Posts filed under 'Weird Politics'
It seems not, they have now moved on to burning cash….really! Sweden’s Feminist party roasted a pile of bank notes worth 100,000 Swedish crowns ($13,010) on Tuesday in a stunt designed to highlight wage disparities between men and women ahead of a national election.
Feminist party leader Gudrun Schyman pulled handfuls of cash from a plastic bag and threw them onto a smoking barbecue as a small crowd leaned in to take pictures. It took about 25 minutes to burn the bag’s contents.
“We are doing this for fair wages,” she told a crowd of some 75 people on the island of Gotland, off the southeast coast of Sweden, where political parties are gathered for a week of campaigning.
The stunt, using money donated by an advertising agency, was designed to illustrate how women in Sweden “lose” 100,000 crowns every minute because their wages are lower than men’s, she said.
“This is a lot of money for a lot of people and it is a lot of money for me but in a political campaign it is a drop in the ocean,” Schyman added.
Swedes go to the polls on September 19 and the feminist party — backed by celebrity supporters including Jane Fonda and ABBA’s Benny Andersson — hopes to win its first seat in parliament since it was founded in 2005.
Andersson donated 1 million crowns to the party last year to fund its campaign for election to the European parliament.
In Sweden’s national election in 2006, the feminist party won less than one percent of the vote. Parties need at least four percent to earn a seat in the national assembly. Catch the video at http://www.feministisktinitiativ.se/
July 6th, 2010
This name may not be immediately familiar, but you’d probably recognize Yarrow’s voice if he sang “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” As one-third of the folk outfit Peter, Paul and Mary, Yarrow dominated the music and protest scenes of the 1960s.
Yarrow had legions of young fans, but unfortunately, some were a bit too young. In 1970 he was convicted of taking “improper liberties” with a 14-year-old fan, an error for which he spent three months in jail. On his last day in office, though, Jimmy Carter granted Yarrow a pardon.
Yarrow, for his part, admitted he made a huge mistake and later contritely said, “It was an era of real indiscretion and mistakes by categorically male performers. I was one of them. I got nailed. I was wrong. I’m sorry for it.” I would bet my pay cheque that it was not the first time Yarrow took liberties with a minor.
February 1st, 2009
The Onion pulls another great story out of it’s creative hat.
George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States of America, passed away painlessly in his sleep Monday night, White House sources confirmed. The 62-year-old Bush was reportedly discovered lying unresponsive in his bed by first lady Laura Bush, a gentle smile still on his lips. “It was as though he knew it was his time to go,” said longtime family physician Dr. Harold Ditmas, who pronounced the president dead of natural causes at 7:24 a.m. Plans for Bush’s funeral have been postponed indefinitely following an unexpected incident in which the president’s corpse was sucked through an Air Force One jet engine
January 27th, 2009
Michael Moore would have a field-day with this one. In the city of Flint, Michigan, they are looking for sponsors to cover the $400,000+ cost of adding surveillance cameras to monitor high-crime areas. At the present time there is only just one camera.
The city and a private security firm, Asset Protection Specialist, are looking for businesses and individuals willing to pay $30,000 to have their names or corporate logos placed on one of the pole-mounted boxes, which also feature a police shield and a flashing blue light.
I am guessing the first sponsor will be some sort of home security alarm firm or maybe the local fast-food joint?
July 29th, 2008
A Japanese pin-up model says that her big breasts have not only boosted her career — they also helped her overturn a court verdict. The bikini model, who goes by her professional name Serena Kozakura, was cleared after a court decided she was too well-endowed to squeeze into a room through a hole, as she had been found guilty of earlier.
“I used to hate my body so much,” Kozakura, who has appeared in product commercials on television, told the private Asahi network in an interview aired Tuesday. “But it was my breasts” that won in court, she said.
The case was splashed through the Japanese media on Tuesday, with the Asahi network even inviting her to demonstrate how she could not fit through the opening. Kozakura, 38, was convicted last year of property destruction after a man said she kicked in the wooden door of his room and crawled inside, apparently because he was with another woman.
Kozakura had said the man made the hole himself. In her appeal, the defence counsel held up a plate showing the size of the hole and said that she could not squeeze through with her 110-centimetre (44-inch) bust. “The judges were very good-mannered as they showed no expressions on their faces. I guess they’re well-trained,” Kozakura said. Tokyo High Court presiding judge Kunio Harada agreed and threw out the guilty verdict on Monday, saying there was reasonable doubt over the man’s account. Well that was a nice…story.
March 4th, 2008
An Italian court has ruled that a couple could not name their son “Friday” and ordered that he instead be called Gregory after the saint whose feast day he was born on. “I think it is ridiculous they even opened a case about it,” the family’s lawyer, Paola Rossi, told Reuters by telephone from the northern city of Genoa on Tuesday.
Friday/Gregory Germano was born in Genoa 15 months ago. The parents registered him as Friday in the city hall and a priest even baptised him as Friday — unusual in Italy since many priests insist that first names be of Christian origin. “We named him Friday because we like the sound of the name. Even if it would have been a girl, we would have named her Friday,” the boy’s mother, Mara Germano, told Reuters.
When the boy was about five months old, a city hall clerk brought the odd name to the attention of a tribunal, which informed the couple of an administrative norm which bars parents from giving “ridiculous or shameful” first names to children. The tribunal said it was protecting the child from being the butt of jokes and added that it believed the name would hinder him from developing “serene interpersonal relationships”.
The Germano family appealed but lost their case this month and the story was carried on the front page of a national newspaper on Tuesday. When ordered to change the name, the parents refused and the court ruled the boy would be legally registered as Gregory because he was born on that saint’s feast day.
“I really doubt this would have happened to the child of parents who are rich and famous,” the boy’s mother told Reuters, recalling that some famous Italians had given their children unorthodox names such as “Ocean” or “Chanel”. The appeals court ruled against Friday because it recalled the servile savage in Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe and because superstitious Italians consider Friday an unlucky day.
“I am livid about this,” the boy’s mother said. “A court should not waste its time with things like this when there is so much more to worry about.” “My son was born Friday, baptised Friday, will call himself Friday, we will call him Friday but when he gets older he will have to sign his name Gregory,” she said. I hope he has not siblings named after the other days of the week.
December 23rd, 2007
