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This article is based on this Dutch article by Martijn Benders The Carriage to the Land of Milk and Honey Once again, this beautiful map: Further research revealed that it was drawn by Enrico Mazzanti, the original illustrator of Pinocchio! Pinocchio, drawn by Enrico Mazzanti. I tried to figure out why two figures (one with…

This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders Alright, Voltaire and the separation between Writer and State. The truth is that in our time Voltaire might be called a ‘Putinist’, for the man was sustained by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great (1), with whom he maintained an extensive correspondence and received…

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders     Alright, so this map represents the Netherlands as a devil from a box, a so-called ‘Jack in the Box,’ which is actually more of a British invention, but this Italian saw the British chiefly as merchants. Germans were primarily seen as grain…

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders. Something else striking: how is it that I am the first Dutch writer to have anything to say about this matter? I will continue with this question tomorrow. On 9/11, no Dutch writer had anything to say. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Silence….

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders I present: The Gitane Hollandaise: Veronique thinks Houellebecq is like a male bouqette novel author. She returned the book after reading about thirty pages. I kept reading, and from the middle to the end, you have to wade through an endless series of musings…

…the land of the hollow earth was closer than the Nazis thought… This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders But for the details about that, you’ll need to read my upcoming book. Let me first continue discussing how the concealment of cigarette sponsorship by Houellebecq marked the beginning of a new…

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders The donut—a French invention co-opted by American police officers. At least, that’s the story we’ve all heard. Determined to get the facts straight, I did some checking. It turns out the donut has a convoluted history, with the Dutch taking precedence over the French….

This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders We circle around the Arc de Triomphe, and Véronique laughs manically, caught in an epiphanic visit to her own youth. Back then, she would regularly zip around this donut, a dim-witted child by her side, constantly biting her. I keep seeing the same police…

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders Ilonka van Bercken – what an optimistic woman she must be to still dare to ask for a “vision” from something that bears the creepy name “The Fund for Cultural Participation.” Vision, what kind of elitist nonsense is that? But I am a bit…

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders: Aangestuurde mensen met een eigen mening Well, well, the cabinet isn’t even three days inaugurated, and we already see Schoof sitting with the bosses in Washington, beaming with pride. The 51st state of the US, business as usual. Occasionally, there are people who scoff…

This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and Foucault are my main sources of inspiration in philosophy. Foucault is one of the few philosophers who recognized that the supposedly neutral institutions in our societies are the largest problem because their so-called neutrality is anything but neutral. For this reason,…

This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders ## It’s All a Secret! Alright, now we know that too. It was already clear, just like with that pipeline, because in criminology, you always look first at who might have a motive for a particular act. And you can tell me anything, but…