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Toward the end of the 18th century, Rigas Velestinlis (also known as Rigas Pheraios), a Hellenized Vlach from Thessaly, began to dream of and actively plan for an armed revolt against the Turks. Rigas, who had served a number of Phanariote hospodars in the Danubian principalities, spent part of the 1790s in Vienna. There he had come under the influence of the French Revolution, which is apparent in a number of revolutionary tracts he had printed, intending to distribute them to help stimulate a Pan-Balkan uprising against the Ottomans. These tracts included a Declaration of the Rights of Man and a New Political Constitution of the Inhabitants of Rumeli, Asia Minor, the Islands of the Aegean, and the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The latter proposed the establishment of what basically would have been a revived Byzantine Empire, but an empire in which monarchical institutions would have been replaced by republican institutions on the French model. Rigas's insistence on the cultural predominance of the Greeks, however, and on the use of the Greek language, meant that his schemes stirred little interest among the other peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. In any case, Rigas's ambitious schemes failed. Before he had even set foot on Ottoman soil, he was betrayed by a fellow Greek to the Habsburg authorities, who promptly handed him and a small group of coconspirators over to the Ottoman authorities; he was subsequently strangled by them in Belgrade in the summer of 1798. At one level Rigas's conspiracy had thus been a miserable failure, but his almost single-handed crusade served as an inspiration to future generations of Greek nationalists.
The arrest of Rigas alarmed both the Ottoman authorities and the hierarchy of the Orthodox church, for it almost coincided with the occupation of the Ionian (Iónia) Islands in 1797 by the forces of revolutionary France and with Napoléon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798. These developments caused panic in Constantinople, for they seemed to indicate that the seditious and atheistic doctrines of the French Revolution had penetrated the borders of the empire. The brief period of French rule in the Ionian Islands, which was attended by the rhetoric of revolutionary liberation, soon gave way to a short-lived Russo-Turkish condominium, a further period of French rule, and finally, after 1815, the establishment of a British protectorate. Although governed like a colony, the Ionian Islands under British rule, in theory, constituted an independent state and an example of free Greek soil, adjacent to but not under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
The example of Rigas Velestinlis was very much in the minds of the three young Greeks, lowly members of the Greek mercantile diaspora, who in 1814 in Odessa (then in southern Russia, now in Ukraine), the centre of a thriving Greek community, founded the Philikí Etaireía, or "Friendly Society." Their specific aim was to lay the foundations for a coordinated, armed uprising against the Turks. The three founders—Emmanuil Xanthos, Nikolaos Skouphas, and Athanasios Tsakalov—had little vision of the shape of the independent Greece they sought beyond the liberation of the motherland.
The initiation rituals of the Philikí Etaireía were strongly influenced by those of the Freemasons. There were four categories of membership, ranging from the lowly vlamis (brother) to the poimin (shepherd). Those who betrayed the conspiracy were ruthlessly dispatched. Initially the society's attempt to recruit members throughout the Greek world met with little success, but from 1818 onward it made some headway, finding an important source of recruits in the communities of the diaspora. From the outset the leadership of the society—aware that the majority of the Greek people considered their fellow Orthodox believers, the Russians, to be their most likely liberators—misleadingly suggested that the conspiracy was backed by the Russian authorities.
Two attempts were made to recruit Count Ioánnis Kapodístrias—a Greek from Corfu (Kérkyra) who since 1816 had served as joint foreign minister to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and who was well versed in the ways of European diplomacy—as leader of the conspiracy. The conservative Kapodístrias, however, was dismissive of the plot and urged the Greeks to bide their time until there was another war between the Russian and Ottoman empires, when they might hope to achieve the kind of quasi-autonomy gained by Serbia in 1813. Although he could see no future in the plans of the members of the Philikí Etaireía, Kapodístrias did not betray the secret of the conspiracy. The leadership of the conspiracy was then transferred to another Greek in the Russian service, Prince Alexander Ypsilantis, a Phanariote who held the position of aide-de-camp to Alexander but who lacked the political experience of Kapodístrias.
Like Rigas Velestinlis, the conspirators were hoping for the support of the Romanians and the Bulgarians, but there was little enthusiasm for the project on the part of the other Balkan peoples, who were inclined to view the Greeks—with their privileged position in the Ottoman Empire and their enthusiasm for the ecclesiastical and cultural Hellenization of the other Balkan Christians—as scarcely less oppressive than the Turks.
Although unable to rely on the other Balkan peoples, the leadership of the conspiracy succeeded in exploiting the internal problems of the Ottoman Empire to its advantage. Sultan Mahmud II, who had ascended the throne in 1808, was bent on restoring the authority of the central government. In 1820, he launched an attack against Ali Paşa TepeleneTepelenë, a provincial warlord who, from his capital in Ioánnina, exercised control over large areas of mainland Greece. Although he nominally paid allegiance to the sultan, his virtual independence had for many years exasperated the Ottoman authorities. Taking advantage of the fact that large numbers of Ottoman troops were participating in the campaign against Ali Paşa, Alexander Ypsilantis launched an attack from Russian territory across the Pruth River in March 1821, invoking the glories of ancient Greece in his call to arms from Jassy (Iasi), the Moldavian capital. His campaign met little success, and he encountered no enthusiasm on the part of the supporters of Tudor Vladimirescu, who had risen against the oppression of the local Romanian boyars, or notables. Memories of Phanariote Greek oppression were altogether too vivid and recent. In June of 1821 Ypsilantis and his motley army were defeated at the battle of Drăgătsani, and Ypsilantis was forced dishonourably to flee into Habsburg territory, where he died in captivity in 1828.
Shortly after Ypsilantis's raid into Moldavia, scattered violent incidents coalesced into a major revolt in the Peloponnese. It is said to have begun on March 25, 1821—still celebrated as Greek Independence Day—when Germanos, archbishop of Pátrai, unfurled a Greek flag at the monastery of Ayia Lavra near Kalávrita. With atrocities being committed by both sides, the Turks, very much in a minority, were forced to retreat to their coastal fortresses. The diversion of Ottoman forces for the attack on Ali Paşa, the element of surprise, and the military and especially naval skills on which the Greeks could draw gave the Greeks an advantage in the early years of what proved to be a lengthy struggle.
The revolt caught the public's attention in western Europe, even if in the early years the reactionary governments of post-Napoleonic Europe were not prepared to face any disturbance of the existing order. Public sympathy in western Europe was translated into more concrete expressions of support with the arrival in the Peloponnese of philhellene volunteers, the best-known of whom was the poet Lord Byron, who had traveled extensively in the Greek lands before 1821. The military contribution of the philhellenes was limited, and some became disillusioned when they discovered that Greek reality differed from the idealized vision of Periclean Athens in which they had been nurtured in their home countries. The philhellenic committees that sprang up in Europe and the United States, however, soon raised money for the prosecution of the war and the relief of its victims, such as the survivors of the great massacre on Chíos in 1822, immortalized by the French painter Eugène Delacroix.
At a very early stage in the fighting, the question of the governance of the liberated territories came to light. Initially no fewer than three provisional governments coexisted, while in 1822 a constitution, which by the standards of the day was highly democratic, was adopted with the hope of securing the support of the people in Europe. A revised constitution was adopted in 1823, at which time the three local governments were unified in a central authority. However, unification did not bring unity. Feuding between rival groups culminated in outright civil war in 1824, prompting one chieftain, Makriyannis, to protest that he had not taken up arms against the Turks in order to end up fighting Greeks.
Such factionalism derived from a number of causes. There was a basic tension between the kodjabashis, or notables, of the Peloponnese, who were anxious to ensure that they retained the privileged status they had held under the Ottomans, and the military element, associated with such klephtic leaders as Theodoros Kolokotronis, who sought recognition in terms of political power for their contribution to the war effort. The island shipowners, whose contribution to the prosecution of the war at sea was vital, likewise laid claim to a share of power, while the small intelligentsia argued for the adoption of liberal parliamentary institutions. To some degree the clash can be seen as a confrontation between Westernizers and traditional elites and to some degree as a clash between the military and civilian parties. The Westernizers, who were nationalistic and whose attitudes were expressed by their adoption of a Western lifestyle, wanted independent Greece to develop along the lines of a European state, with a regular army and with a curb on the traditional powers of the church. The traditional elites, on the other hand, tended to see the struggle in terms of a religious crusade against the Muslims, and their national consciousness was less fully articulated. Anxious to maintain the power and privileges they had enjoyed before the struggle began, they were chiefly concerned with substituting the oligarchy of the Turks with one of their own.
The insurgents could not permit internecine fighting. Mahmud II had by this time forged an alliance with his nominal subject, Muḥammad ʿAlī, the ruler of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim Pasha, who were promised lavish territorial rewards in return for their assistance in suppressing the revolt. Beginning in early 1825, Ibrahim Pasha engaged in a bitter war with the insurgents. As their initially favourable military position deteriorated, the insurgents looked increasingly for salvation from the great powers (Russia, France, and Great Britain), which, from a combination of mutual suspicion as to each other's objectives and concern at the damage being done to their commercial interests, gradually moved toward a more interventionist position.
In 1826, by the Protocol of St. Petersburg, Britain and Russia committed themselves to a policy of mediation, to which France became a party through the Treaty of London of 1827. A policy of "peaceful interference," as the British prime minister Lord Canning described it, culminated in the somewhat planned destruction of the Turco-Egyptian fleet by a combined British, French, and Russian fleet at the Battle of Navarino in October 1827, the last great naval battle of the age of sail. This intervention by the great powers was instrumental in ensuring that some form of independent Greece came into existence, although its precise borders, which ran from Árta in the west to Vólos in the east, took some years to negotiate. This process was overseen by Count Ioánnis Kapodístrias, who was elected the first president of Greece by the Assembly of Troezene, which in 1827 enacted the third constitution of the independence period. Besides overseeing the negotiation of the boundaries of the new state, in which his extensive diplomatic experience in the Russian imperial service was fully employed, Kapodístrias was also completely engaged in trying to establish the infrastructure of a state in a country that had been ravaged by a vicious and destructive war. Schooled in the traditions of Russian autocracy, Kapodístrias chafed under the provisions of the 1827 constitution, which, like its predecessors, was a remarkably liberal document, and he abolished it. His paternalist and authoritarian style of government offended a number of key elements in the hierarchy of the embryonic Greek state. Growing unrest culminated in his assassination in Nauplia (Návplio), the provisional capital, in October 1831.
Greece's existence as an independent state gained formal recognition in the treaty of 1832 between Bavaria and the great powers, but the Greeks themselves were not involved in the making of the treaty. Greece formally became a sovereign state, and the Greeks became the first of the subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire to gain full independence. However, the state contained within its borders less than one-third of the Greek population of the Middle East, and the struggle to expand the country's borders came to dominate the first century of independent statehood. In 1947, with the incorporation of the Dodecanese (Dodekánisa)—a group of islands off the southwestern coast of Turkey that were under Italian rule—Greece's present borders were established.
The sovereignty of the small Greek state was not absolute, despite gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire, and the great powers, which retained certain ill-defined rights of intervention, determined that Greece should become a monarchy. The great powers chose Otto of Wittelsbach—the 17-year-old son of King Louis I (Ludwig) of Bavaria—as king of Greece. Because he was still a minor, the great powers determined that, until Otto came of age, the country was to be ruled by three Bavarian regents while the army was to be composed of Bavarians. The period of the "Bavarokratia," as the regency was termed, was not a happy one, for the regents showed little sensitivity for the mores of Otto's adopted countrymen and imported European models of government, law, and education without regard to local conditions. The legal and educational systems were thus heavily influenced by German and French models, as was the church settlement of 1833, which ended the traditional authority of the ecumenical patriarch and subjected ecclesiastical affairs to civil control.
Even after the formal ending of the regency in 1835, the Bavarian presence remained strong and was increasingly resented by those who had fought for independence. Another source of frustration for some was Otto's failure to grant a constitution, as had been provided for in the negotiations preceding independence. Despite the absence of a constitution, however, political parties of some sort came into existence; the "British," "Russian," and "French" parties were associated with the diplomatic representatives of the great powers, and their main appeal was strong personalities rather than well-defined ideologies.
Toward the end of the decade of the 1830s, people became increasingly discontent with Otto's rule. There was no indication that he would concede a constitution; Bavarians were still influential; his marriage to Queen Amalia had not produced an heir; the king remained a Roman Catholic in an Orthodox country with a strong anti-Catholic tradition; and much of the country's revenues were being expended in servicing the loan granted on independence by the protecting powers (France, Russia, and Great Britain).
These various strands of discontent coalesced in the military coup of September 1843. Nearly bloodless, the coup was the first of many military interventions in Greece's political process. Otto was forced to grant a constitution (promulgated in 1844), which was a liberal document by the standards of the day, providing for virtually universal manhood suffrage (although women were barred from voting until as late as 1952). However, Otto, together with his crafty prime minister, Ioánnis Koléttis, was able to overturn the new constitution by establishing a kind of parliamentary dictatorship. The attempt to implant a liberal constitutional democracy onto an essentially premodern, traditional society that had evolved in quite a different fashion from those of western Europe gave rise to tensions both within the political system and in the relations between state and society, which have carried on into modern times. Rouspheti (the reciprocal dispensation of favours), patronage, manipulation, and, at times, outright force continued to characterize the politics of the postconstitutional period.
It was during the debates that preceded the promulgation of the 1844 constitution that Koléttis first coined the expression the "Great Idea" (Greek: Megáli Idéa). This was a visionary nationalist aspiration that was to dominate foreign relations and, to a significant extent, to determine the domestic politics of the Greek state for much of the first century of its independent existence.
If the expression was new in 1844, the concept was deeply rooted in the Greek popular psyche, nurtured by the prophecies and oracles that had kept hopes of eventual emancipation from the Turkish yoke alive and real during the dark centuries of the Tourkokratia. The Great Idea envisaged the restoration of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire, with its capital once again established in Constantinople, which would be achieved by incorporating within the bounds of a single state all the areas of Greek settlement in the Middle East. Besides the Greek populations settled over a wide area in the southern Balkan Peninsula, there were extensive Greek populations in the Ottoman capital, Constantinople (Istanbul), itself; along the shores of the Sea of Marmara; along the western coastal region of Asia Minor, particularly in the region of Smyrna (İzmir); in central Anatolia (ancient Cappadocia), where much of the Greek populace was Turkish-speaking but employed the Greek alphabet to write Turkish; and in the Pontus region of northeastern Asia Minor, whose geographic isolation had given rise to an obscure form of Greek that was not understood elsewhere in the Greek world.
The Great Idea, the liberation by the Greek state of the "unredeemed" Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, was to be achieved through a combination of military means—an ambitious objective for a state with such limited resources—and a far-reaching program of educational and cultural propaganda aimed at instilling a sense of Hellenic identity in the very large Greek populations that remained under Ottoman rule. The University of Athens (1837) attracted people from all parts of the Greek world to be trained as students and apostles of Hellenism.
Greece hoped to profit from the Crimean War (1854–56) fought between Russia—the only sovereign Orthodox power—and the Ottoman Empire and its British and French allies. However, Greek neutrality in the conflict was enforced by a British and French occupation of Piraeus, the port of Athens; this was just one of several interventions in Greece's internal affairs by the great powers that made light of Greece's sovereign status.
King Otto's enthusiasm for the Great Idea at the time of the Crimean War was popular with his subjects, but during the 1850s there was renewed discontent. The manipulation of the 1844 constitution had alienated a younger generation of politicians who had not been directly involved in the war of independence. Otto had also still not converted to the Orthodox church, nor had he an heir. The king was driven into exile following a coup in 1862 and spent the rest of his days in exile in Bavaria.
The downfall of King Otto forced the great powers to search for a new sovereign who could not be drawn from their own dynasties. Their choice was a prince of the Danish Glücksburg family, who reigned as King George I of the Hellenes from 1863 to 1913; thereafter the Glücksburg dynasty reigned intermittently until the 1974 referendum rejected the institution of monarchy. To mark the beginning of the new reign, Britain ceded to Greece the Ionian Islands, over which it had exercised a protectorate since 1815—the first accession of territory to the Greek state since independence.
A new constitution in 1864 amplified the democratic freedoms of the 1844 constitution, although the sovereign retained substantial, and somewhat vaguely defined, powers in foreign policy. However, the realities of politics remained much as before, with numerous elections and even more frequent changes of administration as politicians formed short-lived coalitions, jockeying for power in the disproportionately large parliament. In 1875 a decisive step was taken toward political modernization when King George acknowledged that he would entrust the government to the political leader that demonstrated the confidence of a majority of the deputies in parliament. During the last quarter of the 19th century the kaleidoscopic coalitions of earlier years gave way to a two-party system in which power alternated between two men: Kharílaos Trikoúpis and Theódoros Dhiliyiánnis. Trikoúpis represented the modernizing, Westernizing trend in politics, and Dhiliyiánnis was a political boss in the traditional mold with no real program other than overturning the reforms of his archrival. Believing the modernization of the political system and economic development to be the essential preconditions of territorial expansion, Trikoúpis struggled to establish Greece's credit in international markets and encouraged the country to industrialize. He also promoted such infrastructural projects as road building, railway construction, the building of the Corinth Canal, and the draining of Lake Kopaïs in Thessaly. Such measures, however, in addition to Trikoúpis's parallel efforts to modernize the country's armed forces, required funding, and the increased taxation they entailed proved an easy target for a populist demagogue such as Dhiliyiánnis. Dhiliyiánnis became increasingly popular by advocating an aggressive policy toward the Ottoman Empire, but his belligerence was to have disastrous economic consequences.
If Britain had hoped to suppress irredentist enthusiasm by ceding the Ionian Islands, it was sorely mistaken. The continuing agitation on the "Great Island" of Crete for union with the Greek kingdom, which erupted in periodic uprisings, caused inevitable friction in relations with the Ottoman Empire. Greece also made a rather inept attempt to exploit the latter's discomfiture in the great Middle Eastern crisis of 1875–78, which gave rise to a war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The great powers, meeting in Berlin in 1878, in addition to cutting down the size of "Big Bulgaria," which had arisen from the conflict, pressed the Ottoman government to cede the rich agricultural province of Thessaly and a part of Epirus to Greece. In 1881 the second extension of the territory of the independent state came into being, like the first—the cession of the Ionian Islands—as a result of mediation by the great powers rather than of armed conflict. In 1878, again as part of the Berlin settlement, the island of Cyprus, with its largely Greek population, came under British administration but remained formally under Ottoman sovereignty. The island was annexed by Britain in 1914, after the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers, and became a crown colony in 1925.
The incorporation of Thessaly brought the northern frontier of Greece to the borders of Macedonia, which, with its mixed population of Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, and Roma (Gypsies), was characterized by a great deal of ethnic complexity. It also brought Greece into contention with Serbia and Bulgaria, both of which also looked to Macedonia, which remained under Ottoman rule, with covetous eyes. The contest was initially conducted by means of ecclesiastical, educational, and cultural propaganda, but at the turn of the century rival guerrilla bands, financed by their respective governments (and supported by the public), sought to achieve by terror what they could not achieve by more peaceful means.
While Trikoúpis argued for the strengthening of the state as the basic precondition of territorial expansion, Deliyannis showed no such caution. His mobilization of forces in 1885 in an attempt to exploit a crisis over Bulgaria resulted in the establishment of a naval blockade by the great powers, while his support for the insurgents in Crete in 1897 led to a humiliating defeat in the Thirty Days' War with Turkey. Greece was forced to pay compensation and to accept the adjustments made to its frontier. Another humiliation sovereign Greece faced was the installation of an international financial commission to oversee the repayment of its substantial external debts.
Military endeavours compounded serious economic problems, which culminated in national bankruptcy in 1893. Economic difficulties were primarily responsible for the great wave of emigration, principally from the Peloponnese to the United States, that characterized the late 19th and early 20th centuries. About one-sixth of the entire population participated in this great exodus, the vast majority being male. The early emigrants had little intention of settling permanently overseas, though few ever returned to their homeland. Migrant remittances to relatives in the old country subsequently made a significant contribution to the country's balance of payments.
What the Greeks learned from the 1897 war was that, however weakened the Ottoman state might be, Greece was in no position to engage in single-handed military confrontation. Allies and the reinvigoration of the ill-constructed state and economy were the necessary prerequisites for a successful military threat. The latter came about under the inspired leadership of Eleuthérios Venizélos, who had emerged in the politics of his native Crete, where an autonomous regime had been established following the 1897 war. A charismatic figure who was adored and denounced in equal measure, Venizélos dominated Greek politics during the first three decades of the 20th century.
Venizélos was projected from the provincial to the national stage as a consequence of a coup staged by the Military League, formed by disaffected army officers, from Goudi (at the outskirts of Athens) in 1909; this coup ushered in a persistent pattern of military involvement in politics during the 20th century. The conspirators demanded thorough reforms of both a nonmilitary and a military nature, the latter including the removal of the royal princes, who often promoted their own protégés, from the armed forces.
The short-lived but forceful intervention of the military compelled the discredited political establishment to make way for Venizélos, who had not been compromised by involvement in the petty politics of the kingdom. In elections held in December 1910 Venizélos and his newly founded Liberal Party won more than four-fifths of the seats in parliament. His power legitimized through elections, Venizélos plunged into a wide-ranging program of constitutional reform, political modernization, and economic development, which he combined with an energetic enthusiasm for the Great Idea. Some 50 amendments to the 1864 constitution were enacted; provision was made for land reform; innovations were made in the educational system; and legislation benefiting the working population was introduced. However, these moderately reformist policies inhibited the development of the powerful agrarian and socialist movements that developed elsewhere in the Balkans. British naval and French military missions were brought in to overhaul the armed forces. Venizélos's continuing political ascendancy was confirmed with a sweeping victory in elections held in 1912.
The defeat of 1897 had induced much pessimism but gave way to a period of optimism, in which Greece splendiferously saw itself as a rising power poised to displace a declining Ottoman Empire as the leading power in the Middle East. In 1911, when Italy attacked the Ottoman Empire—in the process occupying the largely Greek-populated Dodecanese—Greece, no less than the other Balkan states, wanted its share of the spoils from the ever more likely collapse of Ottoman rule in the Balkans. However, Greece's situation differed from that of its Balkan neighbours, whose populations were relatively and compactly settled within the Balkan Peninsula. The Greeks, on the other hand, were widely dispersed throughout the Middle East and thus vulnerable to Turkish reprisals in the event of a war. But Greece could scarcely stand aside from the network of alliances being formed among the Balkan states. These culminated in October 1912 in the First Balkan War, with Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to earlier Balkan crises, the great powers did not intervene, and the heavily outnumbered Ottoman forces were forced into rapid retreat. Within less than a month, Thessaloníki (Salonika; Thessalonica), the most important port in the northern Aegean, coveted by Bulgaria as well as by Greece, was captured by Greek forces. In February 1913 Greek forces took Ioánnina, the capital of Epirus. Meanwhile the Greek navy rapidly occupied the Aegean islands still under Ottoman rule.
The Balkan alliance was always a somewhat fragile affair in view of rivalries over Macedonia. Bulgaria, in particular, felt that its sacrifices had been in vain and turned against its former allies Greece and Serbia. This brief Second Balkan War (June to July 1913) led to the Treaty of Bucharest (August 1913), in which Bulgaria was forced to acknowledge the acquisition by Greece and Serbia of a substantial proportion of Macedonia. At the same time the formal union of Crete with the kingdom was recognized, although Greek hopes for the annexation of northern Epirus, with its large Greek population, were thwarted when the region was incorporated into newly independent Albania.
The expansion of Greece's territories in the First and Second Balkan Wars was extensive. Its land area had increased by more than three-fifths, and so had its population (from about 2.8 million to 4.8 million), but by no means were all of its newly acquired citizens ethnic Greeks. In the city of Thessaloníki the largest single element in the city's population was made up of Sephardic Jews, the descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, most of whom continued to speak Ladino. Elsewhere in "New Greece," as the recently acquired territories came to be known, there were substantial Slavic, Muslim (mainly Turkish), Vlach, and Roma populations. Like the Jews, many of these populations did not look upon the Greeks as liberators. The integration of "New" with "Old" Greece, the conservative core of the original kingdom, would not be an easy process, but the problems it created did not emerge until much later.
At the conclusion of hostilities and under the charismatic leadership of Venizélos, the irredentist aspirations enshrined in the Great Idea appeared to be within reach. When King George I died at the hands of a deranged assassin in March 1913, there were demands that his successor, Crown Prince Constantine, be crowned not Constantine I (as he was) but Constantine XII to symbolize continuity with Constantine XI Palaeologus, the last emperor of Byzantium.
The dynamism and sense of national unity that had characterized the early Venizélos years gave way to rancour and vengefulness that were to poison the country's political life throughout World War I and the interwar period. Greece was torn apart by the "National Schism," a division of the country into irreconcilable camps supporting either King Constantine I or his prime minister, Venizélos. The immediate grounds for tension were differences between the king and the prime minister as to Greece's alignment during World War I, although there were deeper causes underlying the split. The king advocated neutrality, while Venizélos was an enthusiastic supporter of the Triple Entente—Britain, France, and Russia—which he regarded as the alliance most likely to favour the implementation of Greece's remaining irredentist ambitions. The entente had, in an effort to lure Greece into the war, held out the luring prospect of territorial gain for Greece at the expense of Turkey, which had aligned itself with the Central Powers. Increasingly bitter disagreements between king and prime minister resulted in the latter twice resigning in 1915, despite a convincing electoral victory.
The breach between the two became irrevocable when Venizélos in October 1916 established a rival government in Thessaloníki, which, like most of "New Greece," was passionately loyal to Venizélos. In June 1917 the entente allies ousted King Constantine and installed Venizélos as prime minister of a formally united but bitterly divided Greece. Venizélos duly brought Greece, which was up to that time neutral, into the war on the side of the entente. Naturally, he expected to reap the rewards for his loyalty at the Paris Peace Conference. In May of 1919 Greece was permitted to land troops in İzmir (Smyrna), the major port city in Asia Minor, with a large Greek population. Greece also was a major beneficiary of the Treaty of Sèvres of August 1920, the peace treaty with the defeated Ottoman Empire. However, for the Turkish nationalists, incited by the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the treaty was from the outset a dead letter and the Greek landings a challenge they were prepared to meet.
In November 1920 Venizélos was somewhat surprisingly defeated in elections, and the exiled King Constantine I was restored to his throne after a fraudulent plebiscite—to the obvious displeasure of Britain and France. Meanwhile, the military situation in Asia Minor steadily deteriorated; a Turkish nationalist offensive in August–September 1922 resulted in a dramatic rout of the Greek armies in Asia Minor. Much of İzmir was burned, and many Greeks and Armenians were killed. Tens of thousands of destitute Greek refugees fled to the kingdom of Greece, thus ending a 2,500-year Greek presence in Asia Minor and with it the elusive vision of the Great Idea.
A military junta seized power in 1922 as King Constantine abdicated, and five royalist politicians and the commander of the Asia Minor forces were tried and executed on a charge of high treason, although there was no evidence of deliberate treachery. The "Trial of the Six" was to poison the climate of interwar politics, exacerbating the already bitter feud between the supporters of Venizélos and of the monarchy.
At a peace conference in Lausanne, Greece and the newly established Turkish Republic agreed on an exchange of populations between the two countries. Religion was the criterion for the project, which resulted in the exchange of thousands of Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians for Greek-speaking Muslims. The ecumenical patriarchate was allowed to remain in Constantinople, as were the Greek inhabitants of that city and of two islands, Imbros (now Gökçe) and Tenedos (Turkish: Bozcaada), which straddled the entrance to the strategically sensitive Dardanelles. In return, the Muslims of Greek Thrace were allowed to remain. An influx of some 1.3 million refugees—including significant numbers from Russia and Bulgaria—strongly tested the social fabric of a country exhausted by some 10 years of intermittent war. Leaving aside the prejudice that they encountered on the part of the indigenous population, the process of their integration into Greek society was remarkably successful. The economy, benefiting from the entrepreneurial skills of the refugees, underwent a significant degree of industrialization during the interwar period. The remaining large estates were broken up to provide smallholdings for the newcomers, and rural Greece became a society of peasant smallholders, which made for social stability rather than for economic efficiency. The majority of the refugees were settled in the territories of "New Greece," thereby consolidating the area's "Greekness." Although refugees were disproportionately represented in the leadership of the newly founded Communist Party of Greece (KKE), they largely remained intensely loyal to Venizélos. Their vote was clearly instrumental in the formal establishment of a republic in 1923, shortly after the departure of King George II, who had briefly succeeded to the throne following his father's abdication in 1922. The refugees and the army acted as the arbiters of political life during the interwar period.
In 1928 Venizélos made a political comeback, two years after the downfall of the short-lived military dictatorship headed by Gen. Theodoros Pangalos in 1925–26. Although Venizélos initiated a good-neighbour policy with Italy and Greece's Balkan neighbours and brought about a remarkable rapprochement with Turkey, his government felt the repercussions of the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929. Because Greece was dependent on the export of agricultural products such as olive oil, tobacco, and currants and on migrant remittances, it was severely affected by the decline in world trade.
After four years of relative stability, politics reverted to the chaos of the early 1920s. When the anti-Venizélists won the 1933 elections, Col. Nikólaos Plastíras, a staunch supporter of Venizélos and the mastermind behind the 1922 coup, sought to restore Venizélos to power by force. His coup was unsuccessful and was subsequently followed by an assassination attempt on Venizélos. The political arena was once again split between supporters of Venizélos and of the monarchy. Fear of a royalist restoration lay behind another attempted coup by Venizélist officers in March 1935. His proven involvement on this occasion forced Venizélos into exile in France, where he died shortly afterward, but not before he urged his supporters to reconcile with the king.
The royalists were the main beneficiaries of the abortive 1935 coup, in the aftermath of which King George II had been restored to his throne, following another dubious plebiscite. Like Venizélos in exile, the king on his return to Greece was in a conciliatory mood. However, elections held under a system of proportional representation in January 1936 produced a deadlock between the two main parliamentary blocs, the Venizélists and the royalists. Both blocs engaged in secret negotiations with the communists, who up to that time had been an insignificant force, but now, with 15 seats in the 300-seat parliament, held the balance of power.
Public disillusionment with the endless political corruption, which had been growing swiftly in the preceding years, was exacerbated when the news broke that the main political blocs were secretly negotiating with the communists. When the nonpolitical figure who headed a caretaker government charged with overseeing the elections died, he was replaced as prime minister by Gen. Ioannis Metaxas, a right-wing and lesser-known figure. Metaxas exploited labour unrest and a threatened general strike to persuade the king in August 1936 to suspend key articles of the constitution. Although the suspension was intended to be temporary, parliament did not reconvene for another decade.
Backed by the army and tolerated by the king, the Metaxas dictatorship lasted more than four years. The dictator—whose paternalistic style was signaled by the adoption of such titles as "National Father," "First Peasant," and "First Worker"—shared a dislike for parliamentary democracy, liberalism, and communism that was characteristic of German Nazism and Italian Fascism, but the "Regime of the Fourth of August 1936" simply lacked their dynamism. The government led by Metaxas did not seek alliances with the European dictatorships. On the contrary, with the support of the king, Metaxas strove to maintain the country's traditional alignment toward Britain. The dictator, however, endeavoured to recast the Greek character in a more disciplined mode, invoking the values of ancient Greece and, in particular, of the Spartans. He also sought to fuse them with the values of the medieval Christian empire of Byzantium, thus fashioning what he pompously described as the "Third Hellenic Civilization."
At the outbreak of World War II, Metaxas tried to maintain neutrality, but Greece was increasingly subject to pressure from Italy, whose dictator Benito Mussolini sought an easy military triumph to match those of his ally Adolf Hitler. A series of provocations culminated in the delivery of a humiliating ultimatum on Oct. 28, 1940. Metaxas, reflecting the mood of the entire country, rejected this with a simple answer: "No!" The Italians immediately invaded Greece from Albania, which they had occupied 18 months previously. Any hopes of a lightning military triumph were quickly lost. Within weeks not only had the Italians been driven from Greek territory, but Greek forces had pushed on to occupy much of what the Greeks term "Northern Epirus," the area of southern Albania with a substantial Greek minority.
Though he accepted token British military aid, Metaxas, until his death in January 1941, was anxious to avoid provoking German intervention in the conflict. However, his successor agreed to accept a British expeditionary force as it became apparent that Hitler's aggressive designs extended to the Balkans. The combined Greek and British forces, however, were able to offer only limited resistance when the Germans crossed the borders in April 1941. British and Commonwealth troops were forced to retreat from superior German forces but managed to get to Crete, where they held out for 10 days against German parachute and glider troops. By the beginning of June the country was overrun and subjected to a harsh tripartite German, Italian, and Bulgarian occupation. King George II and his government-in-exile fled to the Middle East. The requisitioning of food stocks resulted in a terrible famine during the winter of 1941–42, in which as many as 100,000 people died. In 1943 virtually the entire Jewish population was deported to German death camps—most to Auschwitz. A devastatingly high rate of inflation added to the miseries and humiliations of everyday life.
Almost from the outset of the occupation, acts of resistance were recorded. These took a more systematic form after the Communist Party in September 1941 founded the National Liberation Front (Ethnikón Apeleftherotikón Métopon; EAM), whose military arm was known as the Ellinikós Laikos Apeleftherotikós Strátos (ELAS). Although the communists had been a marginal force during the interwar period, EAM-ELAS became the largest resistance organization. Other groups came into being, the most important of which, the Greek Democratic Army (Ellinikós Dímokratikos Ethnikós Strátos; EDES), opposed—as did EAM-ELAS—the return of the king upon liberation. With the support of a British military mission, the guerrillas engaged in some spectacular acts of resistance, most notably the destruction in November 1942 of the Gorgopotamos viaduct, which carried the railway line from Thessaloníki to Athens, and in April 1944 the kidnapping and removal to Egypt of the German commander on Crete.
During this time of grave national crisis, just as during the war of independence and World War I, conflicts within groups divided the resistance organizations. Besides fighting the Axis occupation, they jockeyed for postwar power. During the winter of 1943–44, civil war broke out in the mountains of Greece between EAM-ELAS and the much smaller British-backed EDES, which had become increasingly alarmed at the prospect of a postliberation seizure of power by the communists.
Not for the first time in Greek history, the country's fate was to be determined by the great powers. The British prime minister, Winston Churchill, eager to restore King George II to his throne, engaged in the summer and autumn of 1944 in some high-level negotiations with the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, trading Russian predominance in postwar Romania for British predominance in Greece. It would seem that Stalin gave no encouragement to the Greek communists to make a bid for power in the autumn of 1944 as the Germans began their withdrawal, but by this time they were by far the most powerful force in occupied Greece.
The confrontation was only postponed, however, for bloody fighting broke out in Athens in December 1944 between EAM-ELAS and the small British force that had accompanied the Greek government on its return from exile in October. It was a sign of Churchill's obsession with the crisis in Greece that he flew to Athens on Christmas Eve 1944 in an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the conflict. The British prime minister, however, was able to persuade King George II not to return to Greece pending a plebiscite on the monarchy and to accept the regency of Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens. A temporary respite in the struggle between left and right was achieved at the Varkiza conference in February 1945, which aimed at a political settlement of the crisis.
The first elections since the fateful ones of 1936 were held in March 1946. These were flawed and, with the far left abstaining, resulted in a sweeping victory for the royalist right. In September a plebiscite issued a vote for the return of King George II; he died within six months and his brother Paul succeeded him. Against this background the country slid toward civil war, as the far left was undecided as to whether to work within the political system or to make an armed bid for power.
The turning point came with the establishment in October 1946 of a communist-controlled Democratic Army, and the following year the communists established a Provisional Democratic Government. Although heavily outnumbered, the communists were able—with the logistical support from the newly established communist regimes to the north, coupled with skillful use of guerrilla tactics—to control a wide area of northern Greece for a substantial period of time. Following the declaration of the Truman Doctrine in March 1947, which pledged support for "free peoples" in their fight against internal subversion, the tide gradually began to turn. The United States, assuming Britain's former mantle as Greece's chief external patron, soon provided military equipment and advice. American intervention and the consequences of the break between Josip Broz Tito (under whose leadership the Yugoslav state would eventually unite) and Stalin, combined with factionalism and altered military tactics on the left, all contributed to the defeat of the communist guerrillas in the summer of 1949.
Greece emerged from the laborious 1940s in a state of devastation. The post-civil-war political regime was distinctly authoritarian, and from the mid-1950s Greece underwent a rapid but unevenly distributed process of economic and social development, far surpassing its communist neighbours to the north in standard of living. The population of greater Athens more than doubled in size between 1951 and 1981, and by the early 1990s about one-third of the entire population was concentrated in the area of the capital. However, if urbanization progressed quickly and living standards rose rapidly, the country's political institutions failed to keep pace with rapid change. The right maintained a firm grip on power for the majority of the period from 1952 to 1963 and was none too careful in the means it employed to retain it.
By the early 1960s, however, the electorate—which now included women—had become increasingly disillusioned with the repressive legacy of the civil war and sought change. Georgios Papandreou, whose Centre Union Party secured a sweeping victory in 1964, responded to this need as prime minister; yet the promise of reform and modernization was cast aside with renewed crisis in Cyprus, and groups within the army conspired to subvert the country's democratic institutions. A guerrilla campaign in Cyprus—fought from the mid-1950s onward with tenacity and ruthlessness by the Greek-Cypriot general Georgios Grivas—had resulted in 1960 in the British conceding not the union with the Greek state sought by the overwhelming Greek-Cypriot majority on the island but rather independence. However, within three years the elaborate power-sharing arrangements between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority on the island had collapsed.
During and following the civil war, Greece's armed forces had come to look upon themselves not only as the country's guardians against foreign aggression but also as its defenders against internal subversion. They increasingly viewed Georgios Papandreou as a stalking horse for his much more radical American-educated son, Andreas Papandreou, who had returned to Greece and joined his father's government.
In April 1967, middle-ranking officers led by Col. Georgios Papadopoulos launched a coup designed to thwart an expected Centre Union victory in elections planned for May of that year. The conspirators took advantage of a prolonged political crisis, which had its origins in a dispute between the young King Constantine II, who had succeeded his father, King Paul, to the throne in 1964, and his prime minister, Georgios Papandreou. Alternating between policies that were heavy-handed and absurd, the "Colonels," as the military junta came to be known, misruled the country from 1967 to 1974. After a failed countercoup in December 1967, King Constantine went into exile, with Papadopoulos assuming the role of regent. In 1973 the monarchy was abolished, and Greece was declared a republic. That year, following student protests, which were violently suppressed, Papadopoulos himself was overthrown from within the junta and replaced by the even more repressive Gen. Demetrios Ioannidis, the head of the much-feared military police.
In July 1974, in the wake of an increasingly bitter dispute between Greece and Turkey over oil rights in the Aegean Sea, Ioannidis, seeking a nationalist triumph, launched a coup to depose Makarios III, the archbishop and president of Cyprus since 1960. Makarios survived, but the coup triggered the invasion of the northern part of the island by Turkey, which, together with Britain and Greece, was a guarantor of the 1960 constitutional settlement. The Turkish army occupied nearly two-fifths of the land area of the island, despite the fact that the Turkish population constituted less than one-fifth of the total population. Ioannidis responded to the Turkish invasion by mobilizing for war with Turkey. The mobilization proved chaotic, however, and the regime, bitterly unpopular domestically and totally isolated diplomatically, collapsed.
Konstantinos Karamanlis, a conservative politician who had served as prime minister from 1955 to 1963, was summoned back from self-imposed exile in France to restore democracy and rebuild a country ravaged by seven years of brutal and inefficient military rule. The turnaround he accomplished was remarkable. He defused the threat of outright war with Turkey and ensured that the Greek army returned to the barracks. He acknowledged the way in which opposition to the junta had brought together politicians of all political backgrounds by legalizing the Communist Party, which had been outlawed in 1947. He moved rapidly to legitimize his power through elections held in November 1974, in which he secured a sweeping victory. In December a referendum on the future of the monarchy resulted in a majority vote against the monarchy and against the return of King Constantine.
Karamanlis's second premiership lasted from 1974 to 1980, when he was elected president. By this time he had achieved his main objective, early membership in the European Economic Community (later succeeded by the European Union [EU]), which Greece joined in January 1981. His failure to counter the populist appeal of Andreas Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), however, resulted in a stunning parliamentary electoral victory for PASOK in 1981.
The smooth transfer of power from a right-wing government that had ruled for much of the postwar period to a radical (at the level of rhetoric, at least) socialist government appeared to indicate that Greece's newly reestablished democratic institutions were firmly in place. Nevertheless, during almost a decade as prime minister, Papandreou failed to deliver on his promises of change, and a dramatic reorientation in the country's domestic politics and external relations never came about. Ambitious plans to "socialize" key sections of industry failed to materialize, and the attempt to create a welfare state could be sustained only by enormous borrowing. Important reforms were, however, introduced in family law, and society was liberalized in other respects. It was testimony to Papandreou's ability to articulate both the aspirations and the frustrations of a large segment of the electorate that, despite a poor economic record and amid accusations of large-scale corruption in the higher reaches of the party, the conservative New Democracy Party (NDP) barely regained power in 1990. The new government, with Konstantinos Mitsotakis as prime minister, was committed to a policy of economic liberalism and the diminution of the powers of the state, but the problems that confronted it were formidable. The rigid economic policies introduced by Mitsotakis and, in particular, proposals for the privatization of the large state sector, were unpopular with much of the electorate. In 1993 Papandreou's PASOK returned to power with a share of the vote only marginally smaller than it had received at the time of its electoral triumph in 1981.
However, the underlying economic and infrastructural problems facing Greece remained, and Papandreou was unable to do much to stop the rising deficits, inflation, interest rates, and unemployment as attempts to put Greece's finances on a sounder footing conflicted with PASOK's promises of social reforms. With Papandreou now in his mid-70s and in failing health, there were also disagreements within PASOK on who should become his successor. By January 1996, Papandreou was so incapacitated that he resigned; he died later that year. Konstantinos (Kostas) Simitis was elected as the new prime minister by the PASOK parliamentary deputies.
Simitis, more a pragmatic reformist than an ideological socialist, tried to control state spending and even to privatize some state industries. Hoping to capitalize on his apparent popularity, he called for elections in September, barely defeating the NDP. In the late 1990s, Simitis's efforts to introduce some fundamental restructuring of Greece's economy brought some successes but also resistance from many Greeks. Much of the impetus for reforming Greece's economy came from its membership in the EU, though Greece struggled to meet the conditions needed to adopt in January 1999 the euro, the common currency of the EU.
In its foreign relations too, Greece continued to be preoccupied with disputes that upset other EU members. For years Greece refused to recognize the existence of the Republic of Macedonia, which had emerged as an independent country in 1991 after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Then Greece, after imposing a devastating economic embargo against Macedonia, reluctantly agreed in September 1995 to accept its existence under the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Greece has prevented Macedonia from becoming a member of NATO and of the EU, insisting that Greece has exclusive rights to the use of the name "Macedonia." (See Researcher's Note: Macedonia: a contested name.) Albanians, both in their homeland and in Greece, continued to be a source of irritation to Greeks, and, when NATO conducted its bombing campaign against Serbia in the spring of 1999 in support of the Albanian Kosovars, Greece refused to participate in the air attacks.
Earthquakes that devastated Turkey and Greece in the summer of 1999 led each country to provide rescue teams to aid the other, helping to thaw somewhat the centuries-old "cold war" between the two countries. And relations between them remained relatively stable, with solutions sought for problems related to Cyprus as that divided island prepared to join the EU. Tensions between the countries heated up again, however, in 2004 when Greek Cypriots voted against a UN-sponsored referendum on unification, and again in 2006, when a Greek and a Turkish plane collided, highlighting the countries' long-standing dispute over airspace.
Greece's economy maintained slow but steady growth throughout the early years of the 21st century, while the country prepared for Athens to host the 2004 Olympic Games. Despite construction delays, the needed infrastructure was in place on time, and the Games were a success that burnished Greece's international standing as a country with both a rich heritage and a promising future. The decade-long rule of PASOK came to a close in 2004 when Simitis's successor, Georgios Papandreou, son of Andreas Papandreou, lost to an NDP led by Kostas Karamanlis (the nephew of Konstantinos Karamanlis), who was installed as prime minister. The economic reforms he introduced brought protests from some who dismissed them as neoliberal, but Karamanlis and his party retained control of the government in elections in 2007. The political mix remained volatile, and in December 2008 the killing of a teenage boy by a police officer in Athens set off weeks of rioting in the capital and other cities, primarily by angry, disaffected youth.
The Greek economy, like those of so many other countries, entered a period of uncertainty as a result of the international economic crisis of 2009, and the NDP's hold on government appeared tenuous. In an attempt to reinforce his government's efforts to right the economy and seeking to shore up his position within his own party, Karamanlis called for snap elections in October 2009. The NDP was swept from office in dramatic fashion, with a resurgent PASOK claiming 160 parliamentary seats—more than enough for an absolute majority. Karamanlis resigned as leader of the NDP, and George Papandreou became the third member of his family to hold the post of prime minister.
In the wake of the election, it became clear that Greece's economic troubles were far worse than previously imagined. The borrowing by the NDP government even before the international financial crisis, masked by misleading accounting, was revealed to have been excessive, and, with the onset of the broader economic meltdown, the Greek economy crumbled. Estimates of the Greek government's budget deficit put it at several times greater than that allowed by the rules governing the euro zone (countries whose currency is the euro). The reactive broad austerity measures that were introduced by the Papandreou goverment met with widespread protest and wildcat strikes domestically and were neither enough to provide for the government's short-term budget needs nor enough to stem the international financial market's concern with the impact of the Greek crisis on the value and stability of the euro. In March and April 2010 the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came to the rescue with two massive loan packages for Greece.
Even with the EU-IMF rescue, the Greek economy continued to struggle mightily. Growing dissatisfaction with the draconian budget cuts, reductions in benefits and pensions, and tax increases, as well as with Papandreou's handling of the crisis in general, led to more strikes and demonstrations in Athens, Thessaloníki, and elsewhere in the country. In June 2011 weeks of mass demonstrations outside the Greek parliament building—by protesters labeled the "indignants" (associated with similarly disenchanted Spaniards who had taken to the streets in response to the Spanish government's handling of its own debt crisis)—culminated in an eruption of violence. After failing in his attempts to form a government of "national unity," Papandreou reshuffled his cabinet, most notably appointing a new finance minister. All these events came as the EU and IMF contemplated delivery of the latest installment of the bailout, which was contingent on Greek implementation of ever-greater austerity measures along with the partial privatization of some state-owned companies. On June 21—facing the looming threat of default and all the ramifications it would entail for Greece and the euro zone—Papandreou's government narrowly survived a vote of confidence that set the stage for parliament to pass the necessary austerity measures on June 29 (contingent upon enactment the next day of new laws to facilitate the specific measures). Again the legislation was greeted with angry protests outside the parliament building, where demonstrators clashed with police.
EU leaders concluded an agreement on July 21 that extended more than €100 billion ($140 billion) in loans to Greece in an effort to stabilize the Greek economy and contain the potential damage to the euro zone as a whole. Interest rates for existing bailout loans were reduced, and the repayment periods were drastically lengthened. These changes came at a cost to private bondholders, however, and ratings agencies classified the restructuring as a "restricted default." This marked the first government debt default by a euro zone country since the implementation of the single currency.
At the end of October euro-zone leaders summited in Brussels in an attempt to hammer out a lasting solution for both the Greek and the broader European debt crisis. German Pres. Angela Merkel and French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy met privately with Greece's creditors and engineered a bond swap that effectively cut the value of Greek debt in half. Only days after the plan was agreed upon, a firestorm of controversy erupted on October 31 when Papandreou announced his intention to submit the latest bailout plan to Greek voters in a referendum. Other European leaders, fearful that a no vote would render all their efforts moot and lead to dire consequences for the whole euro zone, were furious, and Papandreou's actions and motives were questioned not just by the Greek opposition but by many within his own party. As accusations and recriminations flew, Papandreou canceled the referendum after being assured of support for the bailout plan by NDP leader Antonis Samaras, who nevertheless demanded Papandreou's resignation. Seemingly attempting to cling to power, Papandreou submitted to a vote of confidence. It was speculated that should he survive the vote, Papandreou would attempt to form a "unity" caretaker government to rule until snap elections could be held.


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Posted on December 9, 2009
Now, I have told you and told you about this. You have to take a look at things before you donate them. It's not that I mind. I just always wonder "Was I SUPPOSED to know that your nearest and dearest calls you Bun-Bun?"
There's the inscription to Bun-Bun. I won't tell you the nickname of the signer, lest I embarrass some specific Bun-Bun. (Part of my philosophy of life is that the world is filled with Bun-Buns.) It doesn't embarrass me if it doesn't embarrass you, of course. Let the whole world know someone gave Bun-Bun a copy of The Guinea Pig Always Rings Twice. But just think it over.
I never particularly look twice at bags, unless the store they advertise is in Singapore or Kakoola, Wisconsin, or something. So I can never remember, when asked, who donated books in that enormous bag from the Swedish Bakery. Same way with boxes: as long as it's not a banana box or a computer box or some such, I don't really notice whether it's from Jelly Belly or Norma Jean Wine.
Mind you, I think some of you ought to clean OUT the box a bit before you fill it with books. Did that person who donated books in the box from the online shoe purveyor really want me to know her shoe size? (I know nothing about women's shoe sizes, by the way. Is 14 E larger than normal?) And the person who gave me that box with the, um, correspondence in it? Where you explain to the company you're returning that bit of intimate apparel because it fell right off the first time it was worn? Did you want me to know about that? (By the way, was it the elastic or what? I assume they sent a replacement, since you got the box back, but how did the story end up?)
And that legendary greeting card on which your girlfriend wrote a summary of your relationship across three pages of the card, how she resented the way your "tenticals" had reached into all parts of your life. Did you two….and what word…never mind.
I don't want to make you self-conscious or anything, and I'd hate to have you stop giving me books because of what I might find. I'm just suggesting that you ought to do something if you don't want to find some secret sentiment of yours turning up in a blog somewhere. (It would be low of me to suggest bribery, I suppose, but a gold coin in each box would give me other things to think about. Just an idea.)

subset: commoncrawl


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Complete Results | Video: Senior Class of 2013
PRINCETON, N.J. - On Saturday, March 2, the Columbia women's swimming and diving capped the final day of the 2013 Ivy League Women's Swimming and Diving Championships with a third place finish and an end to phenomenal performance by Katie Meili. For the second straight year, the senior was voted by the coaches as the Swimmer of the Meet and is the Career High Point Swimmer. She finished the championships with three individual titles, including three Princeton pool records, three school records and two Ivy League records.
FEATURED ARTICLE: Day One: Lions Grab Two Ivy League Titles In Record Time At Championships
FEATURED ARTICLE: Day Two: Meili Breaks Ivy League 100 Breast Record
On the final day of the championships, Meili continued to have a stellar weekend setting her third DeNunzio pool record of the meet in the 200 breast. Meili posted a NCAA 'B' qualifying time of 2:11.39 in the event, more than three seconds faster than the second place finisher. The senior returned in the finals to win the Ivy League title with a program, pool and career-best time of 2:09.41. Kristine Ng won the 'B' final in a time of 2:17.66 in a solid performance by the first-year swimmer.
Alena Kluge earned a championship finals appearance in the 200 backstroke with a sixth-place NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:58.88. She went to finish sixth overall with a school record and career-best time of 1:58.33. Caroline Lukins added a strong swim in the finals of the 200 butterfly on the day. The senior posted a seventh-place time of 2:00.51, just a tenth of a second away from setting a new school record. Ng also claimed a runner-up finish in the in the 'B' finals of the 200 fly with a time of 2:00.91.
Columbia tallied 1132 points to capture third place in the Ivy League. The point total is the highest in school history and trailed only second place Harvard (1374) and first place Princeton (1474.5). The Lions finished the season setting a combined 24 pool records at Princeton, Rutgers, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth and at Columbia's Uris Pool.


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History on the Water
Sailing aboard the 18th-century schooner Sultana, a group of first-year students explored the rich history of the Chesapeake Bay. Organized by Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, this pre-orientation trip offered students an opportunity to live aboard an 18th-century vessel, meet a buccaneer from the Golden Age of Piracy, play 18th-century baseball, and explore the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Divided up into two teams, the Royal Navy and the Buccaneers, the participants faced off in a series of challenges, culminating in an epic naval battle on Langford Creek.


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Welcome to Alpha Beta 41.
Tournament Set-Up
- 16 Players
- Two brackets: Alpha Bracket and Beta Bracket
- Losing players are sent to Beta Bracket
- Each bracket is single elimination.
- Champions of Alpha Bracket and Beta Bracket play in one game final on the Beta Map.
- Starting brackets randomly created.
Alpha Bracket Settings & Maps
Automatic, Sequential, Flat Rate, Chained, Foggy
Round Of 16 - California
Quarterfinals - New York
Semifinal - USA New England
Final - Classic
Beta Bracket Settings & Map
Settings: Automatic, Sequential, Escalating Rate, Chained, Foggy
Entire Bracket - New Jersey
Alpha Champion Vs. Beta Champion Final Settings & Map
Automatic, Sequential, Escalating Rate, Chained, Foggy
New Jersey


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Tom Cruise admitted that Scientology played a part in his 2012 divorce from Katie Holmes, and that he didn't see his daughter Suri for more than 100 days, according to People.com.
Cruise is suing Bauer Publishing for $50 million over a story in In Touch magazine that accused him of "abandoning" his now 7-year-old daughter. In a Sept. 9 deposition, taken in Los Angeles, (a transcript of which was filed publicly), Cruise was questioned by Bauer's lawyer about a number of topics, including the role Scientology played in his divorce.
Cruise said Suri is no longer practicing the religion. When questioned about whether Holmes left him to "protect" Suri from Scientology, Cruise said, "I find that question offensive. ... There is no need to protect my daughter from my religion."
But asked whether Holmes left him in part for that reason, Cruise said, "that was one of the assertions, yes. ... There are many other aspects to the divorce."
Cruise was asked about Scientology's definition of a "suppressive person," which, according to the church's website, refers to people who publicly renounce Scientology and therefore lose "fellowship with the Church as well as with other Scientologists." Cruise called the description accurate. When asked whether the church would consider Holmes to be a suppressive person, he said, "That is a distortion and simplification of the matter. I don't want to just give an oversimplification of religious doctrine."
So ... yes.
Cruise admitted he did not see his daughter for more than 100 days, from Aug. 4, 2012, when they wrapped up a weeklong father-daughter vacation to Disney World, until that Thanksgiving.
"Unfortunately in this situation it was impossible" he said, referring to his intense filming schedule in London on sci-fi thriller "All You Need Is Kill." However, the actor said he called Suri nearly every day, though he reportedly admitted phone calls are a poor substitute for seeing a child in person. "You have to work at it. I've gotten very good at it. I tell wonderful stories," he said. "I also find that, you know, Suri is a very happy child, and confident, and has a good sense of herself."
Cruise didn't go to New York City for Suri's first day of school that September because of his film schedule and concerns about media attention. "If she had asked me to be there, I would have been there," he said. "I would have worked it out in any way I could."
"Things change and there are different agreements, like in any divorce, where you work out schedules," he said. "It's just a different set of circumstances. It certainly does not mean that I've abandoned my daughter."


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Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Student-to-Faculty Ratios
» Compare all Universities at once
This definition will be consistent with Common Data Set (CDS) reporting. This is the Fall ratio of full-time equivalent students (full-time plus 1/3 part time) to full-time equivalent instructional faculty (full time plus 1/3 part time). In the ratio calculations, exclude both faculty and students in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, business, or public health in which faculty teach virtually only graduate-level students. Do not count undergraduate or graduate student teaching assistants as faculty. Source: Common Data Set.
*Please use caution when comparing data across institutions within the State University System, because they have significantly different missions, student populations, etc. Comparisons with peer institutions are more meaningful.


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The Harrison County Conservation District is now accepting Kentucky Soil Erosion and Water Quality Cost Share applications on a continuous basis. This continual sign-up is designed to make the program more landowner friendly and help address the needs of a landowner at any time during the year. As landowners plan conservation projects with the assistance of their local conservation district, they will be able to apply for financial assistance for those projects without having to wait for a designated sign up period.
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Intro & Faq
Intro & Faq
Jul 27 2006, 07:57 PM
Post #1
Group: Members
Posts: 1,573
Joined: 7-April 05
From: Sydney, Australia
Member No.: 6,806
Well we finally have our own fourm for discussion and i intend to break up the monolithic highly technical posts in to as many smally highly technical post as i can
Anyway here is where we will keep an updated list of whats in the pocket penguine as well as a place for FAQs about the project
Q: What is it:
A: This is our attempt to build our own PDA to our own standards. allowing us complete control over the hardware in an attempt to build a totally open PDA platform [/artistic babble]
Q: What is in it:
A: as best summed up by ferret simpson:
CPU: Freescale iMX30 - 533mhz ARM11
RPU: Freescale MXC300-30 3G ARM11 with StarCore DSP. 533mhz.
RChipset: Freescale RFX300-20 3G Radio Platform.
RAM: 2Gb (512MB) Laptop DDR266 Memory in 2x1Gb chips.
HDD: Internal ATA CF/MD interface, User provided Card
SD: 2x 4bit SD slot, SDIO capable with 3rd Party Commercial stack.
NAND: 16MB RO for Bootloader only. Will kExec any Kernel from a variety of Media.
RFlash/Mem: Indeterminate NAND and SDRAM. (16Mb Flash 128MB ram minimum)
Wifi: Zydas ZD1211 chip on CF16: 802.11G-54, WPA.
BT: Unknown Bluetooth V2.0 on USB-1.1
Rad: RPU connected over SPI, Audio, and USB480
IRDA: Fir?
Keyb: Internal Backlit KBD,
Mous: Internal Trackball with "Select" function and illumination,
DPAD: Internal with OK/Canc.
Roll: On Landscape Rear.
L/R On Landscape Rear
ACC: 3D Accelerometer.
BIO: swipe-bar Fingerprint scanner on SPI.
AUD: 5.1 with Microphone, and BlueTooth routing.
MSC: 3.5-4 inch, VGA, with integrated Resistive Touch Layer.
SSC: 4bit Serial on rear of device, for Phone display and viewfinder for Camera shots.
CAM: On main screen panel, above TFT in portrait mode. Supports Video and Stills.
CPLD to act as Programmable ASIC for SPI interconnection to devices.
Possible MicroProcessor to control Buttons and roller for use with phone when PDA disabled.
External full-size 480MBPS USB2 port.
Video out, Possibly 768i HDTV compatible, will be used for connection to external monitor.
Socket for network operator SIM card.
Key-signing of OS to prevent Unauthorised OS replacement.
Possible GSM trace functions including local MAC addresses and signal tower strengths.
Biometric identification of allowed users.
1800mAh Battery: Easily available Digital Videocam model.
Customised Aluminium case.
Q: Whos working on it (offically)
A: Da_Blitz (post to be added to the list)
Q: I have very few technical skills but want to help, how can i do so
A: Poke fun at our ideas as well as come up with some of your own, we intend to inovate with this platform as we dont really care about profits so we can chuck nearly anything we want in it.
If you want to help us futher than help contribute to the wiki (see Da_Blitz's tag) or start reading the chip documentation, you dont have to know electronics to understand the chips (it helps) a basic knowlge of how computers work is fine
Q: I have a highly technical background in electronics/kernel hacking how can i help
A: Introduce yourself and have a look at what we need done, i will try and maintain a list of what needs to be done but dont count on its reliability (check first). we will need driver writers and people with a background in security (i have a side project or two we will need for this thing)
if you have experince with mobile phones or GSM stacks please get in contact with us as we could really use someone in that area for writing a bit of firmware
Q: will this cost less than my car? what are you wildly estimating to be the shipping cost (with the understanding that if you answer this this early you won't be held to the figure-- looking at the specs, I'm thinking I might have to save a few pennies..)
A: We are aiming for the price of a c3x00 when fully loaded (ie full ram and storage) shipping should be included in that cost whoever we dont expect shipping costs to play a big part in the final price
Q: when do you expect to finalize the design and begin production?
A: as soon as posible, current goal is no latter than the end of 2006 but dont hold us to that
Q: what standard os is it shipping with? I'm guessing something built on OE?
A: Inital efforts will be focused on linux. at this point we may not ship with an OS on board as all you willl have to do to load an OS is use gpg to sign a binary and copy that binary to a CF/SD card for it to boot. therefore we may ship with several options on CD that a user may chose from and load to a CF/SD card to try out in a LiveCD fassion
Q: the screen description is vague. Still looking for parts? I would hope to see the 4" transfective from the zaurus 6000, or or better... mostly, outdoor light capability would be nice.
A: Yes we are still looking for parts or more to be more presice suppliers, at the moment we are aiming for 640x480 4" transreflective
Q: Whats the holdup on starting the design rather than talking about it
A: Before we can really design this thing we have to know which chips we are using in the final design, some of the critical things that we need to know what we are using are the screen, Wifi, RPU (radio processing unit) and keyboard.
Jan 10 2007, 05:48 AM
Post #2
Group: Members
Posts: 1,573
Joined: 7-April 05
From: Sydney, Australia
Member No.: 6,806
all an antenna is is a peice of wire, for maximum power transfer it should be 1/4 the wavlength long so an optimol wifi antenna is diffrent in length from a fm radio
dont worry everything will work at the same time i hope
for the chipsets i am getting very sneaky (perhaps too sneaky) and using the same chipsets as those that have linux ports already if posible. otherwise i do have 2 chipsets in mind.
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If the valve develops a leak out the front and removing a shim doesn't help, then definately drop a carrier size. You should be fine. If you start getting bolt stick, change orings and retune.Originally Posted by Skiddz
If your mag is working properly, you can't outshoot it. Your fingers aren't fast enough. If you get a ball barely rolling out the barrel, then you have some part of the cycle that did not function properly. Also, your detents could be allowing paint to roll farther down you barrel so that it doesn't accelerate properly.
Broken paint in the barrel but not in the breach or feed tube is generally one of two things. It could be bad paint or your barrel is too tight for the paint you are using.
If you want to get a feel for how hard the bolt is hitting, put a squeegie against the bolt face and fire the gun.


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Home > Cameras & Camcorders > Cases & Bags > Red PU Leather Bag Case w/ Strap for Panasonic GF3 (14-42mm)
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|Thursday, October 08, 2009


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Deputies say this is connected to Wednesday night's shooting of another horse groomer outside his home in Farmington.
Ontario County Sheriff's Deputies are investigating a stabbing at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack in Farmington. This is the second attack on a horse groomer this week.
Sheriff's deputies say a man was stabbed multiple times at the horse stable between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Friday. He was transported to Strong Hospital. Sheriff's deputies say his injuries are not life threatening. Deputies say the victim is a horse groomer at the race track.
Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack released a statement saying, "The assault that occurred this morning took place within a secured area of the property that is not accessible to the public and is far removed from the race track and gaming floor patron areas. This appears to be a domestic incident between two individuals who assist trainers in caring for horses and are not directly employed by our company. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family at this time and we will continue to actively support the Ontario County Sheriffs Department and New York State Police in their investigation of the incident. Our focus will always be on providing a safe and comfortable entertainment experience for our guests."
New York State Police and Ontario County Sheriff's deputies are still looking for the suspect. They believe he is trying to leave the area.
Deputies do say this is related to the shooting where a 23-year-old man was shot outside his mobile home in Farmington Wednesday night. Police say the shooting victim is also a horse groomer who works at the race track. Luiz Garcia Cruz, Wednesday's victim remains in guarded condition at Strong Hospital.
Messenger Post Media and our news partner, News10NBC will continue to follow this developing story.
Courtesy WHEC.com


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Tri Sports Events will present the Chasing Shadows 5K Run/Walk on Sat., February 2, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Rain or Shine, at the Silver Lake Park, Washington St., Dover, DE
Registration will begin at 9:00 a.m. Entry fee is $25.00 per person. Healthy Kids Run race is FREE for children age 8 and under. Proceeds benefit TriSports Events continuing effort to promote mental and physical fitness for a healthier community. Participants receive a commemorative tee shirt, awards and post race refreshments.
Awards will be presented to runners for Overall male and female and master's winners, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place male and female runners in 10 year age groups from 14 & under through 70+. 5K Walk awards to top three male and female finishers. All Kiddie K participants will receive a medal.
For race information go to www.trisportsevents.com . This is a 2013 TriSports Ultimate Challenge Series Event.


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Rangers - 000 000 001 - 1 2 1Lester retired the first 19 Rangers with as strong a repertoire of pitches as Red Sox fans have seen in several years.
Red Sox - 010 034 00x - 8 9 0
Fastball, cutter, curveball -- he was absolute command of all of them. His fastball was hitting 98 in the early innings and coupled with a 81 mph cutter -- "evil, depraved filth", as Lord Lynch said during the game thread -- the Texas batters had no clue what was going on. In 6.1 perfect innings, Lester threw only 64 pitches, yet racked up 10 strikeouts!
In the fifth inning, it seemed like there was only one way this game could possibly turn out. I had the overpowering feeling of knowing the ending and the sense that I was rewatching the game, reveling in the majesty of Lester's performance. I can't recall another instance of that feeling of inevitability.
Michael Young broke the tension with a first-pitch double to left-center in the seventh. After acknowledging a loud standing ovation, Lester walked Andruw Jones, but got the next two outs. He breezed through a 1-2-3 eighth. Elvis Andrus walked to start the ninth, moved to second on a grounder, took third on Young's single to left and scored on Jones's fly out to center.
Three pitches later, the game was over. 9-2-1-2-11, 107. Masterful.
Also: David Ortiz walked, singled and homered (off the right field pole) in four plate appearances. Mike Lowell also hit a dong. Dustin Pedroia had two singles and two RBI, Jason Variek and Rocco Baldelli both singled and walked, and Jason Bay whacked a two-run single to cap a 10-pitch at-bat and send Holland to the showers in the fifth.
Boston is in sole possession of first place, 0.5 GA of the Yankees.
Derek Holland (6.33, 72 ERA+) / Jon Lester (5.65, 85 ERA+)
Holland is a 22-year-old lefty who has pitched in only 11 major league games, including nine in relief. After his two starts on May 22 and 27, he was back in the pen for two appearances.
Even the Rangers don't have a good explanation for what happened to Derek Holland last year, and frankly, they don't care, they're just enjoying it. One of the last of the draft-and-follows, Holland had signed with an average fastball, but he kicked off the year at Low-A Clinton touching 95 on the speed gun (2.40 ERA), and by the end of the season, it was there consistently while reaching as high as 99 mph [0.69 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 26 AA innings], and he fills the strike zone with it. It's an absolute monster of a pitch, and he'll be a future stud if he can figure out a more breaking ball than his current slurvy offering. That will be his primary focus in 2009, and will determine his future as either a power starter or power reliever, but he'll be awfully valuable either way.After his dreadful performance last night, Julio Lugo will get a seat on the bench and Nick Green will start.
Terry Francona and Theo Epstein both tried to stamp down the story of David Ortiz possibly having vision trouble.
I had a feeling this one would get some legs. ... He had dry eyes on this last trip and he was blinking on a couple of at-bats. So he went to the trainers. Rather than give a guy a thing of eyedrops, we have really good ophthalmologists . He had some dry eyes, which I think we all do [at times].[While searching for the word "optometrist", Tito initially said "obstetrician" -- and once everything was clarified, he said: "If he ends up pregnant on Tuesday, we have an issue!"]
We used probably the most experienced baseball ophthalmologist. ... He has lots of fancy charts and graphs. Even if a player is 20-20, they'll still push for a correction because an average big leaguer is significantly better than 20-20. David tested really well back in Spring Training. But it makes sense, any time a guys eyes are bothering him, to get re-tested.***
At 1 PM: Rays/Yankees and Royals/Blue Jays. New York leads the East by 0.5 over Boston and 2.5 over Toronto.


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Nick Pace
TRAINING: A typical day of training for me is always fun. I'll go for a run at 8:30, then take Muay Thai and grappling class from 10 -12:30. Intense cardio in the middle of the day then another 2 hours of wrestling, Muay Thai or grappling at night
When and why did you start training for fighting? I started training at Tiger Schulmann's when I was ten and started training for my first fight when I was 14.
What ranks and titles have you held? Amateur – New Breed title; Pro – Ring of Combat title
Do you have any heroes? My parents
What is your favorite technique? Left hook
What does it mean for you to fight in the UFC? To fight in the UFC is a dream come true. It's the top spot in MMA and I'll be ready to put it all on the line.
Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? No
What was your job before you started fighting? My job is as a martial arts instructor at Tiger Schulmann's MMA. It was my first and current job. I love it.
Getty Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this image or clip. If you violate our intellectual property you may be liable for: actual damages, loss of income, and profits you derive from the use of this image or clip, and, where appropriate, the costs of collection and/or statutory damages up to $150,000 (USD).


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Restructuring won't affect Pfizer labs in Groton, officials say
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it plans to separate its commercial operations into three distinct business segments, two of which will focus on therapeutic innovations and one overseeing generic medicines and drugs about to lose patent protection.
Pfizer spokeswoman Joan Campion said the changes would have no effect on the company's laboratories in Groton.
"This does not impact the work that is underway in Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development," Campion said in an email response to questions from The Day. "R&D remains a separate division from the commercial business segments and in that vein, labs won't be placed underneath these segments."
The changes, which roll together Pfizer's emerging and established markets operations, will go into effect in the United States in January 2014. In countries that require consultation with unions, the changes will occur after negotiations are complete.
"This represents the next steps in Pfizer's journey to further revitalize our innovative core, enhance the value of our consumer and off-patent established brands and maximize the use of our capital to create value for Pfizer and our shareholders," Ian Read, the company's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Bloomberg news service reported Monday that the Pfizer reorganization was in anticipation of a future split of the company. Executives previously have confirmed that internal discussions are underway about splitting off Pfizer's innovative medicines from its generics business.
But Campion cautioned about reading too much into the restructuring.
"At this time, we have not made and are not in a position to make any decision regarding any potential future action that could involve an external split of these business segments," she said.
Geno Germano has been named president of the Innovative Products Group, which will be in charge of Pfizer medicines that are under patent protection beyond 2015 in areas including inflammation and immunology, cardiovascular-metabolic, neuroscience, pain, rare diseases and men's and women's health.
Amy Schulman, chief counsel at Pfizer, will be in charge of the other innovative business group that includes vaccines, oncology and consumer health care.
The so-called Value Products segment will be led by John Young. In addition to focusing on generic drugs, the business segment will oversee patented products that are expected to lose exclusivity through 2015 in most major markets. It also will be in charge of biosimilars and established-products collaborations.
"Each of these businesses will operate as a separate global business and require distinct specialization in terms of the science, talent, and market approach required to deliver value to consumers and patients," Pfizer said in a release.
Olivier Brandicourt will lead the transition to a regional structure tying together the three business segments.
Pfizer, which will report its second-quarter profits today, said it would begin listing financial results for each of these divisions in the first quarter of 2014.
"Our new commercial operating model will provide each business with an enhanced ability to respond to market dynamics, greater visibility and focus, and distinctive capabilities optimized to deliver value to patients and shareholders in the coming years," Read said.
In conjunction with the changes, Pfizer also announced that Douglas Lankler, chief compliance and risk officer, will be stepping up to general counsel when leadership changes take effect Jan. 1. Also, Rady Johnson, senior vice president and associate general counsel, will move to chief compliance and risk officer.
Reaction to the Pfizer reorganization was mixed.
"It looks like more uncertainty and disruption, which is not quite what Pfizer seems to need," industry insider Derek Lowe said in his "In The Pipeline" blog.
But Seamus Fernandez, an analyst for Leerink Swann in Boston, while noting that "at first glance, the structure of the three businesses may not be obvious fits," said in a note to clients that the three-pronged approach is "well-conceived" when taking into account the difficulty of integrating emerging markets and established markets into each of the segments.
Pfizer also announced an agreement Monday with UNICEF to provide up to 740 million doses of its vaccine Prevnar 13 at a reduced price to some of the world's poorest countries.
Pfizer's shares were up 17 cents Monday to $29.54 on the New York Stock Exchange.
After a miserable U.S. Open, why the Travelers Championship is the best golf tournament out there


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Winco - Kitchen Supplies
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Cory Stromblad's passion for country music spurred his decision to move to Nashville in 2003 to study the music industry at Belmont University. After graduating in 2007 with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts minor, Cory began his career as the Creative Office Manager for Tom-Leis Music, as well as a personal management assistant for Lyric Street Recording artist Sarah Buxton. In 2011, Cory began working with AOL Music as a writer for The Boot, before signing on as a freelance writer for Taste of Country in 2012.
Today's Country


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LOVELAND -- To the Loveland gun shop that recently donated an assault-style rifle for a gun-rights group's promotion, the gift was not a big deal.
But for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the Colt AR-15 is a lightning-rod weapon that represents the renewed battle over gun rights in Colorado.
The Windsor-based organization is sponsoring a drawing for the rifle donated by Jensen Arms to help the group "increase the size of our pro-gun army," according to an email from RMGO.
"We've given guns to quite a few organizations," said Jensen Arms manager Mike Rigg. "Almost all of them are AR-15s."
The AR-15 is a civilian version of the military M-16 rifle. Unlike the fully automatic military weapon, it is semiautomatic, which means it shoots one round per trigger pull.
Some versions of the gun fell under a federal ban from 1994 to 2004, and the rifle frequently is held up as an example in the gun-control debate. It was used in some recent mass shootings, including the Aurora theater killings last year.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners executive director Dudley Brown said his group specifically selected the AR-15 for its first-ever gun giveaway.
"We're giving away a firearm that is likely to be banned in the Colorado Legislature unless we defeat it," he said. "We know we're facing literally dozens of gun control bills in the Legislature this year."
Brown said response to the first email RMGO sent about a week ago has been "a resounding success."
"We've activated tens of thousands of Colorado gun owners by this one giveaway," he said. "Firearms in the hands of law-abiding Colorado citizens is a good thing, not a bad thing."
Jensen Arms' Rigg said the gun is classified as a "modern sporting rifle," and he said people use it for "competition, hunting, general plinking and self-defense."
The rifle the Loveland shop donated to Rocky Mountain Gun Owners is new and carries the standard 20-round magazine, he said. It retails at $1,392.
Rigg said the store donated the gun "to help them fight for our gun rights."
He objected to the reaction against such weapons. "One lunatic with a one-ton pickup can cause more mayhem" in a crowd of pedestrians, he said.
"Evil lurks in the heart of man, and nobody wants to call evil evil."
Craig Young can be reached at 635-3634 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CraigYoungRH.


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