I'm always amazed at how seriously the Academy Awards, which are just a Hollywood publicity stunt, are taken by the news media over here. One would think that such outfits as El País and TV3 would scorn this capitalist showbiz opiate-of-the-people bread-and-circuses pseudo-event, but they don't. Antena 3 led off the news this afternoon with the story that Penélope Cruz had been nominated for best actress, rather than the news from Lebanon or Iraq or Alcorcón.
Looks like Penélope did good business by agreeing to serve as Tom Cruise's beard for two years. Rumor has it that Pe and Salma Hayek are, uh, planning to star in the film version of "Heather Has Two Mommies."
The cops have taken over Alcorcón, and the local scumbags are currently lying low. The story is they're planning a mass "demonstration" for next Saturday night, armed with baseball bats, in which presumably they will go hunting for sudacas, the local ethnic slur for Latin Americans. They're using text-messaging and internet to organize their activities. Great, just what we need, technologically aware and up-to-date racist mobs. Seems that the Latin Americans in question are by no means innocent, either; it's scumbags vs. scumbags. There are different reports on the Latins: some say they're Latin Kings, and others say they're not.
La Vangua mentioned that some of the local girls have taken up with Latin American boyfriends, which I will bet is one of the major causes of the conflict. You'd be surprised how important sex is as a motivation for racism. The Nazis made a big deal out of Jews corrupting innocent German girls, for example, and Southern white racists were more frightened of black men having sex with white women than anything else.
Real Madrid is apparently ready to get rid of Ronaldo; he's supposedly heading for AC Milan and they are now just haggling about the price. Ronaldo is fat and lazy and a bad influence on the younger players--he's been taking Robinho out drinking, and they showed up at practice hung over a couple of weeks ago. What a disappointing end to a very promising career. If Ronaldo had stayed with Barcelona...but he didn't. I'll bet Ronaldo is playing in MLS before the end of 2008. Figo, by the way, has signed with a team in like Dubai or somewhere like that. That's another guy who will be playing in MLS before too long.
Pau Gasol is supposedly moving to Chicago or Boston before the end of February, says La Vanguardia.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
On the Latin Kings:
According to El Mundo, "The Catalan Generalitat has legalized the Latin Kings, the urban gang whose actions have been investigated on numerous occasions by the police, and from now on it will be called "The Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia"...The Barcelona city government, which aided in the process of legalization, has also made a commitment to aid in the legalization of the Ñetas, the other gang of similar characteristics, which is openly in confrontation with the Latin Kings...From now on, the recently legalized association will be able to enjoy all the benefits of a legal body, such as receiving economic aid and official subsidies."
According to El País, "The Latin Kings, one of the youth organizations with the largest social base in the United States and Ecuador, created as a brotherhood of support for Latin youths, appeared in Barcelona and its industrial suburbs in December 2002..."The Latin Kings are not a criminal group. It is an organization of aid and solidarity among young Latin American immigrants, although some sectors of the police, especially in Madrid, insist the contrary. It's true that their name has been implicated in some tragic events, but those are isolated incidents, which should not mean the criminalization of the group," said Carlos Feixa of the Barcelona city government."
According to El Mundo, "The Catalan Generalitat has legalized the Latin Kings, the urban gang whose actions have been investigated on numerous occasions by the police, and from now on it will be called "The Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia"...The Barcelona city government, which aided in the process of legalization, has also made a commitment to aid in the legalization of the Ñetas, the other gang of similar characteristics, which is openly in confrontation with the Latin Kings...From now on, the recently legalized association will be able to enjoy all the benefits of a legal body, such as receiving economic aid and official subsidies."
According to El País, "The Latin Kings, one of the youth organizations with the largest social base in the United States and Ecuador, created as a brotherhood of support for Latin youths, appeared in Barcelona and its industrial suburbs in December 2002..."The Latin Kings are not a criminal group. It is an organization of aid and solidarity among young Latin American immigrants, although some sectors of the police, especially in Madrid, insist the contrary. It's true that their name has been implicated in some tragic events, but those are isolated incidents, which should not mean the criminalization of the group," said Carlos Feixa of the Barcelona city government."
Quick blog roundup:
A reader of Chicago Boyz has an excellent comment on anti-Americanism in Mexico.
Colin Davies posts on nationalism from Galicia.
Guirilandia takes a swing at just about everybody in Spanish politics, and kindly links to us.
Planet Churro is back and he's not happy with Carod-Rovira.
Publius Pundit fills us in on "Go to Hell, Gringos" Hugo Chavez. Our new nickname for Chavez, a play on "Give 'Em Hell Harry" Truman, is "Go to Hell Hugo."
Pave France has damning evidence on France and Rwanda.
¡No Pasarán! has more on language, Africa, and France.
Notes from Spain is bemused by obligatory nudity in Spanish movies.
Akaky is awesome. I can't believe everybody isn't reading his blog.
The Bad Rash actually has a reasonable and moderate post (on the future of the Left). In other news, Ronaldinho turned down a TV commercial offer, Imma Mayol admitted that she gets "a little hot" when Joan Saura slaps her around, and Bill Clinton reportedly failed to proposition even one woman on November 7, 2006.
A reader of Chicago Boyz has an excellent comment on anti-Americanism in Mexico.
Colin Davies posts on nationalism from Galicia.
Guirilandia takes a swing at just about everybody in Spanish politics, and kindly links to us.
Planet Churro is back and he's not happy with Carod-Rovira.
Publius Pundit fills us in on "Go to Hell, Gringos" Hugo Chavez. Our new nickname for Chavez, a play on "Give 'Em Hell Harry" Truman, is "Go to Hell Hugo."
Pave France has damning evidence on France and Rwanda.
¡No Pasarán! has more on language, Africa, and France.
Notes from Spain is bemused by obligatory nudity in Spanish movies.
Akaky is awesome. I can't believe everybody isn't reading his blog.
The Bad Rash actually has a reasonable and moderate post (on the future of the Left). In other news, Ronaldinho turned down a TV commercial offer, Imma Mayol admitted that she gets "a little hot" when Joan Saura slaps her around, and Bill Clinton reportedly failed to proposition even one woman on November 7, 2006.
La Vanguardia has one of its typical unquestioning reports on what Europeans call "altermundismo," the naive belief that "another world is possible." Seems they are having something called the World Social Forum in Nairobi. Says La Vangua's reporter, "Disputes over land were a factor, along with the fall in the price of coffee and tea, in the genocidal catastrophe in the overpopulated highlands of Rwanda, and they are a factor in the Sudanese province in Darfur."
This sounds to me like economic justification for genocide, as well as a way to blame what happened in Rwanda on someone else rather than the people who beheaded their neighbors with machetes.
Said Vandana Shiva, billed as "an Indian ecologist," "The green revolution in India destroyed the most prosperous land."
And, said Nmimmo Bassey, billed as "the African coordinator for Friends of the Earth," "So far, no genetically modified crops offer benefits to the consumer in terms of quality or price, nor have they done anything to alleviate hunger and poverty in Africa or anywhere else."
Gee, really? From Wikipedia:
There has also been rapid and continuing expansion of GM cotton varieties in India since 2002. (Cotton is a major source of vegetable cooking oil and animal feed.) It is predicted that in 2006/7 32,000 km² of GM cotton will be harvested in India (up more than 100% from the previous season). Indian national average cotton yields have been boosted to close to 50% above the long term average yield during this period. The publicity given to transgenic trait Bt insect resistance has encouraged the adoption of better performing hybrid cotton varieties, and the Bt trait has substantially reduced losses to insect predation. Economic and environmental benefits of GM cotton in India to the individual farmer have been documented.
Or how about this:
The majority of commercially available crops have an agronomic advantage like herbicide tolerance or insect resistance. These traits offer major benefits to the farmer and the environment. Importantly, economic benefits of GM crops in developing countries are more significant compared to industrialised countries because agriculture in these countries is a larger part of the economy, and employs a larger fraction of the labor force, and often agriculture suffers from losses of crops to insects which are remedied in insect protected GM crops. However, in industrialised countries, the consumer benefits from GM traits are mainly indirect, and channeled through their benefits to the environment, including promotion of efficient use of available arable land and water.
GM crops have shown to contribute to significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices. This reduction results from decreased fuel use, about 1.8 billion liters in the past nine years, and additional soil carbon sequestration because of reduced ploughing or improved conservation tillage associated with biotech crops. In 2004, this reduction was equivalent to eliminating more than 10 billion kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. GM cotton has greatly reduced synthetic pesticide use in the US, Australia and India.
Or this:
Proponents say that genetically-engineered crops are not significantly different from those modified by nature or humans in the past, and are as safe or even safer than such methods. There is gene transfer between unicellular eukaryotes and prokaryotes. There have been no known genetic catastrophes as a result of this. They argue that animal husbandry and crop breeding are also forms of genetic engineering that use artificial selection instead of modern genetic modification techniques. It is politics, they argue, not economics or science, that causes their work to be closely investigated, and for different standards to apply to it than those applied to other forms of agricultural technology.
Here's why:
There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting that the Green Revolution had the effect of weakening socialist movements in many nations. In countries like India, Mexico, and the Philippines, technological solutions were sought as an alternative to expanding agrarian reform initiatives, the latter of which were often linked to socialist politics.
This sounds to me like economic justification for genocide, as well as a way to blame what happened in Rwanda on someone else rather than the people who beheaded their neighbors with machetes.
Said Vandana Shiva, billed as "an Indian ecologist," "The green revolution in India destroyed the most prosperous land."
And, said Nmimmo Bassey, billed as "the African coordinator for Friends of the Earth," "So far, no genetically modified crops offer benefits to the consumer in terms of quality or price, nor have they done anything to alleviate hunger and poverty in Africa or anywhere else."
Gee, really? From Wikipedia:
There has also been rapid and continuing expansion of GM cotton varieties in India since 2002. (Cotton is a major source of vegetable cooking oil and animal feed.) It is predicted that in 2006/7 32,000 km² of GM cotton will be harvested in India (up more than 100% from the previous season). Indian national average cotton yields have been boosted to close to 50% above the long term average yield during this period. The publicity given to transgenic trait Bt insect resistance has encouraged the adoption of better performing hybrid cotton varieties, and the Bt trait has substantially reduced losses to insect predation. Economic and environmental benefits of GM cotton in India to the individual farmer have been documented.
Or how about this:
The majority of commercially available crops have an agronomic advantage like herbicide tolerance or insect resistance. These traits offer major benefits to the farmer and the environment. Importantly, economic benefits of GM crops in developing countries are more significant compared to industrialised countries because agriculture in these countries is a larger part of the economy, and employs a larger fraction of the labor force, and often agriculture suffers from losses of crops to insects which are remedied in insect protected GM crops. However, in industrialised countries, the consumer benefits from GM traits are mainly indirect, and channeled through their benefits to the environment, including promotion of efficient use of available arable land and water.
GM crops have shown to contribute to significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices. This reduction results from decreased fuel use, about 1.8 billion liters in the past nine years, and additional soil carbon sequestration because of reduced ploughing or improved conservation tillage associated with biotech crops. In 2004, this reduction was equivalent to eliminating more than 10 billion kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. GM cotton has greatly reduced synthetic pesticide use in the US, Australia and India.
Or this:
Proponents say that genetically-engineered crops are not significantly different from those modified by nature or humans in the past, and are as safe or even safer than such methods. There is gene transfer between unicellular eukaryotes and prokaryotes. There have been no known genetic catastrophes as a result of this. They argue that animal husbandry and crop breeding are also forms of genetic engineering that use artificial selection instead of modern genetic modification techniques. It is politics, they argue, not economics or science, that causes their work to be closely investigated, and for different standards to apply to it than those applied to other forms of agricultural technology.
Here's why:
There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting that the Green Revolution had the effect of weakening socialist movements in many nations. In countries like India, Mexico, and the Philippines, technological solutions were sought as an alternative to expanding agrarian reform initiatives, the latter of which were often linked to socialist politics.
News from here in Upper Castellón:
La Vangua is making a big deal out of Hillary, Obama, and Bill Richardson all running for the Democratic presidential nomination, as if the sex or ethnicity of the president mattered.
There has been serious rioting in the streets of the Basque Country by pro-ETA youth vandals in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that ETA's minor league team, Jarrai/Haika/Segi, is a terrorist organization. Of course, they threw stones and molotov cocktails at the cops and torched trash containers and bank machines. Three arrests were made.
Convicted ETA murderer Ignacio de Juana Chaos, which is a great surname for a terrorist, has been on hunger strike since November 7. Why don't they just let him die, if that's what he wants? And if that's not what he wants, if he's just making a political point, then he'll call off the hunger strike when he's ready.
Meanwhile, many prospective PP candidates for city council posts in the Basque Country have withdrawn from the campaign after the end of ETA's "permanent cease-fire." Of course, they're afraid of being murdered by ETA. People living in the Basque Country do not enjoy full democratic rights, of course, because of this fear. They must contain their freedom of speech, assembly, and standing for office, if they do not want to be targets.
From the "If This Had Happened in Cleveland" department: Racial gang-fights in Madrid working-class suburb Alcorcón. On Saturday night local scumbags fought it out with Latin American scumbags, and it turned into a 100-strong rumble that ended up with four seriously injured and seven arrests. Last night some 400 armed local scumbags held a "demonstration" against Latin American gangs, especially the Latin Kings, a criminal gang that started in the New York prison system. Of course, they were really looking for some sudacas to beat up. The riot squad was called out and the local scumbags took them on with stones and set up flaming barricades; the cops responded with rubber bullets. We haven't seen the end of this one.
Note: The Catalan Generalitat has recognized the Latin Kings as a cultural organization, and apparently they are getting government subsidies.
The lefties in Madrid are starting up a new newspaper that will back Zap and compete with El País, Spain's largest newspaper and the unofficial voice of the Socialist Party. It will be called Público and sell for fifty cents rather than the standard one euro price for newspapers. I'm guessing this paper will be even farther to the left than El País, which is occasionally known to publish opinion pieces by moderates, and also that it will aim at the lowest common denominator because of its low price and the fact that your middle-class high-school or college graduates are happy with El País.
By the way, what's the deal with all newspapers costing a euro? Isn't this collusion in restraint of trade? The various papers compete among themselves with ridiculous promotions--La Vangua is currently distributing kitchen utensils, for example--that must cost a fortune and waste tons of paper. Why don't they get rid of the dumb promotions that few people want and cut the price? I'll bet El Periódico, just for example, would outsell La Vangua massively if they cut the price to fifty cents.
Local political dustup: Former twenty-year Catalan premier Jordi Pujol ran an op-ed article last weekend saying that the stickers showing a Catalan donkey that some nationalists stick on their cars, in response to the sticker showing a Spanish bull that some other people stick on their cars, are silly and immature. Pujol's op-ed was, of course, greeted by cries of "Traitor!" from the Toni Soler-Oriol Grau-Joel Joan wing of nationalism-obsessed scorn-filled TV3 "humorists" whose only attempts at comedy attack a straw-man caricature of backward Spain and ignorant Spaniards.
There were 72 domestic-violence murders in Spain last year. So far this year we've had two.
Malcolm Gladwell is today's back-page interview in La Vangua. I like Gladwell; I've read The Tipping Point and Blink, both of which I liked, though I didn't think either was an intellectual breakthrough. Gladwell is a terrific reporter and writer, but the conclusions he draws are not especially new or different.
I had two mild complaints with Gladwell. First, he said that he was "a leftist in the United States, but a centrist in Europe." C'mon, Malcolm, you're no rad, you're a moderate Democrat and a capitalist, and you would fit extremely well into the moderate wing of the PSOE. The European political spectrum is roughly equivalent to the American; the difference is that in most of Europe there are lots of little fringe parties with narrow appeal, while in the US there are two big ones that include people of a wide range of opinion. In Spain, Nancy Pelosi would be part of the left wing of the PSOE, and Ron Dellums would be a proud member of the Communist party.
Second, Gladwell calls himself biracial. He said in the interview, "When I grew out the Afro haircut that I am wearing now, the police started to stop me for no reason much more frequently." I'm not going to call Gladwell a liar, but the interview includes a large photo of him. He looks like Art Garfunkel in about 1971, except less-threatening and better-dressed.
La Vangua is making a big deal out of Hillary, Obama, and Bill Richardson all running for the Democratic presidential nomination, as if the sex or ethnicity of the president mattered.
There has been serious rioting in the streets of the Basque Country by pro-ETA youth vandals in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that ETA's minor league team, Jarrai/Haika/Segi, is a terrorist organization. Of course, they threw stones and molotov cocktails at the cops and torched trash containers and bank machines. Three arrests were made.
Convicted ETA murderer Ignacio de Juana Chaos, which is a great surname for a terrorist, has been on hunger strike since November 7. Why don't they just let him die, if that's what he wants? And if that's not what he wants, if he's just making a political point, then he'll call off the hunger strike when he's ready.
Meanwhile, many prospective PP candidates for city council posts in the Basque Country have withdrawn from the campaign after the end of ETA's "permanent cease-fire." Of course, they're afraid of being murdered by ETA. People living in the Basque Country do not enjoy full democratic rights, of course, because of this fear. They must contain their freedom of speech, assembly, and standing for office, if they do not want to be targets.
From the "If This Had Happened in Cleveland" department: Racial gang-fights in Madrid working-class suburb Alcorcón. On Saturday night local scumbags fought it out with Latin American scumbags, and it turned into a 100-strong rumble that ended up with four seriously injured and seven arrests. Last night some 400 armed local scumbags held a "demonstration" against Latin American gangs, especially the Latin Kings, a criminal gang that started in the New York prison system. Of course, they were really looking for some sudacas to beat up. The riot squad was called out and the local scumbags took them on with stones and set up flaming barricades; the cops responded with rubber bullets. We haven't seen the end of this one.
Note: The Catalan Generalitat has recognized the Latin Kings as a cultural organization, and apparently they are getting government subsidies.
The lefties in Madrid are starting up a new newspaper that will back Zap and compete with El País, Spain's largest newspaper and the unofficial voice of the Socialist Party. It will be called Público and sell for fifty cents rather than the standard one euro price for newspapers. I'm guessing this paper will be even farther to the left than El País, which is occasionally known to publish opinion pieces by moderates, and also that it will aim at the lowest common denominator because of its low price and the fact that your middle-class high-school or college graduates are happy with El País.
By the way, what's the deal with all newspapers costing a euro? Isn't this collusion in restraint of trade? The various papers compete among themselves with ridiculous promotions--La Vangua is currently distributing kitchen utensils, for example--that must cost a fortune and waste tons of paper. Why don't they get rid of the dumb promotions that few people want and cut the price? I'll bet El Periódico, just for example, would outsell La Vangua massively if they cut the price to fifty cents.
Local political dustup: Former twenty-year Catalan premier Jordi Pujol ran an op-ed article last weekend saying that the stickers showing a Catalan donkey that some nationalists stick on their cars, in response to the sticker showing a Spanish bull that some other people stick on their cars, are silly and immature. Pujol's op-ed was, of course, greeted by cries of "Traitor!" from the Toni Soler-Oriol Grau-Joel Joan wing of nationalism-obsessed scorn-filled TV3 "humorists" whose only attempts at comedy attack a straw-man caricature of backward Spain and ignorant Spaniards.
There were 72 domestic-violence murders in Spain last year. So far this year we've had two.
Malcolm Gladwell is today's back-page interview in La Vangua. I like Gladwell; I've read The Tipping Point and Blink, both of which I liked, though I didn't think either was an intellectual breakthrough. Gladwell is a terrific reporter and writer, but the conclusions he draws are not especially new or different.
I had two mild complaints with Gladwell. First, he said that he was "a leftist in the United States, but a centrist in Europe." C'mon, Malcolm, you're no rad, you're a moderate Democrat and a capitalist, and you would fit extremely well into the moderate wing of the PSOE. The European political spectrum is roughly equivalent to the American; the difference is that in most of Europe there are lots of little fringe parties with narrow appeal, while in the US there are two big ones that include people of a wide range of opinion. In Spain, Nancy Pelosi would be part of the left wing of the PSOE, and Ron Dellums would be a proud member of the Communist party.
Second, Gladwell calls himself biracial. He said in the interview, "When I grew out the Afro haircut that I am wearing now, the police started to stop me for no reason much more frequently." I'm not going to call Gladwell a liar, but the interview includes a large photo of him. He looks like Art Garfunkel in about 1971, except less-threatening and better-dressed.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
La Vanguardia ran a survey today that makes it clear that the PP is significantly turning off a lot of voters with its hard line against Zapatero. The survey was taken early last week, after the Barajas bombing that killed two men and some of the political fallout.
If elections were held today, the PSOE would get 161-164 seats in the Congress of Deputies, the PP would get 138-142, CiU would get 13-14, and the Communists would get 13. 176 seats are needed for a majority. Currently the Socialists hold 164, the PP 148, CiU 10, and the Communists 5. Key stats: 58% have a worse opinion of the PP than they did one year ago. 60% said the PP's performance in the opposition had been "bad" or "very bad, and only 24% said "good" or "very good." 39% had "no confidence" in Rajoy, and 35% more had "little confidence." 68% said that "the PP distrusted the administration too much and irresponsibly caused difficulties in the peace process."
Methinks what this means is that Zap isn't incredibly popular, but folks really don't like Rajoy. It also means that the bombing did not move the political center closer to the anti-ETA hard line.
The PP needs to open itself up to internal democracy, because Rajoy is going to lose us the next election. We need primary elections within the party in order to choose the leaders, and if we had them I will bet you that Ruiz-Gallardon would win. Zap should be an easy candidate to beat--he's a naive weenie party hack--but Rajoy is not the man who's going to do it. He should step down now.
I will add that the crazy-ass wing of the party that believes in some kind of conspiracy between the Zap government, ETA, the PSOE, and of all people the CESID, the intelligence bureau, behind the March 11, 2004 bombings, is not doing the PP one bit of good among the moderates. Somebody needs to make those people sit down and shut up, or get out of the party. I can't believe that Aznar doesn't have these tinfoil-hat Acebes-Zaplana wingnuts on a tighter leash.
If elections were held today, the PSOE would get 161-164 seats in the Congress of Deputies, the PP would get 138-142, CiU would get 13-14, and the Communists would get 13. 176 seats are needed for a majority. Currently the Socialists hold 164, the PP 148, CiU 10, and the Communists 5. Key stats: 58% have a worse opinion of the PP than they did one year ago. 60% said the PP's performance in the opposition had been "bad" or "very bad, and only 24% said "good" or "very good." 39% had "no confidence" in Rajoy, and 35% more had "little confidence." 68% said that "the PP distrusted the administration too much and irresponsibly caused difficulties in the peace process."
Methinks what this means is that Zap isn't incredibly popular, but folks really don't like Rajoy. It also means that the bombing did not move the political center closer to the anti-ETA hard line.
The PP needs to open itself up to internal democracy, because Rajoy is going to lose us the next election. We need primary elections within the party in order to choose the leaders, and if we had them I will bet you that Ruiz-Gallardon would win. Zap should be an easy candidate to beat--he's a naive weenie party hack--but Rajoy is not the man who's going to do it. He should step down now.
I will add that the crazy-ass wing of the party that believes in some kind of conspiracy between the Zap government, ETA, the PSOE, and of all people the CESID, the intelligence bureau, behind the March 11, 2004 bombings, is not doing the PP one bit of good among the moderates. Somebody needs to make those people sit down and shut up, or get out of the party. I can't believe that Aznar doesn't have these tinfoil-hat Acebes-Zaplana wingnuts on a tighter leash.
Friday, January 19, 2007
News from this here neck of the woods:
I was watching TV today and first a game show host and then a TV newscaster mentioned Mel Gibson, and of course both of them pronounced his surname "Jibson," with the "soft" sound. That sounds slightly obscene to me. "Ooh, gross, you got jibson all over my leg."
The Supreme Court ruled that Jarrai, ETA's youth brigade, is a terrorist organization. 23 of their leaders received a six-year sentence for belonging to a terrorist group; they were already under a two-and-a-half-year sentence for conspiracy, but for some reason were not in prison. The roundup has begun. Good. Lock them up and throw away the key.
40 people have been killed in a nasty winter storm that swept across northern Europe. Gusts of wind reached--get this--100 mph. Nasty, yeah, but no real big deal by American standards. If anything Katrina-size ever hit Europe the devastation would be immense, since most of Europe is even less prepared for really bad weather.
Catalonia got 15 million tourists last year, which is approximately 2.167 tourists per Catalan. Folks, admit it, we live well here in Barcelona, and tourism is a large part of our income. Yes, part of downtown Barcelona has become touristy. No, this is not necessarily a horrible thing.
I was watching TV today and first a game show host and then a TV newscaster mentioned Mel Gibson, and of course both of them pronounced his surname "Jibson," with the "soft" sound. That sounds slightly obscene to me. "Ooh, gross, you got jibson all over my leg."
The Supreme Court ruled that Jarrai, ETA's youth brigade, is a terrorist organization. 23 of their leaders received a six-year sentence for belonging to a terrorist group; they were already under a two-and-a-half-year sentence for conspiracy, but for some reason were not in prison. The roundup has begun. Good. Lock them up and throw away the key.
40 people have been killed in a nasty winter storm that swept across northern Europe. Gusts of wind reached--get this--100 mph. Nasty, yeah, but no real big deal by American standards. If anything Katrina-size ever hit Europe the devastation would be immense, since most of Europe is even less prepared for really bad weather.
Catalonia got 15 million tourists last year, which is approximately 2.167 tourists per Catalan. Folks, admit it, we live well here in Barcelona, and tourism is a large part of our income. Yes, part of downtown Barcelona has become touristy. No, this is not necessarily a horrible thing.
Michael Radu has a piece at Front Page on anti-Americanism in the European media.
I've heard many Americans say they are surprised at the Yank-bashing tone of the European press, and wonder whether it is something new. It's not. Americans just hear about it a lot more now, thanks to the Internet, than they did before about 2000.
I've heard many Americans say they are surprised at the Yank-bashing tone of the European press, and wonder whether it is something new. It's not. Americans just hear about it a lot more now, thanks to the Internet, than they did before about 2000.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
We haven't done a blog roundup in a while, so here goes.
Right Wing News has more on Barack Obama.
Some Cataloony is hassling Guirilandia, who neatly disposes of him.
La Liga Loca has the quotes of the week up. This is the single best source in English on Spanish football.
Notes from Spain has a podcast on San Anton in Madrid, which is the same as Els Tres Tombs in Barcelona--when you bring your pet to be blessed. This is probably the best Spanish lifestyle blog. They generally avoid controversial and political stuff, but they're great on everyday life in Spain.
¡No Pasarán! smacks down some conspiracy theorists.
Davids Medienkritik has Der Spiegel dead to rights again, this time on Iran.
Pave France looks at France and Iran.
Eursoc says the new far-right group in the Europarliament is no big deal, and points out more standard leftist hypocrisy.
Expat Yank opines on an English Parliament.
Samizdata gets revisionist about FDR. Check out the links. Iberian Notes's position: The New Deal is way overrated and didn't accomplish much. Nor was it precisely the work of Satan. And FDR won the war.
Publius Pundit has a serious-magazine-quality post on media malpractice at the Observer on the Litvinenko case. Read it.
Biased BBC has a roundup of articles from the British press on the BBC budget.
A Fistful of Euros comments on the 1956 proposal for a Franco-British merger, just released by the British National Archives.
I've added a link to Colin Davies, blogging from Galicia. Definitely check out his blog.
Right Wing News has more on Barack Obama.
Some Cataloony is hassling Guirilandia, who neatly disposes of him.
La Liga Loca has the quotes of the week up. This is the single best source in English on Spanish football.
Notes from Spain has a podcast on San Anton in Madrid, which is the same as Els Tres Tombs in Barcelona--when you bring your pet to be blessed. This is probably the best Spanish lifestyle blog. They generally avoid controversial and political stuff, but they're great on everyday life in Spain.
¡No Pasarán! smacks down some conspiracy theorists.
Davids Medienkritik has Der Spiegel dead to rights again, this time on Iran.
Pave France looks at France and Iran.
Eursoc says the new far-right group in the Europarliament is no big deal, and points out more standard leftist hypocrisy.
Expat Yank opines on an English Parliament.
Samizdata gets revisionist about FDR. Check out the links. Iberian Notes's position: The New Deal is way overrated and didn't accomplish much. Nor was it precisely the work of Satan. And FDR won the war.
Publius Pundit has a serious-magazine-quality post on media malpractice at the Observer on the Litvinenko case. Read it.
Biased BBC has a roundup of articles from the British press on the BBC budget.
A Fistful of Euros comments on the 1956 proposal for a Franco-British merger, just released by the British National Archives.
I've added a link to Colin Davies, blogging from Galicia. Definitely check out his blog.
Here's an article from the Daily Telegraph on Barack Obama and the race question in the US. A few random thoughts:
1) Obama is certainly attractive and charismatic, and very intelligent. But are two years in the Senate enough government experience to run for President? Right now Obama is still a political amateur, and you remember what happened last time we elected an amateur--Jimmy Carter. Also, you'll remember that other outsiders, such as Ross Perot and Wesley Clark, have attracted attention and votes, but never came close to winning the big one.
2) There's no question in my mind that America is "ready" for a black or woman president. I don't think many people under about 50 are racist or sexist enough to refuse to vote, because of race or sex, for someone they think is a qualified candidate and ideologically compatible. I don't think that a whole lot of people between ages 50 and 70 are, either, outside Mississippi.
3) Obama's not culturally Old American Black, which is an ethnic category I just made up to refer to those who are descended from American slaves and suffered from discrimination within living memory. Old American Black people's families have actually been in the US much longer than most white people, descended from late-19th century immigrants. (Note: The Census Bureau uses the term Old American to refer to white people whose ancestors were in the US before the Revolution, and who don't have any ethnic group connection--e.g. they're not, say, Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans.)
I would divide American blacks into at least three groups: Old American Blacks, Jamaican- and West Indian-Americans, and New American Blacks, descended from 20th-century immigrants from Africa. Obama would be a New American Black, as would the community of Nigerian immigrants in Kansas City. Colin Powell is Jamaican-American--his folks came in the Twenties or so. Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas are Old American Blacks.
You could further divide Old American Blacks into the old-line Southern urban middle class and the working class, who were mostly farmers or laborers, or went North. Martin Luther King, for example, was middle-class.
Of course, no ethnic group is monolithic. I would divide people living in Catalonia into five groups, for example:
1) Old Catalans. Origins in rural or small-town Catalonia. Speak a regional dialect of Catalan. Have few family connections outside Catalonia. Older Old Catalans may speak Spanish imperfectly.
2) Assimilated Catalans. Origins in Murcia, Aragon, Balearics, Valencia. "Rascas un catalán y salen sus antepasados bailando jotas."--Ivà. Immigrated to industrial areas, especially Barcelona, in the early 20th century. Speak a more standard urban Catalan. Often have Castilian surnames. Tend to be the most Catalanist of the groups.
3) New Catalans. Origins in Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia. Immigrated to Barcelona suburbs in 50s and 60s. Second generation has adopted Catalan; speaks with a Castilianized "xava" accent. Have Castilian surnames and Catalan first names. Consider themselves Catalans. (Some Old Catalans may not consider them to be fellow-Catalans.) There is a good deal of intermarriage between groups 1, 2, and 3.
4) Non-Catalans. Similar to New Catalans, but have not adopted Catalan and do not consider themselves Catalans. Have Spanish first names. Tend to be less educated and of lower social class than New Catalans. Frequently do not intermarry with previous three groups.
5) Immigrants. From Pakistan, Morocco, China, Senegal, Romania, etc. Arrived here within the last 10-15 years. Normally don't know any Catalan, and do not consider themselves Spanish, much less Catalan.
1) Obama is certainly attractive and charismatic, and very intelligent. But are two years in the Senate enough government experience to run for President? Right now Obama is still a political amateur, and you remember what happened last time we elected an amateur--Jimmy Carter. Also, you'll remember that other outsiders, such as Ross Perot and Wesley Clark, have attracted attention and votes, but never came close to winning the big one.
2) There's no question in my mind that America is "ready" for a black or woman president. I don't think many people under about 50 are racist or sexist enough to refuse to vote, because of race or sex, for someone they think is a qualified candidate and ideologically compatible. I don't think that a whole lot of people between ages 50 and 70 are, either, outside Mississippi.
3) Obama's not culturally Old American Black, which is an ethnic category I just made up to refer to those who are descended from American slaves and suffered from discrimination within living memory. Old American Black people's families have actually been in the US much longer than most white people, descended from late-19th century immigrants. (Note: The Census Bureau uses the term Old American to refer to white people whose ancestors were in the US before the Revolution, and who don't have any ethnic group connection--e.g. they're not, say, Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans.)
I would divide American blacks into at least three groups: Old American Blacks, Jamaican- and West Indian-Americans, and New American Blacks, descended from 20th-century immigrants from Africa. Obama would be a New American Black, as would the community of Nigerian immigrants in Kansas City. Colin Powell is Jamaican-American--his folks came in the Twenties or so. Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas are Old American Blacks.
You could further divide Old American Blacks into the old-line Southern urban middle class and the working class, who were mostly farmers or laborers, or went North. Martin Luther King, for example, was middle-class.
Of course, no ethnic group is monolithic. I would divide people living in Catalonia into five groups, for example:
1) Old Catalans. Origins in rural or small-town Catalonia. Speak a regional dialect of Catalan. Have few family connections outside Catalonia. Older Old Catalans may speak Spanish imperfectly.
2) Assimilated Catalans. Origins in Murcia, Aragon, Balearics, Valencia. "Rascas un catalán y salen sus antepasados bailando jotas."--Ivà. Immigrated to industrial areas, especially Barcelona, in the early 20th century. Speak a more standard urban Catalan. Often have Castilian surnames. Tend to be the most Catalanist of the groups.
3) New Catalans. Origins in Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia. Immigrated to Barcelona suburbs in 50s and 60s. Second generation has adopted Catalan; speaks with a Castilianized "xava" accent. Have Castilian surnames and Catalan first names. Consider themselves Catalans. (Some Old Catalans may not consider them to be fellow-Catalans.) There is a good deal of intermarriage between groups 1, 2, and 3.
4) Non-Catalans. Similar to New Catalans, but have not adopted Catalan and do not consider themselves Catalans. Have Spanish first names. Tend to be less educated and of lower social class than New Catalans. Frequently do not intermarry with previous three groups.
5) Immigrants. From Pakistan, Morocco, China, Senegal, Romania, etc. Arrived here within the last 10-15 years. Normally don't know any Catalan, and do not consider themselves Spanish, much less Catalan.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
News from here in Baja Occitania:
Head Cataloony Carod-Rovira babbled about how the Tripartite was going to promote the "social use" of Catalan. Seems they want to institute a policy of including "linguistic clauses" as part of the process of awarding public contracts, which seems discriminatory against companies from other parts of Spain and from the rest of Europe--and I thought we were part of the EU, where that sort of discrimination is outlawed. And get this--they want to extend this regional government policy to Catalan municipal governments as well. This is, by definition, unnecessary and even harmful government interference with both economic and individual rights.
According to Carod, "Catalan must be considered an unsubstitutable common heritage." The problem is, it isn't for more than half the people in Catalonia. At least three million are Spanish-speakers, and at least another half-million are immigrants, while 99% of native Catalan-speakers also speak Spanish with native fluency and accuracy. If all these people have any language in common, it's Spanish.
My position, as always, is that speaking Catalan is wonderful, but not necessary, if you live in Catalonia.
Meanwhile, TV3 reported that somebody did a study on second-language use in Europe, and discovered that while 79% of the Danes speak English, only 21% of Catalans and 18% of Spaniards do. And I guarantee you that those percentages are exaggerated in the Iberian cases. My guess is that around 10% of people under about 30 can get along OK in English and another 10% or so can speak it well enough to work in the tourist industry. Over about 35, it's very rare to meet someone who knows English.
Why? 1) Until recently you didn't need to know English if you lived in Spain, and most people still don't need to know it. So they don't need to learn it, and learning a language is hard work. 2) English is very badly taught in Spain, and the main reason is that most of the teachers don't know English. Hell, some translators don't know English. (I am currently rewriting a fifth-grade history text in English, to be used in Spanish schools, that somebody else very drastically failed to correctly translate.) 3) It's harder for Romance-speakers to learn English than it is for Germanic-speakers, because English is a Germanic language. Duh.
Oh, get this. Carod wants everyone in Catalonia to know Catalan, Spanish, English, and "a fourth language, which might be French." Yeah, right, most people in Catalonia can speak about a language and a quarter right now--that is, half-assed Spanish, half-assed Catalan, and "Don't Worry, Be Happy." (Note: Before anyone gets angry, I freely admit that most people in America speak half-assed English and nothing else. Four languages just seems excessive when folks don't even use their own very well.) And why French? Why not something useful like Japanese, Mandarin, or Arabic?
Immigration note: The PP claims that there are currently a million and a half illegal immigrants in Spain, and that 3000 persons are missing and probably dead at sea while trying to cross the Atlantic to the Canary Islands.
Other news: A Spanish court has reissued an arrest warrant for three US soldiers accused of murdering Jose Couso, a Spanish TV reporter, who was killed by gunfire from a tank in the battle for Baghdad. This is ridiculous. Some dope gets himself in a war zone and gets himself killed, so let's call the Americans murderers. I call on the US government and military to treat this warrant with the contempt it deserves.
Two local big stinks: The security guy who shot the Albanian robber whose gang was trying to break into his employers' house is still in jail without bail. I vote we give him a medal. And somebody murdered the mayor of the town of Fago in Huesca province, Aragon, filled him full of bullets, and nobody in town is talking. Very occasionally very weird things happen in little Spanish towns.
Head Cataloony Carod-Rovira babbled about how the Tripartite was going to promote the "social use" of Catalan. Seems they want to institute a policy of including "linguistic clauses" as part of the process of awarding public contracts, which seems discriminatory against companies from other parts of Spain and from the rest of Europe--and I thought we were part of the EU, where that sort of discrimination is outlawed. And get this--they want to extend this regional government policy to Catalan municipal governments as well. This is, by definition, unnecessary and even harmful government interference with both economic and individual rights.
According to Carod, "Catalan must be considered an unsubstitutable common heritage." The problem is, it isn't for more than half the people in Catalonia. At least three million are Spanish-speakers, and at least another half-million are immigrants, while 99% of native Catalan-speakers also speak Spanish with native fluency and accuracy. If all these people have any language in common, it's Spanish.
My position, as always, is that speaking Catalan is wonderful, but not necessary, if you live in Catalonia.
Meanwhile, TV3 reported that somebody did a study on second-language use in Europe, and discovered that while 79% of the Danes speak English, only 21% of Catalans and 18% of Spaniards do. And I guarantee you that those percentages are exaggerated in the Iberian cases. My guess is that around 10% of people under about 30 can get along OK in English and another 10% or so can speak it well enough to work in the tourist industry. Over about 35, it's very rare to meet someone who knows English.
Why? 1) Until recently you didn't need to know English if you lived in Spain, and most people still don't need to know it. So they don't need to learn it, and learning a language is hard work. 2) English is very badly taught in Spain, and the main reason is that most of the teachers don't know English. Hell, some translators don't know English. (I am currently rewriting a fifth-grade history text in English, to be used in Spanish schools, that somebody else very drastically failed to correctly translate.) 3) It's harder for Romance-speakers to learn English than it is for Germanic-speakers, because English is a Germanic language. Duh.
Oh, get this. Carod wants everyone in Catalonia to know Catalan, Spanish, English, and "a fourth language, which might be French." Yeah, right, most people in Catalonia can speak about a language and a quarter right now--that is, half-assed Spanish, half-assed Catalan, and "Don't Worry, Be Happy." (Note: Before anyone gets angry, I freely admit that most people in America speak half-assed English and nothing else. Four languages just seems excessive when folks don't even use their own very well.) And why French? Why not something useful like Japanese, Mandarin, or Arabic?
Immigration note: The PP claims that there are currently a million and a half illegal immigrants in Spain, and that 3000 persons are missing and probably dead at sea while trying to cross the Atlantic to the Canary Islands.
Other news: A Spanish court has reissued an arrest warrant for three US soldiers accused of murdering Jose Couso, a Spanish TV reporter, who was killed by gunfire from a tank in the battle for Baghdad. This is ridiculous. Some dope gets himself in a war zone and gets himself killed, so let's call the Americans murderers. I call on the US government and military to treat this warrant with the contempt it deserves.
Two local big stinks: The security guy who shot the Albanian robber whose gang was trying to break into his employers' house is still in jail without bail. I vote we give him a medal. And somebody murdered the mayor of the town of Fago in Huesca province, Aragon, filled him full of bullets, and nobody in town is talking. Very occasionally very weird things happen in little Spanish towns.
Europeans often criticize the United States over capital punishment. However, they ignore the use of the death penalty in such countries as India, Singapore, and Cuba. And Japan, where four men were hanged on Christmas Day 2006.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Tim Robbins showed up in Madrid to promote a movie, and of course ran his mouth to the press. According to La Vanguardia, in what seems like an extremely lousy translation, Robbins said,
"In the United States, we should be wondering, knowing everything the government is involved in, aren't they killing us, killing our souls? We know there is torture and we don't do anything."
Well, Tim, actually, we know they aren't torturing people simply because there are so many people watching what the Americans are doing with the nest of terrorists locked up at Guantanamo. And every time we do catch a unit gone bad torturing people, as at Abu Ghraib, those guilty are punished and their crimes are made public.
He added,
"Bush is not only my devil. I used to belong to a minority, but since November, when it was overwhelmingly voted to stop the war in Iraq, we are a majority. However, Bush's response is something like a commander who talks with God, with absolute disdain for what the American people is trying to tell him."
1) Bush is the devil? 2) The November election was rather close, if we're comparing Republicans and Democrats. 3) The November election was not a referendum on the Iraq war. 4) This wacky idea that people have around here that Bush is some kind of simple-minded fundamentalist who hallucinates that God speaks to him is not something the Spanish invented out of thin air, it's something our own illustrated and enlightened has been reiterating to them. Bush is a Methodist, for God's sake. There's nothing more middle-of-the-road and respectable than a Methodist.
Robbins added that he felt "used" because Madrid mayor Ruiz-Gallardon--whose government is subsidizing the progressive film festival at which Robbins's film is being shown to the tune of a million euros--showed up to shake his hand and get in the photos. Tim snitted, "I didn't come here to pose in photos with right-wing politicians." Seems to me Ruiz-Gallardon is the mayor and has the right, as the elected representative of the citizens, to show up at a film festival those citizens are paying for and shake hands with anyone he wants to.
What I don't understand is why Ruiz-Gallardon would want to shake hands with an asshole like Tim Robbins.
"In the United States, we should be wondering, knowing everything the government is involved in, aren't they killing us, killing our souls? We know there is torture and we don't do anything."
Well, Tim, actually, we know they aren't torturing people simply because there are so many people watching what the Americans are doing with the nest of terrorists locked up at Guantanamo. And every time we do catch a unit gone bad torturing people, as at Abu Ghraib, those guilty are punished and their crimes are made public.
He added,
"Bush is not only my devil. I used to belong to a minority, but since November, when it was overwhelmingly voted to stop the war in Iraq, we are a majority. However, Bush's response is something like a commander who talks with God, with absolute disdain for what the American people is trying to tell him."
1) Bush is the devil? 2) The November election was rather close, if we're comparing Republicans and Democrats. 3) The November election was not a referendum on the Iraq war. 4) This wacky idea that people have around here that Bush is some kind of simple-minded fundamentalist who hallucinates that God speaks to him is not something the Spanish invented out of thin air, it's something our own illustrated and enlightened has been reiterating to them. Bush is a Methodist, for God's sake. There's nothing more middle-of-the-road and respectable than a Methodist.
Robbins added that he felt "used" because Madrid mayor Ruiz-Gallardon--whose government is subsidizing the progressive film festival at which Robbins's film is being shown to the tune of a million euros--showed up to shake his hand and get in the photos. Tim snitted, "I didn't come here to pose in photos with right-wing politicians." Seems to me Ruiz-Gallardon is the mayor and has the right, as the elected representative of the citizens, to show up at a film festival those citizens are paying for and shake hands with anyone he wants to.
What I don't understand is why Ruiz-Gallardon would want to shake hands with an asshole like Tim Robbins.
New developments from out here in the badlands west of the Besós:
El Pais is reporting that Fidel is in "very serious" condition with diverticulitis, which is apparently what that Spanish doctor, whose salary we all pay, went over to treat him for. He's reportedly had three operations.
El Pais didn't mention that Miguel Valdés Tamayo, one of the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in 2003, died last Wednesday at age 50 in a Havana hospital after suffering two heart attacks. He was prohibited from leaving Cuba in order to seek medical treatment abroad. Valdés Tamayo, by the way, was an Afro-Cuban with hundreds of years of ancestral heritage in the country, while Castro is a second-generation immigrant middle-class white boy from Spain. Valdés Tamayo's father might have worked on Fidel's father's plantation.
I would say El Pais is likely to be a credible source on the Castro story, since it's the unofficial organ of the Spanish Socialist Party, which has good relations with the Castro government. If El Pais is reporting that El Comandante has taken a turn for the worse, it's likely true.
There was an article in La Vanguardia a few days ago which rather stridently said that the Cuban exiles should be excluded from having any voice in what happens to Cuba after Fidel. Dude, those people either are Cuban citizens or would be if not for Castro's dictatorship, so I don't quite see how they either should or can be kept out.
For some reason (probably leftist indoctrination in the schools and media), around here public opinion is very strongly against the Cuban exiles, especially among those living in Florida. They are portrayed as Fascist mafiosi, not just the few who are shady--and among any group of people, a few are going to be shady no matter what. It was claimed around here that the Cuban-Americans were responsible for Bush's victory in 2000, because most of them vote Republican, and Bush won Florida by only a few thousand votes. That's reductionism, of course; you could equally well make that argument about any group that tends Republican.
In Parliament, Zapatero and Rajoy had a big fight about what to do about ETA. Rajoy was very harsh, blasting Zap for negotiating with the terrorists, and he had a point. However, politically I'm not sure Rajoy's hard line is going to play well with the center, unless the Barajas bombing has moved the center toward the hard line. Rajoy's biggest weakness is that most non-PP voters see him, and especially the Zaplana-Acebes wing of the party, as mean and nasty. Zap's biggest weakness is that most non-PSOE voters see him as a weakling and a wimp.
Zap's appearance in Parliament didn't help anything. He seems bewildered. He thought he could trust ETA and they betrayed him, and now he doesn't know what to do. Rajoy nailed him to the wall, saying, "If you don't obey them, they'll commit bombings, and if there aren't any bombings, it's because you've given in." Zap wasn't able to point out the bad logic here--that is, he should have said that he now understands that ETA would commit bombings no matter who was prime minister, and that a lack of bombings might very well mean that state security has the terrorist gangsters up against the ropes. He didn't. Instead he demanded that Rajoy take back what he had said, and Rajoy of course refused.
Local big stink: They've been digging a tunnel along the route of the AVE, the high-speed train that is supposed to run from Madrid through Barcelona to the French border, in the suburbs directly southwest of the city. Poorly-constructed buildings in places like El Prat de Llobregat have begun to develop cracks. This is worrying, and shows an unfortunate lack of planning, since one of the first things they should have done is consider the effects of this massive construction project on its environment. Oh, well, maybe it'll turn into an excuse to tear down some crappy old buildings and put up some decent ones.
El Pais is reporting that Fidel is in "very serious" condition with diverticulitis, which is apparently what that Spanish doctor, whose salary we all pay, went over to treat him for. He's reportedly had three operations.
El Pais didn't mention that Miguel Valdés Tamayo, one of the 75 Cuban dissidents jailed in 2003, died last Wednesday at age 50 in a Havana hospital after suffering two heart attacks. He was prohibited from leaving Cuba in order to seek medical treatment abroad. Valdés Tamayo, by the way, was an Afro-Cuban with hundreds of years of ancestral heritage in the country, while Castro is a second-generation immigrant middle-class white boy from Spain. Valdés Tamayo's father might have worked on Fidel's father's plantation.
I would say El Pais is likely to be a credible source on the Castro story, since it's the unofficial organ of the Spanish Socialist Party, which has good relations with the Castro government. If El Pais is reporting that El Comandante has taken a turn for the worse, it's likely true.
There was an article in La Vanguardia a few days ago which rather stridently said that the Cuban exiles should be excluded from having any voice in what happens to Cuba after Fidel. Dude, those people either are Cuban citizens or would be if not for Castro's dictatorship, so I don't quite see how they either should or can be kept out.
For some reason (probably leftist indoctrination in the schools and media), around here public opinion is very strongly against the Cuban exiles, especially among those living in Florida. They are portrayed as Fascist mafiosi, not just the few who are shady--and among any group of people, a few are going to be shady no matter what. It was claimed around here that the Cuban-Americans were responsible for Bush's victory in 2000, because most of them vote Republican, and Bush won Florida by only a few thousand votes. That's reductionism, of course; you could equally well make that argument about any group that tends Republican.
In Parliament, Zapatero and Rajoy had a big fight about what to do about ETA. Rajoy was very harsh, blasting Zap for negotiating with the terrorists, and he had a point. However, politically I'm not sure Rajoy's hard line is going to play well with the center, unless the Barajas bombing has moved the center toward the hard line. Rajoy's biggest weakness is that most non-PP voters see him, and especially the Zaplana-Acebes wing of the party, as mean and nasty. Zap's biggest weakness is that most non-PSOE voters see him as a weakling and a wimp.
Zap's appearance in Parliament didn't help anything. He seems bewildered. He thought he could trust ETA and they betrayed him, and now he doesn't know what to do. Rajoy nailed him to the wall, saying, "If you don't obey them, they'll commit bombings, and if there aren't any bombings, it's because you've given in." Zap wasn't able to point out the bad logic here--that is, he should have said that he now understands that ETA would commit bombings no matter who was prime minister, and that a lack of bombings might very well mean that state security has the terrorist gangsters up against the ropes. He didn't. Instead he demanded that Rajoy take back what he had said, and Rajoy of course refused.
Local big stink: They've been digging a tunnel along the route of the AVE, the high-speed train that is supposed to run from Madrid through Barcelona to the French border, in the suburbs directly southwest of the city. Poorly-constructed buildings in places like El Prat de Llobregat have begun to develop cracks. This is worrying, and shows an unfortunate lack of planning, since one of the first things they should have done is consider the effects of this massive construction project on its environment. Oh, well, maybe it'll turn into an excuse to tear down some crappy old buildings and put up some decent ones.
Monday, January 15, 2007
It's Martin Luther King Day in the US, so everybody's got a day off work. This 2005 post shows my ambivalence toward King, who (like Gandhi) I think is a bit overrated.
They hanged Saddam's half-brother and secret police boss. The noose ripped his head off.
Bummer.
UPDATE: In case you're wondering what this looks like, they hanged train robber Black Jack Ketchum in New Mexico in 1901 with similar unfortunate results.
Bummer.
UPDATE: In case you're wondering what this looks like, they hanged train robber Black Jack Ketchum in New Mexico in 1901 with similar unfortunate results.
There's been some controversy around here over the world's oldest mom. That's right, a 67-year-old woman gave birth a few days ago to twin boys in a Barcelona hospital after in vitro treatment in the United States. Local opinion is not particularly sympathetic, though there are some who say that what a woman chooses to do with her body is her business. I suppose my perspective is that the woman is within her rights, but I would not choose to do such a thing myself.
The other controversy, more political, is about these damn demonstrations that they've had here in Spain over the weekend in reaction to the Barajas bombing. I personally do not give a crap, since I scorn symbolic politics. Barcepundit and Publius Pundit have more on the story, so check them out; Barcepundit takes a well-deserved whack at the New York Times and Reuters, while Publius takes the demos more seriously than perhaps he should.
The Bad Rash takes a rather undeserved whack at the PP and the AVT, saying those groups are against peace because they boycotted the Socialist- and PNV-organized demos. No, what they're against is a compromise peace. The PP and AVT, and I agree with them, want a victorious peace and the defeat of ETA.
Finally, for a pro-ETA perspective, check out Eusko Blog. This guy is nuts. Here's a quote:
(Rodriguez Zapatero) thought he could bring ETA to the negotiating table while steping up the Spanish repression in Euskal Herria. And while Rodriguez was using the international forums to claim he was engaged in a peace process, all the while he was hammering down on one of the columns of peace, justice. Now, if only Rodríguez and his PSOE and Rajoy and his PP can get it through their thick heads that they need to stop their genocidal violence against the Basque people, maybe in the near future we can finally see justice served, which in turn will usher a new age of peace. Read that again, justice first, and then peace will take place as part of a natural process.
The author wrote this AFTER the Barajas bombing. This is the mindset we are dealing with around here. Probably 15% of the Basque people agree with this guy.
The other controversy, more political, is about these damn demonstrations that they've had here in Spain over the weekend in reaction to the Barajas bombing. I personally do not give a crap, since I scorn symbolic politics. Barcepundit and Publius Pundit have more on the story, so check them out; Barcepundit takes a well-deserved whack at the New York Times and Reuters, while Publius takes the demos more seriously than perhaps he should.
The Bad Rash takes a rather undeserved whack at the PP and the AVT, saying those groups are against peace because they boycotted the Socialist- and PNV-organized demos. No, what they're against is a compromise peace. The PP and AVT, and I agree with them, want a victorious peace and the defeat of ETA.
Finally, for a pro-ETA perspective, check out Eusko Blog. This guy is nuts. Here's a quote:
(Rodriguez Zapatero) thought he could bring ETA to the negotiating table while steping up the Spanish repression in Euskal Herria. And while Rodriguez was using the international forums to claim he was engaged in a peace process, all the while he was hammering down on one of the columns of peace, justice. Now, if only Rodríguez and his PSOE and Rajoy and his PP can get it through their thick heads that they need to stop their genocidal violence against the Basque people, maybe in the near future we can finally see justice served, which in turn will usher a new age of peace. Read that again, justice first, and then peace will take place as part of a natural process.
The author wrote this AFTER the Barajas bombing. This is the mindset we are dealing with around here. Probably 15% of the Basque people agree with this guy.
Friday, January 12, 2007
An Excuse to Link to Some Softcore Porn
I've been getting a lot of Google hits for "miss lepe." The story is that a PP city councilwoman in the city of Lepe has entered the Miss Lepe 2007 beauty pageant, and has posed for tasteful but rather revealing photographs. Here's the link to El Periodico's story, which includes one of the photos.
This is funny because a) of course the PP is the conservative party, and PP women don't normally go around posing nude for photographers and b) Lepe is the Spanish equivalent of our Polish jokes--that is, people from Lepe are supposed to be remarkably thick-witted. Just mentioning the word Lepe will normally get bad comedians a laugh out of their audience.
Well, actually, if you have to explain it then it isn't funny.
Here's a link to the other nude photos in the news around here: A woman from Galicia was in the news a few months ago when she was arrested at the Cancun airport. A few bullets were found in her suitcase, and apparently it all turned out to have been a mistake, but they kept her in jail for a few days there and it became a media cause celebre. Well, now she's posed topless for softcore trash mag Interviú, and there's some media controversy over whether the girl is a skank or not. I would say that she has a nice figure but not quite the face of a model, if you know what I mean.
This is funny because a) of course the PP is the conservative party, and PP women don't normally go around posing nude for photographers and b) Lepe is the Spanish equivalent of our Polish jokes--that is, people from Lepe are supposed to be remarkably thick-witted. Just mentioning the word Lepe will normally get bad comedians a laugh out of their audience.
Well, actually, if you have to explain it then it isn't funny.
Here's a link to the other nude photos in the news around here: A woman from Galicia was in the news a few months ago when she was arrested at the Cancun airport. A few bullets were found in her suitcase, and apparently it all turned out to have been a mistake, but they kept her in jail for a few days there and it became a media cause celebre. Well, now she's posed topless for softcore trash mag Interviú, and there's some media controversy over whether the girl is a skank or not. I would say that she has a nice figure but not quite the face of a model, if you know what I mean.
Sad news in the world of bunnies. Robert, the German Giant rabbit pictured in this famous photo (scroll down just a little), has been sold to the North Koreans. I fear Robert's fate will be closely intertwined with a stewpot.
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