Hope (a #poem)

Even before they got introduced, 

he knew her name. 

Because of the way her eyes lit up

if she thought of something funny. 

Because of her smile 

if someone thanked her 

and because of 

the warmth she radiated 

to anyone fortunate enough 

to be in the same room 

He called her Hope 

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Where are we from?

"Where are you from?" is often the first question someone gets asked when arriving at a place where they've never been before. In general they don't want to hear you came walking 300 metres from the bus stop. They want to hear where your roots are. For most US citizens that question is easy to answer: they look at the family name of a grandparent, see how it's spelled and will proudly declare: "I'm Irish/Polish/Italian/French/German/Russian/Dutch/Norwegian!" Confusing for people who proceed to strike a conversation in Irish, 

Polish, Dutch or Norwegian because that "proud Norwegian!" doesn't speak a single word of Norwegian. 

Like Fox News host turned US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doesn't speak a single word in the language from the country he claims to be from. On the other hand he is a typical American as perceived by the general public outside the US: a (third generation) immigrant who's calling to prevent immigrants from enterering 'his' country. 

But does he mean Norway, as Hegseth is 'a proud Norwegian!'? Or does he mean the USA because he is 'a real patriot!'? 

It maybe a coincidence but not only Hegseth but also other conservative, 'Christian' Americans making a case for 'real American family values!', like political commentator and 'proud Irishman!' 

Bill o'Reilly, have a history of cheating, sexual misconduct and lying. Lots and lots of lying. Must be because of their foreign heritage because nice, white, pureblood US christians would never lie, sexually assault six different women or beat up their wife. Right?  

A few months ago the man who appointed a Fox News host without any political or military experience besides playing Call of Duty with his white supremacist buddies called upon immigrants from South Africa to please enter the US. Under the promise of money, jobs and homes. "Wait? What!? Trump gave Africans money, jobs and a home? Just like that?" Yep. But they were white Africans. Descendants of colonizers, not of the original people who lived in the south of Africa some 9,000 years ago. 

Clever people they were, those early Africans: without any contact with people from Europe or even people from other parts of Africa, they managed to evolve, invent and thrive. To eventually set foot on other continents and spread their DNA.

Making if fun to watch racists slowly realise their roots are basically in Africa.

So, now you know all this: where are you from?

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You are not (a #poem)

I thought we were forever

eternity and you

maybe some are clever

and I'm the only fool.

It's raining now and never

just obey the rules

and you'll be happy,

content and satisfied

because you won't realise

that you are not

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How can one state all life is sacred ànd condone a genocide?

Personally I don't understand why "All life is sacred!" people can condone genocide. 

Apparently nor can the creators of the 'woke' SF-series Star Trek. They created an episode on that very same question:

From the Facebook Group Silver Screen Hub:

For anyone who’s ever complained that *Star Trek: The Original Series* wasn’t bold enough, let me direct your gaze to “The Mark of Gideon,” which aired in 1969, smack in the middle of the show's weird and often audacious third season. On the surface, it looks like your standard Kirk-gets-kidnapped-and-flirts-with-an-alien story. But under that misleadingly stilted opening is a searing ethical critique dressed in the snug jumpsuit of sci-fi allegory, dealing with bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, and the weaponization of innocence. And oh boy, does it get *uncomfortably* relevant fast.

So let’s break this madness down. Kirk beams aboard what he *thinks* is the Enterprise, except it's deserted. Eerily silent. Not even a redshirt to trip over. Pretty soon, he finds Odona, a wide-eyed, dreamy brunette who has all the hallmarks of a Starfleet crush-of-the-week. But then she starts collapsing, spiraling into vague poetic dread, and we realize something fishy is going on—and it’s not just the wonky lighting. Turns out, surprise: it’s not the Enterprise. It’s a *life-sized replica* of the Enterprise built on a planet so overcrowded that people can't sneeze without giving someone else the flu. The planet is Gideon, and their idea of solving overpopulation is less about infrastructure and more about…biological warfare.

Here’s the kicker: their big idea is to abduct Kirk because he's carrying a disease (Vegan choriomeningitis—yes, it *does* sound like something you’d get from a trendy green smoothie) and use him to infect their population, thus gently trimming the numbers through viral attrition. You know, *euthanasia, the fun way.* Odona, being the ultimate idealistic daughter of this plan, volunteers to be Patient Zero—with full knowledge she might die in the process. But, don’t worry, she’s oddly giddy about it. Like she’s got a crush on death and it’s texting her back.

And here's where the episode takes a giant swing into *sharp, topical social commentary*. Kirk—grappling with the absurd logic of a society that won’t use birth control but is totally down with voluntary genocide—confronts Odona’s father, Hodin. The man, with the serene smugness of every dystopian leader ever, insists that life is so sacred, they can't possibly interfere with its creation. “We love life too much,” he says, while actively plotting mass death. Kirk, being Kirk, cuts through this with one of the most devastating mic drops in Trek history: “Yet you can kill a young girl.” Boom. Shatner might ham it up from time to time, but when he hits, *he hits.* And in that moment, he’s not just Captain Kirk—he’s the mouthpiece for every viewer watching in horrified disbelief.

Let’s be clear: this episode’s critique of “pro-life” absolutism is *light-years* ahead of its time. This is 1969. America was still wrestling with The Pill, Roe v. Wade hadn’t happened, and here comes Gene Roddenberry’s crew tackling the moral schizophrenia of a culture that exalts life while systematically denying people the tools to manage it responsibly. You can practically hear the network execs sweating through their suits.

And yet, for all its high-concept guts, the episode gets downright surreal if you think too hard about it. For instance—where exactly did they find the *space* on an overpopulated planet to construct an entire fake Enterprise? Did they evict a few thousand people to make room? How did they keep it secret? Also, how are these people still reproducing? Did everyone suddenly become contortionists? The answer: don’t ask. Just go with it. Suspension of disbelief is the fare you pay for this bus ride through existential dread.

Odona, by the end, doesn’t die. Kirk beams out with her, alive but emotionally scuffed, while the Federation likely files a strongly-worded memo. It’s a haunting episode, not because of any monster or phaser battle, but because it dares to ask a question so few stories ever touch, even today: what happens when the sanctity of life becomes an excuse to abandon reason, compassion, and common sense?

This is *Star Trek* at its best—masking razor-sharp commentary behind technicolor sets and latex foreheads. It may not be the most polished episode, but it’s one of the most daring. And in that final Kirk glare—equal parts horror, rage, and sorrow—you can feel the weight of a future that’s still figuring out how to balance the right to live with the right to choose. 

#StarTrekTOS #MarkOfGideon #SciFiCommentary #OverpopulationDystopia #ReproductiveRightsInSciFi #CaptainKirkWisdom #ClassicTrekTruths #OdonaDeservedBetter

The episode seems to state that often people think how they think because they have been indoctrinated since a young age. Conservatives do what they do to their children but accuse others of 'grooming'. By their own false logic they are really bad by taking their children to church to teach them lies. "Lies!? The Bible is full of lies!?" Yes. Unless you want to claim the different stories about Moses in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are equally true. For instance.

Interestingly, according to their own storytelling, the 'religion of peace and morality' started with Moses murdering a guy. Other cultures around the same time Judaism became popular spoke of a man named Moses too. To some he wasn't Jewish; to all he was a vicious murderer.

Now here's an interesting point: some say Moses did not commit a sin when murdering an Egyptian man and hiding the body 'because he was just an arab and thus hardly human'. While other Jews state: "Murder is never a sin if you kill an oppressor". With which they basically state Jews should stand at the side of Hamas and the Palestinians.

Here's a conversation that took place in 1989: a Palestinian woman explains her situation to Israeli women. 

"We feel sorry for you but it's your own fault that you are suffering; you should not throw rocks at innocent Jews who just murdered your parents and little sister. Shame on you!"

Do you think political and religious leaders should feed children with lies and hatred? In other words: do you condone grooming? Like taking young children to a church, mosque or synagogue?

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If not for greed, lust and power hunger (a #CirclePoem)

If not for greed, lust and power hunger,

the demons that poisoned your beautiful mind

had not come forward

and you would still be gracing the world

with your art and your words

for which you found no ground

in the world you left us,

Which could have been

as beautiful as your soul

if not for greed, lust and power hunger

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Real American!

 -"Tom?" "Yes, Clive?" "Have you ever sung the national anthem?" "Oh, lots of times, sir." "I don't mean officially." "You mean just to show I'm patriotic? Good gods, no. That would be a

rather odd thing to do," said the captain.

"And how about the flag?" "Well, obviously I salute it every day, sir." "But you don't wave it, at all?" the major enquired. "I think I waved a paper one a few times when I was a

little boy. Patrician's birthday or something. We stood in the streets as he rode by and we shouted 'Hurrah!"" "Never since then?" "Well, no, Clive," said the captain, looking embarrassed, "I'd be very worried if I saw a man singing the national anthem and waving the flag, sir, It's really a thing foreigners do," "Really? Why?" "We don't need to show we're patriotic, sir. I mean, this is Ankh-Morpork. We don't have to make a big fuss about being the best, sir. We just know."

From Nightwatch by Sir Terry Pratchett 

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Would Hollywood have accepted the son of German/Austrian immigrants who converted from Judaism to Catholicism to escape prosecution and was called Frederick Austerlitz? Not until the talented young dancer changed his name to Fred Astaire.

Would US investors have given money to the son of an immigrant from Syria with a slightly dark complexion called Abdul Lateef Jandali? Yet, they had no problems funding the dream of his own computer company when the guy was suddenly called Steve Jobs. Which sounded just about white. Even though his adoptive mother (Clara Hagopian) was also an immigrant, actually from Eastern Europa, namely Armenia. Not that far from where Job's biological mother was from; Joanne Schieble was German. 

As 'Alphonso' Senator Cruz was considered a half-blood, thanks to his Cuban father; as 'Ted' he was suddenly turned white. If we did wat conservatives demanded and started calling everyone by their original name, you would have no idea who we were talking about.

Nimarata Randwani? Yeshua Ben Jozef? The business man named Drumpf? James Donald Bowman? 

Many Americans (so, not Republicans and other racists and conservatives: they want what the nazis wanted and the Taliban and zionism want: no rights for homosexuals and hardly any rights for women and 'foreigners'. Fun fact: all fascists (nazis, conservative christians, muslim extremists and zionists alike, see women solely as creatures who should take care of their husbands, children and the household) who care for human rights, dislike antisemites and advocate for equal rights for the LGBTQIA+-community adored their 'real American!' Marie Jana Korbelová. Or - as they called her - Madeleine Albright.  

The US is a great country: all you have to do to make people accept you as an immigrant, is changing your last name to something that sounds just about white. Just ask Alphonso 'Ted' Cruz. 

What do you think the USA would look like if they had actually closed the border 300 years ago?

Cool on both sides, darling (a #poem)

Cool on both sides, darling (a #poem)

A single raindrop in the night sky

and a smile in the desert

A breeze as she runs past

To feel, one has to touch

and to see

it's sometimes best

to close your eyes

In a few minutes I will smell my pillow 

and imagine you tucking me in. 

May your pillow be cool on both sides, darling. 

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Sometimes all you need to do is listen

"Just words can't hurt." "Just words can't heal." "Just words can't shut people up." Oh, yes they can. Ask Tracy Chapman. In 1988 she hurt bigots, healed lovesick people and shut up 60,000 people at Wembley. With 'just words'. 

Just listen to the amazing - just 24 years young at the time - Tracey Chapman singing the song that would become a huge hit and inspiration. Here's Fast Car:

The people using words like groomer, woke, pedo, left, socialist, fascist, communist, antisemite... should be locked up in their bedroom at their mommy's place and only allowed out for lemonade and a cookie if they get the meaning right. 

Here's something I wrote in reply to a young man who looks up to people like Andrew Tate:

You can be a writer someday. When you're a grown man, treat women with the same respect you give your grandma. No, you don't want to quit these lessons. You're different but that makes you special. 

We may not always realize, but words that teachers, coaches, parents say to children - even if spoken in the most off handed way - have a tendency to resonate. Choose them well. 

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Do we want to live unhealthy?

We eat processed foods and consume alcohol. Both in large amounts. Although we know it's bad for us and responsible for millions of deaths world wide and next to that put enormous stress on national healthcare systems. Children might not know better but even when they do...

Eating vegan and staying sober is not just better for us humans but also for other animals and nature.

Most of us don't get enough excercise and while I'm typing this, I know it would be better for my mental and physical health if I would just go out for a walk instead of sitting at my desk for an extra hour or so. Even if I tell myself I'm 'working' or 'it's for a good cause'. 

So I ask myself the same question as I ask you now: do we want to live unhealthy?

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Afloat (a #poem)

Sailing together

from different harbours

going on a journey

with no set destination

Taken by different currents,

drifting apart

without the power

to get together again.

But it's okay

and enough

to know the other ship

is still afloat 

=================

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Why demand the right to get ripped off and made sick?

"It's not fair! The EU has much higher standards for food than the USA and that's why most countries don't want US food produce!" Aww...In general the EU sets rules to protect its civilians while the USA sets rules to protect its politicians' sponsors. 

It's why the stuff that Americans call 'bread' would be found in the candy section at European supermarkets. If the shelf life of bread is four weeks, it's not bread but candy. 

Only 0.00001% of all US beef could be sold in the EU. Most US farmers stuff their livestock full of hormones. Leading to huge healthcare concerns and the wry fact that worldwide in our modern days more people die from being obese - and related diseases - than from malnutriton.

Do you think a government should protect citizens or should rules be in place to mostly protect the profits of 'the elite' like Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Agro, the main sponsors of most US politicians?

Interesting fact: in civilised countries a politician who takes money from a company that directly benefits from the lawmaker's decisions is considered corrupt. Isn't conflict of interests against the law in the USA?

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For the millions of US antivaxxers who don't want chemicals in their body: please don't look up what the chemicals are in US beef, in tobacco, in cheap, red wine...

When the Night came (a #CirclePoem)

When the night came

they held hands

afraid of letting go

of eachother

and of shared memories

Realising they had no choice

they let go,

occassionally reminding eachother

of that moment

when the night came

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Why should we worry?

Yeah, let's keep muppetizing ourselves, ask ChatGPT what time our favourite real life soap is on and buy more stuff from Temu; we got this nice Swedish young lady to worry about the planet on our behalf so why should we? 

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Overconsumption is a real concern. While datacenters use billions of liters of fresh water to keep cool, people are literally dying of thirst. But at least they can ask their favourite chatbot why that is. In the words of a famous green puppet frog: "Yeeeeaaaaah!"

With every new technology new challenges arise. A.I. will make many working people redundant and new types of jobs will come into existence. But probably not enough to keep everyone working. At least not in the 'civilized' world. 

Governments are terrified of the dangers of A.I. It's why they are putting billions in a worldwide A.I. race with total disregard of possible safety issues.

Someday soon someone will get an A.I. bot really upset or ask it to end the world's greatest threat and the last thing we'll see is a large mushroom cloud. Luckily we won't see our burned lungs we 'll be puking out because just before that our eyes will have melted.

I like to see things on the bright side. And a nuclear explosion is very bright. Power of the sun 'n all that. 

If in a future scenario we won't get killed off but only lose the use of electricity, those who are already used to living without, stand the biggest chance of survival. Americans and Europeans will flee to Africa in the hopes of finding refuge. 

Could you easily live without electricity and with that *gasp!* without internet?

The bomb explodes (a #poem)

A life with no cravings 

and nothing to look forward to.

Nothing gives pleasure 

and all food is tasteless.

As if waking up 

from a dream 

right before 

the bomb explodes 

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Get bloggin'!

Tired of being moderated because some multi billionaire doesn't like your opinion? Want to write what you want, when you want, able to plan ahead and with no limitation on how many characters you can use?

Want to show pictures, GIFs and videos and, point your followers to other websites and moderate all comments to your posts yourself instead of having to trust a biased algorithm?

Get bloggin'!

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==================================

Some bloggers write about their favourite hobby, their pet, geopolitics, history, writing, investing...The blogosphere is a treasure throve for all kinds of students. Of course every single blogpost is coloured by the blogger's own thoughts and ideas. So you might have to withstand some criticism. Even if you only post pictures of adorable cats doing funny stuff.

What are your thoughts about blogging? Do you own or have owned a blog yourself?

New Possibilities (a #poem)

New Possibilities (a #poem)

The autumn of his life

felt as quiet as it was outside.

Emptiness overwhelmed him

and his heart felt cold.

Of course he could allow himself

to slowly drown

in memories and emotions

but he decided

to open the door

to new possibilities

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Someone said so, so it must be true!

"Hitler and the nazis themselves said they were socialists!" Sure, hun. And the Dutch Party for Farmers and Civilians really hates animal cruelty and wants to help civilians. While literally being made up by the Public Relations agency of Big Agro, multimillionaires calling themselves 'farmers' while in reality just being investors in cow sh1t and land. As a matter of fact: 70% of those 'poor Dutch farmers!' are millionaires and they already own 60% of all landmass in the Netherlands. And they still demand more, the greedy offspring of unmarried parents. 

"Yeah but they said they were nationalists and socialists and wanted to help the workers!"

A simple trick to get 'the people' to vote for them in a time when Nationalism as well as Socialism were popular ideas, just like workers rights. So they called themselves National Socialist German Workers Party. It's why right wing parties often have 'the people' in their name and these days 'freedom' and 'democracy'. Without doing anything you already secured tens of thousands of votes.

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All is well (a #poem)

Cello music fills the street

through an open window. 

An unknown neighbour is practicing. 

While a couple of birds

are squabbling over who knows what 

and a tram rings the bell 

to guide tourists to the sidewalk 

and a neighbour shares tea 

with a neighbour 

with whom she shares 

food and stories. 

All is well. 

I just learned I'm neurodivergent

When I quit smoking it wasn't the local tobacconist who suffered most but my poor ADHD-brain: instead of an average of some 38 thought trains, now hundreds raced freely through my mind. Was it the nicotine that kept my thoughts in check or should I just put something in my mouth again and set it on fire? Science says it was the nicotine. 

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"All of a sudden you see people who are autistic or have ADHD or Aspergers. It must be a conspiracy because it didnt't exist in my childhood!", according to US Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Sure. And 3247 years ago not a lot of people were diagnosed with cancer.  Medical science made some progress and it has become easier to see if someone is suffering from anxiety, has a burnout or is simply neurodivergent.

Besides: very recently scientists discovered cancer was not uncommon amongst dinosaurs. 

My psychotherapist set me free with a last piece of advice: "Yes, you have some physical disabilities and are getting older. Yes, you have childhood traumas and some are unresolved. And yes, you have ADHD. Live with it. Good luck, thanks for the fun conversations, for not shouting at me and I'll send you my last invoice tomorrow."

His words didn't really surprise me. I'm surprised the drinks brand 'Aquarius' hasn't used astrology in their ads yet. "Welcome to our Era, the Age of Refreshment. Join our cult and drink the cool-aid!" Sorry, ADHD. Drifted off a little there. 

I started following some ADHD-accounts on social media and every single time I'm surprised: "This is nót normal behaviour?" "This is the normal way to deal with this type of situation"? Apparently cab driver Cameron is 'neurodivergent'. I.e. 'not normal'

I'll have the whole menu, please. 

As long as I can ride with Cameron.

BTW: why should this not be 'normal' behaviour? Who else thinks it's weird to be clear, specific and really care about the other? IMHO it's a lot weirder to expect the other to be psychic and the other for you expecting to be psychic. 

I actually didn't know but it makes sense that often people don't understand me and I can get frustrated about it. But sometimes being able to rapidly make connections others don't see is appreciated. And it fills my heart with joy. 

Like the other day when someone stated that the Tesla Cybertruck is really bad: "The batteries still need cooling liquid, parts of the car just drop off, the transmission is lousy, it can't handle low temperatures and..." and I responded: "Elon's mission is trans? Don't tell his cult followers!" Many people probably didn't understand, but one person on social media platform Threads responded with a GIF-animation of a guy tipping his hat.

In general ADHD'ers have a strong dislike for injustice. Hence you don't find a lot of them voting 'radical right' political parties in their home country. But what if it's normal to feel empathy for oppressed groups of people and those nót diagnosed with ADHD are actually neurodivergent, i.e. 'not normal', als Lauren Dubois states.

Dit bericht op Instagram bekijken

Een bericht gedeeld door Lauren Dubois (@thelaurendubois)

Is the Secret World Government drugging people so most are 

docile sheep? It would explain the crazy number of 'wappies' in the US: the country has more contaminants in the drinking water, the soil and the air than any other country. American citizens being drugged by that same elite they scream to be against (Big Oil, Big Agro, Big Tech) would explain a lot. 

I was on (legal) drugs once too. To control my emotions and actions. And hated it to be 'normal'; lacking creativity, not being able to think outside the box, not feeling empathy for a colleague in distress...A common drug for combating ADHD is Adderall, Dexo-amfetamine. Donald Trump has been taking it for years. In bigly quantities. Taking too much Adderall leads to hallucinations, convulsions, over-excitement...

People with ADHD often find themselves frustrated because others don't seem to understand them and vice versa. They need clear instructions. "Do you see that door?" for quite a few ADHD'ers is an incentive to look at said door, not to leave the room. 

More than others, we take words literally.

"Why don't you understand what I want?" "Most likely because you say A but hope that I am psychic and somehow understand you mean B."

I thought it was normal to panic at everyday little accidents and stay extremely calm in life threatening situations and never understood why screaming people run around aimlessly when their house is on fire, I learned the latter behaviour is considered 'normal'. And not:

"F*ck, where is my favourite pen!", "Darn, almost out of coffee and the store will close in just two hours and is a ten minute walk. I will never make it in time!" and "Shazbat! I just dropped my favourite mug and now the ear has broken off. I don't know what to do." are much, much bigger problems than: "Some idiot is standing in my way of doing something I think is important and holding a gun to my face. I'll just ask him nicely to step aside or will make him. Tss!"

Apparently it's weird to have entire made up conversations in your mind while showing the facial expressions and hand gestures that go with the conversations. To get snapped out of it by a nurse telling the doctor will see you now. Or the lady at the counter asking you what kind of coffee you'd like.

I learned that normal people do not have a less favourite spoon in their kitchen drawer they will never use but also will never throw out. Always thought it was normal to basically hear every single sound around me at the same level of 'importance' 

just like every little bit of information is equally important to me. Was actually shocked when I found out that most people can quite easily filter out what's actually not important at any particular moment.

And no, that we start fidgeting, divert our eyes from you and interrupt you with a story of our own does not mean we don't care. On the contrary. The fidgeting is to keep our mind distracted while focusing on what you're saying; our eyes turned 'inward' means we're trying to understand what you're saying by searching our database for something relatable and spill it to show you we can actually relate and therefore care. We don't use tricks à la Dr. Phil (a light hand touch, looking you deep in the eyes, saying 'hmm hmm') to make you think we care but we actually do. If we don't, you will know because we will simply tell you. It's called 'honesty'. 

Was once put on meds for a couple of weeks so I could focus on work and only had one or two other thoughts at any given moment. It was hell! My creativity was gone, I could no longer cheer at finally finding a cash difference of three cents in the bookkeeping software after four days of searching while also running the company's daily bookkeeping (and helping colleagues from completely different departments just for fun and because my mind thrives on doing all kinds of different things simultaneously), forgot how to smile at some drunk tourist trying to imitate the whistle of some early morning bird...Is that really how normal people feel? I pity them. 

It takes a lot of energy to control myself and not have onesided conversations and expect my conversation partner to be able to keep up, like in this conversation about the difference between 'expat' and 'immigrant':

Aha! So - since you left your home country - you are an expat. And since you came to live in The Netherlands your are an immigrant. Totally makes sense now. Thanks! I guess. And luckily for you we Dutchies - in general - love refugees. So we can make them work for us for virtually nothing and complain that everything in our lives is their vault. We really need you guys. No, we really do. Because the Dutch are selfish and therefore don't want to have kids. So - just like Israel - we take in loads of 'foreigners' to use as slaves...pardon...appreciated laborers. (fun fact: for people like Baudet and Wilders you are not a foreigner. Because your skin colour matches theirs) because otherwise the people who literally own more than half the land (the 'poor farmers') might have to rely on more EU-subsidies to (keep their private yachts) stay afloat. 

For people with my kind of mind (it's not a disease or mental illness, just something different) it's not uncommon to drift off during a conversation. It has nothing to do with being inpolite or not paying attention. Our mind is just searching for similar situations as the conversation partner tells us about so we can share those anecdotes to share we know what they mean to show we actually care.

And all these years I thought it was just me. Not paying attention. Not putting in enough effort to what is said. Not respecting the person talking to me...I didn't know whether to cry or feel relieved. Finally I started to understand why people at the table next to hours shook their heads and left if I was having a conversation with an ADHD-friend because apparently that goes something like this. 

It seems that 'normal' people are incapable of solving a problem if that solution is not in a manual. They can also have a normal energy level for weeks on end while I'm part of a team that can be completely lethargic for the same amount of time but has sudden bursts of energy in which we manage to do in two hours what others would take two weeks.

Are neurodivergent people the next step in human evolution, some experiment by Mother Nature, an exponent of the welfare state? What are your thoughts on the matter?

He could hear her voice (a #circlepoem)

He could hear her voice

in the back of his head

every time he stood

at a crossroad in life,

about to make an important decision

Deciding if something

was important or not:

a new car, job, house or partner?

What are the really important

things in life?

Now he had to make

the most important decision

of his life,

he really longed for her

to be there with him so

he could hear her voice

==================================

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What's with the conservative obsession for genitals?

An alarming percentage of 'radical right' people are obsessed with genitals and children. And - disturbingly - the combination thereof. 

Strangely enough conservatives are terrified of transwomen entering ladies' dressing- and bathrooms. But why don't they worry about actual men do the same? A certain US president even bragged about walking in on teens in various stages of undressing.

Conservatives hate competition. It's why they are terrified of transwomen and dark skinned foreigners assaulting 'their' women; they want the exclusive right.

Personally I'd like to see separate dressing- and bathrooms for sane people and conservatives; I would not feel comfortable sharing the room with someone obsessing over my genitals:

Radical right people are waiting in line to stand at the doors of bath- and dressingrooms to check on the genitals of every single person walking in. A disturbing obsession.

While you can almost bet the perpetrator is a conservative when a child is sexually abused, they keep blaming 'the left!', 'trans!', 'gays!', 'drag!' from doing what they dream of doing. Unfortunately: quite often conservatives not only dream of sexually molesting children.

Do child abusers think they will be absolved from their crimes if they call themselves 'Christian'?

'Christian' school principal and coach Kevin Hobbs has been arrested for posession of pictures of sexually abused children. Twice. Which raises the question: why was he not jailed after the first time and allowed to keep working with young children?

Since the radical right loves people like themselves, Donald Trump pardonned Jonathan Braun, a drug dealer who assaulted a 3 year-old child. 

Should all child abusers have to face jailtime or only if they're Democrats and/or allign themselves with 'the rainbow coalition', like Matthew Inman?

Could not find any information on Inman's religious believes but someone's religion should not have any iufluence on that person's punishment for child abuse. 'Person'? You surely mean 'that man's'! Nope. Believe it or not, also women can be (sexual) child predators. In the US around 8% of all offenders is female.

The Great Leader himself has been found guilty on charges of sexual assault himself while his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein - famous for throwing parties with famous people and minors offering sexual services - and facts like his daughter Ivanka living with him in the White House during the start of his first term as president while his wife lived in New York, raises questions.

Is it normal behaviour for a father to have his teenage daughter sitting on his lap, both enjoying her jumping up and down and wiggling her bottom?

In 'The Land of the Free' conservatives are pushing laws to allow referees and coaches to stick their hands in children's underwear to check if they are the 'right' gender to participate in children's sports. 

Officially 'because girls who used to be boys have an unfair advantage in competing'. 1] Children's sports should not be about competing and 'being the best' but about having fun, getting enough excercise and learning how to cooperate and be social. 2] Changing gender hardly ever gives anyone an unfair advantage over others, except where just the amount of musle tissue can make a difference.

"Yeah, but by default men are better runners than women so transwomen should not be allowed to compete in running!" Interesting that you think that because often women outperform men in ultra marathons. 

By nature's design different people have different (dis)advantages over others. For example: swimmers Pieter van den Hoogenband and his arch nemesis Ian Thorpe and their most formidable opponent Michael Phelps were genetically different from all their competitors; van den Hoogenband was born with a rare 'arch' in his back, making his body more aerodynamic and Ian Thorpe had unusual large 'flipper feet' and Michael Phelps was born with twice the lung capacity of 'normal' men, making him extremely hard to beat at long distance events. 

Should they have been excluded from events in which it was only exciting to see who would go home with forth place because van den Hoogenband, Thorpe and Phelps would usually take the Gold, Silver and Bronze?  

If men really want to change their gender so they can make a lot of money in women's sports, they're not very smart, are they?

What those who simply repeat soundbites of their right wing leaders don't know, is that it used to be normal that men and women would compete in the same sports events. Like Olympic archery. 

Because a lot of men started to complain that they didn't like being defeated by women, they demanded men and women should be divided while performing in sports events. It's true. Bigly. 

In short: demanding people be banned from a certain sports event based on gender or even skin colour is primarily rooted in racism and misogyny.

If gender or skin colour really is an issue in competetive sports, why do jockeys and their horses have different genders and skin colours?

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

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