Italy Comments On Government & Religion

Last week Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was assaulted and suffered a broken nose. Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI was knocked down while leading religious services in St. Peter' Basilica. Both assailants were off the street individuals. Nothing points to an organization or a conspiracy behind the two attackers. All this added to the events in Iran where the government is seriously disconnected from its people and it looks like developing trend.

What's this all mean? On its face it looks like two deranged people exercising an anarchistic attitude. If these violent incidents continue and also spread to more countries then something deeper is at work. I.E. a revulsion against extremes and caricatures of power who are bigoted or consumed with only self interest.

Et Tu Berlusconi?

Prime Minister of Italy ,Silvio Berlusconi got a broken nose, split lip and broken teeth from a voter in Italy yesterday in the city of Milan. That was Berlusconi's home town. In these days of would be empires e.g. , al Qaida and the United States which are projecting their aspirations among the remains of former empires -Italy's Roman Empire being the most famous- the assault on Berlusconi is worth noting. 

A quick look of Berlusoni's history on Wikipedia involves about a 2-3  foot scroll down of mostly allegations of criminal conduct without convictions. The allegations range from collusion with the Mafia in assorted schemes through corruption and bribery of the police and judges to tax fraud and criminal accounting techniques. His personal moral rap sheet is another matter.

But Berlusconi on a number of occasion has used his postion as head of state to pass laws in Italy's paliament to protect himself from prosecution and conviction. In two or three court battles the proceedings were stopped  because of a statute of limitations law that was passed by his majority in parlaiment while the court was in session.

One can understand the frustration of Berlusconi's assailant. One can hardly understand why there was only one such incident in Berlusoni's long tenure. Anyway, Berlusconi got off a lot easier than former empire dreamers Julius Caesar and Benito Mussolini did. 

All empires dissolve because of corruption. There will always be corruption . But the best way to limit it is to have more power locally so the corruption can be accessed and stopped more quickly and easily. I predict that this physical voter activism towards deseriving unindicted criminal politicians  will gain more popularity. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are on many short lists if opportunity provides an opening.