Free Republic

Gunmen with automatic weapons stormed into a restaurant in Sweden's second largest city, killing two people and wounding about a dozen in a shooting that police said was likely gang-related. Police said the eatery in suburban Goteborg was full when the gunmen opened fire in one of Sweden's most serious shooting incidents in recent years. It wasn't clear who the attackers were targeting or why, but police said there were known gang members inside the restaurant.

Christmas, they say, is a time to be with your family. From my perspective, 'family' is, in one way, a wider community than most of us acknowledge. Personally, I view not only my parents, my brother and my relatives here in Sweden as 'my family'. 'My family' also includes all the hard working inhabitants of Gothenburg/Göteborg - the city where I live, it also includes the nation of Sweden, it includes Scandinavia, it encompasses Europe and at least to me, it is also the whole of the Western World. When I have visited other great Western nations, be it Italy,...