What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
There hasn’t been much news about America in the Danish media this week, which reflects the Danish media’s conviction that when Democrats are in power, bad news is no news. Joe Biden’s job approval is down to 40% in the Quinnipiac poll (53% disapproval), 43% in Rasmussen (55% disapproval), and 44% in Economist/YouGov (49% disapproval). …
I never heard of Durek Verrett until I stumbled over this article today: He’s the boyfriend of the Norwegian princess and a self-described shaman. Now he’s outed himself as a reptileLiv Almer, Berlingske.dk, Oct 6 Before we dive into the crazy mixed-up world of Durek (né Derek) Verrett, here’s a quick Wikipedia summary of his royal girlfriend:…
Joe Biden addressed the UN General Assembly yesterday and Danish reactions were mixed. Over at Berlingske, Mikkel Danielsen seems almost ready to call bullshit on the American president, but obviously can’t, so he does the next best thing: he compares him to Trump. He cites EU President Charles Michel: With Trump it was at least…
Note: There was no post on Thursday due to our clearly having been hexed by witches. American social media and conservative commentators have been reacting strongly to a clip from Joe Biden’s gun control statement on Wednesday. They have since moved on to his bizarre whispering during a Thursday Q&A about the infrastructure bill, but…
Today’s Berlingske features an opinion piece by Samuel Rachlin, with whose work I’m completely unfamiliar, entitled “A summit with a view to a little of everything: a turning point, doom, a big political miracle, or an historical nightmare.” It’s not particularly caustic one way or the other—in fact, on many levels this opinion piece seems…
We had guests over for lunch Saturday afternoon. Unlike many Danish households, we hadn’t planned our day around the evening’s European Cup match between Denmark and Finland, but we weren’t deliberately avoiding it, either. By the time 18:00 rolled around, our little gathering was winding down so we turned on the game. We didn’t watch…
The Italian artist Salvatore Garau sold a sculpture entitle Io Sono (“I Am”) for $18,000. That’s not so remarkable. The interesting thing about the sculpture, and even more interesting thing about the sale, is that the sculpture is invisible. “Invisible” is, like beauty and astigmatism, in the eye of the beholder. Or not in the…
Note: AmerikanskeTilstande took a four day weekend without advance notice. We apologize to our readers and hope you’ll both forgive the omission. Turns out that when you shut things down, fewer things happen. That was the news from TV2 on Friday, in any case: “Violence in nightlife area fell drastically with midnight closings,” the headline…
There’s a passage from G.K. Chesterton’s Heretics (1905) that I’ve cited a few times on this blog. It’s a typically playful Chestertonian spin on a bit of the Gospel, specifically John 20:29, but since most of us aren’t as fluent in scripture as Chesterton’s readers were back in the day, let’s refresh: Jesus saith unto…
Note: Due to the long holiday weekend, AmerikanskeTilstande won’t be posting again until Monday, May 17. Let’s say you’ve been hosting a dinner party for nine. It’s time for dessert. You’re going to be serving pie. Mmm, delicious pie! And let’s say your nine guests are unusually particular about how much pie they can eat….
Do you believe in redemption? Not as a motif in a superhero movie. Not as a hackneyed cliché in the blurb on the back of a paperback. Do you believe that an actual human being, flawed and bumbling, can redeem him- or herself through sincere repentance and good deeds? Could you yourself could forgive, sincerely…
The big jury story making the rounds right now is the saga of juror #52 in the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd. I’m more interested in a very different jury. It’s called “The Oversight Board” and its decisions are final: there is no appeal. It’s Facebook’s Star Chamber, and DR makes…
I sincerely hope the story will soon be updated and retitled, but as of 11:00 this morning of Saturday, April 3, DR.dk is running with this: Betjent død efter angreb foran Kongressen i USA: Gerningsmand skudt af politiet, Oliver Batchelor, DR.dk, April 2 I normally translate Danish headlines into English directly, but wanted to keep…
This is not an ordinary blog post. It’s a reference post: one that I will post once, reference frequently, and update periodically. The stats are presented without commentary of any kind; my own observations can be found at the bottom. U.S. Population, 2019Source: The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, via Kaiser Family Foundation Americans (2019)…
My favorite bar in Copenhagen is Toga Vinstue. That’s not a paid product placement. (No one in their right mind would pay me to promote their product or service on this blog, nor would anyone in their right mind call me an “influencer.” More’s the pity.) No, I mention Toga Vinstue because it was the…
A quick survey of recent American headlines invites a lot of perfectly reasonable questions to which Americans ought reasonably to expect clear answers. That’s not to say there might not be perfectly reasonable answers, only that they’re not being offered voluntarily and the establishment media show no interest in pursuing the questions. Because they strike…
