The Best of the Worst News - August 27, 2007

Real news stories are always stranger than some of the best fiction. Here are a few of the real news stories of the day:

I have authored a column called: "Can You Believe This?" for more than a year. Basically, the premise is that real news is ALWAYS stranger than fiction. Moreover, in my job as a journalist, I've covered cops/criminals---always fodder for general insanity of humans against humans. If I used every article I came across, I would be dead for decades before I'd run out of stories to print. Some of the articles are happy, some sad. Most are simply inane and leave you shaking your head. These are stories you could live without...but you won't want to! Here's the latest:

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Italy Declares Italian as its National Language
You know, there are some things you just take for granted. That Italians speak Italian would be one of them, I think. Not so.
The people of Venice speak Venetian, causing 75 members of Italy's parliament to oppose the adding to its constitution, the phrase ""The Italian language is the official language of the Republic". Northern Italy has a separatist movement going, and this simple statement is a major slap in the face to them. Parliament ruled at the end of March to adopt this change.

This debate has roots that stretch as far as slavery does for Blacks in the United States. One of the reasons the line was never added in the first place was because Dictator Benito Mussolini had used force in an attempt to meld Italy into one entity. Residents rebelled then, and they rebelled again back in March.
A deputy from the Northern League party, stood to address parliament on the subject. He had a lot to say. In his town, Venetian was spoken in schools, amongst family members and in the workplace. The man didn't get to finish that statement as the powers that be shut off his microphone. Although they were debating the need to make Italian the national language, there was no debate on which language ruled in parliament. The man was shut down from speaking because one parliamentary rule is that only Italian should be spoken in parliament.