Climategate - 4

There has been no particularly relevant news item in the last few days, except Christopher Booker’s superb summary of the Climategate story so far, and the fact that the reaction to the Climategate scandal has grown exponentially in the US, mainly thanks to Fox News, Barack Obama’s Nemesis, and the blogosphere. At the same time the silence of the MSM has been deafening.

Furthermore, James

First Sunday of Advent

“Veni, veni, Emmanuel” is one of the most solemn Advent hymns, whose melody was quoted by Ottorino Respighi in “The Gift of the Magi” in his Trittico Botticelliano. It is believed that the traditional music stems from a 15th Century French processional for Franciscan nuns, but it may also have 8th Century Gregorian origins.Today is the first Sunday of Advent. To live it properly, I thought the

Milano

  Italian souvenirs by Mirino

We arrived in Milan like lost babes in the wood, carefully driving the little, French number-plated Peugeot, crawling along, obviously unsure of where we were. My girl friend was engrossed in trying to understand the part of the inadequate map that didn't seem to correspond with reality. We were looking for the hotel where we had already made our reservation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

“ I have always believed that this anointed land was set apart in an uncommon way, that a divine plan placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the Earth who had a special love of faith and freedom. Our pioneers asked that He would work His will in our daily lives so America would be a land of morality, fairness, and freedom.Today we have more

Climategate - 3 (updated)

Yet another update on Climategate. As we have already learned from the previous episodes of the series, CRU hacked emails reveal a pattern by prominent climate alarmist scientists of concealing evidence contradictory to the theory of man-made global warming, manipulating scientific data, preventing conflicting reports from being published in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Climategate - 2 (updated)

“This is not a smoking gun; this is a mushroom cloud,” said Patrick J. Michaels, a climatologist who has long faulted evidence pointing to human-driven warming and is criticized in the documents.

A short supplement and a marginal note on what could turn out to be the greatest scandal in modern science. The following case, in my opinion, shows that there is something suspect about the media’s

Climategate. The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth

“If you own any shares in alternative energy companies,” writes James Delingpole in his blog for the Daily Telegraph, “I should start dumping them NOW.” Why on earth? Just ask Anthony Watts of Watt’s Up With That? and Stephen McIntrye of Climate Audit, who broke the story this morning of the hacking break-in at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. The story of how the

Tibet: a dialogue about what?

Speaking at the 5th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet, held in Rome yesterday, the Dalai Lama expressed his appreciation for the support given to him by Barack Obama, who on Tuesday discussed Tibet with China’s president, “making clear his respect for the Dalai Lama as a cultural and religious leader, and his intention to meet with the Dalai Lama at an appropriate time.” “We did note

More control of the health-care system?

The White House reports thatThe federal government made $98 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2009 […]. The 2009 total for improper payments—from outright fraud to misdirected reimbursements due to factors such as an illegible doctor's signature—was a 37.5 percent increase over the $72 billion in 2008, according to figures provided by Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of

A miracle in Arizona

Finally, a stimulus success story? Yes, if you trust the website set up by the White House to track stimulus spending. In fact, according to the above mentioned website, in Arizona’s 15th congressional district 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. Wow! Wouldn’t it be great if it were true? There seems to be one problem, though: There is no 15th

Venezia

        Italian souvenirs by Mirino

It sometime happens. Dreams coming true. A wonderful gift from a dear friend. A carnival weekend in Venice.
We arrived very early having taken the night train. The sun, pale orange-carmine, gloriously magnified, was rising to greet us, but it was very cold. The fresh wind whipped our faces. And that first cup of cappuccino in the cosy, fragrant bar was so

What we can learn from the Scandal of the Cross

There was an interesting piece in yesterday’s WSJ op-ed page on the issue of crucifixes in Italian schools (see my previous posts). In particular, after taking note—in line with the most common reactions, here in Italy, to the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights against crucifixes—that “anyone who cares about Italy’s national identity and distinctive traditions […] must give serious

"The language of Europe is translation"

As Umberto Eco once perceptively observed, “the language of Europe is translation.” Linguistic diversity, in fact, is a defining feature of Europe, whose cultural heritage includes masterpieces written originally in different languages, but common to us all thanks to a long-standing tradition of literary translation. Eco’s famous statement reappears in Leyla Dakhli’s interesting review (in

"Christophobia," a wall that hasn’t fallen yet

Yesterday, the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and I would have liked to write about that historic event. Yet, browsing the blogosphere, I realized that there was such a quantity of wonderfully written tributes that I decided to give up. But today I would like to somehow make up for the lost opportunity. In fact, what this post will be all about is another

Roma

         
        Italian souvenirs by Mirino

My unique visit to Rome was for a long weekend in September, nine years ago, for the wedding of a most worthy nephew and his beautiful and intelligent bride tedesca-italiana. It was a magical stay, not only because of the wonderful wedding, officiated in the Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Miranda (by an excellent, Liverpudlian priest) followed by a

Da Pacem Domine - Monastic Gregorian Chant

Yes, I love Gregorian Chant. Ever since I was a young boy I have been fascinated by the whole world around it. I love when the monks glide softly into the church, their white or black cowls—depending on which monastic order they belong to—billowing behind them, when they line up in silence, facing each other in long choir stalls. I love when “bells peal and the chant begins—low at first, then

Strasbourg: capital of muscular secularism

It is by no means an uncommon experience (for me, at least) to read a well-crafted piece on Italy in a foreign newspaper or magazine, whether European or American. And that’s why I feel like I have to mention this one in Time magazine. It provides a concise, yet thorough, coverage of the issue of the display of crucifixes in public school classrooms after the ruling by the European Court of Human

A blow against Europe's Christian heritage? Well, yes, actually

So the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the use of crucifixes in classrooms in Italy last Tuesday, and this because, according the seven judges ruling on the case, the compulsory display “in premises used by the public authorities” of a particular religious symbol “restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions, and the right of children

The Afghan democracy

            Opinion, by Mirino 
Is it not suspiciously strange and even hypocritical that there is no international support in favour of the conditions that Abdullah Abdullah requires in order for him to participate in the second ballot of the Afghan elections?
It's not as though he doesn't represent a considerable proportion of Afghans. It's not as though a man of his stature is of no