A better alternative than crying.

I have an Italian friend who detests Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. She thinks he’s a national disgrace. And at times, she gets livid in her criticism. I tell her that he can’t be as bad as George Bush was as our president. But she says Berlusconi is even worse. That Berlusconi is a billionaire who pretty much controls the news media in Italy. And so he has his way. Including his cronies in the Italian parliament. And that he even appoints his girlfriends to positions in the government. She also alleges that Berlusconi has a gigantic ego. Of course, I tell her that he must be popular. After all, he has been elected prime minister three times. I find Berlusconi rather entertaining. Which is easy for me to say. I’m an outsider looking in. I don't live in Italy. Sometimes, Berlusconi wears a colorful bandana. When he’s undergoing hair restoration on his balding head. And at a recent summit meeting of world leaders in London, he offended Queen Elizabeth because of his loudmouth grandstanding. I think of all this as funny. My friend doesn’t. I guess I learned from eight years of George Bush. Wasn’t anything I could do to get Bush ousted from office. I thought he was a national disgrace. A stain on the American fabric. So I learned how to laugh. That’s better than crying. –Jim Broede