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Sunday, February 26, 2006

Bin Laden losing his touch

According to The Onion:

CIA analyst Douglas Biryla advised the public at large to skip the latest video tape from fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden Monday. "This latest offering doesn't have anything his post 9-11 work lacks—just the usual ominous threats of total annihilation to the West," Biryla said. "Despite some nice remastering work courtesy of Al-Sahab, it's not bin Laden's best , and certainly not mandatory viewing outside of the intelligence community or bin Laden's more hardcore fans."

13:33

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Keep on supporting Denmark

First I read this, then this. Which makes it all the more important to sign this, if you haven't already. It's not over yet, in fact, the battle for freedom of speech may be just beginning.

11:53

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Celebrities in a culture based on unity

Friday night's episode of Battlestar Galactica dealt with the concept of individuality, a concept we supposedly treasure in Western society. I've commented before on this blog on the strange way we deal with some psychiatric patients, mainly those in the high-functioning autistic spectrum, something that became apparent to me only when studying psychology a few years ago. Psychiatry works from a book called the DSM-IV, which stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. Somewhat crudely put, this implies a diagnosis of a mental disease is based on a statistical analysis of the presence of certain behavioral factors. Or, in other words, on a deviation from the mean.

In some cases, where people become a hazard to themselves and/or their environment, the issue may be more clear cut and society may have to intervene. However, what do you do with people who can take care of themselves, are capable of leading lives in a way that does not keep others from leading theirs in peace, and insist they don't want treatment, because they are happy just the way they are?

Apparently, you drug them anyway, because Mommy/Daddy/society knows best:

Because autistic people usually have some challenges in life, there are some people who think finding a cure for autism would be in the best interest of autistics.

Who the hell are we to make that determination? Doesn't liberalism (in its classical John Stuart Mill sense) mean live and let live? Are we going to take control of everyone's personal affairs once he or she gets confronted with 'challenges'? But wait, the text goes on:

People who are interested in a cure for autism include physicians, therapists and parents of autistic children, who believe the benefits of the unique, and arguably, rewarding subjectivity experienced by the autistic is not worth the social and functional strains entailed.

The severity of functional 'strains' and whatever challenges they may offer, are best determined by those who experience them. And the social aspect is, of course, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some have compared the neurodiversy (sic) movement to the pro-anorexia movement.

The difference being, of course, that pro-anorectics actually risk killing themselves; those who do not want to take their ADHD drugs may live to be a 100. Which makes it important to ask: for whose sake are we treating people that do not wish to be treated and mean others nor themselves any harm? Could it perhaps be the case that they make us feel uncomfortable, and treating them is far from a selfless act, but rather a way of shaping the world to reflect our limited acceptance of human diversity?

Perhaps one day, we'll look back on the early 21th century and consider our attitude towards those with different neural wiring to be petty and bigoted. Or perhaps, we will all take our daily shots to keep our behavioral parameters within the narrowly defined bounds described in the DSM-XIII. A brave new world, indeed, and one in which we will have made ourselves immune to change - for the better.

11:01

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Saturday, February 25, 2006

Spooky

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Gotta wonder about the sudden drop mid-December. Was Regina Lynn having a vacation?

23:14

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Wife of late Dutch 'Greenspan' mentioned in file of terrorist suspect

This is plain weird. According to local newspaper Het Parool Gretta Duisenberg, the widow of former Dutch National and European Central Bank chief Wim Duisenberg, is mentioned in the file of terrorist suspect Samir Azzouz. The file contains a Post-it note with Mrs Duisenberg's telephone number, as well as the words 'phone', 'cooperate', 'invite' and 'three o'clock' (in Dutch, of course). In the Parool article, Mrs. Duisenberg denies knowing Azzouz.

The newspaper goes on to describe accusations of Mrs. Duisenberg aimed at the Dutch intelligence service AIVD, for having placed a wiretap on her phone (George, sure you don't know anything about that?). She says she's certain of being eavesdropped upon because she hears a clicking sound every time she places a call. Right, intelligence agencies still work with technology from old Forsyth novels. Mrs. Duisenberg has courted controversy before: she is an activist for the foundation of a Palestinian state and, rather more controversialy, has compared the situation of the Palestinians with the Holocaust of the Jewish people.

14:45

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Dutch Mohammed T-shirts

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Order them here.

Broadsheet NRC Handelsblad quotes the owner of the web store, Mr. Molenwijk, as saying that two Muslims are involved with this enterprise.

It's a smart ploy, since orange is the Dutch national color, and almost everyone in the nation is known to wear something orange during soccer championships. Americans will probably be unaware of this, but the World Soccer Championship is coming up this summer, and to add to the friendly nationalist zeal this always inspires in the Dutch, it takes place in Germany, which is pretty much the arch enemy of the Dutch soccer 'elftal' (team).

It will be interesting to see how many soccer fans will be wearing these shirts in the summer.

11:56

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Friday, February 24, 2006

Tomorrow is the pro-Danish demonstration in Amsterdam

Too bad that such unpleasant organisations as Stormfront have decided to show themselves there tomorrow. In fact, it seems that their participation has discouraged many moderate supporters of Denmark not to come. I am one of them. I do not intend to support the hijacking of a worthy cause by those who support an ideology which has shown itself to be anything but supportive of freedom of speech in the 20th century.

I am more than a little miffed by this, actually, because a similar thing happened in 2003 when pro-war demonstrations were flooded by supporters of Nieuw Rechts (New Right). The leader of this organisation has been photographed in front of a Stormfront flag in the past. Needless to say, this is not the company I like to keep.

Tomorrow is likely to become at the very best, a peaceful if very loud charade, or, more likely and at its worst, a charade where right-wing radicals will be bashing heads with left-wing radicals. I detest them both with equal fierceness.

Sorry Denmark. I bought some Carlsberg today, though.

21:20

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Sunday, February 19, 2006

No, by all means, let your cats roam

According to the Dutch ministry of health there's no reason whatsoever to keep your cats inside in order to prevent the spread of H5N1. There's hardly any chance of them getting infected anyway.

Oh really.

According to Dr. Kuiken (which translates as Dr. 'Chick') and Dr. Rimmelzwaan (which translates as Dr. Swan - I am not making this up), the risk is definitely there. And Nature seems to think so as well.

Fortunately, Ender is much too busy sleeping anyway.

16:23

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Friday, February 17, 2006

Why you should hurt the ones you love

Sullivan tells it best:

So why my recent concentration on the far right? It's pretty simple: they're in power. They control all branches of government and a hefty chunk of the media. They deserve to. They did all this legitimately and democratically. But, in my book, that means an independent writer should concentrate more on that extreme right now, while not ignoring the other, because they're the ones running the country. I guess I'm also more angered by the right these days because I care more about conservatism than about liberalism. It's my philosophy, damnit, which means I get more upset when I see it desecrated or abandoned.

There's a lot more I agree with my father on than I used to when I was 18, which I'm being told is one of the annoying but inevitable consequences of getting older. But there's one important exception to that rule. When I was 18, the church I was a member of nearly got torn apart by internal turmoil. My father lambasted the local press for which I worked at the time, for reporting about it. He couldn't understand why, as he put it, one 'would want to soil his own nest'.

That, of course, is a rhetorical reversal of what's really going on in such cases. Our job as journalists is indeed not to litter the place. That would be manufacturing news (and yes, I know that, unfortunately, some 'journalists' will have no qualms about doing it anyway.) But when someone else has dumped dirt all over a place people care about, it's our job - no, our duty - to tell the story to as many people as possible.

People may not always like to hear the world isn't as perfect as they'd like it to be. But the only way to come closer to that lofty goal is to be told as often as possible what issues still need remedying.

19:46

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Moderate Muslim watch: Germany

Credit where it's due:

A Muslim cultural institute in Germany on Monday criticized Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for disparaging the Holocaust, daring him to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp.

"In this place of horror he can again deny the Holocaust, if he has the courage," a spokesman for the Islam-Archiv-Deutschland Central Institute told the German Catholic press agency KNA.

Not sure what the Arab word for 'balls' is, but this will probably suffice.

21:18

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Photographers attacked during Amsterdam Muslim demonstration

Only now has it become known that three press photographers (Maurice Boyer, Phil Nijhuis and Daimon Xanthopoulos) were attacked on Saturday during the Muslim demonstration that got four people arrested. In the case of Boyer, this resulted in some minor injuries, which nevertheless kept him from participating in a running competition on Sunday. Nice.

Meanwhile, a bunch of cowards in Oldenzaal, a city in my native region of Twente, have decided to prohibit Mohammed parodies during the upcoming Catholic Mardi Gras festivities. My beloved late grandmother was from Oldenzaal and if she could hear about this, she'd rise from the grave and give them an old-fashioned ass-whooping.

18:37

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Request to my readers

I am not in the habit of asking for money, but may I ask that, if you enjoy this blog, you visit my tech blog PMM Blognoot once in a while, and perhaps start to use it as your homepage? The friendly people at Planet Internet, of which PMM Blognoot is a part, are kind enough to pay me for my blogging, which in turn enables me to spend time on Zacht Ei. It seems only fair that they would get some extra pageviews as a result. We're doing pretty good already and indeed traffic is at an all-time high, but I feel we can do excellent, and so that's what I wish to aim for. I also would ask that you forward the URL to PMM Blognoot (www.pmmblognoot.nl) to any of your friends with some grasp of Dutch.

Alternatively, sending a winning lottery ticket to my postal address is also much appreciated. (Or barring that, real Jelly Belly beans.)

18:28

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Monday, February 13, 2006

Quote of the day

From an old edition of the Columbia Journalism Review:

Those who rise up against the expression of ideas are strikingly similar. No one is less tolerant than those demanding tolerance. Despite differences of culture and creed, they all seem to share the notion that there is only one way of looking at things, their way.

12:29

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

British imam praises 7-7 suicide bombers

From The Times:

A LEADING imam in the mosque where the July 7 bombers worshipped has hailed their terrorist attack on London as a “good” act in a secretly taped conversation with an undercover reporter.

Hamid Ali, spiritual leader of the mosque in West Yorkshire, said it had forced people to take notice when peaceful meetings and conferences had no impact.

Derogatory noises from the left about a journalist having used unsavory reporting practices start in 3, 2, 1...

18:49

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Muslim demonstration in Amsterdam: two arrests

Of course the police immediately played it down, but 'youngsters' (no information on nationality, ethnicity or religious affiliation provided - but from television footage I can pretty much gather we are not talking about 5th generation Dutchies here) have disturbed the Muslim protest against the Danish cartoons that took place here in Amsterdam this afternoon. A telling quote from a police spokesperson at NieuwNieuws: 'These youngsters are looking for a confrontation. They are disrupting the demonstration which was progressing without incident.'

Right. Everybody who causes trouble of course cannot be part of said demonstration, for otherwise we couldn't keep up the myth of well-integrated newcomers peacefully using their freedom of speech. According to local tv station AT5 there are or were about 150 (!) youngsters causing trouble; one shop was attacked according to the RTL television news; bystanders were harrassed; and two people have been arrested. Until now. Nice detail: according to NieuwNieuws some of these nice young folks were wearing Hamas jackets. You don't buy those at Sissy Boy.

As for the rest of the demonstration: very revealing was the comment of one participant, expressing his opinion that Ayaan Hirsi Ali should stop expressing hers: 'She should not create problems.' Well, that's what several decades of leftist 'turn the table' rhetorics will get you. It seems these people are integrating quite nicely when it comes to employing the same kind of veiled threats Dutch politicians used to ostracize Pim Fortuyn when he spoke unpleasant truths. Hopefully, this story will have a happier ending.

Update 20.03: Make that four arrests.

18:09

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Free Zacht Ei advice

For those who are going to protest the Mohammed cartoons this afternoon in Amsterdam.

lesson.jpg

(Cartoon from Daryl Cagle's website.)

Cox and Forkum have a cartoon which shows the kind of protest we're not likely to see.

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Not that the Western MSM (with some exceptions) have behaved themselves any braver.

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11:01

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Friday, February 10, 2006

Dutch people united in their defense of freedom of speech

According to a survey by Dutch tv channel RTL a staggering number of 84 percent feels that Ayaan Hirsi Ali should film Submission part II. Yes, that's staggering. The same survey concluded that only 36 percent of the Dutch have positive feelings towards the film (43 percent neutral, 20 percent negative). 88 percent of those questioned think the film should be allowed under the principle of freedom of the press (so there's apparently at least 4 percent of the Dutch population that feels the film should not be made, but think it should be allowed anyway. Odd.).

Mind you, 73 percent of the Dutch expects a backlash from the Islamic world, with 56 percent reckoning there will be a boycott of Dutch products, which fortunately means more liquorice for us. (BTW, the latter number isn't in the hyperlinked article, but was transcribed from the tv broadcast.) This makes the results of the survey all the more important, since it means that those questioned stand by their principles even though they're aware of the probable consequences. It's good to know the Dutch people are more courageous than their government.

Meanwhile, here is some television footage of Muslim youngsters torching Danish flags in Limburg, a province most Dutch wish wasn't part of the country anyway. (Just joking, dear Limburg visitors. You bake great cakes.)

19:33

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Thursday, February 9, 2006

Onwards Muslim soldiers

Seems the scriptkiddies that attacked Danish websites made a little movie about their exploits. Download it here (right click, save as). (Via Infovlad and PMM Blognoot.)

9:46

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Tuesday, February 7, 2006

The rye or the kaiser

I am always grateful for visitors who decide to leave comments that show a personal stake in an issue, especially if they do so by showing vulnerability rather than hostility. Therefore, I'd like to direct your attention to some comments a mother left about her daughter who is suffering from a form of high-functioning autism. Her words are in Dutch, as is the original post.

22:17

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Grow up

Sulli on the cartoon crisis:

'If Chinese radicals were ransacking Western embassies because of a cartoon, and were backed by the Chinese government, we would be outraged, demanding apologies, severing relations, and so on. But when Muslims do it, backed by Islamist governments, we are supposed to take it on the chin, to "respect" their religious traditions, issue mealy-mouthed statements, etc. In many ways, this is the real offense: treating Muslims as if their violation of global norms, and thralldom to medieval conceptions of politics and religion, were somehow acceptable.

They are not acceptable. Islam must reform itself if it is to have a proud and noble place again among the great religions of the world. Muslim countries must allow freedom of religion for other faiths - and allow their citizens free votes in free elections. Dabbling in Holocaust denial by a current government should be treated as a form of insanity or fascism, rather than as some kind of thing to be "understood". Those who are addicted to the narcotic of religious fanaticism do not need enabling or excuses. They need an intervention. Especially when they are on the verge of wielding nuclear weapons.'

20:02

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The communist charm of Dutch healthcare

Starting this year, I'll be spending twice as much on healthcare insurance thanks to a botched attempt by the so-called free-market party VVD to privatize the sector.
If only. If anything, healthcare in the Netherlands is getting more of that good ol' East European charm by the day.
Imagine my surprise when I called my GP today for an appointment, only to hear that the next available slot was on Friday. Apparently, she doesn't work on Thursdays, and Wednesday was already booked full.
It's very much free-market to choose your own hours, and if my GP wants to work four days a week (or three, or two, or one) then that's fine by me. As long as there's an industry in place that makes it possible for me to go to an alternative supplier of medical services.
The sad truth is that such an industry is, in fact, not in place. Healthcare institutions and the government have worked strenuously for years now to create an artificial scarcity on the market. The number of medical schools is limited, and so is the number of places for students. Rather than increasing the number of teachers, we hold lotteries (for selecting on proficiency would be discriminatory) to keep the number of future doctors down to an insufficient number.
Add to that the fact that it isn't really easy to go to an alternative GP in case your own one decides having two days a week off isn't enough. There is an emergency service, but it isn't much use unless you happen to be bleeding to death. And though more and more Dutch GP's expect their patients to adapt to their schedules by being unavailable for 3/7th of the week, there is very little appreciation in the medical community for the fact that more and more of those patients themselves lead ever busier lives, and may not be able to accept an appointment at an inconvenient time which lies some three days in the future to begin with.
There have been a few attempts to commercialize GP services. In The Hague, a total of fifteen GP's have grouped together to offer consultations during extended hours. Alas, they don't accept customers outside that area. And the response from the medical community has been by and large sceptical, if not downright hostile. Which means it may take years before such services become available in the capital, where I live.
If an increasing number of Dutch decide to slash their wrists, you may therefore be mistaken in assuming that they seek to end their lives. It may simply be the quickest way to get a GP to prescribe them some corticosteroids to deal with a rash.

13:29

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Monday, February 6, 2006

American action versus European appeasement

Seems Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Volker has been busy today:

In EUPolitix, about the Syrian embassy attacks:

“That does not happen by accident; there has to be some kind of acceptance by the state to let that kind of demonstration to go ahead,” US deputy secretary for European affairs, Kurt Volker told reporters on Monday.


In the Washington Post:

"I don't believe there is a question of legitimacy for Europe, the United States or others to apply sanctions."

Compare his attitude to that of Spanish prime minister Jose Barosso, who today writes in the International Herald Tribune, along with prime minister Recep Erdogan of Turkey:

Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of our democratic systems and we shall never relinquish it. But there are no rights without responsibility and respect for different sensibilities. The publication of these caricatures may be perfectly legal, but it is not indifferent and thus ought to be rejected from a moral and political standpoint.

(Hat tip: Peaktalk; Barcepundit.)

Choosing my holiday destination this year is getting easier by the minute. I think I'll settle for Copenhagen (with sincere apologies towards any female readers who until now maybe thought I was capable of reproducing through agamogenesis).

18:57

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Sunday, February 5, 2006

Hans van den Broek on 'Buitenhof'

'Buitenhof', a Dutch news show, just showed Hans van den Broek, a former secretary of foreign affairs. Mr. Van den Broek likes to cave in to violence. To paraphrase what he just said: 'If cartoons create all this mayhem, then you should wonder if publishing them is worth all that.' In other words, the limits of freedom of speech are determined by those who are quickest in being willing to use violence.

12:13

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OK, so no trip to Beirut then

I intended to visit Lebanon in the summer to do a summer course in Arabic. Well, I guess I'm not going as I'm not in the habit of sponsoring intolerance.

12:02

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Hitchens on Islam

Read the whole thing:

Islam makes very large claims for itself. In its art, there is a prejudice against representing the human form at all. The prohibition on picturing the prophet—who was only another male mammal—is apparently absolute. So is the prohibition on pork or alcohol or, in some Muslim societies, music or dancing. Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent.

11:50

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The Germans wake up

How can we expect immigrants to integrate into western society when they are at the same time being taught that the west is decadent, a den of iniquity, the source of all evil, racist, imperialist and to be despised? Why should they, in the words of the African-American writer James Baldwin, want to integrate into a sinking ship? Why do they all want to immigrate to the west and not Saudi Arabia? They should be taught about the centuries of struggle that resulted in the freedoms that they and everyone else for that matter, cherish, enjoy, and avail themselves of; of the individuals and groups who fought for these freedoms and who are despised and forgotten today; the freedoms that the much of the rest of world envies, admires and tries to emulate." When the Chinese students cried and died for democracy in Tiananmen Square (in 1989) , they brought with them not representations of Confucius or Buddha but a model of the Statue of Liberty." Freedom of expression is our western heritage and we must defend it or it will die from totalitarian attacks.

An article by Ibn Warraq in Der Spiegel? Wow.

Meanwhile, the Boston Globe seems to have lost it in an article which doesn't even manage to accurately recall the history of the Danish Mohammed cartoons. For them, and for anyone else who mistakenly thinks the cartoons were a brazen attempt at creating a riot (an argument which would be called 'blaming the victim' in any other situation), look towards The Guardian.

Wow, again. The Guardian, Der Spiegel, de Volkskrant - some lefties do get it.

10:51

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Saturday, February 4, 2006

Thought for the night

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Any Christians out there that will want to torch a Dutch embassy because of me linking to this clip?

No?

Didn't think so.

23:45

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Further clues that the current unrest is orchestrated

Gateway Pundit has a well-sourced story which offers further clues that the current unrest abot the Mohammed cartoons may be orchestrated. Compulsory reading.

22:34

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Is this true?

Interesting article:

One issue that puzzles many Danes is the timing of this outburst. The cartoons were published in September: Why have the protests erupted from Muslims worldwide only now? The person who knows the answer to this question is Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, a man that the Washington Post has recently profiled as “one of Denmark's most prominent imams.”

(...)

On its face, it would appear as if nothing were wrong. However, the Danish Muslim delegation showed much more than the 12 cartoons published by Jyllands Posten. In the booklet it presented during its tour of the Middle East, the delegation included other cartoons of Mohammed that were highly offensive, including one where the Prophet has a pig face. But these additional pictures were NOT published by the newspaper, but were completely fabricated by the delegation and inserted in the booklet (which has been obtained and made available to me by Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet).

19:19

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Danish buycott

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OK, that's it. Following the lead of Samizdata, Andrew Sullivan and, uh, Samizdata yet again, I think today's events prove beyond any doubt that the Danish deserve the full backing of the western world, by which I do not mean to refer to my 'colleagues' working for the British and American mainstream press who seem to have been engaged in a fierce competition for the Chamberlain Award this past week.

One problem though. What do the Danes produce apart from feta cheese and Carlsberg? Here's a start, but suggestions on what to buy can be left in the comments section or emailed to me directly. I will put up a list here.

And please, do copy the flag and the call for a Danish buycott, and sign this petition while you're at it.

18:29

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Friday, February 3, 2006

Dutch blogger starts Mohammed parody contest

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In a move which is both courageous and stupid, Dutch blogger 'Reet' (a Dutch colloquialism for 'ass') of the blog 'Retecool' (a Dutch colloquialism for, er, "really" cool) has started a Photoshop contest in which participants create parodies of Mohammed. The contest can be viewed here (a mirror can be found here).

It's a brave move which I applaud, especially considering the cowardly attitude of the European Commission, which, according to Elsevier, seeks to curtail the press rather than deal with the real issue at hand: the lack of respect amongst some Muslims for freedom of speech (if not sheer hatred). Then again, the Balkan Wars should tell you all there is to know about the 'courage' of European leaders.

And yes, some of the photographs on Retecool are childish, rude or both. But that's how I felt about 'The Last Temptation of Christ' when I grew up, still being an orthodox Christian at the time. Which is precisely why I didn't demonstrate in the streets or threaten anyone, as arguing with a fool only makes it harder for other people to spot the difference. If only some people in the Middle East would figure that one out.

(By the way, what the hell is the State Department thinking? In case LGF's assessment of the situation turns out to be wrong, perhaps Bush should call Sarkozy for some pointers.)

Update 0.09, 4-2-06: Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant has been threatened for publishing the Danish cartoons. I've criticized de Volkskrant many times on this blog for their p.c. attitudes, but they deserve kudos for this. Unlike the BBC, I might add.

Update 0.56, 4-2-06: Real brave people at CNN.

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Shouldn't that be 'out of fear'?

Update 1.15, 4-2-06: Another fine example of tolerance and respect

16:07

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Thursday, February 2, 2006

Satan must have been out of brains

Either that, or Mohammed Bouyeri is not really evil. Mr. Bouyeri today took the opportunity to deliver his personal testimony to the court in the case of the government against the Hofstad Group. Mr. Bouyeri is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, and thus cannot receive an additional sentence under Dutch law. So it was quite pleasing to see how Mr. Bouyeri indirectly helped the prosecution to make its case that the Hofstad Group intended to pursue their religious beliefs through violence, namely, by praising Osama Bin Laden:

"Comparing me to Osama bin Laden does the man a great wrong and extends me too much honour I don't deserve," Bouyeri said.

"But it fills me with me with honour, pride and joy that you see me as the standard-bearer of Islam in Europe," he told the prosecution.

Apart from that, Mr. Bouyeri mainly spouted nonsense and quoted books on Freud and Kuhn that he had failed to understand. This led Mr. Afshin Ellian, a law professor who is originally from Iran but who has become known as a fierce critic of radical Islam, to comment that 'if Mr. Bouyeri had been able to get his hands on a copy of Playboy, he would have quoted that magazine as well.'

Indeed. Cameras were not allowed inside the court room, nor were radio reporters. Fortunately, a journalist from Nieuwe Revu, a magazine, managed to smuggle a recorder inside (gotta love court security. If a suicide bomber blows up a government building in the next few months, color me unsurprised). The recording lasts 43 minutes and can be downloaded here or here.

You don't need to be fluent in Dutch to be able to determine that Mr. Bouyeri talks a little bit too much for someone who claims to have a clear goal in liife. Perhaps the effects of his brain washing by the Syrian are beginning to wear off. In which case he will wake up one morning in a prison cell, in the realisation that he butchered a man and will have to spend the rest of his waking hours in solitude. Hours that will become a purgatory of penance, rather than a self-glorifying martyr experience.

It would be more merciful to wish, for his sake, that he remains a radical until the day he dies.

23:53

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Einde aan overgewicht

Wie wil afvallen, moet maar gewoon meer bewegen en minder eten, was vroeger de geijkte reactie bij overgewicht. Maar in de praktijk is afvallen een stuk minder eenvoudig. En nu een groeiend deel van de bevolking aan overgewicht lijdt, grijpen artsen steeds vaker naar pillen om de uitdijende buiken en billen weer te doen inkrimpen. Het goede nieuws: die pillen worden steeds beter.

(Artikel in september 2005 gepubliceerd in het Algemeen Dagblad. (C) Arjan Dasselaar.)

More...

18:42

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