Paul Belien, the distinguished editor of the free market blog  The Brussels Journal,  has been "summoned for interrogation" by the Brussels police for the second time in two months. The first time was for "racism"  ——— a plainly false charge, and of course a thought crime requiring government mind—reading for its enforcement.  But this time he was brought in for home—schooling his children. Yesterday, June 14, Belien was

summoned to the police station and interrogated. He was told that the Belgian authorities are of the opinion that, as a homeschooler, he has not adequately educated his children and, hence, is neglecting his duty as a parent, which is a criminal offence. The Ministry of Education has asked the judiciary to press charges and the judiciary told the police to investigate and take down his statement.

Belien has a PhD and is a respected journalist and author. He is qualified to teach his children their ABC's in three languages: French, Dutch and English, because he is fluent in all three.

The kids are also being taught by Belien's wife, Professor Alexandra Colen, who

"holds an MA in Linguistics (University of Reading, UK) and a doctorate in Germanic Philology (University of Ghent, Flanders). She lectured at the universities of Antwerp and Ghent and is the author of A Syntactic and Semantic Study of English Predicative Nominals  and a co—author of Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Engels Nederlands (Van Dale Comprehensive English to Dutch Dictionary) and other linguistic books."

Professor Colen left her academic career  to home—school her children full—time.

But these folks are considered unqualified because they  refused to sign an oath

"respecting the respect (sic) for the fundamental human rights and the cultural values of the child itself and of others.'

So they are disqualified on the grounds of Politically Correct MultiCulti PoMo Pap.

But this is not just a matter of berserker Eurobureaucrats. Paul Belien and Alexandra Colen are publicly critical of the New European State. The Brussels Journal believes in liberty and free markets. Such ideas cannot be allowed to flourish in Europe. Well, it couldn't happen here. Could it?

"Last month Michael Farris, the chairman of the American Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), warned that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child could make homeschooling illegal in the U.S., ...   Under the Convention severe limitations are placed on parents' right to direct and train their children. Under Article 13 parents could be subject to prosecution for any attempt to prevent their children from interacting with material they deem unacceptable. Under Article 14 children are guaranteed 'freedom of thought, conscience and religion' — in other words, children have a legal right to object to all religious training. And under Article 15 the child has a right to 'freedom of association.'

Michael Farris pointed out that in 1995 'the United Kingdom was deemed out of compliance' with the Convention 'because it allowed parents to remove their children from public school sex—education classes without consulting the child.'

Thus the ultimate judge of the child's rights is the United Nations, about as full of enlightened upholders of human rights as any place you can imagine. And some activist US judges are happy to consider the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child "accepted foreign law," on par with the US Constitution. Even though the UN Convention was never ratified by the US Senate. They just make it up as they go along.

Sadly, the United States has plenty of aspiring PC Commissars,  ready to destroy home schooling, free blogs, and above all, free thought.

If you let them.

James Lewis   6 16 06