GeorgeWBush.com - Not available abroad I guess that many Americans can't understand why the rest of the world would much rather want Kerry as the next president. I believe that his claim to be more open to dialog with the rest of the world is one of the most important elements in this. It does not help that the Bush campaign has closed the site http://georgewbush.com/ for the rest of the world.  

  Do we, the Norwegian people, want Bush or Kerry to win the election? If someone had asked me that, two weeks ago, I would claim that a strong majority of the Norwegian people would say Kerry. But now, I am not so sure. The main reason for that is how Bush has been portrayed in the Norwegian media and the fact that Kerry is claiming that he is much more open to an international dialog when addressing international issues like terrorism. One should never forget the fact that Norway believed the invasion of Iraq to be against international law, but there is a general understanding that Iraq can not be left to itself in its current state. We feel that the ‘occupying force’ is responsible for restoring a peaceful and normalized situation in Iraq, and that the UN and a broader multinational set of forces is needed for achieving that.

I didn’t understand how colored the Norwegian media really was until a week ago. Kerry has been portrayed as the smart thinker that can come to the best result through dialog and Bush has been portrayed as an underachiever misled by the “hawks”. Maybe the media has understood it itself how it was reporting news about the US and started a more neutral report of the election or maybe it is due to a change in Norwegian politics.

The Norwegian media tends to report news in a critical manner, often aligned with the opposition, regardless of the ruling parties in Norway.

The 3 leftwing opposition parties has over the last few weeks been able to present a realistic alternative to the center and center-right governments we have seen for a majority of the last decade. This has resulted in the media being somewhat more neutral when reporting from the Norwegian scene as well. 

  Summer vacation in Denmark and Sweden We went on a summer vacation to Denmark by car this summer. On the way to Denmark, we stopped by my friend Jan, near Malmö in Sweden, to spend a couple of days. We rented a cabin in north of Ålborg in Denmark. This was our base for seeing attractions in Nord-Jylland and going to some of the beaches. On the way back we visited Legoland for two days and spent the last night in Copenhagen, before driving back to Oslo through Sweden. You can see all the pictures on my wifes homepage. 

  Move towards cannabis as medicine Cigarettes are on a strong trend to be completely banned and cannabis is finally getting more accepted. Many would claim that cannabis been socially accepted for a long time, but it is only recently where governments are starting to open up to the fact that cannabis is no “all evil”.

I wonder what would happen first: Cigarettes being totally banned or cannabis being legalized? 

  Brazil: The Next Nuclear "Threat"? The war on Iraq, the situation in the Middle East and the war on terror in general is drawing most of the attention from international media, US administration and the US election. For decades, a lot of attention used to be drawn to unstable, or “unbehaved”, governments in South America. I guess it is more or less proven that the US government, represented by the CIA, was quite heavily involved in some of the less than democratic changes in these governments. This is still contradicted by the US.

There are talks these days about Brazil not wanting to open up to the world in regard to their nuclear programs. There are also speculations on Brazil hawing programs for developing a nuclear bomb.

I am a bit concerned about this development.
 

  «I'm going to crash this plane» There was an asylum seeker this week that almost made a plane crash when hijacking it using an axe he brought in his carry-on luggage. Your first thought is probably: “how could he have brought this axe with him?”

Norway is an innocent country. We are traditionally blessed with little crime and are used to Norway being a very safe country. The King even used to take the tram in oslo by himself.

I remember one incident about 15 years back. I was at the international airport of Oslo at the domestic baggage claim. I see a military fully automatic machine gun (AG3) coming out on the baggage claim, with a baggage tag on it. A soldier picked it up. I assumed it was his.

Imagine how much fuzz something like this would make in an international airport today. 

  Solberg leads after day one It is really cool that Petter Solberg is doing so well in the World Rally Championship. But even though he is wining the last few races, the distance up to Loeb is to great. 

  xt1.org Here is the reason I wanted myself a blog. Christian is a good friend at work. He is so much better at writing than me. I really respect him for that. 

  CNN.com - Debating the first debate - Oct 1, 2004 You might think: what does this Norwegian guy care about the election? He is not even American, he shouldn't have a say in this!... well I do! The leader of the free world, which I am part of, is about to be elected. I live in this world; hence I am influenced by who wins. Well, since I can't vote, I just have to blog... I am not going to clame that I believe that Kerry stands for all the right things, but as a member of the free world, not living in the US, I would feel a lot better if the US administration were a bit more open to the rest of the free world. So, I really hope that Kerry wins this election.

But is there something totally wrong with this guy, Bush, or is it me that have misunderstood the entire thing. He claims that Kerry changed position on the Iraq war... when all he did was to vote for giving Bush the power to put some force behind his words. Giving the president the power isn't the same as saying that he should rush into war right away... before knowing how to win the peace. 

  Me... Well... here is my first post in a blog. I am a developer at SuperOffice. I live with my wife Shelly and our two children in Oslo, Norway.

I am starting this blog to get an introduction to what this blogging is all about.