Maedhros

Who said anything about not paying anyone enough? He clearly thought he was being paid more than enough, which is why he suggested lowering his own wages. He made a suggestion to the "city council", and they voted in favour of his suggestion, so it's not like he forced it through on his own. His only condition was that the money would go to certain things like elderly care, youth clubs and alike. Why not give praise to someone who's willing to sacrifice something to the benefit of others? Whether he does a good job remains to be seen, so any speculation on that front is pointless. Not really interested in starting a discussion on money and motivation, and how one should reward good work. My post was more a case of "feelgood - a Politician who isn't motivated by greed and power" type of post. Unless of course his wage reducement is all a ploy in order to gain sympathy and more voters! You never know.

https://norwaytoday.info/news/sokndal-may-have-the-youngest-mayor-of-all-time/ Mayor of my neighbour town/village is the youngest of all time in that job, at least in Norway. But more interesting, and not available in English articles, is that he reduced his wages by 25%. Politicians should be servants, not a means to enrichen yourself. Well done! ...in before "but now he's more susceptible to bribery!"

The Mandalorian gets worse with every episode. Too much fan service, and too much reliance on common tropes. The potential is there, but they're not really doing much with it.

Everyone was raving about how great Marriage Story was, so I gave it a watch with my wife. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johanson both deliver good performances, and the film is good. Both the strength and the weakness of the film is that it stays very grounded.

It's a human thing, not only an American one. Though having a two-party system will of course give nourishment to the dichotomus way of thinking.

Great episode of Watchmen, wish I could watch the next one right away.

Made the final arrangements for my birthday wine tasting. A new yearly event where I invite my closest friends, and we have a (relatively) formal blindtasting of wines from my cellar. 4 whites, 4 reds and two dessert wines are good to go - the oldest from 1966.

Mandalorian is one of those series where I manage to ignore its flaws, turn off my brain and enjoy the ride.

Freezing cold here. Then again, it's Norway. Went to an Edvard Munch exhibition - http://kodebergen.no/en/exhibitions/edvard-munch-there-are-worlds-within-us and then a Nikolai Astrup one afterwards - http://kodebergen.no/en/exhibitions/nikolai-astrup-–-out-shadows Both great in its own way. Munch's self portraits are pretty amazing, couldn't find good pictures online of any except this one

Liking the first two episodes of Mandalorian. While not without flaws, it has its own style and does well at what it tries to do with tight and "to-the-point" storytelling.

https://www.thelocal.se/20191115/china-threatens-sweden-over-prize-to-dissident-author Good job Sweden!

It sounds weird to you because you think of freedom as "freedom from constraints", whereas I think of freedom as "the ability to do something" - it's a pretty classic divide in how one interprets "Freedom". Read up on Negative/Positive freedom. Having free education will realistically give poor people easier access to education = more freedom for them. Free healthcare doesn't have to be garbage, nor does free education. Your analogy is quite good btw, if I were a dog I'd rather be an owned dog with a good owner than a stray dog.

As a word it is quite meaningless when people interpret it so differently yeah. Socalism to me? Free healthcare and education should be a human right, and something we should aspire to have together. Why not make life easier for all of us if we can? If I were rich I'd gladly pay high taxes to help benefit a system like that, just like I do now with my average wage. If that's "socialism", then socialism sounds more "free" to me than a system that can potentially enslave and cripple you with debt for the rest of your life. I can't say I often feel envy, but rather a strong feeling of wanting everyone to have the same opportunities I've had. Use the collective to make life better for the individual. Sacrifice some freedom (tax), to gain more freedom (free healthcare/education, long m/paternity leave, longer holidays, etc). On a sidenote, I also think working hours in pretty much all jobs should decrease. FREEDOM!

It has to do with justice more than envy. People who work their asses off shouldn't struggle economically - yet many do. So yes, Waaaaa, it's not fair! Most people can't seem to understand that democratic socialism isn't about leaving a capitalist system, or preventing people from getting rich. You want the best of both worlds.

Danes are crazy

Made me think of this

" Rogue River Blue is made from organic milk, cave-aged nine to 11 months and hand-wrapped in Syrah grape leaves that have soaked in pear liqueur. It’s known to exhibit flavors of blackberry, vanilla, hazelnut and bacon – all of which would probably pair nicely. " That sounds amazing. Oregon has wonderful wines, so I'm not surprised that they also make great cheese over there. There's so much fantastic cheese being made all over the world now, the Frenchies shouldn't be surprised. Last year's winner is made in my neighbourhood, and is ridiculously tasty & expensive. I can imagine this cheese is (or will be) as well.

You should move to Norway. Mass transit here is awesome since we're all too socially awkward to talk to each other.

Bad air quality is another environmental issue that should get more attention. Millions of people die to it yearly, and millions more get asthma or underdeveloped lungs due to it. I was pretty happy when my city decided to do something about it (partly by reducing the amount of cars and cruiseships near congested areas). https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/29/air-pollution-worlds-children-breathing-toxic-air-who-study-finds It's weird that it isn't used more as an argument in Climate Change debates. "OK so you don't believe that man can affect climate change - but you still want clean air right? The solutions are the same."

He nailed the voice as far as I'm concerned. Looks like it'll be fun, if not as good as the books/games.

Happy they discarded the "Long Night" HBO series. Seemed very uninteresting, and didn't really have much basis in anything GRRM has written. The new show, "House of the Dragon", apparently based on the Dance of Dragons sequence in Fire & Blood, could potentially be good. The recipe is there, they just gotta adapt it properly, and keep David & Dan far away from it. Edit: When I think about it, their cooking was fine when they followed the recipe. -- Mandalorian also looking good. I could listen to Werner Herzog for hours.

All those boring but brilliant scientists do need their champion. I think Greta is far more impressive, and reasonable than most make her out to be, and I like how she's dealt with her fame (mostly). Her overall message of "don't listen to me, listen to the scientists" is a good one.

There is a saying in my country, "Amerikanske tilstander" which can be loosely translated as "American conditions", which only partly captures the meaning. It's generally used when you want to warn about traditional social democratic values being at risk. However in the last years "Svenske tilstander", or "Swedish conditions", has been far more referred to. It's basically the easiest go-to argument of right-wing politicians here. It's crazy that two so similar countries in many ways have become so different when it comes to crime: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/bomb-attacks-are-now-a-normal-part-of-swedish-life/?fbclid=IwAR1enB1nBfKOWOic48XkX27qAzd4jlPk1Os7lCtjFGKzcT6ThTk1g7J3MaE ps. We also have a saying which is even more popular than both of those, and used by pretty much everyone. "Texas!" or "That was completely Texas", meaning "that was wild/chaotic/crazy".

Episode 8's biggest problem for me was that everything that wasn't about Luke/Rey/Kylo just felt so uninteresting in comparison. The pilot's "rebellion" against the pink hair lady, and the Casino planet subplot should both have been reworked a lot to make it more appealing. The lesson the pilot had to learn was...blind trust in his leaders? The Casino planet plot could've been a lot more fun if maybe a big name or two from the First Order were there, maybe even Snoke, since it was supposed to be a planet for the "ultra rich". I didn't mind Luke's story too much, but I was dissapointed that the writers weren't bold enough to have Rey and Kylo partner up as leaders of the First Order. It could've been easily explained by both Rey's attraction to Kylo, as well as her using the opportunity to steer him and the First Order towards good. Then of course you could have her fall to the Dark Side later if they wanted. Things always came easy for Rey, so the frustrations from not managing to bring "peace" to the galaxy could steer her towards the dark side.