Author: Maarten

Fear of Islam is ruling The Hague

Each and every day there seems to be news about Geert Wilders, his Islam-critic film Fitna, "Boerkinis", troublesome (islamic) allochthonous youth and more. One could say it’s the Islam, or rather the fear around it, that’s keeping the reporters and our politicians busy. To start with Fitna, the recently completed but still unviewed critical film about the Islam and the

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Is this the end of Balkenende IV?

Employment , forced termination of employment, legal issues surrounding employment and the current cabinet Balkenende IV don’t go together very well. After the near crash of the current cabinet last year, minister Donner has said today he thinks the regulations regarding the termination of employment should be re-evaluated and perhaps even adapted to respect employers more. Today, regulations around employment

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Down due to maintenance

Saturday, and the bigger part of yesterday, my blog fell out of the air. It was planned maintenance, and I would like to apologize for the fact it happened unannounced. On the bright side: it brought some new hardware to the server, and it now runs a newly configured install of the OS. You’ll probably don’t notice it, but the

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Mobility rocks

This morning, I got into my car, and went on my way from my home to Nieuwegein for work. After succesfully reaching the Rotterdam Ring, I took the southern route as the northern had 1km queue on it. Nothing bad there, and all’s well. Then, without previous warning I heard a somewhat muffled bang and saw quite large clouds of

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Fundraising for the pro

In the USA, the race is on. All candidates for the democratic and the republican parties did it, previous to and even during their campaign. Fund raising through dinners, shows and private parties. Anyone with money and a little affiliation is welcome. Luckily, the fund raising is not anonymously, all gifts have to be registered and published. Back to our

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Valentine's day

Tomorrow it is that dreaded day in the year. At least, for the man. Every year the 14th of Februari is the day you cannot do anything well for your partner. If you buy her a gift, it probably is not what she expected and she’ll let you know, and if you do nothing on this ‘special’ day, you’ll be

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Constitutional discrimination

Yes, the title does indeed say "constitutional discrimination", as this is what the European Commission thinks of the practice in our country. Recently, the European Commissioner of Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla has sent the Dutch government a letter concerning the treatment of homosexuals, and the more strict compliance to a European regulation stemming from the year 2000. This guidance is

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