"if americans knew what swedes receive for their taxes, we would probably riot"

A story about what Americans and Europeans get in return for their taxes, from New American Media.

sad, but true

Someone needed 54 cents to bypass the long line and get the pre-paid envelope she needed at the pick-up only window at the post office yesterday. But she only had a dollar.

It took about 5 seconds for the people standing next to her in line to come up with 54 cents.

That may sound like the normal thing to do, but it's not certain it would have happened in Sweden.

It's true that in a country where everybody is taken care of (comparatively speaking), people's willingness to reach out to others has suffered. They'd rather pay taxes, and have the state help.

his name was einar

When I was a kid I read a long series of books that had belonged to my mom. The heroine was a young woman, and the books chronicle her life growing up, getting married, and starting a family. Along the way the readers got a few valuable life lessons. What particularly stuck in my mind was the the idea that if you go out without your wedding band, you have to watch out because men will think you are available and it will be awkward.

It was all steeped in 1940s morals and values, and I gobbled it up.

The main character gets married around book 2 or 3. The courtship is traditional and safe, and she marries someone her family know well and love.

The traditional heroine in those books from when my mom was growing up married her first cousin. So, I've always associated marrying your cousin with safety.

In the US, not so much. From today's New York Times:

WHEN Kimberly Spring-Winters told her mother she was in love, she didn’t expect a positive response — and she didn’t get one.

“It’s wrong, it’s taboo, nobody does that,” she recalled her mother saying.

But shortly after the conversation, Ms. Spring-Winters, 29, decided to marry the man she loved: her first cousin.

cosmic order

I've sold a few items on Ebay, and the funny thing is that my buyers often end up being other Scandinavians. And I am not talking Scandinavian-Americans either. I ship my stuff (used, but stylish!) back to buyers in Finland and Norway. Weird, huh?

different world

The Swedish Lutheran Church is electing a new bishop in Stockholm. Front runner is a woman called Eva Brunne. Eva Brunne is gay, and in a registered partnership. Do the Swedes care about her sexual orientation? No. The news story makes more of an issue of the fact that the couple has a young child. 'Why couldn't a bishop have kids? That's not a big deal', says Eva Brunne.

Imagine that, in the US.