Cogs can think.

On most ethical issues, I have a clear cut position. Being Dutch and all, I’m raised with a strong sense of personal responsibility and a ‘live-and-let-live’ mentality; people should be able to choose for themselves whether to do drugs, go fcuk a prostitute, to be a prostitute, to end their lives when in pain, or not. As long as your actions are not harmful to others or to society, I see little reason in the state telling me what I can and cannot do. I am responsible for myself and my own actions.

There is one big exception to all this: abortion.

I just don’t know how to feel about abortion. I consider an embryo to be a living creature, and hence, aborting it equals ‘murdering’ it to me. However, I’m not blind to the reasons behind women wanting an abortion in the first place: it’s a rape pregnancy, the mother is 14 years old, she is financially incapable of taking care of the child, and so on. In some cases, I can see how abortion is the only option - an option nobody wants, but an option nonetheless. You can’t tell me there is a woman on this planet who wants an abortion. They may be forced to by circumstances, but they do not want it.

The alternative to abortion isn’t any good either. Adoption? Heck, an abortion is most likely a heavily traumatising event, but an adoption probably even more so - not only for the mother, but also for the child. This forces me into accepting the fact that women should have the freedom to opt for an abortion when circumstances force them to. It is their child, carried in their womb, and thus it is, in fact, their responsibility.

We should, however, always be on the lookout that abortion does not become a contraceptive, something you decide over over a cup of coffee - women who require an abortion should be fully supported by the state or their health insurance, so that they get the best possible psychological care, and allowing them to make a perfectly informed choice regarding their pregnancy. We should always strive to lower the number of abortions - not by forcing women to keep their babies, but by ensuring they do not get pregnant in the first place.

And another one. This is getting quite repetitive.

Yet another reason not to set foot on US soil. It’s simply too dangerous.

Sad, because I actually really like America. I can see myself doing Route 66.

You know, it’s rare, but it happens. Sometimes, I’m actually wrong. Frasier perfectly summed up how I feel when I’m wrong.

Whenever I’m wrong, the world just makes little bit less sense.

It’s like he’s in my brain.

It just keeps getting better and better.

First we had a woman. Then we had a black dude. And now we have a mormon.

These are like, the best elections ever.

Every now and then, I stumble upon a forgotten item in my album collection - today, I stumbled upon The Cranberries’ “No Need To Argue”, their massive 16.7 million selling hit album of 1994 (they’re Irish). While most of you will know the album because of the chilling and moving “Zombie” (about Northern Ireland, you have to see the music video, one of the best ever made), I like another song better - the album opener, “Ode To My Family”. The singing is so clear, the lyrics so moving, the guitar melody is enchanting. The video is an excellent example of proper music videography too - almost a lost art these days (these days they just cram as much tits and ass as possible into music videos, or they try to be overly artsy-fartsy without a point - either case, they suck).

Unhappiness, where’s when I was young
And we didn’t give a damn
’cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can
My mother, my mother she hold me
She hold me, when I was out there
My father, my father, he liked me
Oh he liked me, does anyone care

And this is the bit that I can relate to so well:

Understand what I’ve become
It wasn’t my design

Brilliant band, brilliant album. Definitely one you need to listen to.

You know what? I’m sick, fed up, and I’ve had it up to ^here with my university, my faculty, my tutors, my professors, everything. As far as I’m concerned, they shove it where the sun don’t shine. They don’t take us into account, they disregard us, treat us like shite - all because teachers realise full damn well that they do not need us - but we students do need them.

I’m just fed up. I might explain it all on my blog one of these days, but I’m just sick and tired of it all right now. I really long for my winter break which starts in two weeks; no university from then on until early February.

What a great idea. A new website has been launched in The Netherlands, where you can read the Bible and the Koran side-by-side, in Dutch, English, and Arabic. They did this so that people can see for themselves what educated people already know full well: the Bible and the Koran are mostly similar to one another. They are both completely outdated, and there is absolutely no reason to assume that the Koran is more hateful or filled with more violence than the Bible - something the right-wing extremist fascists in my country want us to believe.

Enter the search function. Here, you can search specific terms and search strings, and compare results alongside one another. With this power, I did some very interesting (but completely unscientific) comparisons. I did the searches in Dutch (since that’s my native language) but you can do them in English too.

Haat (hate): Bible: 140 hits - Koran: 5 hits
Stenigen (to stone): Bible: 24 hits - Koran: 5 hits
Wraak (revenge): Bible: 46 hits - Koran: 12 hits
War (oorlog): Bible: 228 hits - Koran: 6 hits
God (god): Bible: 4729 hits - Koran: 1921 hits*

* The words God and Allah are interchangeable, searching for “Allah” gives the exact same results as searching for “God”.

Completely unscientific, but interesting nonetheless.

So boys and girls, how are we going to rationalise this one?

Poor people.

As I do every year on my birthday, I buy myself a gift, something I’d normally never buy. This Saturday, I bought the Alien Quadrilogy. I’ve seen all the Alien films like ten million times, but I really wanted them in my collection.

Best sci-fi ever - in fact, the only sci-fi that actually makes sense. Crap like Star Trek is completely unrealistic and out-of-this world. And no, then I’m not talking about the technology, but about this so-called utopian Federation system and economy. I mean, seriously, we can’t even accept people of different colours, but you expect people to accept and live together peacefully with a bunch of aliens? Who all look like humans? Star Trek is fun as long as you shut off your brain for all the nonsense that you hear every 1.2 seconds. “Reroute power to the main deflector crystal, and pump anti-matter into the secondary array dish disruptor, that ought to get our coffee machine working again.”

Alien shows us what the future in space will really be like: an industrialised, fcuked up, desolate place with nowhere to go and little to see. No sexy aliens, no civilization on every planet. Space travelers aren’t logical heroes, with restraint and slick hair and big boobs; no, they are employees, factory workers, bored out of their assess with low payment, in dirty spaceships that barely work.

That is the future.

Friday evening, the evening before my birthday, I had planned a nice relaxing evening with Renate.

It’s going really well with my bestest best friend. She’s very happy with her “new” (it’s been a while by now) boyfriend, it just radiates off her - which in turn makes me extremely happy because my friends’ happiness means a whole lot to me. From what I can tell, they’re a spot on perfect match, and that’s rare. It’s something to cherish.

I had a lot to tell her, something that I should’ve done a whole lot earlier. Stuff about my brothers, my parents, my mother’s illness, and how it all has affected me, changed me; lots of very, very personal stuff. I suck at that, but managed pretty well, I’d say. I now think actually talking about the bad things that happen in your life helps in processing these bad things. We talked until 4:30 in the morning.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m very happy with having her as my best friend. I’m lucky.

So is she with having me as a friend, of course. I mean, totally.