[IowaHawk]

Ah, the Eurosophisticates; enriching the world with laughter.

[BillyBonebrake]

"The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws" -Tacitus

[Interesting Times]

Somewhere out there in cyberspace, the writers for The Onion are snarling and breaking pencils.

[alisasny]

Please tell us this is a joke...please : )

[azhenfud]

Headline From BELGIUM

All your pigs' balls are belong to us...

[Snowy]

This is funny! Pigs are very smart and do not deserve the dirty reputation that they currently have. They are very clean animals if left to their own devices. This of the marketing opportunities! You have 'free range chicken', and now you can buy 'happy ham'!

[Rain-maker]

Playtime before slaughter? Methinks the Belgians beer has been spiked.

[DuncanWaring]

I actually read a brief article in a trade magazine, possibly "Machine Design", roughly 15 years ago, about someone who had come up with a ball intended specifically for this purpose.

It was some sort of semi-rigid plastic, with a removable plug allowing the ball to be filled with either water or sand.

[mg39]

This is the right thing to do. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs. There is no excuse not to treat them humanely, especially before they are killed to feed people.

[Linwood]

Brought to you by the same geniuses who think we should sing kumbayah with the budding Hitler of the Middle East, because some of the oppressed people in his country (who would dearly love to be rid of him) might get hurt if we don't...

[martianagent]

Sounds like a reasonable scheme for dealing with democrats...

[Tacis]

"Why all our pigs are having a ball"

This is a truly offensive headline!! Sure, many Belgian women are good looks deprived, but that is not reason to call them ALL pigs.

I don't know. Putting a ball in the pigsty might lead to excesive competition that could lead to violence.

To amuse the pigs, it would be much better to tell farcical anecdotes about the integrity, intelegence, and bribeability of Eurinal politicians and bureaucrats and the mistresses that they keep.

[elbucko]

It seems as if Title IX has been extended to the U.K.

[OXENinFLA]

Pardon me while I pick my JAW up off the floor.

[Right Wing Professor]

You win a few....

You lose a few.

[Restin Payce]

Being a Capitalist, I see a major market here for all the used bowling balls in the world. It was my idea. OK ?

[RichInOC]

I wonder what they'd do with a life-size Ned Beatty blow-up doll.

[AUgrad]

We don’t want to come across as the nanny state,

Way, way, waaaaay too late.

[Martin Tell]

CNN has a story on this subject on its site (sorry don't have time to post whole story) claiming that it is (quoting EU officials) "utter eurosceptic rubbish". The officials admit that there are rules governing the conditions pigs are raised in, but toys are not required.

There is nothing new about the EU harmonizing conditions in agricultural markets. A landmark European Community (predecessor to the EU) court case had to to with Community rules taking precedence over national rules in pig production (believe it or not, an Irishman was arrested and faced three months in jail for violating a national law against transporting pigs without a license. The court held that Community regulation prevailed and the criminal charges were thrown out).

The USA does much the same. Anyone hear of the US Supreme Court case of Schekner Poultry (from the 1930s)?

[KarlInOhio]

Why do just the pigs get the toys? I guess that "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

A spokesman said: “We mean footballs and basketballs...."

I hope that the footballs are European soccer balls and not the American, well..., pigskin.

[aculeus]

Earlier LINK.