Thursday, July 21, 2011

Well, you we could be Belgium ...

It's always fun to watch a German fuss'n at grumpy Dutchmen and lazy Frenchmen ... oh I'm sorry - the Belgian King scolding his Flemish and Walloon "countrymen."
The Belgian head of state used his traditional eve of national day address to demand an end to disputes that have left Belgium without an elected government for 14 months.

"On this national day, I would have liked to enjoy with you the swearing in of a new government. Alas, we are not there yet, and I deplore this," he said.

Banging the table during Wednesday's broadcast from his castle just outside Brussels, the king castigated "ignorant" voters and painted a pessimistic picture of the divisions between Dutch and French speaking communities.

"Our current situation is a cause for concern among our partners and could damage our position in Europe, and even the momentum towards European integration which has already been undermined by populism and Euroscepticism," he said.
There you go King - those pesky peasants wanting to run their own affairs with their own community. How gauche.



Putting your trust in Waloon Socialists - the ones who are responsible for Flemish separatism.

Stuck on stupid.

33 comments:

Skippy-san said...

Where is Leopold when you need him?

ewok40k said...

Belgium actually proves all that fuss with elections is really not needed... a king as head of state and caretaker government of technocrats :P

UltimaRatioRegis said...

Well, there is no blood sausage left for the Belgians, for the Belgians are slackers....

andrewdb said...

Now that the funeral for Otto is over, Karl von Habsburg might be available.

AW1 Tim said...

Perhaps it's time to do the obvious and dissolve Belgium.

  Give the Dutch-speaking part to the Netherlands, the French-speaking part to France, and give the Germans free access roads to Paris.  ;)

  Sigh.

AW1 Tim said...

 And while we're at it, could we remove ourselves from the UN and move all their operations off US soil and to, say, Brussels?

ewok40k said...

heads up, folks... big bomb explosion in government building housing prime minister office in Oslo, Norway, dozens wounded, at least 2 dead... also a shooter attacked a party youth meeting where PM was supposed to be present.
AQ can still bite?

ewok40k said...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14252515   first reports

andrewdb said...

Bruce Bawer, now living in Norway, wrote a book about this several years ago.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

So a single exception out of nearly 70 means the others don't matter?

Let me paraphrase:  It isn't like those 67 attacks on American soil accounting for nearly 3,100 lives over forty years were perpetrated by white men.

ewok40k said...

Ahem, most of the cases are single homicides, not deserving terror label... if we count every skinhead/KKK/abortion clinic attack we can muster more in the "proof" of "wave of white rightist attacks". Add to this leftists attacks like Weathermen, all kinds of ethnic mobsters and we can "prove" terror links to anyone. The largest attack was 9/11 but Oklahoma City is second largest one until today. Radical islam is the main threat, but far from only one present. Of course portrayal of suspects in the DHS vid is biased, but they had no real choice as threat of court case makes any sort of profiling next to impossible. If you can do better in reality of court lawfare, I'd be glad to see it.

CDR Salamander said...

Bruce is good people, BTW.

AW1 Tim said...

And I would have no trouble believing that McVeigh had a ME accomplice in that truck with him.

Skippy-san said...

When I took the SO to Belgium two years ago-she marveled at how flat the country was. I told her, "Yes, that is why the Germans liked invading through it." She shook her head in disbelief-such was her ignorance of WW-II. That said-I think the French influence will keep Belgium from going any where else but where it is now.

Stu said...

Anyone who doesn't realize that the Mohammedans are still fighting the same war that caused the West to initial launch the Crusades isn't paying attention.  Let's hope that Europe isn't so immersed in modernist, secular thought to such an extent that they are incapable of realizing this before it is too late.  

sid said...

Well...

While the Belgians may not have an elected government, they do have so timeless qualities to tide them over...

Chocolate. Lace.

And that whole dusky, sultry, Flemish Chic thing goin' on...

Those Spaniards sure did leave some enduring genes....

Just sayin' 8-)

ewok40k said...

It seems that in this case (Oslo) there is perfect lack of Muslim involvement... main suspect arrested is collaborating with the police and surprise - he is tall blonde and describes himself as defender of christendom against muslims and the left...
Anyway lets pray for his 87 (so far counted) victims, mostly teenagers from camp on the island.

Anonymous said...

So Monty Python has finally become reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bqQ-C1PSE

UltimaRatioRegis said...

And that justifies our own DHS portraying white middle class men in this country as the likely terrorists? 

I do not think so. 

One prediction:  It will be used by the Left in this country to further justify treating political opponents as security risks and national enemies.  And they will use much the same logic you have.

Stu said...

Indeed, it looks like a lone crazy person.  My sentiments remain and those that would use this to ignore the Mohammedan "invasion" of Europe are whistling past a graveyard.

ewok40k said...

well, it seems media industry more than any ideological motives or connections is digging the fact that he was a World of Warcraft player... so when next time you get news that there is shooting going on in Szczecin you can assume it is me gone nuts after too much MMO gaming and internet discussions with military guys on the net :P
And how is it possible S,Korea didnt blew up yet?
the world has officially gone mad...
seriously though the incident shows how much damage can well prepared lone wolf/small cell do, so keep that in mind when AQ getting forced out of the big actions into small cell/lone wolf territory is being touted as victory...

DeltaBravo said...

No one stopped to ask why this non-farmer was buying 6 tons of fertilizer?

dURR! said...

This tread is so awesome.  URR once again got proven a fool.  This is why you shouldn't be allowed near a weapon.  You tend to shoot at your prejudices rather than the actual target.  Why don't you ever post your delusional rantings over at USNI?  Afraid your ideas might give the USNI a bad name?  Hmmm.

ewok40k said...

he actually put up front as a farmer, or even was one genuinely...

pk said...

please tell me just how a single person killed 87 people. didn't some of them at least run.

or did they hold his loaded magazines for when he needed them.

perhaps he had help, and just precisely who was the "help".


bet at the most they will get 90 days messcooking as punishment!!!!!

C

UltimaRatioRegis said...

<span>Agreed, PK.  Something stinks out loud.  This guy was allowed on the island even though no police were expected to augment security?  What did the security personnel on the island do when they heard the shots?  Were they armed?  Were they, or some of them, in on it?   
 
By the way, European fascism may be new to the current generation, but it has been a recurring theme since the 1850s in one form or another.  Longer than that, if you trace it from monarchist roots.</span>

ewok40k said...

Blackfive has a nice article on the attack. explaining how it was executed... (what a bad pun) and you have officially joined the tinfoil hat brigade of "CIA blew up the twin towers", just from the other side of political spectrum...

UltimaRatioRegis said...

ewok,

No, I haven't joined the "tinfoil brigade".  I have been around long enough to remember when both European communists and European fascists were serious terror threats, and I am not sure they ever quite went away as we here were so eager to believe.  The "help" I refer to would have been from others who helped plan or execute the attack. 

It takes some time to chase and kill 80+ people.  Long enough for security to hear the shots and respond from a few hundred yards away.  So my questions stand.

ewok40k said...

there was NO security... do you expect armed security at every youth camp? even in the US... and it was isolated island in the middle of a lake. a perfect trap.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

ewok,

We seem to have some of the answer to the question posited.  (And yes, a youth camp like that in the states would have a Law Enforcement presence or stand-by.  True also of EMS.)

Seems they waited for the special units to arrive.  Something we learned at Columbine.  There was much more risk in waiting.  But it also seems to have been a tragedy of f*ck-ups.

"
Critics within the police have long complained that the "Delta" anti-terrorism unit is short of transport capacity.
Berga said that when Oslo's Delta unit arrived at the pier across from Utoeya its leaders commandeered recreational boats to cross over.
Police sources said there had been much internal police debate over whether the first responders should have approached the island without waiting for the Oslo force.
Police released a timeline showing that the Hoenefoss police station first received reports of a shooting at 5:27 p.m. (11:27 a.m. EDT). Local officers arrived at a pier across the water from the island at 5:52 p.m., but had to "wait for a suitable boat."
From 6:09 p.m., when the specially equipped tactical police officers from Oslo arrived at the pier, it took 16 minutes for them to arrive on Utoeya, and only another two minutes before the gunman surrendered without resistance, the police said."

Aubrey said...

And now it looks like the max this guy can get is 21 years?  What is that, 3 months per victim?  I predict Norway is going to go through some major changes in the next 9-12 months...

Outlaw Mike said...

ewok40k, indeed, the situation in Belgium is actually proof of the fact that limited government is good for a country. With only a caretaker government, the economy is humming fine, unemployment is down, economic growth over the last year 2.2% (compare that to Germany with 0.4%).

Outlaw Mike said...

<span>'Putting your trust in Waloon Socialists - the ones who are responsible for Flemish separatism.'</span>
<span></span>
<span>I like that line, and there's much truth in it. Indeed, if the Wallon socialists with their all-powerful baronies, cliques, unions and what non had not so thoroughly impoverished Wallonia over the past six decades, there would simply be no call for independence. The very call for ending the perennial flow of Flemish money to the south is the main motive of the VB's call for independence.</span>
<span></span>
<span>Belgium won't evaporate though, I've been saying for years that it ain't an artificial state. Flemings and Walloons are doomed to each other.</span>