Them elections in another world; Welsh wank a-educating

[misscam]

Democrats win House of Representatives; Senate still too close to call.

This will so displease Bush.

And therefore pleases me. Though I don't really care that much about the Democrats. The whole of the US is pretty much more conservative than me, so I tend to just stare at their political statements a lot, then go have a drink. (As someone in a Norwegian forum put it: "The US only have two parties - Giant-Right and Wee-Less-Giant-Right." And pointed out the parties in Norway that visit the Democratic party congresses and have a certain contact are centre parties. Hah.)

Worlds apart, truly. Watching Fox News is like getting broadcasts from Alt!verse across the Void. Bill O'Reilly is a particulary ranty Cyberman.

Also things I noted in this election:
South Dakota rejects ban on (almost) all abortions
Five states have voted to outright ban same sex marriages, three more still counting
Five states passed minimum wage increase
First ever muslim gets elected into Congress
First ever woman will now be Speaker of the House

Hmmm-hmmm. So now what, US?

The Torchwood Welsh wank makes it to fandom_wank

I've learned so much about the Welsh in the last few days. Educational wankery for the win. I did know that calling someone from Wales or Scotland "English" is akin to asking for murder-by-hostile-staring. Just don't. It's even worse than calling a Norwegian Swedish or vice versa.

Meanwhile, Norway's having political blah-blah over spying - or just good guessing?

Anyone else still having blah with LJ comment notifications? I seem to - so if I don't reply to something, I quite simply might not have seen.

Comments

[evilstorm.livejournal.com]

The whole of the US is pretty much more conservative than me

...*headtilt* Wow.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I grew up in social democratic Norway, where conservatives have deputy leaders that are married to the same sex, where the welfare state is agreed upon by practically all parties, where state involvement in certain businesses is a-okay, where all political parties think it wise to save up oil profits for pensions of the future, where you get a year's paid maternity leave and paid paternity leave too, where the state church is banned from firing priests who marry the same sex and most people don't bat an eyelid at children watching an exibit on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. Norway is leftish. Heck, eve our conservatives are less conservative than the US Democrats.

[evilstorm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty impressed. Wow.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt the Nordic countries would be pretty Bizarro!world to a lot of Americans - or others.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Not just the Nordic countries; most European countries, in fact. If you think about things such as (mostly) free medical care, a minimum wage you can more or less live on, a decent floor of social welfare, paid maternity leave (and even paternity leave in some cases) and a whole plethora of other things taken for granted in the vast majority of European countries, we're all way more to the left of any political party in the US.

And a muted yay for the election results :)

[misscam.livejournal.com]

This is true. But Scandinavia is quite left even in European scale.

Really, given the political devolpments of the past decades, it's no wonder the US and Europe have slided apart some.

[siraj.livejournal.com]

I'm getting the urge to move to Norway again... not that that's a bad thing... I'd freeze my mikta off, but I'd at least be in good Bush and Phelps-mocking company.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Everyone mocks Bush here. 90% of the population finds him offensive; the rest are too busy watching sports to care.

[siraj.livejournal.com]

I'd love to watch sports. All the good World Cup matches (read, anything involving European countries) were on while I was at work.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_tallian_/]

*drools*

I think the only thing I'd argue with is the whaling. The rest of it sounds like a huge breath of fresh air.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

No country's perfect, alas. I have a few things in here I'd like to correct myself, but as places to live go, I find Norway pretty damn good.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Can I get an amen for that paragraph? Because really, that would be like a trip to FANTASTICALLY AWESOME-WORLD for those of us who live in the U.S. I mean, I'm from Philly. Our Democratic headquarters is at a gay bar. But even I can't imagine a country in which I'm guaranteed a year's PAID maternity leave.

I think I need to move to Norway.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Guaranteed by law, my dear. And the dad gets six weeks paid paternity leave, if I recall correctly.

You do get some stuff after that year as well, but I forget exactly how that is. (You do get child support until your child/children are 18, regardless.) You're also supposed to be guaranteed a place in kindergarten, but there are some gaps there. Thing is, our government wants women to work because they contribute massively to our fairly good economy and also, 40% of Parliament are women and that just puts more political will behind these issues, you know?