The new passive smoking regulations have a hole, (ie. there's a way to achieve all the stated goals without treating smokers like dirt), and instead of closing it the health authorities argue that vague anti-smoking intentions supercede the actual text of the law. Dangerous line of thought. Erik Nord is onto them.

There's that word again: "The humor is on a high school level, and furthermore reactionary." - Dagbladet, in a review of Team America.

Earlier today, Norwegian newspapers reported that Bush had shocked many Americans by greeting them with a Satanic salute at the inauguration. Now American newspapers report that the only ones who were shocked were Norwegian journalists. (This is a good occasion to plug the latest album of Dimmu Borgir, Norway's finest black metal band.)

For comments, discussions and news regarding Islam that are off-topic elsewhere.

Bad customer service - at least one can blog about it.

The Agitator on Egeland's stingy misquote: "Unfortunately, blogs and right-leaning media continue to pile on the guy for something he never said. I suppose it took off because what was attributed to Egeland fits so neatly into what the right already tends to think about the UN. But it's also the exact kind of transgression bloggers and conservatives regularly jump all over the mainstream media for commiting."

Re my mail exchange with Microsoft, I'm not sure which is more interesting, the fact that their first line of support is unable to comprehend a simple (and, turns out, mistaken) virus report, or the fact that their bloggers are smart and eager to learn from mistakes. This Fortune article gives another angle to what is going on at Microsoft.

Matt Welch has a good article on the success of the deregulated European airline market, and how it sets an example for the US to follow.

Dag Herbjørnsrud has written a new column for al Jazeerah, a plea to the Arabs to demand democratic change in their own countries. He draws a paralell between the view that Islam is incompatible with democracy and the same fear about communist Europe in the 80's.