Damn-Dutch

Nick changed for the hell of it. This was a random thought on IRC back on July 29th or so.

[22:17] <*> it’s 1:16 already, where does the time go X(
[22:17] <Chris> not sure, but wherever it is, it’s huge!
[22:17] <Chris> sounds like time passes from one universe to the next
[22:18] <Chris> that’s why it never stops!
[22:18] <Chris> the vacuum needs to be filled!
[22:18] <*>:o
[22:18] <Chris> so then.. maybe we’re recycling time
[22:18] <Chris> that would account for a feeling of deja vu
[22:18] <Chris> ok now that will be stuck in my head for days to come
[22:18] <*> alright, no more scifi for you
[22:18] <Chris>

Apparently someone got the bright idea register the ethnic background of criminals. Of course the Dutch politicians are devided on the subject, as they are a merry mish mash of all sorts of opinionated people.
And our prime minster agrees. He’s entitled to his opinion, that’s fine with me.

To me this seems a weird idea at best. I don’t really care where a criminal’s from and I can’t see how anyone could care about it at all. Does it make a robbery, act of agression, murder or whatever any different? Maybe we should ask the victims if they’d rather have been say, shot by a Dutch or French criminal as opposed to an Antillean or Moroccan.

The topic of drugs was unavoidable for anything Dutch </stereotype> so here goes.

These last few years the politicians have been trying to get rid of and/or make life more difficult for all sorts of people. I’ll admit it’s the government’s job to do all sorts of things including bad things. But based on mostly their personal views, they decided that it might be a good idea to have another look at the way the Dutch tolerate certain drugs. Some have been taken out like certain mushrooms but here’s a spark of good news concerning our old friend Cannabis.

I know, I know. It’s about medicinal cannabis. Last I heard about this was an actual cannabis distributing apothecary which was able to distribute to anyone with a prescription and some other checks, but all legit and all right with everybody. Now homegrowing cannabis has been OKed to some extent by the courts. Now the debate, which was pushed to the back mostly by panic mongering xenophobes, has now been given a boost. Win!

Personally I don’t really care who or what or why you do to your body as long as you don’t bother anyone else with it, unless they want you to I suppose. The same goes for my stance on drugs for the most part. Even so, the freedom to do these things to yourself without clogging up the police etc is something I really like.

In case you don’t know about the PVV, this kind of says enough about hum, how to put it. Well let’s put it the way Marten Toonder put it in his Bommel works. Let’s say “een klein denkraam” [a small 'window of thought' ie narrowminded].
Anyway, apparently teaching kids a variety of things is a bad thing. Maybe it will broaden their horizons, which will probably lead to some kind of freedom of thought that the PVV may not want, I don’t know. I really don’t know what the hell the idea is here, but make up your own mind and read this little article.

Sure, teaching kids to read and write is important. Teaching kids a lot of things is important. For a lot of reasons. I’m not an expert, I rarely ever am. But I went to school because a) I had to and b) because there were some classes I really enjoyed. In my case that was biology back in the day. Broaden the minds of the kids, don’t make them as narrow as your own is the only thing that comes to my mind.

The word indoctrinated in that little article made me laugh more. Isn’t the idea of indoctrination to make them think the way you want them to think. Mostly the same way as you think. I’ll let you put 2 and 2 together… provided your eduction involved basic maths, which I’m sure it did.

This little news factoid caught my eye. It’s nothing shocking, it’s just that for some reason I can’t wrap my head around anyone not wanting a women’s footballteam wearing skirts? They prefer it, so they say and I’m sure the spectator’s don’t give a rat’s ass about it. It doesn’t get in the way of the game, right? Sure, the rules might have to be brent or changed, but how on Earth could that be a problem? Isn’t that part of what these people are for anyway? And here I thought it was all in good fun and sportsmanship.

Over the summer I ordered in some books and CDs. This on its own isn’t out of the ordinary, but one of the objects was a bit quirky as far as I’m concerned and it deserves a little mention.

Through some friends I once ended up listening to the first three series of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio plays. I loved them. In the end I ended up buying pretty much every Douglas Adams book out there. From HHG to Dirk Gently to Last chance to see. Even those silly Meaning and Deeper meaning of Liff books. They were all enjoyable in their own right.

Now that’s all well and good, but I always pooh pooh translations a bit. I find that often jokes and nuances don’t translate well. And then one of those formentioned friends told me there was a Dutch radioplay, of the first series that is. A German one too by the way, which I’m sure I might get one day too. So after some digging around I order in a copy of the Dutch HHG radioplay. Turns out it was done back in 1980, well before this Damn Dutch even existed as two gametes. I ended up listening to the whole thing in two days. I won’t say it’s as good as the original, but it’s a damn good alternative if you don’t get along with the English language much. Some names have been changed, and some places too. So now the story has a Dutch rather than a British background. A lot of jokes work out really well in Dutch and its equivalent to Slartibartfast even adds a bit to his fashionable fjord dialogue, specifically about the Netherlands.

I suppose I should also add that no I have not read the Dutch translations of the book, so I can’t compare it to that, but as far as the English and the Dutch audio- or radioplays go, yeah, I really liked it and it wasn’t at all what I expected.

Does adding a wedge or slice of lemon to your drink make it significantly more healthy or should I say less unhealthy?
Or maybe the added acid will help rot your teeth some more combined with the carbondioxide and sugar and things.

That’ll be on my mind for days…

A damn shame indeed, George Carlin is no more.
The world is short one grade A first class stand-up comedian and dirty bastard.
A tiny salute to the man that brought us the seven dirty words, icebox man and someone I refer to in casual conversation too often.

In a bit of a rush, so it’s a quicky.

In the long long ago, when I registered this domain, I was all “I’m going to write this thing myself.” I tried, a little, didn’t have enough time and finally decided “fuck it”. WP will suffice once it’s properly modded.

Of course a friend of mine couldn’t resist to be all happy and start blogging himself, he even patted himself on the back for beating me to it. Damned drunk Brits - http://www.hattix.co.uk and his blog at /blogs.

In short, yeah I folded. I have better things to waste my time on, like bothering unsuspecting websurfers with ranting, raving, complaining and bitching since that IS what blogging is all about isn’t it? Maybe I’ll poke fun at some people too…