11 February 2008

The triumph of Kultur

From Chris Floys, this classic response to a bedwetting blogger spewing the now standard complaint that "that 17 European populations such as Greece, Italy, France etc are beyond (I think he means 'below' -ed.) birth rate replacement levels."

Responding to the fear that Western culture will collapse under the weight of the outbreeding hordes of bown Muslims, Floyd writes:
Of course, the reality is that most of what we know of Greek and Roman culture (the lodestones of the flaccidists) was passed on only because it was saved by....a bunch of dirty Muslims. Otherwise, much of this legacy of human civilization would have been lost to the neglect -- and extremist frenzies -- of Christendom.

09 February 2008

'Twixt Hither and Yon

I've been in a funny sort of drift lately, and it's occurred to me that it's because I'm neither here nor there, four months shy of my next big leap into the unknown. Everything has a sort of unfinished feel to it: I'm working on my health goals, my language skills, my financial situation... and everything's a work in progress. I'm neither surging with energy or dragging myself along.

Part of it is that I'm not really in the driver's seat, for once in my life. Atlanta is pretty much a D thing, and while I'm happy enough to get out of San Diego and try something new, it's not like I'm filled with passionate intensity at the idea of living in Georgia. And so much else seems in flux: will I get my dual citizenship, will the economy crash and burn, will John McInsane become president and bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb the world?

The phrase "calm before the storm" comes to mind.

It's sunny out.

29 January 2008

the "automatic" Italian citizen

The Italian embassy has details on how to become a citizen "automatically:" if you are a descendent up to the second degree (i.e. a grandchild) of a former Italian citizen, you can obtain citizenship by living in Italy for three years.

This is perfect for me, as my grandfather renounced his Italian citizenship pretty much the moment he stepped off the boat. Now the only question is whether I do it straight (i.e. pick up and move to the boot for three years) or crooked (hang out at my cousin's for a few weeks until they send somebody around to check if I'm really living there).

Either way, perbacco, I'm becoming a citizen!

28 January 2008

the joy of HDR


uccello pescatore
Inserito originariamente da paolaccio
This is my first excursion into the wonderful world of high dynamic range imaging, and this dude happened along to give me a subject...

I'm not blown away by the quality of the image, but you do get a little sense of the psychedelic colour of the ocean yesterday... all the rain water washing down made sort of a finger-painting effect on the water.

Damn, I can see myself wasting a lot of time with this new toy...

13 January 2008

funktionslust

I just discovered this new word: funktionslust - German for “pleasure taken in what one does best.” Having spent so much of my life as a round peg trying to cram himself into square holes, it actually took some thought to figure out just what it is that I do best. Other than napping, for example, or taking long walks.

Having spent much of my spare time in the last year trying to read L'Espresso and struggling to follow Giorgia Todrani's manic raps on Radio2, it sort of belatedly came to mind that one can actually use one's language skills to make money. I've been resisting for some time the idea of changing careers, having put so much effort into getting a computer science degree even though I have no real interest in the field (other than the ability to earn a buck). To a large extent, it's a sunk cost fallacy, but so many years struggling to find a job have made me very resistant to leaving a field where I have literally never had to look for work.

Felicitously, though, translation holds out the very real promise of being able to pull together my various strengths - language, technology, writing - in a way that may be very marketable. I'm in the process of learning what I can about breaking into the field, and meanwhile have tried my hand at doing some Wikipedia translations for free.

A new adventure! Sometimes, it's just what I need.

Ama e fa' ciò che vuoi. - Sant'Agostino d'Ippona

Delusione amara

Well, the citizenship gambits all crashed and burned, so I'm left with my original plan A: living in Italy for three years, and applying at the end of the second (the old Art. 9, comma 1, lettera a del legge 5 febbraio 1992 n. 91 deal). I don't know why it knocked me back so much, I guess it is hard to imagine both of us being able to get over there and work as stranieri for three years. The idea of getting citizenship first seemed so much easier - D even joked that she might marry me now! But as always with me it seems, the right path is the hardest path. So be it.

Chilling around the apt today with a broken refrigerator, and still shaking off the effects of a rough Friday night. We keep asking ourselves why we do this to ourselves - we both seem to have such an appetite for self-destruction.

But the sun is out! Finally! Another beautiful California January day...

06 January 2008

Home is where you wear your hat

We got back from Hawai'i on Friday morning. It was kind of a weird trip - for once I had a visceral feeling of what "neither here nor there" means. After thirty months, there's really nothing left of me there... though there are familiar people and places, nothing really resonated as "mine." So, it was nice to see a lot of people, though I spent the trip in kind of a fugue state. I do feel much more comfortable here in San Diego, though it's not exactly home in any sort of emotional sense. So here I am... at least not living out of a bag! I guess I really am a nomad by nature.

Today's big news is that I heard back from the vice consul that my Italian citizenship application has taken a big step forward: a letter was sent to the National Archives checking to see if my grandfather ever naturalised. If not, then he wasn't a citizen... therefore my dad had dual citizenship and so do I.

And then...



Me? Americano? A chi lo dici?!

25 October 2007

more depredations of the Scary Dysfunctional Father in the Sky

The stupid... it burns:
They shook their fists at God and said, “We don’t care what God says, we will issue our legal brief to support gay marriage in San Diego!” Then Mayor Jerry Sanders mocked the Christian vote and signed off on this rebellious legal document to support same-sex marriage. And then the streets of La Jolla under the Mt. Soledad Cross began to cave in.

They shook their fists at God and said, “We don’t care what the Bible says, We want the California school children indoctrinated into homosexuality!” And then Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the heinous SB777 which bans the use of “mom” and “dad” in the text books and promotes homosexuality to all school children in California.

And then the wildfires of Southern California engulfed the land like a raging judgment against the radicalized anti-christian California rebels.
Crazy frickin' me: I thought it was al Qaeda...

25 September 2007

Pat Boone's "modern American fairy tale"

This just transcends satire:

Snow White and Prince Charming would have made a perfect couple, as their parents would have dreamed – but under prolonged exposure to the same hypnotic spell, the boy was seduced by each of the Dwarfs and taught in the mandatory sex education class that he'd been born "gay." When he learned he'd contracted AIDS, he overdosed on drugs that were easily obtained just outside the principal's office, on the schoolyard.
I got nothing. Really.

20 September 2007

a gathering of assholes

What chaps my ass the most is how these types of people claim to support the troops, but make that support conditional on politics...

18 September 2007

it must be hard to walk with balls that big

Roberto Saviano - one of the few people on this Earth I would consider a hero - gave a speech yesterday. A singularly unheroic act, until you consider the fact that he is under a death sentence from the camorra (the Neapolitan Mafia) for committing the unforgivable crime of writing about them. His book was a runaway bestseller in Italy and has just been translated into English. The Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs assigned him an armed guard and relocated him out of Naples for his safety.

Saviano gave a speech on the first day of school in Casal di Principe, the seat of power of the Casalesi clan of the camorra, near the city of Caserta, not far from the palaces of the old Bourbon kings. In attendance were all the students of the city, the President of the Chamber of Deputies (analogous to the American Speaker of the House, pretty much)... and Nicola Schiavone, the father of the Casalesi boss Francesco "Sandokan" Schiavone. "There's no such thing as the camorra," the old man yelled from the crowd, and tried to take the stage before being blocked by Carabinieri (national police) agents. Saviano finished the speech, speaking calmly: "These are words that injure: that they are not whispered secretly but shouted with great pride, on a day when the president of the Chamber, and the president of the Antimafia Commission is present. I believe that nothing is changed, unfortunately.”

This is a man who must run for his life for speaking the truth... whose family is in danger because he took a stand. In a place where the price of life is silent complicity, he spoke up.

That's why I call him a hero.

21 August 2007

"supporting the troops," part XXVIII

PTSD? It's your own damn fault, says the government.

It's undeniable, though, that yellow-ribbon stickers (magnetic, so as not to mar the finish on the Escalade) are far cheaper than a cognitive-behavioral or EMDR treatment program and SSRI medication.

17 August 2007

"because the government's established by the Lord, you know."

Homeland Security intends to use the opiate of the masses to keep us quiet during martial law...

16 August 2007

any candidate you want, so long as they're right-wing

The Political Compass website is the online version of the "smallest political quiz"my Libertarian friends used to carry wherever they went so they could annoy people in any setting. Seriously, though, it's useful for people who consider themselves "independents"- for many of us (especially in blogo-cyber-space-land) we're already pretty sure we're close to one or the other extreme.

If you're curious, you can take a test that places you on a grid based on the degree to which you are "left" or "right" on the economic scale as well as how socially libertarian or authoritarian you are. I, of course, am way the hell out in -9.12, -8.51 la-la land with the moonbats. w00t!

The folks who put together the website have figured out where the 2008 Presidential candidates fit on the map:

Usprimaries_2007

Some fracking choice.

"They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state."

Big Brother really is watching you...

But pay no attention to that. Look! Is that Lindsay Lohan?

15 August 2007

welcome to cyberKabul!

Apparently (according to the New York Police Commissioner), the internet is the "new Afghanistan:"
"It is the de facto training ground. It's an area of concern."

The report found that the challenge for Western authorities was to identify, pre-empt and prevent home-grown threats, which was difficult because many of those who might undertake an attack often commit no crimes along the path to extremism.

The report identified the four stages to radicalization as pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination, and jihadization, and said the Internet drove and enabled the process.
Well, I'd put myself at Stage Two, unless if by "indoctrination," the commish meant "reading." If so, I guess I'm almost ready for my "jihadization."

Since the unspoken Stage Five is "incarceration in Guantánamo," followed closely by Stage Six: "sodomization with a glow stick," I'm thinking of sticking to my paper diary...

10 August 2007

well all right then

What this country needs, apparently is another 2,996 people to die in a terror attack.

That's enlightening.

09 August 2007

today's chicken little link

The sky is going to fall in October. However, although I agree it is going to be tough in America, the shitstorm is bound to cross the Atlantic. In fact, it has begun doing so already.

The Al Gore-like graphic is here.

06 August 2007

sic semper Donklephants

There are many corners of the cosidetto "progressive blogosphere" where the Democratic party's latest act of complicity in, and support for, the steady increase in government control of our lives is being met with utter bafflement and confusion.

This is not one of those aforementioned corners.

I still remember that this is the Democratic Party that "ended welfare as we know it," imposed NAFTA, promulgated "don't ask, don't tell," and, oh yeah, that's right, overwhelmingly gave George Bush the political cover he needed to invade a country that did nothing to harm us. And they'd do it again, too.

There will be much sound and fury in the blogoverse as to whether the Ds are just the same as the Rs, or merely "the lesser evil." It is easy to lose the forest for the trees from a US-centric point of view. One thing that helps me keep perspective is that the Democratic Party would be a centre-right bloc in any nation in Europe, with the Republicans somewhere out in Front National or Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs territory.

(And before anybody asks, I'd vote Dem to keep Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney or Jean-Marie Le fucking Pen from winning California's electoral votes, but not with any real passion.)

02 August 2007

in memoriam


On August 2, 1980 at 10:25 in the morning, a bomb exploded in the second-class lounge of the Bologna train station. The explosion was very violent, causing the collapse of the entire structure over the station including the offices of the company Cigar and approximately 30 meters of the penthouse. The Ancona-Chiasso train, on the first track, was also heavily damaged. The fiery combustion of a mixture of TNT and T4 cut short the lives of people coming from 50 different cities, both Italian and foreign.

The final toll was 85 dead and 200 injured.

Il 2 agosto 1980, alle ore 10,25, una bomba esplose nella sala d'aspetto di seconda classe della stazione di Bologna. Lo scoppio fu violentissimo, provocò il crollo soccorsidelle strutture sovrastanti le sale d'aspetto di prima e seconda classe dove si trovavano gli uffici dell'azienda di ristorazione Cigar e di circa 30 metri di pensilina. L'esplosione investì anche il treno Ancona-Chiasso in sosta al primo binario. Il soffio arroventato prodotto da una miscela di tritolo e T4 tranciò i destini di persone provenienti da 50 città diverse italiane e straniere.

Il bilancio finale fu di 85 morti e 200 feriti.


The victims - Le vittime
ANTONELLA CECI anni 19
ANGELA MARINO anni 23
LEO LUCA MARINO anni 24
DOMENICA MARINO anni 26
ERRICA FRIGERIO IN DIOMEDE FRESA anni 57
VITO DIOMEDE FRESA anni 62
CESARE FRANCESCO DIOMEDE FRESA anni 14
ANNA MARIA BOSIO IN MAURI anni 28
CARLO MAURI anni 32
LUCA MAURI anni 6
ECKHARDT MADER anni 14
MARGRET ROHRS IN MADER anni 39
KAI MADER anni 8
SONIA BURRI anni 7
PATRIZIA MESSINEO anni 18
SILVANA SERRAVALLI IN BARBERA anni 34
MANUELA GALLON anni 11
NATALIA AGOSTINI IN GALLON anni 40
MARINA ANTONELLA TROLESE anni 16
ANNA MARIA SALVAGNINI IN TROLESE anni 51
ROBERTO DE MARCHI anni 21
ELISABETTA MANEA VED. DE MARCHI anni 60
ELEONORA GERACI IN VACCARO anni 46
VITTORIO VACCARO anni 24
VELIA CARLI IN LAURO anni 50
SALVATORE LAURO anni 57
PAOLO ZECCHI anni 23
VIVIANA BUGAMELLI IN ZECCHI anni 23
CATHERINE HELEN MITCHELL anni 22
JOHN ANDREW KOLPINSKI anni 22
ANGELA FRESU anni 3
MARIA FRESU anni 24
LOREDANA MOLINA IN SACRATI anni 44
ANGELICA TARSI anni 72
KATIA BERTASI anni 34
MIRELLA FORNASARI anni 36
EURIDIA BERGIANTI anni 49
NILLA NATALI anni 25
FRANCA DALL'OLIO anni 20
RITA VERDE anni 23
FLAVIA CASADEI anni 18
GIUSEPPE PATRUNO anni 18
ROSSELLA MARCEDDU anni 19
DAVIDE CAPRIOLI anni 20
VITO ALES anni 20
IWAO SEKIGUCHI anni 20
BRIGITTE DROUHARD anni 21
ROBERTO PROCELLI anni 21
MAURO ALGANON anni 22
MARIA ANGELA MARANGON anni 22
VERDIANA BIVONA anni 22
FRANCESCO GOMEZ MARTINEZ anni 23
MAURO DI VITTORIO anni 24
SERGIO SECCI anni 24
ROBERTO GAIOLA anni 25
ANGELO PRIORE anni 26
ONOFRIO ZAPPALA' anni 27
PIO CARMINE REMOLLINO anni 31
GAETANO RODA anni 31
ANTONINO DI PAOLA anni 32
MIRCO CASTELLARO anni 33
NAZZARENO BASSO anni 33
VINCENZO PETTENI anni 34
SALVATORE SEMINARA anni 34
CARLA GOZZI anni 36
UMBERTO LUGLI anni 38
FAUSTO VENTURI anni 38
ARGEO BONORA anni 42
FRANCESCO BETTI anni 44
MARIO SICA anni 44
PIER FRANCESCO LAURENTI anni 44
PAOLINO BIANCHI anni 50
VINCENZINA SALA IN ZANETTI anni 50
BERTA EBNER anni 50
VINCENZO LANCONELLI anni 51
LINA FERRETTI IN MANNOCCI anni 53
ROMEO RUOZI anni 54
AMORVENO MARZAGALLI anni 54
ANTONIO FRANCESCO LASCALA anni 56
ROSINA BARBARO IN MONTANI anni 58
IRENE BRETON IN BOUDOUBAN anni 61
PIETRO GALASSI anni 66
LIDIA OLLA IN CARDILLO anni 67
MARIA IDRIA AVATI anni 80
ANTONIO MONTANARI anni 86