Liberals regularly heap praise on the Scandinavian countries, holding them up as models of progressive societies and suggesting that America should become more like them. Except now Emily Tamkin of Slate magazine is calling for everyone to “shut up already” about how the Nordic countries top every global ranking (see here).

Tamkin concedes that the populations of the Scandinavian countries are too small and homogeneous to serve as realistic examples of organizing other societies, not to mention that these countries possess certain cultural factors lacking in other societies. But the real reason Tamkin wants everyone to shut up is that Scandinavian countries represent the ultimate welfare state, the establishment of which she claims is unlikely to occur in the U.S. So evidently, there’s no point in talking about it.

But where exactly has Tamkin been for the last six years? Since Obama took office, the central government has taken over the financial, healthcare, and automobile (at least the northern portion of it) industries and the number of Americans receiving unemployment and disability payments and food stamps has reached record levels. An American welfare state controlled by the central government isn’t just looming over the horizon – it arrived a long time ago.

But never mind the specifics of the American welfare state. Mark Steyn has pointed out on countless occasions that the fertility rates of European countries, including the Nordic countries, are so low that in a generation or two, these ethnic populations will be greatly diminished. In fact, Steyn suggests that fertility rates in some countries are so low that the decline is essentially irreversible. Demographics will be the end of Europeans as we know them.

Immigration will fill the population vacuum in these countries, mostly by Muslims arriving from North Africa and the Middle East whose fertility rates are relatively high. Indeed, the name Mohammed apparently has been the most popular name for baby boys in Oslo for the last four years, and has now become the most popular man’s name in Oslo (see here). And the representative of Statistics Norway finds this fact to be no less than “very exciting.”

Unfortunately, Muslims don’t find assimilation to be very exciting and are reluctant to blend in, to say the least. Emily Tamkin may be impressed by the gender equality in the Nordic countries, but she can forget about gender equality as Europe says hello to sharia law. As Steyn also points out, people like him will find life somewhat tolerable under sharia, but women and gays are going to have a rough time of it.

The vaunted Nordic welfare state not only will not prevent sharia, but most likely, due to its multicultural inclinations, will actually help bring sharia about. And people like Tamkin no doubt will cheer this process, completely oblivious to what it means.