Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that Italy would suddenly release somewhere near twelve thousand of its prison inmates in a mass pardon at a time like this? What with terrorism supposedly running rampant, you’d think this would seem like a bad idea. Unless the intent is actually to destabilize and not simply to end prison over-crowding.

The far-right Northern League has distributed leaflets with advice on how to apply for a gun license.

“We are not encouraging people to take the law into their own hands. But if honest citizens feel in danger, they have a right to know how to lawfully get a gun,” said Senator Massimo Polledri.

A police trade union, which complains of understaffing, advised Romans to cancel their holidays and guard their homes.

“In Rome alone, 2,000 detainees are being set free. Many have no place to go to, they are bound to commit a new offense soon,” Palmerino Paniccia of the Consap union told Reuters.

Local authorities play down the risks and say that Mafiosi, terrorists, rapists, pedophiles, armed gangsters and those who prostitute minors are excluded from the pardon, which will be revoked for those committing any new offense within five years.

Despite that though, a number of people were re-arrested within hours of their release and “a man convicted for abusing his family went straight home and tried to strangle his wife.”

Also, on an unrelated note, check out this recent news of Coke and Pepsi dosing their products in the South Asian subcontinent with high levels of pesticides. The cynical might see this as typical corporate negligence, while the truly paranoid might look towards mass poisoning and population control as plausible explanations. The truth may be both or neither, but from the ground looking up events in the world today often take on sinister tones without the help of conspiracy theories.