Cogs can think.

As you can see in the sidebar, I have registered at Flickr today, in order to post daily photos on my blog here. I ain’t promising anything, though. I will try my best to post daily photos, but there ain’t no guarantee.

Me. Want. Now.

Tomorrow is the big day.

Parliamentary Elections in Scotland. The Scottish National Party may achieve the majority, meaning they will organise a referendum in 2010, in which they will ask the Scottish people if they want independence from England. The SNP wants to model Scotland after the Scandinavian welfare state.

The SNP has my full support (for whatever that’s worth). Scotland is a proud and old nation, very, very distinct from England. Scotland is not a region; they are a country, with an old heritage.

Let’s hope the SNP wins tomorrow.

Stop the presses. Check the temperature in hell. Is the grass still green?

I agree with Bush. Putting a date of retreat on a military plan on how to deal with Iraq is kind of, well. stupid. For once, I fully agree with Bush when he says:

I believe setting a deadline for a withdrawal would demoralise the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East, and send a signal that America will not keep its commitments.

Of course, the whole war in itself is a big mistake, a mess, and should have never been started in the first place. The Iraqi people were better off with Saddam than with the chaos and anarchy they live in now.

But, this is the situation we have to deal with now, there’s no use in looking back. The United States and Great Britain committed themselves to this war, and it is their responsibility to return Iraq to a safe state, where people can safely walk across the streets. By setting a date for retreat you give ‘hope’ to the terrorists, and that is not a signal you want to give to a bunch of mental idiots with bombs.

Via Dooce I found this.

Wow. Apart from the utter amazement at the fact that these ‘people’ actually control the buttons to the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world, this quote struck me as really intriguing:

If they want to be Americans, they should learn to speak English […] like we do.

Does this woman, who probably calls herself a true American patriot, know that her country does not actually have an official language? Does this woman realise that this lack of an official language is not an error, but in fact, a conscious choice? That it is part of the ‘freedom’ so important to what America stands for?

Every time, these so-called American patriots astonish me with how little they actually know about the country they live in. I may not be a fan of contemporary America, but I remain a fan of what ‘America’ used to stand for - freedom, Christian values, the whole apple pie, you know, all that stuff Don McLean saw degenerating in front of his eyes. These so-called patriots are just what we Europeans refer to as nazis.

It’s a shame, really.

In case you’re wondering how my cat is doing… Well, he’s grown to be an outstanding specimen of the felis catus. He has an extraordinary healthy fur with a very chique, almost thoroughbred-like tabby pattern, he’s not overweight, he drinks enough water, and has an healthy urge to escape the confines of my apartment into my garden and the rest of the outside world. I have some new pictures of him. I call these the ‘Cat in the bag sessions’.

Cat in the bag sessions

He’s almost ready for castration, after which he’ll be free to explore the outdoors.

En ik maar denken dat alleen binnen de Linux wereld men elkaar de hersens insloeg over welke distributie of welke desktop omgeving nu het beste is. De Nederlandse Mac wereld doet hetzelfde - en dan heb ik het niet over gebruikers, maar over de admins van de grote Nederlandse Mac nieuwssites en fora.

Dan heb je dus, zeg maar, 2% van de markt in handen (of zoiets). En dan, ga je, ongegeneeerd, elkaar de hersens een beetje lopen inslaan. En dan heb ik het nog niet eens over de MacFreak saga gehad. Uitermate sneu.

Ik ben zelf ook niet vies van een inter-website ruzie. Het verschil is echter alleen dat in tegenstelling tot dat meneertje van MacNed, ik het netjes van OSNews afgehouden heb; Martin het macwereldpliepkmac mannetje doet dat ook, en dat is zeker te waarderen. Houdt dit soort sneue zooi voor op je weblog, of neem een les in oei-ik-groei en leer slikken.

Als je op teh int3rweb ‘bekend’ bent, moet je er tegen kunnen dat mensen je afzeiken. Comes with the job.