Re-readings

“ “For this reason,” the abbot continued, “I consider that any case involving the error of a shepherd can be entrusted only to men like you, who can distinguish not only good from evil, but also what is expedient from what is not. I like to think you pronounced a sentence of guilty only when ...”
“... the accused were guilty of criminal acts, of poisoning, of the corruption of innocent youths, or other abominations my mouth dares not utter …”
“… that you pronounced sentence only when,” the abbot continued, not heeding the interruption, “the presence of the Devil was so evident to all eyes that it was impossible to act otherwise without the clemency’s being more scandalous than the crime itself.”
“When I found someone guilty,” William explained, “he had really committed crimes of such gravity that in all conscience I could hand him over to the secular arm.” ”

—Umberto Eco, THE NAME OF THE ROSE, translated from the Italian by William Weaver, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc and Martin Secker & Warburg, 1983. Originally published in Italy in 1980 under the title Il nome della rosa by Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri-Bompiani, Sonzogno, Etas SpA.

It’s almost as if he could indifferently look into the past and the future, and anticipate the issues of the present time while recalling those of a remote past...

I love re-reading my favorite books, and this time it’s The Name of the Rose’s turn. Generally speaking, it’s a wonderful adventure, always new and always different, because every time we re-read a book, we ourselves are new men and women, having been made such by the vicissitudes of life, by our personal experiences and achievements, both spiritual and intellectual. No one is the same person they were even as long ago as yesterday. That’s why re-reading great works of literature is such a wonderful experience: the more you read them, the more you fall in love with them. To say nothing about a book such as the Bible, the book of the books—I’ve lost count of the times I’ve re-read it…

UK set for hung Parliament

The BBC predicts a hung Parliament with David Cameron's Conservatives as the largest party (with more than 500 general election results in out of 650). And who will move into the famous address on the right may not be obvious.

PS: Britain Wakes Up Speaking Italian (Best Wishes!)

A postcard from France

By Mirino
Maybe the idea of  'A postcard from France', will encourage a flagging contributor to send the odd one, based on selected news items from the French press, to Wind Rose Hotel more regularly. Hopefully it will also incite readers to make constructive comments.
To begin with, and as the Polanski case was alluded to here before, it might be  appropriate to refer to a recent article on him from Le Figaro.
Polanski had just published a text confided to 'La Règle du Jeu', a site directed by Bernard-Henri Levy, stating that he can no longer remain silent. He considers that he is the victim of lies. According to him, the threat of extradition and legal proceedings in the USA for what he had done so long ago, are based on trumped up charges.
The Franco-Polish actor, writer and film producer maintains that his sentence of 42 days in a Californian prison in 1977 per 'having had sexual relations that year with a 13 year old adolescent', correspond with the sentence for which he was condemned and which he had thus already endured.

"I am accused of having avoided US justice, but in the 'pleading guilty' procedure I had recognised the facts and had returned to the USA to purge my sentence".

Roman Polanski (76) was arrested the 26th September last year in Switzerland and has been assigned to residence since the 4th December.
"I can no longer remain silent when the victim has been dismissed by the Court of California after having asked several times to stop the proceedings of my case", he also underlines.

"I can no longer remain silent because the United States continue to demand my extradition, more to deliver me as fodder to the media of the entire world than to pronounce a judgement on which an agreement was made 33 years ago".
                                        ____

My own view is that justice can hardly prevail if it chooses to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the actual victim of the crime and her repeated demands. I also have the impression that Polanski has never been overly appreciated in the USA, and suspect that the atrocious Manson killings may also have something to do with it. (If one remembers, whilst Polanski was working in Europe, his then pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate, was brutally stabbed to death in the Polanski residence in California with several other, horribly murdered victims. This was in August 1969, and carried out by members of the Manson gang. Manson (74) is still alive, seemingly without any regrets, and is even a 'cultural' source of influence in America).
Whilst there doesn't appear to be any rabid witch hunts going on in the States for real pedophiles, especially the ecclesiastic kind, Polanski, on the other hand, seems to incite a great deal of suspicion and hate, and this perhaps even more so in the State of California.

                                         _____ 
                                         
                                         Italiano

Athens burns

Many feared this would happen, and it has. Three people were killed and four were seriously injured when an Athens bank went up in flames as an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets to protest against harsh austerity measures aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy. Here is a video of the protests (see other videos  here):



And here is a france24english TV report:

Forget about soccer for a moment...

Italy’s national soccer coach Marcello Lippi, speaking at the start of a two-day training camp on Tuesday:

Italy is never the favorite for the World Cup and that helps. But look at our history. We’ve won four times and lost once to Brazil on penalties. If we had won that shootout we would have five World Cups now and Brazil would have four. […] They say a lot of things in the rest of the world, but Italy has always been a protagonist at the World Cup and I’m extremely confident that this group is going to do great as well.

True. Absolutely. Never the favorite, but … There is something weird in this. But this is not just a soccer issue, this is a much wider one. Forget about soccer for a moment and think of other fields—such as the economy, to give an example—to which the above “rule” may be applied. But this theory can be easily turned upside down: if recent Italian political history teaches us anything, it is that (here) bad things happen when you less expect. That’s also why Italy is a mystery to most people, including the Italians. No way to escape.

PS: Speaking of “bad things” and bad news, this—whether unexpected or not…—could be a perfect example of how not to behave in politics (unlike the second act of the play).

But the Greek bailout won’t work, says Cassandra

Perhaps it’s because of our fond memories of childhood school days, when we learned about Homer’s Iliad and the beloved heroes and legends of the Trojan War, that, in the present days of economic turmoil, when you say Greece you say Cassandra, the prophetess of doom. It’s almost inevitable, or that’s what seems to be the case. However, if you are an incurable optimist, just keep away from stuff like this…

'The Sun Behind the Clouds'

“The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom,” the documentary film by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam (check out the trailer below), has been greeted by some critics as “a potent update” on Tibetans‘ 50-year struggle for justice and recognition, and “an essential viewing” for anyone who cares about the fate of Tibet and the legacy of the Dalai Lama, while others (this one, for instance) have pointed out that the filmmakers lurch awkwardly between reverence for the Dalai Lama and hints that he has become, politically, irrelevant or an obstacle. As a matter of fact, as noted by another reviewer, the film incorporates several approaches, and perhaps not all are really worth your time…

For all its worthiness politically, “The Sun Behind the Clouds’’ is a lackluster film. That changes whenever the Dalai Lama is on screen. We see him at his residence in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, as well as making public appearances in the United States and Western Europe. To watch his meet-and-greet with Prince Charles is truly to see worlds colliding — those worlds being humanity at its most impressive and Madame Tussauds at its most animated (relatively speaking). The Dalai Lama also gives interviews to the filmmakers. He’s the most prominent of several talking-head subjects, nearly all of them Tibetan activists.

The closest thing to debate in the movie is over the Dalai Lama’s “middle way’’ policy, which seeks Tibetan autonomy under Chinese rule rather than outright independence. Several activists criticize the Dalai Lama for what they see as self-defeating moderation. It’s hard to imagine what alternative the Dalai Lama has. “The only thing we know is that empires rise and fall,’’ says Lhadon Tethong, former executive director of Students for a Free Tibet. That’s certainly true. But as another Tibetan activist notes, the situation of his people recalls that of Native Americans and Native Australians in the 19th century. More Chinese than Tibetans now live in Lhasa. Cultures fall, too, especially when they’re shoved.

Be it as it may, I stand with the Dalai Lama and always will. The only thing I know is that, to quote one of my favorite authors ever, “The strongest of all warriors are these two—Time and Patience” (Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi). Long life to His Holiness!

America's Illegal Immigration Fight

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

Illegal immigration. The President and his political party, and their propaganda section, the Main Stream Media, would have everyone believe that the legislation passed in Arizona is blatantly racist legislation and against the Constitution. The hard cold fact is that all it does is enforce Federal law that’s already on the books, but the Federal Government, controlled by the Democrats, has not enforced it. True too is that the Republican Party when they were in power, refused to enforce the law, leaving Arizonians no choice but to protect themselves.

What they are protecting themselves from is rampant drug and gun running, murder, rape and robbery. On average three Border Patrol agents per day are assaulted. Phoenix is the kidnap capital of the country. On average every 35 hours, or about three people a day are kidnapped. How safe would you feel? One in five Arizona teenagers are doing drugs smuggled in from Mexico. Would you want your child exposed to this? Arizona has become a dangerous place to live, and its citizens live in fear.

Our director of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, denies there’s a problem. She said, “I say this again as someone who has walked that border.” “I’ve ridden that border. I’ve flown it. I’ve driven it. I know that border I think as well as anyone, and I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.” The President of the US said it’s a racist issue, that the legislation, SB 1070 is unconstitutional, and has sent a legion of lawyers to begin Federal Lawsuits against the citizens of that State. Much of the wording in the Bill, by the way, is exactly the same that is in Federal Immigration Law.

The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, also has chimed in condemning Arizona. "Criminalizing immigration, which is a social and economic phenomenon, this way opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement." He added: "My government cannot and will not remain indifferent when these kinds of policies go against human rights."

Can you say ‘hypocrisy’? How does Mexico treat people without the proper papers in their own country? (Actually, even if you are properly documented, police will shake you down and have to be paid off.) The Mexican government bars foreigners if they upset “the equilibrium of the national demographics.” Racial profiling anyone? If you’re from another country and do not enhance the country’s “economic or national interests” or are “not found to be physically or mentally healthy,” then you’re not welcome. Make sure too you don’t show “contempt against national sovereignty or security.” (Mexicans in America have mass protests flying the American flag upside down, wave Mexican flags, chant anti-American slogans, and advocate the overthrow of the US government.) [ In Mexico noncitizens cannot “in any way participate in the political affairs of the country.”] If you apply for Mexican citizenship you must show a birth certificate, provide a bank statement proving economic independence, pass an exam and prove you can provide your own health care. Here, the Democrats and many Republicans just want to call amnesty and make all illegal’s citizens. A majority of those here illegally will vote Democrat, hence the term calling them “undocumented Democrats”. Illegal entry into Mexico is equivalent to a felony punishable by two years’ imprisonment. Document fraud is subject to fine and imprisonment; so is alien marriage fraud. Evading deportation is a serious crime; illegal re-entry after deportation is punishable by ten years’ imprisonment.

Law enforcement officials at all levels must enforce immigration laws, including illegal alien arrests and deportations. The Mexican military is also required to assist in immigration enforcement operations. Native-born Mexicans are empowered to make citizens’ arrests of illegal aliens and turn them in to authorities. Here, the Democrats and Obama administration say the local and state officials can’t enforce federal law, which is just stupid because all enforcement officials in all states enforce federal law all the time.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. One other thing, there are a large number of Central and South Americans rotting in Mexican prisons without due process because they were caught in Mexico without proper documentation.

We have a foreign President condemning a US State, and our own President and political party embracing that condemnation. These American officials swore to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States and have refused to do so. Arizonians have decided to protect themselves as a result, and have gotten attacked by their own Federal government.

If you want to travel, pick Arizona. I lived there for a decade and it’s a beautiful place. Info here. There’s also a ‘buycott’ on FaceBook to counteract the boycott the Leftists have started. (Good grief, even Leftist elected officials in Arizona are advocating the boycott of their own state.)

An email going around here in the States:

Dear President Obama:
I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me.
We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico , and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements.
We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws.
I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I'm on my way over?

Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. Please print all Mexican Government forms in English.
4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.
5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school.
7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico , but I don't plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my housetop, put U S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.
13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.
14. I want to receive free food stamps.
15. Naturally, I'll expect free rent subsidies.
16. I'll need income tax credits so that although I don't pay Mexican taxes, I'll receive money from the government.
17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Government pays $4,500.00 to help me buy a new car.
18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I'll get a monthly income in retirement.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who walk over to the U.S. from Mexico .. I am sure that President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

Thank you so much for your kind help.

You're the man!!!

The religion of the New York Times

We all know, I suppose, that the New York Times isn’t fair. In his latest column in Commonweal, Kenneth Woodward provides an enlightening example in this respect:

In its all-hands-on-deck drive to implicate the pope in diocesan cover-ups of abusive priests, the Times has relied on a steady stream of documents unearthed or supplied by Jeff Anderson, the nation’s most aggressive litigator on behalf of clergy-abuse victims. Fairness dictates that the Times give Anderson at least a co-byline.

After all, it was really Anderson who “broke” the story on March 25 about Fr. Lawrence Murphy and his abuse of two hundred deaf children a half-century ago in Wisconsin. Reporter Laurie Goodstein says her article emerged from her own “inquiries,” but the piece was based on Anderson documents. Indeed, in its ongoing exercise in J’accuse journalism, the Times has adopted as its own Anderson’s construal of what took place.

But as I have already assumed, such unfairness is not new, nor, unfortunately, is it confined to that newspaper alone. In all probability, what is really new (and peculiar) in the case of the Times is something else. At least, that’s what Woodward maintains in his piece, entitled “The Church of the Times,” in which he makes a well-argued comparision of the NYT and … the Catholic Church.

[L]ike the Church of Rome, the Times exercises a powerful magisterium or teaching authority through its editorial board. There is no issue, local or global, on which these (usually anonymous) writers do not pronounce with a papal-like editorial “we.” Like the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the editorial board is there to defend received truth as well as advance the paper’s political, social, and cultural agendas. One can no more imagine a Times editorial opposing any form of abortion—to take just one of that magisterium’s articles of faith—than imagine a papal encyclical in favor.

The Times, of course, does not claim to speak infallibly in its judgments on current events. (Neither does the pope.) But to the truly orthodox believers in the Times, its editorials carry the burden of liberal holy writ. As the paper’s first and most acute public editor, Daniel Okrent, once put it, the editorial page is “so thoroughly saturated in liberal theology that when it occasionally strays from that point of view the shocked yelps from the left overwhelm even the ceaseless rumble of disapproval from the right.” Okrent’s now famous column was published in 2004 under the headline “Is the New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?” and I will cite Okrent more than once because he, too, reached repeatedly for religious metaphors to describe the ambient culture of the paper.

It’s fascinating, isn’t it? That’s also why Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (thanks!) is probably right when he calls the NYT “Hell’s Bible.” After all, it was the current NYT publisher, Arthur Ochs “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr., who described his personal faith this way: “I have the Times. That’s my religion. That’s what I believe in, and it’s a hell of a thing to hold on to.”

Common sense

Tim James, the Republican candidate for governor of Alabama, believes “common sense” will win out over “political correctness.” Hence, his new ad, in which he argues that Alabama’s driver’s license exam should be given only in English. “Why do our politicians make use give our drivers license test in 12 languages,” he says. “This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.”

The ad, which comes in the middle of an emotional debate over immigration reform, has become incredibly popular (more than 150,000 views in just a few hours). And I suppose I can guess why. How about you? Ok, maybe you need some time to think this over… In the meantime, watch the video:

Ten-man Inter knocks out Barcelona

... With 10 men for more than an hour. Yes, it will be Inter Milan vs Bayern Munich in Madrid on May 22!

And Germany made the Greek crisis much, much worse

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” This piece of wisdom is known as Murphy’s Law, and I absolutely hate it, but Prof. Gustav A. Horn, the director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) at Germany’s Hans-Böckler Foundation, says it currently applies extraordinarily well to economic policy in the euro zone. He gets angry with “the German government’s submissiveness to the financial markets and its cowardice towards the tabloid press (the mass circulation daily Bild, for example, wrote in a headline: ‘You Greeks Aren’t Getting a Thing from Us’).” A cowardice which could get very expensive for German taxpayers.

On the one side there are the Greeks, who clearly still do not have their financial statistics under control and who produce one false report after another about the country's budget deficit. On the other side are the Germans, who delight in hindering a rapid and unambiguous European response to the Greek crisis -- in the process driving the cost of a solution through the roof.
[…]
Both Greece's calculation errors and the diva-like reluctance of the German government to help Athens are nothing more than an invitation to speculators to bet on the demise of the southern European country. This also explains why risk premiums on Greek government bonds have shot up to previously unimagined heights in recent days. The Greek government must now pay such high interest rates to refinance its debts that it can no longer get by without foreign assistance, despite recent tax increases and massive wage cuts.

But Murphy’s Law isn’t the only piece of wisdom here. As Italy’s Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti told reporters in Washington last Friday, “If your neighbor’s house catches fire, it’s not to your advantage to sit back and do nothing.” To put it quite simply, he argued, if you don’t step in, “you cannot fool yourself into thinking that just because your house is bigger and more beautiful, that it won’t be at risk. In case you are wondering, I am speaking about Germany.” Others may think differently, but this is the piece of wisdom I would suggest here.

Invictus

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~ William Ernest Henley, Book of Verses, 1888

Arguably William Ernest Henley’s best-remembered work is the above poem, which inspired Nelson Mandela during his 27 years in prison, and which gives the film Invictus its title. In the movie Mandela gives the poem—as a metaphor for never giving up—to François Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team, before the start of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, when the Springboks, widely assumed to stand a snowball’s chance in hell against the New Zeeland All Blacks and their superstar winger Jonah Lomu, created one of the greatest upsets in recent sporting history.

As a matter of fact, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, which I recently had the pleasure of seeing, tells you many things about Nelson Mandela (played with gravity and grace by Morgan Freeman), since “it is predominantly an absorbing character study of one of the most extraordinary characters of our time,” but it wisely does not attempt to tell Mandela’s whole life story. Though, according to some critics, “the trouble with Invictus is that it is more monument than motion picture,” I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone.

In the video below, the real François Pienaar recalls the impact that Nelson Mandela had on the historic 1995 RWC victory.

Nine reasons to be alarmed about Biden's stance on Iran

According to Vice President Biden Iran has never been more isolated and the international community never more united against it. He also thinks proposed (tougher) UN sanctions against Iran—the US said yesterday it wants to see a sanctions resolution submitted “as soon as possible” within the UN Security Council—will stop Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Wishful thinking? Realistic hope? Well, apart from the obvious objections about whether or not new sanctions will actually serve the West’s interests, here are nine reasons why to be alarmed about Biden’s stance on Iran. By Peter Huessy, president of GeoStrategic Analysis and Senior Defense Consultant at the National Defense University Foundation.

A Big Nasty Financial Mess

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

President Obama continued his attacks on America this week, focusing on Wall Street. He and his political party take millions from the financial industry and then attacks them, which isn't as crazy as it sounds.

For decades the Democrats and their propagandists in the Main Stream Media, have repeated the lie that the Republicans are the party of big business, and they are the party of the people. (Inconvenient fact: for the past several election cycles, most political contributions to the Republicans have been from small donors, regular folk, and the Dems have reaped $millions from corporations.) This week Obama and the Dems launched legal proceedings against financial giant Goldman Sachs and are introducing legislation for the government to take over the financial sector of the US economy.

The term being bantered about is “crony capitalism” because what the Dems are doing is finalizing the cozy relationship between government and the financial market. As far as I can tell, this is how it works.

The US government (specifically Obama and the Dems) have, in a little over a year, run up a couple $trillions more in debt. The government borrows money from the banks to pay the debt. But the banks were in a lot of trouble, so the government borrowed a lot of money from the banks (the government remember doesn’t have any money) to bail out the banks because “they are too big to fail”. So the banks that have lost $billions are bailed out by the money they loaned to the government, who bails out the banks that lost $billions. Got that?

As part of Obama’s move to take over the financial sector, he’s decided to make an example of Goldman Sachs, arguably the most powerful and richest of financial institutions. Thing is, Obama and his administration are Goldman Sachs people. The play is just a ploy. They all have this planed out, and ultimately Goldman Sachs will be a huge beneficiary of government largess. This will pretty much solidify the relationship.

Let’s start with the $994,795 in Goldman Sachs campaign cash the Obama bagged for the last election. Corporations can’t directly give money, so they get their people pony up indirectly. Question to Obama, if Goldman Sachs is so evil and corrupt, shouldn’t you return the money? (Previously the Dems demanded that any money the Republicans got from Goldman Sachs be returned.) It’s tainted. Then there are the people in his administration. Goldman Sachs partner Gary Gensler is Obama’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission head. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was on a $3,000 monthly retainer from Goldman Sachs while he worked as Clinton’s chief fundraiser, plus he received about $80,000 in cash from Goldman Sachs during his four terms in Congress. Former Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson serves under Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner as his top deputy and dispenser of the TARP bailout — $10 billion of it to Goldman Sachs. Penny Pritzker was head of Superior Bank of Chicago, a major lender of subprime loans, got into a lot of legal trouble, so hired a lawyer Tom Donilon, who is now Obama’s deputy national security adviser. Donilon made about $4 million representing badly run banks that lost millions, including Goldman Sachs. White House National Economic Council head Larry Summers has ties to Goldman Sachs. He’s buddies with former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and has worked for Rubin.

Just before the civil suit was launched, Obama did an interview on the cable business news channel CNBC, and was asked if there had been any recent contact between him and Goldman Sachs about the pending law suit. Obama said, nope, first he heard of it was right there on CNBC. We shouldn’t be surprised, since Obama lies about everything, that White visitor logs show that Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein had visited the White House four times in the past few months.

This is such a mess, and so confusing. If financial institutions aren’t politically correct, and obedient, they will be crushed by the Dems and Obama administration. Goldman Sachs will have to keep their coffers open to Obama, as will any other financial group, or they will be crushed. Be a capitalist crony or else…

Confused yet? We are. We just know that the Dems and Obama, after taking over the health care and health insurance industries, much of the auto industry, of the student loan industry for higher education, crushed the energy industry, opened the border to illegal immigrants, provides more civil rights to terrorists than citizens, is well on his way to turning America into Amerika, a fascist State. The November elections can't get here fast enough.

A Party is born

Someone says this is the announcement of a political divorce, someone else says that Gianfranco Fini, the head of the Chamber of Deputies, has just committed a political suicide. But I think neither of the two hypotheses is correct. In my opinion—and that of many others—a “true” party was born yesterday, instead: the People of Freedom (PdL), which until yesterday was little more than a political movement, despite three resounding victories in 2008 (general election), 2009 (European elections) and 2010 (regional elections).

Fini, who headed the conservative National Alliance before it merged with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia to create the current PDL, threatened last week to set up his own faction because in his opinion the Northern League, which also supports the government, has been granted too many concessions. “It’s clear that the Northern League, right now, is the dominant force” in the government majority, he said in a statement. But the showdown took place just yesterday, when, in a rare open debate among the top rungs of the party, Gianfranco Fini levelled a raft of criticisms at the style and substance of the prime minister’s leadership, accusing him of stifling internal party debate and claiming that there were some in the party that “do not full agree” with Berlusconi’s stance on many issues, such as the government’s tough line on immigration and the plans to devolve powers to the regions, which in his opinion have not been properly thought out or discussed.

What followed was quite an amusing spectacle…

Mr Berlusconi stepped up to the podium right after Mr Fini's speech, criticising his ally for making political statements while holding a post that requires him to be impartial and for not participating in the campaign for regional elections last month to thundering applause.

"A speaker of the house should not make political statements. If you want to make them, you should leave your post," Mr Berlusconi told Mr Fini in front of 477 party representatives.

The prime minister also accused Mr Fini's allies of "exposing the party to public mockery" by criticising his party on television.

"It doesn't seem to me the issues you have raised are of great importance compared to what we have done as a government," Mr Berlusconi said.

In a visually striking riposte, Mr Fini stood up and stepped toward the stage where Mr Berlusconi was speaking, pointing his finger and shouting: "What are you saying? What are you saying? ... Are you going to kick me out?"

Mr Fini later said he would not step down as Chamber speaking and his supporters would not leave Mr Berlusconi's party.

But above all I think the whole thing was a celebration of democracy, just what the People of Freedom party needed, given the almost obvious lack of democratic debate in a party led by a charismatic personality. In fact, for one thing, as everybody knows, in such parties, when the personality leaves office, the movement lapses, and that’s precisely what Italian conservatives don’t want to happen. Needless to say, at any rate, Berlusconi and his most fervent supporters need to realize that internal dissent is not itself a crisis but, rather, priceless insurance against disaster.

That’s why, being neither a supporter of Fini nor a Berlusconist, but simply a conservative, I consider what happened yesterday to be a positive step forward, even though I disagree with Fini on most issues and agree with Berlusconi on the majority of his views.

UK: Is Nick Clegg anti-American and anti-Israel?

A new survey by ICM Research for the left-wing Guardian, released Monday, put Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats at 30%, just three points behind the Tories (30%) and ahead of Labour back on 28%.

Asked if he truly believed he could become Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said he was “acutely aware” of the volatility of the polls but implied anything was possible: “I want to be the next Prime Minister,” he said. “There is a fluidity in this election we haven’t seen for perhaps a generation,” he added.

I can’t predict what’s going to happen. All I know is that the old anchors, the old patterns and the old established routines of elections are breaking down, because for years the old allegiances which propped up the old parties are breaking down.

It may actually be true, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing in and of itself, but perhaps it also depends on what we mean by “the old patterns” and “the old allegiances.” Does Mr Clegg think, to make a couple of examples, that the ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK, and the traditional pro-Israel attitude on the part of British governments, are among those old patterns/allegiances which are breaking down? Well, here and here is what Nile Gardiner has to say in this regard in his Telegraph blog. And here is what he thinks about Nick Clegg’s attitude towards the NATO alliance.

Female promiscuity causes earthquakes

An intriguing piece in The Weekly Standard, the American neoconservative opinion magazine, about a leading Iranian cleric who told worshippers in Tehran that he blames earthquakes on female promiscuity: “Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes.” This may sound wacky, says the magazine, but it can teach us a valuable lesson: “The question it poses is: How well do we understand the thinking of the Iranian leadership on questions small and large?”

There then follows a quote from a CIA study and a suggestion by the article’s author: We have just to change the word ‘Soviet’ to ‘Iran’ in a certain passage from the essay—where the Soviet Union was described as “a strange and idiosyncratic polity, not to be understood or dealt with without considerable conscious effort”—and the difficulty we face becomes readily apparent.

It may be true, of course. Other cultures, other lifestyles and different ways of thinking, etc. But, paraphrasing the interesting question at the end of the article, one might well ask, “If promiscuous women can cause earthquakes, what kinds of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s behavior might cause a nuclear bomb to detonate or be detonated?”

Distrust, discontent, anger (or, the American people and their Government)

According to a new series of Pew Research Center surveys, nearly 80 percent of Americans are more sceptical of Washington than ever, and a desire for smaller government is especially evident since Barack Obama took office. Public confidence in the federal government is at one of the lowest points in a half-century. There is a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government—a dismal economy, an unhappy public, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials. This anti-government feeling has driven the tea party movement, which has a small but fervent antigovernment constituency and could be a wild card in this November’s election. Please note that many Republicans (28%), and Independents who lean Republican (30%), say the tea party movement represents their point of view better than the GOP. (See also here and here)

The liberal Axis of Evil