Cogs can think.

I’m getting seriously mad at Linux. It’s pissing me off. Any newer kernels REFUSE to function on my machine.

The Ubuntu flight CDs? Refuse to mount the install CD (even though the bitch just booted off of it goddamnit!)

Newer Kubuntu kernels installed via apt-get? Refuse to load, hang during boot. I’m stuck on an older kernel now.

The latest OpenSUSE beta? Refuses to mount the install CD after booting off of it– just like with the flight CDs.

But, when booting off of an older Linux CD, everything works mighty fine! I even tried a *brand new* CD-ROM drive! Disabling DMA doesn’t help either. I’m using high-quality CD-Rs too (checked online).

I’m at the end of my wits. My DVD-ROM drive gives I/O errors– no surprise there (I know it’s rather faulty), my CD-ROM drive, brand new, also I/O errors. CD-RW drive does nothing. Even tried low-speed burning. To no avail.

Hence, kernel bug.

That we get angry over cartoons about Mohammed leads to disbelief, but a cartoon about the holocaust is absolutely not-done, you can’t do that. The double standard is the problem in The Netherlands.

I hate to break it to the world, but obviously this guy is right. In the West one cannot make jokes about Jews or the holocaust, but doing it about Muslims is allowed. That is indeed hypocrisy in its purest form; since freedom of speech must truly mean freedom of speech. In essence one cannot get convicted for making anti-Semitic jokes or cartoons in my country, but of course there is no paper or politician who would place those on his/her/its website– yet, with cartoons about Mohammed or whatever we do do it!

That is indeed a double standard and certainly not right. Of course, that does not mean I approve of the things happening to Danish embassies and such.

I was listening to my “American Pie” LP today, and while listening to “Everybody Loves Me, Baby”, it suddenly dawned on me…

Fortune has me well in hand, armies ‘wait my command
My gold lies in a foreign land buried deep beneath the sand
The angels guide my ev’ry tread, my enemies are sick or dead
But all the victories I’ve led haven’t brought you to my bed

You see, everybody loves me, baby, what’s the matter with you?
Won’tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Now the purest race I’ve bred to be to live in my democracy
And the highest human pedigree awaits the first-born boy baby
And my face on ev’ry coin engraved, the anarchists are all enslaved
My own flag is forever waved by the grateful people I have saved

You see, everybody loves me, baby, what’s the matter with you?
Won’tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Now, no man is beyond my claim when land is seized in the people’s name
By evil men who rob and maim, if war is hell, I’m not to blame!
Why, you can’t blame me, I’m Heaven’s child, I’m the second son of Mary mild
And I’m twice removed from Oscar Wilde, but he didn’t mind, why, he just smiled

Yes, and the ocean parts when I walk through, and the clouds dissolve and the sky turns blue
I’m held in very great value by everyone I meet but you
‘cause I’ve used my talents as I could, I’ve done some bad, I’ve done some good
I did a whole lot better than they thought I would so, c’mon and treat me like you should!

Because everybody loves me, baby, what’s the matter with you?
Won’tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Everybody loves me, baby, what’s the matter with you?
Won’tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Yeah, everybody loves me, baby, what’s the matter with you?
Won’tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

…and guess what country this song must be about. You get an extra cookie if you also guess who the addressee must be (the ‘you’ in the song).

I’m on the border of going mental. Seriously. Airport on my iBook is being a major BITCH, for the past few weeks. Seriously, Airport is draining the blood from underneath my fingernails (as we Dutch say).

The keyword here is timeout. I’m getting timeouts EVERYWHERE when browsing the internet. no matter what browser. Main sites that give me problems: Eugenia’s blog on Slashdot (but not Slashdot’s frontpage!), OSNews.com (only the front-end, the back-end works fine!), and various other sites. There is nothing wrong with anything, all settings are fine, I can ping those websites without problems… I’m close to simply disabling Airport altogether and simply move back to wired.

Because all my other computers, which are all wired, work FINE! On the same fucking router! I’m suspecting my troubles are caused by a bug in Apple’s Airport drivers, because this stuff seems to have started after one of the Airport updates not too long ago. The fcuking annoying part is this, though: the problem is so vague I can’t easily Google this shit :/.

So, my request to you: could you keep an eye open for similar reports elsewhere on the net? and then report them here? That’d be a great help.

I have sent a letter of support to Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician who has been under strict protection and security measures for more than a year now. Geert Wilders is very critical of Islamic extremists, and as such has received various death threats. He can now barely function properly inside his personal life or his political life, and that is about as great a loss as can be. He has received 40 death threats within 2 days after publishing the cartoon in question on his weblog.

I more often than not disagree with him, but that is completely irrelevant. Geert Wilders has an opinion, and has stood by that opinion despite numerous threats. That makes him a true fighter for freedom of speech, and he needs to be acclaimed for that achievement.

Below is a reprint of the email, translated into English.

Dear Mr Wilders,

Hereby I wish to send you my words of support seeing the developments in the so-called ‘cartoonwar’. I was deeply shocked by the fact that you have received close to 40 death threats per email, after placing the cartoons in question on your weblog. I am almost ashamed to be Dutch these days.

I more often than not disagree with your political ideas and plans in the Lower House. However, this is of course no reason to start threatening you, or even to wish you dead; as apparently 40 others have done. A number of good friends of mine are more positive towards your ideas; is that a legitimate reason to not call them my friends anymore? Of course you know the answer to this question; as does 99.999% of the Dutch population.

Again, I would like to wish you all the strength for the times which lie ahead; keep your head up and keep on standing for what you stand for.

With kind regards,

Thom A. Holwerda

Update: me and my countrymen are now officially on the death list of the ‘Islamic Army’ in Iraq– because ‘we’ reprinted the cartoons. Go ahead. You’ll have to pry the tricolor (and a set of clogs) from my cold dead hands.

—

And now the Danish embassy in Beirouth has also been set ablaze.

Setting consulates ablaze will really solve this problem. Seriously. It’s gonna help. By setting consulates ablaze, Allah (or God or Jahweh or whatever, they’re all one and the same anyway) will wave his magic wand and make the cartoons disappear. Seriously, what else are these people trying to achieve?

—

This is what happens when clerical elites mix religion with politics. But, I’m not really blaming the people who do this– not too long ago Europe wasn’t all that different. And today, in the United States, our self-proclaimed patron saint, it still happens as well. Their laws also promote apartheid and the dismissing of people with different views and opinions, all on the basis of whatever some dusty old book tells them.

A nation should be secular, religion should have no influence whatsoever as to what the law allows and does not allow. It is fine by me if politicians act with their religion in the back of their minds; however, as soon as it starts to creep up to the front of their minds, it goes wrong. You cannot run a nation based on whatever’s told in a 1700 (or in the case of Islam, 1300) years old dusty book.

Just checked my checking account via the phone… My salary’s in.

I’m a happy man :).

And so it happend that a few cartoons published in a Danish newspaper back in September 2005 has led to both the Danish and Norwegian embassy in Syria being set on fire.

Completely ridicoulous of course. The people setting fires and angry mobbing have never seen those cartoons; it would surprise me at all if these people even know where Denmark is on the map. They are instigated and rounded-up by the clerical elite– they use it as an excuse to stirr things up.

As far as I’m concerned, Denmark and Norway have a free pass to use whatever force is nescesary to protect their citizens. If this means taking a few highly trained commandos to retrieve Danish and Norwegian citizens, then so be it. If people will die during these operations, then so fcuking be it. It is none of my concern that the countries where the riots are the worst (Syria, Iran, etc.) have no freedom of speech, independant press, and what not. We Europeans value our freedom more than anything, because opposite to ie. the US or Russia, our freedom is true freedom, in the best sense of the word.

Scandinavian countries rank among the top spenders on financial aid to poor people; they are most often neutral. Heck, the Swedish Nobel Commitee even gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Yassar Arafat!

Norway and Denmark, use whatever force nescesary to bring back your citizens, in safety. That’s what I would expect of my nation too– the cartoons in question have found perminant residence on a few politicians’ websites in my country, as well on one of our biggest (and my favourite) opinional websites (GeenStijl.nl). I can tell you this: the moment the angry mobs start angry mobbing against Dutch citizens, I expect the Dutch military to act accordingly. With force. If nescesary.

Something weird happened today. Me dad had brought in for development an unnamed photo roll from his Canon SLR camera. Today they were ready, and as it turnes out, it was packed with photos of me mum right before she got diagnosed (January last year) with her breastcancer.

Beautiful pictures, me mum all smiling, all her hair… It was an eery, but georgous set of photos. I’m not religious, but I’m thanking God we have them.