The Economist’s view of Sweden’s EU presidency – Opinion

I originally was going to write a post about this article, which I generally find myself in agreement with, but ended up leaving a rather lengthy comment in reply to other comments. As comments go it meets my own criteria for quality, and I think it is well reasoned enough and thoughtful enough, to serve [...]

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A call to reason, through a different prism

One of my greatest frustrations with supposedly intelligent/educated/thoughtful people in America is that they usually lack the knowledge beyond their own subjective experience or desire to understand. History is a lost concept to so many, which gives rise to impatience and a failure to appreciate that time is a variable they actually do need to [...]

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Protected: Work and death are mutually exclusive and only rarely otherwise

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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The past? That’s hot!

Swedes seem to forget that Sweden is such an old country, and I don’t know why. It doesn’t help that there isn’t really any date to grab onto for it, and some sources just say prehistoric and leave it at that, and others say Eric Segersäll (convenient because it’s the first monarch known of; most [...]

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Ungifted and unmanned

I misspoke earlier; there will be no gifts of alcohol this year, unless duty free at the airport has what I want, which I doubt. I was show shopping after leaving my sister at the bus terminal and forgot that the government run stores close so early, especially for a Saturday. Instead I will have [...]

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Short: alkis

As I discussed over a mojito too any the day before my departure, I know little of my birthplace’s favorite drink vodka. Of course even the word isn’t the word that is used for the long produced domestic stuff that is drunk straight, cold (but not ice cold) and is part of the reason it [...]

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What are YOU doing here?

No need to be long winded. The title refers to a question that has been asked twice this weekend. Once at the DC Eagle (a google search will answer any questions but suffice to say it’s a genteel watering hole for the non-vegan crowd) by a man in a very stretchy rubber suit, and then [...]

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