Violent Leftists Rampaging In Athens

The situation in Athens, where Communist-led rioters are “protesting” Greece’s plan to repay its debts, is getting seriously out of hand. Police are described as fighting “pitched battles” with leftists. At least three people were killed when left-wingers fire-bombed a bank. Here medics prepare to remove the body of a murdered woman from the bank:
r4161021651.jpg
This policeman was hit by a Molotov cocktail thrown by a leftist. I haven’t seen a report on whether he survived:
r229913162.jpg
I think it was Mark Steyn who wrote that the dark night of fascism is always supposed to be descending on the United States, but somehow it keeps landing in Europe. I’m afraid we are seeing that once again. Europe is in serious trouble.
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Don McGregor, who sent us a post by Eugene Volokh, who tracked down the origin of the “dark night of fascism” line. It was originally uttered, according to Professor Volokh, by Gunter Grass in 1965, and was reported by Tom Wolfe.
SCOTT adds: Volokh cites Wolfe’s essay “The Intelligent CoEd’s Guide to America,” collected in Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine. Reader Thomas Doherty accurately points out that Wolfe attributes the line to Jean-Francosis Revel. Doherty comments: “In the essay–required reading– Wolfe notes that, at one point during a raucous lecture [at Princeton], Gunter Grass sounded like Revel.” Volokh’s post is here.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses