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Kinderen voor Kinderen (Children for Children), the children's choir of public broadcaster VARA, has composed a song in which Islam is praised... In the song, 'Allah Akbar' is chorused 27 times. "The Dutch are in this way humiliated," declares PVV MP Martin Bosma. "The multi-culturalists have no shame any more. The multicultural faith is at death's door in society, but on subsidised public television, it is still alive and kicking." On Tuesday evening, the choir sung its 2009 CD on TV, among which was the Islam song. According to Bosma, the slogan 'Allah Akbar,' which forms the refrain, is "a...

  On my most recent visit to Amsterdam for the World Congress of Families (WCF), I was once again struck by the remarkable façade of peaceful, tolerant prosperity the Dutch maintain. Although its famous openness to lust and license is ever more apparent, Amsterdam's charm remains in its tidy homes, shops, museums, and beautiful (though empty) churches.   The simple fact, however, is that this beacon of liberalism worldwide is rotting from the inside out and must increasingly rely on deception to keep up appearances as a nation of tolerance, peace, and prosperity.   That was made nowhere more...

MPs voted by a large majority to pull Dutch troops out of Afghanistan as planned in August 2010 during a debate on Tuesday night. The motion, drawn up by Labour and ChristenUnie from the ruling coalition, was not supported by the biggest coalition party, the Christian Democrats. Labour introduced the motion following hints from CDA foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen last week that the Netherlands may stay after the planned withdrawal date. According to the Volkskrant, Verhagen is furious at his coalition partner parties' action. The US and Australia are keen to keep the Dutch involved in the southern province...

Note: The following text is a quote: Dutch Firm and Two Officers Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Export Aircraft Components and Other Goods to Iran A Dutch aviation services company, its director and sales manager pleaded guilty today in the District of Columbia to federal charges related to a conspiracy to illegally export aircraft components and other items from the United States to entities in Iran via the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus. The announcement was made by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; and...

A 26-year-old commando has become the 20th Dutch soldier to die in Afghanistan since the Dutch mission began in 2006. Corporal Keven van der Rijdt was killed in a gun battle with suspected Taliban fighters. A number of them were also killed, the defence ministry said. Van der Rijdt is the first member of the elite commando corps to be killed in Afghanistan.

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they would charge an Arab-oriented cultural group under hate speech laws for publishing a cartoon that suggests that the death of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust is a fabrication. The public prosecutor's office in Utrecht in the Netherlands said the cartoon insults Jews as a group and is therefore an illegal form of discrimination. T Advertisement he chairman of the Dutch arm of the Arab European League says it published the cartoon on its website to highlight a double standard in freedom of speech rules in which anti-Muslim cartoons are permitted but anti-Jewish cartoons are...

(IsraelNN.com) Virulent anti-Semitic content thrives on a Dutch social media website used by nearly half of the entire population of Holland, according to a report released Thursday. Yet, many of the online instigators appear to be Dutch-speaking Arabs. Many of the online instigators appear to be Dutch-speaking Arabs. The report, produced by investigators from Yad VaShem, the Dutch-language Israel Facts Monitorgroup and the Network on Anti-Semitism based in the Netherlands, was provided to all the political parties in the Netherlands, as well as to members of the Dutch government. As the Internet is becoming an increasingly important and influential facet...

By JB Thank you to Matt Engelmann for translating this report from the Dutch newspaper: NRC HANDELSBLAD MEXICAN VIRUS IS ORDINARY FLU ==================== BILTHOVEN, 7 Aug. — From now on, the Mexican flu will be treated by the authorities as an ordinary flu. Patients will no longer receive the antiviral drug Tamiflu as standard treatment. These policies were announced this morning by the [Dutch] National Institute for Public Health and the Environment [R.I.V.M.]. Cases of Mexican flu no longer need to be officially confirmed or reported. All Dutch residents will shortly receive a folder mailed to their homes with information...

"The victim only spent a day in Nunukan. He was being forced to give some money to a group of people but refused. Then someone from the group pulled out a knife and had a one-on-one fight with him,'' he said. The police chief said the alleged killer, a man named Basri bin Ismail, had been arrested.

June 15, 2009, 3:00 p.m. Rethinking the Reagan MystiqueDutch made mistakes, but also provided edifying examples of keen political judgment. By Steven F. Hayward In the New York Times this weekend, John Harwood revisited the debate between conservatives and Republicans over whether it is time to “rethink the Reagan mystique.� Does anyone really think the major media outlets covering this intramural argument really have conservative success in mind?   Now, that’s not to say that the argument isn’t a worthy one or should be suppressed — NRO has hosted some fruitful discussion on the issue. But Americans should approach such...

THE HAGUE, 16/06/09 - Prison sentences are in many cases not carried out. The judges that give these sentences do not know this, says conservative (VVD) MP Fred Teeven. In 2005, the government announced that in exceptional cases, criminals with short prison sentences would not have to serve these. They were given electronic house arrest via a GPS ankle-band. The temporary measure was taken because there was a shortage of prison cells. But Teeven has discovered that the policy has become standard, even though there is a cell surplus now. In 2008, Teeven discovered, 2,040 persons were only given house...

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ far right Freedom Party (PVV) appears to be the biggest winner of the European Union elections. Early analyses of the results are saying that the PVV, which stood for the first time in EU elections, has won four seats. The Christian Democrats, which remained the biggest party, lost two of its seven seats, and the Labour Party dropped from seven to four seats. The conservative VVD party and D66 both took three seats. The Green Left, Socialist Party and the Christian Union-SGP coalition won two seats each.

BENSONHURST — History came alive on Liberty Weekend this past Saturday and Sunday with the annual celebration of early Brooklyn history at the 17th century New Utrecht Reformed Church. This year’s events also celebrated the church’s designation as part of the American Revolution Heritage Trail. The new trail placards are posted just behind an iron fence on 18th Avenue at the entrance to the church at 84th Street. One shows an 1890s photo of the church. The other is a map of Brooklyn at the time of the Revolutionary War showcasing historic sites. With the raising of a 13-star “Betsy...

In November 2008 a Dutch journalist, Joanie de Rijke, was abducted by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. She was held captive, raped repeatedly, and released after six days for a ransom of 100,000 euros ... Wilders said, “is a perfect illustration of the moral decline of our elites. They are so blinded by their own ideology that they turn a blind eye to the truth. Rape? Well, I would put this into perspective, says the leftist journalist: the Taliban are not monsters. Our elites prefer to deny reality rather than face it. One would expect: a woman is being raped and...

In his elegantly written essay Going Dutch (The New York Times Magazine, April 29), Russell Shorto sounds the praises of the Dutch welfare state. He raves about the ‘kinderbijslag,’ or child benefit, he receives quarterly and the annual check to cover the expenses for his children's schoolbooks. Of course Shorto loves the welfare state. The top income-tax rate of 52 percent for all income above 65,000 dollar doesn't hurt him. As an expatriate Shorto's income tax is reduced by 30 percent for a period of ten years. Other mortals in the Netherlands, however, face a marginal tax rate of over...

The 38-year-old unemployed security guard who drove his car at high speed into a crowd watching the Queen’s Day royal procession has died. THE QUEEN – The 38-year-old Dutchman who killed five people and injured 12 during Queen's Day celebrations in Apeldoorn has died. The unemployed security guard drove his car at high speed into a crowd who had gathered for the annual Queen's Day royal procession in the central city of Apeldoorn around noon (1000 GMT). The car missed the royal coach by 15 metres and came to a standstill when it crashed into a well-known monument. Two men...

About a half hour ago a car plowed into several spectators watching the Queen of the Netherlands riding by in a "Queen's Day" procession. At least 14 people are said to be wounded. The car drove through the crowd about 15 seconds after the Queen's open air bus went past, and video shows that the Queen's entourage observed what happened. No further information. Will look for hard link . . .

A park near Amsterdam has unveiled information signs pointing out spots where officials say gay men are known to have sex, so visitors are not taken by surprise. The signs "clearly indicate what is happening in each zone; also those where gay men are known to practice 'cruising'," municipal spokeswoman Manon Koffijberg said. Cruising is a slang word used to describe the act of trawling for casual sex. There had been recent complaints of gay bashing in the Slotervaart area, populated by a large group of immigrants of Muslim origin, with reports of robberies and violence against gay men in...

Dutch people in their 20s are more likely to have a Calvinistic approach to life than any other age group, according to research by Trouw. Calvinism, named after the French religious reformer John Calvin, is associated with a sober, hardworking approach to life and stresses the rule of God in all things. Young people are more conservative than older people, they are more orthodox in their approach to religion and voted for the Calvinist CDA party at the last election, researcher Joke van Saane of Amsterdam's VU university told the paper. 'It is back to basics. Young people feel the...

Revolutionary Guard says 'Dutch project' aims to undermine the government by 'exaggerating the enemies' threats . . . and depicting Iran's current administration as incompetent.' Reporting from Beirut -- The cyber-crimes unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard announced today that it had uncovered a Dutch-funded plot to use the Internet to undermine the Islamic Republic, Iranian news media reported Saturday. The announcement cited a "Dutch project" to foment discontent to facilitate a "soft overthrow" of the government. "One of the Western countries that has provided the opposition with financial aid in recent years is the Netherlands," said the Revolutionary Guard statement,...

Four hundred years after the English explorer Henry Hudson discovered 'by chance' what is now known as Manhattan, the Dutch are returning. Henry Hudson was actually trying to find the shortest route to India, but in 2009 the Dutch have a very different mission. They want to protect the island of Manhattan, and the city of New York, from the rising sea water. New York's sea defences need major reconstruction to bring them up to the present-day standards of those in the Netherlands. So Rotterdam City Council, the Arcadis engineering firm and Amsterdam's VU University are going to help improve...

BERLIN -- A Dutch TV jury has found Osama bin Laden not guilty of the Sept. 11 attacks. In the conclusion Wednesday night to the show "Devil's Advocate" on Dutch public broadcaster Nederland 2, the jury of two men and three women, along with the studio audience, ruled there was no proof bin Laden was the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

<p>AMSTERDAM — Relegated by history to a mostly forgotten footnote, the government and people of the Netherlands proudly stepped forward last week to remind the world that if America begins in New York, then New York began 400 years ago thanks largely to the Dutch.</p>

A group of Protestant Christians in the Netherlands is objecting to the emblem of the European Union being placed on car registration plates in their country, saying that the symbol conflicts with their religious convictions - writes Andreas Havinga. The National Foundation for the Preservation of the Political Reformed Principles states that the EU emblem - a circle of 12 golden stars on a blue background - symbolises the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, by the Roman Catholic Church. "Most people don't think about it, but the EU symbol was thought up by a Roman Catholic in honour...

New life has been breathed into Dutch master painter Rembrandt's 'Night Watch', the famous dark-toned 17th-century painting of city guards gathering to march For more than three centuries, the identity of the men depicted in the massive portrait hanging in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum have been unknown, but a Dutch historian now claims to have identified them all. The painting, some 363 cm by 437 cm, is considered the Rijksmuseum's most famous painting. The Rijksmuseum said on Wednesday retired historian Bas Dudok van Heel has identified the men after years of research. "It is great for both the museum and the public...

(IsraelNN.com) A media watch organization says that the primary state-funded news program of the Netherlands engaged in anti-Israel distortion and manipulation of the news from the Middle East during the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The media fans the flames of anti-Semitism, the group concludes in a report released this week. According to analysts from the European media watchdog organization Israel Facts Group, a leading Dutch prime-time TV news program, NOS Journaal, "omits and distorts the facts and manipulates the opinion of the Dutch The monitors checked the NOS reporting against the TV station's own journalistic code. public beyond...

The Government of the United Kingdom announced that controversial film maker and member of the Dutch Parliament Geert Wilders is not welcome in their country. UK’s foreign minister, David Miliband explained that the action was taken for “security reasons.” “Mr. Wilders is classified as persona non-Islam,” Miliband said. “He is reviled by Muslims everywhere for his outspoken criticism of Islamic violence. If he is admitted, there is a high probability that he will be attacked by Muslim extremists. For his safety and that of innocent bystanders, we cannot allow him to freely enter the country.” “The Dutch Government’s complaints against...

(IsraelNN.com) A Dutch magistrate gave one man a € 400 fine and another 30 hours community service and a three-week suspended prison sentence for shouting anti-Semitic slogans during a demonstration against Israel's military operations in Gaza. The two protestors were found guilty of shouting “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” during a demonstration by about 100 people in the center of the city of Utrecht last month. The judge stated that he wanted to send a message that such behavior would not be tolerated, the ANP news agency reports. “You can shout many things at a demonstration, but this is...

Europe, or a significant segment of Europe, unfailingly discloses its frequent willingness to appease totalitarian foes of freedom. In modern times Europe gladly has served as a cradle of fascism on the right, communism on the left and in between all sorts of variations of the two, joined at the hip with a common blood-soaked bigotry directed at Jews. Since 9/11, and despite Muslim terrorists striking on European soil, that segment of Europe ready to appease any totalitarian assault on freedom has contorted itself to accommodate the Islamist agenda. The latest evidence of this is the Amsterdam Court of Appeal's...

The mayor of Amsterdam, Marius Job Cohen, and the mayor of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg, joined forces on Wednesday to announce NYC 400, a yearlong celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor in 1609 aboard the Half Moon. The fact that Hudson was English — like the people who eventually conquered the Dutch colony in New Amsterdam, in 1664, and renamed it for the Duke of York — and that New Amsterdam wasn’t officially founded until 1625 — making New York more like 384 years old than 400 — did not seem to...

THE HAGUE, 29/01/09 - Moroccans in the Netherlands are not allowed to give their children any Berber names any more. In this way, Islamic identity is being stressed, Trouw newspaper reported yesterday. By far the biggest group of Moroccans in the Netherlands are of Berber origin, a region in the mountainous north of Morocco. "They will now be forced to give their children a Moroccan-Islamic name," according to Trouw. "Morocco wants to secure the Moroccan identity of its nationals in this way, including the Moroccan Dutch." The Moroccan government in Rabat sent all embassies and consulates abroad a list of...

Last Friday Geert Wilders said: “I view Islam not as a religion, but as a dangerous, totalitarian ideology – equal to communism and fascism. Aren’t I allowed to say so?” No, he isn’t allowed to say so. For statements like these, on Wednesday the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ordered that Wilders be prosecuted for “incitement to hatred and discrimination based on his statements in various media about moslims [sic] and their belief. In addition, the Court of Appeal considers criminal prosecution obvious for the insult of Islamic worshippers because of the comparisons made by Wilders of the islam [sic]...

Note: Video included. January 21, 2009 For hate speech -- after declining to do so last year, which means that Islamic supremacist groups in the Netherlands have kept up the pressure on lawmakers until they got the outcome they wanted. Hate speech, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, and hate speech laws are tools in the hands of the powerful that they can use to silence the powerless and crush dissent. And make no mistake: even though the Muslims in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the West present themselves as embattled victims of racism and "Islamophobia," that...

AMSTERDAM: Two years ago, the Dutch could quietly congratulate themselves on having brought what seemed to be a fair measure of consensus and reason to the meanest intersection in their national political life: the one where integration of Muslim immigrants crossed Dutch identity. In the run-up to choosing a new government in 2006, just 24 percent of the voters considered the issue important, and only 4 percent regarded it as the election's central theme. What a turnabout, it seemed - and whatever the reason (spent passions, optimism, resignation?), it was a soothing respite for a country whose history of tolerance...

-- snip -- Two weeks ago, the country's biggest left-wing political grouping, the Labor Party, which has responsibility for integration as a member of the coalition government led by the Christian Democrats, issued a position paper calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch "tolerance."-- snip --

THE HAGUE, 20/12/08 - Only a few hours after Premier Jan Peter Balkenende suggested that the Netherlands would stay on in Afghanistan after 2010, a Dutchman lost his life there Friday. The dead soldier is 24 year old Mark Weijdt. He ran into a roadside bomb during an engagement about 30 kilometres from Camp Holland. Another soldier was slightly injured, said Commander of the Armed Forces Peter van Uhm. Wijt is the 18th Dutch national to be killed during the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The Dutch military mission in Afghanistan ends in autumn 2010. But on Thursday evening, Balkenende said...

A 105-year-old singer whose past as a singer in Nazi Germany has dogged his reputation for decades is back in the spotlight after telling a Dutch television show Adolf Hitler was a "good guy." The Dutch-born Johan Heesters, who now has Austrian citizenship and is still popular and performing in Germany, was asked by a Dutch journalist what he thought of Hitler. "A good guy, that's what he was," he said on the clip shown Thursday on the current affairs show "De Wereld Draait Door" ("The World Keeps Turning"). His wife, Simone Rethel, immediately corrected him, saying that Hitler was...

In 2006, Thailand announced it was blocking access to YouTube for anyone with a Thai I.P address, and then identified 20 offensive videos for Google to remove as a condition of unblocking the site. ‘If your whole game is to increase market share,’ says Lawrence Lessig, speaking of Google, ‘it’s hard to . . . gather data in ways that don’t raise privacy concerns or in ways that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.’ In March of last year, Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google, was notified that there had been a precipitous drop in activity...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Amsterdam will close almost a fifth of its marijuana cafes to comply with a national ban on having them near schools, the mayor said Friday.

Dutch insurer Aegon said it may buy a small U.S. thrift company to qualify for potentially more than $1 billion in U.S. government support, sending its shares down more than 8 percent. "This is part of our strategy to ensure Aegon has the strongest capital position possible," said Aegon spokesman Greg Tucker. "If Aegon is eligible, we would seek the minimum range of funding possible." The range was 1 to 3 percent of its $125 billion in U.S. assets, he said, and the application was for the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) which the U.S. government has used to...

The Dutch parliament is considering whether protecting unborn children should supersede the rights of parents to procreate Women in the Netherlands who are deemed by the state to be unfit mothers should be sentenced to take contraception for a prescribed period of two years, according to a draft bill before the Dutch parliament.The proposed legislation would further punish parents who defied it by taking away their newborn infant. "It targets people who have been the subject of judicial intervention because of their bad parenting," explained the author of the bill Marjo Van Dijken of the socialist PvDA. "If someone refuses...

Dutch police in the Gouda region have sworn in police officers who swore allegiance to Allah. The small Christian party SGP has demanded an explanation from the government. Under current arrangements, police in the Netherlands can choose between the Christian oath ('So help me God Almighty) and the neutral vow ('I declare and promise...'). But it has been revealed that n Gouda, the option has existed for years for Islamic officers to use the oath that runs: 'In the name of Allah, the Merciful Compassionate, and he is my witness that I promise this.' The hand must be placed on...

Netherlands blogger Michael van der Galien reports that a group of young Dutch Socialists will be flying here to campaign for Barack Obama: … I received an e-mail I found quite interesting. The Jonge Socialisten asked me whether I would like to travel to America with them shortly before the U.S. elections in order to do ‘research.’ Now, before readers will think this would be a great opportunity for me to visit the country I write about so frequently, the trip had a specific partisan purpose despite it being described as ‘research’: They would travel to the United States to...

President, there is some hope in the distance. Not in The Hague. Not in this building. But in the streets, neighborhoods, villages and cities of the Netherlands. There grows the cry for change. That is what the Party for Freedom stands up for. Denounced in this building, scoffed at by the state broadcasters, spit on by the leftist subsidy slurpers, discredited by the fat and crammed-full left-liberal canal-zone [Amsterdam] elite. But supported by the other Netherlands, that of the ordinary people. The people who do not get everything for nothing. People who desire nothing more than the preservation of their...

A GUEST at a Dutch hotel found a live, 2.5 metre python in the toilet, alerting authorities who arrested four people for illegally trading in rare animals, it was reported today. In yesterday's incident the snake is believed to have slithered up the drain from a room below, where authorities discovered about 30 exotic animals, ANP reported, quoting the police. The animals included snakes, geckos, frogs, salamanders and a baby crocodile.

Hi everyone interested - I am Dutch and hence I don't know anything on this Pelosi woman, other than that she's the stepmother of a well-known Dutch journalist. Can you tell me in brief why she's not erm... that popular around here? Please don't misconstrue, it's a serious question. I can give most important U.S. politicians a place by now, but she escapes me still in this respect.

Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32% of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58%). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is desperately trying to stop his subjects from breaking up the nation-state. But perhaps we should all care at least a little, for what is happening in Belgium is unusual but not at all unique. The Czechs and Slovaks already parted ways, as did the different nations of Yugoslavia. Many Basques would like to break away from Spain,...

Few things warm my heart more than a story about political incorrectness and cigars. Love these guys. Dutch smokers are flocking to a religious movement known as "The Only and Universal Smokers Church of God" following a ban on tobacco smoking indoors. Michiel Eijsbouts, founder and "Smokelighter" of the church he founded in 2001, has insisted that the Dutch smoking ban in place does not apply to members of his church under national and European human rights legislation. "We think we have all the marks of a religion," he said. "We will have to find out what the secular...

Selected audio from President Reagan's radio spots from 1975 - 1979.

Smoking ban leads to new religion Wednesday 16 July 2008Café owners in the Netherlands are joining religious movement known as the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.‘We stand firmly behind the church’s teachings and that is smoking,’ Cor Busch, owner of the former Lindeboom café in Alkmaar told the paper. ‘Smokers are being discriminated against… but a beer and a cigarette belong together.’ Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1. Several dozen bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the...