Free Republic

Greece Tests The Limit Of Sovereign Debt As It Grinds Towards SlumpGreece is disturbingly close to a debt compound spiral. It is the first developed country on either side of the Atlantic to push unfunded welfare largesse to the limits of market tolerance. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Published: 5:58PM GMT 22 Nov 2009 Euro membership blocks every plausible way out of the crisis, other than EU beggary. This is what happens when a facile political elite signs up to a currency union for reasons of prestige or to snatch windfall gains without understanding the terms of its Faustian contract. When the...

The Theater of Dionysus lies on the south slope of the Acropolis, on whose heights rose Athens's most sacred temples. Open to the sky, and looking down over the southern part of town, the theater belonged fully to the political and social world of its audience -- unlike our indoor theaters (which cut off the outside world). The beginnings of Greek theater were associated with another radical invention of the ancient Athenians: democracy. Although we find obscure references to earlier dramatists, our first secure date for tragic performances at the City Dionysia comes shortly after the expulsion from Athens of...

TAMPA - A U.S. Marine reservist attacked a visiting Greek Orthodox priest he believed to be a terrorist, Tampa police say. When the priest tried seeking directions from Jasen D. Bruce, 28, of Tampa, on Monday, Bruce struck the priest with a tire iron and chased him. Police say he attacked the Rev. Alexios Marakis, 29, of Crete, Greece, who was visiting St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs and wound up lost in Tampa. Marakis had performed a blessing of another retired Greek priest in the West Shore area and then accidentally exited Interstate 275 north into downtown...

The site was found by accident when the Suez Canal was being constructed in 1860. Workers quarrying Santorini's volcanic ash discovered the ruins, but serious excavations at the site didn't begin until 1967. An unfortunate collapse of the roof in 2005, which killed a British tourist, caused the site to be closed. It's scheduled to be reopened sometime after 2010. Greek bureaucracy has brought the repairs of the building to a halt, which has caused Santorini's tourist trade to suffer. Akrotiri is referred to by some as the "Minoan Pompeii" because of the similarities of the destruction by volcano and...

Today, October 28, marks the anniversary of one of the most important days in the history of the world, yet few people remember it’s significance. But the Greeks do, and they celebrate OXI day, every year. The day was October 28, 1940. At dawn that morning (4:00am), after a party in the German embassy in Athens, Mussolini (through Emanuele Grazzi, the Italian ambassador in Greece) issued an ultimatum to Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to surrender, or face open war with Italy. Metaxas, a career military officer and more importantly a proud Greek, was not inclined to acquiesce to Mussolini’s...

Greece's new socialist government faced its first test against extremism on Wednesday after an automatic weapons attack on a police station injured six officers, two of them seriously. Four assailants on two motorbikes opened fire on the police station in the northern suburb of Agia Paraskevi on Tuesday night. A total of 99 cartridges were later recovered from the scene, with a police source saying two Kalashnikov rifles were used in the attack. Investigators also found a grenade pin, but it was not immediately clear if one of the officers had used a flash grenade against the attackers. A trainee...

OTTAWA — At the request of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, will make an official visit to the Republic of Slovenia, from October 21 to 22, a State visit to the Republic of Croatia, from October 23 to 27, and a State visit to the Hellenic Republic, from October 29 to 31, 2009, during which she will be accompanied by her husband His Excellency Jean-Daniel Lafond. “Slovenia and Croatia are young democracies whose roots reach back through centuries of history. Canada is young, but it...

ATHENS -- Greece's opposition Socialists won national elections on Sunday as voters rejected the incumbent center-right party that had been tarred by scandals and unpopular economic policies during its five and a half years in office. George Papandreou, leader of the winning Socialist party, Pasok, told supporters, "We bear a great responsibility to change the course of the country." Pasok, the Socialist party, secured 43.9% of the vote in early official results, translating to 160 seats in Greece's 300-member parliament. Under Greece's reinforced proportional-representation system, the party with the largest number of votes is awarded seats based on overall results...

The main opposition Socialists will easily win Greece's parliamentary election on Sunday, as voters angered by a faltering economy and a string of corruption scandals turned against Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis' governing conservatives, exit polls indicated. Initial nationwide results, with just over 8 percent of the vote counted, gave the Socialists 43.3 percent and the conservatives 36.2 percent, while turnout was at 67 percent. Led by former Foreign Minister George Papandreou, 57, the Socialists will gain 41-44 percent of the vote, according to exit polls for Greek TV stations. If the projection is confirmed, the Socialists would be able to...

The left is poised to win the general election and buck a European trend of backing centre-right political parties Athenians sipping cappuccino freddo applaud as Athina Dretta, a parliamentary candidate with the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, arrives on a motorcycle to make a 15-minute speech at the “Face Place” café. But beyond the brightly lit café strip, empty shops displaying “for rent” signs and stalled construction projects give the Neo Iraklio suburb a depressed look. “Greece was booming until last year. Now we face recession and anxiety about the future. Will our kids be able to find jobs?” asks Mrs Dretta,...

Many atheopaths1 and their compromising churchian allies claim that biblical belief and science are mortal enemies. Yet historians of science, even non-Christians, have pointed out that modern science first flourished under a Christian world view while it was stillborn in other cultures such as ancient Greece, China and Arabia. The historical basis of modern science depended on the assumption that the universe was made by a rational Creator. An orderly universe makes perfect sense only if it were made by an orderly Creator (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:33). For example, evolutionary anthropologist and science writer Loren Eiseley stated:...

Ptolemy's Geography, America and Columbus: Ancient Greeks and why maybe America was discovered Michael Lahanas Aristotle: “there is a continuity between the parts about the pillars of Hercules and the parts about India, and that in this way the ocean is one.” [As] for the rest of the distance around the inhabited earth which has not been visited by us up to the present time (because of the fact that the navigators who sailed in opposite directions never met), it is not of very great extent, if we reckon from the parallel distances that have been traversed by us... For...

New finds at rich ancient cemetery in Greece(AP) – Sep 17, 2009‎ THESSALONIKI, Greece — Archaeologists in Greece say a sprawling ancient cemetery dating to the 6th century B.C. has yielded dozens of rich grave offerings, including weapons and gold ornaments. Archaeologist Pavlos Chrysostomou says 50 new graves were discovered at Arhontiko, near the ancient city of Pella, birthplace of Alexander the Great. Among the finds were two bronze helmets with gold inlay, iron weapons, statuettes and pottery.

CYPRUS is the only European Union member-state which did not vote in favour of a UN resolution that recognised the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees and their descendants to their homes throughout Georgia, it emerged yesterday. Cyprus was among 78 countries which abstained from voting – 48, including all EU countries voted in favour, 19 voted against. The resolution was passed on Wednesday. “Following extensive debate … the General Assembly today adopted a resolution that recognised the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees and their descendants to their homes throughout Georgia...

HELLENIC PYRAMIDS It is not well known that there are Greek pyramids . There are more than 16 pyramids spread all over the Greece. The oldest one is the pyramid of Hellinikon INTRODUCTION The existence of pyramids in Greece was unknown to most people until recently, and even today not much is known about them. For example, the pyramid of Hellenikon, near Argos, is older than the Pyramids of Egypt. In fact, Pausanias (in Graeciae Descriptio) says that this pyramid was a memorial in rememberance of the first battle fought by soldiers bearing shields! Pyramids in Greece are usually smaller...

SNIPPET: "A bomb has exploded outside the Athens stock exchange, slightly injuring a female passer-by and damaging the building, police say. The bomb - which set fire to several cars - was hidden in a stolen van. Another bomb went off outside a government building in Thessaloniki, causing minor damage and no injuries. The blasts may be the work of a Greek extremists' group, Revolutionary Struggle, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens. Earlier this year the group claimed responsibility for two bombs aimed at the American Citibank group. Flying glass A warning of the Athens explosion was telephoned to...

WITH A PUEFACE BY THE BISHOP OF OXFORD. ' And the august abode from whence they came.' Speculations as to an Eastern emigration are scarcely more than glanced at here; and it may appear almost superfluous to refer to two groundless hypotheses which have been formed—the first, that Greek remains have been discovered in South America, and that faint vestiges of Greece are also traceable in the islands of Hawaii. The other supposition is that of the Hawaiian race being of Hebrew origin, and that these islanders represent the lost tribes of the house of Israel.

Ankara has denied NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen's suggestion that differences between Turkey and Greece have been hindering further defense cooperation between NATO and the European Union. The remarks by Rasmussen, who assumed office on Aug. 1, came ahead of his arrival in Turkey on Thursday for a two-day visit as part of a tour of NATO countries, including Greece. “We have come to the point where it is causing us problems in our missions. In Afghanistan, NATO cannot conclude an agreement to support EU police. Off the Horn of Africa, both NATO and the EU have missions in the...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Wildfires that tore through suburbs of Athens and forced thousands of people to flee their homes were contained on Tuesday as the government's handling of the disaster became an election issue. Likely to face voters early next year, the conservative government said very strong winds had made it difficult to fight fires in east Attica where swathes of forest and more than 150 homes were destroyed. "If what we experienced in Attica is the best this government can do, then it is obvious we must urgently replace it," the liberal daily Ethnos said in its main editorial....

Inscriptions revealing complaints about high taxes from 1,700 years ago have been found during the excavation of the ancient city of Rhodiapolis in Antalya's Kumluca district. The excavation was started by Professor Nevzat Çevik, head of the archaeology department in Akdeniz University's faculty of science and literature, and led this year by Assistant Professor İsa Kızgut. Kızgut told the Anatolia news agency that they made interesting discoveries concerning the social life of the people of Rhodiapolis. Noting that one of the most interesting discoveries was an inscription, Kızgut said: “In addition to many historical artifacts, we uncovered some relics concerning...

The object was spotted by the pilot of Olympic Airways flight 266 from Athens, and the sighting was corroborated by staff at Athens Airport and a nearby Greek air force base. Pilots of two other passenger jets also reported seeing the body.The eyewitnesses described it as looking like a large star, although it was moving erratically and constantly changing shape.Two fighter jets were sent to investigate the sighting over the Greek capital in November 2007 but the object shot up into the sky and vanished before they could get a clear view.

British-born Christopher Hitchens is one of the few journalists actively working to keep the brutal invasion and continued occupation of Cyprus in the news. Hitchens has written extensively about the 1974 invasion by Turkey and the refusal of Turkey to remove its occupation troops from the island despite condemnation from every world organization, including the United Nations.

By Jean Cohen · July 12, 2009 ATHENS (JTA) -- A campaign in Greece to raise money to rebuild a Christian Palestinian hospital in Gaza allegedly destroyed by Israel appears to be a scam, JTA has learned. The hospital that was the focus of a campaign, which included the participation of Greece’s president and foreign minister, never actually existed. For nearly a week in February, Greece’s official state television network inundated viewers with news about a telethon that would take place Feb. 9 to raise money to “rebuild the Christian hospital in Gaza that Israelis destroyed with their bombs” during...

(CNN) -- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit near the Greek island of Crete on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It struck at 12:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. ET), the USGS said. It was centered about 80 miles (130 kilometers) off the city of Iraklion on Crete, the USGS said. An earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude is capable of causing significant damage, especially in areas of poor construction. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. A staff member at Iraklion Airport told CNN they didn't feel the earthquake. Similar reports came from staff members at hotels just outside Iraklion and...

The granary at Assiros Toumba in Greece burnt to the ground around 1300 BC, during the Bronze Age, together with large quantities of grain stored in clay bins and jars. It was a large facility and the fire was 'undoubtedly a catastrophic accident for the people whose grain was stored there,' says Professor Glynis Jones, an archaeologist from the University of Sheffield. The reasons for the fire are unknown - it could have been accidental or may have happened in the aftermath of an earthquake, Jones suggests. But there is no solid evidence to support either theory... The exact proportion...

Arthur Evans, the eccentric Englishman who led the excavations, was, if anything, even more creative in his reconstruction of the Bronze Age than Schliemann had earlier been. The fabulously ancient palace of Knossos enjoys, as Gere points out in her arresting first sentence, "the dubious distinction of being one of the first reinforced concrete buildings ever erected on the island". The complex of buildings gawped at by thousands upon thousands of tourists every year owes less to the masons of the Minoan age than it does to the example of modernist architecture. On Crete, the archaic and the contemporary, both...

ATHENS, Greece – Greece opens its long-anticipated new Acropolis Museum Saturday, boosting its decades-old campaign for the return of 2,500-year-old sculptures removed from the ancient citadel by a 19th century British diplomat.

For the past eight years, the Muslim world has heard and seen relentless hostility from the Bush/Cheney administration. In a welcome change, President Barack Obama’s masterfully written, artfully delivered recent speech in Cairo was filled with just what the Muslim world had been waiting to hear: an intelligent, respectful address calling for normalised relations with the Muslim world, including former “betes noires” Iran and Syria, co-operation, and advancement of democracy and human rights. Very nice, to a point. But the Muslim world was not as taken by Obama’s silver-tongued oratory as many Americans. The general response was, “actions speak louder...

This is almost getting to be a "Nothing to see here, move along" story. A Greek policemen allegedly tore a Koran from an Iraqi immigrant and stepped on it which set off riots last week with the usual torched cars and general mayhem. Greece has an assimilation problem with a huge influx of illegal Muslim immigrants - 400,000 in the Athens area alone - and along with an arson attack on a Muslim prayer room, tensions have been driven very high. But really, this is about recognizing an invisible community - and the Muslims are milking the controversy for all...

MOUNT ATHOS – When you see the summit of Athos emerge through the mist of the Aegean, stop the clocks. Because things are on another schedule there. The calendar is the Julian one, 13 days behind the Latin calendar that spread throughout the rest of the world. The hours are counted not from midnight, but from sunset. And it is not under the noon-day sun but in the dark of night that Athos is most alive and pulsating. In songs, lights, and mysteries. Mount Athos is a truly holy land that inspires fear of God. It's not for everyone....

In less then one year, all the cracks of Greek society and economy, all the family secrets that the Leftist, Panhellenic Socialist Movement and their centralist New Democracy allies have tried to suppress, have come sharply into the light of day. Since the fall of the Regime of the Colonels, Greek politics have been dominated by the Left and their centralist allies. The present president, Karolos Papoulias, of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, was reelected to his second five year term on 12 March 05. His prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis, of the New Democracy (a center right, modern, "progressive" party, aka...

In this follow up to the "Muslims Clash With Greek Police for Second day" article, non-Muslims strike back. Now it is just a matter of time until the Muslims there play the victim card.

The world's oldest democracy should not allow Kostras Plevris, an openly fascist author, to fuel hatred of its Jewish citizens

In the past Muslims have rioted in Belgium, Denmark and France. So why not add Greece to that list? Hopefully those that support Muslim immigration will wake up before it is too late.

One of the Palestinian Authority's famous frauds is the claim that there was never a Jewish Community in the Holy Land. They like to say that any Jewish claim to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount began with the Zionist movement 100 years ago. Of course that's a lie in fact even after the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE when the Romans change the name of the country to Palestinia, most of the world recognized the Holy Land and Jerusalem as Jewish. The truth of the matter is that even ancient Muslim writings recognized Jerusalem as a Jewish City. For...

Charlie Skelton is now being followed by the police and still hasn't done much more than eat a club sandwich. Global secret cabals have no sense of humour. Now I've got too much to report. I'll talk later about the strange secret circus of limousines, blacked-out windows,sirens,helicopters. No time to relate being detained for a SECOND time, for the crime of being half a mile from the Bilderberg hotel gates trying to take "arty" photographs of limousine wheels as they whisked past. Doing so little wrong that I was doing it while standing next to three policemen who were fine...

Archaeology is an inexact science, as Sir Arthur Evans, a flamboyant early practitioner, knew... an excavator can always promote an extravagant theory under the guise of interpreting the finds. As he started to unearth a prehistoric mound at Knossos in Crete at the turn of the 20th century, Evans put his imagination into high gear. He rebuilt parts of a 3,500-year-old palace in modernist style using cement and reconstructed fragmentary frescoes to suit his views on Bronze Age religion and politics. Evans boldly argued that the Minoans, as he called the early islanders, shunned warfare, conveniently forgetting about the ruined...

The ancient town of Pavlopetri lies in three to four metres of water just off the coast of southern Laconia in Greece. The ruins date from at least 2800 BC through to intact buildings, courtyards, streets, chamber tombs and some thirty-seven cist graves which are thought to belong to the Mycenaean period (c.1680-1180 BC). This Bronze Age phase of Greece provides the historical setting for much Ancient Greek literature and myth, including Homer's Age of Heroes... Although Mycenaean power was largely based on their control of the sea, little is known about the workings of the harbour towns of the...

Today at the Westin Astir Hotel in Vouliagmeni -outside of Athens, Greece- the annual Bilderberger meeting reportedly got underway. Who are the Bilderbergers? What are their goals? If I haven't ever heard of them, how can what they think really be all that important anyway? All that and an update on how the unions are sending jobs to China.... LIVE on ECR on Eagle 104FM and the Liberty Works Radio Network at 10PM EDT. Click below to listen LIVE. ECR is now LIVE Monday-Thursday at 10PM EDT on the Liberty Works Radio NetworkClick the Hummer to listen live to The...

The Italian police have arrested two men suspected of planning an attack on the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. They are also suspected of planning other attacks in France and Great Britain. The two are thought to play a leading role in the al-Qaeda network.

In Heaven + Earth (Global Warming: The Missing Science), Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at The University of Adelaide, Australia, asks us to embrace big-picture science views; for to recognize our limits is a sign of maturity. "Climate science lacks scientific discipline," says the pro-amalgamation Professor, and in order to see more clearly we need to adopt an interdisciplinary approach. This requires humbleness. In Chapter 2: History, Plimer travels back in time, thousands of years, in fact, to debunk Gore's catastrophic global warming myths. I particularly like his research on the ancient Greeks. For Plato (427-347 BC) advanced the...

A Greek court annulled Greece's only two same-sex marriages, officials said Tuesday, following a furious backlash against the ceremonies from the government and religious leaders. The two couples - one male, one female - exploited a loophole in a 26-year-old law that did not specify gender in civil weddings, and were married in June last year by the mayor of the small Aegean Sea island of Tilos. The ceremonies drew the wrath of the powerful Orthodox Church of Greece, with one conservative bishop denouncing them as weddings of "humanoid couples." The government immediately declared the marriages illegal and invalid and...

ISTANBUL, May 1 May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece on Friday while thousands angry at the government's responses to the global financial crisis took to the streets in France. Rising unemployment across Europe and beyond has added intensity to May Day marches as last year's market crash and banking meltdown rolls into the real economy. There were early morning clashes in Germany and protests in Istanbul swiftly turned violent. Greek police clashed with self-styled anarchists. Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas, firing shots and pepper spray to disperse masked protesters. Young...

I bow in reverence before the age old achievements of the Great Church of Constantinople, and before her present cross which is neither small nor easy, which according to the nature of things, is the cross of the entire Church - for, as the Apostle says, "When one member suffers, the whole body suffers." Moreover, I acknowledge the canonical rank and first place in honor of Constantinople among the local Orthodox Churches, which are equal in honor and rights".Archimandrite Justin PopovichAs news reports indicate, Mr. Barack Obama insulted the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I by...

Dutch commandos have freed 20 people who had been captured by Somali pirates after the raiders attacked a Greek-managed tanker, Nato says. The captives, Yemeni fishermen, were freed as the Dutch forces captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden. They were aboard a pirate "mother ship" from which smaller craft attack commercial vessels. The captured pirates are alleged to have attacked the tanker using assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. A Dutch warship from the Nato force responded to a distress call from the tanker and saw the pirates fleeing toward a Yemeni fishing trawler, Nato spokesman Alexandre Santos Fernandes...

04/13/2009 SNIPPET: "A home-made fire-bomb exploded at 3:25 a.m. at the KAPA Marines showcase, and the ensuing fire quickly spread throughout the two land plots where the company's pleasure craft are on display, totally destroying or causing extensive damage to more than 20 boats." SNIPPET: "Police bomb disposal experts are investigating the site, and have so far come up with two propane canisters."

Roman police find sewer children The children were found in sewers close to railway stations Italian police have found more than 100 immigrants, including 24 Afghan children, living in the sewer system beneath railway stations in Rome. The children range in age from 10 to 15 years and are now being looked after by the city's social services. They were found when the railway police followed up reports of children living near the city's stations. The police say they do not speak Italian and broke into the sewers by removing manhole covers. The charity Save the Children Italy says that...

Socialist International President George Papandreou has a lot in common with President Barack Obama. Both the world leaders have called for nations to come together to solve the global recession and both claim it is necessary to focus on a green economy. Papandreou, who is likely to become Greece’s next Prime Minister, was encouraged by Obama’s “very new signal” about global goals for economic recovery. “The United States under Barack Obama is giving out a very new signal which is, ‘We need to collaborate.’ And I think that is very important for our planet today. We need to collaborate,” Papandreou...

An Athens appeals court acquitted a well-known Greek neo-Nazi of Holocaust denial. The five-member court on Friday found Kostas Plevris not guilty of "incitement to racial hatred and violence against the Jews" over his 1,400-page book "Jews -- The Whole Truth," which denies the Holocaust and is blatantly anti-Semitic. Plevris had been convicted in December 2007 and sentenced to 14 months in prison, as well as three years probation. The Greek Jewish umbrella organization, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, in a news release said the court's decision "saddens, perplexes and causes concern among citizens of a modern...

Note from Ravnagora: The following was written back on February 17, 2008, the day Kosovo was handed its "independence". It gives a terrific overview of the "Albanian" issue. The author was born in Istanbul. The Greeks understand well... American and European foreign policy in the Balkans, suffering from a terminal form of historical amnesia, is bankrupt. The results of those bankrupt policies are visibly on display today as Kosovor Albanians declare themselves independent and a second Muslim state is now established on the European continent. The stage is now set for the a regime led by elements of the Kosovo...