Berlusconi is even worse than I thought

To my utter disbelief, he is pushing his demagogic campaign on behalf of Alitalia into overt illegality. The European Union is investigating the loan he has ordered forthe company, and instead of taking a step back, he has the nerve to threaten Europe with - get this - State re-purchase of the airline! As if the coffers of Italy were not empty; as if Alitalia were not broke and in need of knackering; and as if the European Commission were a minor opponent! This is the body that has baffled Jack Welsh and beaten Bill Gates. And it would be in the right anyway.

Sooner or later someone has to ask this

Why is it that every teen-age starlet turned out by Walt Disney turns out, as soon as she turns 16 (or even sooner) to be a committed public tart?

Beyond belief

Two days - count'em: two days - before the most important local elections in recent history, just as the Labour mayor Ken Livingstone is in serious danger of defeat by the Tory challenger Boris Johnson, a Labour MP from central London, Kate Hoey, announces that if the Tory candidate wins, she will become his adviser for sports (not an insignificant portfolio in the run-up to the London Olympics of 2012).

No. That is not what is incredible.

What is incredible is that her own party did not drum her out before the ink was dry on the newspapers. Anyone supporting an opponent during an election would inevitably be expelled from any self-respecting party. But Labour have left Hoey alone.

Their excuse?

That she did not endorse Boris for the election - only offer to work for him afterwards.

Strange place, the Labour Party under Gordon Brown.

I cannot recommend this too much

superversive is without any doubt the most intelligent and penetrating mind I have met on the Net. This essay: http://superversive.livejournal.com/67317.html goes to the core of why we love what we love in fiction, and is the most thought-provoking and profound thing I ever read on the subject, not excluding GK Chesterton and CS Lewis. It is very long, but for the love of good literature, make time in all your busy schedules and READ IT!