Free Talk Live

Belgians proudly claimed the world record in February, for the country that has spent longest without a government.

Flemish nationalists made sweeping gains across northern Belgium in local elections on Sunday, a success that will bolster separatists’ hopes for a break-up of the country.

An idea, who's time has come? If we can't have no gooferment, good government, or effective / efficient government, then maybe we should settle for small local government. Benjamin Martin: Why trade one tyrant 3000 miles a way for 3000 tyrants one mile a way? Cause you can kill them!

Federal public prosecutors in Belgium will institute legal proceedings against the church of Scientology in that country and seek to recognize it as a criminal organization. The church of Scientology -- which is not recognized as a faith in Belgium -- and several of its top-ranking members face charges including extortion, fraud, illegal practice of medicine and violation of privacy laws, according to Flanders News.

Thirty-two soldiers took their own lives last month, the most Army suicides in a single month since the Vietnam era. Eleven of the soldiers were not on active duty. Of the 21 who were, seven were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.

Army officials say they don't have any answers to why more and more soldiers are resorting to suicide.

Last year, a record-breaking 245 soldiers committed suicide. The Army seems on track to surpass that number this year, as 145 soldiers have taken their lives in the first half of 2010.

One in six Americans is receiving help from the government, just as fiscal austerity threatens to reduce some of that aid.

Soaring unemployment during The Great Recession has driven tens of millions of people to the dole. Enrollment in Medicaid and food stamp programs are at record highs, while unemployment insurance rolls remain at elevated levels. Many people depend on more than one program.

COMMENTARY
By FRANCES ROBINSON

There’s been no federal government for more than a year, but the country is continuing to grow and outperform the single currency bloc as a whole.

The FRONTRUNNER in Belgium's elections this weekend is running on perhaps the ultimate in divisive proposals: the breakup of the nation. Despite its status as the home of the European Union, Belgium itself has long struggled with divisions between its 6 million Dutch-speakers and 4.5 million Francophones but until recently talk of a breakup has been limited to extremists.

Now, Bart De Wever of the centrist New Flemish Alliance is pressing for exactly that.

We now live in a country where the government can use Predator drones to track us without warrants, indefinitely detain us without trial, and assassinate us without charges. They do this in the name of security, yet somehow it just doesn’t make me feel any safer. I’ll tell you what does make me feel safer. Americans bought a record number of guns as Christmas presents this year, 25% of them first time buyers and many of them women.

"Clients of EwalletXpress started realizing after days and days of no change in their accounts that the days of EwalletXpress were coming to an end because the “big bad wolf” huffed and puffed and confiscated their money! That’s right, the Federal Government once again seized a payment processor and yes Virginia, kept all the players money!"