I was under the impression that zones of free wireless internet at European cafes and brasseries were quite progressive, at least that's what has been claimed. So much for that.

In stead of having a shadow under his nose (see picture), Maingain should have a moustache in the same form. This would reveal his true identity.

This week, this 'man', who is also the mayor of one of the suburbs of Brussels, said about one of the Flemish council members (Georges Desmul), who is currently in South Africa helping his daughter in the education of (black) children: "he [Georges Desmul] joined his Apartheid friends".

Georges Desmul tries (and succeeds) to convince people to adopt financially poor South African kids with no future in front of them. Mr. Desmul is a man of action. In what country, besides Belgium, would be tolerated that a hero like mr. Desmul is insulted by a nobody like Maingain? (if mr. Desmul would ever read these lines, he would be hiding under his chair because I called him a hero).

The only reason why Maingain equates mr Desmul with Apartheid, is because mr Desmul is Flemish. Maingain is a fascistoid pig.

So, if you are a foreigner wanting to invest in Belgium, you know where not to invest: Wallonia and Brussels.

You hear right Oiznop. Here in Britain people are indeed taxed yearly for owning a television. It’s actually called the TV Licence Fee and you can read more about it here on the TV Licensing website
The revenue from this tax is used to fund the BBC – shielding it from commercial reality and allowing it to propagate its leftist worldview to an increasingly global audience.
The TV Licence costs £131.50 for a colour television and £44.00 for a black and white television [like when was the last time you saw one of those?]. Anyone who owns a TV must pay the licence fee under threat of a harsh fine or a short prison sentence – whether they watch the BBC channels or not. Anyone purchasing a TV has to provide proof of their name and address and this information is then passed to TV Licensing. They then compare the information with the list of licence holders on their database to ensure the household has a TV Licence. A further compliance measure is the use of ‘TV Detector Vans’ which, believe it or not, trawl the streets of Britain looking for TV signals being received in unlicensed addresses.

....Are any of you on this blog?...I would love to know what, if any, are the taxes the Governments levees on you guys for having a transceiver and a radio antenna?....Here in the USA, sales tax is the only tax implemented...There are no yearly fees to the government (yet).......I am very curious, because I have heard that in the UK, people are taxed yearly for owning a television.......Enlighten me to the Euro mentality, please!.......

Heaven is where the police are British, the mechanics are German, the chefs are Italian, the lovers are French and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the police are German, the mechanics are French, the chefs are British, the lovers are Swiss and it is all organized by the Italians.

Given their domestic crises and histories of unreliability1, neither Italy nor France should be provided with a leading role in the European Union. The British, Germans, Scandinavians and others are currently better off on their own.

1. Italy changed sides during the First World War, impacting both the Allies and Central Powers; in the Second World War, Italy was more hindrance than help to National Socialist Germany; and in both conflicts, their forces faired poorly. The French surrender to and collaboration with National Socialist Germany will continue to be infamous in popular discourse, the French policy towards denying the Armenian 'genocide' notwithstanding.

The cultures of Europe's constituent national communities are so markedly different that even adopting their cultural average for the European Union would discriminate in some manner. Why Brussels must revolve around French national culture1, and all that this implies for its institutions, policies and programmes is incomprehensible.

1. Self-destructive and contradictory values e.g. high taxes but a problem-ridden welfare state; severe poverty and unemployment amongst non-White French; liberty, equality, fraternity and xenophobia. One the one hand, France has pursued unilateralism with regard to its former colonial possessions, itself and NATO (from which it received protection but it ceased contributing significantly to), and on the other it is seeking greater integration with Germany and the United Kingdom, both of which it has been traditionally suspicious of, although it is ostensibly using the Union to its own advantage. Unfortunately, the Gallo-Romans (including the Walloons) do not have a winning culture; unlike their Germanic neighbors the French cannot make the welfare state and free market combination work; and unlike the Spanish, Slavs and Irish they are not able to take the necessary steps toward economic success. More in the second post...

oiznup "It's stuff like this that make me thank God that I live in the United States."

As long as you don't own a business in the US you still have some freedoms.

Add more freedoms for non-white skin color or sick religious practices.

"If you drive a car,
I'll tax the street.
If you try to sit,
I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold,
I'll tax the heat.
If you take a walk,
I'll tax your feet.
Taxman,
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman"

... and I thought George was joking.

Yay! Another EU productivity tax! Just like taxing business air travel.  We all know where this will go now don't we when you punish the most successful and productive? 

Two recycled tin cans and a piece of string should do the trick.

REPLY: Yep....and they will tax those, too! 

Taxing IT and communications technology hardly sits well with the EU’s Lisbon Agenda does it? How ever will the EU become [and try and keep a straight face here] “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010?”

I’m sure the climate change fanatics will have a more environmentally friendly form of communication for us to use instead of all this horrible electrical stuff. Two recycled tin cans and a piece of string should do the trick.

It's stuff like this that make me thank God that I live in the United States. What a crock! I am a ham radio operator here, and I can't even imagine what such a tax would be like on those types of antennas. Something tells me, however, if the socialist in the Democratic Party here have their way, something like this is not to far off over here to! VOTE REPUBLICAN!.....