Opération antiterroriste en Belgique: la police visée par des menaces, une interpellation à Molenbeek

Not sure if Lesoir.be is some major news source over there, but I have had it in my bookmarks for at least a decade. The ongoing story in the news right now is a major counterterrorist operation in Verviers, Belgium.

Analysing his doublespeak does not make him better. It makes him worse.

I disproved my point by bringing Austria as an example? At the time the EU was considerably smaller and Austria was counted among the rubble, so if my point was that the fatties bully the tinies (and this indeed was my point), then I proved the point rather than disproved it.

That's certainly not an impression I share from my memories of the '90s. I might go as far as to say it was like if Norway or Switzerland joined the EU tomorrow. A very different thing from the inclusion of Greece in the early '80s or the accession of countries from the former Warsaw Pact.

And yes, our government is lying often enough when saying this, but what have you (EU, Brussels, Benelux) ever done about it to prove that you are not like that? This is the EU reputation we are talking about, you know.

That is the moral duty of a free press, which is why freedom of press is important to the EU. The EU also releases promotional materials about the way it functions in every language and its websites are perhaps surprisingly well-made. How do you tell the hog it ate the cabbage? People just swallow these lies and half-truths whole seemingly without applying critical thought or independent inquiry.

And I repeat, this is not a small matter. Had anybody else talked like Cameron (even for fun or for lying or for "purely internal purposes" like it's sometimes said), there would have been real sanctions. Because the people in the smaller countries feel sanctioned and bullied by the EU often enough while UK is one of the unreined bullies.

We smaller countries can form voting blocks. For instance, although this is a slightly different topic, with regard to the Benelux army there are talks of merging our not-yet-merged air forces with Denmark's as well. You should have a nice ally in the Dutch once you convince them that it's a bit megalomaniac and self-defeating to keep acting like the smallest of the large countries as opposed to the largest of the small countries. On the flip side, we have "bullied" (in your vocabulary) the likes of Italy and France in the past for transgressions. But that was before most of Eastern Europe joined.

May I neatly remind you at this point that this is an island we live on. As a boy at Senior Secondary school the population was 48 million and now around 61 or 62 million and scheduled to go over 70 million and no sign of stopping and immigrants breed like flies. 

As covered before, the UK has had very low population growth. If it hadn't been for net immigration the UK would have been even more insignificant globally than it is.

Every time our government tells the people "We must make this stupid law no matter how bad it feels because this is EU directive" (which is a few times every year) we feel bullied like that. And yes, our government is lying often enough when saying this, but what have you (EU, Brussels, Benelux) ever done about it to prove that you are not like that?

It's called passing the blame, something politicians are adept at. If they can push through the legalisation they want in the EU (which is a slow and error-prone process), then they can say their hands are tied, this is an EU directive.

There are four power centres in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris, and Brussels (maybe one day Ankara, but let's not get ahead of ourselves). Brussels only as the capital of EUropa. If the EU was dismantled there would be three left. The power balance in EU/Brussels is complicated. The engine used to be Paris-Berlin (Bonn), each had what the other wanted, and together they could rule the rest. It was 843 all over again.

London decided this was not in their interest, and it was better to expand and conquer, an expansion that went as far North-East as Estonia (in part due to Nordic pressure), and as far South-East as most-of-Cyprus (in part due to Greek pressure). Berlin-Paris is still strong, but no longer sufficient.

In Brussels The Rest is not as strong as Berlin-Paris-London. That is, technically Berlin-Paris-London would need the support of Estonia (or other rank-breaking country) to form a blocking minority, but as hard as it would be for the Big 3 to agree, it is easy comparing to the Other 25.

Analysing his doublespeak does not make him better. It makes him worse.

Yeah, right. Good that we've made sure he's no good at all.

And yes, our government is lying often enough when saying this, but what have you (EU, Brussels, Benelux) ever done about it to prove that you are not like that? This is the EU reputation we are talking about, you know.

That is the moral duty of a free press, which is why freedom of press is important to the EU. The EU also releases promotional materials about the way it functions in every language and its websites are perhaps surprisingly well-made. How do you tell the hog it ate the cabbage? People just swallow these lies and half-truths whole seemingly without applying critical thought or independent inquiry.

What if freedom of the press is among the lies that politicians tell? I know that the EU says that freedom of the press is important, but we hear a lot of other things that the EU says are important. And this is not a case of people swallowing lies. It's rather like the game "Simon says": We have to obey. Why do we have to obey? Because this is what the gov't and the free press assure to us.

We smaller countries can form voting blocks.

Yeah, remember how this worked so well when Rumsfeld was rallying everybody for the wars and demolished any hope for the EU common stance by dividing us into "old" and "new" Europe. Those were brilliant blocks, weren't they?

Or the way Russia tricks the West with gas (you surely know about the pipeline that marks the Schroderisation of the West), so that Brussels demands from us (so we hear, the free press says so) border agreements with Russia so as to prepare for the hopeful visa-freedom with Russia. Even the mere idea of visa-freedom with Russia was a moral outrage from our point of view, not to mention that we have border disputes with Russia which we found no support for from Brussels. Luckily the idea of visa-freedom was eventually put on hold, even though too late, only a year ago, after signing the humiliating border agreements and after revealing to Russia lots of ways in which to pull the strings among the EU member countries. Thanks a lot, Brussels.

On the flip side, we have "bullied" (in your vocabulary) the likes of Italy and France in the past for transgressions. But that was before most of Eastern Europe joined.

Our previous prime minister thought it was funny to make jokes about Greece. You can say he was bullying the Greeks. At the same time he went along with guaranteeing Greece's state bonds. He thought we would get something in return. Of course we didn't, never did. So we are paying now the welfare of the country which has double higher welfare than we have here. How funny is that? This is the manner in which we are able to bully.

What if freedom of the press is among the lies that politicians tell? I know that the EU says that freedom of the press is important, but we hear a lot of other things that the EU says are important. And this is not a case of people swallowing lies. It's rather like the game "Simon says": We have to obey. Why do we have to obey? Because this is what the gov't and the free press assure to us.

The Dutch press reports that the Dutch government insists on ISPs logging all kinds of data in spite of the EU explicitly saying they misinterpreted the intent of EU regulations and went way overboard. If the Estonian press does no such thing that's problematic. What do you think the EU should do about it then?

Yeah, remember how this worked so well when Rumsfeld was rallying everybody for the wars and demolished any hope for the EU common stance by dividing us into "old" and "new" Europe. Those were brilliant blocks, weren't they?

NATO isn't the EU, and describing isn't making.

after revealing to Russia lots of ways in which to pull the strings among the EU member countries. Thanks a lot, Brussels.

Let them pull. Nothing unites like a common enemy.

You might want to check out In Bruges.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie last night.  Wonderfully dark comedy with unlikely people in absurd situations set in a fairy tale city, thanks for the tip.     

It is a nice one.

The movie or the city?    

A great exhibition of Hieronymus Bosch going on in his home town http://boschexpo.hetnoordbrabantsmuseum.nl/nl/jheronimus-bosch

Interesting. I think I've seen his work in two or three different countries (Paris and Venice or Berlin), but never in the Netherlands.

Here's one that might sound odd to Americans: in Antwerp police officers have permission to take their service weapons home

The better to shoot their neighbors.

Hieronymus Bosch

The man was on drugs, there's no other explanation.
Absolutely brilliant.

Attacks in Brussels, explosions at the airport and the metro (underground or subway or whatever you call it in English) http://live.lesoir.be/Event/Explosion_a_Zaventem

The man was on drugs, there's no other explanation.
Absolutely brilliant.

Brilliance? I'll show you brilliance!
Storks that eat at garbage dumps in Portugal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/opinion/elegant-bird-discovers-junk-food.html?emc=edit_ty_20160322&nl=opinion&nlid=70505299

Attacks in Brussels, explosions at the airport and the metro (underground or subway or whatever you call it in English) http://live.lesoir.be/Event/Explosion_a_Zaventem

Oh yes, I forgot about this topic.

In other news, the prime minister just said no one in Belgium should leave their house if they don't have to.

Edit: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/regio/brussel/1.2607986

Brilliance?

No, brilliant.
Shut up.

Attacks in Brussels, explosions at the airport and the metro (underground or subway or whatever you call it in English) http://live.lesoir.be/Event/Explosion_a_Zaventem

Terrorists wants to kill  themselves.
Populatons wants to feel safer.
Governements wants to to keep populations under control, all abuses are done for your safety.
Everibody is happy...

Brussels Airport (Zaventem) can reopen thanks to a newly reached agreement

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/regio/vlaamsbrabant/2.43601?eid=1.2616906

The Christian union says there'll be screening of passengers and luggage before they enter the airport terminal. It might take up to summer for the airport to get back up to full speed.

In related news, over 900 luggage handlers are technically jobless because they haven't had anything to do for 10 days.

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/regio/vlaamsbrabant/2.43601?eid=1.2617052

(Also, I'll be in Brussels on Monday. Here's my SmileyFaze impression directed at any would-be terrorists. <^>(-_-)<^>)

Apparently the Dutch Ministry for infrastructure and the environment is hard at work to make truck drivers obsolete.



Via http://mobile.lemondeinformatique.fr/lire.php?id=64459&cat=vide

It is familiar, as the first caravan are Scania trucks, and Scania is one of the two keystone companies here in Södertälje (the other AstraZeneca). So:

Autonomous truck trains and google cars. Obviously a machine/computer government will be best than an human one.
Bunch of fools.

Breaking: Belgian airport security has serious deficiencies
http://www.rtbf.be/info/belgique/detail_securite-a-l-aeroport-de-bruxelles-national-des-documents-accablants?id=9268475

It is familiar, as the first caravan are Scania trucks, and Scania is one of the two keystone companies here in Södertälje (the other AstraZeneca).

Here's an article in English for those who don't read French: http://qz.com/656104/a-fleet-of-trucks-just-drove-themselves-across-europe/

Apple store evacuated after iPad blows up

Apple Store in Leidseplein square in Amsterdam has been evacuated after an iPad exploded [...] three people had respiratory problems following the incident.