Leave it to the Socialist Paradise that is Norway to recognize the legitimacy of broken dreams and miserable lives- and then subsidize those who see themselves as part of this "movement".
Last year, just 31 persons attended the annual meeting of the National Association for Rights for Losers (Landsforeningen Rettferd for Taperne) This year 96 people have already signed up, and even Norway's justice minister will be among the guests.
It's unclear whether Norway now has more losers or whether more people simply are showing interest in the group.
"Many people laughed when I started the losers' association in 1993, but now no one is laughing anymore," General Secretary Ola Oedegaard told wire service NTB. "Now we're getting NOK 1.3 million in state funds and 133 losers have received compensation totalling NOK 14 million.
"Our goal is that as many as possible become ex-losers."
By "losers," Oedegaard is mainly referring to people who for one reason or another feel they've been rejected by society. Some had troubled childhoods, many grew up in orphanages or had fathers that were German soldiers during World War II. Many of those children have suffered greatly over the years.
Others have been victims of bullying or failed miserably in the Norwegian school system. "As a child, I was wrongly placed in a boarding school and was the first to identify myself as a loser in 1967," Oedegaard said. He said more than 50,000 people have been in contact with the association he launched 10 years ago.
A major breakthrough came a few years later when King Harald granted association members an audience at the Royal Palace in Oslo.
Could you imagine these folks sitting in Tom DeLay's office?? I didn't think so....
Of course, I have to admire anyone who wants to make things better for people who may have been dealt a crappy hand by life. Nonetheless, the comic potential here is almost endless.
