What do silly European liberals have in common with Italian seismologists?

If Instapundit had his way, it’d be court appearances. The story:

In Wetteren, a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders, activists succeeded in damaging the GM potatoes being trialled for blight resistance, despite a large contingent of police officers who had been ordered to guard the GM trial. The officers were unable to stop the 300-400 or more peaceful protesters of all ages, who included local people.

During the protest organised by the Belgian Field Liberation Movement (FLM) – an informal collective consisting of farmers, scientists, consumers, and environmental activists, protesters climbed over a high fence and pulled up GM potato plants. The trial was also allegedly sprayed with herbicide. Some 40 people were arrested.

Insty, with a little extra sarcasm, writes: BELGIAN “ACTIVISTS” WANT POOR PEOPLE TO STARVE:

I mean, what possible good could new varieties of blight-resistant potatoes ever do? These people should be treated as potential mass murderers, not as “activists.” Because that’s what they are.

That reminded me of this:

Italian government officials have accused the country’s top seismologist of manslaughter, after failing to predict a natural disaster that struck Italy in 2009, a massive devastating earthquake that killed 308 people.

Not that I’m comparing Professor Reynolds to an Italian bureaucrat, of course.