Untimely meditations

One man's thoughts, observations and rants

Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.

Please note that the things I write here do not represent the views of anyone else but me. I do not represent an organization or a business and I have nothing to sell. My views do not necessarily coincide with or represent those of my employer. Just throwing that in there for legal reasons.

Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.

Latest posts

  • One-dimensional man

    One-dimensional man

    I recently came across an article which discusses the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse, a German philosopher of the Frankfurt school. Marcuse is surprisingly still very relevant today. In his book The One-Dimensional Man, he argues that modern, industrialized, democratic nations are actually totalitarian in nature. What struck me was the link I saw to the…

  • Fight CSAM, destroy privacy

    Fight CSAM, destroy privacy

    Last year in May, the European Commission proposed new rules to eradicate CSAM, Child Sexual Abuse Material. The sexual abuse of children is a heinous crime and profiting from such material is even worse. It is important to take effective measures against creating and spreading of such material via the internet. The new EC proposal…

  • Do you practice religion?

    Do you practice religion?

    Today’s writing prompt from WordPress asks: “Do you practice religion?” People who follow my blog will know that I have strong opinions about religion and religious beliefs. This writing prompt prompts me to dig up this subject again and share my opinion about it.

  • The greatest gift

    The greatest gift

    The WordPress “daily prompt” of today is an easy one for me. If I need to specify what the greatest gift someone could give me is, there’s really only one thing that leaps to mind. What that one thing is? Read on below and I’ll tell you!

  • What are your feelings about eating meat?

    What are your feelings about eating meat?

    For the writing prompt of today (for which I am way too late), WordPress asks: “What are your feelings about eating meat?” I discussed some of this in a post about becoming a vegetarian before but it’s worth exploring this topic a bit further because it’s still controversial for many people. Let’s dive in!

  • Black Friday

    Black Friday

    Black Friday is the term mostly used in the United States for the Friday following Thanksgiving. It’s the day that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. It’s known for retailers offering massive discounts and in a way it is a perfect summary of our empty, consumption oriented society.

Recent comments

What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.

Christopher Hitchens

Author and journalist