Unlike Reagan and Thatcher, Berlusconi owns or controls the television of his country. While they were intent on destroying mid-twentieth-century Keynesian economics and institutions, they did not seek to shake public faith in their countries' democratic institutions by bringing them into disrepute. Berlusconi seizes on every opportunity - particularly when he is up against difficulty or open opposition - to up the ante and push political institutions to the brink. Whether that makes him a Mussolini clone or just a Mafia-driven loonie is moot.

Let's hope he's bitten off more than he can chew this time.

So when you make pasta, do you put some oil in the water or do you not do so?

in my experience, italians usually don't, but they often add a teaspoon or so of raw EV olive oil drizzled over the freshly strained pasta, or over the served dish itself.

salt in the cooking water seems to be essential, however.

nothing could be more italian than to morph the conversation towards food at any time!

:)

now back to flying cathedrals...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

Think of him as the Hugo Chavez of the right, and you'll get pretty close.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.