The threat that is Ebola

Of course Ebola is a terrible disease and thousands of people have died from it and thousands more are really, really ill. But more people are suffering from greed (or from peanuts, for that matter). That single disease kills thousands of people each and every day. But why does your government not recognize greed as a disease? I don't know.

The more we know, the less we seem to know. Most of us are ignorant. Partially because we want to be because nobody wants to be reminded of the real problems in the world. When you buy a bag of potato chips, do you realise that with that same amount of money you could have kept half a dozen children from starving today? Of course not!

And you're not the only one. More people in our safe and healthy environment complain about the weather or their favourite product being out of stock than sign petitions to end world hunger.

Are we really stupid or just ignorant? It's a fact that millions of people are simply really stupid. Like the ones that demanded to know an English football player (Americans call the game 'soccer') does not suffer from Ebola. Simply because he has a dark skin colour and his name is Dele Adebola...http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ebola-crisis-former-birmingham-city-striker-dele-adebola-reassures-fans-he-does-not-have-ebola-9788418.html

We demand respect!

We demand respect! From our children, from our partner, from our boss, our colleagues, our neighbours, our grocer. But how about giving something? The world is not black or white, not every answer is true or false and not everyone is clear in what they mean.

Try not to judge, be honest and think about what you want. For example: what do you really - literally - mean when you say: 'I want you to love me'?

Don't watch the game tonight, that action movie or that gameshow. In stead: watch this


(Or don't. That's up to you. But give it a try. For me. Please.)

Is it okay to torture?

'A true American patriot should say it's okay to torture people to make the statement that torturing people is wrong.' This statement (not the exact words) was made by Dick Cheney.

Do you agree? And are you willing to say why you agree? In public? Shouldn't America lead the world to see how a true democracy works in the free world? Where people don't have to be afraid they can get accidentally tortured because their name looks like the name of a possible terrorist?

And what of the freedom of speech? Why doesn't that apply to whistleblowers? You tell me.

Skywatch Friday

Click to enlarge.

More pictures? Check our Flickr page

Note: Every SWF-picture published here is shot with my trusty Nokia N8 mobile phone or our Canon EOS 450D and is unedited.

For more Skywatch Friday photo's from around the globe, please check http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Finally some pictures! It's been a while, hasn't it?

 Forrest near Hilversum

 Beach at Wijk aan Zee

 On the ferry from centre to north Amsterdam

 Two minutes walk from my place

 From my girlfriend's living room

 The coasttown of Hoorn

 Amsterdam centre

Amsterdam centre, near Anne Frank house

Is homosexuality wrong?

'So tell me, why did you beat up that gentleman?'
-'Well, he's gay, your honor, and I just hate fagots!'
'By 'fagots' you mean 'homosexuals'?
-'Yes, I believe - and the Bible is with me on this - that homosexual sex is against God's will and unnatural.'
'And that believe gives you the right to beat up people?'
-'Yes, your honor, because homosexual people are not people at all!'
'Is this DVD we found in your appartment yours?'
-'You mean my copy of 'Lesbian Vampire Killers from Outer Space'? Yes, your honor, it's mine. Just some innocent fun. Make belief, you so will. A harmless fantasy.'

'So you really like this film in which women are torn apart by an alien squid that uses all his tentacles to...and then gets blasted to pieces by two young girls that then use the dead alien squid's tentacles on eachother to...but not before the squid has intercourse with another male of its kind?'
-'Yes, your honor, just like I said: some harmless fun!'
'And if a comic book were made depicting young naked children being stroked by an adult man or woman?'
-'That would be just sick, sir!'
'And identifying yourself with a homicidal sexually overactive homosexual alien squid is not!? And where does the Bible state it's okay to have fun watching homosexual alien squids having sex? Please explain that to the court.'
'Ah, well...er...yes...er'

(Click to enlarge)

You are easy to manipulate

You are easy to manipulate!

Don't believe me?
Look around you in your house and count the number of objects (including foods) you don't really need...good luck!

Not only food producers like Philip Morris (Yes, the tobacco giant is one of the largest food producers in the world. And it makes sense since they know all about addictive additives in their products.) but most and foreall media and politicians know very well how to manipulate the audience into believing something they would never believe in if they would use their own judgement.

This comedy series shows a prime example of how you and I are tricked and even fooled:



Most people (you and I are the exception. Of course.) believe everything the government does to our privacy is to safeguard us from terrorists. Well, it's not.

Does money make happy?

Are people with more money happier than people with less?
The answer to that ancient question is in this article:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/can-money-buy-happiness-heres-what-science-has-to-say-1415569538?mod=trending_now_3

In short: Generally speaking people are happier when they can afford experiences and not material goods.

Spending time with your loved ones creates a better feeling than buying them stuff. Can you remember that, coming holidays?

To prove it, you can sign the pledge to not spend any money for one whole day on November the 29th. I'm in. Are you?

http://action.storyofstuff.org/sign/black-friday-no-shop-pledge

Here are twenty ways to live more and buy less:
http://www.postconsumers.com/education/how-to-buy-and-spend-less/

Helping others also - in general - makes us happier than helping ourselves. But apparently not in Fort Lauderdale, Fa, where a 90 years old man got arrested for helping the poor. As it seems, the American government is so ashamed for it's own policy over the years that created the problem of poverty that they don't want tourists to see they messed up. So people who show other people there is a serious problem concerning poor people are a threat to the system and should be locked up. No matter their age or intentions. http://kafila.org/2014/11/10/feed-the-poor-go-to-jail/

Are you a true Christian?

Suppose you are a christian and people will hunt you down, beat you up, won't give you work, lock you up and hold you responsible for all things wrong in this world. That would feel as really unfair, right?

The argument people use would be: 'Yeah, catholic priests abused young boys so every christian is potentially a child molester!'

You would not like that, would you? And you would say someting like:'Yeah, well, but you can't hold every christian responsible for what other christians do!'

The response of your attackers would be to hit you even harder and use words like: 'Well, your own holy book states that your God ordered you to kill anyone who believes differently then you do:

Deuteronomy 20:16-18

'However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.'

You might argue with: 'That it says so in my Holy Book does not mean I comply!' But the other will argue with: 'You follow your God anywhere, you do as he commands, right?'

-'Well, yes, but...'

Before you can finish the sentence you will get hurt. Seriously. And they will hurt your children too 'because they are raised to hate and kill, just like you!'

So now do you understand why it is wrong to condemn every single muslim for what terrorist organisation IS is doing to innocent civilians, especially young girls?

If you don't there is no more hope for you to ever become a good and true christian.

About boredom

'I'm just calling you because I'm bored.'

-'Why don't you do something about it? You could clean your bathroom,
read one of the great books in classic literature, do your laundry, visit your mom in the nursing home, help your handicapped neighbour with groceries, do volunteer work, man a phoneline for the depressed or go through your closet to see if there are clothes you could give the Salvation Army. '

'I would like to do that but I don't have the time!'
-'But you seem to have the time to bother me while you know that I'm busy?'

'But I'm just calling you because I'm bored! If you don't appreciate me calling I won't ever do it again!

-'Promise?'

What are you afraid of? And why?

I know you are afraid. But of what? Basically you are afraid of anyting the media (as partner of the government) tells you you should be afraid of. So now it's terrorism and ebola. It used to be communism and fall-out. And it will be something else, a decade from now.

I'd like to bring you in on an experiment. Don't watch Fox News or CNN for two whole days. Don't read a newspaper, don't search for 'news' on your computer, tablet or smartphone. For two days. But think. For yourself. And consider a few simple facts: how many people in your town - or even in your country - do you know who died of fall-out, communism, ebola or terrorism? Not many, I can assure you.

Far more people died last year because of old age, a fall from the stairs or eating a peanut. That's right: every single year more people die from eating peanuts than from terrorist attacks.

So why are you afraid of terrorists and not of peanuts? Why does the government allow bars and airline companies to hand out peanuts to civilians like you and me for free, knowing thousands of people worldwide die from eating peanuts!? They suffocate or die from anaphylaxis shock.

You say you are afraid of Ebola because it kills people and it's not in your control? Right. Let me ask you this: does the child that gets overrun by a drunk driver control the amount of alcohol its killer consumed?

Luckily most Americans think that drinking alcohol kills more people than smoking pot. Luckily because it's true, no matter how hard Fox News tries to make people believe it's the other way around:

And just so you know: The current outbreak of Ebola may have killed 5000 people so far but every single day some 35,000 people die of hunger...

Do you hate yourself?

I have always been wondering why people with names like Woshinski and Bauer don't want foreign people to come and live in the United States of America. Do they really hate their great grandparents that much? And if they are serious about closing the borders for 'those bloody foreigners', why do they keep telling them America is the greatest country in the world? And why is their building constructor a Polish guy, their gardener a Mexican and their housekeeper from the Philippines?

Often you hear stupid people say: 'It's all the foreigners fault because they are too lazy to work and they steal our jobs!' Wait a minute! So those people you say you hate are all unemployed and live of 'our' welfare AND we are unemployed because they steal our jobs? Have you ever listened to yourself?

There is one simple rule that applies to every single nation on the planet: non-domestic people are always willing to work hard for little pay. Are you?

And next time when you shout out: 'I hate foreigners!', realise that for the greater part of the world population you yourself are a foreigner so basically you state that you hate yourself.

Face it: not everyone loves America. And for some darn good reasons:
http://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/weird-things-about-america-things-foreigners-hate

Oh, and just as a favour (yes, that's with a 'u', look it up) to us, foreigners: try to say what you mean and mean what you say. Please.

On credit cards and a coffee cup salute

I don't have a credit card but believe in not buying anything when I can't afford it. And the rates are way to high on credit cards! So I have a debet card only and an 'old' (18 months old) phone. But no debts. While most people don't seem to care about the future and even governments spent more than they make I live a debtless life. The thing is: a lot of people don't seem to think anymore. Fox News tells them: 'George Bush would never disrespect soldiers by saluting them with something in his hands, like Obama did when he saluted soldiers while holding a coffeecup.' And people believe it!
Are people really that stupid that they blindly believe anything someone at Fox News tells them?
Too bad that people have become too lazy to look things up and to think for themselves because here is the simple truth that Fox News is lying. Again.

A War on Love?

When I saw this sign, my reaction was: 'Yeah, let's have a war on sex!'

Obviously the current methods to stop drugs and terrorism are not working, yet governments keep on trying. Wouldn't it be great if they stopped to think?

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong." Richard Feynman

Fact is we don't know everything, even though some pretend they do. But we can strive for knowledge in stead of get ourselves stuck at the level of knowledge we had a thousand years ago. And yes, it's okay to believe in God and science simultanously.

Skywatch Friday

Click to enlarge.

More pictures? Check our Flickr page

Note: Every SWF-picture published here is shot with my trusty Sony XPeria S mobile phone or our Canon EOS 450D and some are unedited and some are not.

For more Skywatch Friday photo's from around the globe, please check http://skyley.blogspot.com/

For our summer holiday we spend a week in France. Here are some of our views:

Enjoying the water on a very hot day

 Sundown at our site

 Amazing skies at an hour and  half walk from the nearest busstop

 Small lake near an old mill

 I forgot the name of this town. Sorry. If you reckognize it, please let me know!

 Watching the evening sky. Better than anything on television.

 A friend, my girlfriend an my two oldest children

 Hunting dogs at a kennel waiting for the sign to eat

This is where Caesar fought Vercingetorix. And won.

On our way to get fresh wine we just had to stop and admire this view

 Berries

 One of three local cats: Ping Pong

 Baking a pizza in the selfmade outdoor brick oven

 Enjoying the night sky over our compound

 The fields seem to stretch out until forever

 Every cloud has a...Golden lining!

 Some sky in Belgium

 Resting halfway home

 It rained while the sun was shining so we saw this rainbow!

 Just my oldest daughter enjoying a peaceful moment

 One of the spots to enjoy an intimate dinner. Or breakfast. Or just drink. Or not.

 Live music at the campfire

 It was a great day at the reservoir

 Sky over a cabin-to-be

 View from our cabin

 Trying to capture the night sky

 The night sky

To see the full album, click here for the slideshow. I hope you enjoyed watching these pictures as much as we enjoyed our stay. Happy skywatching!

Why should we feel sorry for Israel?

So Israel kills 2000 Palestines and Palestine kills 60 Israelies (both are horrific facts of course!). Israel is supported by America and most of the western world and Palestine is supported by a handful of Arabic nations. Palestinian kids are being slaughtered because missiles are being launched from the vicinity of their schools. But we all should feel sorry for Israel. Can someone explain to me why?

Skywatch Friday

Click to enlarge.

More pictures? Check our Flickr page

Note: Every SWF-picture published here is shot with my trusty Sony Xperia S mobile phone or our Canon EOS 450D

For more Skywatch Friday photo's from around the globe, please check http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Last april we spend a week in France. Here are a few pictures of that trip:

More pictures from that trip are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrebel/sets/72157644421500304/show/

Have a good weekend!