They held a torching-of-the-King's-photo at the Autonomous University today, and they hung him in effigy too. Three hundred junior Cataloonies showed up. A spokesman for the arsonists, according to La Vanguardia, "denounced the 'witchhunt' that 'critical thinking' and 'organized independentism' is suffering in Catalonia, reaffirmed their 'firm commitment' to freedom of expression, and rejected the Spanish monarchy. 'We will keep on with demonstrations and symbolic actions in order to defend freedom of expression and open the debate on the imposition of the monarchy in Greater Catalonia (els Paísos Catalans).'"

Sophomoric. Juvenile. Silly. Upper-middle-class kids, of course. The people who are actually studying something difficult like engineering at the Polytechnic, where I used to teach, don't waste their time burning pictures of a figurehead monarch. They're too busy going to class.