Latest work
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For whom the bell tolls
Read more: For whom the bell tollsBerlusconi with his party chief, Angelino Alfano. Something furiously unpopular deserves saying about the decision of Silvio Berlusconi’s lieutenants to quit the Italian government, plunging the country into a crisis all know it doesn’t need: they are loyal. Berlusconi founded his party two decades ago thanks zeal, cash, insider connections,…
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Flash and burn
Read more: Flash and burnNowhere to go in Bahrain. The flash-mob revolts sweeping the Middle East are not what they seem. They are not the product of years of intellectual dissent or a pent-up rage for democratic reform. They are the resentful culmination years of despair among a generation of disenfranchised youth recently emboldened…
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Drink that sweater!
Read more: Drink that sweater!Maybe, whispers my inner Neville Chamberlain, she was merely being clever. Dating over age 40 reminds me of a 1960s song called “I Saw Her Again Last Night.” The band — sit still, kids — is called the Mamas & the Papas. As John Phillips sings the refrain for a…
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Dream machine
Read more: Dream machineOnce upon a time… First — no, probably not first, but let’s say so — I came across a piece about Italy’s Marche region. It was spring 2005. “Is This the Next Tuscany?” asked the headline. Cheap homes. Simple people. Good food. “Apricot-scented” wine. “I bring you a taste of…
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Dissolute, resolute, in charge
Read more: Dissolute, resolute, in chargeWho can put the master of populism on the defensive? Italy has no identity separate from Silvio Berlusconi. The last two national votes, in 2001 and 2006, centered around his person, the latter swelled with the recrimination and brittle chafing that have since returned to characterize a polarized and tedious…
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Devil’s advocate
Read more: Devil’s advocatePutin and Crimea: not as premeditated as some pundits suggest. The dogs of war and the words of war can chase each other’s tails. That was certainly the case in August 1914, when London dailies whipped up a rhetorical frenzy on par with the fierceness of the war to come,…
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