23:41 - MR COUNTERBALANCE:  Say you are Swedish and get your news on USA, Iraq and foreign policy generally from the Swedish media - often uninformed, always anti-American. What do you do if you want some balance, to get the facts they never report, to be able to judge for yourselves? You could follow a good American newspaper like Washington Post or Wall Street Journal. But what if you don´t have the time? In that case, you should read Dick Erixon´s blog on a regular basis. I don´t always share his hawkish perspectives, but he thinks for himself, and is critical, witty and actually interested in the rest of the world. Traits you rarely find in the Swedish media. Recently he has written about how Swedish journalists systematically refuse to report on the cruelty of Saudi and Iraqi terrorists - for example the beheading of a Swede in Khobar.

17:26 - THE FINAL FRONTIER:  I just saw history being made. The television just brought me the pictures of the succesful landing of the first privately funded and organised human spaceflight, SpaceShipOne. This is fantastic. Now we know that space flight is possible without a massive bureaucarcy forcing people to pay for it. And with succesful space entrepreneurs, at last we will see a commercial space race to make space accesible to people in general. I for one hope to celebrate my 50th birthday in orbit.

16:55 - MOORE MEETS CRITICS WITH FORCE:  Michael Moore is so worried about criticism of his film Fahrenheit 911 that he has created a “war room” to offer instant responses to attacks on the film. Moore has hired Chris Lehane - according to the New York Times a “Democratic Party strategist known as a master of the black art of ‘oppo,’ or opposition research, used to discredit detractors” - and a team of fact-checkers, led by two men from the magazine New Yorker. And if people persist in criticising the film, “he has consulted with lawyers who can bring defamation suits against anyone who maligns the film or damages his reputation”. "Any attempts to libel me will be met by force", he added.

This says it all. When I work – for example when I wrote my book In Defence of Global Capitalism, and made my documentary Globalisation is Good – I spent a lot of time doing research before I produced them. Afterwards, when people criticised me, I presented my case and my facts to discuss the issues, not my opponents. Michael Moore does things the other way around. First he makes the film. When he is criticised for glaring inaccuracies, he starts doing some research to defend his case. And he tries to dig up dirt on his opponents, and if that doesn’t succeed in discrediting them, he threatens to sue those of us who persist in criticising him! Oh, did I forget to mention that Moore has a new defence against accusations of inaccuracies? His old one was “How can there be inaccuracy in comedy?”. His new one is “I don´t want to get lost in the forest because of a single tree”.

14:32 - NOTHING LIKE 1787:  Back from a trip to Gotland, I see that the EU leaders agreed on a constitution. And we should all be grateful for Tony Blair’s staunch defence of the British vetoes. Otherwise we would soon see harmonisation of taxes and other domestic policies. I am glad at least one European has the guts to rebuke president Chirac. But the major points of this constitution is that no power is transferred back to countries or individuals (it’s the other way around); that it will be easier to make new decisions despite resistance from a big minority; and the fact that it includes a bill of rights, which calls almost every aspect of the welfare state a “right” (labour market regulations, social security, and so on). In other words, the EU constitution talks about human rights to things that the EU is not entitled to legislate about. A classical way of increasing EU power silently, step-by-step, through the back door. Is there nothing good to be said about this constitution? Oh yes: It will probably not be implemented, due to the voters’ resistance at the polls.

11:46 - MORE TRUE STORIES:  Do you want another example that socialism and rationing does not create the world´s best health care system? Hospitals in Malmö, Sweden´s third city, has started hiring security guards, to deal with patients who turn aggressive and violent when they don´t get help or treatement.

11:12 - SOCIALISM KILLS:  Here is another true story about socialised health care in Sweden: Jack gets a brain tumour. He is being sent around several different institutions, where he sits and waits for hours. He gets no diagnosis, and is simply told to wait. After two months he finally gets the diagnosis. It´s a big tumour, too difficult to remove surgically. Even though this is a highest priority case, and even though Jack has paid taxes all his life to get health care when he needs it, his waiting period for radiation treatment is more than a month. “Unacceptable, but not much to do about it”, the doctor concludes.

Jack begins to look for alternatives abroad, and is warned by his doctor about “unserious” foreign alternatives. But four days later, and by borrowing 250 000 SEK ($33 000), he gets surgery in a German hospital. It is successful. And it turns out that Jack wouldn’t have survived another month if it hadn’t been for the surgery.

(Here is another true story about Swedish health care.)

09:36 - SARA LIDMAN:  Just a week ago, many Swedish left-wing intellectuals and journalists said that it was awful to see everybody paying tribute to Ronald Reagan. Today they all embrace everything ever done by the Swedish author Sara Lidman, who just died. The difference of course, was that Lidman hated the US, liberalism and the free market. Since you will be hearing that she was full of love and solidarity for the whole mankind over the next few days, it´s worth mentioning that Sara Lidman adored the Vietnamese dictator Ho Chi Minh, whose communist regime murdered more than one million Vietamese (unrelated to the war). She found harsher words for western businessmen, whom she saw as a "junta", intent on killing the third world. She refused to protest against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the company of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan because they "help the right", but she had no problem with protesting against the American invasion of Afghanistan in the company of dogmatic communists.

08:35 - CANDID CANDIDATE:  Since the EU leaders cannot agree on a new head of the European Commission, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, is once again mentioned as a compromise candidate. Why not? He understands the EU system better than most, and he is honest about it. Just listen to his words to Der Spiegel 1999:

”We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don’t understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back.”

23:34 - PERCEPTIONS:  I just got a nice e-mail from a reader, saying that he enjoyed what I am doing - and he also said with sympathy that I must be a minority in Sweden with my pro-capitalist message. The funny thing was that this was a reader in China! Apparently not a place where pro-capitalist views are in a minority any more.

By the way, just to set the record straight: I often complain about Swedish policies, and taxes and government spending here are internationally unique. But at the same time it must be said that we have less regulation and more open markets than in most other countries. In the Index of Economic Freedom, Sweden is the 12th economically freest country on earth, in the Economic Freedom of the World, Sweden is the 26th. In other words: Astonishingly, about 180-190 countries are even less capitalist than Sweden. You can begin to worry now.

21:04 - MAKE IT SO!:  Did you think that Star Trek was just fiction and no science? Think again. According to the journal Nature, two independent research teams have now performed successful teleportation. It is not atoms as such that are teleported, it is the properties of one particle that has been teleported to another particle in milliseconds - at the push of a button - without any physical link. Perhaps we will never teleport individuals (would you like to disappear and see your properties transported to other atoms?), but experts tell the BBC that ”This is a milestone”, which will make new ultra-fast computers with quantum wiring possible. And in four days, the first commercial manned flight beyond the atmosphere is taking place. That is a first step toward space-tourism that will make space open to everyone. “Second star to the right, and straight on ‘til morning.”

16:13 - SVT VILLE STOPPA JOSEFSSONKRITIK:  Kommer ni ihåg att jag tipsade om Jasenko Selimovics intervju med doku-propagandisten Janne Josefsson? Eftersom intervjun verkligen fick Josefsson ur balans är det föga förvånande att det nu visar sig att SVT:s samhällsredaktion i Göteborg ville stoppa sändningen av programmet. Det är maktens arrogans.

23:18 - AGE OF COERCION:  ”Monibiot believes in a better world". So says the headline to an interview with this British anti-capitalist in Svenska Dagbladet today. This is because George Monbiot proposes a ”global democracy” in his new book, ”The Age of Consent” (now in Swedish), by which he means a world government, where Chinese and Indian voters can rule our lives if they chose, and where it is impossible for the individual to make exit to any other type of system.

”Monbiot believes in a better world”. When did you last read such a statement about a free-marketeer like Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell? Probably never. And the difference is that they really do believe in a better world for all, Monbiot doesn’t. He thinks the world is a zero-sum game. He believes in a better world for developing countries, but that this has to mean that ”I will get it worse, and England will definitely get it worse”. I wonder who had to get it worse from the start, for us to get from stone age to silicon age. Whom did we take all these cars and mobile phones from?

22:42 - SVAR:  Förresten, Systembolaget svarade på mina frågor med ett standardmail, där det enda intressanta i sak är att deras annons mot nyliberalismen kostade 1,9 miljoner kronor. De försäkrar vidare att annonsens syfte inte var att skada liberalismen. Nähä? Trodde de på allvar att jag var orolig över att liberaler skulle skadas av att framstå som huvudmotståndare till Sveriges mest korrumperade och impopulära monopol?

22:28 - MY MISTAKE - AND THEIRS:  I made a big mistake in my last post. Systembolaget were appearently referring to John D Rockefeller Sr., not his son, John D Rockefeller Jr., whom I was thinking of. I am sorry about that. But it’s actually more interesting that they use Jr. as an authority on alcohol, since he was a strict teetotaler and Baptist who viewed alcohol as sinful, and funded many of the groups who enforced the prohibition in the US 1920. Quite an authority... (Thanks to Erik Herbertson)

By the way here is a better advert on the subject.

12:54 - ALLIES AGAINST COMPETITION:  Systembolaget, the Swedish alcohol monopoly, is attacking "neo-liberals" in a bizarre advert today, saying that even John D Rockefeller, who "believed that the free market is always superior", was in favour of a monopoly on the sales of alcohol. Since when is a capitalist who doesn´t believe in capitalism an argument against capitalism? It´s especially ludicrous to use Rockefeller in this context, since he never believed in free competition. As Gary Allen has written:

"John D. Rockefeller Sr., who proclaimed that "competition is a sin," used every devious trick he could devise to create a national oil monopoly. His strategy was as ruthless as it was effective: Get control of your competitiors, and then keep control of them. Old John D. quickly learned that political power was essential to protect and advance his economic clout, so he went into the politics business. Once he controlled the purse strings of enough captive Congressmen, he could get them to pull stringsto benefit Standard Oil and the family´s other business interests. In other words, he sought national control to protect his national monopoly."

Hmmm, sounds like another monopolist I know...

12:14 - OMRUBRICERAT:  Svenska Dagbladet må ha slentriansocialister som rubriksättare, men de är inte sämre än att de kan ändra sig - och hitta på nya ord - när de blir slagna på fingrarna. Gårdagens "Privatisering hotar viltstammen" har i nätupplagan nu ändrats till "Avprivatisering hotar viltstammen". När kommer rättelsen i pappersupplagan?

09:27 - HEJ SYSTEMBOLAGET!:  Jag vet att det finns några frågor ni inte vill besvara med anledning av er reklam "Hej alla nyliberala!" i Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri, Stockholm City och många andra tidningar idag. Men de bör ändå ställas. Detta är första gången jag ser ett statligt bolag kampanja mot en politisk gruppering - tycker ni generellt att det är rimligt att statliga bolag gör detta, eller gör ni ett undantag för att ni tycker så illa om liberalism? Tycker ni inte att detta ser extra illa ut när ni har en VD som är gift med statsministern, som räknar de nyliberala som huvudfienden i det politiska landskapet? Och slutligen: Hur mycket pengar kostar er politiska kampanj för er, och därmed för oss medborgare som i någon mening äger er?

Jag kan bara tillägga att jag nu känner inför er som jag skulle göra inför vilket bolag som helst som använder sina resurser till att angripa mig och mina meningsfränder: Jag kommer inte längre att rekommendera era produkter.

(Skickat till kundtjanst@systembolaget.se)

21:47 - RÖD RUBRICERING:  Behövde vi verkligen fler bevis för att folk utgår från att allt ont i världen beror på nyliberalism? Läs Svenska Dagbladet idag. På sidan 17 finns en artikel om att Mugabes planer på att förstatliga all mark i Zimbabwe hotar att tillintetgöra landets viltstam. Redigeraren läste förmodligen aldrig artikeln, utan såg väl bara att den handlade om ett hot mot djur, samt att äganderätt på något vis var inblandat, och utgick då från sina ryggmärgsreaktioner. Rubriken blev: ”Privatisering hotar viltstam”.

09:18 - WHY WE DON´T TURN OUT:  When the journalist Tom Oliphant visited Timbro a month ago, he said that the election for the European Parliament was the only election over here which he could relate to as an American, because the voters did not care about it. He’s right, just look at the turnout across Europe in the BBC graph below. In a way, there is no reason to panic, as politicians and political scientists have over the last few days: The more different institutions, and the more division of power, the less reason to vote in every single election. That’s a good thing. It would be worse if everybody felt compelled to vote for the European Parliament, because it had complete power over every single individual. And the bigger the EU gets, the less influence every single voter has. And furthermore low turnout reveals a healthy dose of scepticism to EU power. Perhaps our politicians should take a moment to think about that before they sign a new constitution which gives Brussels new powers over labour markets, social policies, health, energy, investments - and sports!

11:03 - KERRY´S CHOICE: Everybody speculates on John Kerry’s choice of running mate. Only America’s finest news source knows:

"In my search for a vice-president, I considered many qualified men and women," Kerry said, announcing his decision at Boston University. "But one man stood apart from the madding crowd as brave, honest, and full of life. One man displayed a true desire to change America for the better—not through political maneuvering, but through hard work. That man was me, 35 years ago… My running mate is smart, hard-working, and, above all, unsullied by compromise," said the four-term senator from Massachusetts.

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