If you're like me than you love to flip channels around 2 in the morning. It provides me with both, inspiration to fall asleep and yet a feeling of rolling the dice to see what my few cable channels might randomly produce.

Despite all the wonders of BBC2 and Arte, both of which provide some pretty obscure movies that will keep you up til at least 3... my personal favorite remains Dutch public TV.

Actually they don't air anything special at night... but it is special to me because they replay the days programming. With 3 channels of public programming, I always find some fantastically bizarre and informative program that will surely give me something to talk about the next day... or to blog about, as the case may be.

Last night was a big hit. The program: a focus on the arguements in parliament. What a show that parliament. While the US congress has its characters, I find the Dutch parliament to be the real deal when it comes to people yelling at each other followed by close-ups of them pouting. Lately the one who pouts most is the immigration minister... very famous name over here. I watched her pout and bark angry answers for about an hour before I fell asleep last night, it was quite a show. Should you ever find yourself in the Netherlands, hoping for something good to watch in the middle of the night; flip over to public TV. If you're lucky you'll see those familiar big comfy blue seats and all the zany cast of characters from the political rainbow of parties.