Lying is the new black

A 68-year-old Swedish man was just fined 100,000 kronor for ramming an anchored sailboat and fleeing the scene. Even though he was drunk when the police nicked him at home afterwards, the court could not sentence him for motoring under the influence.
Why not? Well, the man claims that he stayed sober during the late summertime dinner he enjoyed with friends, took the boat home, accidentally ramming the sailboat (which, by the way, severely injured his wife), then cannonballed three large whiskys as soon as he got home.
Really?
Even though everybody can see through this lame explanation, it got him off the hook for the drunk driving part. And this seems to be the proscribed MO these days – lie, lie, lie until your face turns blue. No matter that you look like a spineless wanker and make a mockery out of the justice system – do whatever it takes to maximize your own comfort.
Things like owning up and taking responsibility are hopelessly out of fashion, which puts me in a jiffy when it comes to bringing up my own two boys. Should I persist in teaching them to be honest, trustworty and all that other outdated Boy Scout halleluia? Or should I teach them to lie to the police and courts, and in general be self-absorbed jerks?
Robert Wright puts it this way in “The Moral Animal”:
“These days, an upper middle-class man who by example teaches his son to be slick and superficially sincere, to tell minor lies in profusion, to work harder on promise than delivery, may well be equipping him for success.”
Say it isn’t so.

Honor suicide

Japanese seppuku, honor suicide, from the edo period (1850-1860).

Here’s a suggestion for any troglodyte out there contemplating an honor killing. How about killing yourself instead?
The Japanese have been doing it for ages to restore honor after they mess up. Because when you think about it, aren’t you to blame for your daughter dating the wrong guy or losing her virginity at an inconvenient time? Or maybe she just had coffee in public with a non-relative male.
Whatever transgression you think she made, man up and admit that her mistakes are really your mistakes. Then, instead of killing her, grow a pair and kill yourself.

Tsilhqot’in

Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) in Tsilhqot’in territory.

Setbacks for greedy extraction companies always make me happy, but when they coincide with benefits to the little guy, I’m extatic. Like when the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously granted the Tsilhqot’in tribe the right to their ancestral lands in British Columbia. This means that forestry and mining companies such as Taseko Mining, Ltd. cannot ravish the land the way they planned.
“The Tsilhqot’in Nation is using culture as a weapon,” complained Taseko. Damn right they are. Just like you use lawyers and money. Only this time, for once, culture won. Deal with it.

Flexible suffrage

“No Bengt, the Sverigedemokraterna are for nucular power, not against it!”

It’s election time in Sweden and the usual thought arises – how fair is it that every uninformed Joe has the same opportunity to influence the outcome as a university professor of political science?
“Well, the system isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we can do,” is the common explanation.
Actually, no. We can do better. Or at least imagine better. How about, for example, a system where political knowledge translates into more votes? Sort of like högskoleprovet, the national Swedish proficiency test that kids take to try to win entry into the world of higher education. A similar test of political maturity would qualify you for a varying number of extra votes up to, say, 16. If you couldn’t be bothered to even take the test, you would still get your usual single vote.
Some philosophers call this “epistocracy”, or “the rule of the wise”. It’s super-controversial and likely impossible to implement, but I for one would love to take it out for a spin. It’s not as if the current system is perfect either, and how bad could it be if we let the informed and skilled have more of say?

Sissy culture

In the days of yore, it was a male virtue to not show pain to your opponent in war. “Verily, your sword has cut an inch-deep gash in my chest, Sir, but it will take more than that to slow me down.”
In sports, which is the modern parallel to warfare, this code lives on in certain sports. Most notably rugby but also hockey, football (American), the martial arts (not surprisingly) and others.
In soccer, though, there seems to be no shame at all in rolling around on the grass, screaming and writhing in agony. Then pleading to mommy the referee to punish the bully who gave you a booboo.
For me, this is embarrassing. And what are we teaching our children – to cry like sissies as soon as something doesn’t go your way? What happened to taking one for the team and playing through the pain?

“And the winner is ...”

Arjen Robben, one of the best players of the World Cup this year, is also by far the most embarrassing. When is he going to get a yellow card for his acting?
Doesn’t anybody in his team tell him he’s making a fool of himself?

Nineveh’s art in good hands

Austen Henry Layard stealing art from Nineveh in 1851, for transport to the British Museum.

The remains of the 8,000-year-old city of Nineveh in northern Iraq have fallen into the hands of Isis thugs. While I feel for the people, I am relieved that the British removed most of Nineveh’s art during its colonial heyday. Thanks to their looting efforts, most of the city’s treasures are now safe and sound in the British Museum instead of at the mercy of Isis. (The destruction of the Bamiyan statues showed us how many of the militants feel about pre-Islamic art.)
Thanks to this ignorance on matters un-Islamic, we can also have good hope that the new rulers of Nineveh aren’t inspired by Sennacherib, who ruled the city around 700 BC and apparently bragged: “Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city.”
He said this after destroying Babylon, whose ruins are located 85 kilometers south of Baghdad ...

Is it worse when a woman is murdered?

Hand cannon lighted by a hot iron rod being fired from a stand, manuscript by Konrad Kyeser: Bellifortis. Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, 2° Cod. Ms. philos. 63 Cim. 1402-1404.

“Women are among those who suffer most from gun violence in the US,” writes Dagens Nyheter today.
Yes, this is true. There is only one group that suffers more. Men.
Using the lowest estimate, roughly 6,500 American men are shot and killed each year, and 2,000 women. This means that 77 percent of victims are male and 23 percent female.
Then why are only the women newsworthy in DN?
(Sources: U.S. Bureau of Justice and National Center for Health Statistics).

I want Thanksgiving football

American Thanksgiving has a great tradition where fans are allowed to watch a football game as part of the celebrations. Meanwhile, in Sweden it is considered rude, or at the very least sad, to excuse yourself from Midsummer celebrations to watch, for example, soccer.
Doing it to watch the Eurovision Song Contest is fine, even cool in many quarters, but not for anything sports-related. I’m no sports nut, I just think this is unfair. Why is sitting still around a table talking about the insignificant controversy of the day more acceptable than jumping up and down bonding in front of the television?
Feel free to replace the sport, but give me a holiday tradition like Thanksgiving football. I deserve it.