Welcome to Free Republic. To give you some idea of the political parameters here, Silvio Berlusconi is considered one of the good guys. Fabrizio Quattrocchi is considered a martyr, now resting with the saints. Orianna Fallaci gets the occasional marriage proposal here.
Romano Prodi is considered a fool, the Olive Tree Coalition considered worthless, Brussels a nightmare and the Euro a disaster.
Regards, Ivan
Ciao MadIvan,
Some I agree. Especially Fabrizio Quattrocchi, a true hero who didn't even get a proper State Funeral. He is actually very much emblematic of the Italian character, which, despite the bad fame of Italian soldiers, can at the very bitter end have its moment of looking death in the face courage.
Mostly we are happy, hedonistic charlatans, easy to smile and always joking, believing (pretending to believe) in nothing. But then in the end, there can be a surprising strength. Quattorcchi was like that. "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!"
The Olive Tree Coalition is quite similar to what has happened to the USA democrats... a great and shocking infiltration of cartoon characters who have completely forgotten what rationality, reason, moderation, patience, tolerance, and fairplay is in politics. They instead demonize and use and abuse character assassination. Like in some circles the name (the phoneme) "Bush" already says it all (like saying Frankenstein), so too has the crazy Italian left made "Berlusconi" like a curse word.
Oriana is brilliant and you know she is sincere, speaking right from the heart because the poor woman is dying so what good is money from the CIA or the Mossad or from even her publisher? It is like a last will.
Islam is simply not compatible. It is the exact opposite of the wine, women and song of Italy.
Brussels is a nightmare, but reformable and a united Europe is better than endless wars between Utah and Nevada, Michigan against Wisconsin.
I don't know economic theory. For now all I can tell you is that the changeover to the Euro has been hard, especially on the poorer people. I am not wealthy and I have made many mistakes in my life, so I feel the hit. But here in Italy we used to have the Lira which was so ridiculous that a car would be calculated in millions! A bus ride in thousands. A good house in the city in billions.
Nice summary!