In Memoriam: Francesco Cossiga

Former Italian president Francesco Cossiga has died. A man with sharp intelligence and a biting sense of humor, he was a veteran politician and a leading figure in the Christian Democrat party that ruled Italy for most of the post-war period before collapsing in disgrace in the early 1990s. He was also a staunch backer of the US during the Cold War, and remained such until his death.

He once described himself as a “wildcat that it is better not to scratch,” and possibly he was right. But he was, first and foremost, a gentleman and an old-fashioned Christian. As president from 1985 to 1992, he used the largely ceremonial, head-of-state role to publicly lambaste—through legendary and fiery interviews and speeches that earned him the nickname of the “picconatore” (literally somebody wielding a pickaxe)—parliament and the judiciary in what the best part of public opinion saw as an effort to spur reform in an increasingly inefficient, moribund postwar system of revolving door coalition governments. Thus he paved the way for the new conservative governments of Italy, but he also became a point of reference for the Italian “riformisti” (the moderates of the Left, unfortunately a species threatened with extinction …).

Emblematic of both his sense of humor and his anti-leftism, commenting in 2007 on the September 11 attacks and on a video attributed to Osama Bin Laden, he wrote on the Corriere della Sera newspaper that “all of the democratic circles of America and of Europe, especially those of the Italian center-left, now know well that the disastrous attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world in order to place the blame on Arabic Countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Many will miss him, including myself, here in Italy. Rest in peace, Mr. President, and thank you for all you have done. We will never forget you.

The Seven Storey Mountain

A few notes on one of my summer reads, The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton. I had read some other books by the same author in the past, i.e., New Seeds of Contemplation and The Silent Life, but had never taken the time to read Thomas Merton’s breakthrough autobiography. It has been an unexpected discovery under many points of view—both positive and negative, if I may say so. What is certain is that it has been an interesting, worthwhile read.

Who says, “My life is mine and mine alone” should have a read of The Seven Storey Mountain, a book which tells the story of a young man who, from no religion at all, became a Catholic and entered the Order of Cistercian of the Strict Observance—the Trappists—at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. A story that demonstrates, perhaps once and for all, that no one is the master of his own destiny, that “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” (Jeremiah 10: 23). That we must have access to God and His nature if we will ever live the right way, the way He lives. That we must recognize God’s will as more important than our own desires. As the famous Prayer of Thomas Merton goes (Thoughts in Solitude),

My God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

And as the closing words of the book read:

But you shall taste the true solitude of My anguish and My poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of My joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end, and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Christi and St Bonaventure to the Cistercian abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani: that you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men. Sit finis libri, non finis quaerendi.

At the same time, perhaps paradoxically, the whole of Merton’s life is such an American story, in an Emersonian sense: “All life is an experiment. The more experiment you make the better” (“Experience”). By the way, this might also be, in my very humble opinion, the meaning of those Latin words, Sit finis libri, non finis quaerendi (Let this be the end of the book, but not of the search). As a matter of fact, Merton’s “complexities” manifested themselves in many ways previous and following Seven Storey Mountain’s publication, e.g. in his various attempts to leave the Trappist Order for the Carthusian and Camaldolese eremitical orders—in the mid-1950s he tried to obtain an authorized transfer from the Abbey of Gethsemani to the Sacro Eremo (the hermit village) of the Monastery of Camaldoli in Italy, a wonderful place that I know very well, si parva licet …. And above all, as author and Thomas Merton expert Mark Shaw discovered through seven volumes of Merton’s private journals, released in the mid-1990s, there existed a more human side to Merton causing one of the most important spiritual writers of the twentieth century to suffer and admit, “The depressions are deeper, more frequent. I am near fifty. People think I am happy.” After all, it has been said that the essence of Merton’s spirituality itself is the “humanity” of it. And at the beginning of 1966 he wrote in his journals that he yearned to love, but there was no woman to love, and obviously monastic rules forbade it. But later on, while recovering in a hospital from back surgery, a student nurse half his age named Margie Smith soothed his pain with a sponge bath and it was love at first sight ... but it was an unconsummated “love affair.” Eighteen months later, he had to choose between Margie, the woman he called, “a miracle in my life,” or the God who had saved his soul. When he finally chose, says Mark Shaw, Merton emerged renewed: stronger and surer than he would have been without being tested by such a shattering conflict.

Well, this may not be exactly what one could call an example of monastic discipline and conduct, but to be honest, after reading The Seven Storey Mountain, it would be inexact to say that I was surprised by that discovery … If ever, what surprises me most is that such a man as the young Thomas Merton could have become what he eventually became. And this is the real miracle, this is what I was talking about when I said, along with Jeremiah, that this story demonstrates that “the way of man is not in himself.” We are all in the hands of God.

What else? Well, I have loved his profound and insightful thoughts on a subject that is very dear to me, the Gregorian chant:

How mighty they are, those hymns and those antiphons of the Easter office! Gregorian chant that should, by rights, be monotonous, because it has absolutely none of the tricks and resources of modern music, is full of a variety infinitely rich because it is subtle and spiritual and deep, and lies rooted far beyond the shallow level of virtuosity and 'technique,' even in the abysses of the spirit, and of the human soul. Those Easter 'alleluias,' without leaving the narrow range prescribed by the eight Gregorian modes, have discovered color and warmth and meaning and gladness that no other music possesses. Like everything else Cistercian—like the monks themselves—these antiphons, by submitting to the rigor of a Rule that would seem to destroy individuality, have actually acquired a character that is unique, unparalleled.
[…]
But the cold stones of the Abbey church ring with a chant that glows with living flame, with a clean, profound desire. It is an austere warmth, the warmth of Gregorian chant. It is deep beyond ordinary emotion, and that is one reason why you never get tired of it. It never wears you out by making a lot of cheap demands on your sensibilities. Instead of drawing you out into the open field of feelings where your enemies, the devil and your own imagination and the inherent vulgarity of your own corrupted nature can get at you with their blades and cut you to pieces, it draws you within, where you are lulled in peace and recollection and where you find God.

Isn’t that absolutely amazing? It would be enough to make me a lifelong fan of Thomas Merton. But there is more. Much more. Take this, for instance:

Not all men are called to be hermits, but all men need enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable the deep inner voice of their own true self to be heard at least occasionally. When that inner voice is not heard, when man cannot attain to the spiritual peace that comes from being perfectly at one with his own true self, his life is always miserable and exhausting.” [The Silent Life]

No real news here...

A quick update on the recent developments in Italian politics. Well, nothing has really happened (so far), don’t let you fool by appearances. In fact, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung puts it, “Sie [Die Italiener] haben sich, Staatspräsident Napolitano vorneweg, in die Ferien verabschiedet” (The Italians have gone on holiday, with President Napolitano at the top of the list) … An excellent article indeed.

Sorry for the long silence

Sorry for the long silence from me. I‘m still on vacation—ah the long holidays of teachers …—and I had been having unexpected problems with accessing the Internet in the past two weeks, in the mountain valleys of Tuscany (as far as compensation I had been reading a lot). Where I am now it’s much better, and I plan to be more regular with posting. See you soon!

The Sacrifice for Liberty, The Threat of Tyranny

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

Today, July 4th, we celebrate the birth of our nation, now 234 years old. We face the same issue now, as we did then. Do we want to live under tyranny or with liberty? We now have in power in this country people that believe in tyranny, and have the power to enforce it, and are. At the founding of our county, many sacrificed their wealth, families, and in many cases, their lives, to set the foundation for the “American Experiment”, where people decide on their own how to live their lives. Those sacrifices are in danger of being for naught.

Abraham Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, had two sons in the officer corps. They were captured and put on a British prison ship where they were beaten and starved, more than most, because of whose sons they were. Eleven thousand men died on the horrible ship. Toward the end of the Revolutionary War, the British told Abraham Clark that if he would recant his support of the Revolution, say he supported the King, his sons would be set free. He said “No”, and this should break everyone’s heart to this day.

Another signer, Thomas Nelson, had a huge estate that was used as headquarters by British General Charles Cornwallis. The reason Cornwallis was there, was because he was driven from Yorktown by heavy cannon fire from American forces. All around the estate, everything was in shambles, the town in ruins. The estate though, remained standing, untouched. Nelson arrived at the battle front and was enraged at what he saw. He turned to the gunners and yelled, "Why do you spare my home?". The gunners said, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson yelled back, "Give me the cannon!", and turned it on his own house. The story doesn’t end there. He had raised $2 million dollars (this is 1776 dollars, what is that value now?) by backing loans with his estates. The Congress after the war did not honor him by helping him out when the loans came due. He died losing everything, a few years after the war, at age 50.

There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Nine died of wounds, disease, and any number of horrible things. One lost all 13 of his children. Two had their wives brutally beaten. All were driven from their homes, and twelve of those had their homes burned down. Seventeen lost everything they owned. That’s not all the horrible things that happened to them, but not one of them changed from their dedication to liberty and freedom. Not one became a traitor.

This Declaration is not just for what is says for America, it’s for all mankind. For the 5,000 years of civilization prior to this Declaration, men had lived under the tyranny of the few that thought they knew better how others should live their lives. Thomas Jefferson: "The Declaration of Independence [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man." Yet again today, we face tyranny that so many gave so much to stop, and set men free.

Having won, and what our yearly celebration is founded upon, is from John Adams:

“Yesterday, the greatest question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among men. You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will justify it in the sight of God and man. ... It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Day's Transaction.”

(July 3, 1776)

So we have our fireworks, and parties, and church services commemorating this event, and I pray to God, that Freedom will forever triumph in my country.

The last thing John Adams said in pubic was, “Independence forever!”. May this be prophetic.

Obama's war on the traditional family

I know I am contradicting myself here—only two posts ago I was talking about “light blogging” and “vacation time” … But this Washington Times editorial is a must read :

President Obama has wasted little time in using his executive branch power to give the country a leftward shove. In just the past few weeks, the administration has ramped up programs intended to reshape conceptions of the family. When it comes to moral values, it is clear that radical leftists are driving the agenda.
[…]
Mr. Obama's policies are undermining the foundation of the family itself. For the long-term good of the country, members of Congress should take note of what's happening and act to undo the radical social agenda.

Read the rest. Thanks: Sandra Kennedy.

Expats in Florence

Perhaps not everyone knows that for a long time Florence has been, and remains, home to many expats: those who have longed to live there, those who have found love and moved there, and those who have gone to Florence and felt immediately at home there. “Many people,” says Melinda Gallo, a writer and blogger who has been living in Florence for seven years, “arrive here at a point in their lives when they seek to redefine themselves: whether they were not completely happy, were searching for something new, or were looking for love, it seems that those who come to Florence are reborn.” Of course this is, or should be, no surprise to those who have already experienced the special atmosphere that makes Florence such a unique city (and Tuscany such a magical place).

However, whether you have an idea of what I’m talking about, or not, here Melinda tells the story of one of those expats, Natasha Garland, an American young woman whose initial one-year adventure has now become an eight-year stint in a place she continues to delight in.

Blogging will be light – Vacation time!

Hello dear readers, I always appreciate your time and comments, but blogging will be light over the next few weeks. Until then, you might want to check out some of my favorite blogs (look on the right side of this page). Have a great summer!

See you soon, Italy!

Poor lads, don't go too hard on them, after all they did what they could do... Arrivederci Italia!

Immoral moralists?

There is a quote I came across some time ago that says, “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, X, 16, AD 167). It fits well to a lot of people, except, at least to a certain extent, moralist philosophers—but Marcus Aurelius was one of them …—and theologians, but it certainly fits perfectly with politicians who play the moralist, such as, here in Italy, Antonio Di Pietro.

Why do I say this? Well, just a moment, for those who don’t know Di Pietro, he is the head of a small opposition party (“Italy of Values”) and a former prosecutor who leapt to national prominence in the days of Mani pulite (“clean hands”), the nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s, which led to the demise of the so-called First Republic, resulting in the disappearance of many parties. Needless to say, he is a huge moralist, but … at the same time he might not be as immaculate as one might expect. In fact, he is accused of having embezzled funds related to European elections in 2004. The funds, which were supposed to be for his party, were allegedly diverted to a private organisation of the same name. The allegations were made by a former Italy of Values member, Elio Veltri.

Of course Di Pietro (as anyone else) is innocent until proven guilty. But it was he who had always maintained that politicians must be above suspicion. It was he who had always despised  reactions such as the following one (à la Berlusconi): “There are people who have not accepted political defeat and continue to sling mud at other people.” But, this time, guess who said it …

Habermas and secularisation (part I)

By Angelo

Many thanks to Rob who has invited me to contribute to this blog.


Last week Jürgen Habermas visited Ireland and received a prize from University College Dublin, where I teach philosophy to adult classes.
Habermas is considered the most important European living philosopher and belongs to the second generation of the 'Frankfurt School'. This is a group of philosophers and sociologist based in Frankfurt who, in the middle of last century, presented a criticism of capitalism (but also of Soviet socialism) often called 'critical theory'. It was an attempt to update the thought of Karl Marx taking inspiration from psychoanalysis and sociology.
Habermas philosophy is a ongoing response to the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists.

In this short note I want to concentrate on a particular idea that Habermas, who is now 81, has presented in the last years. He maintains that in the past it was commonly accepted that modernity and secularization proceed together. The more a nation embraces the principles of democracy, rights and participation, the more it becomes secular in the sense that religious ideas have less relevance in the public life. The core of the process of secularization is the separation of church and state. Habermas, who is a secular thinker, doesn't deny the importance of this separation but criticises the assumption that history goes necessarily in that direction and religion is destined to become irrelevant in the public square.
He shows that if religion has lost its traditional power in Europe, especially in terms of its ability to have a strong influence on the masses, this is not always the case in other modern western societies such as the United States and it is even less the case in the non-western world. We witness an on-growing role of religions on the world scale, a role that was not expected by theorists of the previous generation. They considered religion as a configuration of the past, which was destined to become more and more irrelevant. But Habermas reckons the continuing existence and relevance of religious traditions even in societies which are largely secularised. Europe seems to be the exception rather than the norm in this apparent coincidence of modernisation and secularisation but what will the future be like? It seems that also in Europe things are going in unexpected directions.


Here is an extract from an interview that appeared on The Irish Times:

Journalist: I used the expression “post-secular” to describe a shift in public consciousness in such predominantly secular countries as Canada, Australia, New Zealand or western Europe. Here the resurgence of religion that we are observing in other global regions has unsettled a dominant but unspoken presumption. In these countries it is no longer a cultural commonplace that religion is outdated, that it is destined to disappear with the advance of modernisation. All are now coming to the realisation that religious communities are destined to remain with us, even as the surrounding environment becomes increasingly secular.

Habermas: I associate this sociological observation with a diagnosis of a more philosophical kind. Secularly minded people should recognise religion as a contemporary intellectual formation. Over the past two millennia, western philosophy has repeatedly borrowed images, meanings and concepts from the Judaeo-Christian tradition and has translated them into its own secular language. We cannot tell whether this process of appropriation has run its course or whether, on the contrary, other semantic potentials remain untapped. Of course, such a receptive and dialogical relation is only possible towards non-fundamentalist traditions that do not close themselves off from the modern world.

I am glad to inform you ...

I am pleased to welcome a new contributor to this blog, Angelo Bottone. Angelo is an associate lecturer at the School of Arts of the Dublin Business School, where he teaches Introduction to Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Theories of Knowledge and Philosophy of Science. He holds a PhD in philosophy at University College Dublin. He has published three books on John Henry Newman and several articles on Paul Ricoeur, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Multiculturalism, and Philosophy of Religion. He also translated Newman’s The Idea of a University into Italian. He blogs at botblog and is, from time immemorial, a good friend of WRH.

He will keep us informed and up-to-date on philosophical, religious and cultural issues. What will his first post here be about? Well, I don’t pretend to be a prophet, but something tells me that it will be about Germany’s foremost philosopher and critical theorist Jürgen Habermas, who received the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin last week...

Good News / Bad News (from Italy)

The good news for Italy, today, is that British bank Barclays is not worried about Italy’s public finances and will continue to invest in the euro zone country. Barclays chief executive John Varley told Il Sole-24 Ore newspaper,

We had strong growth in Italy in the last 10 years. We continue to consider it a strategic country in which to invest following our guidelines: in retail and wealth, and in corporate and investment banking. The high level of debt compared to GDP is not new, while the low level of household debt is particularly reassuring.

The bad news is that Gianluigi Buffon, the starting goalkeeper for world champion Italy, Wednesday was diagnosed with a herniated disk in his back and might not be able to play again in the World Cup (he will definitely not be available for Sunday’s game against New Zealand and most probably will miss the third game of the first round, against Slovakia). “Gigi has charisma. He gives strength to others.” said Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. And it’s the plain truth.

Turkey is rethinking its place in the world

Some fear the West has “lost” Turkey. The Mavi Marmara incident is seen as further proof of such a Turkish shift (The Economist).

Berlusconi's attack on a free press?

As all the word knows (we live in a global village, after all), Silvio Berlusconi is a controversial figure. There are those who love him and those who hate him, those who appreciate him and those who don’t. I’ve always tried to be as “objective” as possible regarding to him, but I don’t pretend to have succeeded, because—whether I like it or not—I agree with him on most issues. Let’s say that I generally favor a “dialectical approach” whose result, most of the times, is that I cannot but agree with him on the substance and disagree on the form (Ok, sometimes form is substance, I know ...). Here is an example (regarding Berlusconi’s controversial law curbing the use of wiretaps by police). Adrian Michaels in the Telegraph:

A great number of people working in the Italian judiciary behave incorrectly. Convinced that they will never secure convictions of the rich and powerful, they habitually leak their entire investigations to newspapers, so at least to hang their subjects in the court of public opinion. It is a shameful way to ride over due process, no matter how much it may seem justified.
So I have some sympathy with Silvio Berlusconi’s attempts significantly to tighten up the rules on judicial surveillance, wiretaps and leaks, even if it once again looks like the Italian prime minister is putting the machinery of state to use in the service of protecting his personal interests.

But, Michaels adds (“and it’s a big but”),

Berlusconi’s attack on the journalists who print transcripts of telephone conversations or other such information from judicial sources is completely indefensible.

Well, “indefensible” is perhaps a strong term. What about “embarrassing but understandable?” And it’s a big but.

The Year of the (Conservative) Woman

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

We had several primary elections this last Tuesday. Most notable was that Conservative women dominated.

In California former eBay CEO Meg Whitman won her primary against a strong Republican field. She’s wasn’t the most conservative of the candidates, yet the Democrats are already painting her as a ‘right wing extremist’. Of course, to them, anyone to the right of Mao, Lenin and Marx are ‘wingnuts’. She’ll be running against ex-governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown. California is a collapsed lawless state, with thousands of people and dozens of businesses leaving every week. The collapse started with Brown when he was governor 1975–1983. Nearly all the policies that have lead to the demise of the late great state of California were instituted during his administration. I was living in California those years, and was a liberal then, and even liberals knew he was a whack job; thus the nickname “moonbeam”. Whitman will be running against him in the general election this coming November.

Also in California, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina for Senate won her primary and will be running against Barbara Boxer. As a side note, I highly recommend her autobiography “Tough Choices”. This is a formidable businesswoman. She’s also a cancer survivor, and her story of overcoming that, and her overcoming the failing “good ol’ boy” culture and turning around HP, is a phenomenal story of overcoming opposition, devastating setback, perseverance and triumph. Again, she wasn’t the most conservative of candidates running in the primary, yet true the form, the Dems started the day after the election calling her a ‘wingnut’. Statists have created that as a pejorative to describe anyone that believes in lower taxes and less government.

The third candidate, Sharron Angle, won the Republican primary by a fourteen point margin against Sue Lowden in Nevada, the state where I now live. A few months ago she was at 5%, and everyone thought Lowden was for sure going to be the nominee. The turnaround was nothing less than astonishing. The surge was a result of the TEA party movement endorsing Angle. She, unlike Whitman and Fiorina, is a hard core conservative. She’ll be running against Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate, and an uber-Statist. He’s to the left of Lenin, Marx and Mao. Day after Election Day, the first poll showed Angle at 50% and Reid at 39%. In this State, Reid has a political machine like what can be found in Chicago, and is formidable. He also had tens of $millions in campaign money and Angle is starting from financial scratch. The implications of this race are national. Reid is one of the most powerful men in the country, and does not value capitalism or liberty at all. His view is that the State should control everything, and everybody should be enslaved to the state.

Those are the big three, with several other races going to conservatives and women. The TEA Party movement is being very successful in running RINO’s (Republican in Name Only) out of office, so we Conservatives are heartened. In the past year there have been several special elections due to deaths, retirements etc. and all those but one have been won by the Republican candidates. Some are RINO’s, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

The Democrats have had complete and total control of Congress for the past four years. The forced passage along party lines of their health care bill, and 70% of the population was and is against it. They have increased the deficient by nearly $2 Trillion during that time. They’ve nationalized much of the automotive and financial industries. All of the programs the Democrats are trying to pass right now will increase taxes, increase costs, and deny liberty to citizens. The Republicans must win in November. That slogan “take our country back” has become the rallying cry, which is the same thing Democrats and fellow Statists were saying during the Bush years. (Bush, by the way, is a RINO, and other than the War on Terror, was not supported by Conservatives.) A longer but more effective slogan would be “Return to the Constitution and the Rule of Law.”

Hats off to the rise of Conservative women in the Republican Party.

An Alien in the White House?

The distance between the president and the people is beginning to be revealed. Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal:

There should have been nothing puzzling about his response to anyone who has paid even modest critical attention to Mr. Obama's pronouncements. For it was clear from the first that this president—single-minded, ever-visible, confident in his program for a reformed America saved from darkness by his arrival—was wanting in certain qualities citizens have until now taken for granted in their presidents. Namely, a tone and presence that said: This is the Americans' leader, a man of them, for them, the nation's voice and champion. Mr. Obama wasn't lacking in concern about the oil spill. What he lacked was that voice—and for good reason.
Those qualities to be expected in a president were never about rhetoric; Mr. Obama had proved himself a dab hand at that on the campaign trail. They were a matter of identification with the nation and to all that binds its people together in pride and allegiance. These are feelings held deep in American hearts, unvoiced mostly, but unmistakably there and not only on the Fourth of July.
A great part of America now understands that this president’s sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class. He is the alien in the White House, a matter having nothing to do with delusions about his birthplace cherished by the demented fringe.

Via Instapundit and Maggie’s Notebook

Flotilla inquiry? (Updated)

The flotilla affair: does the Israeli government owe anyone an inquiry over what went wrong in what looks to have been a seriously-botched operation? If the answer is Yes, then to whom does Israel owe an inquiry (and why), and to whom it doesn’t? Here is what Norman Geras has to say about this whole issue (an enlightening read).

UPDATE 7:30 pm
This is what may be written without a blush in the contemporary liberal press: a column by Fintan O'Toole in yesterday’s Irish Times, as an example of the filth that has poured out upon Israel’s head during the time since the flotilla incident (via normblog, again).

It’s all Bush’s fault

It’s George Bush’s fault. Everything is George Bush’s fault. Why? Well, because it’s always someone else’s fault. “This is reaching the level of hilarity. Except it’s so sad,” says Steven at The Metaphysical Peregrine. And I think he is right. One might also say, yes, it would be funny, except it is happening to me, to us Americans. You have all my European solidarity—after all every country has its own Dems and liberal media…

'I killed Mgr. Padovese! Allah Akbar!'

Bishop Luigi Padovese, the apostolic vicar of Anatolia—that is the Vatican’s representative in Turkey—who was stabbed by his Turkish driver Thursday, besides being a high-level scholar and among the major experts on St. Paul, was a good and wise man. Just like another Italian priest, Father Andrea Santoro, who was killed in Turkey in 2006. And the man arrested in that case was also described as mentally unstable. Coincidence? Well, everything is possible in this crazy world, even though, to tell the truth, I don’t believe in coincidences. And I’m not the only one. AsiaNews.it:

As the days pass, new details emerge on the story of murder and the alleged "insanity" of the assassin. The doctors who performed the autopsy reveal that Mgr. Padovese had knife wounds all over his body, but especially in the heart (at least 8). His head was almost completely detached from his neck, attached to his body by only the skin of the back of the neck.
Even the dynamics of the killing is clearer: the Bishop was stabbed in his house. He had the strength to go out the door of the house, bleeding and crying for help and there he was killed. Perhaps only when he fell to the ground, was his head cut off.
Witnesses said they heard the bishop cry out for help. But more importantly, is that they heard screams of Murat immediately after the murder. According to these sources, he climbed on the roof of the house shouted: "I killed the great Satan! Allah Akbar! ".
This call coincides perfectly with the idea of beheading, making sense that it is like a ritual sacrifice against evil. This correlates with the murders of ultranationalist groups and Islamic fundamentalists who apparently want to eliminate Christians from Turkey.
Moreover, according to a Turkish newspaper, Milliyet on June 4, the murderer had told police that he his actions were the result of a " divine revelation."

As it was not enough, the timing of Padovese’s killing was significant, as the bishop was scheduled to travel to Cyprus for Pope Benedict’s visit last weekend. Yes, the timing was highly suspect. Cyprus—do you remember? A former British colony, Cyprus became an independent republic in 1960. Following violence between ethnic Greek Cypriots and minority Turkish Cypriots, Turkey invaded in 1974, leading to the division of the island between the internationally recognized south and the north, which is only recognized by Turkey.

On his first day there,

Benedict was greeted warmly by both Catholics and Orthodox, but quickly saw how tense the situation on the small island is, as a Cypriot Orthodox bishop told him that Turkey was trying to take over the entire nation.
“It has turned the Orthodox Christians of Cyprus out of their ancestral homes, where they had lived for centuries,” said His Beatitude Chyrsostomos II at an outdoor ceremony in Paphos. “They want to make everything Greek and Christian disappear from occupied Cyprus.”

And to think that when Father Andrea Santoro was killed in Trabzon in 2006, Bishop Padovese succeeded in finding words of peace and kindness: “We forgive the one who carried out this gesture,” he said at the funeral Mass. “It is not by destroying those who think differently that conflicts are resolved,” he added. “The only way to follow is that of dialogue, mutual knowledge, closeness and sympathy.” Unfortunately, in order to establish a dialogue there must be two sides, two interlocutors. Hopefully alive.

Commenting between tears the death of Bishop Padovese, Father Andrea Santoro’s sister, Maddalena, said, “I hope that eyes will open in Turkey to try to understand and comprehend what there is behind this situation. Because Muslims must also be able to accept Christians, without fearing that we wish to convert people.” In the meantime many people in the Western countries are learning something new everyday about Turkey.