What's that about "Stockholm Syndrome"?

Swede Ulf Hjertstrom, who was kidnapped in Iraq and got threatened with being murdered, doesn't seem to display any unwarranted empathy towards his former captors:

'I have now put some people to work to find these bastards. I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one.'

Since the article is in an Australian paper we are probably talking Ozzie dollars, which would be about 5 euros if the ECB sticks to its current policies, or half a glass of beer in Sweden. (Which is fine by me, by the way, as I am considering buying a second house in Perth.)

Still, never again let it be said that the only war the Swedes could possibly win would have to be a civil one.

(Via Tim Blair, who also mentions that The Age would rather have invested those 50k in flowers and Hallmark cards.)

15:05

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Sign this petition (Dutch citizens, too)

A graveyard should not be used to make political points.

So just as much as I would oppose a museum at Ground Zero hailing the glory of neo-conservatism, or a hall full of paintings portraying 'America's triumphant march to Baghdad', I think the International Freedom Center (IFC) should not be build there. Although I was sceptical of IFC criticism at first, it now definitely looks like the IFC is going to be used to criticize American foreign policy.

That's just wrong.

Not the uttering of such criticisms. The place.

You don't drag corpses through a street to make your point.

Well, at least civilized people don't.

Ground Zero is a place of sadness and death, of love forlorn and mourning.

It is not the place to stage a campaign rally.

Sign this petition to stop the IFC from being build there.

Build it somewhere else.

(I've just tried it, the site accepts non-American signatures as well. If you go here, and select 'Other' for country, you can find several other Dutch people who've put their names up. Also, if you don't mind shivers going down your spine, deselect everything except 'family member'. Chilling.)

13:28

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