Italians may never become "Euroskeptics" like many of their neighbors to the north, but their famous enthusiasm for the EU is being tested by a recession that some politicians
want to blame on Brussels.
Read the whole thing.
Notes and observations. Diversions and digressions. All done far too infrequently.
Italians may never become "Euroskeptics" like many of their neighbors to the north, but their famous enthusiasm for the EU is being tested by a recession that some politicians
want to blame on Brussels.
So let me get this straight. Justice Scalia won't cite international law because he is afraid of defending his views of originalism? Given that Justice Scalia has been touring around the country giving lectures defending his philosophy and engaging in extensive Q-and-A sessions, often before before quite hostile audiences, that seems a rather strange suggestion. The claim that Justice Thomas "has no intellectual curiosity" is just lame, offered (of course) with no evidence or explanation. Any one who has ever had a conversation with Justice Thomas would recognize the suggestion as absurd. You can agree or disagree with Thomas's deeply-held views, of course, but to interpret profound disagreement as lack of curiosity seems a bit out-of-bounds.
I see the following conversation taking place in Italia:
1st Italian: Islam is sometimes evil and oppressive.
2nd Italian: You can’t say that! POLICE!! Arrest this man! He defamed Islam!
1st Italian: But in some Islamic countries, you cn be put to death for preaching Christianity, Hinduism or Judaism.
2nd Italian: Well, we don’t allow that kind of hate. That’s why we’re better than them.
3rd Italian: “Better� than “them�?! You can’t say that! POLICE!! Arrest this man! He defamed Islam!
An on it goes. What will the New York Times say on its editorial page?
Q: How do you explain what you describe as this change in Krugman?A: I guess if you're a columnist, you want to be widely talked about and be the most e-mailed. It's the same thing that drives talk show hosts to become Jerry Springer. You end up overstating the case because it makes good reading. The problem is that economists by their nature—with a lot of "on the one hand" and "on the other hand" in their prose—can make boring reading.
ROME (Reuters) - A judge has ordered best-selling writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her native Italy on charges she defamed Islam in a recent book.
The decision angered Italy's justice minister but delighted Muslim activists, who accused Fallaci of inciting religious hatred in her 2004 work "La Forza della Ragione" (The Force of Reason).
Fallaci lives in New York and has regularly provoked the wrath of Muslims with her outspoken criticism of Islam following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
In "La Forza della Ragione," Fallaci wrote that terrorists had killed 6,000 people over the past 20 years in the name of the Koran and said the Islamic faith "sows hatred in the place of love and slavery in the place of freedom."
State prosecutors originally dismissed accusations of defamation from an Italian Muslim organization, and said Fallaci should not stand trial because she was merely exercising her right to freedom of speech.
But a preliminary judge in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, Armando Grasso, rejected the prosecutors advice at a hearing on Tuesday and said Fallaci should be indicted.
Grasso's ruling homed in on 18 sentences in the book, saying some of Fallaci's words were "without doubt offensive to Islam and to those who practice that religious faith."