Free Republic

Pim Fortuyn, the hero of Rotterdam, the man who shook the country awake, once said, "Do not aim for what is possible, but what is imaginable." He wanted to make clear that for us, the Dutch, nothing is impossible. Pim Fortuyn was right. Nothing is impossible for us. We are Dutch. Look at our country. We have single-handedly created this unique and beautiful land. We are the only people in the world living in a country which for the largest part we created ourselves. A great achievement. We not only created our own land, but we also explored the world....

In the image below, are you seeing 1, European children learning the upward dog Yoga position 2. Children of families that recently got a dog and are learning to play with them 3. Treatment for a rare form of balance disorder that requires the arse to be elevated over the head for several minutes at a time throughout the day. 4. Dutch children being brought to a mosque and taught how to pray like Muslims in a manner which would be defacto illegal if it was any other religion at all, including Christianity, the founding faith of that entire culture....

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The 53-year-old driver of a Tesla Model S electric car died Wednesday when the vehicle smashed into a tree in the central Dutch town of Baarn and burst into flames, police and firefighters said. ... .. firefighters did not immediately recover the man's body because of fears that emergency service workers could be electrocuted. "The car was so badly damaged that the firefighters could not operate its security systems," he said.

The 22-year-old says she was drugged at Doha hotel and realised she had been raped when she woke up in unfamiliar apartment [photo and caption] The Dutch woman was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery after going to police, says her lawyer. A Dutch woman arrested in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after reporting she had been raped is to appear in court on Monday. The 22-year-old says she was drugged in a hotel in Doha, and realised she had been raped when she woke up in an unfamiliar apartment. “She was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery,...

It wasn't triggered by politicians or political parties, but by a determined group of well-organised, highly-motivated individuals. GeenPeil, a project stemming from the popular Dutch blog GeenStijl, collected some 420,000 signed, verified, signatures triggering this referendum. It is an extraordinary achievement that highlights how western democracy is evolving. The internet truly is the gamechanger of our time. A small collection of individuals with an idea can find thousands of other kindred spirits who join them in championing a cause. That develops, becoming tens of thousands and then allowing a message to reach out to millions. This revolution is sweeping Europe...

MARGRATEN, Netherlands — They haven't forgotten. For 70 years, the Dutch have come to a verdant U.S. cemetery outside this small village to care for the graves of Americans killed in World War II. On Sunday, they came again, bearing Memorial Day bouquets for men and women they never knew, but whose 8,300 headstones the people of the Netherlands have adopted as their own. For the American relatives of the fallen, it was an outpouring of gratitude almost as stunning as the rows of white marble crosses and Jewish Stars of David at the Netherlands American Cemetery. Each grave has...

The Dutch government said on Wednesday it may have to reconsider ratifying a treaty on closer European Union ties with Ukraine after a vast majority of voters rejected the agreement in a non-binding referendum. The outcome was too close to call, with early tallies indicating that a 30% turnout required for it to be valid was only marginally met. Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said: “It’s clear that ‘no’ have won by an overwhelming margin; the question is only if turnout is sufficient. “If the turnout is above 30% with such a large margin of victory for the no...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch voted Wednesday in a referendum on a far-reaching free trade deal meant to foster closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union that has run into opposition in the Netherlands where many see it as evidence of unwanted EU expansionism. The non-binding vote in the Netherlands exposes deep divisions about this country's place in Europe and comes less than three months before British citizens decide in their own referendum whether to leave the EU altogether. Dutch opponents of the EU-Ukraine association agreement argue its ultimate goal is bringing Kiev into the EU. Supporters...

Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco appear to be getting a divorce, breaking up their joint venture in U.S.-based refining assets. The two companies joined together to create Motiva Enterprises LLC in 1998, a 50-50 joint venture that operated three refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. But Shell and Saudi Aramco have seen their interests head in different directions. "It is now time for the partners to pursue their independent downstream goals," said Abdulrahman Al-Wuhaib, a senior vice president of Saudi Aramco’s downstream unit. Reuters reported that the relationship started to fray after Motiva announced a $10 billion expansion of...

DutchNews.nl reports: The leader of the Dutch branch of anti-Islam movement Pegida was arrested at a demonstration in Ede on Saturday for refusing to take off a child's hat shaped like a pig he was wearing during the rally.A few dozen people carrying Dutch flags and placards took part in the gathering in protest at plans to locate several refugee centres capable of accommodating up to 1,400 people in the town.(snip) According to the police, Wagensveld was arrested because of provocative behavior. He put on the hat after the police ordered another protester to take it off. Wagensveld was released...

A veteran of the Dutch Army has been arrested on suspicion of murder, as it is thought that he killed Islamic State (IS) terrorists when fighting alongside Kurdish YPG forces in Syria. Jitse Akse, 47, was arrested on Wednesday. He was released later that day after being forced to hand over his passport and agreeing to report to the police station weekly, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported. Despite the fact the Dutch air force is striking IS in neighbouring Iraq, the Dutch citizen could be tried as a murderer for his part in the fight against the terrorists in Northern...

The Dutch drink a lot of milk, eat a lot of cheese, and are now the tallest people in the world. Could there be a connection? The author of a new book on the Netherlands, Ben Coates, explains how the Dutch became not only voracious but also very discerning cheese eaters.

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders called the wave of refugees pushing into Europe an “Islamic invasion”, during a parliamentary debate on Thursday that exposed deep divisions over how the Netherlands should respond to the crisis.

Japanese Prisoner of War Camps 1942-1945 [includes a Dutch film about the Japanese fake propaganda film]

Dutch Government/TV station sabotage Geert Wilders’ planned broadcastShowing that the Netherlands, like most of Europe and Canada, are at least partly under the sharia and moving more that direction and away from our own cultural and constitutionally mandated laws where they conflict with islamic values. Wilders blames sabotage for failure to broadcast Mohammed cartoonsThe national public broadcasting company NPO is investigating why a party political broadcast by the PVV showing anti-Mohammed drawings was not transmitted as planned. PVV leader Geert Wilders pledged to show the drawings during the broadcast but instead an old item was aired instead. Wilders has...

CHARLESTON SHOOTER IDENTIFIED=> Dylann Storm Roof 5′ 9″ 120 poundsDriving a 2000 Hyundai ELantra GS License plate: LGF330He is from the Columbia area.He’s been arrested before:Profile OverviewFirst Name: DYLANN Last Name: ROOF Middle Name: STORM Gender: Male Race: White Arrest Date: 2015-02-28 12:00:00 Age: 20 Agency: LCSD Dob: 1994-04-03 00:00:00 Birth Year: 1994MORE PHOTOS— I just found this. I believe this is him. DYLANN STORM ROOF. pic.twitter.com/F15RZnZitw— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 18, 2015 Dylann Storm Roof was arrested in Lexington county a couple of months ago. He was arrested on drug charges. CONFIRMED: Suspect is Dylann Storm Roof, from Columbia...

Faced with an increasingly segregated education system, Dutch immigrant children have taken to the streets of their ethnically mixed Amsterdam neighbourhood seeking "white" pupils to attend their schools and help their integration. Around 100 schoolchildren -- Arabs, Turks, Africans, Moroccans -- accompanied by their parents and teachers, wore provocative dazzling white T-shirts emblazoned with "Is this white enough for you?". Dutch native Annelies, 10, and immigrants' daughter Aminata, 11, have been friends since kindergarten and are also wearing the shirts, which have "All children have the right to integrate" written on the back. They "want more white children in the...

In a letter obtained by Foreign Policy, two Democratic members of Congress are urging the Obama administration to ban a Dutch lawmaker from entry into the United States due to his controversial views on Islam. The Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, is scheduled to speak at a reception on Capitol Hill this month at the invitation of Tea Party firebrand Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). In recent years, Wilders has become internationally famous for his bombastic broadsides against Islam, which include calls to ban the Koran in the Netherlands and to arrange for the removal of Moroccan immigrants from his country. In...

‘Business meetings, elegant suits, lace stockings, garter belts, hold-ups, stiletto heels. If only my colleagues, clients or boss knew that at night I enjoy my hobby of being a hooker.’ Her online advert advises that she is a native Dutch blonde who is a ‘high-class nymphomaniac and prostitute’. She describes her greatest passion as ‘raunchy kinky sex with wild strangers and naughty men’. Quote, a Dutch magazine, reported that van der Waal had a ‘supervisory’ role at her country’s central bank while specialising in sadomasochism in her spare time. After the magazine broke the story, the bank confirmed it had...

One-Third of Dutch GP Physicians Would Kill the Mentally Ill Wesley J. Smith April 16, 2015 10:26 AM | Permalink Please! Don't tell me that euthanasia doesn't lead straight off a vertical moral cliff. A recent survey of Netherlander MD general practitioners found that very high percentages would kill cancer patients, and one-third would be willing to euthanize the mentally ill. From the PsychCentral story: For mental illness, only 34 percent would consider helping the patient die, and 40 percent would help someone with early-stage dementia to die. The rate was slightly lower for late-stage dementia, at 33 percent. Only?...