ArkAngel: But how many Rhode Islands is that?

One, actually.

Stupid Flan Ders

Watch your mouth, Subby.

Stupid sexy Flanders!

/Nothin' at all! Nothin' at all!

Well, if they were to be split up, let them be split up gloriously.

Oh, Belgium!

dahmers love zombie: Really? And that offensive word isn't even filtered in HEADLINES?

For shame, modmins. Hoopy froods you are not.

chopit: Watch your mouth, Subby.

Did the headline change, or am I missing something?

ZAZ: The job of keeping Belgium intact

Did they ever stop to think maybe the premise behind the supposed need for a government is wrong?

It would seem natural for the French side to go to France and the Dutch side to go to The Netherlands, but Brussels is a large French speaking enclave in the middle of the Dutch bit of the country... so simply splitting it up doesn't solve the problem

Bruxellensis: dahmers love zombie: Really? And that offensive word isn't even filtered in HEADLINES?

For shame, modmins. Hoopy froods you are not.

chopit: Watch your mouth, Subby.

Did the headline change, or am I missing something?

this knee-biter forgot his towel.

A deal would be followed, possibly later today, by the swearing-in by King Albert II at his Brussels castle

Oh, so they let him out?

New Belgium? I'll toast to New Belgium.

Doesn't Belgium use the Dutch movie rating system?

The only thing I really hate about Belguim is it brings out the worst beer snobs Fark has to offer, none of whom know what the f they are talking about.

But that's okay, it keeps them away from the Bavarian Doppelbock and the Czech Pilsner.

Pro Zack: Bruxellensis: dahmers love zombie: Really? And that offensive word isn't even filtered in HEADLINES?

For shame, modmins. Hoopy froods you are not.

chopit: Watch your mouth, Subby.

Did the headline change, or am I missing something?

this knee-biter forgot his towel.

So...I'm missing something, then?

Bruxellensis: Pro Zack: Bruxellensis: dahmers love zombie: Really? And that offensive word isn't even filtered in HEADLINES?

For shame, modmins. Hoopy froods you are not.

chopit: Watch your mouth, Subby.

Did the headline change, or am I missing something?

this knee-biter forgot his towel.

So...I'm missing something, then?

Belgium (HHGTTG)

Bruxellensis: Pro Zack: Bruxellensis: dahmers love zombie: Really? And that offensive word isn't even filtered in HEADLINES?

For shame, modmins. Hoopy froods you are not.

chopit: Watch your mouth, Subby.

Did the headline change, or am I missing something?

this knee-biter forgot his towel.

So...I'm missing something, then?

It's a reference to Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy where the most offensive word in the Universe is declared to be Belgium, which also happens to be a name of a small country on Earth

So, a Dutch guy, a French guy, and a Dutch guy who speaks German walk into a bar....

I lived in Belgium for a year. It was rainy.

I am just hoping this does not screw up the system of refunds for house improvements (redoing my kitchen this year ...)

It's divided up federally, and then by community, province, and then city. Typically Belgian!

But aren't they all just...

namatad: alas, how soon after the split do the wars begin?
Yugoslavia might have been a made up country, but at least some of the hate was contained.

It's been 19 years of a peaceful split between the Czechs and Slovaks.

Let's not call them anything, let's just ignore them.

...

I can't think of any word more derogatory than "Belgian."

...

Miserable, fat belgian bastards!

"Walloons" is a hilarious thing to call any group of people.

Constant infighting over relatively little power leading to deadlock and a bizarre series of coalitions, which ultimately doesn't really seem to matter, and is kind of a little embarrassing for everyone else.

Congrats Belgium, you're the PTA of governments.

/you damn dutch from the rich side have been picking on my industrially depressed snowflakes! Nu uh, you lazy frenchspeakers are why we have to have a dozen fundraisers every year to pay for lunches and uniforms, pull your own weight! Hey guys, it's all about the kids, let's remember that? (from both sides) SHUT IT!!!!

No love yet for Jacques Brel's "Marika?" ?Entre le tours de Bruges et Ghent..."


olddinosaur: The only thing I really hate about Belguim is it brings out the worst beer snobs Fark has to offer, none of whom know what the f they are talking about.

But that's okay, it keeps them away from the Bavarian Doppelbock and the Czech Pilsner

Belgium makes more different beers than Bavaria, and they drink more, too, so if you can't find something you like there, you are probably SOL. I never really "got" beer snobbery, until I realized is wasn't about quality or taste, but about rareness.. As in, "This is the best beer because you can only find it by swinging a dead cat around your head at midnight while singing '99 bbottles of beer on the wall.'"

Ohh, ale snob vs. lager snob thread! I like it! I'll start - ale is for people who like beer, lager is for people who like to get drunk.

Lord Dimwit: Give Wallonia to France, Flanders to the Netherlands, and make Brussels the federal capital of the EU.

Kind of ignorant to say stuff like this. Flanders has little in common with Holland, nor Wallonia with France. Wallon isn't French. And why would a country "give" itself to other states? Would California "give" itself to Canada because it speaks English, roughly? Christ.

Several things here. First, it's a crisis manufactured by politicians who want more power. Seven governments isn't enough. Second, Brussels is important enough that it'll probably hold Belgium together. Third, the Flemish want to humiliate the francophones for centuries of oppression, much like the Scots hate the English. When my dad went to school, in Leuven, it was still forbidden to speak Dutch. Flemish "independence" is more of an extended "nah nah" aimed at getting full control of the country. Fourth, both Wallonia and Flanders hate Brussels, always have, because it's multicultural and tolerant. Fifth, it's endlessly more complex than this. Belgium is divided so many ways it sometimes looks like mincemeat.

Sixth, I want an Orval.

Oh, like Belgium was a real country to begin with... (new window)

Stupid Flanders! Fricking Belgians!

I'm surprised that all of those small-government people here aren't salivating at the effectiveness of destroying government this type of parlimentary system has.

Sure, the fate and popularity of elected officials in the executive branch and the legislative branch are related, but they're not one in the same. If Congress here somehow had no majority party and if minority parties couldn't agree to elect a speaker and to begin a session, there'd still be a President to oversee his departments. He could possibly even issue executive orders to keep at least the status quo running until a legislative body would come to exist, though ultimately if that legislative body ever did coalesce and challenge his orders it'd get interesting.

TFA merely reinforces the following:

"The State is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

- Frederic Bastiat, 1848

/change some languages, inferior chocolates, different beer, you got us, right?

Current Resident: namatad: I love when the states complain about the cities. People started talking about kicking chicago out of illinois. PRETTY PLEASE?!!!!

Oh look! we now have casinos and can ignore the farktards downstate!! LOL

Truly, you wouldn't be missed.

/downstate farktard

THIS.

12349876: namatad: alas, how soon after the split do the wars begin?
Yugoslavia might have been a made up country, but at least some of the hate was contained.

It's been 19 years of a peaceful split between the Czechs and Slovaks.

Unless there's some sort of humor here I'm missing, how'd you do in geography & history in school, Tosh?