so barack obama won the presidential election. my first reaction is relief. that reaction is just about global. not many of us outside of u.s. territory dared imagine what would happen to us if mccain had been elected. obama has a lot to do about the country that elected him, mostly connected to the widespread deep poverty & everything that comes with that. but also about the health care & education systems. & dare i hope environ-mental issues? globally the task is more daunting. to make people feel that the u.s. administration is not the most powerful, & active, terrorist organization in the world. because that's what lots of people think, & the administration of the past eight years has done nothing to disprove them. to do that would benefit most everybody, including being the single most effective means of diminishing terrorism, & the fear of it, globally & in the u.s., thus making the world a slightly safer place. barack obama has his work cut out for him. we shall have to wait & see what he can do

more locally, in sweden, the christian right-wing party (thankfully small & shrinking) keeps refusing to accept a gender-neutral marriage law. now the other parties in government finally lost their patience & will make a deal about it with the opposition. hopefully it can be in effect from may 1 next year