I have not bitched for a while. This situation is stressful and unhealthy.
Keeping a stiff upper lip and emotions bottled up is a dangerous combination.
Just like hydrogen gas, it might blow up unexpectedly.
It is wise to remember that “a bitch a day keeps the shrink away.”

But before I start venting, I would like to salute William Bruce Jenner.
Because it takes a lot of balls to do what this man just did.

At age 65 Bruce Jenner went public, and announced that he is a transgender and will transition to womanhood.
This is a very gutsy decision and it takes a lot of heart to do that.

Bruce Jenner. The Golden Boy. Decathlon Gold medal winner at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal.
All American hero. The embodiment of virility. The perfect male specimen. Father of 6 children.

After a lifetime of pretending, in an emotional TV interview with Diane Sawyer, Bruce comes clean and said in that he never felt comfortable being a man. He might have had the physical attributes of a male, but deep in his heart, Bruce always felt like woman.

Contrarily to what some fools assert, you are born a transgender, lesbian or homosexual, and there is no “cure” for it.
So you may as well embrace who you really are.

And it is becoming easier, thanks to courageous people like Bruce.

Nobody chose to be homosexual or transgender. It is a fluke of nature.
For a long time LGBT people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) were ridiculed and discriminated against.
To change this perception takes a few ballsy celebrities. These people are different, but not weird.
And what business of yours is it anyway to interfere with their lifestyle?

I applaud Bruce’s decisions to go public and choose a way of life he feels most comfortable with.
No matter what happens, he is still an Olympic champion and nobody can take this away from him.
In my eyes, he is the embodiment of determination and courage!

So long Bruce and may the wind always be at your back.

“May neighbors respect you,
The angels protect you,
The angels protect you,
And heaven accept you.”

I am now too tired to bitch but take heart, I’ll be back soon with plenty to “kvetch” about.

Alain

“Everyone has the power to make someone happy, some by entering a room, others by leaving it.”

And Colette Van Der Meulen is one of those people. She always made everybody happy by entering a room.

As you probably know, Colette is leaving California to settle in New Mexico.
While wishing her the best, I am sorry (I think we all are) to see our little Dutch “meisje” go.
We all liked her smile, her laugh, her good-humored nature and her competitive spirit.
I also had the pleasure to meet her mother and her sister (Monique) and I was not a bit surprised to find them all extremely “simpatico”.

I always enjoyed playing pétanque with Colette. She took the game very seriously and concentrated on each shot.
She started as a “pointer”, but I always encouraged her to try her hand at “shooting”. She followed my advice and when in a bind she didn’t hesitate to throw her boule forcefully.
More often that not she succeeded and you could then see the rosy glow on her cheeks.

Colette left but she said that she wouldn’t forget us and fly back for some of our tournaments.
We are counting on it.

Van der Meulen by the way is the name of a person who lived at a mill or was a miller.

There are many famous Van Der Meulen.

• Adam Frans van der Meulen(1632–1690), Flemish Baroque painter
• Claes Pietersz van der Meulen(1642-1693), Dutch glass painter
• Cornelis van der Meulen(1642–1691), Dutch painter
• Daniel van der Meulen(1894-1989), Dutch diplomat, explorer and writer
• Gary Vandermeulen(born 1965), Canadian swimmer
• Gary Vandermolen(b. 1960), English-Israeli footballer
• Gejus van der Meulen(1903–1972), Dutch footballer
• Harm van der Meulen(1925–2007), Dutch politician
• Johan van der Meulen(1915–2005), better known as John O’Mill, Dutch writer
• Karst van der Meulen(b. 1949), Dutch film and television director
• Leendert van der Meulen(b. 1937), Dutch cyclist
• Olof van der Meulen(born 1968), Dutch volleyball player
• Servaes van der Meulen(1525-1592), Flemish composer and organist
• Sieuwert van der Meulen(1663-1730), Dutch painter
• Steven van der Meulen, Dutch artist
• Thijs van der Meulen(born 1980), Dutch footballer
• Timothy van der Meulen(born 1990), Dutch footballer
• Tsjibbe Gearts van der Meulen(1824–1906), Frisian writer
• Colette Van Der Meulen, Pétanque Pro

Goodbye Colette. Our loss, New Mexico’s gain.
A bientôt ! We are holding a warm place in our hearts for you.

Gezelligheid kent geen tijd (Time spent together is time well spent.)

Alain

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” 

It once sounded nice, but no more.

Thousands of African migrants clinging to rickety boats are trying to reach European shores every day.
They are yearning for the Promised Land.
In Europe they are told, everything will be better. You will be taken care of.

Who could resist that siren song? To reach that New Eden, migrants will pony up to $1500.00 per person to secure a place on an overcrowded, decrepit smuggling vessel.

Considering their wretched existence at home, it is understandable but the main question is how many of those people can Europe absorb without endangering itself?
Most of the European countries are already struggling to provide for their own people… how can they deal with the additional burden of clothing and feeding these new-impoverished masses?

Giving asylum to all these people would seem politically correct, but it is in fact pathetically incorrect.

What kind of life awaits those people in Europe?
Most of them are uneducated and don’t speak any other language than their own.
What do they expect to find on the continent?
A job? Fat chance.
It is already difficult for diploma-laden nationals to find a job, what prospect does a migrant have to find one?

It sounds callous, but charity begins at home.
European countries are already struggling with high unemployment and high taxes. How are they going to provide for the newcomers?
Additional taxes? Tell this to the Greeks, the Italians, the French…

And while newly arrived migrants might be relatively satisfied with their new condition, they will be invariably exploited. Their children will grow resentful and will become prime recruitment material for terrorist groups.
If you have not already noticed, most of the western jihadists are children of Muslim immigrants.

It is imperative to put an end to this kind of trafficking that benefit only smuggling criminals.

It sounds heartless, but if nothing is done, European democracies will crumble and hasten the rise of the Extreme Right (which is already flourishing).
Next, swastikas will be paraded in the street and “undesirables” will be hunted down.
Doesn’t this sound eerily familiar?

I fully realize that all the above is not piously correct, but that’s the way I see it.

Alain