Beautiful city, I've been there 3 times. Bill O'Reilly and his ilk aren't much on educated debate, it's more like bashing people over the head with protest sign slogans.

Yeah Social Tolerance is stupid!

The founding fathers of America hated it - that's why they regretted writing the Bill of rights into the consistution.

Because Equality, Tolerance - and worst - Freedom! are the enemy of a successful right-wing fascist dictatorship.

Is there really any difference now between FOX news today and the news channel in V for Vendetta? That movie was set years in the future but I think that "future" has already come.

What happened to that news host again? hmmm...

Go Dutch dude!!! Confuse Bill-O with facts!

zombieater: Yes, there's a difference. The channel in Vendetta is getting it's news from the government directly. So what you're thinking of is Fox News two years ago

Well, remeber, Fox News is the mere mouth piece for the Republican party. Dont even take .1% of what they say as truth or fact. Their viewers are the lowest common denomiator of educated and wise individuals the USA has to 'offer'.

Can anyone explain why Amsterdam is reversing course on legalized pot and prostitution?

I believe its planning/zoning issue, they are concerned about locations of certain businesses(brothel window shops/pot cafe's) and their proximity to residential neighborhoods. Someone more knowledgeable please correct me if I am wrong.

I know I'm not directly responsible for the success of the Fox news network as I never tune in and I know it's not nearly enough to make up for the pain they inflict on a nightly basis, but on behalf of the non-douchey citizens of the United States, I'd like to extend a sincere apology for O'Reilly and Co.

Sorry. So very sorry.

My Force Cancer is not working properly... my jedi powers are weak.

^ Focus more on your profile avatar. He gives cancer without even trying!

Who is the cesspool now!

All those people, smiling, grinning, going about their lives every day, completely oblivous to the fact that although their clean, well planned, tree lined streets look nice and pleasant, seething below the the surface is a horror, a filthy, disgusting mass of...

...holy shit, sounds like the new Ghostbusters movie.

>> ^Norsuelefantti:
Who is the cesspool now!


Santa Ana, California?

Part of me is actually glad about Fox News bashing Amsterdam. It means that people who listen to Fox News will stay out of Amsterdam. I hope they bash my city next

I gotta say that I found Amsterdam sketchy and uninviting when I first got there (edit: based on an admittedly small sample of the city). I was staying in the Centrum district, near the train station, at the legendary Flying Pig hostel. Dudes trying to sell me drugs kept following me like tenacious mosquitoes and at night in the middle distance I heard women's screams which were not of the happy variety. (I was also reminded that two friends of mine had been attacked right outside my hostel.) It was by far the place in Europe that I most felt I needed to watch my back -- about the only place I felt that, actually. The marks of the sex and drug trade were seamy and dissolute without being hot or exciting (perhaps I would've seen that differently if I'd been there to indulge in either one, or both, but I wasn't). The sex museum was lame. I have to castigate the Flying Pig Downtown hostel too; its reputation was supposed to be tremendous -- "best place I've ever stayed" and so on -- but it was the worst; even with two weeks' advance booking I was in a moldy, windowless basement dorm; the place was not remotely clean and the showers backed up immediately. It bears mentioning too that this was the only time I've met hostel-goers who were uniformly furtive and unfriendly rather than social and outgoing (or at least making an effort at same) which has been my experience at virtually all other hostels before and since. A great many of them must have been stoned to the gills, and maybe that accounts for the weirdy unfriendliness -- I don't know.

I cut short my stay and was about to head back out into the warm welcome of the smaller cities and towns, but before I did I ended up spending a couple days 4 km away at the Flying Pig Uptown, which was clean, bright, filled with friendly people and right near the Leidseplein, a beautiful public square filled with shade trees and ringed with bars and bistros (it was near the Heineken Brewery too). Purely by chance I ran into an Aussie buddy that I had met in Arnhem earlier in the week, too. So that was good. YMMV.

I'm just back from a few days there. This video is utterly one sided as well and pretty pictures do nothing to dispel the claim that the drug and sex trades are run by criminals. In the seedier areas, I've wondered where my money ends up.

Still, I love Amsterdam. This so-called experiment has worked, but naturally, it needs policed. Let's face it, buying the same stuff - be it sex or drugs - here in the UK (and they're not much harder to buy), I'd be asking myself the same question. I think the answer would be that significantly more ends up in exploiters' hands in the UK. As I see it, the UK and the rest of the world sweep under the carpet what the Netherlands attempts to address.

Governments can't beat drug dealers, but Capitalism can. If Tesco's sold Fair Trade Cannabis, drug dealers would be utterly screwed in no time. Plus, farmers in Columbia/Afghanistan/etc would have a legitimate market, which would erode the illegal market, in turn decimating FARC/Taliban/etc's income and ability to operate.

Is legalising drugs the answer to peace on earth?!

I agree that showing happy people waving is not a legitimate approach to addressing the drug and sex trade issues. From what I've heard many of those girls are slaves who have been abducted by the Russian mafia.

Still I think they should legalize and tax it. I don't see doing this causing more problems than the issues we could address with the extra tax money. I say we test it out for several years. I would like to see how attached to that extra money we get. If we can shake our head to it after then it must not be worth it.

Thing is, every town has its dodgy areas - legalised drugs or no. So is it a question of whether these areas are smaller or less dangerous than when the legalisation was introduced?

http://www.videosift.com/video/Glenn-Beck-and-Guest-WISH-for-another-terrorist-attack-on-US#comment-799316

BillO = Prothero

I would have to agree with calvados and Quboid. I was in Amsterdam for a few days and stayed at a hostel in the red light district by the train station. By the way, near the train station is always the worst place to stay in any big town in Europe. One night my friend and I were hanging out in the lobby/bar of our hostel and some guy that was on drugs (not weed) strayed into the place and started harassing the patrons until the bar tender had to yell at him many time to leave. As we walked down the streets drug dealers would ask us if we wanted to buy cocaine. All in all though I would say that most of the problems in central Amsterdam are caused by the tourists that go there expecting a wild and crazy time. If you walk 5 minutes in just about any direction you find very nice clean neighborhoods that are very welcoming. When I go back again I will definitely stay in the outer ring areas.

Well, remember, CNN, MS-DNC, CBS, ABC, Hollywood, government schools, unions and almost all newspapers that don't have 'Wall Street" in their names are all water-carriers for the taxocrat party. Dont even take .1% of what they say as truth or fact. These true believers and Obamapologists are the lowest common denominator of something-for-nothing subversive statists.

Opinion = Opinion
News = News

Bill O'Reilly != News
O'Reilly = Opinion

Maybe if I say it enough, the stupid people who keep thinking this will learn something. And if you haven't figured out the difference between the two, that's half the problem.

>> ^Quboid:
I'm just back from a few days there. This video is utterly one sided as well and pretty pictures do nothing to dispel the claim that the drug and sex trades are run by criminals. In the seedier areas, I've wondered where my money ends up.

I hear a lot of guys who spend time getting high with hookers have a hard time tracking their cash.

I would be extremely disappointed if they got rid of the red light district, its quite an intriguing place.

The forbidden Killing Fields of Amsterdam DVD by Steve Brown.

A different look at crime trough the light of Lex Naturae, ius naturale.

A true crime documantary presented by Steve Brown with never shown portraits of notorious liquidations, corruption and treason in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Not about the famous tulips, wooden shoes and cheese, but for the first time it shows the hidden Amsterdam-Noir, sex, drugs, murder and fears corruption.

Based on the bestselling book "Killing Fields Amsterdam".

A Film by Brown Productions.

>> ^Quboid:
Governments can't beat drug dealers, but Capitalism can. If Tesco's sold Fair Trade Cannabis, drug dealers would be utterly screwed in no time.
ha...tidy observation. *thumbs up*

...ok, upvote for 020

BillO responds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucJwh0CRopQ
and again reveals his innumeracy: "The way they do statistics in Amsterdam is different, plus it is a much smaller country with a much smaller base..."

I made an 'Amsterdam is a cesspool'-t-shirt.
hope you like it.
Plz vote 4 it.

http://6dollarshirts.com/submit_a_design.php?view=submission&id=1254
053679