Hello from Fjordman. 95 % of my essays will always be published first at either the Brussels Journal, the Gates of Vienna or Jihad Watch, but I will occasionally publish at some other blogs that I like or want to support. Here is a new essay published at the Democracy Reform blog, run by the excellent writer Ohmyrus, who also writes insightful essays about Islam:

Democracy and the Media Bias

A group of Swedes spied for the Stasi, the secret police of the GDR, Communist East Germany. Some of the spies were journalists.

Swedish Security Service Säpo has confirmed that it has identified a number of Swedes who informed for the East German secret police, but has refused to make their names public. A book published in June claims that Säpo has a list of 900 Swedes who had contact with the Stasi. Björn Cederberg, author of the book ‘Kamrat Spion: Om Sverige i Stasi Arkiven’ (Comrade Spy: Sweden in the Stasi Archives), told The Local that that the list came to Sweden from the CIA: “In 1993 a list became available containing the names of around 900 Swedes with some connection to the Stasi. The people at the German archives reckon that only around 50 of these actually worked on behalf of the East Germans.” Sweden has long been known as home to a significant core of East German sympathisers. Former Left Party leader Lars Werner had close ties to GDR diplomats, who paid for the drinks for his fortieth birthday party.

This pattern of collaboration with the enemies of the West and of freedom is, sadly, still alive. The Swedish Social Democratic Party, like many other Labor parties, have decided to cooperate with Muslims and import voters while ignoring the violence caused by these Muslims against the native population.

A quote from Deutsche Welle, 7 August 2007

Berlin's East Side gallery, painted on one of the last remaining remnants of the city's infamous Wall, needs a revamp if it is to survive. […] The total cost of the renovation project is estimated at more than 3 million euros ($4.13 million). Some Berliners are already hot under the collar at the thought of taxpayers' money being spent on repainting this most prolific relic of the GDR, and a recent survey […] suggested only 27 percent of Berliners are in favor of the renovation. But Kani Alavi, co-founder and president of the Artists' Initiative East Side Gallery says it's a small price to pay for the upkeep of a crucial part of the city's history. "The gallery serves as a document," he said, "and we and the city authorities have to be prepared to protect the history of Berlin."

A quote from Spengler at The Asia Times, 7 August 2007

Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter's veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century. […] China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it. Islam might defeat the western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East.

A quote from John Stossel in his Creators Syndicate column, 8 August 2007

The fall of the Soviet Union deprived us of the biggest example of how socialism works. We need laboratories of failure to demonstrate what socialism is like. All we have now is Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, the U.S. Post Office, and state motor-vehicle departments.

A quote from Conservative Swede at his blog, 7 August 2007

Everytime I write something strongly critical about [Paul Belien] he links and quotes from that post (even though he doesn't quote those parts). Then it strikes me how they are just lonely alienated guys, just like I am. Driven by curiosity, constantly searching searching. Wanting to bring things to the surface in order to find answers. [...] And I actually do not want to do this, I'm looking for a way out.

A quote from the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, 7 August 2007

The [Norwegian] Minister of Children and Equality Karita Bekkemellem announced the 32 members of the so-called Men's panel Monday [...] [The panel has been] set up by Bekkemellem to introduce a public debate on men's rights. Men are falling behind in the education system, rarely get custody over children after divorce, and face other health risks than women, the minister argued.

A quote from Conservative Swede at his blog, 6 August 2007

We are witnessing the historical demise of Christianity. When a star dies, in its last phase it expands into a red giant, before it shrinks into a white dwarf. Liberalism is the red giant of Christianity. And just as a red giant it is devoid of its core, it expands thousandfold while losing its substance and is about to die. [...]

A quote from Expatica, 7 August 2007

Ehsan Jami, the chairman of the committee for ex-Muslims [in the Netherlands], will be given extra security. The national anti-terrorism coordinator's office, the public prosecution department and the police decided during a meeting on Monday that "additional measures" are necessary for the protection of the 22-year-old Labour PvdA council member in Leidschendam-Voorburg. [...] The extra measures are being implemented because Jami was attacked and beaten in Voorburg last weekend.

A quote from Jan Kłos in The Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 10, Nr. 1

The state should be neither secular nor religious, for these terms refer to human beings in the first place. Once a state declares itself to be an advocate of the secular or the religious, it inevitably slides into totalitarianism. [...] Should a state attempt to "make" people secular or religious, it becomes but a preposterous pretender intent on establishing yet another utopia.