Aimless thoughts while listening to KHYI out of Dallas (click on "Click Here to Listen," and make sure your speakers are turned on):

They busted a serial killer right here in Barcelona a couple of days ago, a fiftyish woman named Remedios Sanchez. Seems Ms. Sanchez was addicted to slot machines and bingo halls, and therefore won the confidence of old women in public places. She would return to their homes with them and there attack and rob them. Out of the eight attacks she is known to have committed, three of the victims died, strangled. Ms. Sanchez was none too bright, as the cops arrested her while she was using one of the victims' bank cards at a bingo hall. I vote we fry her, but that's just a little too barbarous for the locals.

The crime wave that La Vanguardia and the rest of the media pushed so hard during May has fizzled out, if there ever was a crime wave at all.

And speaking of crime in Barcelona, you have to check out this incredibly kick-ass blog called Guirilandia. Hilariously funny and extremely well-done, a wonderful picture of Barcelona's slightly seamy side.

Three key aspects of the Mexican election: 1) the PRI is dead. The only people who voted for it were those who somehow owe it for jobs in the bureaucracy or the unions or state companies. 2) Subcomandante Marcos and his clowns got exactly nowhere. 3) The election was honest and international observers confirm it. Lopez Obrador is actively and intentionally trying to undermine Mexican democracy, weak and fragile as it is, by trying to overturn the voters' verdict.

Jose Montilla has been making some rather loud non-nationalist statements; I guess he's hoping we'll all forget about the disaster of the Tripartite.

The Pope is in Valencia; he made a speech and a big old crowd of the faithful showed up. The Pope and the Zap administration don't get along very well, as they have rather obvious differences on such issues as abortion, gay marriage, easy divorce, and the Pope took advantage of the occasion to make this clear. Of course, Europe can't carry out a major operation like this without American help, as there is a NATO AWACS plane controlling the airspace around the city.

Rafael Ramos, on page 4 of the Vanguardia in the middle of an article about the commemorations in London on the anniversary of the June 7, 2005 bombings, wrote:

"The reaction of the Londoners after June 7 has nothing to do with that of the Americans after September 11," said Jenny Kowalsky, a young American from Chicago who works in a City bank. "It's obvious that the magnitude of the tragedy was not nearly the same, but in the United States the government asked for a blank check to declare in practice a state of emergency, wiretap telephones, and create an illegal detention camp at Guantanamo. In Great Britain the citizens put things in a more balanced perspective and react against excesses." Jenny loves London and is only sorry that her compatriots are identified with George Bush's policies when many of them are opposed.

That doesn't sound to me like anything an American would say, especially the bit about a "state of emergency" (estado de excepcion). Also, of course, both Ramos and "Jenny" should know that the US government hasn't been wiretapping anybody without getting a court order first.

Come on, Ramos, let's hear the tape of your interview with "Jenny."

By the way, it's also interesting that the story right below Ramos's article is headlined "FBI dismantles terrorist plan to attack New York tunnels."