Swedish Meatballs -- April 8, 2017

Updates

Later, 6:52 p.m.: this is pretty funny. I went to the WSJ to fact-check a few of the items below. Lo-and behold: the data point about politely asking the perpetrator to return in a year or so was pretty close to the mark. From The WSJ, it turns out this guy was previously investigated and even detained overnight (which speaks volumes how dangerous the authorities thought he might be); and, now in detention:

Magistrates have until Tuesday to decide whether he should remain in custody, and specify charges.

I can't make this stuff up, it appears, even when I try to. LOL. 

Original Post

 

I was off the net for almost 24 hours due to a family trip. I"m back on the grid but probably won't blog much. Too much catching up to to do, and with "all the stuff" that has happened in the last 72 hours it will take a bit of time to process everything.

But I couldn't pass this one up. Apparently, another truck injured/killed several pedestrians, again, this time in Stockholm (?). Sweden for sure, but don't recall for sure if it was Stockholm. According to news reports on the radio:

• a truck driven by a human (as opposed to a driverless Uber truck) apparently drove off the road into a shopping area where there were a fair number of pedestrians, most likely shoppers
• the event appeared to be similar to other "truck events" on the European continent that were later considered to be terrorist events
• the alleged driver was detained some hours later
• the alleged driver was apparently from one of the "Stan-brother" countries, maybe Uzbekistan or Pakistan or Afghanistan or Iranistan but probably not Kurdistan
• the alleged driver is said to have recently returned from the Mideast
• upon return to Sweden, the would-be driver traveled with no passport, but apparently the entire Scandinavian country (peninsula?) is a sanctuary zone and those traveling without permits are "allowed in" but politely asked (in their native language) to return within a year with documentation of .... well, almost any documentation will work
• if the international traveler-without-papers is unable to afford a lawyer, the state will provide a one at no cost
• if the international traveler-without-papers is unable to afford housing, IKEA will provide a "room-to-go" with one daily serving of Swedish meatballs
• there are reports the driver went to "a special school" while back in the Mideast, or possibly on the Indian subcontinent somewhere
• the driver was heard to yell "Allahu Akbar" when the truck left the road at high speed

As of this weekend, Swedish authorities are not calling this a terrorist incident pending further inquiry.

By the way, I think everyone remembers Sweden telling President Trump he had no idea what he was talking about when he (Trump) was talking about the "Swedish problem."

Note: most everything above certainly seems to barely have an element of truth in it, but that's what I thought I heard on the radio. I had been driving many, many hours and may have been having auditory hallucinations. Or it may have been NPR.

Speaking of which, and this is the absolute truth: immediately after 59 US naval Tomahawk missiles struck a Syrian airbase, NPR (radio) had a story on "the reaction from Damascus, Tehran, and Moscow." I cannot make that up. I thought, momentarily, I was listening to Voice of The USSR.