Cute, right? She's Bristol, daughter of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and recently outed as seven months pregnant, which means the birth will coincide neatly with the election. He's the prospective father. He's called Levi Johnston, he's also 17, and, according to his MySpace page, he's 'in a relationship', but says 'I don't want kids'. Well, you're clearly not very bright, Levi. People who don't want kids don't fuck the daughter of a gun-totin' pro-lifer running for VP. Thanks to Joe My God for the photo.
The custody of a sixteen year old boy in Catania, Sicily, has been transferred - against the boy's will - from his mother to his father. This is unusual in Italy, where mothers tend to be favoured over fathers, and even more so in Sicily, where traditional roles die hard. The mother's furious, the boy's furious, the only person who seems to be happy is the father. Why? Because his son, with the help of a local magistrate, has been rescued from the pernicious maws of an extremist group. Which one? The local Tienanmen chapter of Italy's Giovani comunisti (young communists). It's not exactly Al Qaida. Incensed, the secretary of Rifondazione Comunista has asked the President of Italy for an explanation.
Except that, as with most stories in Italy, this one doesn't quite add up. The mother's lawyer says one thing, the local magistrate another. In the meantime, the boy, whose father has accused him of hanging out with drug-riddled subversives, is studying for make-up exams and going to the beach. What makes this a story is the odd - and justifiable - anxiety in Berlusconi's Italy that basic political rights are being eroded.
If you want to read what La Repubblica has to say about the story, click here.
The Destruction of the Father is the name of a piece by Louise Bourgeois. She describes it in this way: This piece is basically a table, the awful, terrifying family dinner table headed by the father who sits and gloats. And the others, the wife, the children, what can they do'? They sit there, in silence. The mother, of course, tries to satisfy the tyrant, her husband... So, in exasperation, we grabbed the man, threw him on the table, dismembered him and proceeded to devour him.
According to its promoters, the Family Day demonstration a few weeks ago, designed to fight government proposals for recognition of civil unions, attracted a million people. That's more or less one sixtieth of the population and enough, says Paola Binetti, self-mortifying defender of the faith, to rule out civil union legislation in Italy. Hmm.The standard estimate is that one tenth of the Italian population is gay. That would mean that 100,000 participants at this year's Gay Pride (in Rome on 16 June - be there!) would have the same demographic weight as Family Day. It would, in other words, cancel it out. What's more, if there are over 100,000 participants, let's say 200,000, by Binetti's logic this would be enough to rule out opposition to DICO legislation. The ball would then be in their court. Family Day Two? Second Family Day? The latter would certainly be more approriate for most of the philandering centre-right politicians who took part in the first.
According to research conducted by Vincenzo Mastronardi of Rome's La Sapienza, a murder is committed within the walls of the Italian family home every other day (to be precise, 174 in Italy in 2005). The most murderous group is composed of the male partners, both married and unmarried; these are followed by infanticides, matricides and patricides; in third place are brothers and sisters in law, cousins etc. The least likely group to top another family member? Mothers in law.
Family Day sì! Family Day no!
Last Saturday, over a million people (I’m quoting the organisers’ possibly over-generous estimate) gathered in Piazza San Giovanni, Rome, to assist the Vatican hierarchy in its dirty war against civil union legislation and, indirectly, the centre-left government. On the same day, in Smirne, Turkey, a million and a half people gathered to protest against the interference of religious bodies in the affairs of the state. Italy is a member of the EU; Turkey would like to be. I’ll let you decide which of the two countries was closer to the spirit of Europe last Saturday.
A woman with seven children, present at Family Day, was asked how she managed. Her answer: God provides. So what was she doing at a demonstration demanding more state support for those with fertile incontinence large families? Trying to have her host and eat it?
Listening to people talk in favour of Family Day it would seem that the only criterion that distinguishes a family from any other form of social aggregation—and that gives it inestimably added value—is breeding capacity. No progs, no parity. It used to be common to hear gay people refer to straights as breeders. Maybe it still is. But I never expected to find this idea taken so firmly on board by ‘Eggs’ Benedict and his merry band. (Although, thinking about it…)
A commentator on Italian state television (TG2, to be precise) said that the Family Day demonstrators were there to stand firm against a Europe that wanted to ban the use of words like Mummy and Daddy.
The buses and trains used to ferry the faithful to the demonstration from all over Italy, at the cost of something like a million Euro, were paid for by the Vatican, using money provided from people’s taxes (otto per mille*) for charitable work and the upkeep of the church. It’s an odd definition of charity. Or maybe large families can’t afford a day out in Rome without a handout. I wonder who paid for the ice cream.
*Otto per mille. Italian tax payers can devolve 0.8% of the tax they pay to a religious body of their choosing. Most of the people who bother devolve it to the Vatican (maybe as a result of the constant TV advertising, paid for by this money). The percentage of tax that isn’t assigned to anyone is divided up in the same proportions as that which is. The Vatican, in other words, gets a substantial slice of revenue from people who don’t want to give it to them. In Italy, this freebie is part of what is known as the separation of church and state. Anyone for Turkey?
