Our friends the ETA just can't get their Christmas message across. They had the lovely idea that they'd contribute to the holiday spirit with an impressive fireworks display in Madrid's Chamartin Station. They attempted to plant two suitcase bombs containing twenty kilos of dynamite each on the Irun-Madrid Talgo, the first-class fast train, which were to go off when the train arrived at its destination in the middle of Madrid's bustling main railway station. If they'd gone off hundreds of people would have been killed or injured.

Fortunately, what with all the police successes against the ETA, they're down to a bunch of amateurs as operatives. One of the two terrorists was caught looking suspicious in Irun. He was detained and his baggage was checked and, whaddya know, it was filled with dynamite. This made everybody real suspicious. They stopped the Talgo at Burgos and evacuated it, and there they found the other bomb, which had been planted on the train by the other terrorist involved.

Congratulations to the police for saving us from a tragedy that might even have reached 9-11 scale.

Spaniards aren't bigots and racists. Naah. Only Americans would stoop so low as to be prejudiced against someone because of his national origin, as some leftist Spaniards never tire of reminding us.

According to La Vanguardia, the central government's Center of Sociological Research did a poll in which they asked "Which country's citizens do you trust least and for which country's citizens do you feel the least sympathy?"

Results:

1. Moroccans: 27.4% distrust, 23.7% unsympathetic
2. Americans: 17.1% distrust, 16.1% unsympathetic
3. Colombians: 14.9% distrust, 10.6% unsympathetic

This puts the lie to the standard Spanish assertion that it's not the American people they dislike, it's the government. This survey torpedoes that common canard. Also, it indicates the climate of pure racism that Moroccans and other Arabs encounter in Spain.