"Better to be a fascist than a faggot"

... so says Alessandra Mussolini (the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, Italy's wartime fascist dictator), whose far-right political party was welcomed recently into a coalition by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in advance of next month's Italian general election. It is frightening that people so close to power in one of the EU's major constituent nations are actually thinking such things, and it is even more terrifying that some are giving voice to them!

Thank goodness some peaceful protesters made clear what they think of such bigotry during a visit by Polish President Lech Kaczynski to Humboldt University in Berlin to give a speech on European affairs.