Things are getting stranger in Harlem.  Well, actually, Haarlem — a city in the Netherlands.  The Dutch city of 160,000 people, located near Amsterdam, has agreed to outlaw ads for intensively farmed meat on public places such as buses, shelters, and screens...starting in 2024.

The move was approved by the city council last fall, but a councilor only recently announced that he had officially notified advertising agencies of the ban.  Ziggy Klazes, councilor for the GroenLinks (Green-Left) party, who drafted the motion, proudly told the Agence France-Presse (AFP): "It will be the first city in the Netherlands — and in fact Europe and indeed the world — to ban 'bad' meat ads in public places."

Ms. Ziggy sniffed to the Trouw newspaper, "Meat is very harmful to the environment.  We cannot tell people that there is a climate crisis and encourage them to buy products that are part of it."  She has also stated that it goes against the city's politics to "earn money by renting the city's public space to products which accelerate global warming."  And no one would wish to go against the city's politics!  Land o' Goshen!

As of this writing, Haarlem had not yet decided if the ban would include all "cheap meat from intensive farming," but Klazes added, "As far as I'm concerned that includes ads from fast food chains."  So much for having it your way, Burger King.  And you can bet McDonald's is not loving it.

You won't be seeing this in Haarlem:

YouTube screen grab, CC BY 3.0 license.

Not surprisingly, the ban has been criticized by the Dutch meat industry and some political parties that see it as a form of censorship and stigmatization of meat-eaters.  Joey Rademaker, a Haarlem councilor for the conservative BVNL party, simply noted: "Banning ads for political reasons is nearly dictatorial."  Nearly?  You think?

Incredibly, Amsterdam (and The Hague) have already banned ads for air travel, gasoline-powered automobiles, and fossil fuels — and now Haarlem is set to add meat to that list.

What's next?  (I find myself asking that question frequently of late.)  Why not ban ads for hospitals?  Doesn't GroenLinks know how much energy hospitals require?  Talk about greenhouse gas emissions!  Perhaps ads for government should be banned.  No entity uses as much energy for so little benefit.  Think of all the chauffeured limo rides and trips via airplanes and other conveyances that our entitled leaders and other politicians take, whether on "official duty" or vacation.  And that's in addition to the staggering amount of hot air they spew into the atmosphere.  And, of course, ads for corn, wheat, and other produce must be banned.  Think of the excessive use of water the raising of crops requires!  Grieve over the use of fertilizer.  Ponder the deforestation, the fencing of Mother Earth, etc., etc.

Why not ban ads altogether?  For that matter, why not ban all human industry and endeavor?

Truth be told, it is God the elites are after.  Elites can't allow the existence of even the concept of any being greater than themselves.  Conservatives are in their way.  Fundamentalist Christians are anathema to them.  As are the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was founded.  So they all must be canceled.

Ultimately, our elites, leaders, and "experts" would like to ban us, the humans, created in God's image, who don't willingly conform to their every wish, desire, edict, and mandate.

And they are well on the way to doing just that, via abortion, birth control, and the disastrous COVID-19 vaccination mandates.  (Get a booster every three months!)  Yes, they are essentially going to ban humans, at least those of us who don't come from elite stock.

The repulsive beliefs of our modern-day elites, our authoritarian leaders, were perfectly summed up by a chapter title on overpopulation in a book* by the late P.J. O'Rourke: "Just Enough of Me, Way Too Much of You."

We know that the elites won't abide by their own edicts and mandates.  Rather than allowing them to ban ads for the things that sustain us and make our lives better, we should vote them out of office.

And then go out and have a burger.

(*All The Trouble In The World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty)