Heretics' almanac

Disgusted headlines

I'm not sure precisely why, but I'm so disgusted by stuff in the media these days that I'm having a hard time even mustering the energy to comment on it. Here are some one liners on recent events:

• Iran capturing Royal Marines - Ahmadinejad really wants to pick a fight with the United Kingdom over a territorial dispute with Iraq? He must be getting desperate about maintaining a sense of an external enemy, and things must be getting really bad in Iran. Also: let's be clear here: the HMS Cornwall could have ended this within 15 seconds of it becoming an issue.
• Anna Nicole Smith: oy. And can you believe all those tattoos?
• The death and burial of Sven O. Høiby, Norwegian crown princess Mette-Marit's father. The media couldn't even let these people have a private, dignified funeral. What public interest was served in publicizing this? And kudos to the king and queen for attending.
• The Iraqi war. Most disgusted of all over this. Does anyone have the moral courage to actually stand up to this, even if it is the last thing they do in their political career? McCain? Lieberman? Anyone?

What is wrong with these people?

The premise of religious tolerance

The increasingly (to me) annoying linguist Sylfest Lomheim recently fielded a question about the use of the term "honor killings" ("æresdrap") on the Språkteigen podcast. A listener wondered whether using the term "honor" didn't constitute an implicit acceptance of these kinds of killings, and that we should start calling them "shame killings" ("skamsdrap") instead. Not sure if that term is any better; I'd prefer calling them "murder" ("mord") and be done with it.

In any event, Lomheim agreed, pointing out that according to "our values" there is nothing honorable about such killings.

Which brings me to an article Bruce Bawer recently wrote in the Norwegian online journal Human Rights Service, in which he discusses the rhetorical concept "us vs. the others," which many left-leaning Norwegian writers have used to condemn his and others' views on the threat fundamentalists pose to Europe.

Rapes in central Oslo

Since New Year's eve, there have been a series of sexual assaults in central areas of Oslo, and this is getting much-deserved attention. The March 8th events included a "Take Back the Night" element, and much is being written and discussed among politicians, health professionals, etc.

It would appear that most of these assaults are perpetrated by immigrant youth. For obvious and good reasons, opinion leaders are careful not to make too much out of that fact, but you can be certain public opinion is very mindful of it.

Much has been written about the prevalence of misogyny in some of the societies that have exported people to Norway, and it's by no means an exhausted issue. But I think it's safe to assume that rapists know full well that what they're doing illegal. And it's also safe to assume that none of the perps in these cases care whether their assaults are right, wrong, legal, or illegal. All they care about is whether they're likely to get caught, and if they are, how they will be punished. This what psychopaths are like, no matter what country they come from.