Finns have the ultimate love-hate relationship with the US: Finns love Hollywood films & TV but hate its dominance over local productions. Finns love American brands but hate American consumerism. Finns love American foods but hate the slothful culture. Finns love the English language but hate its erosion of the Finnish language. Finns love the diverse American offering but aren’t fans of diversity themselves. Whenever you hear that something in Finland is becoming more American…it’s never a positive statement.

Finns often mistake real life America with what they see on their favorite American TV shows and movies. Couple that with the Finnish press’s sensationalism of American culture, it makes for some interesting stereotypes. And American tourists do little to expel these stereotypes. When abroad…

- Americans are loud (“HELLO, WE’RE FROM AMERICA!!”)
- Americans are ignorant (“America is the best, so this must be shit”)
- Americans are arrogant (“Speak English, asshole!”)
- Americans are demanding (“I need to speak to your supervisor!!”)
- Americans ask stupid questions (“Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in your country?”)
- Americans aren’t geography buffs (“Is Finland the capital of Sweden or Norway?”)
- Americans dress poorly (“How does a Hawaiian shirt, University of Michigan cap, shorts, and white tennis shoes go with my fanny pack?”)

Ever wondered what’s it like to be the first white person in an African village? Speak with an American accent in a Finnish town on a Friday night. The locals will flock to you like drunken zombies. But instead of touching your hair…they’ll ask your thoughts on Barack Obama. Or they’ll tell you of their uncle who spent a year in Canada during the 80’s. They’ll remind you that American “football”, makes no sense as a word. And Budweiser is NOT good beer.

In the workplace Americans are not to be trusted. They make promises they can’t keep. They brag about things they don’t have. They act as barnstormers wanting to change everything. They know everything. They don’t understand the word, “humility”. Their pushy tactics have the reverse affect on a Finn.

And when you befriend an American, you’ll surely be confused with questions such as “How are you?” (which translates to “Hi!”) and “I really like that!” (which translates to “I’m just being nice”) and “That’s interesting!” (translation: “I don’t understand that.”) and “Let’s get together sometime!” (translation: “Fuck off and die.”).

While Americans and Finns have their differences, the similarities are vast: Both love sports, both love Finlandia vodka, both love guns, both have problems with crazies shooting up public places, both hate the Russians, both love The Simpsons, and both think Conan O’Brien looks just like Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

(for more on this, check out “Finland is like a Mac, the U.S. is like Windows“)

The newly appointed United States ambassador to Finland, Bruce J. Oreck (yes, from the Oreck vacuum brand), has a blog which he updates quite often (way more than me lately)!

He even has a Facebook Fan page, Flickr stream, Twitter page, and YouTube page. Cool! With all those pages to update, I assume he spends most of his workday screwing around online – I mean, what else would an ambassador do!?

And how did Bruce become ambassador? By buying it of course..! I wonder how much a few years in the Finland embassy costs? My guess is that he donated more money to Obama than let’s say, the ambassador in [insert African or Middle Eastern country here]…

Bruce J. Oreck, for ambassador to Finland. Oreck, a lawyer who previously served as general counsel and vice president of his family’s famous vacuum company, bundled more than $500,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign. He and his wife, Charlotte, also bundled another $75,000 Obama’s inauguration. [...] Along with his wife and children, he has contributed $261,550 to federal Democratic candidates, parties and committees since 1989. That includes $9,200 to Obama and $1,000 to Hillary Clinton last cycle.

Less is more, says the Christian Science Monitor… (Jesus was obviously a Finn)

What is true luxury? Just when I thought I’d settled on my answer – a flat-screen TV the size of Kansas and a leather-upholstered car that can travel at triple the speed limit – I made several visits to Finland. Shortly after my return the financial crisis hit. Finland has been on my mind ever since. In these hard times, we could learn a few things about luxury from the Finns.

Strolling the streets of Helsinki, the capital, I noticed a lack of grand architecture and opulent homes, and an abundance of modest cars. Helsinki was a nice enough city, and it had some gems of modern design, but part of me felt that Finland was a bit dull. And, strangely, some of the Finns I met seemed to take pride in this.

[...]During my visits, I met some North American expats, including a Canadian who’d lived in the US for years. “I talk to friends back in North America,” he told me, “and they tell me about all the latest toys they’ve bought. Here I’m just puttering away on my little house like a Finn, and that’s about it. The pace of life is slower. I like that.”

Some people want toys, some want a slower pace of life – A country’s goal should be to give their people the option rather than dictate, or better yet, give them both.

America is slowly becoming socialist like, [gasp!] SWEDEN!! You gotta watch…

This is awesome – From last Saturday’s SNL…

So there it was, the 700 billion dollar bail-out plan on the table and there it stayed. The House of Representatives vote on the bill was split. Of the 205 votes for there were 65 Republicans and 140 Democrats and of the 228 votes against 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats. The analysts noted that representatives looking for re-election were most likely to vote no for the unpopular bill. Republican house leader John Boehner repotedly described the package as a “crap sandwich” in his floor speech before the vote.

President George W Bush renewed calls for Congress to back the bill stating the obvious: “”We are in an urgent situation and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act.” Congress will not meet again until Thursday – after a break for the Jewish New Year – with another vote unlikely before the weekend, by the time an amended version of the bail-out bill will be introduced.

The US stock market reacted to both the bill failing with Dow Jones dropping 770 points as well as Mr. Bush’s speech on Tuesday when the Dow Jones rose by some 200 points. The stock markets around the world followed the wave trend and in Russia the exchange was closed for a while. The subprime mortgage crisis has hit a number of European banks, but the credit crunch is biting hard.

The EU commission released a statement calling for the US to take its responsibility and try to stabilize the markets. The EU parliament is making a formal request to the Commission to propose new legislation to improve regulation of financial markets, in particular regarding hedge funds and private equity investors. They also want measures to deal with some of the causes of the credit crunch.

The governments of Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to use 11.2 billion euros to save Fortis, and only today the French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments declared another bank Dexia is on the same nationalisation path with 6.4 billion euros being poured in. Meanwhile in Iceland the Glitnir bank was taken over by the government and in the UK mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was nationalised. No doubt this next week will bring forth other similar news from around the globe.

Meanwhile in the USA there is five weeks left for the presidential elections.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviews Presidential contender, Ralph Nader, and grills him on his efforts to award Bush the victory in 2000 – Funny as hell, one of the best interviews ever, and it’s now obvious that Ralph is a clinically insane (Gravel-esque if you will) old man…

Haven’t posted anything in forever, apologies to all of you (and YOU’RE WELCOME to others ). I just received my portion of George Bush’s $145 billion economic stimulus package…well, $300 of it. I’m rich bitch! HONK!!! I think I’ll buy a big bag of crack, that’ll help the U.S. economy! Or maybe I’ll spend that $300 here in Finland, that’ll help the U.S. economy equally.

So you think the government is retarded for giving out billions while racking up trillions in debt, right? How could they make it even more retarded? By spelling “Espoo” with a ‘5′, check it out below…

LOL!!! I’ll be “laughing all the way to the bank” when I cash this thing. I’d like to think George Bush himself wrote that check. Reminds me of Mr. Burns’ illegitimate son spelled “Yale” with a ‘6′ in his Yale application. Too fucking funny, man.

It’s time for my fourth annual summer board game auction, yay!! This time I’ve teamed up with my neighbor and close friend, Saku S., to bring you even MORE great games – here’s how it works…

Below are the starting prices. Simply leave a comment below with your bids. Each bid must be 1 euro higher than the previous. Please include both your name and e-mail address. (if your message doesn’t immediately appear, it may have got caught in my spam guard – I’ll check my spam throughout the day so just wait a few hours and it will show)

I will update this page daily with the highest bids – however, when placing a bid, search through the comments to be sure you are the highest bidder.

I’ll be at Ropecon 2008, so I can bring the games there. If you won’t be at Ropecon, I can meet you in Espoo, or send the games in the Post (at your expense). I’ll accept bank transfer or cash.

The auction begins now (July 30th) and ends on Friday, August 8th at 12:00.

Good luck! E-mail me with any questions: phil >>at>> finlandforthought . net

Latest update on the bids: Friday, August 8th at 15:00, Winners updated

	Age of Napoleon / Das Zeitalter Napoleons, Phalanx	5 EUR, Kalle Miller WINNER: 10 EUR, Valtteri Pirttilä	German version with printed English rules. Unplayed.
	Heart of Africa / Ins Innere Afrika, Phalanx	WINNER: 5 EUR, Mika	German version with scanned printed English rules. Unplayed.
	Elasund: The First City of Catan, Kosmos	5 EUR 6 EUR, raaf WINNER: 7 EUR, Mirko	German version with printed English rules. Played maybe two times.
	Quarto!, Gigamic	5 EUR	Good condition.
	Marco Polo Expedition, Rio Grande	WINNER: 5 EUR, barber	English version. Good condition.
	New England, Goldsieber	5 EUR, Timo Malvisalo6 EUR, Hessu 9 EUR, Timo Malvisalo WINNER: 10 EUR, Hessu	Played condition.
	Scene it!, Screenlife LLC	10 EUR	First Edition (2003). Played condition.
	Space Dealer, Eggert Spiele	10 EUR 15 EUR, Kalle Miller WINNER: 18 EUR, Valtteri Pirttilä	German version with printed English rules. Good condition.
	Die Weinhändler, Amigo	2 EUR, Mosse 3 EUR, JoeLamer 5 EUR, Mosse WINNER: 6 EUR, metsku	German version with printed English rules. Good condition.
	Taru Sormusten Herrasta/Lord of the Rings, Tactic	5 EUR, Timo Malvisalo 7 EUR, Timo Malvisalo WINNER: 12 EUR,  Mirko	Finnish version. Unplayed.
	Combat Commander: Volume II – Mediterranean, GMT Games	15 EUR WINNER: 30 EUR, Vesa	In shrink. Unopened.
	Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery , Tropical Games	15 EUR 21 EUR, Patrik Lervik WINNER: 33 EUR, Tombad	With the components for extra player shipped with pre-order, box a bit caved in during shipment.
	4 x card games package	WINNER: 2 EUR, JoeLamer	Lao Pengh, Up & Down and Turbo from Adlung Spiele (all with English rules) + Herzlos from Winning Moves (German with no English rules)
	Amyitis, Ystari	5 EUR12 EUR, Mosse 13 EUR, Opettaja H. WINNER: 15 EUR, raaf	Played   3 times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Augusburg 1520, Alea	5 EUR, Ossessione 9 EUR, Mirko WINNER: 15 EUR,  Mirko	Played 4 times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Before the Wind, Mayfair	3 EUR WINNER: 9 EUR, Ossessione	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Blue Moon City, Kosmos	5 EUR 10 EUR, oskari 12 EUR, raaf WINNER: 13 EUR, Mika	Played several times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Chicago Poker, Phalanx	WINNER: 3 EUR, barber	Played several times, like new. English edition.
	Darjleeing, Abacus	5 EUR 8 EUR, Jhua 9 EUR, metsku WINNER: 10 EUR, Jhua	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Double or Nothing, Uberplay (Reiner Knizia)	5 EUR	Played several times, like new. English edition.
	Evergreen, Goldseiber (Wolfgang Kramer)	WINNER: 2 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Great Wall of China, Kosmos (Reiner Knizia)	3 EUR WINNER: 5 EUR, Timo Tikkanen	Played several times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Limits, Amigo (Uwe Rosenberg)	2 EUR, JoeLamer WINNER: 3 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Lucky Loop, Queen	3 EUR	Played twice, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Rage, Fundex	2 EUR, barber WINNER: 3 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Saludos Amigos!, Goldseiber	5 EUR	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Sleuth, Face-2-Face (Sid Sackson)	5 EUR WINNER: 10 EUR, Timo Tikkanen	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Walhalla, Amigo	5 EUR, Timo Malvisalo 6 EUR, Hessu 9 EUR, Timo Malvisalo WINNER: 10 EUR, Hessu	Played several times, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Ziegen Kriegen, Amigo	2 EUR, JoeLamer 3 EUR, metsku WINNER: 5 EUR, Cane	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Shogun, Queen (Dirk Henn)	10 EUR 25 EUR, Mosse 31 EUR, Mirko WINNER: 40 EUR, Jhua	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules.
	Thurn & Taxis: All Roads Lead to Rome, Rio Grande Games (Andreas Seyfarth)	5 EUR 6 EUR, JoeLamer 7 EUR, Hessu 9 EUR, Hessu WINNER: 11 EUR, Hessu	Played once, like new. English edition.
	Buccaneer, Queen (Stefan Dorra)	5 EUR, Hessu 7 EUR, Hessu WINNER: 13 EUR, Eikku	Played several times, like new. English edition.
	Imperial, Eggert-Spiele	10 EUR 30 EUR,  Timo Tikkanen WINNER: 31 EUR, pillar	Played   once, like new.  English edition.
	Canal Mania, Ragnar Brothers	10 EUR 11 EUR,  Niko WINNER: 12 EUR, Hessu	Played   once, like new.  English edition. Signed by the designers!
	Eketorp, Queen (Dirk Henn)	10 EUR 11 EUR, Akseli Pulkkinen 16 EUR, Hessu 20 EUR, Akseli Pulkkinen WINNER: 22 EUR, Akseli Pulkkinen	Played once, like new. German edition with English rules

McCain wins in Florida, I suspect he’ll win Super Tuesday and become the nominee. Jason Rothenberg of The Huffington Post summed up the Barack-Hillary ordeal quite well, my thoughts exactly…

It’s time. Now. Before February 5th. If you wait, it’ll be too late. You’ve won the popular vote, an Oscar and a Nobel Prize, and now it’s time for you to give something back. Although somewhere in your mind you may think that there’s a chance for you to rise from the dust of a brokered convention to claim the nomination for yourself, you must also know that this would not be the best thing for the Democratic party or the country. Not because you wouldn’t make a great president, you would, but because of the inter-party civil war that we would need to go through first. We’ve seen it for the past few weeks. It seems that the Clintons (and believe me it breaks my heart to say this) will stop at nothing to get elected. And if they do, we will be faced with the same ugliness we had to live through in the 90s. Yes, Bill Clinton was a great president. Peace and prosperity were the order of the day, and that was good, but the political wars (in most cases not started by the Clintons) dragged this nation into the gutter, and the Bush regime has kept us there. It’s time to rise above. It’s time to believe that our politicians are good, and honorable. It’s time to be inspired. Mr. Vice President, you’ve done incredible work these past few years, and you’ve made all of us proud. Now, like so many times before, we need for you to show us the way. History, by way of the future. Yes, we can.

I was getting a bit worried, my home state’s election day is February 12th, but my absentee ballot has arrived. I declared myself as a Republican for the primaries so I can vote for Ron Paul, although now I’m kinda wishing I chose the Democrats instead so I could vote for Barack Obama.

Below is the front and back of the ballot, along with a checklist booklet and form… (btw, WTF is Alan Keyes doing on the ballot!?)

The Libertarian Party won’t elect their Presidential candidate until their national convention May 22-26, but you can visit this page and get a early look at some of the prospects. A good LP candidate should…

1) Be able to spread the libertarian message (although the LP debates tend to turn into “Who’s the MOST libertarian” or “Who can deliver the best one-liners about freedom)
2) Be able to raise a decent amount of money (being semi-famous helps)
3) Not be too crazy (this has been a problem in the LP)

Any sort of previous political experience is purely gravy, it’s not necessary.

So knowing these three things above, the only viable candidate is Wayne Allyn Root (shown right), a business mogul, television celebrity, TV producer, best-selling author, professional sports handicapper (wtf?), and Donald Trump wannabee. He’s got the supposed millions and fame to run a halfass campaign. (although I’m worried about the craziness factor)

However, here’s my honest prediction – Ron Paul never drops out of the Republican race even though he fails to win a single state. Then he’s nominated for the Libertarian Ticket, he accepts and runs for President as a spoiler, taking votes away from the Republicans and giving the Dems a victory just like Perot did in 1992 and Nader did to the Reps in 2000.

Obama wins in South Carolina!! I gotta admit, I’m excited about his campaign. He’s young, idealistic, sincere, he’s received the an endorsement from the U.S. Pirate Party, he’s tried drugs and wasn’t afraid to admit to it – what’s not to like?

But just because I’d vote for a Democrat doesn’t mean I’d vote for any Democrat, namely Hillary Clinton, the most polarizing person in U.S. politics at the moment. A lot of Finns don’t quite understand why so many Americans love one Democrat but loathe another, so I thought I’d help shed some light…

- Scandals, scandals, scandals. Watergate, Travelgate, Filegate…before she even moved in to the White House she was involved in scandals. Americans have grown tired of this in their politicians.

- Hillarycare. Imagine if I brought my girlfriend into Nokia headquarters one day and announced to everyone that she’d be taking over part of my workload, how would my colleagues react? Yeah, exactly – and that’s exactly how the American people reacted. Sorry but the President’s spouse is just baggage, we didn’t vote for him/her, just as Nokia didn’t hire me because of my girlfriend. Hillarycare not only was a failed initiative, but millions of Americans turned their backs on her because of it and haven’t looked back since.

- The White House at any cost. She will do or say anything to become President, she has no morals or principles. Case in point: The New York Senate seat. She has absolutely ZERO ties to New York, yet she ran for senator and used New Yorkers like a tool to become President. You think she gives a damn about New York? Pleeease. If I were from New York I’d be extremely offended.

- She supported George Bush and voted for the war in Iraq. Why? Cause that’s the way the wind was blowing at the time in the U.S. Like I said, she has no principles. Tarja Halonen shares a lot of the same qualities as Hillary Clinton, they’ll do or say anything to remain popular, never taking a stand on anything remotely controversial.

- Negative campaigning. I wish politically active Finns were in the states to see her and Bill’s constant attacks on Barack Obama, Finland would have a very different opinion of her after that, negative campaigning isn’t tolerated in Finland. It’s not like she’s attacking George Bush, she’s attacking Barack, a fellow Democrat who’s done nothing wrong. I’m very proud to see my fellow Americans reject her attacks and have been happy to see this backfire against her, we’ve all grown tired of negativity, especially when it comes in the Primaries.

- No charisma. As you all know too well, charisma plays an important role in electability, and Hillary’s got none. I just look her and think, “liar”. She lacks passion, credibility, and most importantly, sincerity. She’s a phony. She doesn’t want to become President to change American, she wants in for personal gain and for power.

Hillary is simply too polarizing of a figure to win the White House, she’ll lose out against any of her Republican challengers. A vote for Hillary is a vote for four more years of Republicans in the White House.

Hey all you Finns living in the U.S. – Ilta-Sanomat will be in the states to cover Super Tuesday. They’re looking for political active Finns to interview about the presidential elections, e-mail Sanna Ukkola if you’re interested!

Glad to see Obama win in Iowa, or rather, glad to see Hillary take 3rd there. I was hoping my man Ron Paul would perform better than 10%, but double digits is nice and at least he beat Rudy…

With all Democratic precincts reporting, Obama had the support of 38 percent of voters, compared to 30 percent for John Edwards and 29 percent for Hillary Clinton.

[...]Iowa delivered fatal blows to the campaigns of Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. Both have decided to abandon their White House runs. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who finished fourth, said his campaign plans to “take the fight to New Hampshire.”

[...] With 92 percent of Republican precincts reporting, Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, had the support of 34 percent of voters, compared to 25 percent for Romney. Fred Thompson had 13 percent, McCain had 13 percent and Ron Paul had 10 percent. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has turned the focus of his campaign to the February 5 “Super Tuesday” primaries, trailed with 4 percent.

[...]With such a close race on both sides, voter turnout was key. The Iowa Democratic Party reported seeing record turnout. The party said there were at least 227,000 caucus attendees. The Iowa GOP projected that 120,000 people took part in the Republican caucuses.