European links

[erudito]

Europe has been surprisingly firm against Russian adventurism.

The French President is publicly annoyed that the Czech President will not fly the EU flag from his castle.

Hoping Obama will not be like Blair.

The current Miss England is apparently “too chunky” to work as a model.

The apparently desperate (and expensive) need to control children’

Comments

[catsidhe]

European resistance against Putin's increasing claims to the powers of the old Russian Empires is only surprising if you mistake disagreement with American belligerence for weak hypocrisy. Like Jordan179 does.

The Greek riots are, I had thought, fairly obviously not about the death of that kid. That is the cause, not the reason. My opinion is that quite a lot of the violence is in reaction to how the Greek authorities would break out the tear gas and batons for indiscriminate carnage (like how Jordan179 would like to see), if they were competent enough.

[jordan179]

European resistance against Putin's increasing claims to the powers of the old Russian Empires is only surprising if you mistake disagreement with American belligerence for weak hypocrisy. Like Jordan179 does.

It's not necessarily "weak hypocrisy." It just often is. It is, most definitely, at least "hypocrisy," given that France and Germany saw no problem with propping up tyrants in the first place, then complained on "moral" grounds when we acted to take them down.

The Greek riots are, I had thought, fairly obviously not about the death of that kid. That is the cause, not the reason. My opinion is that quite a lot of the violence is in reaction to how the Greek authorities would break out the tear gas and batons for indiscriminate carnage (like how Jordan179 would like to see), if they were competent enough."Quite a lot of the violence is in reaction to how the Greek authorities would break out the tear gas and batons for indiscriminate carnage ... if they were competent enough

[catsidhe]

... propping up tyrants in the first place, then complained on "moral" grounds when we acted to take them down.
Projecting much? Oh, wait, you wouldn't let anyone but yourselves take down your pet tyrants. So, no morals in evidence thereThe statement in question is setting up a logical relationship

[jordan179]

... propping up tyrants in the first place, then complained on "moral" grounds when we acted to take them down.

Projecting much?

Not at all. France, Germany and Russia were Saddam's main supporters. Particularly after 1991.

As for B, this subclause describes a situation which might be better stated as "the Greek authorities are not even competent enough to be totalitarian thugs, even though it is widely known that they (the authorities) would like to."

Ah. But it is obvious that the Greek authorities are not trying to be totalitarian thugs, since they are doing none of the things associated with totalitarianism, such as violently suppressing dissent, prohibiting opposition parties, etc. Thus, your statement is tantamount to arguing that the Greek rioters are crazy.

It is most certainly true that there was an authoritarian (not totalitarian) Greek regime in the early 1970's, which did violently suppress dissent. But this is not the current regime -- Greece has been a liberal democracy for a quarter century now