Went to the Scandinavian festival today. I know Ace would hate it (a whole festival — on American soil — celebrating Scandinavia), but it has always been a fun outing for the family and one with special meaning for us, as my wife’s stepfather is Swedish. Not an American of Swedish ancestry; actually Swedish, as in born and raised there and still lives there. Her mother, who is an American, has lived in Sweden for the 25 years she has been married to him.

My father-in-law is a good guy, and interesting. He’s a member of the center-right party over there, whatever it’s called, that came to power just within the past few years. While he is proud of some aspects of Sweden’s socialist system, he recognizes its major drawback: the absence of incentive. He says the younger generation just doesn’t expect to have to work for anything. The Wall Street Journal had a piece a few years ago that the only reason the socialist economies in Europe had prospered as well as they had is that they were built on the work ethic of the older generation. My father-in-law’s observations are consistent with that.

Anyway, back to the festival. I think they cheat a little. The countries celebrated include not only Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, but also the Baltics — Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

This year’s festival was very subdued. A lot of things from earlier years, especially kid-oriented things like the Tivoli park, were absent. I’m pretty sure the whole project has been winding down for some time, as the event moved from annual to biennial a couple of years ago.

The most depressing display was a series of banners honoring Scandinavian recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Socialists and/or pacifists all, and proud of it. Were they alive today, they would no doubt be applauding Jimmy Carter’s laying of the wreath at Arafat’s grave, and of course they probably would have excused every atrocity of the Soviet Union.

All of this brings me to my favorite vendor: some Estonian guy who, in addition to his Estonian crafts, also had for sale The Black Book of Communism and Gulag: Life and Death Inside the Soviet Concentration Camps 1917-1990. He was also selling Gulag t-shirts with a quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on the front. This is enough to tell me this guy was far more moral than any of the lionized peace prize winners.