Flemish Minister of Environment Schauvliege is a chemtrail believer

I knew it all along. Our country is being run by a bunch of idiots.
It may not come as a surprise to many, but the evidence keeps piling up with every minute that our silly little planet continues to orbit the Sun. And not just because of silly legislation or the omnipresent corruption scandals. Some have really lost touch with reality. And they're in our government.

Two days ago a little piece appeared in the paper about an ex mayor of Evergem, Peter Vereecke, who filed a complaint with investigating judge Claeys about chemtrails. What are they? The short version: According to several paranoid conspiracy theorists, chemtrails look like contrails but they are intentionally created by unknown people to poison us with unknown chemicals for some unknown reason.
Alas the complaint he filed cannot be ignored and has to be investigated because there needs to be a ruling by the Raadkamer. So some more taxpayers’ money will be squandered by having to deal with the likes of Vereecke who holds these deranged beliefs.

This guy has been popping up with the regularity of a Swiss cuckoo clock.
He got a piece in Het Nieuwsblad in March of last year.
A couple of days ago he wrote a piece on some other nitwit's site. This from the first page: 'The Latest News about the change in consciousness every human on earth is going to experience and the global official announcement of the Worldwide Universal Contact are the themes that dominate a lot of the news on niburu.nl. We also inform as much citizens as we can about the health risks they run by different causes which can be found on this site. We can help nearly everyone with advice to keep these dangers at a minimum.' (Also check out the crop circles, UFO's, Atlantis,...the works).
So he's kinda preaching to his proverbial own parochial crowd. Before I forget, he also lumps the chemtrails together with his horror for vaccination and somehow seems to tie that in with the financial meltdown. "Chemtrails zijn geen geïsoleerd fenomeen. Nu al wordt duidelijk dat we in het najaar afstevenen op een mondiale vaccinatie tegen de vermeende pandemie van Mexicaanse griep. Ook daar valt heel veel over en vooral tegen te zeggen. En er is de financiële en economische crisis."

This was picked up, to my astonishment, by another national newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, the thing that triggered my interest.
How this kind of bullcrap makes it into the paper is beyond me, but it did. Maybe the paper is being run by a bunch of monkeys while the subs are on holiday.
Anyway, apart from crappy reporting, this man should be treated. He needs help. Obviously he has mental issues. I cannot believe he is given such a platform to spread his nonsense. It only re-enforces his delusions.

Alas he got an even bigger puff piece of publicity in De Gentenaar. Two pages, complete with colour photographs. Click here for the original scan of the article. Click here for a bad translation. Even the jesting and ridiculing was just slight, the journalist didn't even try.

In case you don't want to read the whole thing, Vereecke's most spectacular revelation is that

-wait for it-

Al Gore is a member of the Illuminati secret society.


If you think that's bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. We have another permanent resident of Cloud Cuckoo Land. And she's in the government.
Who could this be, you might ask? Step forward Joke Schauvliege, the new Flemish minister for Environment, Nature and Culture. And worst of all: Schauvliege is a chemtrail believer too.
Last year, on July 8th 2008, when she was still an 'ordinary' MP she even posed a question (nº 829) about chemtrails to the then minister for Environment Hilde Crevits. Question and answer are on the site of the Flemish Parliament here.
Crevits' answer to her query was level headed, clear, short and sweet. A few highlights:
1) There are no scientific studies which prove or study chemtrails. ('Er zijn ook geen wetenschappelijke studies beschikbaar die het bestaan van chemtrails aantonen of bestuderen.')

2) The specialists in my administration do not believe in the danger and existance of chemtrails. Through Google you can surf from one site to another with all kinds of theories that are non-scientific. Every time the same words are being used and one site has even more spectacular explenations than the previous one. (De deskundigen binnen mijn administratie hechten weinig geloof aan het bestaan en gevaar van ‘chemtrails’. Via ‘Google’ surf je van de ene naar de andere site met theorieën die wetenschappelijk niet onderbouwd zijn. Telkens worden dezelfde bewoordingen gebruikt en de ene site heeft al straffere verklaringen dan de andere.)

3) There have been no health complaints which point to chemtrails as a cause. ('Er werden echter geen gezondheidsklachten ontvangen die werden toegewezen aan “chemtrails”.')

4) As soon as the international scientific community points to the necessity with convincing arguments we could consider to have an investigation. ('Zodra internationale wetenschappelijke literatuur de noodzaak hiertoe met passende overtuiging aantoont, kan overwogen worden om onderzoek ter zake uit te voeren.')

Schauvliege is a lawyer. But she looks like the kind who presents a case without even considering the evidence or lack thereof.

And she isn't exactly deemed to be the brightest crayon in the box. Not only because she obviously has no clue as to what things are considered scientific and what is complete and utter nonsense, she has also demonstrated her complete contempt for that other bit of governing she is responsible for: Culture. Go here for the embarrasing clip when he was being grilled, lightly, by a couple of 'journalists'.
When asked what the last book was she read the response came there none. Well, to be fair she actually replied: 'I have kids.'
Oh yeah, how silly of me to forget. When women have kids every time they give birth to one a part of their brain dies with them.
Being asked what her last contact with the performing arts had been was: 'Some play or other by an amateur company in my village about six months ago.' I share Erwin Mortier's view.

Perhaps she'd been watching Vereecke's monologue on his chemtrail scaremongering. Last spring he was touring local communitiy centres with some rant he had written about how the world has changed and how we should all start giving off positive vibes. He has had some kind of nervous breakdown, chucking in his job, severing family and social ties and quitting politics. And where does Schauvliege enter into all of this? He is after all the ex-mayor of Evergem and she was on the council during the years when he was holding that office.

They must know each other from other party affiliated activities.
You know, they're in the same political party, the CD&V: the Chemtrails, Delusions & Voodoo science party.