It's not that I don't think of my non-Dutch readers. It's just that for the past two weeks there were other priorities.
Like studying. You see: the sooner I graduate, the sooner I will receive a pay-rise...;-)
On top of that our weekends were fully booked. Last weekend both my recognized children and their father went to the town of Valkenburg where we visited some ancient caves and castle ruins. Eva goes to school since she turned four recently so I had to pick her up from there. It was particularly exciting because she goes to school on the other side of town near to where she will soon be living with her sister, their mom and the latter's boyfriend. The schoolbuilding happens to be in the same street as where I used to live with my first ever girlfriend. I was young, at the time. And she was even younger...

This weekend my son and I first went to Velsen-Zuid, near the coastline, to play Trivial Pursuit with a bunch of people, including some castmembers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The following morning we went to
Spijkenisse to see my godchild and his mother. Because we were there anyway we decided to meet up with our friend Daniëlle, who also happens to live in this town near Rotterdam.
The sunday-evening cardclub was cancelled and when the first visitor for the evening arrived Ferdinand was already fast asleep. So he mist his natural mother, neighbour Johanna and he missed neighbour Angélique who came down with a belated birthday-present for yours truly.

Cinnamon Girl is the latest video by the-artist-formerly-known-as-Prince-who-turned-himself-into-a-symbol-
and-became-a-Jehova's-Witness.
It tells of an Arab girl who doesn't look it that feels forced by circumstances beyond her control to blow herself up at the airport. The clip suggest it might all be a dream but is it really?
Has Prince made political statements before? I can't seem to remember...

It just might be possible for a non-born American te become President of the United States of America. Just in time for Arnold Schwarzenegger
to follow George Junior in his footsteps, since his brother Jeb won't be able to do so because of some controverse that will be found out about around the year 2007. The script-writers of Demolition Man might have thought it was a good joke when they let Sandra Bullock's character offer Sylvester Stallone's character a visit to the President Schwarzenegger Library. Perhaps they had a little inside-information. Who knows?
And why shouldn't citizens be able to choose naturalized people as their president? After all: of the first ten American presidents only two where born on American soil...;-)

In Demand, the US's leading pay-per-view channel, is scared. Scared of the people who pressurised them into not transmitting Fahrenheit 9/11. Like many others they don't have the guts to stand up to the Bush-family and their friends. I wonder why...

Bush or Kerry?
You decide...

For those who are not elligible to vote in the upcoming presidential elections (because they are not American citizens for example) here's a chance to make your vote count:
Globalvote.

Before I rattle on about war not being the solution to "terrorism",
"communism", "drugs", "homosexuals", "muslims" and other subversive
elements in society and America not being the greatest nation in the
world (no nation is, really but...hush...don't tell the liberals!) and
the Bush family not being the best thing that ever happened to mankind,
I think you should read what "the other site" has to say:

So. Now that you've had your laugh you can read on.

Here's a nice article on takedown (in PDF-format). Apparently seven in
ten Dutch hosting providers remove a website after one single complaint
coming from a Hotmail-address without checking the contents of the site
or checking if the plaintive (or the complaint for that matter!) is
legitimate.

According to Donald Rumsfeld there's no relation between Saddam Hussein
and Al-Qaida. According to Dick Cheney there is. Conclusion: one of the
two must be lying but which one? And does it matter? 'cause Now in
either case that might be proven, the Bush administration can always
say "Told'ya so!" whilst "the other person" just "happens" to be on
Kerry's payroll...
You can forget what I've just stated when you firmly believe I'm just
being paranoid. Which just might be the case. If I really am, I can't
be the judge of that. Unless I'm also suffering from MPS of course...;-)

Saturday my son and I were part of the third largest demonstration ever
held in the Netherlands: a quarter of a milion people marched against
the government plans: Cutbacks on education, health and pension. On the
other hand they spend bilions on a new bomber nobody needs (except for
the people building the d*mn thing) and a new trainrail-connection
no-one except for the contractors (who quite often happen to
coincidentally be (friends or relatives of) members of parliament).
It was good to have been there although the government has already let
the people know they they will go ahead with favouring themselves and
their friends. There's only one group of people in the country that
will have more to spend next year: House-owners that have paid off
their mortgage. In other words: most members of our government.
Now there's a coincidence. Right?

After the demonstration we ordered a new matras for my son and had a
couple of beers with my best friend at my place. Served by Ferdinand
who has become a big fan of the home draft-machine. Quite a few people
have one now: it's a lot cheaper than getting a beer at a cafe which is
about 2 euro's for half a pint. (Almost 2 dollars or a pound thirty)
Sunday Fer's mother came by for the use of her visiting right; my
mother came over and my son went to the sauna for the first time in his
life. It was made a little easier because neighbour Angélique now works
there as a volunteer. All cleaned up we went over to neighbour Miriam's
place to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Although officially she
would be four on monday, it was decided to have the party the previous
sunday. Tuesday marked the official very first day of school for my son's sister.
I'm told she loves it...

Searchrequest:
2004 email contacts of rich people in germany

Videoclip:
Pentagon

Of course you've heard about a radical change of opinion before.
With the upcoming elections the presidential script-writers have come up
with a new name for them: Flip-Flops. Naturally George Junior accuses
John Kerry of having Flip-Flops (And rightfully so, I may ad).
To equalize their chances here's the Top Ten of Bush's flip-flops.
Enjoy.

Winning in Florida a problem for George Junior?
Not as long as brother Jeb runs that state and Glenda Hood is in charge
of the election-procedure. Read the full story here.
Former president Carter's recommandations are not met for reasons
unknown to all citizens occupying this part of the known galaxy.

Some idiot fires a granate from a house and the Israeli's decide not to
go looking for the one who did it but simply flatten the whole area,
leaving fourty families homeless. What does that remind you of? I
immediately had to think of the once so popular zippo-raids:"Somewhere
in this village there's a spy hiding but where? Oh, nevermind, just
kill every villager and you're sure to kill the spy as well. End of
problem." Au contraire, mon ami. It's only a new beginning since a
bunch of people will be extremley ticked off by the fact that a lot of innocent
people have been killed in the proces and will start planning
"terrorist" attacks. Of course, decent law-abiding folk would never do
that. They would write a letter of complaint. Just like you, right?

Let's imagine you live in a nice suburb just outside Chicago and your
neighbour runs amok. The government troops, after a 12 minute search,
decide they can't find him and simply bulldozer down his house, along
with some fourty others, including yours. Naturally you won't blame
them, let alone sue them or get angry. You would sent a letter of
recommendation to their superiors for a job well done. Right?

I don't think so...

A good thing the men executing the 9/11 attacks on the US carried Saudi
passports. (I never understood why Saudi passports are fireproof and
those of other nations are not but that's an other issue). Should they
have had the Cuban nationality helicopter-companies would be making a
lot of money with tourists circeling over "The Curator": the crater
formerly known as Cuba or Cuban Crater.

The world is better of without Sadam Hussein. That's not what they said
in the eighties when they send Donald Rumsfeld over to meet with Sadam
Hussein, ask him not to deploy chemical weapons and offered him support
in his war with Iran in trade for oil-consessions. Why doesn't
anyone seem to remember that?

You tell me.
I'm sorry to have stated all of the above. Or let me rephrase that:
I'm sorry it needs to be done. I'd much rather tel youl about my wonderful kids,
family and friends, colleagues and neighbours. Then again: you might want to read my Dutch weblog should you be interested in my personal life. It is written in Dutch, though...;-)