Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 October 8

= October 8 =

What was Mussolini’s relationship with animals?
How did Benito Mussolini treat other animals? Did he have anything to say about them? Did he ever own any pets? —(((Romanophile))) ♞ (contributions) 03:43, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * The first result when Googling Mussolini and animals immediately tells me that he enjoyed horse riding and had a pet lion cub....--Shantavira|feed me 07:30, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Mussolini loved to appear at parades and rallies on horseback for heroic effect. After the Axis capture of Tobruk in 1942, he ordered a white stallion to be found for his triumphal entry into Alexandria; the First Battle of El Alamein put paid to that. Perhaps petting lions fall into the same category. Alansplodge (talk) 08:02, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * This newsreel] shows Mussolini playing with his lion. Whether he genuinely liked animals or just used them to enhance his own virile image, I can't tell. His famous quote, “It's better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a sheep”, was recently Tweeted by Mr Trump.  Alansplodge (talk) 16:23, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * To be clear, it was "his" quote in the sense that at some point he quoted it, and a lot of people remembered him saying it. But it was not original with him.
 * Exactly who said it for the first time I have not been able to find out for certain. Secolo d'Italia attributes it to Ignazio Pisciotta, a WWI officer who I gather was just a captain during the war, because they made him a major when they retired him, but somehow retired as a general after being called up again to work in a museum.  Il Giornale on the other hand calls it a "more or less anonymous" saying from the Great War.
 * It was also used in a fantastic song called Je so' pazzo by Pino Daniele, put anachronistically into the mouth of Masaniello.
 * In any case, whoever said it, I think you have to admit it has a nice ring to it. --Trovatore (talk) 08:04, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I wonder if Trump knows that Mussolini ended up more like a side of beef. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:46, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * "Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them". Alansplodge (talk) 08:04, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Keep that in mind if you ever consider invading Poland. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:44, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Any way to find older British laws online?
And not even that old. I'm trying to find an original text or reference to the "Malta (Constitution) Order in Council 1961"; I know it's SI 1961, vol. III, 4581. And I can find many sources online referring to it. But I have yet, despite browsing multiple gazettes, to find the actual text. It seems crazy that the Brits don't have something from as recent as 1961 online; am I missing something obvious, or am I really out of luck unless I find a hard copy of the 1961 statutory instruments? --Golbez (talk) 16:55, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I've tried www.legislation.gov.uk but sorry, no hits - you might try with some keywords? 70.67.193.176 (talk) 17:46, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * The National Archives would normally be able to give you a quotation for a copy, but I understand this service has been suspended for the time being. See here for the catalogue description. As the Order is presumably spent and no longer in effect in the UK there would be no great need to prioritise putting it online. DuncanHill (talk) 18:10, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * And its not actually a statute, it's an Order in Council which is made using powers already granted under existing legislation. Alansplodge (talk) 07:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Both those excellent points would explain why it's not online. Per, they have only digitized Orders in Council back to 2000, alas. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:45, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Does anyone know why? Why does the US have every law, including Confederate, passed since the 1700s, but the UK can't even manage that since the 1970s? --04:12, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Why should we? If a law is no longer in force, what's the point? As pointed out, in the absence of a global pandemic a copy is available. The converse question is why does the USA make "laws" made by traitors available? DuncanHill (talk) 04:21, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
 * According to the Wikipedia article, Orders in Council are analogous to US executive orders, which are only available online from 1994, so you're not doing a whole lot better than us on this particular issue. Alansplodge (talk) 12:39, 10 October 2020 (UTC)