely back in his prison cell. I'm glad I haven't met her. 2:15:37 AM    comment []

Chechnya death toll at 41 At least 41 were killed by this morning's terror attack against a government compound in Chechnya, and 110 were wounded. The search of the ruins continues. No group has yet claimed responsibility, but Chechen rebels fighting for independence have made a number of similar attacks in the past. 1:20:01 AM    comment []

Iraq infiltrated al-Jaezeera According to British Sunday Times, Iraqi intelligence agents succeeded in infiltrating the Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera, pushing to win favourable coverage. Al-Jazeera increased its audience during the second Gulf war, but seems to have experienced a backlash after the war, when it was obvious that with its Iraq-friendly bias it had reported outright lies as truth (yes, in the Arab world they believed the Iraqi information minister!). On Sunday, a small crown attacked and harassed an al-Jazeera crew in Iraq, accusing the journalists of supporting Saddam Hussein. 12:48:16 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:29:51.