Highly inappropriate!

A tale of 2 Norwegian Nobel Prize winners Op-Ed Contributors Jerusalem Post: "Norway recently assumed the chairmanship of an international task force on Holocaust education. Yet the Norwegian government also recently launched a year-long celebration of the life and work of a supporter of the Nazis. The object of this adoration is Knut Hamsun (1859-1952), author of such acclaimed novels as Hunger, Pan and Growth of the Soil, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. Among the latter book's most ardent fans was Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who had it translated and published in a special edition for German soldiers during World War II."

The Norwegians are even raising a statue of Hamsun. Hamsun apparently gave his Nobel Prize to Goebbles 1943 as a gift!? Unbelievable!

The Delicate Balance of Government in Israel

EJP News France Sarkozy to Netanyahu: ‘you need to get rid of Lieberman’: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy has told Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a meeting last week at the Elysée palace in Paris, to remove Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and replace him with opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Israel's Channel 2 television reported Monday night."

Well, now that Binyamin Netanyahu have said the magic word "two-state solution" it would be possible for him to please the world by engaging Tzipi Livni. She does not have to be a "fig-leaf" any more.

Justice, when Freedom is too much to ask for?

Caroline Glick at The Jerusalem Post discusses whether people asked for justice or for freedom in her latest column called Ideologue-in-chief which pertains to president Obama.

She meant they were fighting for freedom whereas Obama and most Iran watchers in "Washington and beyond" thought they were fighting for justice.

I must say I agree with the Obama crowd on this one. However, there is probably also elements of freedom seekers involved in the fight for justice.

The article really deals with the notion that Obama has given up on democracy. It is understandable that people in Israel think this is the case. It seems like the US have changed tack and decided not to be the police of the world any longer. I don't think Obama has given up on democracy for the US. He wants to maximize total foreign friendship. EU seems to want that also.

This all seems pragmatical to me rather than ideological?

Islamic Law for Governance?

Many writers have argued that what happened in Iran cannot be reversed. Amir Taheri suggests the creation of a new imamate.

The fight for Iran’s future is far from over Amir Taheri - Times Online: "The new system that seems to be emerging in Iran appears to be modelled on two Islamic states of recent times."

What is interesting with the article is that Taheri seems to suggest that Iran cannot be ruled only with force of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps military dictatorship. They need further legitimization. They need an ideology as well.

Based on the other Iran that Taheri spoke of last time, I would like to ask if this Iran really buys in on that kind of religious legitimization. That the rurals in Afghanistan on their educational level does might not be that surprising but the other Iran is rather educated. Ahmadinejad's supporters might buy it. Isn't the problem right now that a religious legitimization and a constitution based on sharia does not function for a modern state today? The other Iran demands a government that can bring them out of a global economic crisis.

It would be of considerable interest to discuss the fact that sharia is not suitable for governing a modern European state, based on the failure of the Islamic Republic, since there are more and more demands for the use of sharia instead of the Western Law in for example Great Britain.

Lisbon Treaty?

Germany's top court gives green light for Lisbon Treaty but delays ratification Europe Deutsche Welle 29.06.2009: "Germany's highest court ruled on Tuesday that the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty was compatible with German basic law but said that additional national legislation was needed before the Lisbon Treaty could be ratified."

This was a major hurdle that was just passed for the Lisbon Treaty invocation. Remaining is the referendum in Ireland in October and the signature by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski who will not sign the ratification until the Irish referendum is passed. The Czech President Vaclav Klaus will not ratify until the last moment. He might be hoping that David Cameron is going to block the treaty all together by bringing Great Britain out of EU.

Stem control behaviors?

Stå upp mot övervakningsstaten Ledarsidan SvD: "Som statsråd är det väldigt lätt att identifiera sig med systemet, men borgerliga ministrar måste precis som Cameron sätta individens perspektiv framför statens. Ambitionen ska vara att rädda oss undan kontrollstaten, inte att administrera den"

PJ Anders Linder writes good words today. I have a question though. It might just be too late to protect us from the control state. It might be here already.

In this case what is of paramount importance would be to make it possible to deal with criminality as a result of the control state, and also in private organizations.

I believe we all have to sit down an talk about this...before it is too late.

Civic power

The Saturday Profile - Shimon Peres, Israel’s Elder Statesman, Now With Renewed Clout - Biography - NYTimes.com: "Youthful looking and elegantly attired, he says he now enjoys “unprecedented popularity, which is almost embarrassing for me — I’m not used to it.” He adds that he has discovered a new force, the “tremendous good will of the people,” which he says can be “more powerful than government.”"