Brussels

WHEN JOHAN VANDE LANOTTE, Belgium's Vice Prime Minister, goes to the toilets today, he finds the urinals in the offices of his ministry decorated with stickers. They show an American flag and the head of George W. Bush. "Go ahead. Piss on me," the caption says. Vande Lanotte is one of Bush's hosts in Brussels. Is peeing on your guest's head appropriate? In Belgium it is. After all, Brussels' best known statue is that of "Manneken Pis," a peeing boy.

 

The piss stickers, specially made to be used in urinals, can be seen these days in the public toilets of Belgian schools, youth clubs, and pubs. They were designed by Laurent Winnock, president of the Young Socialists, the youth branch of Vande Lanotte's Socialist party. Winnock did his creative work during his office hours, which would not be worth mentioning if Winnock did not work in the offices of Vice Prime Minister Vande Lanotte, as one of his press spokesmen.

 

Last Friday, Belgian television asked Robert "Steve" Stevaert, the Socialist party leader, what he thought of the stickers. It had not been his idea, he stressed, but he refused to distance himself from it. He hardly could, seeing as the stickers can be ordered for free through the party's official website. For Belgian television viewers the message was clear: Bush may be our government's guest, the ministers will greet him, smile and tell him that he is most welcome, but we all know what they think of the bastard.

 

For those who missed the

"subtlety" of the urinal stickers, Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian minister of Justice and one of the Socialist party's most powerful figures, let go during prime time on Sunday evening, as Air Force One was about to land in Brussels. "I would rather have had John Kerry visiting us," she said on television. When the interviewer asked whether it was not undiplomatic to say so, she answered: "No. That is how I feel about it."

 

Meanwhile, however, a citizen of Ghent, where the stickers had also been distributed, has filed a complaint with the Belgian judiciary headed by Onkelinx. "This sticker has nothing to do with freedom of speech," he says. "If I go to the gents in the pub nowadays, I am forced to pee on Bush and the American flag because it is impossible to miss this sticker."

 

I do not know whether the president is aware of the real feelings of his Belgian hosts. Has the American Embassy in Brussels informed him? This question crossed my mind, as he was delivering his speech to a crowd of politicians, journalists, and businessmen in the prestigious halls of Brussels' Concert Noble on Monday afternoon. There, under a huge painting of Leopold II, Belgium's late-19th-century king (and the tyrant of the Congo), Bush addressed a few hundred people invited by the U.S. Embassy. I know some of them. They used to be my colleagues.

 

Fifteen years ago, I was sacked by a Belgian newspaper because I had written an article in the Wall Street Journal which the Belgian politicians did not like. Being a somewhat conservative and pro-American journalist, I was a regular contributor to the Journal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These articles were not liked by my liberal colleagues, nor by the Belgian regime. On April 6, 1990, I was fired after writing a Journal op-ed piece about how a major story had been ignored by the Belgian media under political pressure from the top political parties.

 

That day ended my career as a newspaper journalist. None of the Belgian papers has been willing to employ me since. Fifteen years later I am still known by my former colleagues as "that fascist from the Wall Street Journal." And now I could see those same editors sitting in the audience, listening to a man whom they despise.

 

Indeed, they think that the world will be saved if America becomes more like Europe, whereas I think that Europe will be saved only if it becomes more like America. But that is an opinion which no one in Europe is allowed to have. Those who do, get peed upon.

I'm pissed.

I'm pissed.

 

Now I'm pissed I missed the obvious joke and have no mod powers to edit the title.

F*** Off Belguim. You've now joined France for pissing me off.

As much as I hate the president.... and I really hate the president... This is just going too far. Even I wouldn't want to piss on him.

Not cool. But, I certainly have better things to be pissed about.

Now I'm pissed I missed the obvious joke and have no mod powers to edit the title.

Ya, someone should definetly get to work on that title.

I wouldn't piss on him even if he was on fire...

Belgium sucks. They got good beer, fries and some music. You can have the rest.

I wouldn't piss on him even if he was on fire...

 

thanks....it's not like we didn't know your feeling toward him

give it a rest.

I have a feeling this thread could turn into a bash Bush fest pretty soon. I'm just not up to hearing it so I'll change the subject.

 

How bout dem Bears?

Who cares what a bunch of commie wankers from Belgium think?

 

:sleep

You wanna know how bad Belgium sucks?

 

Let me tell ya, I went to Brussels and hostelled one night and had such a rotten time that I actually ran back to France the next morning.

 

And I don't even like France that much.

Belgium sucks. They got good beer, fries and some music. You can have the rest.

Good chocolate, cheese, and sausages too.

 

But the beer - OH, THE BEER...!!!

 

As to the article, I'm much more pissed to hear that speaking freely in the American press cost the guy his job than I am about people pissing on GWB's likeness. While there is some objection by Belgians according to the article, most telling is HOW LITTLE objection there really is. The populace apparently understands that they have to host him and applaud politely and meet some minimal threshold of American appeasement, but they aren't going to feign love for the guy and they shouldn't have to.

And I don't even like France that much.

 

Weren't you born there??

I was born in Michigan City, Indiana.

I was born in Michigan City, Indiana.

 

You poor, poor thing.

I was born in Michigan City, Indiana.

 

Oh, so it just smelled like France.

They got great beer in Belgium, so all is cool with me. I can't boycott their products, as that would just be wrong.

Oh, so it just smelled like France.

 

 

 

ROTFLMAO!!!!

 

 

They do have good waffles.. Belium does.

Oh yeah, French Fries? They're really Belgian.

 

I wouldn't mind a big paper cone of Frites right now and washing it down with a bottle of Lucifer.

ROTFLMAO!!!! 

They do have good waffles.. Belium does.

 

Yeah not Michigan City... The IHOP doesn't open for another couple of months

They're building an IHOP. There used to be one in front of the old Kmart when I was little. The day I finally convinced my parents to take me to "The International House of Pancakes," they closed their doors.

 

I was very sad.

I was six.

They're building an IHOP. There used to be one in front of the old Kmart when I was little. The day I finally convinced my parents to take me to "The International House of Pancakes," they closed their doors.

 

I was very sad.

I was six.

 

Yeah they took down that crappy little hotel in between 20 and 94 on 421, and are building it there. I remember going to that IHOP as a kid too. Damn I was pissed when they closed it. Now that is where the movie theater piles their snow when they get a lot of it.

They closed the travelodge? So sad.