Monday blog roundup while listening to Dwight Yoakam:
Davids Medienkritik gives sleazy tabloid mag Stern a good fisking.
Damian Penny has links and comment on Qana; Expat Yank blasts anti-Israeli bias at British AOL; Harry's Place has more; so does Right Wing News.
Trevor has a history piece on medieval Barcelona and the decline of the city-state.
Pave France comments acidly on the French blogosphere.
Samizdata agrees with us on the Spanish Civil War.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
The top story on everyone's evening news tonight was the Israeli attack on Qana, which killed at least 50 people in an apartment building, at least some of whom were civilians. Half of them were children.
TV1 used the word "massacre" at least 15 times during its news broadcast, which seemed rather partisan to me.
Israel's answer is that these deaths are Hezbollah's fault because Hezbollah started the war, and because Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields. That is, if Hezbollah hadn't wanted those civilians there, they wouldn't have been there.
And, of course, the Israelis do not blow buildings up at random. They hit that particular one because they knew that weapons were being stored there.
And, of course, the Israelis had warned the people of Qana that their town would be bombed, as it was a Hezbollah base, and that they should leave. The argument that all the roads were destroyed doesn't fly. Israel hasn't blown up every road in Lebanon. The civilians could have left the city on foot with no problems for the great majority--all they'd have to do is get a couple of kilometers out of town at most. If I were credibly informed that Barcelona would be bombed within the next few days, I would leave as soon as possible and on foot if necessary. Why didn't they?
Israel says that it fired two missiles into the building a couple of hours after midnight, and that the building did not collapse, killing many of the occupants, until nearly noon, eight or ten hours later. Assuming the Israelis are telling the truth, why didn't the inhabitants get out when they had the chance?
This tragedy happened because irregular forces, such as Hezbollah--guerrillas, terrorists, whatever you want to call them--hide behind non-combatants. Regular forces, such as the Israeli army, must answer to military law and to the chain of command. They are specifically prohibited from hiding behind civilians, and if they do so, they will be punished by their own superiors. Hezbollah terrorists are responsible to nobody, and they believe that the martyrdom of innocents helps their cause. So they do everything they can to promote it, in their own country and in other people's.
Today Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets into Israel, the express purpose of each one to kill civilians.
TV1 used the word "massacre" at least 15 times during its news broadcast, which seemed rather partisan to me.
Israel's answer is that these deaths are Hezbollah's fault because Hezbollah started the war, and because Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields. That is, if Hezbollah hadn't wanted those civilians there, they wouldn't have been there.
And, of course, the Israelis do not blow buildings up at random. They hit that particular one because they knew that weapons were being stored there.
And, of course, the Israelis had warned the people of Qana that their town would be bombed, as it was a Hezbollah base, and that they should leave. The argument that all the roads were destroyed doesn't fly. Israel hasn't blown up every road in Lebanon. The civilians could have left the city on foot with no problems for the great majority--all they'd have to do is get a couple of kilometers out of town at most. If I were credibly informed that Barcelona would be bombed within the next few days, I would leave as soon as possible and on foot if necessary. Why didn't they?
Israel says that it fired two missiles into the building a couple of hours after midnight, and that the building did not collapse, killing many of the occupants, until nearly noon, eight or ten hours later. Assuming the Israelis are telling the truth, why didn't the inhabitants get out when they had the chance?
This tragedy happened because irregular forces, such as Hezbollah--guerrillas, terrorists, whatever you want to call them--hide behind non-combatants. Regular forces, such as the Israeli army, must answer to military law and to the chain of command. They are specifically prohibited from hiding behind civilians, and if they do so, they will be punished by their own superiors. Hezbollah terrorists are responsible to nobody, and they believe that the martyrdom of innocents helps their cause. So they do everything they can to promote it, in their own country and in other people's.
Today Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets into Israel, the express purpose of each one to kill civilians.
El Periodico's bag of shit editorial cartoonist Ferreres today accused Israel of intentionally targeting the UN observation post where four "peacekeepers" were killed last week.
Dialogue:
Kofi Annan: "A UN post bombed? Weren't there signals indicating it?"
"Peacekeeper": "Very well. That's why they hit it so accurately."
Dialogue:
Kofi Annan: "A UN post bombed? Weren't there signals indicating it?"
"Peacekeeper": "Very well. That's why they hit it so accurately."
"Tikrit Tommy" Alcoverro, La Vanguardia's Beirut correspondent, has this to say in Sunday's Vangua:
Three weeks into the war, around 2000 Hezbollah guerrillas courageously resist deadly and devastating Israeli aerial bombings and land incursions, and their strategists continue launching rockets at objectives of the Jewish state, farther and farther away. Hezbollah leadership, despite the devastation and the exodus of the Shiite population, is still decided on continuing the war, and boasts of having stopped the plans of the Israeli general staff. In the south, as occurred before, one of the most powerful armies in the world is facing a guerrilla organization, which, like a fish in water, is fighting on its own terrain. If Sheik Nasrallah committed an undeniable error in challenging Israel by capturing two of its soldiers, not foreseeing these disproportionate reprisals, the Jewish military leaders have had to reduce their offensive projects before (Hezbollah's) surprising armed resistance and the hecatomb and destruction caused to this innocent and unprotected populace. Lebanon is a small country of only 10,000 square kilometers with some 4 million inhabitants. We must also recognize that this war is almost exclusively carried out against Hezbollah, established among the Shiite population of the south, of the Bekaa, and of the Beirut suburbs. It is, therefore, the Shiite community that suffers in its flesh the incessant reprisals of the Tsahal.
Not hard to see whose side Tikrit Tommy is on, is it?
My question about Alcoverro is the same as my question about Beirut Bob Fisk. Both these guys live in Beirut and have done so for many years. Who, exactly, are they paying their insurance costs to? And in what form? I don't for a moment believe that any Westerner could live for so many years in Beirut without the risk of being kidnapped or having his house blown up, unless he had an insurance policy, and I don't mean the kind you get from State Farm or Prudential.
Three weeks into the war, around 2000 Hezbollah guerrillas courageously resist deadly and devastating Israeli aerial bombings and land incursions, and their strategists continue launching rockets at objectives of the Jewish state, farther and farther away. Hezbollah leadership, despite the devastation and the exodus of the Shiite population, is still decided on continuing the war, and boasts of having stopped the plans of the Israeli general staff. In the south, as occurred before, one of the most powerful armies in the world is facing a guerrilla organization, which, like a fish in water, is fighting on its own terrain. If Sheik Nasrallah committed an undeniable error in challenging Israel by capturing two of its soldiers, not foreseeing these disproportionate reprisals, the Jewish military leaders have had to reduce their offensive projects before (Hezbollah's) surprising armed resistance and the hecatomb and destruction caused to this innocent and unprotected populace. Lebanon is a small country of only 10,000 square kilometers with some 4 million inhabitants. We must also recognize that this war is almost exclusively carried out against Hezbollah, established among the Shiite population of the south, of the Bekaa, and of the Beirut suburbs. It is, therefore, the Shiite community that suffers in its flesh the incessant reprisals of the Tsahal.
Not hard to see whose side Tikrit Tommy is on, is it?
My question about Alcoverro is the same as my question about Beirut Bob Fisk. Both these guys live in Beirut and have done so for many years. Who, exactly, are they paying their insurance costs to? And in what form? I don't for a moment believe that any Westerner could live for so many years in Beirut without the risk of being kidnapped or having his house blown up, unless he had an insurance policy, and I don't mean the kind you get from State Farm or Prudential.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Further aimless thoughts while listening to KHYI out of Dallas (click on "Click Here to Listen"):
The wildcat strike at El Prat lasted all day yesterday, though the airport is functioning more or less normally now. The strike caused more than 500 flights to be canceled yesterday and a great number to be diverted to other airports, thus thoroughly messing up the rest of Spain's air travel sector as well. Today more than 100 flights had to be canceled as well, about 20% of the scheduled number.
What happened is that the mainstream labor unions, the UGT and CCOO, called an informative meeting of the Iberia handling workers yesterday at 9 AM, and the meeting got out of hand. Radical elements led by the anarchist labor union CGT took over and passed a wildcat strike motion; the runways were immediately blocked. Finally, at about 7 PM, an agreement was reached in which the workers went back to work and management promised to do something so no one would ever ever get fired again no matter how much crack he smoked on the job.
The question now is who is going to reimburse all the passengers who missed flights because of the strike. If you figure there were, I don't know, 10,000, and if they paid an average of, say, €250 for their tickets, that's a pretty good chunk of change.
Note: The anarchist union that panicked the workers' meeting, the CGT, is also the bunch whose logo appears on the "Israel Estat Genocida" banner (scroll down to the fifth photo for a good view) at last week's anti-Semitic demo. These guys are left over from the old CNT-FAI, the most powerful anarchist organization ever at its peak in late 1936.
The boats are still washing up on the Canaries; there have been several more deaths among the West African illegal immigrants who make up the boat people. Over 600 of them arrived just this week.
The world's number one blowhard, Hugo Chavez, told Al Jazira: "The Jews are doing the same thing to the Lebanese that Hitler did to them." Chavez's next stop on his world tour is Iran.
Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock got married. The sheer redneckiness (redneckosity? redneckization?) is overwhelming. Let's hope the kids have her looks and neither's brain.
I didn't make this up, but it's always seemed accurate to me: The difference between white trash, rednecks, and hillbillies is that, if they get invited to a wedding, white trash throw on a stinky old Iron Maiden '82 tour T-shirt and a torn-up pair of tennis shoes and show up. Rednecks, on the other hand, put on a brand-new freshly-ironed Dale Earnhardt Jr. T-shirt along with their biggest, roundest belt buckle and a pair of alligator-skin cowboy boots and show up. Hillbillies, on the third hand, put on the suit their great-grandpappy Jethro was buried in and show up with a chicken under their arms.
The wildcat strike at El Prat lasted all day yesterday, though the airport is functioning more or less normally now. The strike caused more than 500 flights to be canceled yesterday and a great number to be diverted to other airports, thus thoroughly messing up the rest of Spain's air travel sector as well. Today more than 100 flights had to be canceled as well, about 20% of the scheduled number.
What happened is that the mainstream labor unions, the UGT and CCOO, called an informative meeting of the Iberia handling workers yesterday at 9 AM, and the meeting got out of hand. Radical elements led by the anarchist labor union CGT took over and passed a wildcat strike motion; the runways were immediately blocked. Finally, at about 7 PM, an agreement was reached in which the workers went back to work and management promised to do something so no one would ever ever get fired again no matter how much crack he smoked on the job.
The question now is who is going to reimburse all the passengers who missed flights because of the strike. If you figure there were, I don't know, 10,000, and if they paid an average of, say, €250 for their tickets, that's a pretty good chunk of change.
Note: The anarchist union that panicked the workers' meeting, the CGT, is also the bunch whose logo appears on the "Israel Estat Genocida" banner (scroll down to the fifth photo for a good view) at last week's anti-Semitic demo. These guys are left over from the old CNT-FAI, the most powerful anarchist organization ever at its peak in late 1936.
The boats are still washing up on the Canaries; there have been several more deaths among the West African illegal immigrants who make up the boat people. Over 600 of them arrived just this week.
The world's number one blowhard, Hugo Chavez, told Al Jazira: "The Jews are doing the same thing to the Lebanese that Hitler did to them." Chavez's next stop on his world tour is Iran.
Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock got married. The sheer redneckiness (redneckosity? redneckization?) is overwhelming. Let's hope the kids have her looks and neither's brain.
I didn't make this up, but it's always seemed accurate to me: The difference between white trash, rednecks, and hillbillies is that, if they get invited to a wedding, white trash throw on a stinky old Iron Maiden '82 tour T-shirt and a torn-up pair of tennis shoes and show up. Rednecks, on the other hand, put on a brand-new freshly-ironed Dale Earnhardt Jr. T-shirt along with their biggest, roundest belt buckle and a pair of alligator-skin cowboy boots and show up. Hillbillies, on the third hand, put on the suit their great-grandpappy Jethro was buried in and show up with a chicken under their arms.
Letters to the editor from Friday's El Periodico:
Anti-Semitism might be an even bigger problem than terrorism. Terrorism
might come to an end someday with more justice for everyone, while destroying a country with illegal cluster bombs, with the result of many dead civilians every day, in exchange for two kidnapped soldiers, might make anyone an anti-Semite...
Signed: Francisco Masdeu, Barcelona
I ask Solana: Why don't they send NATO to bomb the terrorist state of
Israel? This action would be much more justified than that of Serbia in 1999 (to my understanding, there was no reason for it.)
Signed: José Luis Calzada Puig, Barcelona
In the Warsaw ghetto, for every German killed 100 Jews were executed. The
Israeli chief of staff, Dan Halutz, threatened to destroy ten buildings in
Beirut for every missile Hezbollah launched. He kept his promise.
Signed: Josep Robert Reig Miró, Barcelona
Note that these were not only letters sent to El Periodico; they are letters El Periodico chose to print.
Anti-Semitism might be an even bigger problem than terrorism. Terrorism
might come to an end someday with more justice for everyone, while destroying a country with illegal cluster bombs, with the result of many dead civilians every day, in exchange for two kidnapped soldiers, might make anyone an anti-Semite...
Signed: Francisco Masdeu, Barcelona
I ask Solana: Why don't they send NATO to bomb the terrorist state of
Israel? This action would be much more justified than that of Serbia in 1999 (to my understanding, there was no reason for it.)
Signed: José Luis Calzada Puig, Barcelona
In the Warsaw ghetto, for every German killed 100 Jews were executed. The
Israeli chief of staff, Dan Halutz, threatened to destroy ten buildings in
Beirut for every missile Hezbollah launched. He kept his promise.
Signed: Josep Robert Reig Miró, Barcelona
Note that these were not only letters sent to El Periodico; they are letters El Periodico chose to print.
Friday, July 28, 2006
The big news today in Barcelona is that strikers have closed down the airport. Iberia's handling personnel have not only walked off the job, but they've blocked all three runways, forcing all air traffic to halt.
Why are they striking? Because Aena, the company that administers El Prat airport, awarded the new handling contract to Air Europa, Spanair, and FCC, presumably because their bid was better than Iberia's. The Iberia workers fear that they will lose their jobs, even though the new bosses are required by byzantine Spanish labor laws to take all of them on.
What I can never figure out is why such things are tolerated on the Continent.
Yes, workers have the right to organize and strike, and they have the right to assemble and protest. But let them do so without interfering with other people's own rights. Everyone knows the old analogy, "Your rights end where my nose begins." If the strikers had stood out in front of the terminal holding signs, no problem. But blocking the runways so no one else can use the airport is something quite different.
And this stuff happens all the time in Spain. Truckers and farmers block highways with barricades of burning tires. Not that long ago Barcelona taxi drivers blocked off airport access.
I am not sure whether these actions are protected by law, but if they are, they shouldn't be, and if they're not, somebody should have arrested the strikers and hauled them away. There has to be some kind of law forbidding interference with public services.
But this is the Continent, and so the authorities let them get away with it.
About 100,000 passengers were supposed to have used El Prat today. Somehow I don't think any of them are very happy right now.
Why are they striking? Because Aena, the company that administers El Prat airport, awarded the new handling contract to Air Europa, Spanair, and FCC, presumably because their bid was better than Iberia's. The Iberia workers fear that they will lose their jobs, even though the new bosses are required by byzantine Spanish labor laws to take all of them on.
What I can never figure out is why such things are tolerated on the Continent.
Yes, workers have the right to organize and strike, and they have the right to assemble and protest. But let them do so without interfering with other people's own rights. Everyone knows the old analogy, "Your rights end where my nose begins." If the strikers had stood out in front of the terminal holding signs, no problem. But blocking the runways so no one else can use the airport is something quite different.
And this stuff happens all the time in Spain. Truckers and farmers block highways with barricades of burning tires. Not that long ago Barcelona taxi drivers blocked off airport access.
I am not sure whether these actions are protected by law, but if they are, they shouldn't be, and if they're not, somebody should have arrested the strikers and hauled them away. There has to be some kind of law forbidding interference with public services.
But this is the Continent, and so the authorities let them get away with it.
About 100,000 passengers were supposed to have used El Prat today. Somehow I don't think any of them are very happy right now.
Friday blog roundup while listening to John Lee Hooker:
Aaron Hanscom, guestblogger at Barcepundit, was kind enough to link to us in a piece on anti-Israeli propaganda he wrote for FrontPage.
And Bob Skinner, guestblogging at Davids Medienkritik, points out what's wrong with the German media. (Point one: "they make stuff up.")
Guirilandia is maybe just a little bit harsh on the tourists; I'll agree many are regrettable, and parts of downtown do cater almost exclusively to tourism, but it lays golden eggs. And don't miss hard-boiled private dick Larry Kovacs's latest adventure on the seamy side of Barcelona.
La Liga Loca sniffs out dodginess at both Sevilla and Real Madrid, along with more Spanish football news.
Expat Yank finds a real Associated Press scoop on Al Qaeda, Israel, Spain, and Zap.
Fausta has two posts on Hugo Chavez, one on anti-Semitism in Venezuela and the other on Chavez's weapons shopping. With videos and everything!
Akaky is a gas.
Angie Schultz rounds up the current blogosphere controversies, you know, all these people sending out anonymous threats and the like. The Internet is just a tool, of course, and so it will be misused by some people for illegal, immoral, or just crazy purposes. This Deb Frisch sounds like a real barrel of laughs.
Roncesvalles reviews the Bush-Merkel "sexual harassment" incident at length.
Aaron Hanscom, guestblogger at Barcepundit, was kind enough to link to us in a piece on anti-Israeli propaganda he wrote for FrontPage.
And Bob Skinner, guestblogging at Davids Medienkritik, points out what's wrong with the German media. (Point one: "they make stuff up.")
Guirilandia is maybe just a little bit harsh on the tourists; I'll agree many are regrettable, and parts of downtown do cater almost exclusively to tourism, but it lays golden eggs. And don't miss hard-boiled private dick Larry Kovacs's latest adventure on the seamy side of Barcelona.
La Liga Loca sniffs out dodginess at both Sevilla and Real Madrid, along with more Spanish football news.
Expat Yank finds a real Associated Press scoop on Al Qaeda, Israel, Spain, and Zap.
Fausta has two posts on Hugo Chavez, one on anti-Semitism in Venezuela and the other on Chavez's weapons shopping. With videos and everything!
Akaky is a gas.
Angie Schultz rounds up the current blogosphere controversies, you know, all these people sending out anonymous threats and the like. The Internet is just a tool, of course, and so it will be misused by some people for illegal, immoral, or just crazy purposes. This Deb Frisch sounds like a real barrel of laughs.
Roncesvalles reviews the Bush-Merkel "sexual harassment" incident at length.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Top five recent Google search hits from my referrals log:
5. is alfonso guerra gay
Far as I know, he's not; he's widely rumored to have a mistress.
4. sexy asses of Utah
Try the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Or Marie Osmond. Or Donny, if you're an alternative-lifestyle guy.
3. nude cyclists
Sounds good to me, but wouldn't you get tremendous road rash if you took a spill? And wouldn't your, uh, apparatus flap around in the breeze?
2. sex shops pozuelo
Can't help you there; never been in Pozuelo. I do know there's one on Aragon near Balmes here in Barcelona.
1. where to buy heroin Barcelona
Try Can Tunis, but if you get stabbed it's not my fault.
5. is alfonso guerra gay
Far as I know, he's not; he's widely rumored to have a mistress.
4. sexy asses of Utah
Try the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Or Marie Osmond. Or Donny, if you're an alternative-lifestyle guy.
3. nude cyclists
Sounds good to me, but wouldn't you get tremendous road rash if you took a spill? And wouldn't your, uh, apparatus flap around in the breeze?
2. sex shops pozuelo
Can't help you there; never been in Pozuelo. I do know there's one on Aragon near Balmes here in Barcelona.
1. where to buy heroin Barcelona
Try Can Tunis, but if you get stabbed it's not my fault.
Aimless thoughts while listening to Robert Earl Keen:
Zap and the PSOE have finally shut up about Israel; I'm not sure they got the message that most of the rest of the world thinks they're anti-Semites, but they learned that their rhetoric aimed at domestic consumption can backfire when the international media gets hold of it.
According to various estimates, there are at least 800,000 illegal aliens in Spain today. This is just one year after Zap decreed a massive asylum program and legalized a few hundred thousand of those who were already here.
I'm in favor of immigration. I'm an immigrant. And I'm not particularly concerned about the number of illegals right now, since Spain can hold the ones it has without much problem (Spain's immigrants are about 8.5% of the total population). Pretty soon sometime, however, they're going to have to set up a guest-worker program, in the same way that Germany accepted Spanish guest workers in the 60s and early 70s.
Of course, if you really want to limit immigration, you have to let the free market work and give those people the chance to earn a living in their home countries. And the best way to do that, of course, is for the US and EU to eliminate import restrictions and tariffs on goods from Third World countries. Let them compete with us on a level playing field. Simplistic, I know, but it would do a hell of a lot of good.
According to La Vanguardia, the average immigrant in Barcelona earns about €800 a month and spends some €550 for a room in a four-bedroom apartment. There's the native Catalan real-estate owners gouging the Third Worlders, since that's twice the price you'd pay if you were a leaseholder, and I'll bet the places the immigrants live are not nearly as nice as what a leaseholder gets for his €1000 a month.
Hugo Chavez is buying armaments from Russia: 24 Sujoi-30 fighters and 30 military helicopters. He is going to have to junk his F-16s because the Americans won't sell him spare parts. In addition, he wants to manufacture AK-47 rifles in Venezuela.
There's a major stink going on in Marbella, the trashy Costa del Sol magnet for Russian mafiosi and Arab sheiks and assorted international con men. The city's mayor, Julian Muñoz, gossip-magazine and reality-TV mainstay because of his romance with aging torch singer Isabel Pantoja, is in jail along with about half of the city council, and Jose Maria del Nido, Muñoz's lawyer and the president of the Sevilla FC soccer club, has just been charged with embezzling €6.7 million. Wonders will never cease.
It's still hot, 45º C in the sun in Barcelona and about 34º in the shade. Unpleasant. Sweaty. Smelly. La Vangua ran a letter to the editor encouraging citizens to shower and use deodorant regularly. Most do but too many don't. Many of those who don't can be found hanging out at the Casa Julio bar on Calle Providencia.
By the way, a gang of aggressive homeless drunks and drug addicts has taken over the beach at Barceloneta and the cops are having no luck moving them along. Sounds like the place to party on Saturday night.
Zap and the PSOE have finally shut up about Israel; I'm not sure they got the message that most of the rest of the world thinks they're anti-Semites, but they learned that their rhetoric aimed at domestic consumption can backfire when the international media gets hold of it.
According to various estimates, there are at least 800,000 illegal aliens in Spain today. This is just one year after Zap decreed a massive asylum program and legalized a few hundred thousand of those who were already here.
I'm in favor of immigration. I'm an immigrant. And I'm not particularly concerned about the number of illegals right now, since Spain can hold the ones it has without much problem (Spain's immigrants are about 8.5% of the total population). Pretty soon sometime, however, they're going to have to set up a guest-worker program, in the same way that Germany accepted Spanish guest workers in the 60s and early 70s.
Of course, if you really want to limit immigration, you have to let the free market work and give those people the chance to earn a living in their home countries. And the best way to do that, of course, is for the US and EU to eliminate import restrictions and tariffs on goods from Third World countries. Let them compete with us on a level playing field. Simplistic, I know, but it would do a hell of a lot of good.
According to La Vanguardia, the average immigrant in Barcelona earns about €800 a month and spends some €550 for a room in a four-bedroom apartment. There's the native Catalan real-estate owners gouging the Third Worlders, since that's twice the price you'd pay if you were a leaseholder, and I'll bet the places the immigrants live are not nearly as nice as what a leaseholder gets for his €1000 a month.
Hugo Chavez is buying armaments from Russia: 24 Sujoi-30 fighters and 30 military helicopters. He is going to have to junk his F-16s because the Americans won't sell him spare parts. In addition, he wants to manufacture AK-47 rifles in Venezuela.
There's a major stink going on in Marbella, the trashy Costa del Sol magnet for Russian mafiosi and Arab sheiks and assorted international con men. The city's mayor, Julian Muñoz, gossip-magazine and reality-TV mainstay because of his romance with aging torch singer Isabel Pantoja, is in jail along with about half of the city council, and Jose Maria del Nido, Muñoz's lawyer and the president of the Sevilla FC soccer club, has just been charged with embezzling €6.7 million. Wonders will never cease.
It's still hot, 45º C in the sun in Barcelona and about 34º in the shade. Unpleasant. Sweaty. Smelly. La Vangua ran a letter to the editor encouraging citizens to shower and use deodorant regularly. Most do but too many don't. Many of those who don't can be found hanging out at the Casa Julio bar on Calle Providencia.
By the way, a gang of aggressive homeless drunks and drug addicts has taken over the beach at Barceloneta and the cops are having no luck moving them along. Sounds like the place to party on Saturday night.
The AP is reporting that Floyd Landis tested positive for excessive testosterone on the day of his huge breakaway in the Alps. A retest is pending, but it looks like Floyd cheated. Too bad, he seemed like a genuinely stand-up guy. I'm disappointed, of course. If Landis is stripped of the title, Spaniard Oscar Pereiro, who had a fine race and finished second, will inherit it.
Bad news for the Tour de France. First a dozen riders, including Ullrich and Basso, are disqualified mere days before the race because of the Spanish doping scandal that brought down famous cycling coach Manolo Saez, and now the winner has tested positive for doping. The Tour had better be even stricter in its testing or it's going to go the way of pro wrestling, a popular sport in the early 20th century that died when the fans decided it wasn't on the level. Or boxing; as recently as the 1940s boxing was America's second most important sport after baseball.
I think looking at Sports Illustrated's homepage is instructive about the current ranking of sports in importance in the US. The tabs directly under the headline which readers click on for all the news about a particular sport read, from left to right:
NFL; College football; MLB (major league baseball); NBA; College basketball; Golf; NHL (National Hockey League); Nascar; Soccer; High school; Other sports.
Boxing is down there in "Other Sports" along with team handball and roller hockey, below even high school sports.
Note that soccer gets its own tab now. This is new and shows that Americans are becoming more and more familiar with the game. Another major clue pointing in this direction is that Bill Simmons, America's most popular sports columnist, recently asked his readers to write in recommending which English Premier League he should support. Note that Simmons doesn't give a crap about the American soccer league, which everybody knows is second-rate; he wants to pick a real top-level team playing good football, and those can be found in the EPL. You might be a little surprised at the team he picks; remember, he's from Boston and is a Red Sox fanatic. Brits might be interested in this article, if only to see how a top American sportswriter views their league.
Bad news for the Tour de France. First a dozen riders, including Ullrich and Basso, are disqualified mere days before the race because of the Spanish doping scandal that brought down famous cycling coach Manolo Saez, and now the winner has tested positive for doping. The Tour had better be even stricter in its testing or it's going to go the way of pro wrestling, a popular sport in the early 20th century that died when the fans decided it wasn't on the level. Or boxing; as recently as the 1940s boxing was America's second most important sport after baseball.
I think looking at Sports Illustrated's homepage is instructive about the current ranking of sports in importance in the US. The tabs directly under the headline which readers click on for all the news about a particular sport read, from left to right:
NFL; College football; MLB (major league baseball); NBA; College basketball; Golf; NHL (National Hockey League); Nascar; Soccer; High school; Other sports.
Boxing is down there in "Other Sports" along with team handball and roller hockey, below even high school sports.
Note that soccer gets its own tab now. This is new and shows that Americans are becoming more and more familiar with the game. Another major clue pointing in this direction is that Bill Simmons, America's most popular sports columnist, recently asked his readers to write in recommending which English Premier League he should support. Note that Simmons doesn't give a crap about the American soccer league, which everybody knows is second-rate; he wants to pick a real top-level team playing good football, and those can be found in the EPL. You might be a little surprised at the team he picks; remember, he's from Boston and is a Red Sox fanatic. Brits might be interested in this article, if only to see how a top American sportswriter views their league.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Francesc-Marc Alvaro describes a conversation with one of our local enlightened and illustrated intellectuals in today's La Vanguardia:
My friend is thrilled with Zapatero's latest diplomatic adventures and with
the PSOE's official position on the crisis between Israel and Hezbollah. My
friend attended last Thursday's demonstration in Barcelona's Plaza Sant Jaume in
order to protest against "Israeli genocide in Lebanon," to put it in his own
words. My friend thinks that Jose Blanco did not go far enough, and recites an
article written by a University of Barcelona professor and retired military
officer which declares that Israel "has responded to every terrorist action with
military reprisals against the Arab civilian population." My friend assures me
that the war is the fault of the Israelis and "their expansionist and
colonialist desires," to put it in his own words.
I try to tell my friend that Hezbollah is a political party and an armed
organization which, moved by Teheran's interests and encrusted inside the
Lebanese state, dedicates itself to imposing through terrorism the same
totalitarian and fundamentalist ideology that the Iranians are suffering from
today. I also remind him that it was no accident that the first attack by
these guerrillas on Israeli soil was on July 12, when the deadline set for the
Iranian government to respond officially about its nuclear program ran out.
My friend, who exclusively watches the TV3 news, insists that Israel
"is killing children, women, and old people," and that "it's all a plan drawn up
by the neocons to expand the empire." A little tired by now, I remind him that
the fanatical cleric that runs Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrala, has stated publicly,
"We love martyrdom," which fits in perfectly with these guerrillas' practice of
camouflaging arms and military bases in the middle of houses and civilian
buildings, using the defenseless population as human shields. Nasrala, who is
totalitarian but not an imbecile, generously promotes the martyrdom of Lebanese
civilians while he and his lieutenants hide away. I cite a recent article by the
Israeli author Amos Oz, a well-known pacifist, denouncing the false symmetry in
placing a democratic state like Israel at the same level as a totalitarian
terrorist organization like Hezbollah.
My friend isn't listening to me any more. It does me no good to remind him
that Hezbollah's attacks occurred exactly when Israel has pulled out of Gaza and
was planning a pullout from the West Bank. Isn't it suspicious that
fundamentalists sponsored by Iran and supported by Syria provoke Israel as soon
as some hope appears? My friend enthusiastically praises Zapatero and talks
about his Alliance of Civilizations. He feels superior and his conscience is
very calm.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Tuesday blog roundup while listening to Taj Mahal:
Roncesvalles shreds a fatuous blonde German TV hostess.
Right Wing News makes John Kerry eat his flip-flops and provides this quick Middle East quiz.
Rainy Day outs Angelo Sodano as the head anti-Israeli in the Vatican.
Fausta notes the BBC's significant omissions.
Eursoc unearths a sinister secret EU plan.
Expat Yank fisks another clueless Guardian columnist.
The Rottweiler eviscerates a British foreign office hack.
Daniel W. Drezner debunks an uninformed "another world is possible" foo-foo.
Barcepundit features guest blogger Aaron Hanscom on the PSOE's anti-Israeli disaster.
La Liga Loca has a fresh roundup of Spanish football news.
And Arts and Letters Daily links to this extremely overdone slice-of-life-in-Spain piece, in which the author calls a bunch of folks hanging out in a suburban Spanish plaza "a sacred gathering." No, no, they're just bored and have nothing else to do.
Roncesvalles shreds a fatuous blonde German TV hostess.
Right Wing News makes John Kerry eat his flip-flops and provides this quick Middle East quiz.
Rainy Day outs Angelo Sodano as the head anti-Israeli in the Vatican.
Fausta notes the BBC's significant omissions.
Eursoc unearths a sinister secret EU plan.
Expat Yank fisks another clueless Guardian columnist.
The Rottweiler eviscerates a British foreign office hack.
Daniel W. Drezner debunks an uninformed "another world is possible" foo-foo.
Barcepundit features guest blogger Aaron Hanscom on the PSOE's anti-Israeli disaster.
La Liga Loca has a fresh roundup of Spanish football news.
And Arts and Letters Daily links to this extremely overdone slice-of-life-in-Spain piece, in which the author calls a bunch of folks hanging out in a suburban Spanish plaza "a sacred gathering." No, no, they're just bored and have nothing else to do.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Further aimless thoughts while listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard:
Israeli ambassador Victor Harel snapped back at Pepe Blanco, saying that Blanco's remarks "were the most disgraceful (infame) statements I have heard in recent days...He is accusing us of killing civilians indiscriminately, that is killing civilians intentionally. This is something that Arab propaganda does, but we did not expect it from someone at the head of a party with many links with Israel and years and years of relations...That the organizational secretary of a party, the same that organized (Thursday's) demonstration, should make an accusation of this character against us, has left us completely speechless."
So what did Blanco do, apologize? Nope.
"As I have done since the beginning of the crisis, my first words were of rotund condemnation of Hezbollah's terrorist actions; actions, which I have also been saying for days, do not justify a disproportionate military response which is causing innocent victims," he responded.
These guys are just digging the hole even deeper.
It's hot, with temperatures above 90º F across most of Europe. In southern Spain it can easily reach 110º. 30 people have already been reported dead in France, reminiscent of the tragic summer several years ago when literally thousands of people, mostly elderly, died of the heat. I am on a granola-yogurt-fruit diet to beat the heat. Get this, the Generalitat is warning people about "abusing air-conditioning." I'm not sure what they mean, since anybody who tries to take a whack at my air-conditioner is going to have to get past me first.
The ignored international humanitarian crisis continued this week, as some 600 illegal immigrant boat people were picked up at sea aboard several different open boats in the Atlantic by the Spanish coast guard. At least six died of exposure and starvation, as one of the cayucos was adrift at sea for five days without food before they found it. Canary Islands authorities say they are "desperate." Over a thousand people have died at sea so far in 2006 on the West Africa-Canary Islands route. The international media isn't getting all excited, though.
In good news, traffic deaths are down by half over last summer. This is excellent news, as Spanish highways have always been among the deadliest in Europe. Looks like the changeover to the points system has had a psychological effect on driving habits.
Get this. There are currently nine enormous luxury cruisers docked in Barcelona harbor, and 1.5 million cruise passengers will come through the city this year. And some people doubt that we live off tourism.
Sports: Everyone knows that Floyd Landis won the Tour de France, a well-deserved victory for a guy who toughed it out, who pulled off one of the finest breaks from the pack ever on the day it looked like it was all over for him. Landis is much more popular in Europe than Armstrong, probably because he seems like a much nicer guy, you know, not as arrogant. Lance is, of course, the greatest cyclist ever, but he's apparently also capable of behaving like a major dickhead.
Barcelona signed Thuram and Zambrotta, giving them a squad of:
Goalies: Valdes, Jorquera
Right fullback: Zambrotta, Belletti, Oleguer
Right center-back: Marquez, Oleguer
Left center-back: Puyol, Thuram
Left fullback: Van Bronckhorst, Sylvinho
Defensive midfielder: Edmilson, Marquez, Motta
Playmaking midfielder: Xavi, Iniesta, Van Bommel
Attacking midfielder: Deco, Iniesta, Van Bommel
Right wing: Messi, Giuly, Ezquerro
Center forward: Eto'o, Gudjohnsen
Left wing: Ronaldinho, Deco
That's a pretty good lineup, and they've got three years playing together under their belts. They're the unanimous favorite to win the Spanish league--the online betting sites have Barcelona at something like 1.6-1 to threepeat, with Real Madrid at around 3-1 and longshot Valencia at 8-1. No one else has a realistic chance. As for the Champions' League, Barcelona and Chelsea are the preseason favorites. Since both Juventus and Milan have been disqualified, this means that the CL will be somewhat easier to win than last year.
Israeli ambassador Victor Harel snapped back at Pepe Blanco, saying that Blanco's remarks "were the most disgraceful (infame) statements I have heard in recent days...He is accusing us of killing civilians indiscriminately, that is killing civilians intentionally. This is something that Arab propaganda does, but we did not expect it from someone at the head of a party with many links with Israel and years and years of relations...That the organizational secretary of a party, the same that organized (Thursday's) demonstration, should make an accusation of this character against us, has left us completely speechless."
So what did Blanco do, apologize? Nope.
"As I have done since the beginning of the crisis, my first words were of rotund condemnation of Hezbollah's terrorist actions; actions, which I have also been saying for days, do not justify a disproportionate military response which is causing innocent victims," he responded.
These guys are just digging the hole even deeper.
It's hot, with temperatures above 90º F across most of Europe. In southern Spain it can easily reach 110º. 30 people have already been reported dead in France, reminiscent of the tragic summer several years ago when literally thousands of people, mostly elderly, died of the heat. I am on a granola-yogurt-fruit diet to beat the heat. Get this, the Generalitat is warning people about "abusing air-conditioning." I'm not sure what they mean, since anybody who tries to take a whack at my air-conditioner is going to have to get past me first.
The ignored international humanitarian crisis continued this week, as some 600 illegal immigrant boat people were picked up at sea aboard several different open boats in the Atlantic by the Spanish coast guard. At least six died of exposure and starvation, as one of the cayucos was adrift at sea for five days without food before they found it. Canary Islands authorities say they are "desperate." Over a thousand people have died at sea so far in 2006 on the West Africa-Canary Islands route. The international media isn't getting all excited, though.
In good news, traffic deaths are down by half over last summer. This is excellent news, as Spanish highways have always been among the deadliest in Europe. Looks like the changeover to the points system has had a psychological effect on driving habits.
Get this. There are currently nine enormous luxury cruisers docked in Barcelona harbor, and 1.5 million cruise passengers will come through the city this year. And some people doubt that we live off tourism.
Sports: Everyone knows that Floyd Landis won the Tour de France, a well-deserved victory for a guy who toughed it out, who pulled off one of the finest breaks from the pack ever on the day it looked like it was all over for him. Landis is much more popular in Europe than Armstrong, probably because he seems like a much nicer guy, you know, not as arrogant. Lance is, of course, the greatest cyclist ever, but he's apparently also capable of behaving like a major dickhead.
Barcelona signed Thuram and Zambrotta, giving them a squad of:
Goalies: Valdes, Jorquera
Right fullback: Zambrotta, Belletti, Oleguer
Right center-back: Marquez, Oleguer
Left center-back: Puyol, Thuram
Left fullback: Van Bronckhorst, Sylvinho
Defensive midfielder: Edmilson, Marquez, Motta
Playmaking midfielder: Xavi, Iniesta, Van Bommel
Attacking midfielder: Deco, Iniesta, Van Bommel
Right wing: Messi, Giuly, Ezquerro
Center forward: Eto'o, Gudjohnsen
Left wing: Ronaldinho, Deco
That's a pretty good lineup, and they've got three years playing together under their belts. They're the unanimous favorite to win the Spanish league--the online betting sites have Barcelona at something like 1.6-1 to threepeat, with Real Madrid at around 3-1 and longshot Valencia at 8-1. No one else has a realistic chance. As for the Champions' League, Barcelona and Chelsea are the preseason favorites. Since both Juventus and Milan have been disqualified, this means that the CL will be somewhat easier to win than last year.
Aimless thoughts while not listening to Kenny Rogers:
José Blanco, the PSOE's organizational secretary (internal party boss), put his foot in it again; this has been a very bad week for the PSOE and the Zap administration in international affairs. Blanco said that civilian victims in Lebanon "cannot be considered collateral damage, but rather an objective sought by Israel." He added, "No objective justifies the destruction of a country." So the PSOE claims that Israel is intentionally murdering civilians. That'll look great when Moratinos shows up in Rome at this big meeting they've called in order to do nothing about the Israeli-Hezbollah war.
Moratinos, the foreign minister, is the same guy who accused Israel of "perpetrating a bloodbath" on Saturday. The Israeli ambassador, Victor Harel, called Moratinos's statement "unbalanced and biased," and added, "We don't need anyone to remind us that peace is unreachable with planes and tanks."
Deputy prime minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega chimed in on Sunday, calling on Spanish youths "not to feel ashamed to participate in demonstrations for peace like the one last Thursday in Madrid." Remember, they chanted "Israel genocide" over and over and carried banners with the Star of David, an equal sign, and a swastika.
The Zap government has no idea how deep a hole it is digging itself with this rhetoric.
In Spain it's big news whenever some Zap government official has any sort of contact with the Bush administration, since it's well-known that Zap is on the Bush administration's shit list. Therefore, Moratinos announced to all concerned that he had talked to Condi Rice on the phone. Woo-hoo.
Blanco also said that the PSOE condemned Hezbollah's terrorist actions as well as "Israel's disproportionate response and its indiscriminate attacks on the population of Lebanon." See, Blanco, this is why people around the world think that you are anti-Semitic. You spend much more energy condemning Israel than you do Hezbollah, and you criticize Israel for everything it does, while almost never saying anything negative about Al Fatah and Hamas and Hezbollah and Syria. Just like the entire Socialist government and most of the Spanish media and cultural crowd.
Don't believe me? Listen to Giaco Ventura, the president of the Spanish-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Ventura is "concerned" that relations between Spain and Israel are "less fluid" than under the Aznar administration. He added that "foreign ministers in half the world have recognized the crisis in relations between the two countries," and that "the European Parliament points out Spain as the principal source of incitation against Jews in Europe." Ventura accused the Zap government of "not measuring Israel and Hezbollah by the same standard, which leads to anti-Semitism and Judeophobia."
Blanco didn't miss a chance to attack former PM Aznar, either, saying that he "works for an international arms corporation" and, literally, "He gets off on war." ("Le pone la guerra.") Blanco added, "Spain had a warlike government, that of Aznar and Rajoy, and now it has one committed to peace." That is, to the Triple A, appeasement, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism.
TV3, meanwhile, is reporting that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians with white phosphorus rounds; Catalonia is even more anti-Semitic than the rest of Spain, I think, and anti-Semitism is unfortunately common everywhere here for long-standing historical and cultural reasons. Most importantly, there are very few Jews in Spain, so few people personally know anyone Jewish; Spaniards love conspiracy theories even more than most Europeans, so they jump at the idea that Jews are disproportionately powerful; also, there are few pro-Jewish voices out there in the media and the cultural world, so nobody's opinion is ever challenged. Finally, the Franco regime's propaganda was surprisingly effective among Spaniards, and Franco liked talking about the Jewish-Bolshevist anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish conspiracy.
(Note: Jews were not persecuted under Franco, nor were Jews who escaped to Spain during WWII sent back to the Nazis. One of the few semi-decent things that hard, cold old man did.)
The other piece of big news around here is the Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of Spaniard Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed on the ground that his right to be presumed innocent had been violated. Ahmed was convicted by the National Court of membership in Al Qaeda and sentenced to six years in prison. The National Court ruled that Ahmad "with full knowledge of the terrorist nature of the group, joined Al Qaeda and traveled to Afghanistan with the proposition of becoming a mujihadin and practicing jihad." Here's the fun part: Ahmed spent more than two years at Guantanamo after being captured in Pakistan. We then shipped him to Spain. Now they're letting him walk; the Supreme Court ordered that he be immediately released from prison. I hope he and his buddies all move in next to you guys.
Of course, Spain depends on the United States for self-defense; right under the Vangua's story on Moratinos's verbal diarrhea, there's an article reporting that the US has authorized Spain to purchase Tomahawk missiles.
José Blanco, the PSOE's organizational secretary (internal party boss), put his foot in it again; this has been a very bad week for the PSOE and the Zap administration in international affairs. Blanco said that civilian victims in Lebanon "cannot be considered collateral damage, but rather an objective sought by Israel." He added, "No objective justifies the destruction of a country." So the PSOE claims that Israel is intentionally murdering civilians. That'll look great when Moratinos shows up in Rome at this big meeting they've called in order to do nothing about the Israeli-Hezbollah war.
Moratinos, the foreign minister, is the same guy who accused Israel of "perpetrating a bloodbath" on Saturday. The Israeli ambassador, Victor Harel, called Moratinos's statement "unbalanced and biased," and added, "We don't need anyone to remind us that peace is unreachable with planes and tanks."
Deputy prime minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega chimed in on Sunday, calling on Spanish youths "not to feel ashamed to participate in demonstrations for peace like the one last Thursday in Madrid." Remember, they chanted "Israel genocide" over and over and carried banners with the Star of David, an equal sign, and a swastika.
The Zap government has no idea how deep a hole it is digging itself with this rhetoric.
In Spain it's big news whenever some Zap government official has any sort of contact with the Bush administration, since it's well-known that Zap is on the Bush administration's shit list. Therefore, Moratinos announced to all concerned that he had talked to Condi Rice on the phone. Woo-hoo.
Blanco also said that the PSOE condemned Hezbollah's terrorist actions as well as "Israel's disproportionate response and its indiscriminate attacks on the population of Lebanon." See, Blanco, this is why people around the world think that you are anti-Semitic. You spend much more energy condemning Israel than you do Hezbollah, and you criticize Israel for everything it does, while almost never saying anything negative about Al Fatah and Hamas and Hezbollah and Syria. Just like the entire Socialist government and most of the Spanish media and cultural crowd.
Don't believe me? Listen to Giaco Ventura, the president of the Spanish-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Ventura is "concerned" that relations between Spain and Israel are "less fluid" than under the Aznar administration. He added that "foreign ministers in half the world have recognized the crisis in relations between the two countries," and that "the European Parliament points out Spain as the principal source of incitation against Jews in Europe." Ventura accused the Zap government of "not measuring Israel and Hezbollah by the same standard, which leads to anti-Semitism and Judeophobia."
Blanco didn't miss a chance to attack former PM Aznar, either, saying that he "works for an international arms corporation" and, literally, "He gets off on war." ("Le pone la guerra.") Blanco added, "Spain had a warlike government, that of Aznar and Rajoy, and now it has one committed to peace." That is, to the Triple A, appeasement, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism.
TV3, meanwhile, is reporting that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians with white phosphorus rounds; Catalonia is even more anti-Semitic than the rest of Spain, I think, and anti-Semitism is unfortunately common everywhere here for long-standing historical and cultural reasons. Most importantly, there are very few Jews in Spain, so few people personally know anyone Jewish; Spaniards love conspiracy theories even more than most Europeans, so they jump at the idea that Jews are disproportionately powerful; also, there are few pro-Jewish voices out there in the media and the cultural world, so nobody's opinion is ever challenged. Finally, the Franco regime's propaganda was surprisingly effective among Spaniards, and Franco liked talking about the Jewish-Bolshevist anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish conspiracy.
(Note: Jews were not persecuted under Franco, nor were Jews who escaped to Spain during WWII sent back to the Nazis. One of the few semi-decent things that hard, cold old man did.)
The other piece of big news around here is the Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of Spaniard Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed on the ground that his right to be presumed innocent had been violated. Ahmed was convicted by the National Court of membership in Al Qaeda and sentenced to six years in prison. The National Court ruled that Ahmad "with full knowledge of the terrorist nature of the group, joined Al Qaeda and traveled to Afghanistan with the proposition of becoming a mujihadin and practicing jihad." Here's the fun part: Ahmed spent more than two years at Guantanamo after being captured in Pakistan. We then shipped him to Spain. Now they're letting him walk; the Supreme Court ordered that he be immediately released from prison. I hope he and his buddies all move in next to you guys.
Of course, Spain depends on the United States for self-defense; right under the Vangua's story on Moratinos's verbal diarrhea, there's an article reporting that the US has authorized Spain to purchase Tomahawk missiles.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sunday blog roundup while listening to the new Bruce Springsteen album, which I highly recommend:
Natalie Solent comments on a Normblog post on reinterpreting the Golden Rule.
The Rottweiler chews off the New York Times's leg, and PoliPundit does the same to the Boston Globe, owned by the NYT..
Barcepundit links to a video of a pro-Israel demonstrator being abused in Madrid. Fausta's Blog has the same video link, with further commentary.
Expat Yank takes apart a dense Times columnist using an old Looney Toons short as a comparison, and is nice enough to include a link to us. This is one of the most creative and most prolific blogs out there.
Free Will Blog has an extremely thorough post on Israel, Lebanon, the Geneva Conventions, Chirac, Kofi, and the Europeans in general. Highly recommended.
And Denis Boyles, at National Review, well, reviews biased coverage of the Middle East in the Europress, including the Guardian, the Independent, Le Monde, and the BBC.
Natalie Solent comments on a Normblog post on reinterpreting the Golden Rule.
The Rottweiler chews off the New York Times's leg, and PoliPundit does the same to the Boston Globe, owned by the NYT..
Barcepundit links to a video of a pro-Israel demonstrator being abused in Madrid. Fausta's Blog has the same video link, with further commentary.
Expat Yank takes apart a dense Times columnist using an old Looney Toons short as a comparison, and is nice enough to include a link to us. This is one of the most creative and most prolific blogs out there.
Free Will Blog has an extremely thorough post on Israel, Lebanon, the Geneva Conventions, Chirac, Kofi, and the Europeans in general. Highly recommended.
And Denis Boyles, at National Review, well, reviews biased coverage of the Middle East in the Europress, including the Guardian, the Independent, Le Monde, and the BBC.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
My friend Franco Aleman at Barcepundit and Laurence Simon are involved in a minor dust-up regarding Ceuta and Melilla. These are two Spanish cities on the north coast of Morocco which have been Spanish territory for several hundred years, and their populations are Spanish--that is, they speak Spanish, have Spanish names, are Catholic, eat Spanish food, follow Spanish cultural customs, etc. The people of Ceuta and Melilla overwhelmingly want to stay part of Spain.
Democratically, it's clear that Ceuta and Melilla should stay Spanish, even though Morocco claims the cities and every now and then starts a minor diplomatic crisis. (Remember the Great Perejil Island War of 2002?)
Piece of history: Spain took over the northern strip of Moroccan territory in 1912 at the pre-WWI height of imperialism; France got the rest. When Morocco became independent again in 1956 and Spain gave up the northern strip, it kept Ceuta and Melilla, which it had held since time immemorial.
The most logical analogy, I think, is Gibraltar, which has been British territory for several hundred years and whose population overwhelmingly wants to stay part of Britain. Even though Spain claims the city and every now and then starts a minor diplomatic crisis, the will of the inhabitants should be supreme.
Another logical analogy is Hawaii, which was independent until American businessmen overthrew the native ruling dynasty in 1893; the US annexed the islands in 1898, at the pre-WWI height of imperialism. We just went in and took over, and made Hawaii a state in 1959.
Of course, nobody in Hawaii wants to be independent again except for a handful of wackjobs. Following the democratic rule of the desire of the great majority, Hawaii, just like Gibraltar and Ceuta and Melilla--and the Falklands, and Puerto Rico--should stay right where it is.
Democratically, it's clear that Ceuta and Melilla should stay Spanish, even though Morocco claims the cities and every now and then starts a minor diplomatic crisis. (Remember the Great Perejil Island War of 2002?)
Piece of history: Spain took over the northern strip of Moroccan territory in 1912 at the pre-WWI height of imperialism; France got the rest. When Morocco became independent again in 1956 and Spain gave up the northern strip, it kept Ceuta and Melilla, which it had held since time immemorial.
The most logical analogy, I think, is Gibraltar, which has been British territory for several hundred years and whose population overwhelmingly wants to stay part of Britain. Even though Spain claims the city and every now and then starts a minor diplomatic crisis, the will of the inhabitants should be supreme.
Another logical analogy is Hawaii, which was independent until American businessmen overthrew the native ruling dynasty in 1893; the US annexed the islands in 1898, at the pre-WWI height of imperialism. We just went in and took over, and made Hawaii a state in 1959.
Of course, nobody in Hawaii wants to be independent again except for a handful of wackjobs. Following the democratic rule of the desire of the great majority, Hawaii, just like Gibraltar and Ceuta and Melilla--and the Falklands, and Puerto Rico--should stay right where it is.
The Times has a rather fawning profile of Zap, but it does include a few basic facts on the man that you may not have known about. The piece makes the point that Zap has avoided screwing up the economy, for which we have to give him some credit. Things ain't perfect, but he has cut some corporate taxes and has generally avoided interfering too much in the business world. Spain's two chief economic concerns are the trade deficit and inflation, both of which are fueled by increased domestic demand, meaning that people have money to spend and things to spend it on, and neither of which is horribly bad.
The piece comes right out and calls Zap an "accidental prime minister," which he is, but it's not something the Spanish press ever says. There is a meme propagated by the illustrated and enlightened among us, a group which includes many hacks and flacks employed by Spain's media corporations, saying that the Spanish people voted against the PP because they were fed up with Aznar's policies. False. The Spanish people voted against the PP because the majority thought that Aznar's involvement in Iraq was responsible for the Madrid bombings, and preferred to cut and run. No bombings, no Zap as prime minister.
The piece comes right out and calls Zap an "accidental prime minister," which he is, but it's not something the Spanish press ever says. There is a meme propagated by the illustrated and enlightened among us, a group which includes many hacks and flacks employed by Spain's media corporations, saying that the Spanish people voted against the PP because they were fed up with Aznar's policies. False. The Spanish people voted against the PP because the majority thought that Aznar's involvement in Iraq was responsible for the Madrid bombings, and preferred to cut and run. No bombings, no Zap as prime minister.
It appears that Zap has put his foot in it big-time with his statements on the Israeli-Hezbollah war and especially with his appearance wearing a kefiya or however it's spelled.
Even El Periodico says in the second paragraph of its lead international story:
Everything may have been a misunderstanding, but the three times Zapatero has spoken about the conflict in Lebanon he has given the impression that he condemned Israeli bellicism more severely than the European Union. He has consistently called for "the cease of hostilities" between both sides, but at first he said, "Israel is wrong, since one thing is self-defense and another thing launching a generalized attack on Lebanon." Then he demanded that Israel "respect human rights and international law," and finally he accused Israel of "using abusive force against innocent civilians." And, to top it off, on Wednesday he posed in Alicante with a kufika--the Palestinian scarf--around his neck."
The rumors going around are that Zap has consistently been very critical of Israel in private, to the point of near-obsession.
Israel, of course, is extremely angry, and the Israeli ambassador warned that "relations between Spain and Israel are not at a good moment." Translation: Zap, who would love to play peacemaker, will have a total of zero influence at any possible peace deal. Impotent and powerless. Zap's Alliance of Civilizations, an idiotic attempt to set up some sort of parallel UN, seems even more worthless every day.
Get this. Zap is so desperate to play some sort of international role that he and Turkish prime minister Erdogan have volunteered themselves, as co-sponsors of the Alliance of Civilizations, as mediators. They sent out a communique condemning "all forms of terrorism," warning that "we cannot accept bombs or missiles falling on the civil population," and "firmly censuring the disproportionate use of force." Yeah, that sounds real neutral and even-handed.
Spanish commentators like to say that Spain is particularly influential in the Islamic world because of historical connections, something that I do not believe in the least. And if they do have any influence, it hasn't done a damn bit of good.
By the way, Spain did not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until 1986.
Even El Periodico says in the second paragraph of its lead international story:
Everything may have been a misunderstanding, but the three times Zapatero has spoken about the conflict in Lebanon he has given the impression that he condemned Israeli bellicism more severely than the European Union. He has consistently called for "the cease of hostilities" between both sides, but at first he said, "Israel is wrong, since one thing is self-defense and another thing launching a generalized attack on Lebanon." Then he demanded that Israel "respect human rights and international law," and finally he accused Israel of "using abusive force against innocent civilians." And, to top it off, on Wednesday he posed in Alicante with a kufika--the Palestinian scarf--around his neck."
The rumors going around are that Zap has consistently been very critical of Israel in private, to the point of near-obsession.
Israel, of course, is extremely angry, and the Israeli ambassador warned that "relations between Spain and Israel are not at a good moment." Translation: Zap, who would love to play peacemaker, will have a total of zero influence at any possible peace deal. Impotent and powerless. Zap's Alliance of Civilizations, an idiotic attempt to set up some sort of parallel UN, seems even more worthless every day.
Get this. Zap is so desperate to play some sort of international role that he and Turkish prime minister Erdogan have volunteered themselves, as co-sponsors of the Alliance of Civilizations, as mediators. They sent out a communique condemning "all forms of terrorism," warning that "we cannot accept bombs or missiles falling on the civil population," and "firmly censuring the disproportionate use of force." Yeah, that sounds real neutral and even-handed.
Spanish commentators like to say that Spain is particularly influential in the Islamic world because of historical connections, something that I do not believe in the least. And if they do have any influence, it hasn't done a damn bit of good.
By the way, Spain did not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until 1986.
Friday, July 21, 2006
La Vanguardia's anti-Semitic and anti-American cartoonist Toni Batllori has shown his true stripes again today with this hoary old argument.
The poorly-drawn (Batllori has no artistic ability) cartoon shows a man speaking to us. He says:
"Listen up, a question. Is opposing the Tripartite being anti-Catalan? Is opposing the PSOE government being anti-Spanish? Is opposing the Bush administration being anti-American? No, right? Well, criticizing the decisions of the Israeli government is not being anti-Semitic, OK?"
Wrong, Toni. Opposing ONE particular government or leader or policy is not racist. But opposing EVERYTHING a country does, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is. And siding with a country's enemies, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is. And intentionally ignoring a country's point of view, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is. And attacking the individual citizens of a country, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is.
Toni doesn't care who's in charge of the Israeli government; he automatically supports its enemies, no matter what, even if Israel is under attack. That is anti-Semitism in its most obvious form. Toni, I remember when you did a cartoon several years ago showing an Israeli soldier holding a gun on a Palestinian with the caption, "Now you be the Jew and I'll be the Nazi."
Disgusting.
The poorly-drawn (Batllori has no artistic ability) cartoon shows a man speaking to us. He says:
"Listen up, a question. Is opposing the Tripartite being anti-Catalan? Is opposing the PSOE government being anti-Spanish? Is opposing the Bush administration being anti-American? No, right? Well, criticizing the decisions of the Israeli government is not being anti-Semitic, OK?"
Wrong, Toni. Opposing ONE particular government or leader or policy is not racist. But opposing EVERYTHING a country does, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is. And siding with a country's enemies, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is. And intentionally ignoring a country's point of view, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is. And attacking the individual citizens of a country, as you do regarding Israel and the United States, most certainly is.
Toni doesn't care who's in charge of the Israeli government; he automatically supports its enemies, no matter what, even if Israel is under attack. That is anti-Semitism in its most obvious form. Toni, I remember when you did a cartoon several years ago showing an Israeli soldier holding a gun on a Palestinian with the caption, "Now you be the Jew and I'll be the Nazi."
Disgusting.
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