User:JorisEnter

The universe is an experiment that happened once, and all we can do is observe it.

[T]he Courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the People and the Legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority. The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the Courts. A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the Judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular Act proceeding from the Legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute; the intention of the People to the intention of their agents.

Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the Judicial to the Legislative power. It only supposes that the power of the People is superior to both; and that where the will of the Legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the People, declared in the Constitution, the Judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental.

Hello there! I'm Joris, a law student at Leiden University. I write mostly on Dutch subjects now, in particular on Ben Hobrink and his book Modern Science in the Bible. Dutch politics is also one of my topics of interest. As a professional autist and OCD'er weirdo with a fetish for footnotes, I like to clean up RW's references. Also, I like to terrorise the living guy next to me by playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony/Carl Orff's Carmina Burana/Händel's Messiah or Coronation Anthems/Sir Edward Elgar's Ceremonial Music/[add loud and bombastic piece of classical music here] at full volume.

What I am not but people have mistaken me for:
 * An assistant professor of some sort (apparently, I dress like one)
 * A journalist (because I was busy taking notes at the Logos Institute opening conference)

Me edit count

Favourite books
(in no particular order in which I read them)
 * The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien
 * The Inferno - Dante Alighieri, tr. Warwick Chipman
 * A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
 * De Rerum Natura - T. Lucretius Carus, tr. W. H. D. Rouse
 * On War - Carl von Clausewitz, tr. Bernard Brodie, ed. Sir Michael E. Howard & Peter Paret

Longest book titles

 * 1) Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen: Studie van levens- en gedachtevormen der veertiende en vijftiende eeuw in Frankrijk en de Nederlanden - Johan Huizinga
 * 2) A History of Western Philosphy, and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day - Bertrand Russell
 * 3) Het woordenboek van de skepticus: Een overzicht van vreemde overtuigingen, grappige misleidingen en gevaarlijke waanideeën - Robert T. Carroll, ed. & tr. Herman Boel
 * 4) On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life - Charles Darwin
 * 5) Studies in the Foundations: Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Volume 2: Quantum Theory and Reality - ed. Mario Bunge, contributions by Karl Popper et al.

Wannabe longest title but I don't acknowledge it as a complete title:


 * Degeneratie: Het einde van de evolutietheorie en een wetenschappelijk alternatief: Hoe de huidige inziechten van de genetica onthullen dat de soorten of typen niet door natuurlijke selectie ontstaan zijn - Peter Scheele (creationist crackpot with zero understanding of biology)

Highest number of pages

 * 1) Collegebundel 2016-2017 wetteksten I: privaatrecht (2732 pp) - pub. Wolters Kluwer
 * 2) Arresten strafrecht/strafprocesrecht (1458 pp) - ed. K.C.J. Vriend
 * 3) Die drei Kritiken (1311 pp) - Immanuel Kant
 * 4) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (1264 pp) - ed. W.J. Craig
 * 5) Woordenboek Latijn-Nederlands (1210 pp) - ed. Harm Pinkster

First editions

 * The Humanist Frame - ed. Sir Julian Huxley, pub. Allen & Unwin
 * The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914-1944 and 1944-1969 - Bertrand Russell, obviously; Allen & Unwin
 * The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien, pub. Allen & Unwin
 * The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
 * To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science - Steven Weinberg

Oldest books
(years refer to the date of printing of this particular tome)
 * 1) De werken van William Shakespeare - tr. L. A. J. Burgersdijk, c. 1890
 * 2) Histoire Illustrée de la litterature Française - E. Abry et al, 1926
 * 3) Education and the Good Life - Bertrand Russell, 1927
 * 4) M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes Selectae XI - pub. Teubner, 1931
 * 5) Platonis Opera, Tomus IV, Tetralogiam VIII Continens - ed. John Burnet, pub. OUP, 1932

Favourites

 * 1) Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 - Ludwig van Beethoven (absolute no. 1)
 * 2) The Messiah, HWV 56 - George Frederick Handel (Hallelujah!)
 * 3) Symphony No. 9 in E Minor: "From the New World" - Antonín Dvořák (I have a strong suspicion that John Williams has been listening to this)
 * 4) Requiem, KWV 626 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * 5) Der Ring des Nibelungen - Richard Wagner
 * 6) Messa da Requiem - Giuseppe Verdi
 * 7) Carmina Burana - Carl Orff
 * 8) Má Vlast - Bedřich Smetana
 * 9) Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248 - Johann Sebastian Bach
 * 10) Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D - Sir Edward Elgar
 * 11) Coronation Anthems, HWV 258-261 - George Frederick Handel
 * 12) Missa Salisburgensis - Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

Work in progress Pet articles

 * Modern Science in the Bible
 * Logos Institute
 * Ben Hobrink
 * Stefaan Blancke

History & Politics

 * Improvements to
 * Geert Wilders
 * Party for Freedom
 * Netherlands
 * Political parties of the Netherlands
 * Separate articles for interesting parties
 * Interesting Dutch politicians
 * Ronald Plasterk
 * Ard van der Steur
 * Mark Rutte
 * Pim Fortuyn
 * Carl von Clausewitz
 * Cicero (the real one, that is)
 * Hugo Grotius
 * International Court of Justice & International Criminal Court
 * Otto von Habsburg

Creationism / ID

 * Improvements to
 * Barry Setterfield
 * c-decay
 * Cees Dekker
 * De Oude Wereld
 * Breakdown of letters to Sec. for Education, Dijkgraaf &c
 * David Sörensen
 * Evangelische Hogeschool
 * Weet Magazine
 * Individual members of the Logos Institute:
 * Stef Heerema aka Saltrevolution
 * Peter Borger
 * Rinus Kiel
 * Ruben Jorritsma
 * Geo Detective

Science

 * Cosmology (currently links to Universe)
 * Gerard 't Hooft
 * Roger Penrose
 * The Royal Society
 * Herman Philipse
 * Peter Atkins
 * Robbert Dijkgraaf
 * Steven Weinberg

Other nonsense

 * Improvement of
 * What Doctors Don't Tell You
 * Michael Talbot
 * Trans Dimensional Unified Field Theory
 * Inframatter Research Center