The Reality-Based Community? Part LXI--UpdatedHere's
a strong contender for the most absurd "I blame Bush" story:
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who went to Italy for a reading in Verona last month, traveled to Brescia to see the five-story apartment building where his father was born in 1872. He and a photographer friend found the place, in the poorest neighborhood in town, and rang the doorbell. An old woman opened the door a crack and looked out at them grumpily, as he explained that he wanted to look at his father's birthplace. The woman's husband -- probably a plumber, Ferlinghetti figured -- came to the door dragging a radiator. He started shouting, calling them "parasites,'' says Ferlinghetti, and telling them to "get the hell out of here'' or he'd call the police.
Ferlinghetti says, "The people in the house where my father was born were very hostile, seemed to be very fearful. I told Il Manifesto that this was a general fear and paranoia in the population generated by the war on terror, which is what Berlusconi and Bush have promoted, creating this climate of fear.''Ferlinghetti
is apparently a well-known poet:
Recognized as one of the most influential and important poets of the Beat movement, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York on March 24, 1919. Shortly after his birth, Ferlinghetti's mother was committed to an asylum for the insane and the young boy was sent to France to be raised by a female relative.One of the most important poets of the Beat movement? Isn't that a little like being the sexiest of the Golden Girls?
Kitty points to this
fawning interview with Ferlinghetti where he reveals some more "deep thoughts":
Is the current threat to our civil liberties comparable to what you experienced in the early '50s?
No, it's much worse. That was nothing back then. President Eisenhower's reign was very stultifying; there was lots of unspoken censorship. But today, Eisenhower looks like an angel compared to these bandits who are now running Washington. They're criminals; they're international criminals. Under both Bush administrations, they've reappointed at least four felons who were convicted during the Watergate years and during Iran-Contra. They're in government now. These are international criminals, and the spineless Democrats are doing nothing about it.
