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talking of 'blob', i watched it the other day for the first time for quite a while. for those who don't know it, it's a 15 minute round up/collage of video, broadcast in peak evening viewing time on Rai, the state tv.
the satire really bites, all done through clever (often brilliant) juxtaposition of comedy, ads, kitsch and such to 'serious' pols yapping. the effect is chaplinesque, heavy on political pratfalls, gleefully wicked, even risqué.
it's a treasured national institution, and does a great job both of skewering the self-important and highlighting the felliniesque surreality show that is italian politics...
i don't know 'le canard enchainé', but i'd say it's a good equivalent of Private Eye in the UK, though totally different in its humour. 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
Berlusconi has constantly insulted and been enraged by Fini's positions on issues. But numbers are tyranny. Berlusconi cannot do without him. Just four days ago, Berlusconi called him a traitor.
It is out of the question that Fini would ever be a successor to Berlusconi. Their visions of the state and government are incompatible.
The Italian program "Blob" is fantastic, a national institution. I was referring however to the 1950's horror film with a very young Steve McQueen in which a Blob absorbs everything, turning it into an indistinct mass, a paradigm of our times.
Berlusconi cannot do without him. Just four days ago, Berlusconi called him a traitor.
Passion is of course a good thing, and I am often reminded by the lack of it in Nordic discussions. But passion is not a weathercock spinning any way the wind takes it - or at least useful passion is not.
For me, passion is more intellectual than hormonal. So-called passionate people such as Berlusconi are entirely guided by the contents of their trousers. I doubt if any of his passion is guided by any organ above the belt. You can't be me, I'm taken
I recall an article I recently read about some paparazzi who managed to photo him having sex with five(5!) models (called "vielos", "velioris" or something like that). The man is 72 years old! And the girls probably were only slightly older than that, all five of them together.
Ah, well, poor deGondi. I remember when he moaned that we were just making fun of his country, and that no one ever wrote about the cutting edge hi-tech industrial companies of Milano and so on...
Well. Sure. But... Italy is just too outrageous! I mean, Cicciolina, Gladio, P2, the nuclear phaseout, Berlusconi becoming prime minister, resigning because of corruption, becoming prime minister again, resigning again etc, Mussolini, Mussolini fandom, Mussolinis granddaughter as a major politician, Italian commercials (what we in the rest of Europe call soft porn), mobs attacking gypsie camps, Lega Nord wanting to build a wall along the Slovenian border, the Pope, the Eternal City, great wine, greater wine, Mussolini wine, even greater food, Carabineris, the N'drangeta, the N'drangeta having shootouts at Pizzerias in small German cities, a complete failure to deal with the trash in Napoli, Mara Carfagna as minister of equality just because Berlusconi want to oogle at her tits, Berlusconi insulting people like Sarko at random (about his wife!) etc etc etc! Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Catania votes en masse for anything Berlusconi throws their way and then goes and dumps garbage in front of city hall because public administrators haven't been paid in ages. The national light company cut the city electricity for not paying bills for years. All the city cops have been promoted to officer: there are only four simple cops in all Catania. Scampagnini ran the city from a deluxe hotel suite and dallied with Brazilian samba dancers (Ah! The sultry Surama!) at the city's expense.
So yes. Catania is governed below the belt. Berlusconi throws extraordinary state fundings at Catania whenever necessary. Doesn't even personally pick up the bill. He probably even writes off the pharmacy bill. Italy subsidizes Silvio's dick.
Another reason for Starvid to love Italy. Even I love Catania- despite what I have just written.
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