Discorso all'umanità

Il discorso di fine anno che vorrei sentire.

in English

An happy child

"In all this world there is nothing so beautiful as an happy child."

Santa Claus in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902) by L. Frank Baum

Dies Natalis Invicti Solis

Le giornate riprendono ad allungarsi e la luce - e, con il suo calore, la vita - lentamente riprende vigore.

Buon 25 dicembre, giorno del Sole non vinto, che trionfa sulle tenebre.

Temporary Santa Claus

Everyone has own style

Paeceful Xmas

A day in the mind of an atheist

by David Nicholls

In the morning, when consciousness is struggling to begin facing the day, the habit of having a coffee kicks the neurons into gear. The mind stirs and is suddenly alive and aware that it is facing a new adventure. No death in sleep this time. One night though, but then again I wouldn't know, would I?

The sun casts a golden glow in the east. No illusions as to thoughts of supernatural origins begetting this nuclear furnace for the most of history, for me. Pondering how the ancients considered the Earth as the centre of everything, with the Sun revolving around it, has me thanking my lucky stars for the scientific knowledge existent today.

Heading out for my early morning stroll in the chill winter air with a thick fog encompassing all before me, gladdens the feeling that I am entering the realm of nature in the raw. No need to fear mysterious and ghostly creatures suddenly appearing out of the mist or indeed, the "Devil" arriving to take my “soul”, or any other such nonsensical happening.

The excess moisture dripping from the gum leaves and branches reminds me of the interdependence and interplay of chemicals and structures of them, and how the immensity of time has moulded all things to be as they now are in my presence.

A disappearing rabbit, a Kangaroo in the distance, the first call of a Raven with the ensuing warble of awakening magpies heralds the new day. Life, as it has been in a multitude of shapes and sizes since time immemorial prepares to live once again, to feed, to become strong, all for the purpose of eventual reproduction. My mind can hardly appreciate the thousands upon thousands of times the circle of life, for each animal I pass, has taken place.

Reality of the harshness of nature is brought home with a pile of feathers strewn at the base of a Wattle. To live, some must die and a mockery of "god is love" passes through my thoughts. How many creatures were torn asunder last night? This is not creative love - this is sadism by an all-powerful monster. I move away from these thoughts before despondency of the foolishness of a god fearing humanity sets in.

The fog gives way to the rising heat of the Sun and in the distance the mosaic patterns known so well, re-establish themselves, with my amazement as new, as though it were the first sighting. How full of wonder it is to be alive.

Breakfast is accompanied by the radio telling of all the new horrors that have taken place locally and internationally. As each item is reported, the count for religious responsibility rises and I marvel why the connection is not mainstream. My heart is saddened for those thus suffering, and in opposition, my joy in having rejected superstition somewhat ameliorates the feelings of guilt that the religious should have but do not.

Today is Sunday, and whilst billions of other people will be mumbling to their god, I will be shopping for food. I contemplate for a moment what I would think, were I a god and what effect a few billion or so whining, whinging and crawling servants would have on me. They do not even know if I really exist, yet, that does not stop them. What a sad and frightened lot is my creation. Too brainwashed to think for themselves. Back to reality land and I am oh so happy that I am not one of them.

The shopping centre is a hive of activity. A collection of humanity busily pushing and rushing and mostly looking unhappy. The cupboard was bare and now the trolley is overfull. I do not thank a god for this harvest but I do consider the effect my living has on the planet. I buy with this in mind, looking for ingredients and packaging that have the least effect on precious earthly resources. It is very noticeable that not many of my fellow purchasers are similarly discerning and I ponder if the "god will provide" philosophy is at fault. To some extent, this would have to be correct.

The car takes me away from the crowded shops. The millions-of-years-aged petrol pollutes the atmosphere as I go, leaving me reinstating promises of being thrifty as possible with its use. There is some consolation, in that of the religious people I know, most are more concerned with the actual monetary cost of fuel and it is reinforced with me that such a philosophy is flawed at the basic level.

Passing the ample supply of churches, I notice that some are full and some are not. A profound happiness enters my consciousness at having escaped the cultural absurdities of worshipping a pretend god. My luck in this can only be described as beyond belief. To be born is winning the lottery, to live for an average span is another, but to be able to think any thought without guilt or compromise, is the lottery of all lotteries.

The rest of the day is amused with natural process, and away from the ever-present reminders of godly things, such thoughts are not even entertained. The pleasure of a quiet dinner with a couple of wines, of writing to a few friends via E-Mail, of another attempt at fixing a broken gate, of phoning a family member and just contemplating the joy of living, leaves the mind in a state of comfort and serenity.

The night has arrived, it is a few hours old, and the rain is softly pelting on the western windows. The television has transformed from the entertaining to the banal and it is time to retire for this day.

As I lay in bed before sleep envelopes my Universe, I contemplate today's events. My very last thoughts, before I am unconscious once again, revolve around my incredible luck of arriving at a position of actually seeing life as life really is. The induced phantoms of a ubiquitously taught unreality lay slain, and exist no more.

I drift off into the land of Nod, and I am complete. Goodnight.

link to David Nicholls' article

Having second thoughts

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

Sono anche uno Statolatra

La nostra concezione di Dio deriva dall’antico dispotismo orientale, ed è una concezione indegna di uomini liberi. Non ha rispetto di sé stesso chi si disprezza e si definisce miserabile peccatore […] Non bisogna rimpiangere il passato o soffocare la libera intelligenza con idee che uomini ignoranti ci hanno propinato per secoli. Occorre sperare nell’avvenire e non voltarsi a guardare a cose ormai morte che, confidiamo, non rivivranno più in un mondo creato dalla nostra intelligenza.

Bertrand Russell, «Perché non sono cristiano», 1927

Does the democracy work well?

During a meeting the joint owners of a building have to debate about the idea to paint the external walls of their house.

There are 3 groups:

• group A: 10 joint owners want to paint the house and they like yellow;
  
• group B: 10 joint owners want to paint the house and they think a yellow house is ugly;
  
• group C: 10 joint owners don't want to paint their house, but if they have to do, they would like yellow.
  

The apartment house manager can decide how they will vote. I have two alternatives: in a single round (1st strategy) or in two (2nd strategy).

1. Just one question:
   
   "Do you want to paint your house in yellow?"
   
   Result: NO. Groups B hate yellow and group C don't want to pain the house.
   
   
2. Two sequential questions:
   
   "Do you want to paint your house?"
   
   Result: YES. Group A and B win again group C.
   
   "Do you like yellow?"
   
   Result: YES. Only group B don't like yellow.
   
   Final result: YES.
   

The question is: who have the power to decide, the apartment house manager or joint owners?

Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Winston Churchill

Well done Mr Clever

Why?

Christmas(s) or Christmyth?

by Keith S Cornish

Truth or fiction? Let us examine the evidence.

There are four gospels in the New Testament but only Matthew and Luke include reference to the virgin birth. The gospel of Mark was the first to be written but not until about sixty years after the supposed event. Paul, writing in the fifties, also was unaware of a virgin birth.

Surely it is significant that these two first Christian writers knew nothing about something that looms so largely in Christianity today.

With Mark's gospel in hand, Matthew and Luke introduced the virgin birth though they disagree in regard to the father of Joseph. They followed the same sequence of later events, though they certainly embellished the story. 

The first chapter of Luke tells of the miraculous impregnation of Mary's cousin Elisabeth to produce John the Baptist. Six months later the angel Gabriel informed the Virgin Mary that the Holy Ghost would 'come upon' her and make her pregnant also. Not 'by your leave' or 'may it be so' - just 'this is how it will be' without any option.

How did Mary, or how does anyone, identify an angel? Have they wings or special clothing? By a remarkable coincidence these two acts of annunciation and impregnation of a virgin and the birth and adoration were portrayed sixteen centuries earlier, when Egypt was ruled by Amenhotep III and can be seen today in the Temple of Amen at Luxor.

As Matthew says, Mary was engaged to Joseph and, when it became evident that she was pregnant, he was upset to find that he was a cuckold, but an angel explained the situation to him in a dream. No doubt Mary explained the source of her pregnancy to her parents and friends, as a virgin would do today. 'Virgin' births were common in those far away times but not so now.

Luke pin-points the time of the birth as when Augustus ordered a census of the 'whole' world. There was a limited census of the Roman citizens in 8 AD but that would not apply to the Jews. There was no reason for Joseph to go to Bethlehem and certainly none that made it necessary for Mary to go. 

Joseph had trouble finding accommodation in Bethlehem. Probably his relatives had died out or were swamped by the influx, for even the inn had no room, so Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger.

Today the birth is celebrated on December 25th but Luke says it occurred when there were shepherds attending their sheep by night, so it could not have been in mid-winter. 

An angel announced the event to the shepherds and suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host praising god (Yahweh). When the performance ended the shepherds proceeded to Bethlehem, found the infant Jesus and made known what the angels had told them. Obviously the angels were close to the earth because it is necessary to have air for the transition of sound. Angels must have special means of propulsion through the void to 'heaven' as wings are useless without air. 

We return now to the version of Matthew who says that Jesus was born in the days of Herod, the king, who died in 4 BC (this is a discrepancy of 12 years from the birth date given by Luke.) 

Wise men came from the east to worship Jesus, for they had seen his star. This troubled Herod, who demanded to be told where Jesus should be born and, when told, he instructed the wise men to go, confirm the news and report back. Guided by the star, the wise men went to Bethlehem and the star now stood precisely over the place of the birth. It must have been a very little star and only about 100 metres above the stable to be directly above it. 

The wise men worshipped Jesus and presented their treasures of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They did not undertake a long arduous journey to present trifling gifts so the substantial bounty intended for Jesus must have been dispersed while he was a baby, for he claimed to be poor and he advocated poverty. 

Being warned in a dream by Yahweh, they did not report to Herod and returned home by another route. After they had departed, Joseph was warned by an angel in a dream to flee to Egypt with his family. This he did by night.

Herod ordered the slaughter of all the infants two years old and under throughout the area. The Jewish historian at that time, Josephus, records the barbarous acts of Herod but, strangely, does not mention this one. 

When Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying: Take the young child and his mother into the land of Israel. This Joseph did but when he heard that Herod's son, Archelaus, was now the ruler, he was afraid. Notwithstanding, being warned by Yahweh in a dream, he turned aside and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. There is no reliable record of Nazareth existing in that period. Joseph was ignorant that Galilee was also ruled by another of Herod's sons.

It goes to show just how important angels and dreams were to Yahweh as a means of imparting vital messages to human beings. 

Since the days of Sigmund Freud, Yahweh has not been using dreams but concentrating on visions of the Virgin Mary or her image to deliver his messages. 

The winter solstice has always been a time for celebration in the Northern Hemisphere. Christians just took over the Roman Saturnalia festival. 

Let us still celebrate this time, not as a Christian festival, but in its original context.

link to Keith S Cornish's article

Quod gratis adfirmatur, gratis negatur

Euclide

Two States and one (poor) thought

Santa Luzia

L'attualità della questione morale

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Una repubblica democratica fondata sul lavoro

...

I'm falling down

taken by Roberto Miorelli

Legge di Guizot:

si cade sempre dalla parte da cui si pende.

15 nuove poesie incivili

Saint Nicholas vs Coca Cola's Santa Claus

There is always a bit of a 'battle' between Saint Nicholas believers and Santa Claus believers going on, and in general, it is considered 'not done' to give too much of attention to Santa Claus before Saint Nicholas day is over and the bisshop has left the country on the next day.

Disgust

Politics is the art of stopping people from minding their own business.

Paul Valery

I've tried to understand, but too hard for me: something escapes my mind.

Someone is right

Who?

L'importante è essere ottimisti

I knew it!

Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

Irving Fisher, perhaps the first celebrity economist, a few days before the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

I'm bright

The future looks bright

by Richard Dawkins

Language can help to shape the way we think about the world. Richard Dawkins welcomes an attempt to raise consciousness about atheism by co-opting a word with cheerful associations.

I once read a science-fiction story in which astronauts voyaging to a distant star were waxing homesick: "Just to think that it's springtime back on Earth!" You may not immediately see what's wrong with that, so ingrained is our unconscious northern hemisphere chauvinism. "Unconscious" is exactly right. That is where consciousness-raising comes in.
I suspect it is for a deeper reason than gimmicky fun that, in Australia and New Zealand, you can buy maps of the world with the south pole on top. Now, wouldn't that be an excellent thing to pin to our class- room walls? What a splendid consciousness-raiser. Day after day, the children would be reminded that north has no monopoly on up. The map would intrigue them as well as raise their consciousness. They'd go home and tell their parents.
The feminists taught us about consciousness-raising. I used to laugh at "him or her", and at "chairperson", and I still try to avoid them on aesthetic grounds. But I recognise the power and importance of consciousness-raising. I now flinch at "one man one vote". My consciousness has been raised. Probably yours has too, and it matters.
I used to deplore what I regarded as the tokenism of my American atheist friends. They were obsessed with removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance (it was inserted as late as 1954), whereas I cared more about the chauvinistic nastiness of pledging allegiance to a flag in the first place. They would cross out "In God we Trust" on every dollar bill that passed through their hands (again, it was inserted only in 1956), whereas I worried more about the tax-free dollars amassed by bouffant-haired televangelists, fleecing gullible old ladies of their life savings. My friends would risk neighbourhood ostracism to protest at the unconstitutionality of Ten Commandments posters on classroom walls. "But it's only words," I would expostulate. "Why get so worked up about mere words, when there's so much else to object to?" Now I'm having second thoughts. Words are not trivial. They matter because they raise consciousness.
My favourite consciousness-raising effort is one I have mentioned many times before (and I make no apology, for consciousness-raising is all about repetition). A phrase like "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should clang furious bells of protest in the mind, just as we flinch when we hear "one man one vote". Children are too young to know their religious opinions. Just as you can't vote until you are 18, you should be free to choose your own cosmology and ethics without society's impertinent presumption that you will automatically inherit your parents'. We'd be aghast to be told of a Leninist child or a neo-conservative child or a Hayekian monetarist child. So isn't it a kind of child abuse to speak of a Catholic child or a Protestant child? Especially in Northern Ireland and Glasgow where such labels, handed down over generations, have divided neighbourhoods for centuries and can even amount to a death warrant?
Catholic child? Flinch. Protestant child? Squirm. Muslim child? Shudder. Everybody's consciousness should be raised to this level. Occasionally a euphemism is needed, and I suggest "Child of Jewish (etc) parents". When you come down to it, that's all we are really talking about anyway. Just as the upside-down (northern hemisphere chauvinism again: flinch!) map from New Zealand raises consciousness about a geographical truth, children should hear themselves described not as "Christian children" but as "children of Christian parents". This in itself would raise their consciousness, empower them to make up their own minds and choose which religion, if any, they favour, rather than just assume that religion means "same beliefs as parents". I could well imagine that this linguistically coded freedom to choose might lead children to choose no religion at all.
Please go out and work at raising people's consciousness over the words they use to describe children. At a dinner party, say, if ever you hear a person speak of a school for Islamic children, or Catholic children (you can read such phrases daily in newspapers), pounce: "How dare you? You would never speak of a Tory child or a New Labour child, so how could you describe a child as Catholic (Islamic, Protestant etc)?" With luck, everybody at the dinner party, next time they hear one of those offensive phrases, will flinch, or at least notice and the meme will spread.
A triumph of consciousness-raising has been the homosexual hijacking of the word "gay". I used to mourn the loss of gay in (what I still think of as) its true sense. But on the bright side (wait for it) gay has inspired a new imitator, which is the climax of this article. Gay is succinct, uplifting, positive: an "up" word, where homosexual is a down word, and queer, faggot and pooftah are insults. Those of us who subscribe to no religion; those of us whose view of the universe is natural rather than supernatural; those of us who rejoice in the real and scorn the false comfort of the unreal, we need a word of our own, a word like "gay". You can say "I am an atheist" but at best it sounds stuffy (like "I am a homosexual") and at worst it inflames prejudice (like "I am a homosexual").
Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell, of Sacramento, California, have set out to coin a new word, a new "gay". Like gay, it should be a noun hijacked from an adjective, with its original meaning changed but not too much. Like gay, it should be catchy: a potentially prolific meme. Like gay, it should be positive, warm, cheerful, bright.
Bright? Yes, bright. Bright is the word, the new noun. I am a bright. You are a bright. She is a bright. We are the brights. Isn't it about time you came out as a bright? Is he a bright? I can't imagine falling for a woman who was not a bright. The website http://www.celeb-atheists.com/ suggests numerous intellectuals and other famous people are brights. Brights constitute 60% of American scientists, and a stunning 93% of those scientists good enough to be elected to the elite National Academy of Sciences (equivalent to Fellows of the Royal Society) are brights. Look on the bright side: though at present they can't admit it and get elected, the US Congress must be full of closet brights. As with gays, the more brights come out, the easier it will be for yet more brights to do so. People reluctant to use the word atheist might be happy to come out as a bright.
Geisert and Futrell are very insistent that their word is a noun and must not be an adjective. "I am bright" sounds arrogant. "I am a bright" sounds too unfamiliar to be arrogant: it is puzzling, enigmatic, tantalising. It invites the question, "What on earth is a bright?" And then you're away: "A bright is a person whose world view is free of supernatural and mystical elements. The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic world view."
"You mean a bright is an atheist?"
"Well, some brights are happy to call themselves atheists. Some brights call themselves agnostics. Some call themselves humanists, some free thinkers. But all brights have a world view that is free of supernaturalism and mysticism."
"Oh, I get it. It's a bit like 'gay'. So, what's the opposite of a bright? What would you call a religious person?"
"What would you suggest?"
Of course, even though we brights will scrupulously insist that our word is a noun, if it catches on it is likely to follow gay and eventually re-emerge as a new adjective. And when that happens, who knows, we may finally get a bright president.

You can sign on as a bright at http://www.the-brights.net/.

Richard Dawkins FRS is Charles Simonyi professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University. His latest book is A Devil's Chaplain.

Rainy Sunday

Order of precedence

Use your brain, please

Why can't it be true?

Rifondazione comunista rivela: “Wojtila si convertì al comunismo in punto di morte”

ROMA – Karol Wojtila trovò la fede comunista in punto di morte, e spirò baciando il libretto rosso di Mao. E’ Fausto Bertinotti, ultimo rappresentante in terra della dinastia dei grandi comunisti, a rivelare l’inedito retroscena. “Ero in contatto da tempo col Santo Padre per via del mio personale e privato interessamento alla fede. Negli ultimi giorni di vita di Giovanni Paolo II fui contattato dal suo entourage, e accordi in gran segreto al suo capezzale. Adesso posso rivelarlo: posò sul comodino il vangelo e mi chiese a gesti il libretto di Mao che porto sempre con me. Lo baciò, lo strinse al petto, e spirò dicendo ‘Bandiera rossa la trionferà’”. Immediate le reazioni: centinaia di decine di militanti di Rifondazione comunista, ancora ebbri per la vittoria di Luxuria all’Isola, hanno invaso San Pietro addobbandolo di striscioni sessantottini; il papa in carica, dal canto suo, ha aperto l’omelia dicendo: “l’abbiamo sempre sospettato” e ripristinando la Santa Inquisizione per aumentare la propria percezione di sicurezza; il presidente del consiglio, subodorato da par suo tempestivamente il cambio di vento, ha offerto la social card a tutti i candidati della Sinistra Arcobaleno. Da registrare purtoppo anche alcune vittime: appresa la notizia, il PD è entrato nell’ultima fase della crisi di identità, e ha deciso di farla finita gettandosi nel Tevere nottetempo.

da http://www.alessioatrei.it/

Ci martellano talmente tanto con balle spaziali, che il caso della conversione di Gramsci al cattolicesimo è riuscito ad aprire un serio dibattito sulla stampa. Perchè allora questo articoletto dovrebbe essere solo fantascienza?

Xmas present

At the contrary, I know what I want for Xmas. This year it's very easy: I don't have to choice. I can have the best present.

Happiness

I shall take the heart... for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.

The Tinman in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

by L. Frank Baum

Winter is here

Good company

A man alone is always in bad company.

[Paul Valery]

Change your television

Italian history

Security

But great people are always in the right place.

Wish you were here

The answer

Galileo would enjoy Italy

How we can forget weekdays

It works very well.

Thinking? What does this word mean?

P2: costituiti i sindacati di regime

Dal testo integrale del Piano di Rinascita Democratica della Loggia P2, documento sequestrato a M. Grazia Gelli nel luglio 1982:

"Per quanto concerne i sindacati la scelta prioritaria è fra la sollecitazione alla rottura, seguendo cioè le linee già esistenti dei gruppi minoritari della CISL e maggioritari dell’UIL, per poi agevolare la fusione con gli autonomi, acquisire con strumenti finanziari di pari entità i più disponibili fra gli attuali confederati allo scopo di rovesciare i rapporti di forza all’interno dell’attuale trimurti".

Se per caso volete proprio sapere di quel poco che deve ancora accadere , andate qui.

Perceptions

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.

Albert Einstein

The Sun Sets Sail - Rob Gonsalves

Tme to think over

Great ideals

Local elections (Trentino)

It's a matter of style

Nothing is impossible

Good bye George

Un uomo in grado di vedere lontano...

US election

The first snow

taken by Roberto Miorelli

10,000 days

Today I'm 10,000 days old. I'm ready to jump into the second third part of my life. Time to be child is over, maybe now I should be a little man.

I don't know what to expect, what I'll do and where I'll be. Only time will tell. At the same time I'm sure I can share my future with someone special.

L'alternativa c'è

La Sinistra del Trentino: l'unità, l'alternativa

Alle elezioni per il rinnovo del Consiglio provinciale di Trento Rifondazione Comunista, Sinistra Democratica, la Casa della Sinistra della Val di Non, tante donne e uomini della sinistra hanno deciso di presentare una lista unitaria: La Sinistra del Trentino. Una Sinistra davvero utile perché impegnata a preservare lo spazio di una politica di trasformazione sociale e ad alimentare la vitalità di una proposta di opposizione e di alternativa. Questa scelta, a differenza dell'esperienza di la Sinistra, l'Arcobaleno, peraltro fortemente condizionata dal peso degli apparati burocratici, non è espressione di un calcolo elettorale, ma della condivisione di un progetto politico di ampio respiro per la costruzione in Trentino di una Sinistra sociale e politica adeguata alla complessità dei problemi e dei bisogni.
Nell'assumere questo impegno abbiamo piena consapevolezza della necessità di percorrere con maggiore impulso la strada dell'innovazione e della sperimentazione di nuove forme dell'agire politico, avendo ben chiaro che una opposizione politicamente credibile e socialmente utile ha bisogno di radicamento nella società e nei territori, di capacità di organizzare vertenze e mobilitazione, di ricostruire legami sociali e di sviluppare una costante azione interna alla rete dei movimenti e dei conflitti.
In questo percorso intendiamo agire come strumento per la costruzione di un blocco sociale di opposizione e di trasformazione, che raccolga quell'arcipelago complesso e fecondo di esperienze e movimenti collettivi, di gruppi organizzati o spontanei, di singole storie e percorsi individuali di uomini e donne che avvertono la durezza delle contraddizioni del modello di sviluppo e del sistema di potere che domina in Trentino. Alla elaborazione ed alla realizzazione di questo progetto intendiamo dedicare le nostre energie, individuali e collettive, per avviare nel territorio provinciale la costituzione di Case della Sinistra. Nella nostra prospettiva le Case della Sinistra non rappresentano solo luoghi di incontro e di confronto tra diverse culture ed esperienze di conflitto, ma sedi di produzione di nuova cultura e nuove pratiche della politica: quindi, luoghi vivi dove, insieme al dibattito, si vivano relazioni non burocratiche ed esperienze di mutualità e di conflitto sociale, ma anche di cambiamento del modello oggi dominante di pensare e di vivere.
Per questo chiediamo alle donne e agli uomini del Trentino che non si rassegnano all'idea che l'attuale modello di società sia l'unico possibile il voto per portare anche nel Consiglio provinciale i bisogni, i valori e le proposte politiche della Sinistra. Ma, oltre le elezioni, soprattutto per sostenere e partecipare alla straordinaria esperienza di costruire una Sinistra nuova e forte, capace di consegnare al suo popolo la possibilità di essere protagonista di un progetto di radicale cambiamento del Trentino.

This is halloween

Metodo Cossiga

Qualche giorno fa bofonchiava così, in un intervista, ma nell'indifferenza dei media "Maroni dovrebbe fare quel che feci io quand'ero ministro dell'Interno (...) Infiltrare il movimento con agenti pronti a tutto, e lasciare che per una decina di giorni i manifestanti devastino le città. Dopo di che, forti del consenso popolare, il suono delle sirene delle ambulanze dovrà sovrastare quello delle auto della polizia. Le forze dell'ordine dovrebbero massacrare i manifestanti senza pietà e mandarli tutti all'ospedale. Picchiare a sangue, tutti, anche i docenti che li fomentano. Magari non gli anziani, ma le maestre ragazzine sì".

Ed ecco che ieri, mentre veniva approvata la "riforma" Gelmini e gli studenti manifestavano pacificamente è avvenuto quelli che in molti temevano: squadracce di fascistelli hanno attaccato gli studenti in corteo, anche i giovanissimi con spranghe e bastoni, nella totale indifferenza delle forze dell'ordine.

Contento ora?

Pleasant waiting time

A good boy?

Risk factors

Con te partirò

Non più sudditi

Talvolta mi chiedo se la Chiesa crede ancora in Dio. È certo un'affermazione paradossale e provocatoria, ma ha una sua giustificazione: quando la Chiesa interviene massicciamente per promuovere una legislazione favorevole alla sua etica, allora ci possiamo chiedere se chi gestisce il potere ecclesiastico crede più agli strumenti del mondo o all'opera di Dio.

Umberto Galimberti

Sempre più regime

Walking where I can find nobody

Italian school

Chi apre la porta di una scuola, chiude una prigione.

Victor Hugo

Poor school, poor us

La scuola privata è un anacronistico privilegio.

Outlook

Sbattezziamoci

“Suoi sudditi, perché battezzati”. Con queste parole, il 25 ottobre 1958, la Corte d’appello di Firenze assolveva il vescovo di Prato, che aveva denigrato pubblicamente due giovani, da poco sposati civilmente.

Il 25 ottobre 2008, a cinquant’anni di distanza, l’UAAR organizza una Giornata dello sbattezzo. ‘Sbattezzo’ significa cancellazione degli effetti civili del battesimo, ossia l’elementare diritto, stabilito da un provvedimento del Garante per la privacy, di non essere più considerati dallo Stato come “sudditi” della Chiesa, “obbedienti” e “sottomessi” alle gerarchie ecclesiastiche.

Le ragioni per uscire dalla Chiesa Cattolica possono essere diverse: coerenza con i propri principi, protesta perchè discriminati in quanto gay, donne o ricercatori, rivendicazione della propria identità di ateo o agnostico. Oppure la semplice onestà intellettuale di dire “non sono più dei vostri”.

L’UAAR non organizza controriti vendicativi, ma invita coloro che non sono più cattolici a esercitare questo diritto: sappiamo che già alcune migliaia di cittadini lo hanno fatto, ma riteniamo che se coloro che non hanno ancora formalmente abbandonato la Chiesa cattolica lo faranno in una sola occasione, l’impatto della loro decisione sarà sicuramente amplificato.

Le istruzioni ’standard’ per lo sbattezzo

Credere, obbedire, delinquere

Recurrences