The only surprising things about the fall of Romano Prodi’s governemnt last night – following a vote of no confidence which was defeated in the lower house, but passed in the Senate where Prodi’s majority has always been in single figures- was a)how long it took and b) the surprise itself that greeted Clemente Mastella’s […]
Padre Pio has been in the news here lately – or rather he’s been more in the news lately. The decision to exhume his body has caused no small amount of controversy, while historian Sergio Luzzatto has recieved more than his fair share of villification from the faithful thanks to the release of his book […]
Apparently, the Irish Times‘s house seer John Waters believes the Intertube and bloggers are contributing factors in the Decline of West. Perhaps that explains why www.johnwaters.ie (featuring a fetching pic of Mr Waters in full-bearded “Iron John” mode) will forever be “coming soon”. But pace Waters’s opinion of the emptiness of bloggers’ “discourse,” can I […]
A lorry driver died in the 20-mile queue at the Ukrainian-Polish border crossing at Dorohusk. Warsaw sat up and noticed: Poland has an eastern border. To be sure, Poland’s joining the Schengen pact has meant its virtual closure to Ukrainians, but the emphasis in the national press had been more on the feel-good opening of […]
The reaction, from the political world and the ‘fourth estate’ to the decision of 67 Academics at La Sapienza University to protest the invitation to Pope Benedict XVI to address students at the start of the Academic year has been vicious. As already documented in this blog, most mainstream commentators ranging from the President Napolitano, and Prime minister Romano Prodi through to newspapers like the Corriere della Sera, have framed the scuffle at La Sapienza very much along the lines established by the Vatican Press office – i.e it was a shameful display of illiberal intollerance to ‘prevent’ the Pope from speaking last week at the University.
No, not Heath Ledger. Rather “Doug Krantz, 27, a New York University student and Iraq war veteran,” who turned up outside the actor’s Manhattan home upon hearing of his death. His reason?”I have a sick fascination with morbid stuff.”
Barring a miracle, or infernal deal, Romano Prodi’s government will fall later today, when a vote of confidence in which one of his coalition allies, the UDEUR party, will vote against him. It’s been on the cards since last week, when Justice minister (and leader of the UDEUR party) resigned his post following a blitz […]
As plunging stock markets expose the fallacies of the widely flogged “decoupling theory” (Google returns almost 65,000 hits for the query “decoupling + United States + economy”), it seems hard to disagree with the arguments of President George W. Bush (as channeled by The Onion): While speaking to a group of White House reporters, President […]
RTE’s website coverage of today’s turmoil in the world’s financial markets kicks off with the following, interest-deflating headline: “US economy already in recession – consultant.”Alas, the subheading “Oh no it isn’t! – another consultant” is nowhere to be seen.On a tangential note, Louis XVI famously wrote “rien” (“nothing”) as a journal entry for July 14, […]