Those of you who can’t help but look at an accident might enjoy this coverage of the Greek way of solving your fiscal meltdown: riot, plant bombs, and bring what’s left of a feeble economy to a standstill. That’s sure to pay the bills and make good on Yaya’s pension – when there’s no-one left earning anything that the omnivore-left can tax at a higher, ever more “socially responsible” rate.

I.E.:

On June 14th, anarchists stormed a super-market in Thessaloniki, Greece. They destroyed the security systems, took food and money from the cashiers, which they burnt outside.

In reality, political films are very often screened in the exact same place as they always were: in former factories, which are today, more often than not, museums.

- Hito Steyerl, ‘Is a Museum a Factory?'

For some in Brussels the words "Latin America" still conjure up an image of basket-case economies, but the message from a recent high-level conference in the EU capital was loud and clear: ignore this region at your peril.

Every year, the funniest answers to France’s national comprehensive exams are published, such as:

Mai 68 voit l’émergance d’un nouveau leader de la jeunesse: Daniel Kohn-Bandit.

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."

- Frederic Bastiat

Why they call it a beautiful sport is beyond me. The javelin is beautiful. Track events are beautiful. “Le foot” is just another team game. I realize that the fact that few Americans enjoy it is used a reason to engage in lecturesome nagging – it also ignores the fact that the same people would feign outrage at displacing the native interests of any other culture on earth except that of the United States.

Should Canadians engage in symbolic displays of shame because the zombie-like interest in Hockey or even Curling? Just to worship at the empty, generic, gel-coated fiberglass alter of “football”? Should Britons have to apologize or enjoying Cricket? No.

So the next time you get the canned tirade about “Americans and their sports”, just tell them to go fuck themselves. The statement is commensurate with the motives of the usual recorded rant.

The Other McCain says it all when it comes to American who fixate on Metric Football:

But affluent elite American soccer fandom of the type celebrated by the Nation/NPR piece has roughly the same relationship to merely liking soccer that knowing show-tune lyrics has to sodomy — which is to say, none at all.

conservatives don’t hate soccer because we hate brown people. We hate soccer because we hate liberals.

American liberals love soccer not merely because it allows them to engage in displays of their imagined superiority — “Look at me! I’m a sophisticated cosmopolitan!” — but also because it’s usually the only sport they’ve ever actually played.

“Mom Wouldn’t Let Me Play Football” is a convenient shorthand that I’ve used to describe a category of person typified by, inter alia, David Brooks.

Carrying on about their fantasies of what the UN can do that they won’t, which is defending them from risk and danger, Europeans are trying to employ argument and ‘discussion’ on themselves for the 30th year running.

An editorial in Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter asks What's the point in a European army?

For the first time in 2011, Sweden will assume command of Nordic Battlegroup 2, one of the 18 battlegroups that make up the European Rapid Reaction Force. The battlegroups are supposed to maintain readiness for deployment within ten days and a four month tour of duty in conflict zones.

Although Europe's battlegroups "are an ideal force for the protection of populations, or the halting of ethnic cleansing," their deployment is often blocked by a lack of political will, and member states' reluctance to provide troops. The daily concludes that the idea of a "rapid" reaction force will remain a misnomer because "the UN is too slow and ponderous, and the United States follows its own agenda."

Sweden should not contribute to the EU's Waffen SS, we have barely resources here at home since the defense was destroyed during the past governments. Rather, we should rebuild a credible capacity so we can defend ourselves.