I first encountered Adam Curtis via 2004’s The Power of Nightmares, which I watched while I was a graduate student. It was an interesting and provocative thesis — that the rise of the neocons had a parallel in the rise of radical Islam, and that both were based in the politics of fear. His style of …
Author Archives: hnbjr
Tonfo, and Ri-Tonfo
Just to keep things somewhat organized, I’m breaking this out of today’s roundup. Yglesias, like most normal people with a sound and sober understanding of the dismal science, is totally baffled by Italy’s deeply dismal recent growth. Not that I blame him. But I think one of his commenters, Halfkidding, hits it on the nose: Italy …
The Chains are Broken, the Knives are Sharpened, the Glock is Photographed
Morning roundup: Interesting times in Tunisia. Is it the Arab’s world Gdansk or is that too much to hope for? We’ll see. But it’s something. I was heartened to see that Yglesias also excused himself from blogging extensively on Tunisia for much the same reason that I did: ignorance. But he goes a bit further …
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News from Tunisia
I am the first to admit that I know very little about neighboring Tunisia, aside from Bettino Craxi’s Hammamet exile and some happenstance encounters with Tunisian street kids in Bologna. Despite the recent death of a RAI reporter, the only North African that the Italian press will give column inches to is Ruby. But that’s …
The Sacred, the Profane and the Nothing-Based Economy
A friend recently sent me one of those scarcely credible “grosser than gross” stories that both defy and defile the imagination, and that seem to be all the more popular amid the anonymity of the internet. Yet this one was far from anonymous. and written in a style that is, by the author’s own admission, …
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Post-Holiday Post
Happy Epiphany everyone. I’m just in from an utterly exhausting holiday trip to Rovigo, Louisville and Washington DC, and after yesterday’s 24-hour trip home, I’m too spent to do much other than post this ridiculous 1951 Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Charlie the Dog. Ah, crude stereotypes of Italians and Ed Butz-like linguistic appropriations! Still, I …
More Zungu Zungu, less Bunga Bunga
This site isn’t meant to break news. But there’s been a near-perfect storm of events — so much excellent newsworthy material on Italy, the Balkans and international relations in general, and not nearly enough time to bang out a coherent thought with me being swamped with both typical and atypical end-of-year responsibilities. Some points: Berlusconi’s …
Thanksgiving Day post
You may be thinking of Ben Franklin as you dig into your turkey. Recall — as a graffito artist in my neighborhood apparently has — that the founding father also noted, as many a revolutionary did, that “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” …
Italian Neighbors
It’s been a long time since I’ve stayed up late to finish a book. But Tim Parks, with his impeccable rural Veneto credentials, has long fascinated me, and I finally got hold of his Italian Neighbors. To his credit, I could not put it down, although I was at times unsure what to make of …
Camorra boss Iovine arrested
Right on the heels of Saviano’s public row with Maroni comes the arrest of one of the Camorra’s (many) top men who’s been on the lam for 14 years: Antonio Iovine. Maroni jibed back at Saviano through the press, “this is the real antimafia, nothing else bothers me.” And here’s Saviano: “I’ve waited for this …