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Showing posts with label greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greece. Show all posts

Monday, May 03, 2010

Greece as warning for the United States

It's the biggest financial bailout of a single country in history. I'm already hearing that the International Monetary Fund won't have enough coin to put Greece back on firm footing again (if it even had that). No doubt the IMF will soon afterward be coming to the United States government for Americans to pay "our fair share" of Europe's debt crisis.

But that's not what compels me to write about Greece's woes at the moment, friends and neighbors...

Greece is now forced to look at "demobilizing" much of its public sector jobs, which makes up A THIRD of that country's workforce!

This has not gone over well with many of the natives, who have responded with angry protests throughout that nation.

And I find it very easy to envision the United States following much the same track toward economic disaster.

Our own government is too big, too unwieldy, and "employs" way too many people. It's not as bad as 1/3rd of the workforce, but it's getting there. Hell, 1/7th of the economy is going to practically be federalized en masse when "healthcare reform" gets implemented.

We're spending money we no longer have, and we keep giving it away as "entitlements" (including to many people who aren't legally in this country to begin with).

I'm beginning to see the cracks. Pay attention and you can't miss 'em either. States and municipalities large and small are struggling to pay the bills. And yet we keep throwing money away to maintain a semblance of might and power.

The tree looks like it's yet standing tall and firm. But it's become rotted inside. And it's getting worse.

If you want a picture of what future awaits us here in America, you might wanna take a look at Greece. This could will be us sooner than later, if we don't rein in our fiscal policies.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch is 1,600 years old

A Greek scholar has conclusively proven that the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch made famous by Monty Python's John Cleese and Michael Palin actually goes back sixteen hundred years.

Hierocles and Philagrius were the original comedy duo who came up with the concept. Except in their version it wasn't a dead bird, but a deceased slave. One man complains to a friend that the slave he bought from him died not long after purchase. The friend replies "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

Also among the 265 jokes found in the Philogelos: The Laugh Addict collection are some poking fun at marriage. One of them goes: "A man tells a well-known wit: 'I had your wife, without paying a penny'. The husband replies: 'It's my duty as a husband to couple with such a monstrosity. What made you do it?'"