There is a sad story out of London that is a commentary on the mutating influence of anonymity on the Internet. Brenda Leyland killed herself after being confronted about her online abuse of the parents of the missing girl Madeleine McCann. Sky News tracked her down as the troll responsible for thousands of hate filled messages to Kate and Gerry McCann, whose three-year-old daughter went missing in Portugal in 2007. Continue reading “Death of a Troll: Suicide Highlights The Perils and Prosecution of Anonymous Speech”
Category: International
Let me put this day into five simple ten words: I was almost eaten by a wild pack of dogs. But more on that later. The day started with our saying farewell to Cianciana, the birthplace of my maternal grandparents. We watched the blessing of the bread for women gathered before the statue of St. Anthony. On the way out of town, I was called over by a group of elderly men who said that they had heard that I was a descendent of the town and that my grandfather was Dominick Piazza. One of the men was a Piazza and was named Domenico. We compared family names though it was not clear if we were related. It was a wonderful conversation as the men asked in broken English about my grandparents and America. After saying goodbye, we made our way to Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples.
We have often discussed tax policy on this blog. I am in the minority here on tax policies, particularly the high rate imposed in various countries for top earners. I am admittedly more inclined to a Chicago-school view of such high tax rates than many on this blog. This story caught my eye for obvious reasons. The French government is reporting a 20 percent increase in one year of high earners in leaving the country. We have previously discussed how such taxes produce emigration by rational actors from markets. French President Francois Hollande ran on a pledge to soak the rich in tax increases, a popular political platform but a disastrous economic plan. The result has been predictable. The French economy is in terrible condition and thousands of French families are leaving the country for England, the United States, and other countries. Now, Hollande’s government has announced that it will rescind the tax increase. Hollande and his socialist allies refused to accept the obvious impact of such a tax and now, a few years later, it will remove the tax after losing a huge amount of high earner tax dollars.
Today, Leslie and I drove from Cianciana to the coastal city of Sciacca, a gorgeous city famous for its ceramics and its seafood. It is about 50 minutes from Cianciana (unless you get lost as we did), but it is worth the trip.
We arrived in Sicily this afternoon from Rome. Our excitement was dampened when we discovered a two-hour delay in people waiting at Hertz to rent cars. The scene was a madhouse, including two men who came close to blows after one picked up a low-numbered ticket off the ground to skip ahead in line. Hertz left dozens of travelers in total chaos with only two people working the desk for much of the time. Once we got our car from Hertz, we discovered that Auto Europe had sent us a GPS with only North American maps. I kid you not. I spent an hour on the phone only to get Auto Europe to confirm what I already knew: their GPS would only take us to locations in North America because no one at Auto Europe loaded European maps. We ended up having to rent a GPS at the Catania airport and set out almost 4 hours late.
Continue reading “Day 4: The Long Winding Road Home (Cianciana, Sicily)”
Italians know how to do babies. Cute plump cherubs abound in this city. Of course, some are more improvised than others like this clown who performed in the Piazza Navona.
Continue reading “Day 4: Babies From The Demented To The Divine (Rome)”
Our third day in Rome was a tour de force of quintessential Roman sites and Roman food. To put it simply in Roman terms, everything was perfecto from the start to the end when we made it back to our hotel at 11pm.
The concepts of traffic lanes and right of way remain as incomprehensible in Italy as the Atkins diet. As this picture taken yesterday attests, Italians continue to treat signs as entirely discretionary matters when it comes to driving or parking. In this picture, a street was virtually shutdown due to traffic when the driver in the silver car (an impeccably dressed businessman) simply parked in the middle of street and walked away. That’s it. Close enough for Rome, arrivederci! He just walked away and never looked back.
We have just returned from our second day in Rome with our heading spinning with sights both macabre and magnificent. The day brought us to catacombs of the Capuchin order and cardinals offering mass in St. Peters. Those sights were supplemented by exquisite gelato and intoxicating Vin Santo. We are stuffed and satiated in our lovely hotel room at the Villa Pinciana on a cool and crisp Roman evening.
We are in our second day in Rome and having a ball. After a morning of church and crypt visits, we are about to join an arranged tour of the Vatican. However, one unnerving sign outside of the hotel stood out.
Continue reading “Roman Question Of The Day: What Does This Street Sign Warn Could Happen To You?”
One of the chief objections to nuclear power is the catastrophic implications of nuclear accidents or leaks. No better examples of that danger can be found in the aftermath of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. Reports out this week show precisely how lasting such damage can be.
We have been discussing the trillions of dollars spent on Iraq and Afghanistan while we cut environmental, scientific, and educational programs on the state and federal levels. Now, we are only a couple of weeks into the newest war against Islamic State but we have already spent an estimated $1.1 billion. Of course, President Obama has stated that he does not require any congressional approval for the war, which has been described by his Administration as having an indefinite duration. In the meantime, our latest war has been a bonanza for weapons manufacturers, including a $251 million deal to buy more Tomahawks from Raytheon Co after we unloaded on the Islamic State.
Continue reading “Campaign Against Islamic State Now Tops $1 Billion”
We arrived this morning (October 8th) on an all-night flight at 9:00 am in Rome. Unfortunately despite two glasses of wine and an Advil PM, my record of never sleeping on planes remained unchanged. However, Leslie and I resolved to stay the course and not take a nap after checking into our hotel, Villa Pinciana. We set out immediately in what proved a great day of walking all over Rome. I have included some of the pictures from my iPhone from today.
I am happily ensconced this morning at that beautiful Villa Pinciana not far from the Roman steps in Roma, Italy. Besides the beauty of this location and this hotel, one other thing is likely to stand out for American travelers not just at this but virtually all hotels in this country: free wifi. As many of you know, I have long complained about the practice of high-end hotels charging ridiculous fees for wifi while cheaper hotels (and countless coffee shops, restaurants, and other establishments) offer it for free.(Here and here and here) It is an open gouging of business travelers but these hotels which are charging hundreds of a night only to demand that guests pay them for something free on the street. Now there is a small victory against the corporate greed of high-end hotels. Marriott has agreed to pay a $600,000 fine after the Federal Communications Commission found the company blocked consumer Wi-Fi networks last year during an event at a hotel and conference center in Nashville. Of course, nothing changes in Marriott ripping off guests for wifi generally, but they stand to do the electronic version of poisoning wells to force travelers to drink at their well.
The Islamic group Boko Haram has a new outrage to its credit. According to Reverend Gideon Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese in Borno State, the group has burned down over 180 churches in the West African country. It appears that the group views Islam as allowing for no other form of faith.
Continue reading “Nigerian Islamic Militants Reportedly Torch Over 180 Churches”