So to win these elections, the Social democrats are trying to win the popular vote by offering personal “butlers” for people living in Stockholm. Their idea is that the time they take to commute on subways and trains to their work, shouldn’t be wasted time. So they want to set up laundromats, grocery stores, kindergardens, etc very close to the subway/trainstations, and that way people can do several things at once… shop in the morning, and get the groceries when you get home, etc. Mobile broadband would be extended into subway tunnels so that people can work during their commute.

Like socialism in itself, it is a romantic idea. Did they ever think of what it would look like at rush hour coming home from work when hundreds of people are queuing to get their kids from the kindergarden, clean laundry or grocery bags?

Did they ever think that subway during rush hour barely gives you standing space in a subway train? Work?

I have been stalked by a crazy figure for the better part of 3 years now. Swedish police don’t do anything. Mexican police have done something, but not enough for Weebly to erase a page on their servers that slanders me and my family.

As for soccer, it is a game where there seems to be a fair amount of corruption and illegality. Best shown by FIFA:s elected referees this world cup. They are either blind or drunk. Maybe both. FIFA is more interested about increasing (by 80%) their revenues from the last WC – without doing something about the critique they are getting from everywhere.

What about the smurfette? My stalker calls herself that whenever she isn’t too drunk and is online. Actually the story of the smurfette – in the comics – is similar. According to Wikipedia: “Smurfette was magically created from clay by the Smurfs’ enemy, Gargamel, so that she would use her charms to cause jealousy and competition among the Smurfs in order to cause their fall. He left her in the forest and Hefty Smurf took her to the Smurf village, where she was kept out of kindness.”

So in sorts she is a kind of Satan – and that explains alot.

It was all wrong. The oil spill in the Mexican Gulf – over 1 month later hasn’t been stopped. Not implying he is able to physically stop it, but he could at least put some pressure on BP to do it – which he isn’t because he owes his presidency to oil companies. As would McCain. BP seem to think “this is something that happens… so what. We will try to stop it.” It is the biggest environmental disaster in US history. And still nothing.

Then the whole Israel/Gaza thing blows up. Israel violently board a ship carrying medicines to Gaza. Many dead people later, Israelis say they were attacked with weapons. They boarded the ship with drawn weapons – and fired. The “weapons” they found were slingshots, marbles, some knives (that would exist in boats since they need to eat food). No guns or anything else. According to people on the boat – among them a famous Swedish author whom I believe tells the truth – there were no weapons on the ships. Obviously, if you want to see a marble as a weapon, you will find lots of them. The author said the Israeli soldiers came out with his razor and said it was a weapon!!!

Besides, Israelis took prisoners and took them from International waters into Israeli territory saying they entered “illegally”. WTF? Forcing somebody into your territory does not constitute illegal entry. More likely, it constitutes kidnapping.

If this doesn’t fuel antisemitism in the world, I don’t know what will. But it seems Israel want that to happen. And Obama? Who knows. He is just hiding somewhere playing with wife, daughters and dog. What a huuuuuge disappointment he has been so far. “Hope” is what I have that they vote him out of his office soon. He has actually done everyone wrong. African Americans that voted for him, just see another white guy. Hispanics that voted for him just see another white hillbilly. Whites that voted for him just see a disguised George Bush…. when is it time to see what promises he has delivered?

What about the millions that work in the US and have to carry their papers around? “Papieren bitte”, comes to mind – phrase often heard in Germany during the war. I can swim across the Rio Grande hundreds of times, and I will not be stopped. Why? I have blue eyes and a fair skin complexion. I don’t look Mexican and even though I am, nobody would stop me. And that is what is wrong with this stupid law. Some idiot senator said you can pick out the illegals from others by the way they dress… Say what?

“Detain anybody that looks like an illegal immigrant” is like returning to Nazi Germany, when people where detained because they looked jewish. WTF? And the leader of America, an African American guy does nothing to stop this? WOW… The US is really fucked up.

(CNN) — Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell apologized Wednesday for leaving out any reference to slavery in his recent proclamation designating April as Confederate History Month, calling it a “major omission.”

“The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed,” McDonnell said in a written statement.

“The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War,” the statement said. “Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation.”

McDonnell also announced Wednesday that he would add language about slavery to the proclamation.

“(I)t is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this (Civil) war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights,” the new language says, “and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders.”

McDonnell’s statement noted that while Virginia was home to the Capital of the Confederacy, it was also the first nation to elect an African-American governor, L. Douglas Wilder, who McDonnell called “my friend.”

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Wilder said that McDonnell’s apology and his introduction of additional proclamation language was “the right thing for him to have done.”

“Most people recognize that slavery was the cause of the (Civil) war,” Wilder said, noting that McDonnell had called him Wednesday. “The war was not a glorious thing in our past. It was something that we were able to withstand in terms of tearing the country apart. … Thank God that war ended with the Confederacy losing.”

Not all Democrats were willing to forgive McDonnell on Wednesday.

“He has a right to apologize,” Virginia State Sen. Henry Marsh III, a black Democrat, told CNN. “But I don’t accept that as a good answer because this is a pattern of this governor.”

“He says the wrong thing, he sends a signal to his base and then he makes an apology,” Marsh said, “It’s a question of whether or not he’s sincere or not.”

Other Democrats accepted McDonnell’s apology.

“My great, great grandparents, their offspring and others were split up in the Commonwealth of Virginia & sold into slavery,” Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor Donna Brazile said on Twitter. “Apology accepted

McDonnell is the first Virginia governor in eight years to issue a proclamation declaring April as Confederate History Month in the state, a move that drew criticism from Democrats and a civil rights group.

Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, now Democratic National Committee chairman, issued a statement Wednesday blasting McDonnell’s exclusion of slavery from the original proclamation.

“Governor McDonnell’s decision to designate April as Confederate History Month without condemning, or even acknowledging, the pernicious stain of slavery or its role in the war disregards history, is insensitive to the extraordinary efforts of Americans to eliminate slavery and bind the nation’s wounds, and offends millions of Americans of all races and in all parts of our nation,” Kaine wrote.

“A failure to acknowledge the central role of slavery in the Confederacy and deeming insignificant the reprehensible transgression of moral standards of liberty and equality that slavery represented is simply not acceptable in the America of the 21st century,” he continued.

McDonnell quietly declared April Confederate History Month after two previous Democratic administrations refused to do so.

“It is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth’s shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present,” the proclamation reads in part.

Virginia Delegate Kenneth Alexander, chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, said the governor’s proclamation was offensive.

It “offered a disturbing revision of the Civil War and the brutal era that followed,” Alexander, a Democrat, said in a written statement. “Virginia has worked hard to move beyond the very things for which Gov. McDonnell seems nostalgic.”

The Virginia chapter of the NAACP also condemned the proclamation, The Washington Post reported. The group did not immediately return phone calls to CNN.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans asked the governor to declare April Confederate History Month in Virginia, which had seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861.

Brandon Dorsey, a spokesman for the group, told CNN Radio that Confederate History Month isn’t about slavery or race, but about studying the four-year history of the Confederacy. He said it will also help draw visitors to the many Civil War battle sites in Virginia, helping to boost tourism.

“The proclamation’s main goal is to call attention to the fact that there is Confederate history in the state of Virginia, of course, across the South,” Dorsey said. “It’s simply a tool to expose individuals to that history. … It’s not meant to discriminate against anybody.”

Other Southern states have issued similar proclamations for April. In Alabama, Republican Gov. Bob Riley declared April, the month the Civil War began, as Confederate History and Heritage Month. His statement condemned slavery.

So I guess slavery needs to be mentioned forever. Even 150+ years after it ended. We should mention some other issues as well then… the displacement and eradication of American Indians for instance… but that isn’t as important, apparently. The atrocities taking place in Afghanistan and Iraq. The killing by US forces all over the globe… but no… slavery has to be remembered forever. It is a joke. Reminds me of the jews’ never ending claims for “always remember the holocaust”… Now is now… yesterday was yesterday. Yes, whatever happened was awful and hopefully it won’t happen again… The end.

The priest was sent from Essen to Munich for therapy in 1980 when he was accused of forcing an 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex. The archdiocese confirmed that the Pope, who was then a cardinal, had approved a decision to accommodate the priest in a rectory while the therapy took place.

The priest, identified only as H, was subsequently convicted of sexually abusing minors after he was moved to pastoral work in nearby Grafing. In 1986 he was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and fined DM 4,000 (£1,800 today). There have been no formal charges against him since.

The church has been accused of a cover-up after at least 170 allegations of child abuse by German Catholic priests. The scandal broke in January but the claims, which continue to emerge, span three decades. Critics say that priests were redeployed to other parishes rather than dismissed when they were found to be abusing children.

The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising said that there had been no complaints against the priest during the therapy at a church community in Munich. It said that the decision to let him continue working in Grafing was taken by Gerhard Gruber, now 81, who was vicar general of the archdiocese.

The Vatican said that Mgr Gruber had taken “full responsibility” for the priest’s move back into pastoral work but did not comment further.

Mgr Gruber said that the Pope, who was made a cardinal in 1977, had not been not aware of his decision because there were 1,000 priests in the diocese at the time and he had left many decisions to lower-level officials. “The cardinal could not deal with everything,” he said. “The repeated employment of H in pastoral duties was a serious mistake … I deeply regret that this decision led to offences against youths. I apologise to all those who were harmed.” He did not indicate whether the convicted paedophile would be allowed to continue working in the church.

An American group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said it “boggles the mind to hear a German Catholic official claim that a credibly accused paedophile priest was reassigned to parish work without the knowledge of his boss, then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger”. Any expulsion of a priest from the Church, however, must go through the Vatican.

The Pope was Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982 and then moved to Rome as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a post that he held until his election as pontiff five years ago after the death of John Paul II.

Priest H worked in an old people’s home for two years after his conviction. He then moved to the town of Garching, where he became a curate and later a church administrator. In May 2008 he was removed from his duties in Garching and was not allowed to work with young people. He still works in the diocese, according to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which broke the story.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the head of Germany’s Catholic bishops, apologised yesterday to the victims of clerical sex abuse after meeting Pope Benedict. He said that the German-born Pope had expressed “great dismay” over the scandals and had encouraged him to take “decisive and courageous steps” to tackle the problem.

Mgr Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg, said that the German Church would investigate abuse allegations and take measures to prevent a recurrence. He said that the Pope had been “deeply moved” by his report of sex abuse cases in Germany, and had praised the naming of a bishop to act as a clerical sex-abuse watchdog. He added that paedophilia was not confined to the Roman Catholic Church.

Mgr Gerhard Müller, the Bishop of Regensburg, said there was “not even a minimal link” between paedophilia and priestly celibacy, which would “not be modified”.

At least the late pope John Paul II.

Pope John Paul II used to beat himself with a belt and sleep on a bare floor to bring himself closer to Christ, a book published Wednesday says.

The late pope had a particular belt for self-flagellation and brought it with him to his summer residence, according to the book, “Why he is a Saint: The True story of John Paul II.”

“As some members of his own entourage were able to hear with their own ears, both in Poland and in the Vatican, Karol Wojtyla flagellated himself,” the book says, using the name the pope was given at birth.

“In the closet, among the cloaks, a particular pant-belt hung from a hook, which he utilized as a whip and one which he always had brought to Castel Gandolfo,” the book says.

The book was written by a Vatican insider, Slawomir Oder, with Italian journalist Saverio Gaeta of the Catholic weekly Christian Family. Oder is head of the Vatican committee investigating whether John Paul II should be declared a saint. John Paul died in 2005.

The evil albino monk in Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” may be the best-known example of self-flagellation these days, but the practice is not unusual in Catholicism — or nearly as extreme as it is shown in the movie.

“When members or former members [of Opus Dei] see the monk go at it in the movie, they just burst out laughing, it’s so nutty,” said the Rev. Michael Barrett, a priest of the Catholic Opus Dei sect.

In actual Catholic self-flagellation, “there is no blood, no injury, nothing to harm a person’s health, nothing traumatic. If it caused any harm, the Church would not allow it,” he wrote on Opus Dei’s Web site when the movie came out in 2006.

“This voluntarily accepted discomfort is a way of joining oneself to Jesus Christ and the sufferings he voluntarily accepted in order to redeem us from sin. ‘The Da Vinci Code’s’ masochist monk, who loves pain for its own sake, has nothing to do with real Christian mortification,” Barrett said.

Mother Teresa is among famous Catholics who self-flagellated in some way, Barrett said.

Catholics are not alone in choosing to inflict pain on themselves for religion reasons. Some Shiite Muslims lash themselves until they bleed when marking the mourning period of Ashura, while fasting is practiced by people in several religions, including Jews on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

David Gibson, a journalist who worked for Vatican Radio when John Paul II was pope, pointed out that the pontiff wrote an apostolic letter — essentially a papal position paper — on suffering in 1984.

“Christ did not conceal from his listeners the need for suffering. He said very clearly: ‘If any man would come after me … let him take up his cross daily,’ ” the pope wrote, quoting the Gospel of Luke.

Jesus, the pope wrote, “suffered in place of man and for man. Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished.

“In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ,” says the letter, Salvifici Doloris, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering.

“John Paul was a product of a very Old World Polish Catholicism,” said Gibson, who now writes on religion for Politics Daily.

“He was a very disciplined man and a very rigorous man in his personal spirituality,” he said.

The authors of the new book clearly approve of any whipping the pope did of himself, he added.

“Even though it’s going to weird people out, it’s obviously seen by his postulators as a sign of his holiness,” he said, using the technical term for the person who investigates a person’s qualifications for sainthood.

He said the idea is not as bizarre as it might sound to contemporary ears.

“The idea of fasting, renouncing something, giving up your Starbucks latte so you can send money to Haiti — you can’t simply look down your nose at it without rejecting a lot of other ideas about self-sacrifice,” he said.

The authors of the book based it on interviews with 114 “witnesses” and access to unedited documents in the Vatican’s archives, according to the publisher, Rizzoli.

The book is available only in Italian, but the publisher is having it translated into Polish and other languages.