28-year old Swedish soldier Jesper Lindblom was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last Friday. Three other Swedish soldiers were wounded by the blast, one of them is still in critical condition.

Lindblom was a marine ranger when he joined the secretive elite unit Särskilda skyddsgruppen (SSG) in 1999.

Sweden currently has some 100 soldiers in Afghanistan whose job is to maintain peace, such as it is, and another 100 soldiers will reinforce the unit next spring.

The answer is no, they should not (deci-jokingly one could add “if for no other reason that we’d have no professors at all if we did that”).

Consequently, I don’t feel any particular joy over the news that a pro-fragging community college professor in California has resigned after making some outrageously anti-American comments in an email response to a student at his college. You can read more about the incident in this press release from a right-wing student group.

What really disturbs me is that the recipient of the deranged email complains about having been exposed to a “hostile learning environment” because of the professor’s written outburst, along with her demand that “institute seminars on free speech and sensitivity to teach intolerant leftists, such as [the professor], to be respectful of differing opinions.”

Oh, dear.

First of all, you have to have thicker skin than that if you wade into this shit we call political debate. Second, thought-control seminars are for our opponents and enemies over on the left to propose. Us conservatives (and fellow non-conservative right wingers) should stand up for free speech and vigorous debate.

Now, chances are that the professor in question was a mediocre professor, and for that reason shouldn’t have been teaching at a college, but that is a separate matter and should not be confused with his looney-tunes belief that communism is a brilliant idea.

Here’s one of those stories that make my fellow rightwingers fall into Victorian-style swoons:

The school superintendent whose district includes Mount Anthony Union High School has labeled “inappropriate” and “irresponsible” an English teacher’s use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz.

“I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes,” said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin.

The question referring to the president asked students to say whether coherent or eschewed was the proper word. The sentence would be more coherent if one eschewed eschewed.

Another example said, “It is frightening the way the extreme right has (balled, arrogated) aspects of the Constitution and warped them for their own agenda.” Arrogated would be the proper word there.

Chenkin, 36 and a teacher for seven years, said the quizzes are being taken out of context.

“The kids know it’s hyperbolic, so-to-speak,” he said. “They know it’s tongue in cheek. They know where I stand.”

He said he isn’t shy about sharing his liberal views with students, but invites vigorous debate in the classroom.

Pfft. Pantsy-assed pseudo pinko. I had a teacher in grade school who was an outspoken Stalinist. Her most memorable defense of the Soviet Union was that the Workers’ Paradise had so few cars because it was environmentally sensitive. As a kid whose arcade-game nom de guerre was “Commie Killer” (no kidding) I had a field three years in her class (which was every class except for shop, phys ed and similar side shows). I’m sure the two of us went at it every week. The upside was that I had to relentlessly research my arguments. The downside was that my already way too combative and political psyche was even more politicized. Not that I would have minded the opportunity for a parting shot along the lines of “how’s that Soviet Union working out for you, YOU BOLSHIE BASTARD?”

Most teams in the National Football League would roll up in a ball and cry their way through the season if they had to endure the devastating injuries that have hammered the New England Patriots this year. Fortunately, the Patriots aren’t like most other teams. Instead of folding, they keep on fighting. With their 24-17 victory at Gillette Stadium over the pathetically sloppy and undisciplined New Orleans Saints, they put together their first winning streak of the season.

There were positives galore for the Patriots: Heath Evans once again demonstrated that The Other Croatian coach in the AFC East committed a monstrous error in cutting him, running up 74 yards on 16 carries, while adding 21 yards on two receptions. Patrick Pass almost matched him in total yards, had an outstanding sweep on a key third-and-long and didn’t fumble once. Ben Watson delivered several big plays from his TE spot (4 catches for 66 yards) while Deion Branch was huge in the possession game (5 catches for 38 yards, including a touchdown grab on a beautifully executed play-action on 3rd and goal). Tom Brady threw a gazillion deep passes for Andre Davis and one of them actually connected, for a 60-yard touchdown over the middle. Willie McGinest had his best game of the season, and perhaps Mike Vrabel did as well. The defensive line slowed down the Saints’ running game.

But it must not be forgotten that all this came about against the Saints, a sadsack bunch so unruly that one of its players - one of its best players -drew three personal foul flags on one play. On one play! Yet, in spite of the Saints inherent ineptitude, they managed to take the Patriots right down to the wire and their last-grasp hope died only when Eugene Wilson picked off a desperation toss as time expired.

Their remaining regular-season schedule is not one that precludes the Patriots from winning out, but their patchwork lineup is one that makes such an outcome unlikely.

Next week the Patriots take on Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, one of the few places, perhaps the only, where Adam Vinatieri has missed a game-winning field goal. With a quarterback in its its lineup, Kansas City has the perfect weapon to shred New England’s defense. If the Patriots are to make this season more than respectable, they had better elevate their game from average to somewhere substantially above average.

I usually cringe at dynasties outside of royal families, but I must admit that I am deeply, deeply grateful that Bill Belichick followed in his father’s footsteps as football coach. I have no doubt that Bill Belichick could have enjoyed great success in any number of fields, but none would have brought me as much joy as the success he’s engineered and enjoyed on the football field.

Rest in peace, Steve Belichick.

Highly unusual but very welcome news out of Pennsylvania, where federal agents detained over 100 illegal aliens, mostly from Mexico, at a Wal-Mart construction site.

Best of all, a local official chucks the typical Chamber-of-Commerce-bullshit about how great it is with “migrant” labor and instead serves up some God-honest truth:

At least 120 illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico, were detained, Schuylkill County Sheriff Frank McAndrew said. He said he began investigating the site and contacted federal officials after getting complaints from local tradespeople.

“You’ve got a situation here where illegal immigrants are coming into Schuylkill County and taking (local union workers’) jobs for eight bucks an hour. They are working for poverty wages, and creating unemployment because our skilled tradesmen are out of work,” McAndrew said.

(HT: LaShawn Barber)

Our overlord, His Highness Mayor For Life, has finally decided that it’s ridiculous to waste resources on protecting the city’s residents, when what is really called for is monitoring them by placing sophisticated surveillance cameras throughout the city.

Nothing good will come out of this. If the cameras reduce crime, we’ll be told we need more cameras in more places. If they don’t reduce crime, will be told we need more cameras in more places. Instead of putting cameras everywhere, as if Boston were some dadgum post-industrial wasteland in northern England, or its American equivavlent, how about some more freaking cops?

Surely the mayor could free up some money by shutting down some useless crap elsewhere?

On a related note, accroding to the Boston Globe, some cameras will probably be installed in “high-crime area” Roxbury. Wouldn’t it be, shall we say, interesting if a surveillance camera filmed a rape in Chuck Turner’s district?

Here’s a rather lengthy clip from an unspecified but not exactly unusual altercation in Sweden (this one happens to take place in northern Sweden, but it could happen anywhere). Nice summer evening + people + alcohol = bad stuff! Swedes drink too much.

It’s a bit difficult to make out what’s going on in the clip even if you speak Swedish (and if you don’t I imagine it sounds like a convention of angry Swedish Chefs), but I think the guy in the big green tie is being accused of having “heilat,” i.e. of having done the old Nazi salute. Cops arrive at the end of the clip, turning the whole thing into “Cops” (with white people!). If they seem a bit passive, it’s probably because their backup is perhaps 30 miles away, maybe more. Sweden is severly under policed.

Oddly, while I did drink a lot as a teenager, I never got into a fight, nor did I ever witness a fight among my partying friends. I attribute this to 1) us mostly avoiding clubs and bars, 2) hanging out with fairly like-minded bourgeois-type friends, and 3) a pretty strong focus on my behalf to avoid both arrest records and trips to the ER (my dad basically laid down two rules and two rules only: Don’t ever come home with cops or an STD*). It helped that I did quite a bit of fighting before I reached my teenage years, so I had already developed a pretty good understanding of the damage that fighting can inflict (I’ll probably write more about that in a post in the near future).

*My children will grow up in a far more restrictive household and I don’t feel the least bit bad or hypocritical about it. I grew up under circumstances that probably can’t be replicated in Sweden today, and most certainly not here in America. I’m sure my children will understand.

I have this idea that the phrase “African-Americans” should be used to refer only to descendents of slaves in the United States. In other words, while both Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell are black, only the former is an African-American. If it turns out that Americans want to call all blacks in America African-American, then I guess I’ll buy that, but it’ll be a cold day in Hell before I start thinking of black non-Americans as “African-Americans.” But at least one person thinks it’s kosher to call non-American blacks “African-Americans.”

(Via Michelle Malkin)

I have no idea who this Heath Evans guy is, but, wow, thanks, stranger! Holy cow. 17 carries for 84 yards, most of them in the first half when the Pats desperately everything they got, plus a successful two-point conversion. Ben Watson’s game-winning catch in end zone would have been the catch of the game had it not been for Tim Dwight’s 59-yard grab-and-run on the preceeding play. The Patriots were right to go for the touchdown instead, since the Dolphins had three timeouts and the two-minute warning on their side.

Patriots’ secondary looked at least superficially better than has in other games, but that was partly because the Dolphins offense just isn’t that good. Eugene Wilson’s wiffed tackle on Wes Welker on the Dolphins’ last drive of the game was awful.

Tedy Bruschi was inconsistent, he made a bunch of plays but also blew a couple (has CBS color commentator Phil Simms really never seen Bruschi do the hurdling blitz?).

But like the headline here says, it was a team effort that won the day for the Patriots, they all fought and battled and just about everybody chipped in with a play here or there.

From here? Who knows? Next week it’s at home against the New Orleans Saints, followed by a road game against Kansas City Chiefs. If they come out of that with a 6-5 record they’ll be in position for a season-ending run, but the window of opportunity is starting to close. Patriots need to take the quality and consistency of play to a higher level for good things to happen at the end of this season.

Update: Last week’s warning shot was Troy Brown’s complaint that the Patriots weren’t playing with passion, this week’s come from Ted Johnson, now analyst with Channel 4. On the station’s post-game show somebody (Neumeier?) asked if the Bill Belichick was close to “losing” his team after last week’s loss to the Colts, and Johnson answered in the affirmative. Wow. Was he just taking a wild guess, like ESPN’s Tom Jackson did with his infamous “the Patriots hate their coach” remark back in 2003, or was he basing it on something more substantial? I have to think the latter, considering how close Johnson reasonably is to a lot of the team’s players.

Sad.

But I salute the kid who said this:

“I’m inspired by people going to war.”