World's last beguin dies

[Fiji]

Sunday, the world's last beguin kicked the bucket at age 92.
Beguins are a sort of nuns-light. They take a vow of chastity but that's it. The Catholic church considers them lay-folk.
Just about every city of any note had a so called Beguin-yard. The last Dutch beguin died in the early seventies and now this one, in Kortrijk, Belgium closes that particular chapter of Catholic history. One order down, many to go.

[Graybeard]

Beguins are a sort of nuns-light. They take a vow of chastity but that's it.

When I read the title, I thought that it was a typo for penguin. I then thought of a breeding program, but, given their vow, I don't think that'd work. Could we clone some more?

edit to add:

I think this has solved a mystery - having looked at the definition and for pictures, I saw a béguin years ago: she must have been in her 60s at the time, was speaking Dutch and wearing strange headgear and puritan clothes.

[magicmiles]

I mis-read it as world's last Belgian. Was wondering why the latest German invasion hadn't made the news.

[Anfauglir]

Here's a thought I had.....

Beguins, being chaste, do not reproduce.  This is why there are no little Beguins running around.  To make new Beguins, it is important that NON-Beguins reproduce and, somehow, ensure those little children discover that it is okay to be a Beguin, if that is what they believe they are.

Astute readers of this column may see a way that the word "Beguin" in that paragraph can be replaced with another word.

[Fiji]

Beguins are a sort of nuns-light. They take a vow of chastity but that's it.

When I read the title, I thought that it was a typo for penguin. I then thought of a breeding program, but, given their vow, I don't think that'd work. Could we clone some more?

edit to add:

I think this has solved a mystery - having looked at the definition and for pictures, I saw a béguin years ago: she must have been in her 60s at the time, was speaking Dutch and wearing strange headgear and puritan clothes.

Entirely possible, Beguins had already  seriously declined in popularity in Germany over a century ago, leaving only Dutch and Dutch-speaking Belgian Beguins.

[Fiji]

I mis-read it as world's last Belgian. Was wondering why the latest German invasion hadn't made the news.

Sire, there are no Belgians left, is an infamous paraphrasing of a 1912 open letter to king Leo II.
The paraphrasing was directed at King Baldwin in the early eighties in an effort to promote the redrawing of the constitution.

btw, seeing the state of the Belgian army ... a Luxembourgish invasion would do the trick.

[Fiji]

Here's a thought I had.....

Beguins, being chaste, do not reproduce.  This is why there are no little Beguins running around.  To make new Beguins, it is important that NON-Beguins reproduce and, somehow, ensure those little children discover that it is okay to be a Beguin, if that is what they believe they are.

Astute readers of this column may see a way that the word "Beguin" in that paragraph can be replaced with another word.

one wonders why the French bothered to take Montsegur and exterminate[1] the Cathars ... seeing as they weren't allowed any hanky panky either. Wait a few decades ... problem solved!

1.	EXTERMINATE!

[Nick]

Can't they find a breeding couple in the wild and put them in a zoo?

[Mrjason]

Can't they find a breeding couple in the wild and put them in a zoo?

No they can't. They're dead dave. They're all dead.

[Anfauglir]

Can't they find a breeding couple in the wild and put them in a zoo?

Of course, Beguins are all nuns.  So they are all female.  So what you are suggesting is that we find a couple of nuns, and charge people to watch them try to mate.....   

[Nick]

Well, if they can bring back a wolly mammoth maybe they can do the same with these half -nuns.

[Quesi]

Here's a thought I had.....

Beguins, being chaste, do not reproduce.  This is why there are no little Beguins running around.  To make new Beguins, it is important that NON-Beguins reproduce and, somehow, ensure those little children discover that it is okay to be a Beguin, if that is what they believe they are.

You see?  You see?  This is what is going to happen to all of humanity, if we allow gay marriage!!!  EVERYONE will do it, there will be no more little babies, and all of humanity will end!!!!

Simultaneously, however, Israel will be destroyed, as prophesied, and then we'll have a nice rapture.  So I guess it isn't all bad. 

[Hatter23]

Sunday, the world's last beguin kicked the bucket at age 92.
Beguins are a sort of nuns-light. They take a vow of chastity but that's it. The Catholic church considers them lay-folk.
Just about every city of any note had a so called Beguin-yard. The last Dutch beguin died in the early seventies and now this one, in Kortrijk, Belgium closes that particular chapter of Catholic history. One order down, many to go.

Sort of like the Shakers and why they aren't around

[LoriPinkAngel]

btw, seeing the state of the Belgian army ... a Luxembourgish invasion would do the trick.

. 

Really?  Is the Belgian Army in bad shape now?  That's too bad.  My Reserve Unit had a Sister Unit in Belgium & I got to meet & hang out with them in the early '90s.  They seemed pretty cool.

[Fiji]

I exaggerate of course, still things are getting quite depressing.
The airforce is still using the handful of F16s that haven't broken down yet ... or crashed, we lose them to crashes at a rate of one per two years, ok, not quite as bad as the F104, but still.
Also, despite all the new electronics they keep stuffing into them ... F16s are, turn it every which way you like, ancient crates. Things have gotten so bad that in Lybia, they were only allowed to operate in areas that had already been cleared of AA assets by other nations.

Our army is still largly structured around the Leopard tanks ... in an era where the Dutch are mothballing or even selling off their Leo TWOs, Belgium is still using it's Leo ONEs. In a(n intentionally) leaked report, some Colonels said that our equipement is being held together by "duck tape, spit and whishful thinking" and that our firepower is at Korean war levels. Ok, every single military leader in the history of armed conflict has complained about his resources, but there's a kernel of truth there.

The navy is still pretty damn good at its assigned nato task of minesweeping but they're pretty much defenseless agains air attack.

The paratroopers are still among the best on the planet, but their numbers are being reduced bit by bit.

So, all in all, yeah, we're doing pretty bad.