What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
Every now and then, in contemplative moments, I question myself. I press myself to test whether I might after all be wrong about this or that, or everything. I do this consciously and deliberately. I imagine a zealous prosecutor with the opposite point of view from my own; he or she grills me (or my…
Surely we live on the best of all possible worlds. Surely: Nobody at the age of zero will get a legal sex change, so it makes sense anyway, says expertStine Hansen, TV2 News, August 17 Persons as young as zero must be able to perform legal gender reassignment. The government presented this on Monday in…
In covering Liz Cheney’s entirely predictable defeat in Wyoming’s Republican primary, Berlingske offered a telling headline: She became world famous for hating Trump. Now she has lost.Sara Hodzic, Berlingske.dk, August 17 It’s an accurate headline: Liz Cheney, daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, did indeed become world famous for hating Trump, and she lost her…
It’s a red-letter day in Scotland. As the DR headline puts it, “Starting today it’s free to menstruate in Scotland.” Menstruation has always been free of charge in Scotland, as far as I can tell, but beginning today tampons and menstrual pads will be available free of charge to that country’s menstruators. (Really to everyone: apparently…
I’m actually basing my headline on the Grauniad’s: “Police identify Salman Rushdie attack suspect as 24-year-old from New Jersey.” (I guess today’s New Jersey twenty-somethings might not all be Springsteen fans, but I like to imagine America hasn’t changed since I left it. Or even a little before I left it.) (New York state police…
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton deleted confidential emails from the illegal server maintained at her private New York residence. Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was caught smuggling stolen documents from the National Archives by stuffing them into his clothes. President Joe Biden has been heavily implicated in the emails discovered on the laptop of his…
I had to scroll down quite a bit to reach Berlingske’s story about the FBI’s ransacking of Mar-A-Lago—an event unprecedented in American history. Republicans are furious: “When we get power back, people are going to be held to account”Sara Hodzic, Berlingske.dk, August 9 On DR’s website, the story was just beneath the metaphorical fold: Ransacking…
Herself and I watched Matt Walsh’s documentary What Is a Woman last night. It’s mostly a polemic against our increasing willingness to let our children be irreversibly chemically and surgically altered to bring their physical bodies into harmony with their identities. That may not sound like a subject that would lend itself to a light,…
I don’t write much about Danish politics because that’s not what this blog is about. (Also because Danish politics is of little or no interest outside of Denmark.) Yesterday Berlingske published a very “inside-baseball” article about the state of play in Danish politics as the parties position themselves for the next election (which must take…
Berlingske published their most superfluous and redundant editorial of the decade this morning: Berlingske believes: Everything and everyone is better than TrumpBirgitte Borup, Berlingske.dk Leader, August 1 There’s no need to parse through the whole thing because there’s very little in it that’s new or novel. The headline alone is just a condensation of the…
Personal Note: I’m still on vacation, but this is the part where we tear the house apart in preparation for renovations—where we box up entire rooms to clear them for the Invasion of the Contractors that begins next week. My basement office is already in total disarray and will remain so until I get it…
We got back from “the the west” very early Wednesday morning. Cool, gray, drizzly Denmark was a welcome relief after our week without air conditioning in the sun’s European anvil. The Danish media are mostly dominated by stories about Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France victory, and the local celebrations of that victory, and the planning…
If you’re a full-throated left-wing extremist—if you still want George Bush and Dick Cheney hog-tied before a Hague war crimes tribunal, for example, and if you believe American news media are biased to the right, and if you simply cannot understand why Donald Trump still hasn’t been taken out and shot— then Poul Høi is…
TV2 News published an interesting article last week. I only first came across it Monday morning. It was apparently based on a TV2 documentary called “Operation X: The Dark Side of Solar Panels.” I haven’t seen the documentary, but the article seemed balanced, interesting, and thoroughly researched. It was the kind of investigative journalism “60…
Candidate Joe Biden, October 2020 (my emphasis): Two years ago, Saudi operatives, reportedly acting at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, murdered and dismembered Saudi dissident, journalist, and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. His offense – for which he paid with his life – was criticizing the policies of his government. Today, I…
