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I was hoping this was going to be a thread about helping Voldemort win.

That's probably a bit late, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiizrUsC_hY


Jeffrey Lewis - Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror

Those lyrics are pretty friggin' amazing.

Canada is actually an English-speaking province located between Germany and Norway.

Think about it.

I've been to Denmark several times, and I've always had to communicate in English because Danish is almost impossible to understand. This explains a lot to me, thank you.

I really want to write an account of how Norway responded to the horrible Islamist terror attacks on 22 July 2011 with "more democracy and more openness".

The saga of Gísli Súrsson. Things I've learned from it so far: Mortally wounded vikings always had time to recite a poem before they died.

Medical ecstasy is soon going to be the new medical marijuana.

So, what's up with discordianism?

It's doing fine I guess, just look at us.

 

Will any of you disagree with me if I call this murder?

After what I've heard, that shooting was just regular mafia violence (not very usual in Norway, but it happens).

Anomalies? Well, a local mayoral candidate for the far right Democrats party, former leader of the Norwegian Defence League and active member of Stop the Islamisation of Norway was caught on tape in February saying he would love to assassinate a government member (or all of them). Crazy gun nut, but probably harmless. I greatly enjoy reading his blog posts, so I'm hoping he won't shut his blog down after this.

[Glenn Beck likens Norwegian dead to Hitler youth]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/26/glenn-beck-norwegian-dead-hitler
Glenn Beck likens Norwegian dead to Hitler youth

Glenn Beck, the rightwing US broadcaster and Tea Party favourite, has compared those who were massacred on the Norwegian island of Utøya to the Nazi party's youth wing.

"There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler youth, or, whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics. Disturbing," said Beck on his syndicated radio show.

The Tea Party, apparently. For kids aged 8-12. To me that sounds somewhat more disturbing.

21 years only? Maximum sentence? Wow

The official maximum sentence is 21 years, but the sentence can be extended indefinitely, 5 years at a time, if the convict is considered a threat to society.

I couldn't see any obvious trigger events myself, but then, I'm not in full possession of the facts.  It could be a personal crisis compounded his political frustrations or something more local happened, which he then tied into a larger political-social narrative.  Or something else entirely.

Neither can I, so a personal crisis seems very likely.

Incidentally, what the hell is a Labor Youth League?  Is that like bible camp for communists?

The Labour Youth League is the youth organization of the Norwegian Labour Party. They held a summer camp this week where hundreds of young people aged between 13 to 25 were discussing politics, making friends, doing sports, listening to talks about various topics and watching their favorite bands play. Or brainwashed into accepting the social democratic paradigm, if that sounds better to you.

All the political parties here in Norway (except for the Pensioners' Party) have a youth wing. Not every of them has a summer camp; the Young Conservatives have an annual large conference at a finer hotel somewhere in the country. One of my former classmates bought champagne for about 10000 Norwegian Kroner (about 1000£) at one of those. When he was 16.  

Has there been a big debate involving Muslim immigration or Muslims in general in Norway - something with a political dimension where blame could be laid on the Labour Party?  Mosques being built, a radical Muslim preacher winning the right to claim asylum, anything like that?

I mean, I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely with this analysis, I'm just thinking out loud.  This would probably have to have been a few months back, as well.  He clearly planned this quite well, he'd have to get the uniform, the weapons, make the bomb, do test runs for the attack and so on.

I think your analysis is quite right.

The first things that come to my mind are Mullah Krekar (lots of right-wingers are angry because the Norwegian government refuses to extradite him to Kurdistan, where he risks capital punishment), and a huge (Ahmadiyya and relatively moderate) mosque being built in the outskirts of Oslo.

There have been big national debates on Muslims and Muslim immigration in Norway over the last few years, and most of the parties in Parliament have moved in a less immigrant-friendly direction (including the Labour Party). The right has been obsessively pushing statistics showing that non-western immigrants were behind every assault rape in Oslo in 2009 (ignoring that Oslo has a Conservative/Progress Party council). Also, three Muslims were arrested last year over an alleged bomb plot. Prejudice against Muslims has most definitely "passed the dinner table test", like Baroness Warsi claimed in the UK a while ago.

The Labour Party is the largest party in a majority government and has been the largest party for most of the time since 1945, so you could blame practically anything you don't like about Norwegian society on them.

They're your usual first world Labour Party - social democracy, turned a little to the right and against immigration.

Note that most political youth organizations here have at least some degree of independence from their mother organizations, and AUF are significantly to the left of the Labour Party.

At least 80 killed at the Utøya camp, apparently. Fuck.

Anders Behring Breivik used to be a member of the right-wing populist Progress Party and its youth organization (where he chaired a local branch for several months in 2002), but he left a couple of years ago, probably because he thought their policies on immigration were too naïve. He has been an active commenter on far right and anti-Islam blogs.

In July 2011, the Norwegian Minister of Justice announced a new and exciting way of dealing with young people convicted for minor drug offenses, because putting them in prison obviously doesn't work. It is called "motivational dialogue". The idea is, let the little criminal talk to someone who can help them make better choices and become better and more motivated persons (without drugs, of course).  "This is a new and exciting way of dealing with young people convicted for minor drug offenses, because putting them in prison obviously doesn't work," the Minister of Justice said enthusiastically to a group of journalists at a press conference.

It is June 2012, and we're in a sleepy little town in the south-eastern part of the country. In a small room in the basement of the local police station sits a slightly confused police officer. A couple of days ago he was delegated to hold the first "motivational dialogue" in this small and largely uninteresting police district. The Justice Department had sent out a document that described the concept in detail, but he had put it down after a few pages. He couldn't make much out of the vague and bureaucratic language. Better to just improvise, then, he thought. He was going to talk to a 17 year old kid who had been caught by the police with a few grammes of cannabis on him. Who knows, maybe I'll make a difference to a young person's life today. Perhaps he's been using it to escape from an abusive family, and he just needs someone to talk to. Or maybe ...we'll see.

Just before 18:00, the appointed time for the dialogue, a young man enters the room. This is definitely not the lethargic and worn out high school dropout he had expected. This is a well-dressed and charming young man, who confidently shakes his hand and introduces himself as if this is just another business meeting. He is about to finish his second year of high school, he has good grades and in his spare time he enjoys engaging in politics and playing the piano, apparently. 

The policeman is at loss for words:  "You seem like an intelligent and well-reflected young man, right. But why did you do this? It doesn't make sense."

"I suppose you don't understand," the young man began, "because you refuse to admit the possibility that one can in fact make a rational, well thought out decision to take drugs. Before I decided to buy myself those grammes of cannabis that you so helpfully confiscated from me, I consulted several peer-reviewed scientific reports on the effects of cannabis usage. I made sure I had been mentally stable for long enough. I consulted experienced users on where to get the best possible quality for the lowest possible price. It was all one hell of a personal cost-benefit analysis, and when the motivational dialogue shit was introduced last year it finally tipped in the direction of me deciding to try it out. It seemed fun, and the consequences seemed minimal as long as I managed to avoid getting addicted to it. Also, drug prohibition is pissing me off. People shouldn't be put in prison for doing things that only harm themselves, they should be offered treatment. People shouldn't be punished at all for doing things that does no harm to anything or anybody. A handful of people I know have smoked pot. They're no different from us normal people, and I don't think any of them have taken any harm from it *. The prohibition is in conflict with the scientific evidence, it feeds a large illegal economy, it is resource-demanding for the authorities, and harmful for most of the parties involved. Now that doesn't make sense."

The policeman thought about this for a few seconds before he answered.
"I guess I'll have to file a charge for possession of illegal substances for you then. See you in court!"

* One of them started thinking she was a burrowing rodent, but that stopped after a while.