Hi, I’m a thirty-something Dutch, single male. Ask me stuff!
To get one thing out of the way first:
Yes I do smoke weed occasionally. It’s not technically legal, but in practice it is. But you would know that being the smart and well-informed people that you are. 
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Tell us about dikes. Why are they necessary? Are there lots of them? Do you feel insecure due to being below sea level? Am I completely ignorant of your country here or are these legitimate questions? 
You used to be an important power. Or at least you were punching far above your weight globally. How did that come to be? What happened that made you lose it?
You say that in practice pot is legal. Could you smoke a joint in front of a cop?
Dutch wife - Wikipedia (specifically, this)
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Can you see the ash cloud from your house?
Quite a lot of our country is below sea level. We also have plenty of fairly substantial rivers that overflow with the seasons. Currently, I’m living on relatively dry soil (in Utrecht; Amsterdam is just mud in comparison - see deep foundation).
So, yes: flooding is a concern in a lot of the Netherlands, but we’ve got qualified people who do nothing but worry about that andwe spend a lot of money on the problem, so that the rest of us can mostly ignore it. 
As an aside, the oldest democratic governmental bodies in the Netherlands are the Water Boards (founded in the 13th century)
As far as I know, mechanical (wind) power made possible the construction of large timber ships. Also, an influx of intellectual & merchant immigrants from catholic countries and the founding of the VOC (the first stock-traded company in the world) helped. Exactly how we lost that status isn’t very clear to me; Neil Stephenson insinuates that once the English got a grasp of stock trading the end was inevitable for the Netherlands, but he’s a fiction writer.
Yes. Unless you piss them off too much. You won’t get arrested for smoking pot, though. They’ll have to charge you with something else and then they can arrest you and take your pot away.
We’re cheap, we like a drink, we don’t think we’re the best country in the world but we do tend to think the Americans (and the rest of the world too, only less) have got it all wrong and I don’t know about those sex dolls but we don’t get hung up about a couple of bare breasts. Even if our teenagers can see them. That’s what the beach is for.
Make of that what you will.
No. But my vision and smell isn’t too good right now because my kitchen is being rebuilt and my house if full of dust.
Skies looked clear to me this morning though
Re: “being the smart and well-informed people that [we] are” :
Are you referring to SDMB members in general, or sarcastically to Americans?
In case this was directed to US citizenry: You do know that not all Americans are fat, lazy, and stupid…right? (Admittedly, a lot are, though.) A surprising number of us actually are aware that we didn’t singlehandedly “save Europe’s ass” in WWII, and that we didn’t really invent democracy, fire, and the automobile.
Jus’ sayin’. 
Now, my question for the Low-Countryman: Don’t you think Within Temptation just KICKS ASS?? (I happen to be one of the stupid, lazy, nationalistic Americans. Hence the insipid question. :D)
Addendum to the Deep Foundation link:
Did you ever get your bicycle back?
Collectively, did you ever get your bicycles back?
SMDB members. Well, most of them.
Hey, I’m grateful that the US came to help us out in WWII. It would probably have dragged on for many more years, and we might have ended up under Russian control - after a very nasty German collapse. Not a good prospect indeed.
Haha I don’t mind them but it’s just not my style of music. I can name a bunch of Dutch techno acts (popular and/or great) though.
I wasn’t even born in WWII. Thanks for asking
Collectively, I don’t think so. I don’t even know if “ze Germenz” ever took that many bicycles anyway. It’s mostly something (very) old people say.
So who are the good Dutch techno acts? I’m actually really interested in this. I dig Euro techno.
Video links will be appreciated.
Thanks!
If they were to build a Mount Rushmore in the Netherlands, who would likely be on it?
Does everybody know who Max Euwe was?
Is it true that you cook your foods by farting under blankets? And if so, do you need to be under the blanket at the time?
Speedy J is pretty good. He did this popular (and pretty stupid but likable) track
Also Joris Voorn and pretty much everything on the eevolute label and Stephan Robbers & Wladimir M in particular.
Also: unit moebius and all its spin-offs
That’s 4 faces, right?
In keeping with the US example, I guess we’d have to put some revolutionary presidemts on there. Dunno who that would be. For one, we don’t have presidents. Secondly, our history is pretty muddled when you get to the top.
Some do. I had to look him up to be sure. I’m not a gamer nor a mathematician.
Yes. Yes it’s all true.
Being Dutch myself I have no factual questions for you that I can’t answer myself. Still, I have for you what is probably the most important question for a Dutch person to answer:
Feyenoord or Ajax?
Does it annoy you when foreigners call your country Holland, rather than the Netherlands?
What’s the general attitude towards Queen Beatrix and the monarchy?
