Comments on: OMY did you just see that???????? Holy crap!!!!!!

By: Phillip Helbig

Phillip Helbig — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:27:31 +0000

“Also: they have a political party called Venstre, which means ‘Left’. It’s a center-right party, so so much for honesty in advertising.”

Wrong. The title goes back to the founding of the party in
the 19th century, when “left” essentially meant “more in
favour of democracy than monarchy”. The fact that what was
then leftist is now (correctly) seen as conservative is
an example of progress. 🙂

Yes, it is a centre-right party by Danish standards.
However, it is far, far, far to the left of anything which
Obama (good as he is from a US perspective) would ever
consider. Denmark has the highest taxes in the world.
(And, as this thread shows, one of the most just societies
with some of the happiest people. Norway is very similar.
Sweden used to be, but might be losing ground now.) And
it is ruled by a centre-right party. There are parties to
the left of Venstre. Just shows you how much the entire
spectrum is shifted in Europe with respect to the US: our
conservatives are literally more liberal than your liberals.

By: H.H.

H.H. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:01:02 +0000

SQB, that name is forever tainted by Dane Cook.

By: True Religion jeans

True Religion jeans — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:48:34 +0000

They didn’t allow hard drugs, but they did openly sell cannabis from booths on ‘Pusher Street’. Add to that the fact that the Freetown is located on prime real estate, and you can guess what happened. ‘Pusher Street’ was shut down, and of course that meant that the cannabis trade largely moved away from the no-hard-drugs dealers and into the hands of gangs. People used to be able to sit down and have a quiet joint, with virtually no risk of coming in contact with anything stronger, but now your weed is sold by gangs who also happen to deal in everything else.

By: supra shoes

supra shoes — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:46:36 +0000

We don’t have to imagine the effects of liberal economic and social policies, we can see them at work in a dozen or more of our closest allies. And it’s not the horror story that Republicans would want us to believe — less violence, lower crime rates, lower poverty rates, far lower prison populations, health care coverage for all, and so on.

By: Slaughter

Slaughter — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:17:27 +0000

Michael @ #9 said: A single shot fired anywhere in this country makes for huge news in the danish media.

I know what that’s like. I was in Toronto a couple of times in the early ’80s, and one day the paper had a huge Page 1 headline about — a homicide! Here in Phoenix, we sometimes don’t bother reporting them. But didja see what we had the other day? An Iraqi man was accused of running over his own daughter because she was becoming too Westernized.

By: Anders Jakobsen

Anders Jakobsen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:31:36 +0000

Mikko, you are completely right. The minimalist home is certainly NOT typical. Fun fact: Its on the market so perhaps the smallish rooms arenÂ´t exactly as great as she claimed 😀 The other home OTOH is completely typical of central Copenhagen.

By: The Science Pundit

The Science Pundit — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:25:07 +0000

The atheist bit is now on YouTube.

By: SQB

SQB — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:21:32 +0000

Greg, have you found a name yet? If not, may I suggest the completely on-topic name of a nephew of mine (who, incidentally is expecting a sister any day now): “Dane”?

By: Mikko

Mikko — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:58:42 +0000

I saw the video of Oprah touring what they labeled as a ‘typical’ Danish home. I’m Finnish and I’ve only visited Denmark, but I’d venture a guess the home wasn’t exactly typical. The interior was ultra-minimalist with nearly all surfaces completely white. Absolutely no decoration anywhere, no curtains and the upstairs shower had a glass wall facing the rest of the space. I thought it was beautiful, and I like modernist Nordic design in general, but as an example, I’d say it was more like the most minimalist interior they could find. They do have curtains in Denmark!

By: Soren

Soren — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:00:33 +0000

Another thing worth mentioning is that education is mostly free (as in beer), in fact the government will pay you for taking an education, not much, but you are allowed to have a modest income without losing your government grant money.

This and other things, means that social mobility is quite good in Denmark. In fact here it is feasible to be born poor and underprivileged, and grow up to get an education and a better life than your parents. Social mobility is much better here (and in the rest of Scandinavia), than in the US, where your station in life is pretty much set when you are born (unless you get unlucky and it gets worse)