Free Republic

ScienceDaily: “Slowing Evolution to Stop Drug Resistance” --snip-- For years, evolutionists have pointed to antibiotic resistance as proof of evolution in action. The argument often amounts to this (in simplified form): the fact that certain organisms grow resistant to certain antibiotics is evidence for the evolutionary idea that all animals must have descended from a single ancestor. Collapsing the argument does make it seem a bit silly, but that’s our point. We certainly don’t want to belittle the very real threat of dangerous organisms becoming immune to the best drugs we now have (though the vast majority of microbes are...

What's wrong with America? Last time I posed this question to the other members of this forum, I got response like "go finish your acquavit elsewhere" and such things. Now, that was pretty rude and not particularly nice, was it?:) Is it my fault that I drive a Volvo V70 and an average American drives a ridiculous part of the Ford F-series? Is it my fault that we Swedes can build superior subs (not talkin' fast food here) and our competitors can not? Most states of the US hasn't let in as many Muslim settlers as Sweden has, I'll give...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday. The pair, a man and a woman who have diplomatic status in Russia, were stopped by Swedish customs officers Wednesday morning as they drove off a ferry from Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Customs officials discovered Russian cigarettes in the car driven by the couple, Swedish Customs spokeswoman Monica Magnusson told Reuters. The two North Koreans claimed diplomatic immunity. "They were accredited as diplomats in Russia, but had no accreditation in Sweden," she said....

font size="2" color="black">Geneva (ENI). Church of Sweden Archbishop Anders Wejryd triggered outrage from a Lutheran church in Africa when he ordained an openly lesbian woman as bishop of Stockholm on 8 November. The archbishop asserts, however, that neither his church nor his country supports promiscuity, but that Sweden is a "surprisingly moral society". He said the Swedish church encourages faithful and stable relationships between people whatever their sexual orientation may be.The Church of Sweden issued a press statement when 55-year-old Eva Brunne was consecrated as the bishop of Stockholm in a ceremony at Uppsala cathedral, the mother church of the...

A Swedish man who saved a woman from assault has been sentenced to prison rather than being applauded for performing a civic duty. In a case which has provoked outrage across the country, Per-Anders Pettersson was found guilty of aggravated assault despite the would-be Samaritan’s claims he was acting in self-defence on behalf of 66-year-old Gard Forsgren who was being attacked in her car. Forsgren, now 69, was assailed in 2006 while inside her vehicle near Nas in the central Swedish county of Dalarna when Pettersson intervened. He dragged the woman’s attacker from the car and hit him two times...

Swedish taxpayers helped fund a youth recreation centre in the north Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby which served as a recruiting station for the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab. More than ten young people from the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood who spoke with Sveriges Radio (SR), said that the recruitment drive was led by a youth leader at the Kreativitetshuset recreation centre. The recreation centre was started by a mosque and received a total of 480,000 kronor ($70,400) from the Stockholm city sports and recreation administration over four years before closing down in 2008. "It's horrible. There was no suggestion of this when...

[PRESS RELEASE, 10 November 2009] Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a mechanism that controls the brain's ability to create lasting memories. In experiments on genetically manipulated mice, they were able to switch on and off the animals' ability to form lasting memories by adding a substance to their drinking water. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal PNAS, are of potential significance to the future treatment of Alzheimer's and stroke. Lars Olson Photo: Camilla Svensk "We are constantly being swamped with sensory impression," says Professor Lars Olson, who led the study. "After a while, the brain must...

Seriously, Why do America think it rules the Earth? It does not. My home country, Sweden, has 9 million inhabitants and we rule Europe, aka the largest economy on the planet. Test me. Does a Koenigsegg embarrass a Lamborghini or what.. China, the US as well as Germany are loosers in the game of industrial achievments compared to my "little" nation. Why is it so hard for you to manufacture real world products?

A Swedish radical Muslim has started political cooperation with both right and left wing extremists to build up an anti-Semitic party. Poet and journalist Mohamed Omar intends to fight what he calls the “danger of Zionism” that poses a threat to the world. Even though Omar’s political movement is rather weak as of today, experts warn of the anti-Democratic potential of this development.

Stockholm-area police arrested nine left-wing activists on Wednesday in connection with a string of disturbances in the southern suburb of Fittja in Botkyrka. For several nights earlier in the week, Fittja Centrum was plagued by several car fires and other acts of vandalism. Police who responded to the violence were then met with a barrage of stones when arriving on the scene. But when police responded to calls about continued unrest in the predominantly immigrant area on Wednesday night, they recognized a 20-year-old woman who is wanted on suspicion of rioting from an earlier case. Police then tracked her to...

Stockholm, Sweden, Oct 25, 2009 / 04:52 pm (CNA).- The Catholic and Orthodox Churches of Sweden have responded with “sadness” to the Swedish Lutheran Church General Synod’s decision to hold homosexual “weddings” in churches, saying the move departs from the Christian tradition and will widen the gap between the churches.Fr. Fredrik Emanuelson, head of ecumenical efforts in the Swedish Catholic Church, joined Orthodox representative Fr. Misha Jaksic in a statement that said the churches learned of the Lutherans’ decision “with sadness.”“It is a swing away not only from Christian tradition but also from the point of view on the nature...

Some of you may have read my article on cities with the most beautiful women, this however is about the countries with the most beautiful women. It's always possible to find a city with beautiful women in a land of not-so-amazingly beautiful women. These places on the other hand, are entirecountries with beautiful women. 10. Denmark I've been to Denmark many times, & I can say that I've not found anything rotten there to date. And definitely not the women, the women here are as striking as they come. A lot like their Swedish neighbours, the women of Denmark are...

STOCKHOLM — Shopping for oatmeal, Helena Bergstrom, 37, admitted that she was flummoxed by the label on the blue box reading, “Climate declared: .87 kg CO2 per kg of product.” “Right now, I don’t know what this means,” said Ms. Bergstrom, a pharmaceutical company employee. But if a new experiment here succeeds, she and millions of other Swedes will soon find out. New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around the country.

Sweden Church Allows Gay Weddings Sweden's archbishop is broadly supportive of the move The Lutheran Church of Sweden - the country's largest - is to conduct same-sex marriages from next month. Around 70% of the church's 250-strong synod, or church board, voted to back the move, making it one of few global churches to allow gay marriage. Sweden's government introduced a new law in May allowing gay couples the same marriage rights as heterosexuals. Three-quarters of Swedes are members of the Lutheran church, though church attendance is low. The Lutheran Church says gay couples can now get married by any...

Residents in Stockholm are divided over reports that rabbits are being used to make biofuel. The bodies of thousands of rabbits are fuelling a heating plant in central Sweden, local newspapers say. The city of Stockholm has an annual cull of thousands of rabbits to protect the capital's parks and green spaces.

Parking attendants in Malmö are to have miniature video cameras attached to their caps as part of a bid to increase the safety of members of a profession often exposed to threats and harassment. Starting this Wednesday, a number of meter maids from municipal firm Parkering Malmö will begin wearing the cap-borne cameras, which can register sound and video and are activated when an inspector pushes a button. The resultant video clips will be saved, and may be used as evidence for incidents that are reported to the police or go to trial. All other clips will be erased. "By...

Sweden is a not entirely a Socialist hellhole on Earth. We fight alongside you Americans. We will not accept further terrorist attacks on NYC. Apart from knowing the nature of lasting friendship and military alliances, we also know how to drive real vehicles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzHElhj2pTo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXuhJvdchhg&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Since WWII, America has enjoyed too many of Democratic lies. As a matter of example, many Americans today think they run Western Civilization. This is a major delusion. French president Sarkozy and the elite of European bankers do. America is presently scrapping much of her industrial core while Europe is gearing up in that department. Anyone who today would drive between the Ruhr district (Germany) and Antwerpen, Belgium, would have to admit Europe, again, constitutes the center of the world economy. The Asians? The Japanese will never make a car as safe as a Volvo and as drivable like a...

We have suffered a week of apoplexy having endured a bombardment of reasons offered to justify a Nobel Prize awarded for expectations and promises rather than results. Our rationality has been addled as all corners of the MSM meandered through fantastic rationalizations. All appear to have missed the mark. The ideologically motivated radicals dominating the Norwegian Nobel Committee, are not seeking peace in the world, but are making a down payment on fortification for their own agenda. The United States and Canada will pay dearly if this agenda materializes. Let’s first dispel any doubt that the offered reasons for awarding...

An article by the leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats claiming that Islam is the biggest threat to Sweden since World War II is tantamount to hate speech, according to legal experts. A number of jurists believe the text, published in the opinion section of the Aftonbladet newspaper, qualifies as agitation against an ethnic group (hets mot folkgrupp). The Sweden Democrats concluded their annual congress on Sunday in the town of Ljungbyhed in Skåne in southern Sweden. On Monday, Aftonbladet published an opinion piece by party leader Jimmie Åkesson in which the prominent far-right politician slams Islam. According to Åkesson,...

Allegations that Israel plunders and trafficks Palestinians' organs are ugly, false, and harmful to peace efforts. No less dangerous—such libels spread. The Aug. 17 story by Donald Bostrom in Aftonbladet, Scandanavia's leading daily, has quickly metastasized to mainstream Muslim media, spawning cartoons of Jews stealing body parts and drinking Arab blood. These have been published in Syria, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, to name a few. In early September, Algeria's al-Khabar newspaper echoed Mr. Bostrom in a new fantasy claiming Jewish-directed gangs of Algerians and Moroccans round up Algerian children, spirit them into Morocco and thence to...

The Swiss health care system has several important properties that I (and many others) have been advocating should be incorporated into any reform of the US health care system. One major advantage of the Swiss system is that employer-provided health care does not receive any special tax breaks, whereas the US system is built on these tax breaks. As a result, only a rather a small fraction of Swiss health care is obtained through employment. Mainly, Swiss families buy health care on their own, so that, unlike in the US, their health insurance does not reduce their incentives to change...

The bodies of thousands of rabbits culled every year from the parks in Stockholm’s Kungsholmen neighbourhood are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden. The decision to use Stockholm’s rabbit cadavers as bioenergy to warm Swedes living in Värmland doesn't sit well with Stockholm-based animal rights activists. “Those who support the culling of rabbits surely think it’s good to use the bodies for a good cause. But it feels like they’re trying to turn the animals into an industry rather than look at the main problem,” Anna Johannesson of Vilda kaniners värn (‘Society for the Protection of...

Reader Alan Macomber writes: Got curious about how the media in Norway is playing the Nobel Peace Prize decision (I read/write Norwegian fluently), so I check out the Aftenposten (largest daily) this morning.Found one of those opinion poll widgets on their site- vote on if you think the prize to Obama was correct.62% of Aftenposten's own Norwegian readers voted not vs 37% who voted yes. Just thought you'd be interested in how it plays out over there.Swedish dailies are pretty much skewing this as a stupid joke the Norwegians have created (to be expected...Swedes love to laugh at dumb stuff...

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (Svenska Freds) has classified as "shameful" the decision by the Nobel Committee in Oslo to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to Barack Obama. "The choice of Barack Obama as the recipient of the world's foremost peace prize is shocking," said the group's chairwoman Anna Ek in a statement. Ek conceded that the US president had sent "positive signals" with regard to his future commitment to global peace. "But at the same time Obama is the president of the biggest military power in the world and is waging two wars in the world....

"US-based toy retailer Toys"R"Us has been reprimanded for gender discrimination following a complaint filed by a group of Swedish sixth graders about the store’s 2008 Christmas catalogue. Last winter, a sixth grade class at Gustavslund school in Växjö in south central Sweden reported Toys"R"Us to the Reklamombudsmannen (Ro), a self-regulatory agency which polices marketing and advertising communications in Sweden to ensure they are in line with guidelines set out by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). According to the youngsters, the Toys"R"Us Christmas catalogue featured “outdated gender roles because boys and girls were shown playing with different types of toys,...

"Three boys aged 12-13-years-old are suspected of having raped a 10-year-old girl at a school in Linköping in central Sweden. The alleged assault occurred on Tuesday while the children were on their lunch break in an area of woodland near the school."

A pensioner from western Sweden may have received the smallest benefit payment ever paid out by the country’s social insurance agency (Försäkringskassan). Ängelholm resident Gunnel Johansson receives a whopping 50 öre (7 cents) every month in support payments for low-income seniors (äldreförsörjningsstöd), the Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) newspaper reports. According to a description on the agency’s website, the payments are meant to guarantee the elderly “a reasonable standard of living even if you have a low pension or no pension at all”. The payment is so small that Försäkringskassan has taken the unusual step of paying Johansson every other month. She...

"A Church of Sweden parish councillor from Stockholm has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for the repeated rape of his grandchildren. The man is reported to still hold several positions of responsibility within the parish and continues to deny the charges that he repeatedly abused his grandchildren while serving as their baby-sitter, according to the Metro newspaper. "

"Sweden and a dozen other European countries have agreed to accept Somali and Eritrean refugees from camps in Kenya and Sudan. The refugees will be accepted into Sweden as part of quotas agreed with the UNHCR - the refugee organ of the United Nations. "It feels good that Sweden can take part in such as large humanitarian operation," Dan Eliasson, the director-general of the Swedish Migration Board, told Sveriges Radio's news programme Ekot. Three further camps on Iraq's border with Syria will also be emptied in cooperation with the USA. The camps currently house mostly stateless Palestinian refugees. "

"150 Iraqi Christians have sought refuge in the Cathedral of St. Enechubeng to ask the immigration authorities to reconsider the decisions to refuse their asylum applications in Sweden, reports Christians of Iraq. They recently organized themselves and began to campaign for review of decisions by the immigration authorities against them. More than 150 of them who are threatened with deportation from Sweden gathered at the Cathedral of Linköping, to ask the Church of Sweden to help deliver their message to the politicians and stave off their being deported."

A 33-year old man from Malmö has been sentenced to ten years in prison by a US court for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old he met online. The man travelled to the city of Corpus Christi in Texas in October 2008 and was arrested ten days later by police in a hotel room. The girl, who had ran away from home, was found in the room partially clothed. Hotel personnel raised the alarm after recognising the girl from a missing persons poster. According to Texas law, the age of consent is 17 years old. The Swede pleaded guilty on eight counts...

A German trucker suspected of driving under the influence of drugs crashed his vehicle near Borås in western Sweden on Tuesday. He subsequently admitted to masturbating at the time of the accident. The trucker, apparently unable to reach a satisfactory climax, then proceeded to continue to pleasure himself while in the midst of a police interrogation, according to the local Borås Tidning newspaper. "He was masturbating while the police interrogated him," police prosecutor Åsa Askenbäck told the newspaper. "He has admitted that he was not paying full attention at the time of the accident. He was playing with himself instead...

A Ferrari worth 3 million kronor ($434,000) was left nursing a crumpled front end after a hapless Swedish motor vehicle inspection driver took it for an impromptu spin. The Ferrari F40 had been recently imported into Sweden by Von Braun Sports Cars in Skene in southern Sweden and was duly subjected to a routine registration inspection in nearby Kinna on Thursday. But when the state-owned Swedish Motor Vehicle Inspection Company (Bilprovningen) driver sat behind the wheel of the powerful Italian sports car something went seriously awry and the vehicle lurched into a fence in the test area. "It is not...

Meat from Swedish stockpiles dating back to the Cold War has been sold to Poland to be served in restaurants, according to a report in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper. The Swedish state phased out its stockpiles of tinned meat at the end of the 1990s. The Swedish Board of Agriculture then sold 1.5 million kilograms of the meat, which dates back up to 27 years, to a Swedish trading company. The meat was offloaded on the condition that it could only be sold as food outside of the European Union. Within the EU it could be classified only as...

"Moroccan police arrest 24 from network coordinating with jihadists "in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone"" SNIPPET: "The security services in Morocco have arrested 24 members of a "terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for suicide bombings in Iraq, the interior ministry said Wednesday. In a statement carried by the official MAP news agency, it said the network -- coordinating "with terrorists in Sweden, Belgium and the Syria-Iraq zone" -- also sought recruits for Al-Qaeda to fight in Afghanistan and Somalia. The suspects -- now being questioned by police -- were arrested in several cities in Morocco, said...

The Swedish armed forces have been hit by a major equipment problem, according to reports. Flimsy military brassieres are unable to stand up to the strains imposed when female Swedish troops perform "rigorous exercises", routinely bursting open or even catching fire - so forcing busty young conscripts to hurriedly strip off in the field. The revelations come courtesy of the Gothenburg Post and English-language Swedish journal The Local. The Post reported yesterday on concerns raised by the Swedish Conscription Council, an organisation concerned with the rights of conscript troops in the Swedish forces. Council spokesperson Paulina Rehbinder told The Local...

"EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour"." SNIPPET: "A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers. Its main objectives include the "automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence"." SNIPPET: "Project Indect, which received nearly £10 million in funding from the European Union, involves the Police...

A Swedish tabloid newspaper has been cleared of racism charges by the country's senior legal official over a story alleging that Israeli soldiers stole and sold body parts of dead Palestinians. The Swedish Chancellor of Justice, Göran Lambertz, was asked to probe whether the report in the Aftonbladet tabloid last month amounted to inciting racial hatred and violated freedom of expression laws. The TT news agency said the Chancellor of Justice had decided not to open a preliminary investigation into the case. The Chancellor of Justice, who was unavailable for comment on Saturday, is a government-appointed official who acts as...

Sweden's centre-right government on Saturday announced income tax cuts of 10 billion kronor to stimulate the job market, its primary objective. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and three other ministers in the four-party coalition said the reduction would mean most wage earners would have 200 to 250 kronor (20 to 25 euros, 29 to 36 dollars) more in take-home pay every month. The proposal, to be presented to parliament on Monday as part of the 2010 budget bill, is the fourth leg of a tax cut programme introduced in January 2007 to stimulate employment. The fourth leg would enter into force...

"Every third young Swede has been subjected to repeated harassment, threats or violence over the past year. Six percent of young girls have been raped, a new report from Swedish researchers shows."

The world is upside down. Despite the praise delivered by Obama, Sweden refuses to stay Swedish.. "A new measure to tackle Sweden's rising rate of unemployment has been proposed by the Swedish government, with tax cuts of 10 billion kronor hoped to stimulate the job market. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and three other ministers in the four-party coalition said the reduction would mean most wage earners would have 200 to 250 Swedish crowns more in take-home pay every month. The proposal, to be presented to parliament on Monday as part of the 2010 budget bill, is the fourth leg of...

SNIPPET: "The Swedes being held in Pakistan include Mehdi Ghezali, who spent two years in Guantánamo Bay following his 2001 arrest in Afghanistan, as well as 28-year-old Munir Awad and 19-year-old Safia Benaouda, and their two and a half-year-old boy. Awad and Benaouda, who was pregnant at the time, were arrested in Kenya in 2007 after fleeing Somalia following the invasion of troops from Ethiopia. They were held in an Ethiopian prison for three months on suspicions of being connected with Somali jihadists fighting against Ethiopia, but no formal charges were ever brought against them." SNIPPET: "Police say they got...

FURIOUS debate has erupted in Sweden about a former beauty queen’s attack on the country’s drive for a genderless society, which she claims has turned men into “nappy-changing” sissies and women into frumps who “neglect their husbands’ needs”. Comments posted on the internet by Anna Anka, a former Miss Sweden living in California with her husband Paul Anka, the singer and songwriter, provoked howls of outrage from women. There were also cheers from men who agreed that the Scandinavian push for gender equality had gone too far with the recent emergence of males wishing to breastfeed their babies. Paul Anka...

I live in Gothenburg, the eternal "second" town of Sweden. But today, it's hats off to big brother! Stockholm is expensive, but marvelous and has recently become home to two million inhabitants. Like it or not Denmark, Stockholm is THE capital of Scandinavia. Varsegod, smörgåsbord; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNnw5Z0V6k&feature=PlayList&p=B965A4BE393A70A5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=34

"A 20 year-old man with HIV from Linköping has been remanded in custody for having unprotected sex with a 15-year-old girl. The man has previously been imprisoned for having intercourse with seven woman who were not aware he was infected. The pair had sex with mutual consent on September 11 but the man did not inform the girl he had the HIV virus, nor did they use a condom. He told the girl of his condition sometime after they had been intimate."

"Swedish father Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has entered into an experiment that he hopes will help him breastfeed his future children. ... "Anything that doesn't do any harm is worth trying out. And if it works it could prove very important for men's ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage," Bengtsson told The Local. His efforts are to be documented by Swedish TV8, with the first instalment scheduled to air at 9pm on Wednesday on the Aschberg show. Bengtsson also maintains a blog on the station's website, the title of which translates as: 'The Milkman -...

"The Swedish-born wife of Las Vegas crooner Paul Anka has called Swedish men "tragic" for their "nappy changing" and "equality nonsense". LA housewife Anna Anka argues that she could be a role model for Swedish women to follow. "In Sweden it is acceptable to let yourself go, as long as you get your man. I feel sorry for Swedish men who marry beautiful women who then quickly become unattractive, dress sloppily and neglect their husband's needs," Anna Anka writes on opinion website Newsmill. Anna Anka, the 38-year-old wife of 68-year-old former 60s teen idol Paul Anka, is one of the...

In general, I have no high regards for the author of the following article. However, I share some of the opinions of Mr. Wästberg. Sweden has, indeed, more in common with Capitalist societies like USA and Hong Kong than the sickening Socialist fiasco that is Cuba. When it comes to the issue of American health care reforms, I feel that too many debaters, too often, focus too much on whether the Swedish health care system is more effective than its American counterpart or not. The ideological and cultural dimensions are sadly neglected by various putative experts that fail to realize...

Friday night was a troublesome one for many police forces across Sweden with several reports of arson and unrest. Police fear an escalation in the violence. "It started on August 28th when the police were called to Gottsunda to investigate a car fire, and were then met with stone-throwing youths. It has since gone in waves, escalated, and spread to other neighbourhoods," Christer Nordström at Uppsala police told the news website Svd.se."That which is very serious is that we have noticed how racist tendencies are starting to grow. This prompts some very strong emotions, even if the majority of those...