In England, a man dressed as a Muslim woman walked into a Dorset bank and robbed it. He wore full hijab, with a veil covering his face, so the bank’s staff had no idea he was a man until he spoke in a deep voice and demanded money. Fortunately there is a security camera photo of him, and police are asking members of the public who think they recognize the rascal to contact them immediately.Actually, there are thousands of people walking the streets of London right now who bear a striking resemblance to the suspect. But that’s just a coincidence…
In other news, with Greece now taken care of, the next EU financial basket case has shuffled to the head of the queue: Portugal. The Portuguese have a deficit that is 8% of GDP, and their bond rating has been downgraded to AA- by Fitch, although S&P has left their standing unchanged.
Meanwhile, demonstrators in Malaysia burned a Swedish flag in front of the Swedish embassy in Kuala Lumpur to protest Lars Vilks’ drawings of the prophet depicted as a roundabout dog.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Freedom Fighter, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, KGS, LN, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.
2 comments:
That "new look at Germany" is a disgusting display of Germanophobia.
Conservative Swede is right, Germany is indeed putted down and repressed.
And that article is just one more reason ro rise my dislike for France.
@ Portugal and its problems:
I don't believe we'll be in great trouble. At least we'll not fall unless we're dragged by Spain/the E.U.
Actually, we will not become the new Athens because the Portuguese don't like to do that. We only like to endlessly criticise things without ever moving a finger.
While the Greeks have lived beyond their capabilities, we in Portugal are actually living in a more real world.
If we'll have an independent crisis it will be one which will consist of those who live in debt get in fact poor... oh! And middle class families will have to dinner out less.
The real great losers with the Portuguese crisis right now are those lower class families (some middle class as well) which have the father and mother working in the same unproductive company/factory who is going to shut down or move towards Eastern Europe.
This isn't really new. And it has been happening since the XXI century.
"Amid concerns of high sovereign debt and forecasts of slower than expected growth"
And what does the European Union have to do with this? We are not living beyond our capabilities, we will not seriously impact on the larger Eurozone considerably and although we recieve some good amounts of European Union help, it is not really that much. We don't actually need it*. I'd say that Spain needs more the European Union help than we do, and I don't know enough about Italy.
"The move was hardly unexpected. Portugal has a projected 2010 budget deficit of 8 percent of gross domestic product, almost three times the limit allowed by euro zone rules"
Yes, thanks to our Socialist policies but... who cares? It's not as if we have the biggest deficit or unemployment (weather in percentage or what not) in the Union. And it doesn't really matter because we don't have any "main economic structure" that will make us all go down if it fails**. We are a rather diversified economy with such a poor quality that 1)everything good and productive maintains itself and 2) There's no special sector that can drag the economy down, as I see it (althoug we're dependent on Spainiard and German and British economic strenght).
"The package includes hefty tax increases and has been slammed by both the opposition and the media."
Yes, but it will pass. The oposition does not accept the "Growing and Stability Pact" but the government will easily making it pass because the Socialists need only to make some arrangements to make the parties to their left or right agree with it.
And the people? The people will say "oh those bastards again" and change channel and watch football.
And the Pact will not help, quiet the contrary. It is socialism: Sell this, privitise that several million dollars worth public company, raise taxes, build the TGV and a new airport to rival with that of Madrid and help the poorest.
There is hardly any incentive to the real economy, or the "Small and Medium Compnaies".
* With the exception of Madeira which was ravaged by natural disasters.
** Unless the AutoEuropa industrial sector in the Peninsula of Setúbal and the Tourism industry in Algarve. But the AutoEuropa has promised to continue already, and I can't imagine how the Algarve will lose tourists. (If it lose English, the Swedes will come. If Europe is that bad, Spaniards and Portuguese will pop up... And I am not used to see North Americans in Algarve, which is an whole new gigantic market).
P.S. - Feel free to contest what I say.
Also - and I am not kidding - it appears that the glorious football club S. L. Benfica will win the championship and may well go far in the Europe Ligue.
If any of that happens, the economy will improve as it always do and people will work more. Here, it is sometimes known as the "Benfica factor".
It is a strange phenomenon but these are the things that dynamise the Portuguese economy:
1) Christmas
2) Benfica winning
3) Any great National project like a World Exposition or a European Football Championship.
P.S. - If anyone has read all this untill now I want to ask you something. Here in Portugal we are payed monthly. And then, we are payed for two extra months: During Christmas and during the Summertime.
I heard this does not happen (don't know exaclty where, in Germany, Northern Europe, Britain, Spain or, mainly) in America. Is this true?
Are we beneffited because we earn 2months of sallaries out of nowhere?
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