The recent report by the IAEA has sparked debate in the papers about whether “we”, ie. the US, should intervene in Iran. The discussion even reached the Dutch house of parliament, where a motion was put forward by two left wing opposition parties, stating that at this point there is no legitimacy for military action …
As we all (should?) know, US presidents aren’t elected by popular vote. Al Gore still detests this fact, but the Founding Fathers thought it wise to maintain some sort of mix between demographic and geographic influences. This keeps relatively small states – think Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada – relevant; even though they have few voters, …
Even though financial crises are at the forefront of media attention these days in both Europe and the US, it is not the big issue of our times. Even in the most pitch-black scenario’s, it’s hard to see the financial crisis lingering a decade from now. One way or the other these issues will be resolved, adjustments will …
As I gathered notes for this September edition of Is it 2012 yet?, I made two early assesments of the situation. One was correct – that the campaign to draft Paul Ryan as a Republican candidate, or Chris Christie, or Palin or anyone for that matter was not just wishful thinking (these people won’t run, period, except Palin …
The day after. That’s the moment to put things together and start taking action to fix the various problems. While in the week immediately after 9/11 the world was still too much in a state of shock after the horrendous attacks of 9/11 to do just that, mid September 2011 is a good date to …
One of the news-items in the Netherlands today can serve as an example of legal systems gone beserk: the ‘ Raad van State ‘ (both advisory organ and supreme court in cases regarding government decisions) struck down permits allowing the construction of a 2.6 billion euro coal power plant in the north of the …
It was an eventful weekend in Iowa, where the Ames Straw poll was the first preliminary to the first caucus of the primary-season for the general election. That sounds like it wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans (especially since this is ‘retail-politics’, another word for simply bussing your supporters in, feed them well, pat them on …
For those of us to the right of the political centre it has been obvious for a long time that we have preciously few friends in the (mainstream) media, and copious amounts of enemies. Yet the New York Times today managed a piece of gutter journalism that’s still shocking and surprising. It literally bursts with slander – and all …
From lack of space to empty prions in a matter of years : the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security expects that the number of prisoners will drop dramatically; from 14.108 annually in 2005, to just 8.845 in 2015. Consequence of this huge drop – almost 40% – will undoubtedly be that prisons will be closed, wardens fired …
Our prime minister of the Netherlands (a conservative liberal; for our US readers, ‘liberal’ is not necessarily ‘left-wing’ in Europe) has the ambition to reduce the size of the Dutch government. First he reduced the number of ministers, then he announced the reduction of civil servants (I have to see it to believe it) and …
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