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LA STAMPA

A Stolen Puppy In Paris, The Ugly Face Of Animal Rights Ideologues

A Stolen Puppy In Paris, The Ugly Face Of Animal Rights Ideologues
Massimo Gramellini

There's a video circulating on the Internet that stunned me stone cold. You see a group of animal rights activists literally tearing a homeless man's puppy from his arms. You can see the poor guy trying in vain to free himself from the leader of the activist group, while the frightened little pup squeals and scurries before being scooped up and whisked away by the commando of righteous bandits. A chilling sequence, an abduction in the center of Paris, captured on the smartphone of an onlooker.

On their Facebook page, the kidnappers (I don't know what else I could call them) boast a vision with Nazi echoes: "We took the dog away from a Roma beggar. The police didn't act, we did." It would be useless to seek in their triumphal dispatch any sign of embarrassment for having interfered in the destiny of two living creatures just minding their own business. The kidnappers even renamed their prey "Vegan," which — in the face of the reality that canines are carnivores — says much about the readiness to impose one's vision on others.

Needless to say, I hope the French authorities pursue the case. Love without humanity is only a projection of a frigid mind — an ideology, which like all ideologies, produces crimes disguised as acts of goodwill.

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food / travel

Pasta v. Fascists: How Italy's Staple Dish Became A Symbol Of Resistance

Pasta may not be considered controversial today, but it played an important role during Italy's fascist years, particularly in one family's celebration of community and liberation.

Photo of the Cervi family.

Photo of the Cervi family, whose seven children were shot by the Fascists on December 28, 1943, at the Reggio Emilia shooting range.

@comunisti_alla_ribalta via Instagram
Jacopo Fontaneto

ROME — Eighty years ago — on July 25, 1943 — the vote of no confidence by the Grand Council of Fascism, leading to Benito Mussolini's arrest, set off widespread celebrations. In Campegine, a small village in the Emilian province, the Cervi family celebrated in their own way: they brought 380 kilograms of pasta in milk cans to the town square and offered it to all the inhabitants of the village.

The pasta was strictly plain: macaroni dressed with butter and cheese, seen as more of a "festive dish" in that period of deprivation. As soon as the Cervi brothers learned about the arrest of Mussolini, they procured flour, borrowed butter and cheese from the dairy, and prepared kilos and kilos of pasta. They then loaded it onto a cart to distribute it to their fellow villagers. Pastasciutta (dry pasta) specifically regards dishes with noodles that are plated "dry", not in broth. That would disqualify soup, risotto, ravioli...

Even though pastasciutta is the most stereotypical type of pasta today, it had a complicated relationship with the government during Italy's fascist years.

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