I believe it was LRC blog where I first saw “vandarchist” used. I like it. It more accurately describes the vandals who call themselves anarchists. The non-libertarian European leftist anarchist types.

I understand the frustration with a corrupt socialistic / corporatistic government. Especially when it educated its subjects that they are owed certain things from them and others. That they have a right to an education, to a job, to healthcare and then due to socialism’s inherit flaws fails to deliver. But none of that justifies the violence.

And lets not forget protectionist unions egging everyone on.

http://www.theatlantic.com/…

Youth unemployment is high throughout the European Union, but it is particularly high in Greece, hovering between 25 and 30 percent. With few job prospects, rampant poverty in the face of nouveau riche prosperity, a public university system in shambles, a bloated government sector in desperate need of an overhaul, and a weak, defensive conservative government with only a one-seat majority in parliament, it is a ripe period for protests, which have had as their aim the fall of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

And it appears that the riots continue:

Hundreds of rioters battled police in central Athens today (Dec. 20, 2008), fire-bombing a credit reporting agency and attacking the city’s Christmas tree two weeks after the police shooting of a teenager set off Greece’s worst unrest in decades.

Today’s violence followed a memorial gathering at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos died Dec. 6, in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia.

The rioters, using the National Technical University of Athens as a base, launched attacks against police, throwing rocks and petrol bombs and erecting roadblocks.

Security forces are prevented by law from entering the university grounds unless the school administration gives the go-ahead, but so far no permission has been given.

At around 4 p.m. today, about 150 youth attacked the Christmas tree at Syntagma Square in central Athens, hanging trash bags from its branches before clashing with riot police. The square was cleared within two hours. At least three news photographers were injured by police batons. The tree survived the attack.

The original Christmas tree was burned to the ground Dec. 8, during the worst night of rioting.

Some scary pictures from the past two weeks in Greece.

Companies and organizations which very likely won’t be getting my business in the future.

• Target
• TIME
• Home Depot
• Bank of America
• American Red Cross
• Big Brother Big Sister
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America
• Habitat for Humanity
• “I Have a Dream” Foundation
• National Peace Corps Association
• Special Olympics
• United Way of America

This is a subset of the list available at BeTheChangeInc.org and is organizations that stood out for me. AARP, Target, TIME, The Home Depot Foundation and Bank of America are sponsoring the 2008 Service Nation Summit in NYC on… wait for it…. September 11-12.

Mark Edge of Free Talk Live has contacted Target to get their official position but as of last night’s show had not received a response.

I noticed that Americans for a National Service Act is a member of the Service Nation coalition. Comments after the jump.
Read More…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…

Ordinary Germans have begun to reject euro bank notes with serial numbers from Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, raising concerns that public support for monetary union may be waning in the eurozone’s anchor country.

Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper says bankers have detected a curious pattern where customers are withdrawing cash directly from branches, screening the notes to determine the origin of issue. They ask for paper from the southern states to be exchanged for German notes.

People clearly suspect that southern notes may lose value in a crisis, or if the eurozone breaks apart. This is what happened in the US in the Jackson era of the 1840s when dollar notes from different regions traded at different values.

A group of leading German professors warned at the outset of EMU that the euro would tend to be weaker than old Deutsche Mark, and that it would fuel inflation over time. German citizens were never given a vote on the abolition of the D-Mark, which had become a symbol of Germany’s rebirth after the war.

Many have kept a stash of D-Marks hidden in mattresses to this day. A recent IPOS poll showed that 59pc of Germany now had serious doubts about the euro.

While I’m not sure how justified this action is but I support it regardless. Centralized control of the money supply is one of the most disgusting and insidious forms of theft and economic intervention. If people have lost faith in the money they generally use they should be free to replace it.