Italy's action against the gypsies

[CrossLOPER]

A single family of gypsies can completely empty a store of all sorts of valuable merchandise in mere minutes.

Guys, once again I'd like to question your obsession with Doritos. No matter how much you value and hoard them, I can't place them on any list of true valuables.

[Moros]

Sono pazzi questi Romani.

[Oleander Ardens]

If the Roma are so criminally active it should be easy to get their fingerprints in a way compatible with EU law. Just register them when they are caught comitting a crime. This way dear Maroni doesn't have to appear the racist he is.

[Guildenstern]

I think that if some Roma people commit a crime, then they have to be dealt with as criminals. However, if those people are also being penalized for their ethnic background, then that makes us the criminals, for perpetrating hatred.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Eat that, Silvio:

Silvio Berlusconi's government was today engaged in a vigorous damage limitation exercise after Pope Benedict appeared to lend his immense moral authority to speculation that Italy was in danger of returning to fascism under the tycoon's hardline, rightwing leadership

In his customary midday Sunday address, the pontiff expressed concern at "recent examples of racism" and reminded Catholics it was their duty to steer others in society away from "racism, intolerance and [the] exclusion [of others]".

On any other day, his remarks might have been seen as no more than a restatement of official Catholic doctrine. But they came instead in the midst of a furious dispute over an editorial published by Italy's bestselling Catholic weekly, Famiglia Cristiana.

In an editorial on Friday, condemning recent government moves against immigrants and Roma, the magazine said it was to be hoped fascism was not "resurfacing in our country under another guise". The jibe outraged Berlusconi's supporters, many of whom are themselves pious Catholics.

The leader of his parliamentary group in the upper house, Maurizio Gasparri, announced he would personally sue the priest who is Famiglia Cristiana's editor while the junior minister with responsibility for family affairs, Carlo Giovanardi, said the magazine was "possessed by ideological malice".

In an effort to calm the row, the Vatican's spokesman put out a statement stressing that Famiglia Cristiana was not authorised to speak on behalf of either the Holy See or the Italian bishops' conference - something which, as the magazine's editor noted, it had never anyway claimed to do.

Coming against this background, the pope's comments were interpreted by Berlusconi's critics as a signal that the Vatican was not climbing down or distancing itself from Famiglia Cristiana's interpretation.

[JR-]

Frags old boy, seeing as how you're something of our resident token xenophobe par excellence, I trust you will excuse me for maybe not accepting your assessement at face value...?

having stayed with relatives in the mountains north of rome a couple of time, even there the locals feared the albanian itinerants. it was considered a dangerous thing to report a crime committed by albanians because all kinds of nasty threats get promised in areas of italy with poor police coverage.

[Tristuskhan]

The leader of his parliamentary group in the upper house, Maurizio Gasparri, announced he would personally sue the priest who is Famiglia Cristiana's editor while the junior minister with responsibility for family affairs, Carlo Giovanardi, said the magazine was "possessed by ideological malice".

Priceless... Thank you Loulou. I missed that one in the news.

No one expects the Panzerpope.