She did (a short story)

The sound of a passing motorboat

woke him up from his slumber.

The shadows had moved

to where he had found

a spot in the park

and he felt calm and energetic.

Soon she would come to his place for dinner

and he felt confident

that this time

he could tell her how he felt,

hopefully discovering

how she did.

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Is there really a correlation or are you just told there is?

"With the banning of guns, historically a dictatorship follows". I wrote about it earlier (click). This is a classic example of 'gaslighting': making a statement that 'must be true, because, you know, it just is'.  The way it is stated makes people who know it's nonsense doubt themselves. But it isn't true. It's false logic. and an example of finding correlation when there is not. 

A government that bans guns is not a dictatorship but is simply using common sense.

A different, and classic, example is: 'Immigrants are criminals because the crime rate went up when more immigrants entered.' Of course there are criminals amongst immigrants. But a main part of the rise in crime rate could be the outburst of violence against immigrants. Combine those figures with the petty theft from immigrants who don't get money but also not a work permit and crime is up.

Speaking of immigrants: a famous trademark of dictators is that they often blame immigrants for everything bad in a country.

Want to know what an actual dictator sounds like? Every would be dictator loves the use of words like 'Freedom!', 'The People!' and 'Democracy!' They usually put one of these words that trigger gullible people in the name of their political party. So be wary of a political party that calles itself something like 'Party for Freedom and Democracy for The People'.

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Join me (a short story)

The sounds of the party

got muffled as he left the club.

Inhaling the cool night air

as if he just got freed

after having been locked up

for half a lifetime,

he looked up at the moon

and seemed surprised it was there.

He turned around to the woman by his side and said:

'It's been nice meeting you. 

I'm going home. 

Welcome to join me.'

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Should everything that can potentially kill be banned?

If something is bad for our health, it should be banned. Right? So US legislators were right when they banned lawn darts after a child got seriously hurt by one of those large darts. And children could suffocate on the little plastic toys in Kinder Surprise Eggs so they are rightfully banned too. Same goes for drugs: people can actually die from using drugs so it's good to ban them! Right?

Accept when the drug is called alcohol or is one of many prescription drugs. Although alcohol and prescription drugs are often highly addictive and kill millions of people a year. And nobody ever died from an overdose of maijuana but weed is a drug so it's good that it's banned. Because banning dangerous things really helps. Except when that dangerous thing is a gun. In that case banning won't help because criminals will get their hands on them anyway.

If more people would have a gun there would be less shootings. Right? So, if everyone could easily get a Kinder Surprise Egg, less kids would swallow the little plastic toy and if drugs were more readily available there would be less addicts and less people dying from an overdose. That's only logical.

The government should never interfere and protect people from dangers by interfering.

When you ask people if they would support a ban on a substance that can (potentially) kill, most of them agree. Even when that substance is water:

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The Fly (a poem)

They wove a web together.

Entangled in love and mystery

they built a future.

Thread by thread.

Sometimes disturbed by the wind,

filled with waterdrops

that often soon disappeared

and just as often

left a drop 

defying gravity

She was more beautiful than the web

and he was happy with her

just patiently waiting

together

In his mind

they had made it together

but a thought disturbed him

Who was the spider

and who was the fly?

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Dutch culture

Having been born in the Netherlands I find it strange that people from other countries hardly ever speak more languages than just their native tongue. The Netherlands has always been a trading nation and one of the first ever tourists - an Italian salesman - noted about Amsterdam around 1650: "People from all religions and colours are welcome in Amsterdam. As long as the Dutch can get money out of them."

Like any people The Dutch too find foreign customs strange but instead of rejecting them, the Dutch assimilated them. Even the most notorious Dutch racists love to get Chinese take out for dinner.

We took over habits from Portugese Jews (we consider the philosopher Baruch Spinoza as 'real Dutch', altough his parents were Spanish/Portugese migrants), French Hugonots (they made French the lingua franca of the Dutch upperclass and stimulated the Dutch textiles industry and glass- and clock making), American expats (Black Friday, Halloween and Valentine's Day), German merchants (Mothers Day and 'real Dutch' apple pie) and after Indonesia and Surinam became independent, the Dutch let thousands upon thousands of them in so the Indonesian 'rijsttafel' (fun fact: this 'Indonesian tapas' is not a custom in Indonesia itself) and the Surinamese 'broodje bapau' (steamed breadroll, usually filled with fish or meat) became part of Dutch culture. 

Worldwide the (former) Dutch companies Shell, Unilever, KLM and Philips are well known and that little country by the North Sea has made a huge impact, for part thanks to inventions like the telescope, the microscope, the cd and the printing press, the submarine, Santa Claus ('Sinterklaas') and the stock market. 

Most likely because 'we' managed to combine the knowledge of 'the new Dutch', learned from their mistakes and build on that. Everybody is welcome but you have to embrace 'Dutch culture'. So, if you want to be welcomed by the Dutch, complain that 'Those bloody foreigners come here to take our jobs!', just like my electrician did. Not realizing his parents came from Morocco in the seventies, stimulated by the Dutch government at the time because the Dutch themselves didn't want to clean up their own mess, work in the mines or in factories. 

In short: the Dutch are very tolerant and open minded. But only if they see an opportunity to gain more wealth.

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Smile (a poem)

Oh, you precious life!

Full of mysteries

you are a mystery yourself

and perhaps the biggest one of all.

You make us search for meaning

and patiently smile

at people spending their whole lives

looking for your purpose

Confusing it with their own

not realising they are alive

but not living

Do you give us the anwers

in the end

and is that why

dead people often smile?

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Does banning guns lead to a dictatorship?

No. Banning guns does not lead to a country becoming a dictatorship. For answers, see this Quora-discussion (click). Yes, the nazi's put heavy restrictions on gun ownership. But only for Jews. Other Germans could still easily get their hands on guns. Australia succesfully banned guns after a mass shooting and can't be considered a dictatorship. Pol Pot became a ruthless dictator of Cambodia. But never banned guns. He had the French occupiers before him to thank for the fact that gun ownership for citizens was restricted so he wasn't afraid for an armed rebellion. 

In Afganistan there's a large 'Kalashnikov- culture' but the country's citizens bow under a ruthless dictatorship. 

Britain, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany...they all have laws in place to make it hard for civilians to simply buy a gun. Are all those countries dictatorships? Yet, Americans influenced by the powerful gun lobby seem to think it's a fact that if you take away guns from civilians, they will get oppressed by a ruthless dictator. 

Thinking that arming every civilian will lead to less shootings is rather stupid. For example: if drugs were easier to get, would that lead to less people being drug addicts?

In all countries the government has a larger military than its civilians. Does that mean that every country is basically a dictatorship? Of course not. Hence the statement: 'Banning guns leads to a dictatorship' is false.

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