The new 'dutch treat'

The Dutch are often hailed for their love of liberty. From the hash bars to the Red Light district to gay marriages, folks are largely free to do as they please. It appears they may have gone too far, though, with the formation of a pro-pedophilia political party.

The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party has declared that "We are going to shake The Hague awake!" Their primary goal is to have the age of consent for sexual intercourse lowered from 16 to 12.

"A ban just makes children curious," said Ad van den Berg, one of the party's founders.

In 1996, Marc Dutroux of Belgium was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, torturing and raping four girls -- ages 8 to 19, four of whom died.

Van den Berg says that ever since then, pedophiles have been unfairly silenced.

"We want to make pedophilia the subject of discussion. We have been hushed up. The only way is through parliament."

Ireen van Engelen has been campaigning against pedophilia for some time now. She smells a rat.
"They make out as if they want more rights for children. But their position that children should be allowed sexual contact from age 12 is of course just in their own interest."

The new party, which plans to formally register with the government on Wednesday, was founded in 2004 by Marthijn Uittenbogaard, the force behind "Martijn", a Dutch version of NAMBLA.

The NVD's absurd agenda calls for the decriminalization of possession of child pornography, the daytime broadcast of porn and the legalization of bestiality. Everyone should be allowed to walk about naked as they see fit and all trains should be free.

Strangely, they call for all government documents to be published in Dutch and English, yet their website is only in Dutch.