July 17, 2010

Farmer must remove religious slogan from roof

Filed under: Religion by Branko Collin @ 11:49 am

The Council of State decided last Wednesday that farmer Joop van Ooijen must remove the text “Jezus redt” (Jesus saves) from his roof or else he’ll be fined 15,000 euro.

The welstandscommissie of the municipality of Giessenlanden—a typically Dutch abomination that gets to rule on the beauty of any outdoors construction—had outlawed the Christian slogan before. The Council of State (1531) is the highest court of appeal for administrative decisions, and is formally presided by the non-elected Queen.

Van Ooijen told De Volkskrant he will appeal the decision. According to the council, an appeal is not possible.

Update: As Arnoud Engelfriet points out in the comments, the appeal will likely be at a European level.

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(Public domain photo by Wikipedia user Apdency)

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September 19, 2009

Vote for your favourite Prinsjesdag hat

Filed under: Weird by Branko Collin @ 4:07 pm

Newspaper Spits is running a poll that lets you select your favourite Prinsjesdag hat.

Prinsjesdag (Day of the Princes) is the day that the government presents its budget for the next year, that the Queen addresses a joint session of both chambers of parliament, and that is always held on the second Tuesday of the year. It is tradition for female parliamentarians to wear outrageous hats during the joint session.

And rather than holding Prinsjesdag on a Monday, Tuesday was chosen because in times before the introduction of railroads, it could take a representative more than a day to get to The Hague, and travelling on Sundays was frowned upon.

(More hats at NOS Journaal. Source screenshot: Spitsnieuws.nl.)

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