The Danish Yank

Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen becomes the next head of NATO, writes Berlingske Tidende (nearly all links in Danish). If finance minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen replaces the George W Bush ally (this [English-language] link seems to be proof that all (?) Bush administration photos seem to have disappeared from Obama's White House web site) as prime minister, as planned, he will be the third Rasmussen in a row (after Fogh and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen) to be prime minister of Denmark (Danish PMs have tended to be known by their middle names, recently — Nyrup, Fogh, Løkke)… In any case, you gotta love a guy who (for whatever reason) cancels a meeting with Barack Obama…

I strongly believe in the American dream: Everyone should be allowed to pursue their goals in life through hard work, dedication and free choice and, just as important, they should be allowed to be proud of what they have achieved.

From Hellerup, Denmark, Peter Guldberg writes to the editor of the International Herald Tribune (last letter on the page, after a series of often much less sensible letters):

Even though I’m from Denmark, for a long time I have thought of the United States as my second home — at least in spirit. I have worked for a large part of my career either in the United States or abroad for American firms. My youngest daughter was born in New York and is an American citizen, a fact of which I am immensely proud.

I strongly believe in the American dream: Everyone should be allowed to pursue their goals in life through hard work, dedication and free choice and, just as important, they should be allowed to be proud of what they have achieved.

It is with this in mind that I feel ashamed when following the current debacle surrounding the A.I.G. bonus payments and reading the resignation letter of Jake DeSantis.

There have been a few low points in American history, which thankfully have been exposed and debated for a long time. Unfortunately, the type of witch hunt that is going on now has the potential to become another one.

It is so wrong that Congress should be allowed to circumvent legally binding contracts in order to cater to mob anger.

Statements made by the attorney generals of New York and Connecticut about making lists of people that should be publicly named and shamed are just frightening.

Up in the great white North, Peter Madsen is bringing his 30-year-old graphic novel series, Valhalla (TV report in Danish), to a halt, which has given rise to a surprise party for the author, along with Thierry Capezzone's commemorative album by two dozen colleagues of his (including one by yours truly in collaboration with Sam Ménétrier)…

Although Peter Madsen is best known for bringing to life the Nordic gods of the Viking sagas and other trolls, he has also done stories about a God of a quite different character (along with the story of Job and a book series about the three most important feasts in the Christian religion)…

(Tak til Valerie)

"An eye for an eye! A tooth for a tooth!" Echoing protests around the world and wearing all kinds of costumes from the Middle East and the Muslim world, 4,000 Islamic demonstrators march through Paris denouncing the cartoons and the alleged (and convenient) lack of respect towards Islam.

When they arrive at La Nation, they are met with two figures wearing slightly different costumes and slightly different signs.

One, in red and white, is (silently) wearing a sign with the Danish flag saying "Support Denmark, Support free speech". Besides (silently) wearing a sign reading "Free Cartoonist" on it, the other, the founder of the BAF protest warrior-type organisation, is holding a (fake) severed hand, a pen among its fingers.

Voices start to ring out. "It's provocation!" "You tread on 1.5 million Muslims!" "Connards!" "Rat faces!"

"Ignore them, they are idiots!" reply others as a crowd starts to press around. A rhetorical question rings out: "Would they be carrying out the same provocations in other types of demonstrations?!" (Actually, Monsieur, yes we would and yes we have.)

The Danish American feels like replying that they have done the same to Chirac, to Mitterrand, to the civil servant salons, and to union demonstrations, but suddenly he and the French American start moving away. What has happened is that a short blonde Frenchwoman has tugged on their sleeves and gently but firmly started pulling them away.

"I will show you my ID 10 meters from here" says the plainclothes cop. "They are going to lynch you!" she adds, as she leads us into another street (in the movie taken by our valiant camera team, you can briefly see her wearing a brown coat, right after a bearded guy in white cap and tan jacket says "They are provoking us" and the camera turns).

"Sons of adultery!" "Hey, you two sons of the whore!" Uniformed policemen join us and start rushing us, more and more quickly down the street (I don't want to run, I tell them), with a growing crowd quickening their steps. A police van's door opens. "Go! Go!" shouts a policeman to the driver, "Foncez!" as sirens wail and the van rushes ahead.

"Are you out of your minds?!" ask the two officers. "Do you know how many of them there were?!" "Somebody's got to stand up for free speech", replies the French protestor. After staying with us for 20-something minutes, they let us out. (As a departing farewell, I say, "You know, right before you came, we almost had them surrounded.")

Watch the movie…

(Tip o' the turban to Zombie Time)