The Blognak

That rather ridiculous Clinton-has-a-seizure video....

2016-09-01T07:30:58Z

One of my sons has epilepsy. He's an adult now, so I try (and fail) to step back and let him and his doctors take care of things, because, well, he's an adult and he has to learn to manage his condition just like he has to learn to do a thousand other things adults do. But along the way I've learned some things about epilepsy and seizures. So when I saw the video that claimed Clinton was having a seizure and was injected with diazepam (trade name Valium) by an aide, parts of my brain started screaming in protest.

I'm going to try to avoid politics here. I'm also not going to address the claim that this aide, or Secret Service agent or whatever other function he had, has not been seen since, because I don't know if that claim is true or not, or if it is true what the reason is. I'm just going to focus on the alleged seizure and the claims of an injection of diazepam.

1. Let's start with the biggest problem: that doesn't look like a seizure. That looks like she's focusing on something happening in the audience, out of range of that particular camera. There are many kinds of seizures, but one thing you can't do when having any one of them is *focus*. The Clinton campaign says there was a protester in the audience, a story that fits her behavior better than the claims of a seizure.

2. The man who comes up and stands next to Clinton briefly touches her back. This is when the makers of the video claim he injected her with the drug. From our point of view, her clothing doesn't appear to move. So either this man is such an expert that he can lift up her clothes in the back, give her an injection, and replace the clothes, one-handed, in a matter of seconds, with no sign of anything happening from the front... or the auto-injector has a needle long enough and powerful enough to go through her suit jacket and blouse.

3. Clinton doesn't react. You know what it feels like to have a needle inserted into you, now imagine it being driven in at speed. And yet, she doesn't flinch or appear startled. She also doesn't show any signs of being discombobulated or even mildly confused when she comes out of the alleged seizure.

4. Diazepam would never be given to someone who had a single seizure. It's used for a condition called status epilepticus, which means either the person is having a single seizure that lasts for five minutes or more, or they're having repeated seizures without coming back to themselves in between. For that particular situation, diazepam can be a miracle cure, even life-saving, but it also has serious side effects. You're introducing a huge dose of brain-altering chemicals, after all. (Incidentally, in spite of the name, most people who experience status epilepticus do not have an epilepsy diagnosis or a history of seizures. It's a sign of something else going very wrong in the brain.)

5. Because some people are known to be at risk of status epilepticus, there is an auto-injector of sorts for giving a dose of diazepam when needed. But it's not like an Epipen. The drug is in the form of a gel meant to be inserted rectally. As in up the butt. There is just no way the man who supposedly had the syringe could have accessed that part of Clinton's anatomy without anyone noticing.

So either Clinton is suffering from a previously unknown type of seizure, and her doctor recommended a dangerous drug therapy for the first sign of any seizure, and prescribed this in the form of an auto-injector or syringe treatment not available on the open market, and this found its way into the hands of a man with unusual injection skills -- or something much more mundane is happening. I suggest there's a protester or heckler in the audience and the man who comes to Clinton's side is concerned about her safety, nothing more.

There are a lot of old misconceptions and superstitions about epilepsy - we should be fighting them, not using them as political weapons.

Arrows

2015-11-19T09:18:07Z

I think everyone has seen the Great Seal of the United States, the one with the bald eagle with the shield on its chest, if for no other reason than that Hollywood loves using as shorthand for "the people you are about to see work for the US government". And many people will have noticed that among the many symbols on the seal, the eagle clutches 13 arrows in one of its talons. What I don't think most people are aware of is the symbolism behind those arrows. I mean, yes, of course part of the symbolism is a show of strength, a message that "We are prepared to fight" even as the other talon clutches an olive branch, a traditional symbol of a wish for peace. But there is a reason arrows were chosen even though they were not state-of-the-art when the seal was designed.

Arrows are surprisingly strong, although they are very slender. Arrow makers figured out early on that certain kinds of wood have the right sort of strength for the arrow to do its job; a weak arrow is of no use for hunting or war or even target shooting. But most people could break a single arrow if they tried.

Breaking two arrows at the same time is a lot harder.

Breaking thirteen arrows all in one go? Essentially impossible.

The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy used a bundle of five, later six, arrows as one of its symbols for exactly this reason, and the designers of the seal for the young United States chose to copy it.

So if you're wondering why people feel the urge to "show support" when something horrible happens elsewhere - well, maybe we're instinctively trying to thicken that bundle of arrows to make it stronger. It's conceivable that a terrorist group can bring one country to its knees... though France is a bad choice to start with (see, for example, the First World War) and Russia is a TERRIBLE choice to start with (see much of European history, paying special attention to the sections marked "Napoleon" and "Hitler").... but if they have to attack everyone at once, they're doomed.

60N: Shoo-fly pie

2014-11-22T08:27:22Z

A regional specialty from my old stomping grounds. Also Kenneth's favorite pie, and possibly favorite dessert, in the known Universe. This makes a proper, wet-bottomed shoo-fly pie. A dry-bottomed shoo-fly pie is not only not as good, it is an Abomination before the Lord. I feel very strongly about this.

You will need an unbaked pie crust to start with.

Make the top layer first:

1 1/2 C flour
1 C brown sugar
1/4 t salt
3/4 C shortening or butter

Mix the flour, brown sugar, and salt together. Then cut in the shortening or butter to make coarse crumbs. Set aside.

Now you will make the bottom layer. Don't waste time on this layer - it will turn into a sticky mess if it cools too much.

1/2 t baking soda
3/4 C boiling water
1 C molasses (this is most of a tub of mørk sirup)

Place the baking soda in the bottom of a bowl. Pour the boiling water over it, then immediately stir in the molasses. Pour this into the pie crust.

Top the molasses layer with the crumbs.

Bake at 350F/175C for 30-40 minutes, or until set. Cool before serving.

60N: Cornbread (sweet)

2014-11-20T08:48:15Z

Our cornbread recipe, made with coarse polenta from our local Asian grocery.

1 3/4 C flour
1 1/4 C sugar
3/4 C cornmeal (the coarse polenta)
1/2 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder

Mix these in a large bowl, and make a well in the center.

Then in a small bowl or measuring cup, mix:

1 C milk
1/2 C cooking oil
2 eggs

Pour the milk mixture into the well in the flour mixture and whisk until everything is wet and the largest lumps are gone.

Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch cake pan and bake at 375F/190C for 25 minutes or until the top has just started to brown.

Luksusfellen (on behalf of Kenneth)

2014-02-04T18:53:12Z

Kenneth wrote this post. He's having a bit of trouble accessing his English-language blog at the moment, so I agreed to post it for him.

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For reference: one Norwegian krone is valued to roughly 6,3 USD at the time of writing.

Scandinavians love a good reality show. At any given time, three or four will be airing on TV. They are widely varied as well – we started with Big Brother, have also gone through all the big talent competitions, and have at this point also created an imperial butt load (larger than a metric butt load) of lifestyle reality programs. Today’s blog post will describe the only reason the author still watches TV3: Luksusfellen – translated as “The Luxury Trap”. This program was created in Sweden (under the name Lyxfällan) in 2006, and has since been spun off both Norway and Denmark. It is massively popular in all three countries and has survived for fifteen seasons – which is noteworthy for a reality show. The author, as an amateur economist, thinks the concept of the show is brilliant and should be spread worldwide as quickly as possible for the common good.

The basic premise of Luksusfellen is helping people get out of massive debts and financial problems that have been incurred by overspending on luxury goods, and abusing credit cards beyond belief. To do this, the show enlists the help of economists and psychologists. In the Swedish version, the same two economists are featured in every episode; while in the Danish and Norwegian versions, there is a certain amount of rotation between different specialists. There is for the most part a rule, though, that one of the specialists must be an exceptionally boring, cold-hearted number cruncher who says what needs to be said.

Each episode usually starts with the narrator making a presentation of the participants that need help – the “case”. Usually, they fall within three categories:
• Family living in the countryside, house that they’re renovating/restoring, sometimes a nice car and several animals as well
• Young, single person living in the city, expensive apartment, lots of partying and expensive purchases.
• Single male, underpaying job, multiple cars, expensive stereos, frequently is divorced with child(ren).

In almost all cases, the case is doing well on the outside! In the Norwegian version, almost all have well-paying jobs. In the Swedish version, there are generally more cases of working class country bumpkins, but a common factor in most episodes is that their friends and family have no idea how big trouble they are in! Which is alright, because…well, the cases themselves rarely have the slightest clue either. They rarely even open their bills, and have several credit cards and consumer loans with exorbitant interest rates.

After the presentation of the case, the experts go to their home and split up. The number cruncher goes inside and speaks to the main problem, usually the husband of the family, or the young and single city dweller/underpaid male – about their financial situation, what they are in debt for, and how their system for paying bills works (or doesn’t). The other expert goes for a wal with the other adult in the family, or a friend of the case, and they talk about how they think things are going. Usually, for obvious reasons, the second opinion is less optimistic than the first.

After gathering opinions from the cases, the experts confer. Off camera, they create a clear picture of the situation. Afterward, they present it to the cases. The case is usually given the chance during the initial talk to estimate how much they owe. Frequently, this estimate turns out to be around half of the true figure. The experts will give them an example of the seriousness of the situation, and then take them to the most feared element of the show: THE BUDGET BOARD.

The Dreaded Budget Board

The budget board is a chalkboard that is placed in the contestants’ living room. On the far left, large bank notes will be arranged – typically the two largest units (500 and 1000 kr – roughly $80 and $160 respectively) – to represent the average income for the household over the past three or six months. The rest of the board is divided into seven expense categories: housing, grocery, transport, clothing, savings, “other”, and loan payments. The participants are again asked to guess how much they spend per month in each category, and are again usually laughably wrong. It should be noted, the “grocery” expenses only include expenses at the actual grocery store, which means that restaurants, kiosks, convenience stores and similar are not included. The “other” category tends to end up by far the largest one, while “savings” and “loan payments” are often empty. To prove a point, if the budget ends up running a deficit, they have to borrow money from the experts to account for the shortfall.

This is where the main part of the show begins. The experts now focus on four things, spread out in no particular order:

1. Trying to show the contestants what sort of scale they have been wasting money. If the cases are heavy smokers, for example, they will add up how much they spend on cigarettes a year, and give an example of what they could have spent that money on instead (say, a new car…). This is usually done physically – by displaying an absurd amount of empty cigarette cartons and adding a price tag on top.

2. Trying to show the contestants what consequences their high living has had and will have in the future. This includes such things as showing them bills from the public collection office (which is not an office you want to mess with in the Scandinavian countries), telling them that they have such a massive debt to the power companies that they will lose power soon, or showing them what their retirement will look like.

3. Trying to give the participants tips on how to save money: make fewer, larger shopping trips, spend less money on gas. Pay bills on time! Frequently this part also includes a basic lesson on the concept of compound interest. Many participants have let parking tickets roll on for months.

4. Collecting enough money to pay off the most immediate debt (through, say, selling off excess merchandise and furniture at a flea market), as well as negotiating with creditors to get a more feasible payment plan and lower interest rates. Frequently the participants are asked to call the creditors themselves and ask for a renegotiation.

Over the course of a workweek, the idea is to get the case’s financial situation under control. The “lessons” that they are taught can often be very hard to swallow, particularly in the Swedish version. At the end of the week, a new budget board is presented with a budget that the case will have to follow for the next few months/years to get their situation under control again. This budget often leaves some room for leisure, but will shave away unnecessary and wasteful costs, increase loan payments and as often as possible include some money for saving. The episode ends with a “revisit” four weeks later, where the experts return to the case and see how well they have followed the plan. For the most part, things have gone surprisingly well. The occasional exception mostly involves a couple that has broken up over their financial situation.

In many episodes the cases involved are pretty straightforward: people have wasted money on cigarettes, cars, houses…but there are some episodes which leave audiences feeling stunned, suicidal, homicidal, and most of all like the smartest people ever to grace this wonderful planet:
- A road worker in his mid-20s who lived and worked on site five days a week, and had the option of staying there for the weekend as well – but rented a room for 7200 kr ($1150) per month, and spent tens of thousands of kroner a month partying in downtown Oslo. His already excellent income had to be supplemented by consumer loans. Despite living and eating for free most of the week, his budget was thousands of kroner in the negative every month!
- A man who had worked as a truck driver for most of his life, but was now on disability leave due to a brain hemorrhage. His disability payments were pitiful due to useless employers, whose inability to pay him on time had also resulted in him living in his truck for a year. He spent truckloads of money on cigarettes (20-30 a day) and milk! He drank seven to eight liters of milk every single day. The weirdest addiction the author has ever encountered.
- A former debt collector who was two days away from getting evicted from his apartment, having acquired hundreds of thousands of kroner in debt clubbing in Stockholm and buying expensive designer clothes.
- A family of three in southern Sweden who had bought a house to restore…without a water heater. They had to drive 40 kilometers to their nearest relatives to shower, the gasoline costs of which soon amounted to the price of a water heater.
- A couple in their early 60s who had an extremely low and irregular income, running a bed&breakfast in Croatia during the summer, tuning pianos and cleaning hotel rooms during the winter. The husband still created more smoke than the entire city of Pittsburgh did in 1890.

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As a bonus to this post, here’s a short piece about a uniquely Norwegian reality show, called “Hellstrøm rydder opp - hjemme” (Hellstrøm Cleans Up – At Home).
Eyvind Hellstrøm is Norway’s most famous (and infamous) chef. His high-profile feuds with restaurant staff and rather arrogant personality have given him a reputation as Norway’s Gordon Ramsay (sans the swearing). He was also given the lead role in the Norwegian spinoff of “Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares”, called “Hellstrøm rydder opp” (Hellstrøm Cleans Up). In this show, he fixed Norwegian restaurants as best he could. Eventually, he progressed to creating a spinoff of this show, which was considerably more successful – adding “at home” to the title. Basically, he goes to people’s homes, assesses their dining habits, and tries to teach them recipes that are both healthier, and most of all, tastier. Here are some highlights:
- A man who had not eaten anything but slices of bread with Nugatti (the Norwegian version of Nutella) for twenty years. Hellstrøm realized he was dealing with a 33-year old man whose taste buds had never gotten older than 6. The man had a physiological age of 71, and was having a hard time getting through his workdays, but had refused to admit that this was due to his bad diet.
- A man who ate nothing but ground beef for dinner, due to a food poisoning incident some years previously.
- The crew of a fishing boat that ate nothing but cookies and drank nothing but the cheapest coffee while at sea, and also lived on canned and freeze-dried meals on land.
- A Dutch family that had moved to Norway, but refused to adapt to Norwegian food customs, and therefore survived on canned Dutch food.

To Connecticut, from Oslo

2012-12-16T10:15:02Z

I know how you feel. I wish neither of us knew that, but we do. And I'm very sorry. Nothing anyone can do or say will help at this point. But perhaps your road ahead will be easier if you know what's coming. If I could hug all of you and give you some advice, this is what I would say.

Take care of one another. It won't make anything better, but it's how you keep things from getting worse.

Give yourselves time. "Closure" is a myth. Slowly you will realize that things feel normal again, and it's a new normal, and you won't like it as well as you liked the old normal, but it will feel normal again. That's what healing is. The broken places will heal and be strong again, but just like old people tell you their old injuries ache when there's a storm coming on - the broken places will hurt when bad things happen.

Don't pay too much attention to what is said these next days and weeks. Rumors will fly, people who want attention or even just want to help will say things that aren't true, and all of this will be reported by news media anxious for The Story. Over time it will become clear what is true and what is not, and what is simply unknown and forever unknowable. Right now, 50% of what you're hearing is nonsense.

People will say stupid and even hateful things. It's okay to be angry with them, but try not to give them too much of your energy. You need your energy for you.

And finally, the world will be finished with this story long before you are. It's sad but it's inevitable. You will feel a little confused and maybe even abandoned when they move on to the next big thing. It won't be as important as your story. But it will be new and therefore interesting.

I wish you peace.

Flodfood: Thai beef and noodle

2012-11-12T20:03:32Z

This is not high-class food. If you are looking for high-class food, what are you doing reading this blog?

But this is one of Steinar's favorites, and it was what he requested for supper on Father's Day (which was this past Sunday here in Troll Country).

Marinade:
4 T cooking oil
2 T sugar
2 T lemon juice
2 T white vinegar
2 T soy sauce
2 T sweet chili sauce (OR a suitable number of dashes of your favorite hot sauce)

Mix everything together in a bowl. Thinly slice about 400 g of beef and mix into the marinade. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Dice and onion. Drain the beef, reserving the marinade. Fry the beef and onion together.
Prepare four packs of beef-flavored ramen noodles according to package direction.
Cut up whatever vegetables strike your fancy and mix them in with the reserved marinade. Also toss in a good large handful of cashew nuts and a healthy pinch of dried mint. Add the meat and the drained, cooked noodles. Toss well and serve piping hot.

Flodfood: Baked beef taquitos

2012-11-06T16:09:01Z

Not authentic, but healthier and GOOD. This is as much a process as a recipe - you can make them with beans, or chicken, or whatever you like in place of the ground beef.

Flodfood: Hamburger Roll-Ups

2012-11-04T12:13:36Z

A comfort food from my childhood. My mother would heat up a can of cream of celery (or sometimes cream of mushroom) soup to pour over these, but they're good with gravy or even ketchup - or just as they are. This was originally a 1970s, stretch-out-the-meat sort of recipe from the back of the Bisquik box, adjusted for what is easily available in Norway and for a household of meat lovers.

First, make the biscuit dough:
3 C flour
1 ½ T baking powder
1 T sugar
¾ t cream of tartar (optional) - this is called "vinstein" in Norway, and the dough works OK without it
½ t salt
150 g butter
1 C milk

Stir together the dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter to make coarse crumbs. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk. Stir by hand just until the dough sticks together.
Roll out into a large, thin rectangle.

Now, make the filling:
2 med onions, chopped
2 T oil or butter
800 g ground beef
6 T flour
1 t salt
1 t butter
1 C milk

Fry the onions for a few minutes in oil or butter. Mix in the ground beef and fry on high heat until it is completely brown. Mix in flour, salt, and butter. Slowly add the milk, stirring all the time. Bring to a boil and boil for about one minute, then allow to cool for a few minutes.

Spread the filling over the biscuits. Roll up like a jelly roll and slice into 12 pieces. Place in a lightly greased baking pan and bake at 215°C for 15-20 minutes until the biscuits are fully baked.

Flodfood: Chicken with Mustard-Cream Sauce

2012-11-03T13:00:35Z

Recipe from the Pioneer Woman website

I'm serving it with couscous (cooked in chicken broth for a little extra flavor), salad, and steamed carrots.

Flodfood: Pizza crust

2012-11-01T21:05:18Z

WARNING: This is not a recipe for an authentic Italian pizza crust. It is, however, a yummy and not entirely unhealthy recipe for a hearty, Friday-evening family-dinner pizza crust.

Also, the measurements are in metric. Apologies to anyone who is allergic to metric cooking measurements.

For each crust, mix:
3 dl oatmeal
2 dl whole wheat flour
3 dl regular flour
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 dl warm water

Mix together and let sit in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes. You can also make this in a bread machine - my machine takes a double recipe easily.

Roll out to fit a baking sheet. Top with whatever you usually put on pizza and bake at 225 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes, until done.

Flodfood: The simplest chocolate cake in history

2012-10-31T14:34:36Z

It's also egg- and milk-free, if you're cooking for someone with allergies.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups cold water
3/4 cups cooking oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour in the water, oil, and vinegar, and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is moistened. Some lumps are okay.

Pour into a greased pan or pans and bake at 350 degrees F until done, about 30 minutes depending on the size of the pans. This makes one thick 9x13 inch cake or two thick 9 inch layers.

A small rant

2011-12-02T18:31:55Z

What Mathew 25 tells us Jesus said:
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you,
whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

What Jesus did NOT say:
For I was addicted to an illegal drug, and you threw me in prison when I needed help.
For I saw my friends killed, and you thought that was a good time to criticize our politics.
For I was in love, and you denied me the right to form a family with my beloved.
For I was wealthy, and you fought against a modest increase in my taxes.
For I was mentally ill, and you denied me treatment because I had committed a crime.
For I was unemployed when no one was hiring, and you told me to just go get a job.
For I was a politician, and you told people they'd go to hell if they voted for my opponent.
For I was ill, and you told me my illness was my own fault.
For I was heartbroken, and you thought it was more important to talk than to listen....

Oslo and Utøya Attacks: Some of What's out There is Just Plain Wrong, Part 2

2011-09-02T18:56:46Z

Continuing where I left off earlier today...

Breivik will be out in 15 years!: ABB will almost certainly get the maximum sentence possible under Norwegian law, which is 21 years. (There is a longer sentence for "crimes against humanity", but the law is relatively new and has never been used.) There is no possibility to give him the maximum penalty for each of the 77 murders he committed. However, there is also no mandatory "time off for good behavior". He will almost certainly serve the full 21 years. At this time, his case will be reviewed. Though it rarely happens, the court will at that time have the possibility to declare that he is still a danger to society and must be kept in custody for another five years. At the end of those five years, his case can be reviewed again, and the court may again decide to keep him in custody for another five years. This can continue until he is dead.

I'm not aware of any case where a person has been held in prison for life in this way during the post-war period, but if anybody's going to be the first, he's it.

The kids at the camp were anti-Israel/were being taught to be anti-Israel, or alternately, Norway recently declared a boycott of Israel: The case for this has been built on a single photograph, showing Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg walking by a group of teenagers holding a banner that says BOYCOTT ISRAEL.

But wait a minute. Stoltenberg was due to speak at the camp on Saturday. Since the shooting took place on Friday, he didn't speak there this year. Where did the photo come from?

The photo is from last year. And it isn't from the AUF camp at all! It's from SU's (Socialist Youth) camp, which rents the island of Utøya from AUF. SU's mother party, SV (the Socialist Left), is in a governing coalition with Labor, which is probably why Stoltenberg visited their camp. SV, as the name implies, are further to the left than Labor. AUF, like Labor, is divided on the question of the best solution for the Israel/Palestinian issue. Some of the kids at camp, I'm sure, would have argued for a boycott of Israel, but others would have argued for other approaches. And as I've already mentioned, arguing politics, not being taught what to think, is part of the fun at these youth party camps.

Norway does not boycott Israel, so such a boycott could not have been "recently declared". Some organizations in Norway boycott Israel - I remember, when I was studying in Trondheim, the fun of watching the arguments between those who wanted the university's stores and cantines to boycott Jaffa oranges and those who wanted to boycott Maroc oranges; the university mostly bought them from Spain in any case. (Everyone likes Spain, at least since Franco died, right?)

I'm not sure why this is supposed to be connected to the terror attacks in any case. Breivik clearly wrote that he supports Israel, officially because they should in his mind be Europe's ally in the battle against Islam. (I suspect he's also one of those folks who supports Israel because he'd rather have the Jews living there than in his own neighborhood.) But Israel has hardly chosen to return the favor. Still, this has been brought up often enough that I wanted to say something.

Norway is such a peaceful place, the police are unarmed and no one locks their doors: I heard this one while we were still in the States, and nearly choked on my cheerios. No, folks, sorry. Norway is a fairly quiet, peaceful place, but people lock their dang doors. Okay, maybe people out in some little village somewhere don't - but then, if you live in a ranch in the middle of Wyoming, you might not lock up when you leave either. City people are likely to have alarms on their houses and/or cars, as well. And there are crime problems - I mentioned a series of rapes in Oslo in my last post, for instance.

Most Norwegian police aren't armed, and shooting by or at the police is uncommon. But some squads, such as the one sent to Utøya, are indeed armed, and trained and authorized to use firearms. The only reason they didn't shoot was because Breivik surrendered without a fight.

Breivik called the police to surrender, and they hung up on him!: Exactly what happened when people called the police that awful day is one of the things under investigation. It does appear, from what we know now, that the people answering the phones were so preoccupied with the bomb in Oslo that they didn't take the calls from Utøya seriously. However, by the time Breivik called, things had changed. The police have released transcripts of the two conversations they had with Breivik (he apparently called more often than that, but only got through twice), and both times he hung up. Here's an English translation of the transcripts. They're pretty.... weird.

Oslo and Utøya Attacks: Some of What's out There is Just Plain Wrong.

2011-09-02T15:53:44Z

With the start of a new school year, I've run a bit low on time, energy, and inspiration for this series of posts, but I still feel it's important to finish, even if it takes time. Even if not many people read them. At least I feel I've said something.

This post is going to look at some miscellaneous bits of bad information (and possibly some outright lies) that have been circulating.

Breivik only killed white people/didn't kill any Muslims (and somehow this proves that he was completely insane, or that this was a "false flag" attack, or something): This is the easiest to disprove. You can see a complete list of the victims of the two attacks, with photos, at a number of Norwegian news sites; this article from Aftenposten, for instance, has a full list. You can see four distinctly non-Norwegian faces just on the top row. And although you may not recognize which are Norwegian names and which are not, I think you'll agree that names like Ismail Haji, Rashid, and Mustafa have a distinctly Muslim sound.

By the way, all of the teenagers on that list were killed at Utøya. And all of the non-ethnic-Norwegian names and faces belong to teenagers. They were not coincidentally killed by a random bomb; he shot every last one of them himself.

The police stupidly didn't plan for anyone to man the helicopter during summer vacation: Although I now get the distinct feeling the world media has moved on from this story now (didn't fit the narrative, therefore not interesting), when it was big news they sure seemed to like to use the Oslo police as a punching bag. The sad story is this: the Oslo Police Department has been complaining about funding issues for years. Each year they get new responsibilities assigned to them, and though they usually also get more money it is never quite enough. They have long been responsible for the quite expensive extra security needed to keep the American and Israeli embassies safe downtown (a story in itself, particular the American embassy), which in my opinion should be a national responsibility, and more recently were charged with keeping, and paying for, the only police helicopter for the southeast region of the country, an area that includes slightly more than a quarter of the country's population. Looking at this year's budget shortfall, the Oslo PD decided to step down the level of readiness on that lone helicopter for the summer, in favor of keeping more beat cops on the streets on Friday and Saturday nights - when Norwegian labor laws require significant overtime pay - in response to an increase in the number of reported rapes occuring during those times. The helicopter, on the other hand, had spent the last few summers largely idle.

Given the information the Oslo PD had at the time, it made sense. They could not predict the future.

Many other aspects of the police's behavior that day are being investigated by a government commission. In my opinion, it's only fair to wait until both the critics and the police have had their say - and also only fair to keep in mind that the double attack was unprecedented in Norwegian history, and unusual even on a world scale.

Breivik's manifesto just plagiarized the Unabomber's writings: Breivik stole freely from a number of sources, including the Unabomber. In the areas copied from Ted Kaczynski's manifesto, Breivik of course changed the words and phrases that identified the enemy and so forth, but the bones of the sentences are still recognizable. However, most of Breivik's manifesto (which is longer than Kaczynski's anyway) was written in his own words, and although he expressed admiration for and claimed inspiration from a number of sources, Kaczynski was not one of them.

Breivik's Facebook page was hacked after the attacks to list him as a "Conservative" and a "Christian": No evidence, except supposed screen shots, which could easily be altered. More importantly, how would anyone know? He was a pretty obscure person before the attacks, and his Facebook account (since closed) listed no friends; he had apparently created it for the purpose of giving the media some information about himself after the attacks.

There was a second shooter that got away/that the police let get away: Some of the survivors from Utøya reported seeing a second shooter. The police have investigated this thoroughly and have found no evidence that there was such a person. Eyewitness testimony can contain errors, especially when the eyewitnesses are literally scared for their lives.

Taking a break now....

Oslo and Utøya Attacks - The Camp

2011-08-08T13:04:42Z

I'm going to make another post clearing up some assorted misconceptions about the double terror attack, but so much has been said about the camp that is simply wrong - due to misinformation, miscommunications, and outright lies - that I feel it deserves a post of its own.

Norway has seven political parties currently in Parliament, and a number of other parties which are either too small or too local to have seats at this time. The government - that is to say, in the parliamentary meaning of the term, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet - is a coalition that consists of the Labor Party, the Socialist Left Party, and the Center Party. (The Center Party mostly represents farmers' and country interests.) This is often referred to as the Red-Green Coalition. The four parties in opposition are the Conservatives, the Liberals, the Progress Party and the Christian Democrats.

As is common in Northern Europe - let me repeat that, as is common in Northern Europe - all seven of these parties have youth organizations. So do some of the smaller parties. Local groups meet every month or so in their own towns and cities, and in Norway at least it is traditional for the organization to host a summer camp as a sort of annual convention. The Labor Party's youth organization - properly called the Workers' Youth League, and known by its Norwegian initials, AUF - owns Utøya, a small island in a lake called Tyrifjorden a short distance from Oslo, and has used it for their summer camp since the early 1950s. Many of the current leaders of the Labor Party, including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, attended AUF's summer camps as teenagers, just as many of the leaders of other political parties attended camps and meetings of their parties' youth organizations. It's a normal thing, in Norway.

But here is the important part - the purpose of the youth organizations is NOT to train up young future voters by telling them what the party believes. The youth organizations are very much the teenaged children of the "mother parties" - and yes, that's the term they use! The youth organizations are indeed a source of pride and joy, but they are also independent-minded, challenging, and even rebellious. The young members present their own ideas, debate and argue, and vote on proposals. They often disagree with the mother party, and on occasion change the mother party's policy on a particular issue!

The kids at Utøya were arguing, debating, trying out their own ideas in the company of other politically motivated teens. There was also, I can guarantee you, some boy-meets-girl (and girl-meets-girl, and boy-meets-boy) stuff going on in the woods and the dubious privacy of their little tents. Some were away from home for the first time. They met kids from other parts of the country and made friends they will remember for years, maybe for life. Somebody probably tried her first beer or, alas, first cigarette. They were going swimming in the chilly lake, having singalongs around the fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, swapping stories about family and friends and school, and enjoying the little adventure of being on an island which felt like the middle of nowhere (although it is only a few hundred yards from shore and less than an hour by bus from the capital). They were having the sort of week that makes adults smile a little nostalgically - Ah, to be young again!

Maybe Glenn Beck is just jealous because nobody ever invited him to that sort of summer camp.

Terrorism in Oslo and on Utøya - What We Say Matters

2011-08-07T17:27:47Z

No one questions whether Anders Behring Breivik is a mass murderer. (Being caught red-handed and confessing to police tends to remove all doubt.) But other things he has been called are being debated.
Bill O’Reilly, famously, loudly denied Breivik is a Christian. “No one who believes in Jesus would commit mass murder.” He also claimed that the only evidence Breivik is a Christian comes from a single Oslo police officer. Both of these are wrong.
ABB repeatedly described himself as a Christian in his manifesto. He does say he does not consider himself to be particularly religious, but on the other hand he also writes that he wants to see all of Europe return to a stricter form of Christianity – he appears to have a sort of medieval, pre-Reformation Catholicism in mind. He claims to be fighting for Christianity and Christendom against the forces of Islam, and identifies himself with the Knights Templar, using one of the crosses identified with the order as the sole decoration on the title page of the document. Like the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, he may be using religion as a way of keeping track of who belongs to which side – but all through The Troubles the opposing sides were called Catholics and Protestants in the newspapers, and no one objected too loudly or demanded proof of who really believed and who was simply out to kill.
As far as no one believing in Jesus committing mass murder… mass murder has been committed in the name of Jesus before. I’m not saying Jesus has been happy about this, only that was the stated motivation for the mass murder. The long period of the Crusades, the period Breivik is so fascinated by, contains plenty of examples of this to get you started.
Why does this matter? After all, no one thinks all Christians think as Breivik does or would do as he did, just as no one blames all Christians for the Ku Klux Klan. No one blames all Hindus for the Bombay Riots, no one thinks all Sikhs want to blow up airplanes, or to go even further back in time, no one believes all Jews or all Israelis are plotting to set off a bomb in a hotel. But O’Reilly and many others – including Breivik, of course – are only too happy to blame any violence committed by a Muslim on Islam and all of its adherants. Perhaps they are afraid that what goes around, will come around?
Breivik is Christian, but his behavior does not reflect on all Christians. He is a man, but his behavior does not reflect on all men. He is Norwegian, but his behavior does not reflect on all Norwegians. He is white, but his behavior does not reflect on all those with white skin. It really is that simple. Just remember that the same applies to every terrorist and criminal, regardless of who he or she may be.

I have a harder time understanding the controversy about whether Anders Behring Breivik is a terrorist or not.
He was trying to disrupt the fundamental functions of society. He intended to destroy the government. He chose unarmed targets, and he chose his targets with the intent of causing the maximum amount of horror and grief. What more does one need to call him a terrorist?
This wouldn’t have anything to do with his lack of Muslimness, would it?
Some say he is a “lone wolf”. At this point, it does appear that he acted alone – but you don’t need to look hard to find others who share his attitudes and opinions, even if they weren’t pulling the trigger alongside him. More importantly, even if he were the only person in the world who felt as he does, does that change the intention and the impact of his crimes?
Dr J Reid Meloy, author of this article http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/july-2011/perspective that appeared in the July issue of FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, has said to the Norwegian press that he believes Breivik is a Violent True Believer. He has seen VTBs both in groups and working alone, depending on circumstances. If VTBs in groups, such as suicide bombers recruited by terrorist groups, are terrorists, then surely one who does the same thing on his own is a terrorist as well.
Another issue is that he is called “a madman”, “crazy”, “clearly insane” – therefore, presumably, not sane enough to be a terrorist. I won’t try to deny that he sees the world fundamentally differently than I do, and fundamentally differently than you do. We, I think I can safely say, have no intention of killing innocents for our beliefs. We find most of Breivik’s beliefs bizarre, distasteful, outright hideous. His list of demands in jail has also been a sign that he does not see the world as others see it; on the same list as he asked for a notebook and pens, he demanded that the Prime Minister resign – clearly he thinks he has the upper hand in his discussions with police. He specifically wrote that he expected to start a European civil war, and seems to have thought he would be respected and admired by his fellow travelers at least. But does that make him insane?
He spent nine years preparing for his big day. He worked out how to obtain everything he needed, including ways to avoid drawing suspicion to himself while buying things that are illegal or controlled in Norway. (For instance, he rented a farm and set up a company on the farm specifically so he could buy large quantities of chemical fertilizer without any questions.) This isn’t a crazy guy who just snapped. This is a man with an agenda and the control over his mind to put it into action.

What we say matters. Anders Behring Breivik is a Christian and a terrorist, who committed his hideous acts with the intent of defending Christianity and Europe against what he sees as a Muslim takeover of the content. The sooner we all accept this, the sooner we can look at those who feel as he does, and the danger they present.

Terrorism in Oslo and on Utøya - First Thoughts

2011-08-07T09:02:51Z

After two weeks, I finally feel ready to write about the horrific twin terrorist attacks in Norway on the 22nd of July. I have a lot to say and it will take several posts, over several days.

As an introduction, I wanted to share some numbers with you.

Between them, the attacks killed 77 people. Eight of these were in Oslo, in the Government Quarter, a collection of office buildings that house the various government ministries. These buildings are within the downtown district, surrounded by shops, office buildings, and apartments. Most of the dead here just happened to be walking past. Sixty-nine were on Utøya, most of them teenagers, attending a summer camp held by the Labor Party's youth organization. (I'll talk more about this camp, and how it has been misunderstood and misrepresented in the international media, in a later post.) The adults killed here were also connected to the camp, and died trying to protect the kids.

Seventy-seven deaths in a country of about 4.75 million people = 1 person in 62,000 killed in a single day.

Those kids had come from all over the country to attend that camp. So many people knew them, a frightening number know someone who lost someone.

The average age of all those killed, in both locations, was less than 22 years old. I haven't had the heart to figure out the average age of those murdered at Utøya. The youngest victim had just turned 14 earlier in the week. The oldest was 61.

Thanksgiving presentation!

2010-11-23T20:10:08Z

It's done. We go live (which is to say, I'll be sharing this with my English classes) on Thursday.

A rat decision chart

2010-09-19T14:40:37Z

http://www.flodnak.com/pics/ratdecision.pdf

What happens when a rat discovers something new. Those of you who have had these little rodents in your life, you'll know what I mean.

A Flodfather Story: Mashed Potatoes

2010-09-11T14:54:03Z

My father served in the US Navy in the early 1950s (and in the Naval Reserves for years after that). He served in the Sixth Fleet when they were stationed in the Mediterranean.

At that time, powdered food was still a pretty new thing. The Navy, of course, loved it, since it made stocking and re-stocking provisions easier. Things took up less space, could be loaded more quickly, and didn't need refrigeration. The quality, on the other hand, could be a problem. In particular, the mashed potatoes had a tendency to turn back to liquid if they weren't cooked up just right. And Navy cooks, bless 'em, are rarely Michelin three-star material.

So imagine that you're having dinner on a ship in rough seas. You've been given a portioned metal tray with piles of food on it, and you're carrying this as carefully as you can to an available table. And as you're walking, you can't help but notice that your potatoes are sloshing back... and forth. And back... and forth.....

What I don't believe

2010-08-21T11:48:23Z

I don't believe in burning books.

I don't believe the masses should get to decide who gets human rights and who doesn't.

I don't believe in licking wounds when they should be healing.

I don't believe free speech means the right to keep other people from exercising their right of free speech to tell you they disagree.

I don't believe an appropriate response to terrorism is to allow yourself to be terrorized.

I don't believe we should judge our own behavior by the standards of others. (This goes double for when the others are particularly loathesome, e.g. the government of Saudi Arabia.)

I don't believe in allowing others to tell me when I should be afraid.

I don't believe in putting others in categories according to criteria other than their own actions. This is particularly important when the categories are powerful ones, such as "friend" or "enemy".

I don't believe patriotism is a person's most important attribute. I don't believe patriotism can be determined by hollow rituals.

I don't believe another person's religious beliefs, or lack of, are any of my business, until they try to make them my business, in which case I don't believe they have the right to make me listen.

Just an update...

2010-08-13T08:46:25Z

Robert is starting fifth grade next Wednesday. At his school, that means moving upstairs, to the multi-age 5th-6th-7th grade classroom. And finally getting back to the same classroom with some of his best buds who happen to be one grade above him. He's pretty psyched.

Kenneth is starting a new school, and much to his surprise and I think SHOCK at first, he's been accepted to an all-academic high school that is traditionally the hardest to get into not just in our township but in the whole county. I think he's psyched. And puzzled. And a little nervous. But he's 16, so he plays his emotional cards pretty close to his chest.

I'm looking for a teaching job. Carpet-bombing the local schools with resumes. Checking the online classifieds three times a day. The usual.

And Steinar is, well, Steinar. Same job. Same office. Same clothes.

Here's a puzzle for you

2010-08-05T20:39:12Z

The chocolate milk powder I like comes in either a plastic box that holds 500g of powder or a metal box that holds 1kg. You can buy refills in 500g or 1kg bags. So far so good.

The chocolate milk powder Steinar likes comes in a plastic box that holds 800g. (It used to come in a plastic box that holds 700g, but for some reason that was increased to 800.) You can buy refills... in 500g or 1kg bags.

What am I missing here? OR: Are they crazy, or am I?

Last night

2010-06-05T18:25:06Z

Went out for supper with some friends. We had a long, lovely evening at an Indian restaurant.

Took a late train home. I had the coach to myself, and I sat looking out the window and watching the sun not quite set.

Life does get better than that, but not very often.