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Mark Steyn: Not just their Big Fat Greek Funeral [GREECE: THE SKIDS]
MaCleans.ca ^ | 20 May 2010 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 5/21/2010, 4:35:00 AM by JLS

As lazy, feckless, corrupt and violent as Greece undoubtedly is, it’s not that untypical

From the Times of London: “The President of Greece warned last night that his country stood on the brink of the abyss after three people were killed when an anti-government mob set fire to the Athens bank where they worked.”

Almost right. They were not an “anti-government” mob, but a government mob, a mob comprised largely of civil servants. That they are highly uncivil and disinclined to serve should come as no surprise: they’re paid more and they retire earlier, and that’s how they want to keep it. So they’re objecting to austerity measures that would end, for example, the tradition of 14 monthly paycheques per annum. You read that right: the Greek public sector cannot be bound by anything so humdrum as temporal reality. So, when it was mooted that the “workers” might henceforth receive a mere 12 monthly paycheques per annum, they rioted. Their hapless victims—a man and two women—were a trio of clerks trapped in a bank when the mob set it alight and then obstructed emergency crews attempting to rescue them.

(Excerpt) Read more at 2.macleans.ca ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: debt; euro; greece; marksteyn
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Steyn writes about the situation in Greece and Europe.
1 posted on 5/21/2010, 4:35:00 AM by JLS
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To: knews_hound

Steyn ping opportunity.


2 posted on 5/21/2010, 4:35:35 AM by JLS (Democrats: People who wont even let you enjoy an unseasonably warm winter day)
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To: JLS

who voted for the socialist mess in greece?


3 posted on 5/21/2010, 4:39:41 AM by dalebert
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To: JLS

“Hey, that bank had all your money. You burned it down. SO, no more paychecks. Buh Bye”


4 posted on 5/21/2010, 4:40:03 AM by GeronL (Political Correctness Kills)
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To: dalebert
who voted for the socialist mess in greece?

The Greek “masses” of course.
Hey, the Greeks like turning up for cushy government jobs whenever they like, and retiring at 49 with nice pension plans...paid for by massive government borrowing and by the Germans of course.

5 posted on 5/21/2010, 4:48:17 AM by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe
and by the Germans of course.

Deutschland, Deutschland, uber MORONS......gibt dein gelt als Greek Communiste! Deutschland, Deutscheland du bist verruckt...

6 posted on 5/21/2010, 4:56:59 AM by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: JLS
Money quote:

‘But in the Mediterranean those grandchildren are never going to be born. As I pointed out in my bestselling hate crime America Alone four years ago, Greece has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet—1.3 children per couple, which places it in the “lowest-low” demographic category from which no society has recovered and, according to the UN, 178th out of 195 countries. In practical terms, it means 100 grandparents have 42 grandkids. Greek public sector employees are entitled not only to 14 monthly paycheques per annum during their “working” lives, but also 14 monthly retirement cheques per annum till death. Who’s going to be around to pay for that?”

7 posted on 5/21/2010, 5:01:39 AM by SmokingJoe
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To: JLS

right on the money


8 posted on 5/21/2010, 5:05:41 AM by GeronL (Political Correctness Kills)
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To: JLS

I’m so glad I toured Europe from the 60s thru the 80s. I got to taste the cuisines, hear the languages and see the landscapes, architecture and art.

RIP.


9 posted on 5/21/2010, 5:21:20 AM by Albion Wilde ( Racism is the first refuge of liberals. --J.T. Young)
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To: JLS
Removing the state from health care brings down prices? Who knew? This New York Times is presumably entirely unrelated to the New York Times that’s spent the last year arguing for the governmentalization of U.S. health care as a means of controlling costs.

Geeze, I love this man. He always hits it so perfectly.

10 posted on 5/21/2010, 5:48:56 AM by MarMema
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To: GeronL; JLS

Happens here in the U.S. Glenn Book showed today that busloads of SEIU members and mobsters surrounded a Bank of America’s executive’s private home terrorizing a 14-yr boy left alone home, while father and a younger brother went to ball practice!!!


11 posted on 5/21/2010, 6:01:41 AM by danamco (")
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To: GeronL; JLS

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/16/class-warfare-hundreds-pr_n_578015.html


12 posted on 5/21/2010, 6:08:29 AM by danamco (")
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To: dalebert

who voted for the socialist mess in greece?

The Greeks? Is this a trick question?


13 posted on 5/21/2010, 6:45:15 AM by Skepolitic
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To: JLS
Greece, wrote Theodore Dalrymple, is “a cradle not only of democracy but of democratic corruption”—of electorates who give their votes to leaders who bribe them with baubles purchased by borrowing against a future that can never pay it off. The future is now here, and the riots will spread.

14 posted on 5/21/2010, 7:16:52 AM by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: MarMema

Anyone tell Mitt? Massachusetts has the fastest increases in medical insurance cost in the country since Romneycare.


15 posted on 5/21/2010, 7:31:06 AM by Leisler
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To: JLS

A brilliant piece by Steyn. Too bad the ignorant masses don’t read him. But then, that’s why they’re ignorant. Too bad they can vote.


16 posted on 5/21/2010, 7:48:50 AM by Rocky (REPEAL IT!)
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To: JLS

“Alarmist”: One who sounds the alarm - watchman on the wall!

Example: “The British are coming!”


17 posted on 5/21/2010, 11:40:07 AM by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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To: MarMema

He and Rush and a dozen others are priceless treasures to us, and you may rest assured that the demons running our government today are looking at ways to shut them up.


18 posted on 5/21/2010, 11:42:09 AM by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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To: RoadTest

I’m another “alarmist”.


19 posted on 5/21/2010, 11:42:40 AM by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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To: SmokingJoe
But in the Mediterranean those grandchildren are never going to be born. As I pointed out in my bestselling hate crime America Alone four years ago, Greece has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet—1.3 children per couple, which places it in the “lowest-low” demographic category from which no society has recovered

Socialism and feminism are self-extinguishing aberrations. We only need to hasten things along. Instead, the internationalists are using these cave-ins to promote one-world government, which will be run by China when the US collapses.

20 posted on 5/21/2010, 1:39:50 PM by rockhardo (Socialism creates its own hell.)
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