Shädy Äcres og 5080.no konkurrerer hardt om denne ukes pris for beste satire. Shädy med "Til forsvar for Frp" og "The Freedom Unicorn Adresses the Nation". 5080 med Jan Tore Sanners utspill mot Knut Storbergets plutselige flipflopping på spørsmålet om han er frisk eller ikke. Dessverre så var deres artikkel om at Frp går inn for snik-nazifisering mindre subtil, så poeng Shädy Äcres. Men på den annen side var kommentartråden etter den artikkelen verdt sin egen vekt i gull.* Så: Uavgjort! Dette er en ny gullalder for norsk satire! Gullalder!


* (og siden den består av en liten sky av elektroner så er den verdt ca. 0.00000000000000000000000012g gull).

appaling times

Does this sound like an awesome book, or what?

The atmosphere was apocalyptic, right down to the cheapness of human life. Millions had died on the Western front. Russian nobles were fleeing with their jewels to China. Local Buddhist rulers were vicious and corrupt. “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was being read by everyone from the imprisoned czarina downward.

Engines plated with steel and equipped with weapons ripped from the gunboats on the Siberian lakes rammed back and forth along the trans-Siberian railway line, dragging behind them mobile towns of czarists, with opulent dining cars, theater cars, printing shops, brothels — and torture chambers. Prisoners were packed into waterless cars and left to die in sidings. The Whites simply ran amok. Pirates in command of these dreadnoughts of the steppe, but incapable of winning hearts and minds, they spent as much time hunting out Bolshevik spies — and torturing and killing the locals — as they did fighting the Reds. Ungern himself carried this sadistic paranoia to fever pitch.

His specialty, though, was Mongolia. He spoke the language, was an idiosyncratic Buddhist and liked the Buriats — nomads he always trusted over ordinary Russian peasants. Hence the increasingly Mongolian nature of his escapades. He was able to seize the Chinese-held town of Urga (Ulan Bator) with an army of some 6,000 men and to reinstate its ruler, the Bogd Khan.

With its panoply of outlandish tyrants, fortune tellers, mounted tribesmen and wild dreams advanced against absurd odds, the whole story could have possessed the makings of a glorious offshoot of the Great Game, had Ungern been anything more than a murderous sadist. His chief contemporary biographer, the Polish author Ferdinand Ossendowski, ladled on the trappings — the messianic visionary who stood too firm for czar and the right of kings. Presumably Ossendowski saw beyond the torture, the firing squads, the casual executions; perhaps he was not unduly fazed by Ungern’s command to exterminate all the Jews, down to their children. Like many mad people, Ungern had the glittering eye and the gift for wandering prophecy that could, at a pinch, be taken for inspiration; and for a while his life seemed to be demonically protected. But it would be more true to say that the times brought forth the man, and these were appalling times.

It's a NY Times review of the biography of Baron Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg. This crazy setting is also the background for the marvellous graphic novel Corto Maltese in Siberia by Hugo Pratt, which was also made into a film at some point. It features Ungern-Sternberg as a major character.

Dere har sikkert alle sammen lest denne artikkelen av Tue Andersen Nexø om Claus Beck Nielsen, men det hadde jeg altså ikke, før nå. Den er interessant, og jeg merker også at Nielsen har gått over noen grenser i sitt kunstprosjekt nå i det siste som er problematiske for meg. Men så kom jeg til å tenke på denne rettssaken: Er det ikke slik at Claus Beck Nielsen, om han skal delta i en rettssak, må reise seg opp og si sitt navn og bli rettssubjekt? Hva skjer i så fall om han nekter å gjøre det? Kommer han i fengsel? Og dersom han gjør det, betyr det ikke en endegyldig avslutning på hans kunstprosjekt?

Og i øvrig, bare for å vise i hvor liten grad islamofobi, fascisme og fremmedhat er et problem her i Norge så kan dere jo sjekke ut kommentartråden til denne (fornuftige) posten til Ali Esbati.

Bård Vegard Solhjell er overraskende progressiv på copyrightspørsmål og har lansert et forslag til TONO-opplegg for fildeling. Kudos! Ser også at SV faktisk har programfestet et slikt forslag. Det visste jeg ikke.

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"In the Kingdom of the Blind..."

Blindness, blindness and sight: Jeg er visst blitt eier av en restaurant for blinde i Berlin.

»I restauranten får seende mulighed for at opleve, hvordan det er at være blind,« siger den daglige leder af stedet Martin Grüner. Hans eget syn fejler ikke noget, men de 13 fastansatte tjenere er blinde.
»Filosofien bag konceptet er, at rollerne byttes om. Vi vil gerne åbne øjnene for de seende i forhold til, at de får et indblik i de blindes hverdag. Her er de seende fuldstændig overladt til de blindes trygge hænder«

Det merkverdige er at jeg faktisk hadde hørt om den restauranten før. Hva er oddsene for det?

En annen synkronisitet: Forleden dag kommer jeg gående ned Thereses gate i Oslo da min venn Andreas Segrov sitt gamle band — med det underlige navnet Andreas Segrov Band — dukker opp på iPodens shuffle. Jeg går og har en mimrestund om de gode, gamle dager i Bergen og hvordan jeg burde ta og invitere Andreas på kaffe snart, for det er lenge siden vi har preiket sammen etc etc. Og hvem er det som kommer gående ned gaten foran meg enn nettopp Andreas Segrov, den selvsamme personen som tilfeldighetene nettopp har lagt i mine ører og tanker? 

In other news: første arbeidsdag i Klassekampen igår. Flere nyheter når de foreligger. 

Monbiot's blog

George Monbiot, of whom I'm a fan, finally started blogging at the Guardian. I've been waiting for this. In fact, I don't really see how I could have missed this since I visited his website just a week or two ago.

Anyway, the man already writes a huge amount of thoroughly researched column inches, but I've always suspected him of being well-suited for this kind of writing, with his focus on sources, fact-checking and processual writing. I look forward to following his blog.

I recently linked to a series of videos with people who were in the climate destruction business. Now I see he has a follow-up to his interview with the CEO of Shell Oil.

Adam Smith explains the economy of scale

To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manufacture; but one in which the division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker; a workman not educated to this business (which the division of labour has rendered a distinct trade), nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (to the invention of which the same division of labour has probably given occasion), could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty. But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on, is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them. I have seen a small manufactory of this kind where ten men only were employed, and where some of them consequently performed two or three distinct operations. But though they were very poor, and therefore but indifferently accommodated with the necessary machinery, they could, when they exerted themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day. There are in a pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. Those ten persons, therefore, could make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be considered as making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day. But if they had all wrought separately and independently, and without any of them having been educated to this peculiar business, they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day; that is, certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth part of what they are at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations.
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

I think this is roughly the same as economy of scale, which is a concept in microeconomics. Basically, a given product will be cheaper to produce if you produce more of it, up until a certain point. Then it starts getting more expensive again. If I understand this correctly, it means that all companies should have an optimum size unless they choose to diversify, whereas capitalism insists on constant expansion.

Wal-Mart: We're a virus with sneakers.

5080 rapporterer om oppstyret rundt at våpen produsert i Norge har blitt brukt i krig.

William Gibson has a post containing found emoticons of the first two decades of the 21st century.

Shit! Shit! Jeg klarer ikke å se hvem hun er på lag med!!11!

Hun er så unøytral, plutselig.

Nøytralitet og tvang

Min venn Trygve blir ved med å fortelle meg at jeg burde skrive færre blogginnlegg og flere avisinnlegg, der folk faktisk kommer til å lese dem. Jeg hater å innrømme det, men han har et poeng. Så her er et innlegg jeg hadde på trykk i Bergens Tidende idag. Jeg trodde bare det ville bli etterspill, men det viste seg dessverre å få fornyet relevans, siden Storberget nå ser ut til å vingle i saken.

Nøytralitet og tvang

Det kom to ualminnelig ureflekterte utsagn på trykk i saken ”Lovens lange skaut” i Bergens Tidende torsdag, 5. februar. Her får en rekke uttalelser om politikvinners bruk av skaut flagre i vinden. Til grunn for uttalelsene ligger noen tankefeil jeg har lyst å påpeke.

Først sier Politiets Fellesforbunds leder Arne Johannesen at politiet ”skal symbolisere nøytralitet” og derfor var avgjørelsen om at skaut var lov problematisk.

Det samme argumentet kunne bli brukt andre veien. Politiet skal symbolisere nøytralitet, og derfor ekskluderer man ikke visse grupper med mennesker fra å delta i politiet. Mange vil oppleve det faktum at det er personer med en annen hudfarge i politiet som et nøytralitetsbrudd. Jeg vil vedde en månedslønn på at det fantes mange, mange mennesker i Norge som syntes at nøytraliteten til politiet gikk rett ut vinduet når kvinnelige betjenter ble vanlig.

Politiet framstår aldri nøytralt. Bare det å ta på uniformen er et utsagn. Det utsagnet sier: Alle skal ha lov til å leve livet sitt uten innblanding fra andre. Politiet sender derfor et langt sterkere uttrykk om nøytralitet ved å tillate alle norske borgere å delta enn ved å ekskludere dem.
Den andre merkverdige uttalelsen inntraff kun to spalter til venstre, der justispolitisk talsmann i Frp presterer å si ”Det har gått for langt når minoriteter kan kreve at politiet skal rette seg etter deres religion.” Her er det visst halen som logrer med hunden. Det som skjer her i den hypotetiske situasjonen der skaut ikke blir tillatt er jo det stikk motsatte: Politiet krever at borgerne skal rette seg etter dem, ikke omvendt.

Det er da litt merkverdig at en justispolitisk talsmann ikke ser forskjell på hvor tvangen kommer fra. Tvangen i denne situasjonen ville jo komme fra institusjonen politiet, ikke fra politikvinnen. Når det er politiet som innfører restriktiv tvang mot politikvinnens rett til å leve slik hun vil trenger de en veldig god grunn.

Dermed tvinger det følgende spørsmålet seg fram: Hvor lenge skal Frp få lov til å hevde at ”Fremskrittspartiet er et liberalistisk parti” helt i toppen av partiprogrammet, når de samtidig bryter med liberalismens mest grunnleggende prinsipper?

MARTIN GRÜNER LARSEN,
OSLO

Political science-people plan your sex-life

This is an awesome little post on Crrrooked Timberrrr which neatly illustrates that yes, the gendered division of labour is still a problem.

Now, the corollary to that - which, btw, I only remembered where I had read due to intense psychological strain, seeing as how I read that stuff yesterday. Am I supposed to remember where I read things for more than 24 hours now? - is this post by Ezra Klein:

The Cowans found that the drop in marital satisfaction was basically a localized phenomenon: It came among the parents who didn't share the same outlook on parenthood. But "couples who planned or equally welcomed the conception were likely to maintain or even increase their marital satisfaction after the child was born." More interestingly, the financial strains matter. "Once a child arrives," writes Koontz, "lack of paid parental leave often leads the wife to quit her job and the husband to work more. This produces discontent on both sides. The wife resents her husband’s lack of involvement in child care and housework. The husband resents his wife’s ingratitude for the long hours he works to support the family."

In conclusion, we may say that this week's hot tip from the political science crowd is to check that you and your partner think similarly about having kids before jumping in bed (which you just bought, together, at IKEA) with them. Word for the wise, people.

Half a million dollars not enough to live on? Are you kidding me?

Britiske armeen for partisk, sier talsmann

Over: Britiske sikh-soldater fra The Indian Army på 1800-tallet er kommet under skarp kritikk for manglende nøytralt utseende.

En rekke offiserer i det britiske militæret (...) har vært i kontakt med mener at 120 år med militære seirer må trekkes tilbake. Kravet kommer etter at man har blitt gjort oppmerksom på at en rekke sentrale aktører - det dreier seg om ca. 21.000 menige og offiserer ved navn Singh under første verdenskrig alene - ikke utviste stor nok nøytralitet. Det er særlig sikhenes turbaner som kritiseres. Dette har mange sett i relasjon til kritikken mot det norske politiets vedtak om å tillate hijaber i politiuniformer.

- Det britiske imperiet står for nøytralitet. Når vi er ute og tar side i en krig er det viktig at dem som blir meid ned av våre Lee-Enfieldrifler forstår at de blir beskutt av den upartiske britiske staten, sier en talsmann for det britiske militæret som ikke ville navngis av hensyn til nøytralitet.



Det fremstilles nå et krav fra fløyer i den britiske staten om at man må avstå fra en rekke militære seire i de anglo-indiske kriger, samt under første og andre verdenskrig. Det er ennå uvisst hvilke konsekvenser disse avståelsene kommer til å få.

- Når religioner kan diktere den britiske staten på denne måten, da har det gått for langt. Denne formen for tvang er uakseptabel, sier talsmannen.

Han insisterer derfor på at alle praktiserende sikher i det britiske militæret må tvinges ut for å unngå misforståelser og forvirring i forbindelse med uniformen:

- Vi kan simpelthen ikke sende ut blandete signaler på denne måten. Vi kan ikke operere med flere forskjellige typer uniformer. Den slags dobbeltkommunikasjon må vi holde oss for god til. Det er viktig at man tydelig forstår at den britiske staten har en, nøytral uniform og kun en. Folk blir forvirret om samme etaten bruker to forskjellige uniformer til spesielle grupper.

Under: to soldater i den britiske armeens standarduniform.

Omelas dilemma

I just read a very interesting text. The fantasy writer Ursula K. Leguin has a strange little short story - more a thought-experiment or a narrative essay, actually - called "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (which you can read online if you follow the link). In it, a utopic but real city called Omelas is preparing for a festival. The description is of a complicated, advanced and civilised human civilisation which leaves a lot up to the reader's own utopias (he or she is encouraged to imagine one's own).

But the city has made a bargain in which for the city to remain this happy, advanced utopian community, a single child must be kept in misery, alone in a basement somewhere. That's the bargain they've made.

It's actually just an elaborate ethical dilemma, like the trolley problem or whatever, but it was thought-provoking. It's the question of what kind of suffering we are willing to accept in order for a civilisation to be sustained. Or what kind of happiness you would be willing to pay for with suffering. It's the kind of question that you will respond to in different ways depending on what value system you inhabit.

Gainfully employed

How cool is my new job? It's so cool it got announced in the paper:



For the Norwegianly challenged, I've gotten a job as book journalist and ... I don't know what the other title is. Editorial assistant? Editorial secretary? Anyway. One of those - in the Norwegian left wing daily newspaper Klassekampen's weekly book magazine.

Oh, hey, if I look a little bit serious and existential in the photo above, it's because I'm positively dying with the flu and could hardly stand upright when it was taken.

-- Kvinner med hijab er ikke egnet til å bli politi
* Gunnar Skirbekk

- Menn med fiskerskjegg er ikke egnet til å bli filosofer
* Shädy Äcres.

George Monbiot has a series of tense and hard interviews with movers and shakers in the climate destruction business. They're very entertaining, informative and tough. Go and see them! They're about 10 minutes each.

Fantastic 60 Minutes report on the clusterfuck in Israel and Palestine

I wish more US reporting was this good:

Watch CBS Videos Online