Geert Wilders' "Fitna"

The Dutch politican Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) recently released his short anti-Islam film "Fitna" on the net.

It's actually not a very good film, and after seeing it I was going to write something about the content – but I actually don't dare. And I'm not alone about this. For instance, many sites that had it up for streaming have removed it from their servers, due to fear of retaliations from Islamists.

Also, in the movie Wilders seemingly tears a page out of The Qur'an, then it fades to black and he writes "the sound you heard was a page torn from a phone book", to make it clear he didn't touch the holy book.

This makes me think... what does all this fear say about the situation of Europe today, and where we are headed?

China are killing monks in Tibet

China are now murdering innocent monks and other protesters in Tibet, while lying to the world community and saying no violence is happening. This is all part of their invasion of Tibet.

PLEASE help Tibet by signing one (or both) of these two petitions:
Avaaz and ThePetitionSite

It only takes a minute or so, and your signature will help. Also, please give the link for this page to all your friends, so they can sign the petitions too.

If you don't believe this is happening, click here to see pictures of monks who have been shot to death (warning: very graphic pictures). Here is the press release with facts about the killings.

When remixes are shit: Michael Jackson - Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)

Michael Jackson's "Thriller", one of the best pop albums ever, recently got a re-release coinciding with its 25th anniversary.

There is already a really good "Special Edition" from 2001 with all the original tracks plus interviews, but of course MJ and Epic wanna sell the album again, so on this "25th Anniversary Edition" you get new and bland remixes thrown in:

* "The girl is mine 2008" (with Will.I.Am)
* "PYT (Pretty Young Thing) 2008" (with Will.I.Am)
* "Wanna be startin' somethin' 2008" (with Akon)
* "Beat it 2008" (with Fergie)
* "Billie Jean 2008" (with Kanye West)

Sure, they are all decent and typical productions for 2007/8, and they sound similar to any other shit that's on the charts these days. But when you are remixing Michael Jackson, this just isn't good enough.

So all of these manage to turn the original brilliant songs and productions into mediocre blandness. Nothing of value is added, and they demonstrate perfectly how poor modern and programmed R&B can sound. Compare each remix to the real musicianship and funk of real soul/funk/disco/black music, and they all sound lame, tame and pompous, especially Will.I.Am (who apparantly never even learned to spell).

If you want to, you can actually point to these new remixes as shining examples of everything that's wrong with popmusic these days, and I'm sure that wasn't the intention of Will.I.Am, Fergie and Kanye West - whom should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for shitting on "Thriller" like this.

Please don't spend any money on this crap, but download it from Torrent or Rapidshare it if you can. Make sure no one gets more money for this!

Recommended documentary film: "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room"

I just saw the documentary film "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" about how the company Enron went bankrupt due to many reasons, among them accounting fraud and draining of funds.

In short, all the employees lost their jobs, stocks, pensions and medical insurance, except for the crooked executives high up in the system, who cashed in enormous sums just before the company went down.

Enron were responsible for many unethical and criminal acts in their "business", among them the "California electricity crisis" of 2000 and 2001, when the state of California experienced electricity blackouts that led to chaos, huge personal losses and tragedies, and the price of electricity going up as high as 20 times the normal price.

(By the way, the energy crisis also led to the body builder, misogynist and - of course - republican Arnold Schwarzenegger taking over as guvernor.)

Even if I knew the facts, I was still shocked with how blatant and greedy the executives and traders at Enron acted. The clarity of the presentation in "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" makes it worthwhile seeing for everyone, and it also points out how the ever-greedy Bush family were involved with and made money from Enron. Highly recommended!

Unfortunately, chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay died from a heart attack before his trial, and thus never had to stand accountable for his actions. If there is a hell, he might be there roasting slowly there forever.


Arrogant liar, CEO and COO Jeffrey Skilling was convicted to 24 years of prison, denying all knowledge of anything. Personally I don't think he ever deserves to be let back into society again, so I'd say he got away easy.


Lou Pai is perhaps the one who made the most money out of everyone involved. He got away with over 280 million dollars before it all collapsed, and he hasn't been charged or sued with anything. I seriously think someone who lost a lot of money will have him murdered at some point. Look over your shoulder, Lou.


P.S. The movie is narrated by Peter Coyote, interestingly enough.

If you hate buying clothes...

...you're like me. I really don't like shopping for clothes. It takes too much time, the music in the store is usually too loud, I almost never find anything I really like, and everything is too expensive (or too cheap if Indonesian kids made it).

But there's one thing I can actually deal with - "outlet sales", when a brand displays forthcoming clothes and parts with them for really low prices.

Today I bought all of this at Blend's "collection sale", guess how much I paid?

(click the image for larger size)

Only 1700 NOK (which is about 215 EURO / 330 USD / 165 GBP / 800 RON) for 19 items! And they're actually good quality!

After doing this for a few years now, I can hardly get back to buying clothes for "normal" prices. It just feels... wrong. So instead I try to go to this collection sale every third month and feel like I've somehow cheated the system. And then I just hope they weren't made by kids in sweat shops...