Free Republic

For many years, progressives and self-avowed socialists have touted a small group of countries as models for the cushy welfare state they hope to create in the US: the Nordic states. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland offer extensive welfare benefits to their citizens, and many on the American left have taken this as evidence that socialism works... However, there is a reality that has received less attention in this debate: despite being modern in many ways, the Nordic countries have retained much of their traditional cultures, elements of which are repugnant to the worldview of American progressives. These nations...

Happiness is a difficult thing to measure, but one initiative at the United Nations has been trying to figure it out. Every year since 2012, the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network has published its World Happiness Report—a study that examines the connections between happiness and development, all while encouraging policymakers to place more of an emphasis on the former. Around 1,000 people in each U.N. member state rate their quality of life on a scale from 0 to 10, while researchers cull data from six areas: GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support, trust and corruption, perceived freedom to make...

Stephen McNallen’s path to founding a racist, whites-only church now headquartered in the foothills north of Sacramento started with fantasy novels and, eventually, found a measure of infamy through the discovery of an ancient skeleton McNallen, the 73-year-old founder of the Asatru Folk Assembly, was an avid reader of sword-and-sorcery novels like “Conan the Barbarian” when he was in college in the late 1960s in Wichita Falls, Texas. One summer in a corner of a bookstore, he found something that would put him on the path to creating a U.S.-based church that worships Norse gods such as Thor and Odin...

Sweden has been an outlier during the coronavirus outbreak. The country has not joined many of its European neighbors in imposing strict limits on citizens' lives, and images of people heading to work on busy streets, or chatting at cafes and bars have raised eyebrows. Younger children have continued to go to school, although universities and schools for older students have switched to distance learning. Businesses — from hair salons to restaurants — have remained open, although people have been advised to work from home where possible. On April 7, the government introduced a bill allowing it to act quickly...

The first person in Sadad Dakhare’s two-bedroom apartment in Oslo, Norway, to show symptoms was his 4-year-old niece. Next, his mother, his sister and he himself fell ill. Then, about a week after his niece became sick, Dakhare heard his 76-year-old father coughing heavily. He found his father lying in bed, gasping for air. “Just call an ambulance,” the father told Dakhare. At an Oslo hospital, Dakhare’s father tested positive for COVID-19 and was treated for a few days before he was discharged to finish his recovery at home. The Dakhare family’s story is a familiar one among Somalis in...

Nearly all 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are pushing some form of full-on socialized, government-controlled healthcare, most wrapped in a “Medicare-for-all” scheme the candidates say resembles “successful” similar programs in Europe. But what these candidates are not telling Americans — nor is the Democrat-aligned “mainstream media” — is that several Nordic countries with long histories of socialist-like healthcare are moving more towards private insurance models. This comes as top Democratic contenders like Sen. Bernie Sanders are threatening to do away with all private, mostly employer-based health insurance, which currently covers roughly 100 million Americans (who are mostly satisfied with their coverage,...

No words... Just give it a listen.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSfA0i6Typw        

One of the most common fallacies of the new populists is to say that their model is the “Nordic” one and that those countries are successful examples of how “socialism works”. When I mentioned it to the Finnish Finance Minister Petteri Orpo at a recent ECR dinner, he could not believe it. Expropriations, massive tax increases, appropriation of savings and subordinating the growth model to political control is what populists defend. The same as Venezuela, which all of them praised — from Bernie Sanders to Owen Jones or Corbyn and Chomsky — until it collapsed. Then they moved on to...

New research shows that all blue-eyed people share a common ancestor. This person lived more than 6,000 years ago and carried a genetic mutation that has now spread across the world. The exact cause remains to be determined but scientists do know that eye color began to change long before recorded history began. The following is a transcript of the video. All blue-eyed people have one ancestor in common, born around 6,000-10,000 years ago. Blue eyes are caused by a gene mutation. For years, researchers had searched for it on the OCA2 gene. The OCA2 gene determines how much brown...

Top leaders of five Nordic countries are rejecting claims that they "trolled" President Donald Trump by posing for a photo that is drawing comparisons to the US leader's now-infamous moment with a glowing orb during his trip to Saudi Arabia. The photo, which was first reported by The Hill, shows the prime ministers of Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark all placing their hands on a European soccer ball -- an image that would most likely have been viewed as benign had it not surfaced just days after one of the most memorable moments from Trump's first foreign trip to...

video at link (0:54) A Military helicopter captured the incredible footage in November 2014 during a routine coastal patrol. The craft – spotted in broad daylight – was filmed using the chopper’s infrared camera. The “UFO” can be seen hovering in the clouds before appearing to give off some sort of gas as it moves along. The pilots tracked the craft from around 40 miles away and tried several times to communicate with it. After receiving no response, they reported it to a pair of nearby radar stations. But shockingly, neither of them were able to see it on their...

United States residents have an extra reason to smile according to a recent report released by Columbia University's Earth Institute. According to their findings, northern Europe received the highest satisfaction and happiness ranking in life, while Egypt and a few others hit the lowest since the Eurozone crisis via background information from the 2013 World Happiness Report released Monday. When looking at a survey of over 156 countries, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden were ranked as the happiest places, and regions in Sub-Saharan Africa were noted as being the least likely places for overall life satisfaction, according to...

A legislation banning striptease in Iceland and barring clubs from making profit from the nudity of employees of will take effect on July 1, 2010. The legislation was passed with 31 votes. Two MPs of the Independence Party abstained but no one voted against it. From Goldfinger. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.“It is pleasing how fresh the breeze of equality is at Althingi [the Icelandic parliament] these days,” said Siv Fridleifsdótttir of the Progressive Party, the bill’s first presenter, Fréttabladid reports. She also said a step had been taken towards increased democracy, considering a legislation which was presented by a...

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) – For those who value their freedom of expression as much as health, wealth, and prosperity, then Finland is the place to be, with an index ranking the Nordic nation the best in the world. The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, published on Tuesday and compiled by the Legatum Institute, an independent policy, advocacy and advisory organization, ranked 104 countries which are home to 90 percent of the world's population. The index is based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth with the level of personal freedoms and democracy in a country as well as measures...

The Finnish Chancellor of Justice is currently investigating for possible irregularities and discriminatory treatment after the Swedish School of Social Science released documents relating to their decision to reject an internationally renowned SPACEPOL expert's candidacy for a limited track researcher position. According to SPACEPOL CEO Gunnar K. A. Njalsson, the released documents expose a process of candidate evaluation riddled with inconsistencies and lack of academic integrity. FALSE AND EMBELLISHED EXPERT STATEMENTS The focus of CEO Njalsson's particular concern is on so-called expert comments, requested by the Research Centre Board of the Swedish School of Social Science and submitted by nine...

Scandinavia has been rated as the best place to live, that’s according to a ranking by Reader’s Digest. Using a range of environmental and social indicators based in part on the UN’s Human Development Index, the survey rates countries on care of the environment and quality of life for their citizens. Finland tops the 141-nation list, followed by Nordic neighbours Iceland and Norway, with Sweden coming in at fourth place. And the Swedish capital comes top of the Reader’s Digest ranking of 72 world cities when it comes to quality of life. Cities were rated according to quality of public...

PARIS (AFP) - Nordic countries take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to a ranking published on Thursday by the publication Reader's Digest. An aerial picture shows the port in Helsinki in 2006. Nordic countries take the greatest care of their environment and their people, according to a ranking published on Thursday by the publication Reader's Digest.(AFP/File/Pekka Sakki) Finland comes top of the 141-nation list, followed by Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and then Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and Australia. At the bottom of the list is Ethiopia, preceded by Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Chad. The...

Geopolitics: A strategic shift on Europe's northern tier is shaping up fast. With Russia trying to halt a missile shield and intimidating Estonia, Sweden and Finland are starting to rethink neutrality. It shows seriousness. For about a decade, conventional wisdom held that the end of the Cold War made NATO irrelevant. But out on the frontier of Western civilization, in the farthest Nordic states of Sweden and Finland, a different picture is emerging as an old predator rises from the East. Russia's recent moves in the region have forced them to take a new look at defense alliances they once...

Sweet-toothed Swedes who have spent hours constructing edible Christmas gingerbread houses are seeing their creations collapse in the Scandinavian country's unusually damp winter, suppliers said on Monday. "The damp weather spells immediate devastation for gingerbread houses. The problem is the mild winter," spokesman at Sweden's leading gingerbread wholesaler Anna's, Aake Mattsson, told Swedish news agency TT. Gingerbread houses are a popular Christmas tradition in Sweden and across the Nordic countries, with many people buying slabs of pre-baked gingerbread from stores which they decorate and stick together using icing sugar and brightly coloured confectionery. While much of Sweden is usually gripped...

Before Scandinavia: These could be the first skiers By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BEIJING – Move over Bode. You may have competition you don't know about - among a sturdy skiing clan in northwest China. They are central Asians, Mongols, and Kazaks, living in the remote Altay mountains of Xinjiang province, where some claim skiing was first conceived. Using curved planks whose design dates back 2,000 years, the Altaic peoples are formidable skiers. They might not win a medal on perfectly groomed Olympic trails. But they can break their own paths, track elk for...