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Swedish Hell's Angels find biking gets you down (70% of members on nanny-state disability)
Reuters ^ | 2/21/2006

Posted on 02/21/2006 11:38:44 AM PST by presidio9

The Stockholm chapter of the biker gang Hell's Angels is being investigated for fraud after police found 70 percent of members were certified as depressed by the same doctor and were getting state sickness benefits.

"It seems to be depressing being a member of this club," Christer Nilsson, deputy head of Stockholm police's criminal investigation department, told newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Biker gangs like the Hell's Angels and their deadly rivals the Bandidos have a history of violent crime in Scandinavia including shootouts and bomb attacks, but have also branched out into benefit and tax frauds in recent years, police say.

Sweden has estimated that as much as a fifth of the workforce is on long-term sick leave or early retirement due to sickness, often put down to "burn-out" and the government has been cracking down on fraud to get more people back to work.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: depression; hellsangels; nannystates; socializedmedicine; sweden
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1 posted on 02/21/2006 11:38:45 AM PST by presidio9
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To: presidio9

"I'm a tough biker rebel! My mom says so!"


2 posted on 02/21/2006 11:42:04 AM PST by Darkwolf377 (Censorship sucks. Abortion sucks. Islamofascism sucks. To be continued.)
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To: Hill of Tara; NMR Guy; Scoutmaster; A knight without armor; 1234; american colleen; AndyPH; ...
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.
3 posted on 02/21/2006 11:42:16 AM PST by Charles Henrickson (Swedish Ping List master)
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To: presidio9
Sweden has estimated that as much as a fifth of the workforce is on long-term sick leave or early retirement due to sickness, often put down to "burn-out" ...

Sounds like Philidelphia, chicago, NYC, atlanta....

Heres an idea: Why don't you just bring in more muslims?
After they behead a few dozen depressed bikers, they can give your woman fitting instructions for that new burka.

4 posted on 02/21/2006 11:44:30 AM PST by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: Darkwolf377

The ultimate example of gaming the system. I can't think ok a group of individuals who would be less likely to complain about something like "depression." They realized that the state would be only too happy to pay them not to work so they could spend all their time biking, and they took advantage of it. This is Hillary Clinton's socialized medicine utopia.


5 posted on 02/21/2006 11:44:47 AM PST by presidio9 ("Bird Flu" is the new Y2K Virus -Only without the inconvenient deadline.)
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To: presidio9

If you pay people not to work, many will accept your offer. The only time govt handouts work even partially is when they're tied to performance--the more and harder you work, the more benefits you get. Sweden used to have the latter policy, which is why its entitlement state worked for a while. But then they started paying people who weren't working, and are now beginning to see the result.


6 posted on 02/21/2006 11:47:00 AM PST by American Quilter (Indolence never lacks excuse to avoid labor. - Jules Renard)
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To: presidio9
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
7 posted on 02/21/2006 11:47:38 AM PST by Rakkasan1 (Muslims pray to Allah, Allah prays to Chuck Norris.)
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To: presidio9; Melas
Sorry, but every time I hear about biker gangs, I always picture this guy:


8 posted on 02/21/2006 11:50:24 AM PST by Clemenza (I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...)
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To: Rakkasan1

Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër ?

9 posted on 02/21/2006 11:51:23 AM PST by presidio9 ("Bird Flu" is the new Y2K Virus -Only without the inconvenient deadline.)
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To: American Quilter

The Gods of the Copybook Heading
by Rudyard Kipling

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn.
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breath of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market-Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four-
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:-
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!


10 posted on 02/21/2006 11:51:33 AM PST by Peter J. Huss
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To: presidio9
Sweden has estimated that as much as a fifth of the workforce is on long-term sick leave or early retirement due to sickness, often put down to "burn-out" and the government has been cracking down on fraud to get more people back to work.

A couple of observations:

1) 1/5 of the workforce is idle. Wow. Better import more muzzies.

2) How do you prove someone isn't "burned out", especially after you've given them benefits for being sick with "burn out"?

11 posted on 02/21/2006 11:52:22 AM PST by randog (What the....?!)
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To: presidio9

Depression is the latest designer disease.


12 posted on 02/21/2006 11:52:33 AM PST by Old Professer (Fix the problem, not the blame!)
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To: Peter J. Huss

I would have thought it would be, "Breadth of mind."


13 posted on 02/21/2006 11:56:34 AM PST by Old Professer (Fix the problem, not the blame!)
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To: Clemenza

Your picture didn't copy. Was it of this cat (who I saw you hanging out with in front of the Boots & Saddle this weekend)?

14 posted on 02/21/2006 12:05:56 PM PST by presidio9 ("Bird Flu" is the new Y2K Virus -Only without the inconvenient deadline.)
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To: Clemenza

I see a red x. Is that after he crashed on his motorcycle?

:^)


15 posted on 02/21/2006 12:07:39 PM PST by Disambiguator (Unfettered gun ownership is the highest expression of civil rights.)
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To: presidio9

I know a person who is in their 30s and on social security for depression. Person spends their days smoking pot, getting drunk, and playing video games. That's on top of the lithium etc. Sad.


16 posted on 02/21/2006 12:08:18 PM PST by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
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To: Disambiguator; presidio9
LOL. So I see you know Bruce! He told me that he had an encounter with an Irish boy from Larchmont who hated libertarians...

Actually, my idea of a biker is this guy, who's first picture didn't show up:


17 posted on 02/21/2006 12:11:57 PM PST by Clemenza (I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...)
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To: Clemenza

Were did you get my picture?


18 posted on 02/21/2006 12:12:33 PM PST by presidio9 ("Bird Flu" is the new Y2K Virus -Only without the inconvenient deadline.)
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To: Clemenza


19 posted on 02/21/2006 12:14:09 PM PST by Clemenza (I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...)
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To: presidio9

I guess if
a) You're a Hell's Angel

and

b) You're too big of a pussy to kick someone's @$$ and take their lunch money.

Then

c) You're on welfare 70% of the time.


20 posted on 02/21/2006 12:15:48 PM PST by .cnI redruM (Spreading liberal beliefs is as wrong as spreading AIDS.)
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