User:Marcel4x4

About me
I live in the (small) city of Heerhugowaard in the Netherlands. I am born in Den Helder in the year 1979. I am Atheist so I am totally free and not the slave of a non-existing god or bunch of religious leaders with their own agendas. :)

Interests
My main interests are Military equipment and Politics. These are not limited, there are other things I am interested in, but these are the major interests.

Military
I am interested in military equipment such as tanks/armored fighting vehicles, military aircraft and warships. I do not serve in the military and never have, I am just interested in the military and its equipment without having any intentions on joining it.

Politics
I am a member of the Dutch Right-wing liberal political party VVD and its liberal youth organisation the JOVD. In the JOVD I am active at the department Waterland (as this is the closest section to where I live) and am webmaster of the JOVD Waterland website. With the VVD I am in the commitee of the VVD Heerhugowaard.

4x4 vehicles
Mainly a result of my military interest. As a fan of military vehicles my first car had to be a jeep. My first car was a Suzuki Samurai from 1991 which in shape looks like a military jeep. After several years its state became so bad (rust problems) however that I replaced it with a Daihatsu Feroza of 1997. The Feroza is more modern and more comfortable but still a good off-roader. I do not like all 4x4s, I am mainly a fan of off-roaders, which are diffirent vehicles then SUVs. Most SUVs are not off-roaders, they have no better off-road performance then a regular car. My favorite off-roaders are the Hummer H1 and the Jeep Wrangler. A Hummer however I would find to big for everyday use and to expensive to afford but I think a Wrangler would one day be possible. For the moment however I an happy with my Feroza and love to take it off-road. Some people claim there is no off-road to do in the Netherlands, this is not true, there are off-road areas available, although not much. Anyway with all those speed-bumbs (which are annoying and bad for your fuel consumption) you are almost forced to buy a 4x4 as that is the only way to drive over them normally.

Autism
When I was about 20 I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which isn't as bad as it sounds. ;) As a result I know a lot about autism, in particular this form of autism as I experience it daily. :) I am a member of Personen uit het Autisme Spectrum {PAS} a club for adult people with autism and a normal- or high intelligence and which does many activities for this group of people. One of which are nationalcontact days held at various cities in the Netherlands. At these contactdays adults with autism can come into contact with other people who have a similar diagnose and share thoughts and tips about the subject or just make freinds. Besides being a member I am also organisator of the contactday in Alkmaar.

Political views
My political views are based on right-wing liberalism. To American readers this might be confusing as in the USA liberalism is often classified as being left-wing. In Europe things are a bit diffirent. True liberalism supports both personal and economic freedom (market economy). For instance the VVD is a liberal political party which is for abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage but also for a free market, stronc economy, low taxes, a strong military, strong police, higher sentences for criminals, critical on issues such as immigration, islam and the theory that global warming is caused by man. The Democrats in the USA could be described as social-liberals, being a combination of liberalism and social-democracy.

Some of my political views:

Freedom
People are not equal but they are of equal value. Everybody is different so you can never make everybody happy. This is why you must allow all people to live their lives the way they want to (as long as it does not harm other people). People should choose for themselves what jobs or careers they want to take, what kind of transportation they use, what hobbies they do and who they choose to live their lives with. It is nobody's business what kind of car I drive, what TV programs I watch, what I eat or what games I play or who I live my live with.

Government
The government should only limit itself to the minimal which is required. So only welfare for those who actually need it. A small government means less taxes, which means that people will keep a larger part of the money they earn and are able to buy more with the same money as the prices will be lower. This gives them more freedom, being able to decide for themselves what their money is spend on. The government should focus on security (military, police, judges), infrastructure, education, healthcare (making sure that its of good quality, providing healthcare itself is for companies). Development aid should not be provided by the government but only by aid organisations themselves which will have to collect their money themselves from volunteer benefits given by citizens. This way the citizens can determine what kind of aid they beleive it important and give money to it.

Global warming
Climate change is not caused by the human race but only by nature itself and I fully support the facts as shown in the film The Great Global Warming Swindle. The whole tree-hugger theory is a disguised way by left-wingers to attack the success of capitalism. The climate has always changed and will do this in the future. There were periods in which Antarctica was free of ice. We've had warm periods such as the Medieval Warm Period and cold periods such as the ice age. During the times of the dinosaurs it was significently warmer then today, there were no ice poles and dinosaur fossils have been found at Antarctica.

Human CO2 production is less then 4% of the total CO2 production, which means that 96% of it has a natural cause. It is also questionable if CO2 has an effect on the climate at all. The sun has a great effect on our climate and in the past temperature rises and drops have been comparable to the increase and decrease of solar activities. We are currently in a time of rise of solar activity which explains why the temperature is currently rising.

Islam
I beleive that islam is a dangerous and intolerent ideology. Its prophet Muhammed was a tyrant conquerer who forced the religion onto others with force. The ideology itself is intolerant towards people who do not share this religion. It is also discriminating against women, homosexuals and jews in particular. I think it has a lot of resemblanse to nazism. Banning islam would go to far but discriminating and provocing clothing like the burka, jihab and headscarf should be banned as these are discriminating women. Normal citizens are not allowed to walk in public space unrecognisable (because of security issues) but muslims are apparantly above the law. The ideology in many cases is violent towards towards critics as shown in the riots about the Danish Muhammed cartoons as well as many acts of terrorism in the name of islam.

State and religion
State and religion should always be seperated. Religion is something personal which belongs in the privacy of someones home or at a church. It does not belong at schools. Schools should all be public schools, none should be religious as funding religious schools would violate the seperation of state and religion. The state should not sponsor any religion or religious activity. All people should also obey to the same laws no matter if they have a religion or not. If there is a law stating that people should not allowed to walk in public space unrecognisable then this should apply to all people, no matter if they have a religion or not. No one is above the law.

Foreign policy
I think that the Netherlands should support the War on terror of the USA and also support Israel in its war against terrorism. Western nations should stand together against the common enemy, the islamists. The European Union has become to powerfull and expensive. More power should be given to the national parliaments. European cooperation should be strictly economical. Military cooperation should only be done trough NATO.

Military
A stong military is a very important as it provides national and international security to our nation as well as to our allies. If it appears that there is no enemy doesn't mean that there isn't one or that none will emerge in time. It appears as if the world is safe after the Cold war and as a result many western nations (in particular European nations) are downsizing their military forces. But is the world saver? During the cold war we knew who the enemy was, we knew who to fight. We knew that if we were attacked who would have done is. Today we do not. It could be everybody and it could have all kinds of shapes or sizes. Large anti-western nations such as Russia or China or small anti-western nations like Iran or North Korea. Large terrorist organisations such as Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or Hamas or small terrorist groups with only a few people inspired by Osama Bin Laden or Nashrallah, and many of these organisations will be supported (directly or indirectly) by anti-western nations. Since it could come from everywhere a military force needs to be one which is able to fight any of these opponents with a wide range of weapons including tanks and armored fighting vehicles, warships and combat aircraft. It should also be noted that the best way to prevent a war is to prepare for one. When a potential opponent knows that you are capable of fighting him then he is less likely to attack but when you are weak then he will take his chance. The fact is that although there is no Soviet Union anymore there are still a lot of nations and militant organisations which are hostile to the west and we as the west should stand together to face these treaths.

Wikipedia
I think Wikipedia should be as neutral as possible but not up to a point that things can not be called by their name. For instance a militant organisation which commits suicide bombings, places bombs and kidnaps, uses civilians as a shield and wants another state or people completely wiped of the face of the planet is clearly a terrorist organisation and should be named as one. Even if in some nations these are referred to as a 'resistance movement'. It is interesting to note that in these same nations Hitler is often called a hero or a good man, that doesn't change the fact that he was an evil ruthless dictator and madman.