Finn Lander's Blog

You have to love a baked potato

phineaslander — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:57:21 +0000

Matti Vanhanen Prime Minister of Finalnd appeared as an expert in the Global Creative Leadership forum late last year. You really do ned to be creative and innovative to use the words creative and innovative to describe Matti Vanhanen. The only thing he has been creative and innovative about was food and women. HE is on record as stating that baked potato is his favorite snack, sush being his first (and Phineas doesn’t mean the Japanese variety)

Gordon Brown Follows Urpilainen’s Advice

phineaslander — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:10:48 +0000

One week after Jutta Urpilainen said it, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown comes out and says exactly the same thing. Is the chairperson of the Finnish SDP a political advisor to the British Labour party?

Kokoomus: The Sugar Daddy Party

phineaslander — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:31:05 +0000

Finland’s Conservative party is conservative in the sense that it has a long tradition of older men chasing younger tail. Look at Sauli Niinisto, the chairman of the Finnish Parliament, number two in the nation’s protocol, and what does this over 60 retirement age old man do? He marries a 30 something lady poet younger than his own children. In most countries that would be regarded as perverted, in Finland they seem to celebrate it.

Which brings us to today’s news. Mr Ilkka Kanerva (also in the over 60 league), the former Foreign Minister, a man who had to resign because of his fetish for sending text messages to a blonde stripper, Johanna Tukiainen, with veiled hints at the condition of foliage in her nether regions (don’t say Euh! Phineas didn’t write the text messages). The reason this comes to mind is that now Mr. Kanerva is being investigated by the Finnish police for bribery and corruption. This is no surprise, the man is a cheat, liar and a pervert. What puzzles Phineas is that he continues to have widespread support in Turku his home town. They say the water in Turku is not very pleasant to drink, but it must also have something untoward in it since thousands upon thousands of Turkuites (is that what they are in English) continue to vote for him.

Sorry. I Forget. Who Were You?

phineaslander — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:00:20 +0000

The party secretary of the SDP is quitting. What is a party secretary and why should you care? In the Finnish political arena the party secretary is equivalent to the CEO in a corporation. The guy at the helm of the SDP was called Ari Korhonen, a very modest man who had much to be modest about (a Brownie for the person who can correctly attribute that quote without Googling). Ari Korhonen was the party secretary for little over a year, he was not a failure in his job, because to fail at something you at least need to make an attempt. Ari Korhonen made his mark at being good at achieving nothing and doing it completely unnoticed. Not exactly the right kind of attributes for a political figurehead. Testament to Ari’s abilities is the fact that Helsingin Sanomat the national Finnish daily has yet to report his stepping down. In America it would be the equivalent of Rahm Emmanuel beating a hasty retreat and CNN and FOX News not noticing it.

Ari will go back home to where he didn’t appear from; Turku. He will take on the job of Tero Hirvilammi, Ari’s fellow SDP member who was forced out for beating his disabled wife. Ari is getting the job because it is earmarked for a SDP member. A continuing Finnish form of political cronyism where ability has nothing to do with the jobs that are paid for with tax payer money.

Job Well Done

phineaslander — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:22:40 +0000

The Finnish minister for foreign affairs Alexander Stubb showed true class today when he stood up for his colleague Astrid Thors concerning the subject of immigration. Although he is guilty of serious double standards when it comes to women’s rights he should be acknowledged for being the only politician in Finland who has stood up against the bigots. Better to be courageous in one endeavor than a coward in several.

Violence against women.

phineaslander — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:04:26 +0000

According to Amnesty International, Finland has done very little to protect women from sexual violence. This should come as little surprise to anyone as evident by the lack of interest and outrage at the fact that just a few weeks ago the Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb visited Saudi Arabia.

More about that here.

The faulty logic of Sirkka-Liisa Anttila vis-a-vis China

phineaslander — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:44:41 +0000

The Minister for Agriculture and former pig farmer Sirkka-Liisa Anttila committed a classical logical fallacy in her defense of the Finnish fur trade. For those of you who like to show off at cocktail parties (Phineas certainly does, it’s also why he drinks his Martini’s alone) there’s a name for Ms. Anttila’s mistake, it is derived from Latin and is called a Tu Quoque (pronounced Tu Kwokwe).

First we must show Ms. Anttila’s faulty logic and then we can analyze it. Ms. Anttila has stated in several media forms that if the fur trade was shut in Finland it would move to China where the animals would be even worse off.

It is hard to find a better example of this logical fallacy. It’s a great big shining Tu Quoque, pretty much the North Star of Tu Quoques to be precise, one that is seldom seen in the world of international politics nowadays (apart from the Republicans in the US).

Let us examine Ms. Anttila’s argument once again “If the fur trade in Finland would be banned, it would move to China were the conditions of the animals would be far worse”

Firstly the fact that Ms. Anttila’s benchmark (her point of reference and comparison) is a country with an abysmal record in animal rights, shows the contempt in which she holds animals in general. But that doesn’t make it a Tu Quoque argument. This is what makes it a Tu Quoque argument. In effect Ms. Anttila is saying:

1. The Chinese are in the fur trade

Therefore

2. We can be in the fur trade too.

What makes it a Tu Quoque logical fallacy is the fact that Ms. Anttila assumes that because someone else is doing it, then it makes it okay for her to do it. It does not follow logically that just becasue the Chinese are in the fur trade then that makes the fur trade justified. Just to clarify the point, Ms. Anttila still hasn’t handled the underlying question: Is the fur trade just? The reason her argument is not logical is because the conclusion does not follow the premise.

The Tu Quoque logical fallacy is a very common argument that is used by children, as for us adults it can be useful when one wants to deflect the debate from its root question. Once you know the Tu Quoque fallacy you can make a name for yourself as an irritating know-it-all or besservisser as they say in Finland when you can shout out from behind your Gin and Tonic that “Ahaaa. You Sir, have just commited a Tu Quoque, do you perhaps know what a Tu Quoque is? No? Aaah, allow me to explain…”

Lies and the lying liars who tell them

phineaslander — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:49:27 +0000

Mikael Jungner’s (the social democratic leader of the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation YLE) contract was not renewed. In his place was chosen a Mr. Lauri Kivinen who has been the chief lobbyist for Nokia since the company was making rubber boots. Let’s stop beating about the bush and call them as they are: Mr. Kivinen is very much a political choice by the currently very strong Conservatives and it ends the SDPs hegemony of the public airways.

Mr. Heinaluoma the defacto head of the Finnish social democrats came out very strongly against the choice of Mr. Kivinen and in support of the rather odd Mr. Jungner. Mr. Heinaluoma conveniently forgets five decades of Finnish political history: The SDP has had a monopoly on political positions, now that their power is disappearing faster than sponsors from Tiger Woods, they SDP starts feeling offended and starts asking for morals. This kind of double standard is obscene. You can’t make the rules of the game for generations then when you start to lose start crying “unfair”. The SDP needs to grow up.

The clearing of SDP members from political positions is an ongoing process that will continue. The SDP has created towards itself antipathy that flows through political generations on the right and now they are paying for it.

Beat-up the wife. Democratic style

phineaslander — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:25:38 +0000

The assistant mayor of Finland’s major city Turku was convicted of beating up his physically handicapped wife. You can’t make this stuff up, I wish you could, then it would save a lot of people from physical violence. The only thing that tops this is when Dick Cheney shot his seventy-seven year old friend in the face with a shotgun.

The assistant mayor of Turku was the SDP member Tero Hirvilammi. Mr. Hirvilammi was adamant that he wanted to continue in his job, because it was a “private matter”. This shows a rather peculiar type of rational. A little like being convicted of drink driving, then openning up a driving school and saying “well I was caught drink driving in my own time, so it’s a private matter”. Just to make make my point crystal-meth clear, it would be similar to a crack smoker opening up a pharmacy and saying “well I only puff outside office hours”.

The rather saddening thing about this sordid affair was that afterwards the wife had stated that “he only slapped me about a bit”. Oh so that makes it alright then.

Mr. Hirvilammi ended up getting the axe last week and it turns out that he had often turned up to work drunk. This is not an uncommon occurrence in Finland. However his drinking had not stopped his political machinations. Mr. Hirvilammi is a close friend of the Finnish National Broadcasting Corporation YLE Mr. Mikael Jungner. Hirvilammi and Jungner had set up a new chapter of the SDP party which has been named The Finnish Democrats. Mr. Jungner is a man for whom nothing is private he loves to air his private life on Youtube and Twitter. Jungner is a man who is quick to have an opinion on everything under the sun… Yet when it comes to beating up defenseless handicapped women by those close to him Mr. Jungner stays peculiarly silent.

So here’s a question to Mr. Jungner the violence to woman condoning YLE director. Do you beat up Mrs. Maria Jungner or do you just like to slap her about a bit?

Oops he did it again (Matti Vanhanen question and a prize)

phineaslander — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:28:57 +0000

Dick Gephardt’s failed presidential bid slogan could well have been a description of the lame duck Prime Minister of Finland Matti Vanhanen: “A Miserable Failure”.

Matti Vanhanen came to power purely by accident, he was about as colorful as a warehouse wall and as charismatic as a gerbil after a very heavy lunch. Despite this he became Prime Minister and at first the Finns loved him. Perhaps it was because he was tall. Although, as a tall man he has a long spine, Matti’s wasn’t rigid, it was flaccid. The man proved to have a bendier backbone than a garden worm. Yet on he soldiered, from loss to loss, failure to failure and lie to lie.

Matti Vanhanen has been Prime Minister of Finland for seven years and as head of the Center party he has managed to lose every single election that the country has had during his tenure. He has done the full house and still not had the decency to quit. He started a new round untill, according to him, his knees gave out. Yes read it again people, his knees gave out. Perhaps the real reason was that he knew police would start investigating him for corruption to the tune of 16 million euros.

If any reader can tell Phineas what other Western style democracy can have the same person lose all the elections in the land; municipal, parliamentary, EU and Presidential and still remain in power, Phineas will send them a copy of the Finnish pamphlet Lumedemokratia written by Boxberg and Heikka (unfortunately it is only available in Finnish) as a prize.

Think about that for a moment (not the book, the fact that they call Finland a democracy). George W. Bush managed to lose only one election and stay in power.