Christiaan Klein Lebbink's blog

Freakish, yet amusing

Interesting video. Yet, I hasten to express that the views as expressed by Geert Wilders does not, I repeat, does not, reflext the opinion of everyone, nor a majority, living in this tiny country below sea level.

Geert Wilders on The O'Reilly Factor 02/23/09

Vox Hunt: The Book on My Night Stand

Show us what book is on your night stand.

Muahahaha... I'm not gonna take a picture of that... it's the IKEA-catalog :P

European politics again

The Council of Europe criticised the Czech practice of castrating sex-offenders. I don't know the details... I'm strongly opposed capital punishment, or doing any physical harm to prisoners, but on the other hand, I think that it could actually be a relief for people who are unable to cope with certain urges, and express those in a violent way.
It could take away the need for time consuming treatments, repeated medication or imprisonment. Often, it creates an uproar when convicted sex offenders are released back into society, sometimes with dramatic results. Recently, in the UK, someone who did his time, was tortured and killed by a mob after his release. That's not how a society is supposed to function, and, to use some mild sarcasm, proves being unable to control primitive urges is not something executed by hard core criminals only.
Focussing more on those primitive urges.. personally, I like to eat, but when I'm not hungry, there's not even the slightest urge to take a bite of anything.... maybe, what the Counsil of Europe opposes, can, to so extent, be considered humane...

It's Terri Schiavo all over again :(

Last night, the Italian woman Eluana Englaro was moved out of a public hospital to a private hospital, where, hopefully, she'll be allowed to part from this world in a decent way. Or, as decent as letting someone who's unable to feed herself starve can be.
12 years ago, this woman slipped into a coma after a tragic car accident. Since then, a tube down her throat is the sole reason why her heart's still beating. There's no chance of recovery.
I'm aware this is a sensitive subject, but I consider it harsh that, after a court ruling allowing the family to have her feeding tube removed, a new law was passed, forbidding Italian public hospitals to stop treatment, even if that only leads to prolonged suffering.
Past sunday, even the Pope stirred in this debate... making a statement that, from my point of view, is a slap in the face of the ones going through this. I hope this woman and her family will find the rest they deserve.

Benedict XVI: Euthanasia not worthy of man

QotD: I'll get around to it one day...

What do you always say you will do but never actually get around to doing?
Submitted by Beautifully Broken.

Clean up, do laundry and dishes, write and mail letters I should've written a while ago...

QotD: Gung Hay Fat Choy

Yesterday was the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese year 4707 is the year of the ox. What's your Chinese zodiac animal and what does it say about you?

Horse... apparently making me free thinking, creative, loyal, optimistic, but also childish, rebellious and over weight.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... finally I know what to blame for my beer belly :)

QotD: Favorite TV Commercial

What's your favorite TV commercial?
Submitted by MexicanRobot.

Hm..was about to settle for one that never made it to TV, but, this one did :)

Ufo - 2008 - Centraal Beheer Achmea

Inauguration

It was impressing. Watched the inaugurational speech twice, and, although it still contains some harsh threatning words, overall it's positive, and, indeed, brings hope. Hope for change.

Sure, there was some jibber jabber in the ceremony that made me snicker, especially when the greatness of demorcracy was mentioned. First of all, true democracy is a myth. There will always be non-elected high ranked civil servants and lobbyists surrounding decision makers, basically tampering with the ideal of a democracy. It's like that here, in the EU, and elsewhere. Second of all... I'm tempted to think that in a democracy, citizens would be able to choose who they want to represent them, rather then choose the electoral college who gets to choose how to devide seats between 2 parties only.
With which I'm not saying the circumstances in The Netherlands are better, not that anyone really cares, as long as we're provided with bread and circuses.

Also, despite the controversy, I fully enjoyed the prayer spoken by Rick Warren. From a rational point of view, I find it encouraging that a very red person from a very blue state, mentioning that every human being is loved by the universal creating force, and that in the end he mentioned the name of who's considered by billions of people around the world, and a whopping 80% of the inhibitants of the USA, as either the Saviour or an important prophet, in Hebrew and Arabic also. It does seem to emit the signal that personal belief is, indeed, a personal opinion by an individual or a group, and not neccessarily superior, or worse, then anybody else's.

This is a thing I find encouraging about Obama. He immediately made clear he takes it serious that 'there`s not a liberal America and a conservative America. There`s the United States of America' and proves, to the entire world that we don't have to agree to get along.

QotD: Inauguration Day

President-elect Barack Obama is being sworn into office today. Where are you watching the events of this historic day unfold? 

Actually, seeing this here was a welcome reminder :P

I'm watching it as we speak, on my laptop, steaming, with 30 seconds delay. They just menioned Sarah Obama's plane made a stopever in Amsterdam...

I'll nest myself on the sofa with some Coca Cola, once I posted this entry.

Yay!

This item is one I found highly entertaining. It may be me, but Amsterdam is a city in which I feel perfectly safe.
Even though, from a more conservative perspective I can sorta understand their concern. Despite the possibilities, teen pregnancies, spread of STD's and subject addictions are fairly low... which may indicate that people could, actually be doing noughty things without suffering from the side effects... disastrous!

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