It's been a week and a half since the last blog roundup, so here we go.
A Fistful of Euros posts on the Spanish elections and local expatriate parties.
The Rottweiler, thirsting for blood, savages apologists for Al Qaeda, and links to their torture manual.
Biased BBC shreds another biased report on Jewish history in the Middle East.
The Brussels Journal has a good think-piece titled "The Changing Face of War."
Colin Davies is going strong out in Pontevedra. If you like this blog, you'll love his.
Eursoc reports that Jack Chiraq is in big trouble and will quite likely be spending most of the rest of his life in court.
Expat Yank shreds conspiracy theorists.
La Liga Loca's indispensable Weekend Preview of the Spanish football league is up.
Notes from Spain has some good advice for people planning to move not only to Spain, but to any foreign country.
Observing Hermann links to a couple of articles on a survey of European hotel managers that ranks foreign tourists on level of popularity. The Americans, though loud, come in second overall after the Japanese and ahead of the Swiss. Yanks are known for trying to speak the local language, always trying the local food, being polite, and being good spenders. We were also voted the worst-dressed, which is fair enough, I suppose; the British are second-worst. The Brits came in fifth from last, as they're rude, noisy, and cheap; Germans are cheap but tidy and well-behaved; Japanese are polite and tidy, and good spenders; and the French, of course, came in last, refusing to speak the language or try the food. The Indians, Chinese, and Russians were also unpopular, ahead of the French but behind the Brits.
Playing Chess with the Dead is providing invaluable information to anyone interested in the Madrid bombings case. This is by far the most complete account in English.
Publius Pundit has photos of some real police brutality that our local squatters ought to have a look at.
¡No Pasarán! has a table showing the percentage of Muslims who believe that suicide bombing can be justified in different countries. Of Muslims aged 18-29, 22% living in Germany justified suicide bombing; 26% in the United States; 29% in Spain; 35% in the UK; and a whopping 42% in France. That's just awful. The results of this survey are going to give a lot of ammunition to those racists who dislike not only pro-jihadis but all Muslims, whether law-abiding folk or not. And those of us who dislike only pro-jihadis have a lot more people to dislike than we thought. I certainly would never have believed that a quarter of young American Muslims would justify suicide bombing.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Election day is Sunday; all Spanish municipalities and thirteen of the seventeen autonomous regions go to the polls. Today's the last day of campaigning, which is prohibited the day before an election.
Predictions: 1) No major changes. 2) Small changes: a PSOE-Nafarroa Bai coalition may take Navarra away from the PP, and a Catalan Tripartite coalition may take Tarragona city hall away from CiU. 3) High abstention; I'd be surprised if turnout was more than 60%. These elections haven't caught the public interest. Also, many voters are unhappy with both the Zap government and the PP opposition. That kind of describes me, for example. 4) If the PP does worse than expected, the knives may come out for Rajoy's head. 5) Ruiz-Gallardón will clearly be the future of the PP after he wins a fourth straight absolute majority, twice as mayor of Madrid and twice as premier of the Madrid region. 6) La Vanguardia speculates that Aznar's wife, Ana Botella, a PP city councilwoman in Madrid, may be Gallardón's successor as Madrid mayor. 7) The Communists will keep Córdoba city hall, the only important elective office they hold. 8) To sum up, these elections will be an indecisive tuneup for the real general election, which will probably be held late this year or very early in 2008. No party will do well enough to emerge as the clear favorite in the generals, and none will do so badly as to provoke a major internal shakeup.
Predictions: 1) No major changes. 2) Small changes: a PSOE-Nafarroa Bai coalition may take Navarra away from the PP, and a Catalan Tripartite coalition may take Tarragona city hall away from CiU. 3) High abstention; I'd be surprised if turnout was more than 60%. These elections haven't caught the public interest. Also, many voters are unhappy with both the Zap government and the PP opposition. That kind of describes me, for example. 4) If the PP does worse than expected, the knives may come out for Rajoy's head. 5) Ruiz-Gallardón will clearly be the future of the PP after he wins a fourth straight absolute majority, twice as mayor of Madrid and twice as premier of the Madrid region. 6) La Vanguardia speculates that Aznar's wife, Ana Botella, a PP city councilwoman in Madrid, may be Gallardón's successor as Madrid mayor. 7) The Communists will keep Córdoba city hall, the only important elective office they hold. 8) To sum up, these elections will be an indecisive tuneup for the real general election, which will probably be held late this year or very early in 2008. No party will do well enough to emerge as the clear favorite in the generals, and none will do so badly as to provoke a major internal shakeup.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Our local squatters are a bunch of middle-class punks who are playing terrorist. Check out this poster that I tore off the front door of a squat near the Plaza del Nord. It's professionally produced on glossy paper, about the size of an A3 sheet, and there's a blurry black-and-white photo of a riot-squad cop in a helmet with two TV cameramen wearing surgical masks standing behind him. (Obviously, they're wearing the masks in case of smoke or tear gas.) It's probably from that demo/riot they had last weekend downtown in which a squatter broke a cop's nose.
The text is:
Once upon a time those who wore masks
Were called STOOL PIGEONS
And their victims were those who resisted.
Now they have no shame
They show their faces on the screen
They are called JOURNALISTS
They report on torture,
Jails, and persecution.
Their hands are as clean
As their consciences
If their guilt does not disturb their sleep
Fear will
THEY SHOULD BE WORRIED
The road to freedom runs over them
Provocateurs of public opinion
This looks to me like a terroristic threat. Where I come from we throw your ass in jail for that, and good riddance. Of course, it's a threat against freedom of speech and freedom of the press as well. And these guys dare to call themselves "libertarian self-managing anarcho-eco-socialists" or some crap like that. It's a good thing there are only like a thousand of them, counting sympathizers. The rest of Barcelona is completely fed up with them; La Vanguardia denounces squatter vandalism and violence every day, which might be one of the reasons behind this most recent squatter threat.
Spanish society is very permissive, which is excellent for those who know how to enjoy their freedom while not bothering other people. You really can do pretty much whatever you want here except like kill your mom and bad stuff like that. You can walk the city streets naked while smoking a joint and soliciting transsexual prostitutes, if you want.
Of course, almost nobody does that. The problem comes along when people like the squatters abuse the freedom we have here in Spain, and certain elements of society (Chemical Inma Mayol and the Communists, your typical left-wing academics and El País reporters, and the Perenially Indignant (P.J. O'Rourke dixit) or Do-Gooder Internationale (dixit Jordi Barbeta)) try to justify the crap they pull on the grounds that they're really just liberals in a hurry working for societal change.
What they are is a bunch of nihilist terrorist wannabes.
The text is:
Once upon a time those who wore masks
Were called STOOL PIGEONS
And their victims were those who resisted.
Now they have no shame
They show their faces on the screen
They are called JOURNALISTS
They report on torture,
Jails, and persecution.
Their hands are as clean
As their consciences
If their guilt does not disturb their sleep
Fear will
THEY SHOULD BE WORRIED
The road to freedom runs over them
Provocateurs of public opinion
This looks to me like a terroristic threat. Where I come from we throw your ass in jail for that, and good riddance. Of course, it's a threat against freedom of speech and freedom of the press as well. And these guys dare to call themselves "libertarian self-managing anarcho-eco-socialists" or some crap like that. It's a good thing there are only like a thousand of them, counting sympathizers. The rest of Barcelona is completely fed up with them; La Vanguardia denounces squatter vandalism and violence every day, which might be one of the reasons behind this most recent squatter threat.
Spanish society is very permissive, which is excellent for those who know how to enjoy their freedom while not bothering other people. You really can do pretty much whatever you want here except like kill your mom and bad stuff like that. You can walk the city streets naked while smoking a joint and soliciting transsexual prostitutes, if you want.
Of course, almost nobody does that. The problem comes along when people like the squatters abuse the freedom we have here in Spain, and certain elements of society (Chemical Inma Mayol and the Communists, your typical left-wing academics and El País reporters, and the Perenially Indignant (P.J. O'Rourke dixit) or Do-Gooder Internationale (dixit Jordi Barbeta)) try to justify the crap they pull on the grounds that they're really just liberals in a hurry working for societal change.
What they are is a bunch of nihilist terrorist wannabes.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
In case you were wondering about the worldview of TV3, Catalan government television, get the lead story on their 2:30 afternoon news.
Wow. With all the problems in the world, from North Korea and China to Venezuela and Zimbabwe, Amnesty and TV3 focus on the US and the democratically elected Iraqi government.
Comments:
a) The world is a giant battlefield and it wasn't our idea, it was Osama's.
b) It scared me when Osama flew those airplanes into those buildings. I don't know about the rest of y'all, it scared me. So did London and Madrid and Bali and Casablanca. Bush didn't do any of those things. He's not the guy that scares me.
c) The imperialistic motivations assigned to the United States are plain bullshit.
d) Methinks Amnesty is conflating the legitimate rights of refugees and legal immigrants with the lawbreaking of illegal aliens.
e) Notice the negative spotlight always trained only on Bush.
f) Pretty much everything Bush has done was approved by Congress and reviewed by the courts. Saying anything else is a flat-out lie.
g) I am glad that thousands of people who were caught bearing arms in the terrorist cause are locked up without charges or trial, because if they're at Guantanamo they aren't blowing me up.
h) What do you want us to do with them? They're not ordinary criminals, and they're not legitimate prisoners of war, either. They're a new class of threat to society. I tell you what. Any country that wants us to turn loose the prisoners at Guantanamo: you can have them all if you promise they'll never leave your borders again. Any takers? I thought not.
i) How can they possibly say that the fourteen terrorists cited are "victims" of any sort? The people they killed and wounded are victims. These guys are murderers.
j) Notice the double mention of the dread CIA.
k) The moral equivalence assigned to the US and the elected Iraqi government, and the "insurgency," is outrageous. The Americans and the Iraqi government do not want to kill anybody. If there were no "insurgency," the Americans would go home and the Iraqi government would control the country.
l) Looks like they got a problem with hanging Saddam and his henchmen. I got no problem with that. In fact, I wholeheartedly support it, and I think they should hang more of them.
m) Note the repeated outrageous moral equivalence, that made between the US and Iraq on the one hand and China, Iran, Sudan, and Pakistan on the other. The US and Iraq execute convicted murderers after trial and appeal. (So do Japan, India, and Singapore.) The death penalty in those other four countries is applied to gay boys and raped women and Falun Gong protestors.
I think it's always funny when TV3, the sinkhole of corruption that sucks up literally hundreds of millions of euros a year, gets all moral and righteous.
TV3 is almost €1.1 billion with a B in debt, and the Generalitat (the Catalan regional government) has had to take that debt over. Since TV3 is totally publicly owned, that's 100% taxpayers' money.
Between 2006 and 2009 the Generalitat will subsidize TV3 to the tune of nearly €1.2 billion with a B. Again, that's taxpayers' money.
TV3 costs each Catalan taxpayer more than €75 a year. And it sells advertising. A lot of advertising. How can they possibly lose so much money? A TV channel should turn an enormous profit; it's been proven hundreds of times around the world.
It's not as if TV3 were any better than the other channels, either. Often it's worse, especially the homemade soap operas and the talk shows that only interview other TV3 personalities. Not to mention the same damn movies every weekend, "Mississippi Burning" and "The Shawshank Redemption" over and over again.
This is nothing new; here's a story from 2005 on TV3's losses and debts.
Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Iraq, the secret CIA flights...The United States considers the world to be a giant battlefield where human rights can be trampled on in the name of the war against terrorism. That is Amnesty International's summary of Washington's role in the world, in an annual report in which the scenes, the crimes, and the victims of recent years reappear.
Amnesty International's report accuses some world leaders of fomenting fear with the sole objective of "strengthening their own power, creating false certanties, and not answering to anyone." In developed countries, and also in emerging ones, "the fear of being invaded by hordes of indigents (is used) to justify harsher measures against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers...
In reference, Amnesty cites US president George Bush, who it says "invoked the fear of terrorism in order to gain additional executive power that was not under the supervision of Congress or judicial review." It adds that thousands of persons are in custody, without charges or trial, in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. The organization believes that some of the 14 "high value" detainees, who were transferred to Guantanamo in September and who have been incommunicado for four and a half years as part of the CIA's secret program, "are victims of forced disappearance." The report says that 395 persons of 30 nationalities are still held at Guantanamo.
Iraq again receives a prominent place, as much for the abuses committed by the invaders, the insurgency, and Iraqi authorities. Torture, illegal arrest, assassinations, and executions are still practiced. In this sense, Iraq and the United States are among the six countries that carry out 90% of the executions in the world, along with China, Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan.`Up to 1600 persons have been executed around the world in the last year.
Wow. With all the problems in the world, from North Korea and China to Venezuela and Zimbabwe, Amnesty and TV3 focus on the US and the democratically elected Iraqi government.
Comments:
a) The world is a giant battlefield and it wasn't our idea, it was Osama's.
b) It scared me when Osama flew those airplanes into those buildings. I don't know about the rest of y'all, it scared me. So did London and Madrid and Bali and Casablanca. Bush didn't do any of those things. He's not the guy that scares me.
c) The imperialistic motivations assigned to the United States are plain bullshit.
d) Methinks Amnesty is conflating the legitimate rights of refugees and legal immigrants with the lawbreaking of illegal aliens.
e) Notice the negative spotlight always trained only on Bush.
f) Pretty much everything Bush has done was approved by Congress and reviewed by the courts. Saying anything else is a flat-out lie.
g) I am glad that thousands of people who were caught bearing arms in the terrorist cause are locked up without charges or trial, because if they're at Guantanamo they aren't blowing me up.
h) What do you want us to do with them? They're not ordinary criminals, and they're not legitimate prisoners of war, either. They're a new class of threat to society. I tell you what. Any country that wants us to turn loose the prisoners at Guantanamo: you can have them all if you promise they'll never leave your borders again. Any takers? I thought not.
i) How can they possibly say that the fourteen terrorists cited are "victims" of any sort? The people they killed and wounded are victims. These guys are murderers.
j) Notice the double mention of the dread CIA.
k) The moral equivalence assigned to the US and the elected Iraqi government, and the "insurgency," is outrageous. The Americans and the Iraqi government do not want to kill anybody. If there were no "insurgency," the Americans would go home and the Iraqi government would control the country.
l) Looks like they got a problem with hanging Saddam and his henchmen. I got no problem with that. In fact, I wholeheartedly support it, and I think they should hang more of them.
m) Note the repeated outrageous moral equivalence, that made between the US and Iraq on the one hand and China, Iran, Sudan, and Pakistan on the other. The US and Iraq execute convicted murderers after trial and appeal. (So do Japan, India, and Singapore.) The death penalty in those other four countries is applied to gay boys and raped women and Falun Gong protestors.
I think it's always funny when TV3, the sinkhole of corruption that sucks up literally hundreds of millions of euros a year, gets all moral and righteous.
TV3 is almost €1.1 billion with a B in debt, and the Generalitat (the Catalan regional government) has had to take that debt over. Since TV3 is totally publicly owned, that's 100% taxpayers' money.
Between 2006 and 2009 the Generalitat will subsidize TV3 to the tune of nearly €1.2 billion with a B. Again, that's taxpayers' money.
TV3 costs each Catalan taxpayer more than €75 a year. And it sells advertising. A lot of advertising. How can they possibly lose so much money? A TV channel should turn an enormous profit; it's been proven hundreds of times around the world.
It's not as if TV3 were any better than the other channels, either. Often it's worse, especially the homemade soap operas and the talk shows that only interview other TV3 personalities. Not to mention the same damn movies every weekend, "Mississippi Burning" and "The Shawshank Redemption" over and over again.
This is nothing new; here's a story from 2005 on TV3's losses and debts.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
I'm sure I've already posted about Barcelona's parrots, called cotorras argentinas in Spanish. I like them; they certainly brighten up the city, as pretty much the only other birds we have are pigeons, ring-necked doves, sparrows, and seagulls. They certainly make a lot of noise, and they're always "talking" to one another. Cotorras are green with a brownish front, about eight inches to a foot long, and they live in groups. They build huge apartment-house nests out of sticks around the tops of palm trees.
The Museum of Hoaxes has a piece today on "the urban parrot phenomenon" ; seems that these critters, which in English are called monk parakeets, monk parrots, or Quaker parrots, live in several cities in the United States as well, including New York and Chicago. Check out this cool site called Brooklyn Parrots, which includes lots of photographs.
The Museum of Hoaxes has a piece today on "the urban parrot phenomenon" ; seems that these critters, which in English are called monk parakeets, monk parrots, or Quaker parrots, live in several cities in the United States as well, including New York and Chicago. Check out this cool site called Brooklyn Parrots, which includes lots of photographs.
News about the rapist who they turned loose yesterday: His victims were girls between 9 and 16 years old, which I did not know when I posted before. This makes it even worse, of course.
The problem here is that the old law, under which the rapist was convicted, says he's served his sentence and they have to release him; of course, they can't increase your prison sentence when they change sentencing laws, that's ex post facto. But there's just no way this guy should be out on the streets, just like there was no way the schizophrenic who the cops shot a couple of weeks ago should have been running around loose, either. Dangerous people need to be locked up to protect the rest of us.
Yeah, I know, locking crazy people up in the nuthouse is pretty harsh, and it's been greatly abused over the years, back when they sterilized the insane all over Europe and the US, or when promiscuous women were occasionally deemed insane and locked away, or when the Soviets threw anyone they didn't like into alleged "mental hospitals," where they were confined and drugged. And I don't like the government messing around with individual freedom, either, since we all agree that free citizens have the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Being locked up sort of interferes with a few of these rights, and we most certainly cannot lock up a person who is an oddball but has always obeyed the law in the past, just because we think he might do something illegal in the future. (Example: the Virginia Tech shooter, who as far as I know had done nothing illegal before he actually started shooting people.)
However, if you have actually raped and sodomized and assaulted a dozen young girls, I think society has the right to say you're nuts and a public danger and you're not walking around on our streets. Or if you've committed assault and battery twenty times, most recently with a knife just a few days ago, as the schizo did, and you can't control your own actions. That wouldn't be locking up citizens because of what they might do but haven't done yet; it would be locking up citizens who have already proven that they rape girls and stab people. Repeatedly.
Other law enforcement news: The squatters had them a big old demonstration downtown a couple of days ago. Of course, they didn't have a municipal permit or anything, they just took over the Via Laietana and screwed up traffic all over the metropolitan area. They were very angry that large numbers of riot police blocked them off from the Plaza Sant Jaume and prevented them from destroying other people's property, so angry that they decided to take on the cops. One thug popped a cop right in the face and broke his nose. Now the squatters are pitching a fit because some cops use a kubotan for self-defense when attacked by rioters. Ooh, those bad cops with their plastic sticks the size of ballpoint pens.
Now get TV3's version of the events.
a) "Assembly"? "Movement"? That makes it sound legitimate or something, rather than a bunch of middle-class punks with bad attitudes playing at political radicalism. b) One man's speculation is another man's investment. What do they want, the government to nationalize all real estate? Well, actually, they haven't thought it through that far. c) More housing for everybody? As if they cared. All they want is to be allowed to squat everywhere they feel like, and to hell with everybody else. d) Of course large real estate companies own shops on main shopping streets. That's because shops on main streets are very desirable rental property and so very expensive, and only big companies can afford them. So what's the problem?
e) Of course, Portal de l'Angel is one of the most interesting streets in Barcelona for people-watching, because it's always crowded with citizens strolling (it's pedestrian-only), looking in windows, actually buying things, and the like. It's precisely what all American urban planners dream of, a downtown pedestrian street with some attractive buildings and lots of successful businesses that employ lots of people and attract lots of customers, 90% of whom use public transport to get there. However, the squatters are against businesses making money and providing people with the products they need and employing workers and investing their profits. This is why they smash those shops' windows and loot them every time they get the chance.
The problem here is that the old law, under which the rapist was convicted, says he's served his sentence and they have to release him; of course, they can't increase your prison sentence when they change sentencing laws, that's ex post facto. But there's just no way this guy should be out on the streets, just like there was no way the schizophrenic who the cops shot a couple of weeks ago should have been running around loose, either. Dangerous people need to be locked up to protect the rest of us.
Yeah, I know, locking crazy people up in the nuthouse is pretty harsh, and it's been greatly abused over the years, back when they sterilized the insane all over Europe and the US, or when promiscuous women were occasionally deemed insane and locked away, or when the Soviets threw anyone they didn't like into alleged "mental hospitals," where they were confined and drugged. And I don't like the government messing around with individual freedom, either, since we all agree that free citizens have the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Being locked up sort of interferes with a few of these rights, and we most certainly cannot lock up a person who is an oddball but has always obeyed the law in the past, just because we think he might do something illegal in the future. (Example: the Virginia Tech shooter, who as far as I know had done nothing illegal before he actually started shooting people.)
However, if you have actually raped and sodomized and assaulted a dozen young girls, I think society has the right to say you're nuts and a public danger and you're not walking around on our streets. Or if you've committed assault and battery twenty times, most recently with a knife just a few days ago, as the schizo did, and you can't control your own actions. That wouldn't be locking up citizens because of what they might do but haven't done yet; it would be locking up citizens who have already proven that they rape girls and stab people. Repeatedly.
Other law enforcement news: The squatters had them a big old demonstration downtown a couple of days ago. Of course, they didn't have a municipal permit or anything, they just took over the Via Laietana and screwed up traffic all over the metropolitan area. They were very angry that large numbers of riot police blocked them off from the Plaza Sant Jaume and prevented them from destroying other people's property, so angry that they decided to take on the cops. One thug popped a cop right in the face and broke his nose. Now the squatters are pitching a fit because some cops use a kubotan for self-defense when attacked by rioters. Ooh, those bad cops with their plastic sticks the size of ballpoint pens.
Now get TV3's version of the events.
One thousand persons from the assembly of the Barcelona squatters' movement demonstrated on the downtown streets of the city against real estate speculation and to ask for more housing for everybody. They began their march on Portal de l'Angel street, in order to show that commercial areas like this, where many shops belong to large real estate companies, must be prevented, and spaces created for the citizens.
a) "Assembly"? "Movement"? That makes it sound legitimate or something, rather than a bunch of middle-class punks with bad attitudes playing at political radicalism. b) One man's speculation is another man's investment. What do they want, the government to nationalize all real estate? Well, actually, they haven't thought it through that far. c) More housing for everybody? As if they cared. All they want is to be allowed to squat everywhere they feel like, and to hell with everybody else. d) Of course large real estate companies own shops on main shopping streets. That's because shops on main streets are very desirable rental property and so very expensive, and only big companies can afford them. So what's the problem?
e) Of course, Portal de l'Angel is one of the most interesting streets in Barcelona for people-watching, because it's always crowded with citizens strolling (it's pedestrian-only), looking in windows, actually buying things, and the like. It's precisely what all American urban planners dream of, a downtown pedestrian street with some attractive buildings and lots of successful businesses that employ lots of people and attract lots of customers, 90% of whom use public transport to get there. However, the squatters are against businesses making money and providing people with the products they need and employing workers and investing their profits. This is why they smash those shops' windows and loot them every time they get the chance.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Well, they did something about street crime against tourists this morning, busting 18 members of a pickpocket ring made up mostly of Bosnian women. They're looking for 17 more. These folks are guilty of more than 1000 thefts in the metro and on the buses. The authorities say that metro security cameras have given them enough evidence to bust these people for belonging to an illegal organization, which they get prison time for, instead of for theft, which they get nothing for.
I don't know. I'm a bit suspicious at the timing, frankly. Why round them up right now? These people have been in the news before; we reported on them working the tourist bus route a while back. Some of them have been arrested dozens of times. Why do we only have enough proof to charge them under the Spanish RICO law now, right before the election? We had that proof months ago, or would have if the cops hadn't been scratching their asses as they usually do when faced with penny-ante street crime. Yeah, I know it's conspiracy-theory wackiness, but this smells a bit funny to me.
Other news: A dirtbag named Alejandro Martínez was convicted of five rapes, nine sexual assaults, and four counts of assault and battery in Barcelona about twenty years ago. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison; his "mental disturbance" counted as a mitigating circumstance, getting him a discount. Well, after 16 years in prison, Martínez is to be released. He has not participated in any rehabilitation program, and he has never received a prison furlough as prison officers considered him too dangerous. This guy is the perfect candidate for life imprisonment without parole ever. And he'll be back on the streets of Barcelona, where he will most assuredly rape somebody else.
Law courts are supposed to protect law-abiding citizens from scum like this guy. If he's back on the streets, the system's not doing its job. This guy is especially hateful because he victimizes the weakest among us for his own pleasure. I'm not afraid of him personally, but I am afraid for the women of Barcelona, whom he can overpower just like he used to.
So the Lebanese army is at this moment bombing the hell out of a Palestinian "refugee camp" that is an Al Qaeda stronghold. Somehow I doubt they have the precision techniques and equipment that the Americans and Israelis have. There are fifty dead already and more to come. Where's the moral indignation we'd see if America or Israel were doing this?
I don't know. I'm a bit suspicious at the timing, frankly. Why round them up right now? These people have been in the news before; we reported on them working the tourist bus route a while back. Some of them have been arrested dozens of times. Why do we only have enough proof to charge them under the Spanish RICO law now, right before the election? We had that proof months ago, or would have if the cops hadn't been scratching their asses as they usually do when faced with penny-ante street crime. Yeah, I know it's conspiracy-theory wackiness, but this smells a bit funny to me.
Other news: A dirtbag named Alejandro Martínez was convicted of five rapes, nine sexual assaults, and four counts of assault and battery in Barcelona about twenty years ago. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison; his "mental disturbance" counted as a mitigating circumstance, getting him a discount. Well, after 16 years in prison, Martínez is to be released. He has not participated in any rehabilitation program, and he has never received a prison furlough as prison officers considered him too dangerous. This guy is the perfect candidate for life imprisonment without parole ever. And he'll be back on the streets of Barcelona, where he will most assuredly rape somebody else.
Law courts are supposed to protect law-abiding citizens from scum like this guy. If he's back on the streets, the system's not doing its job. This guy is especially hateful because he victimizes the weakest among us for his own pleasure. I'm not afraid of him personally, but I am afraid for the women of Barcelona, whom he can overpower just like he used to.
So the Lebanese army is at this moment bombing the hell out of a Palestinian "refugee camp" that is an Al Qaeda stronghold. Somehow I doubt they have the precision techniques and equipment that the Americans and Israelis have. There are fifty dead already and more to come. Where's the moral indignation we'd see if America or Israel were doing this?
Sunday, May 20, 2007
In case you were interested, here's some info on the "Larry the Lobster" Saturday Night Live skit. Turns out that the viewers actually voted to save Larry, but Eddie Murphy ate him on the next show. The Larry stunt was actually a first of its kind in interactive TV. And here's a recent case of a TV chef who turned a live lobster into carpaccio and offended PETA.
Cynthia McKinney gets an interview with La Vanguardia. Quotes:
"I investigated how the CIA and FBI served the interests of the big corporations against the African people and their struggle for freedom...Many African-Americans were recruited by the CIA in order to blackmail, threaten, and commit crimes for the benefit of those corporations...In memory of Dr. King I investigated his murder again and proved an evident connection between the American secret services and the crime. The truth is still hidden from the public." She accuses the US of supporting Kabila's forces in the Congolese civil war in order to grab the minerals. Of course, no proof of any of this is presented.
One thing about La Vangua, and the Spanish press in general, is that they're no good at distinguishing wackos like McKinney and Naomi Wolf and Jeremy Rifkin and that lot from serious people who have knowledge and informed opinions.
La Vanguardia ran a survey rating Barcelona residents' satisfaction with the city government's performance in several areas. I thought I'd throw in my own opinions. Remember, I like it here, and all criticisms are made constructively.
67% were satisfied with the Parks and Gardens department, to which I would give a C-, as they normally do a pretty good job, but on the other hand the psychedelic lizard at the Parque Guell was vandalized on their watch. Also, they prune back the trees way too much. I don't understand the Spanish predilection for pruning trees almost back to the trunk. 61% were satisfied with public transport, to which I'd give a B-. The Metro is pretty good and they're expanding it, but it should stay open longer on weeknights and till 3 AM on Friday. The bus lines I use are pretty good, too, but I've heard a lot of complaints from people that use major lines during rush hour.
58% approve of sports facilities, which I give a C, since the ones that exist are very nice, but there aren't nearly enough. Barcelona is a very crowded city and there's just not a lot of room, so we don't have the lovely municipal tennis courts and golf courses and soccer fields there are in the States. 55% approve of the city's cleanliness, which I'll give a B. It really is pretty difficult to keep such a large, crowded city that attracts so many tourists clean, and Barcelona does OK. It's cleaner and better-kept than many American cities. Major improvement: Citizens have gotten much better about picking up their dogs' poop.
53% are satisfied with "urban development," whatever that is, but I'm going to assume that it means new private and public construction both. I'm giving it an D, since the city needs to be massively rezoned to move industry and warehouses out to the suburbs and make Barcelona exclusively residential/commercial. 35% approve of policies toward crime, to which I'm assigning an F. There is too damn much street crime against tourists, everybody knows it, and if it isn't stopped the tourist goose is going to stop laying those golden eggs some time soon.
31% approve of traffic policy, which of course also gets an F. It's a tough job, I know, because Barcelona is so crowded, but they've done such a lousy job in my neighborhood; I blame them for the deaths of two idiot kids on a motorbike last year on my street. There's a sharp up-sloping bump in the pavement at the corner of Martí and Sors that wasn't marked with a sign, they hit it going too fast, they got thrown off into the side of a building, and were killed. All because a speed bump wasn't marked. Traffic in general is just hellaciously bad. Even New Yorkers would be appalled.
Meanwhile, the Generalitat surveyed 3000 teenagers between ages 12 and 16 in all of Catalonia. 28% admit riding a motorbike without a helmet, 25% have participated in a botellón (street drinking party), 16% have shoplifted, 15% have gotten drunk within the past month, and 13% have committed vandalism. Now, I'm going to assume that most of the vandals are also shoplifters and drunks, so let's figure that there are only a total of 20% with real problem behavior. That's still a lot, especially when you figure that it's not just boys, it's girls too.
Hey, everybody, don't be a moron and ride a motorcycle without a helmet. A friend's wife's little brother, aged 16, was killed a few years ago when dicking around on a motorbike without a helmet. The idiot teenagers who got killed on my street weren't wearing helmets, either, though I'm not sure they'd have done much good. Hell, riding a motorcycle even with a helmet is very dangerous, and I don't think I'd do it in Spanish traffic or on Spanish roads. I've had two students badly injured in motorcycle wrecks in Barcelona, one paralyzed and in a wheelchair and the other with cerebral palsy. The wheelchair guy is bitter but has accepted it, and the palsy guy hasn't accepted it at all and is probably a suicide candidate.
Note to Ben Roethlisberger: Spanish football players' contracts prohibit them from motorcycle riding and skiing and dangerous stuff like that. I don't know why yours doesn't. If I were your boss it would. Former Barça goalie and bad boy Carles Busquets once got in big trouble for dicking around on a motorbike, falling off, and tearing up his hands so he couldn't play for like a month.
The Barcelona mayoral candidates had a debate. It was really boring. My neighbor Chemical Inma Mayol has had recent plastic surgery, along with some botox. She was wearing a weird red thing that made her look like a tomato.
Somebody paid $73 million for an Andy Warhol painting. I wouldn't pay 73 cents for an Andy Warhol painting. Also, FC Barcelona and Re-Al Qaeda will get €1.1 billion (with a B) each over the next eight years for their TV rights. Hey, if that's what the market will bear, fine, but it seems like an awful lot of money.
Oh, yeah, more extracurricular fun in the French election. According to reports that have made the Spanish media, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife ran off with some other guy a few years ago and then, after a few months, he took her back. Also, Segolene Royal's squeeze, Socialist party leader François Hollande, supposedly had an affair a couple of years ago. Royal's price for forgiving him, goes the story, was that Hollande would stand down as a prospective presidential candidate and obtain the position for her.
Nobody seems to care, which is probably just as well. Let's see what kind of attention Rudy Giuliani's rather tempestuous sex life gets from the media and the public. That might be enough to cost him a couple of percentage points among primary voters. And, of course, there's Hillary, whose husband cheated on her not just once, but about six thousand times. That's weird. Most women would dump the bum. I can only assume that she hasn't done so either because A) she loves the big lug anyway or B) she's putting up with him for political reasons. I bet it's B.
M------ M----'s new movie at Cannes gets the front page of La Vangua's culture section, with the headline, "M---- spanks Bush again." Surprisingly, reviewer Lluís Bonet Mójica says, "M----'s rotund figure is present in several scenes, feeding his no less enormous ego." Bonet adds that the biased scenes in Havana prove that M----'s movie is "a pamphlet," meaning propaganda, "no matter whether they have a public health system there or not."
Speaking of which, La Vanguardia's Havana correspondent says that the Cuban army controls 65% of the economy, including vital sectors like food and drinks, construction, and tourism. That's right, folks, every time you drink Havana Club or fly to Varadero to check out the cheap hookers, the money goes to Fidel's army. Hey, all you Spaniards who think military service is evil: in Cuba everybody has to do two years in the army. Four million Cubans out of a population of 11 million are under army control, either a) in the army itself b) in the reserves c) in the militia or d) in "production and defense brigades."
"I investigated how the CIA and FBI served the interests of the big corporations against the African people and their struggle for freedom...Many African-Americans were recruited by the CIA in order to blackmail, threaten, and commit crimes for the benefit of those corporations...In memory of Dr. King I investigated his murder again and proved an evident connection between the American secret services and the crime. The truth is still hidden from the public." She accuses the US of supporting Kabila's forces in the Congolese civil war in order to grab the minerals. Of course, no proof of any of this is presented.
One thing about La Vangua, and the Spanish press in general, is that they're no good at distinguishing wackos like McKinney and Naomi Wolf and Jeremy Rifkin and that lot from serious people who have knowledge and informed opinions.
La Vanguardia ran a survey rating Barcelona residents' satisfaction with the city government's performance in several areas. I thought I'd throw in my own opinions. Remember, I like it here, and all criticisms are made constructively.
67% were satisfied with the Parks and Gardens department, to which I would give a C-, as they normally do a pretty good job, but on the other hand the psychedelic lizard at the Parque Guell was vandalized on their watch. Also, they prune back the trees way too much. I don't understand the Spanish predilection for pruning trees almost back to the trunk. 61% were satisfied with public transport, to which I'd give a B-. The Metro is pretty good and they're expanding it, but it should stay open longer on weeknights and till 3 AM on Friday. The bus lines I use are pretty good, too, but I've heard a lot of complaints from people that use major lines during rush hour.
58% approve of sports facilities, which I give a C, since the ones that exist are very nice, but there aren't nearly enough. Barcelona is a very crowded city and there's just not a lot of room, so we don't have the lovely municipal tennis courts and golf courses and soccer fields there are in the States. 55% approve of the city's cleanliness, which I'll give a B. It really is pretty difficult to keep such a large, crowded city that attracts so many tourists clean, and Barcelona does OK. It's cleaner and better-kept than many American cities. Major improvement: Citizens have gotten much better about picking up their dogs' poop.
53% are satisfied with "urban development," whatever that is, but I'm going to assume that it means new private and public construction both. I'm giving it an D, since the city needs to be massively rezoned to move industry and warehouses out to the suburbs and make Barcelona exclusively residential/commercial. 35% approve of policies toward crime, to which I'm assigning an F. There is too damn much street crime against tourists, everybody knows it, and if it isn't stopped the tourist goose is going to stop laying those golden eggs some time soon.
31% approve of traffic policy, which of course also gets an F. It's a tough job, I know, because Barcelona is so crowded, but they've done such a lousy job in my neighborhood; I blame them for the deaths of two idiot kids on a motorbike last year on my street. There's a sharp up-sloping bump in the pavement at the corner of Martí and Sors that wasn't marked with a sign, they hit it going too fast, they got thrown off into the side of a building, and were killed. All because a speed bump wasn't marked. Traffic in general is just hellaciously bad. Even New Yorkers would be appalled.
Meanwhile, the Generalitat surveyed 3000 teenagers between ages 12 and 16 in all of Catalonia. 28% admit riding a motorbike without a helmet, 25% have participated in a botellón (street drinking party), 16% have shoplifted, 15% have gotten drunk within the past month, and 13% have committed vandalism. Now, I'm going to assume that most of the vandals are also shoplifters and drunks, so let's figure that there are only a total of 20% with real problem behavior. That's still a lot, especially when you figure that it's not just boys, it's girls too.
Hey, everybody, don't be a moron and ride a motorcycle without a helmet. A friend's wife's little brother, aged 16, was killed a few years ago when dicking around on a motorbike without a helmet. The idiot teenagers who got killed on my street weren't wearing helmets, either, though I'm not sure they'd have done much good. Hell, riding a motorcycle even with a helmet is very dangerous, and I don't think I'd do it in Spanish traffic or on Spanish roads. I've had two students badly injured in motorcycle wrecks in Barcelona, one paralyzed and in a wheelchair and the other with cerebral palsy. The wheelchair guy is bitter but has accepted it, and the palsy guy hasn't accepted it at all and is probably a suicide candidate.
Note to Ben Roethlisberger: Spanish football players' contracts prohibit them from motorcycle riding and skiing and dangerous stuff like that. I don't know why yours doesn't. If I were your boss it would. Former Barça goalie and bad boy Carles Busquets once got in big trouble for dicking around on a motorbike, falling off, and tearing up his hands so he couldn't play for like a month.
The Barcelona mayoral candidates had a debate. It was really boring. My neighbor Chemical Inma Mayol has had recent plastic surgery, along with some botox. She was wearing a weird red thing that made her look like a tomato.
Somebody paid $73 million for an Andy Warhol painting. I wouldn't pay 73 cents for an Andy Warhol painting. Also, FC Barcelona and Re-Al Qaeda will get €1.1 billion (with a B) each over the next eight years for their TV rights. Hey, if that's what the market will bear, fine, but it seems like an awful lot of money.
Oh, yeah, more extracurricular fun in the French election. According to reports that have made the Spanish media, Nicolas Sarkozy's wife ran off with some other guy a few years ago and then, after a few months, he took her back. Also, Segolene Royal's squeeze, Socialist party leader François Hollande, supposedly had an affair a couple of years ago. Royal's price for forgiving him, goes the story, was that Hollande would stand down as a prospective presidential candidate and obtain the position for her.
Nobody seems to care, which is probably just as well. Let's see what kind of attention Rudy Giuliani's rather tempestuous sex life gets from the media and the public. That might be enough to cost him a couple of percentage points among primary voters. And, of course, there's Hillary, whose husband cheated on her not just once, but about six thousand times. That's weird. Most women would dump the bum. I can only assume that she hasn't done so either because A) she loves the big lug anyway or B) she's putting up with him for political reasons. I bet it's B.
M------ M----'s new movie at Cannes gets the front page of La Vangua's culture section, with the headline, "M---- spanks Bush again." Surprisingly, reviewer Lluís Bonet Mójica says, "M----'s rotund figure is present in several scenes, feeding his no less enormous ego." Bonet adds that the biased scenes in Havana prove that M----'s movie is "a pamphlet," meaning propaganda, "no matter whether they have a public health system there or not."
Speaking of which, La Vanguardia's Havana correspondent says that the Cuban army controls 65% of the economy, including vital sectors like food and drinks, construction, and tourism. That's right, folks, every time you drink Havana Club or fly to Varadero to check out the cheap hookers, the money goes to Fidel's army. Hey, all you Spaniards who think military service is evil: in Cuba everybody has to do two years in the army. Four million Cubans out of a population of 11 million are under army control, either a) in the army itself b) in the reserves c) in the militia or d) in "production and defense brigades."
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Well, we've finally got some fun in the municipal election campaign. Moderate PP mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón was debating PSOE challenger Miguel Sebastián, and Sebastián pulled out a photo of a woman lawyer named Montserrat Corulla, who is mixed up in the Marbella corruption scandal (the "Malaya case") and who has been associated with Gallardón. Sebastián challenged Ruiz-Gallardón to explain his relationship with Corulla, and Gallardón angrily replied that it was personal, not professional, since of course he had to deny any connection with corruption.
So of course the entire country has jumped to the conclusion that Gallardón is cheating on his wife with Corulla, who is an attractive woman. Of course, this is Spain, and nobody cares; if anything, Gallardón wins some badly-needed machismo points. Rumors that he was gay started flying around a week or so ago when he appeared on the cover of a gay magazine called Zero. (Gallardón is rather a Rudy Giuliani type, socially quite liberal; he has presided over gay marriages, for example, in his capacity as mayor.) This ought to put an end to that.
Media feedback is that Sebastián looked like a real jerk. La Vangua's reporter Enric Juliana said, "A Socialist has been the first to open fire, American-style, on his adversary's private life...Wednesday night he began the possible self-liquidation of his promising political career...Like a good Latin country, Spain is only really liberal from the waist down...The media has launched severe criticism of Sebastián for having crossed the only line that is both red and Catholic: the line that separates sex and politics." In the news pages, of course, not opinion or analysis.
Juliana also interprets a defeat for Sebastián as "a personal defeat for Zapatero, the one who named him the candidate: he's the one who bet on Sebastián."
Report: The Basque Socialists met 25 times in secret with ETA-front party Batasuna between 1999 and 2006 in order to negotiate a truce. This is incredibly illegal, not to mention wrong, since the elected administration (Aznar until 2004, Zap since then), the Cabinet, the Parliament, and the proper executive departments are in charge of dealing with terrorists and forming anti-terrorist policy, not some self-appointed political hacks.
La Vanguardia's survey for the Barcelona city council: Socialists 34.9%, 15-16 seats; CiU 24.5%, 10-11 seats; PP 13.4%, 6 seats; Communists 12.3%, 5 seats; Esquerra 9.9%, 4 seats; Ciutadans 3.5%, 0 seats. The Tripartite scores a minimum of 24 seats, and only 21 are needed for a majority, which means that accidental mayor Jordi Hereu is going to be elected in his own right.
So of course the entire country has jumped to the conclusion that Gallardón is cheating on his wife with Corulla, who is an attractive woman. Of course, this is Spain, and nobody cares; if anything, Gallardón wins some badly-needed machismo points. Rumors that he was gay started flying around a week or so ago when he appeared on the cover of a gay magazine called Zero. (Gallardón is rather a Rudy Giuliani type, socially quite liberal; he has presided over gay marriages, for example, in his capacity as mayor.) This ought to put an end to that.
Media feedback is that Sebastián looked like a real jerk. La Vangua's reporter Enric Juliana said, "A Socialist has been the first to open fire, American-style, on his adversary's private life...Wednesday night he began the possible self-liquidation of his promising political career...Like a good Latin country, Spain is only really liberal from the waist down...The media has launched severe criticism of Sebastián for having crossed the only line that is both red and Catholic: the line that separates sex and politics." In the news pages, of course, not opinion or analysis.
Juliana also interprets a defeat for Sebastián as "a personal defeat for Zapatero, the one who named him the candidate: he's the one who bet on Sebastián."
Report: The Basque Socialists met 25 times in secret with ETA-front party Batasuna between 1999 and 2006 in order to negotiate a truce. This is incredibly illegal, not to mention wrong, since the elected administration (Aznar until 2004, Zap since then), the Cabinet, the Parliament, and the proper executive departments are in charge of dealing with terrorists and forming anti-terrorist policy, not some self-appointed political hacks.
La Vanguardia's survey for the Barcelona city council: Socialists 34.9%, 15-16 seats; CiU 24.5%, 10-11 seats; PP 13.4%, 6 seats; Communists 12.3%, 5 seats; Esquerra 9.9%, 4 seats; Ciutadans 3.5%, 0 seats. The Tripartite scores a minimum of 24 seats, and only 21 are needed for a majority, which means that accidental mayor Jordi Hereu is going to be elected in his own right.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
We haven't done a blog roundup for a couple of weeks, so it's time.
¡No Pasarán! links to these pro-Cuban-democracy bloggers; their current campaign is in favor of "Cuban independence from Spain."
The Glittering Eye exposes Japanese chicanery in an attempt to start whaling again. There's no need to kill whales. People can eat plenty of other things. I know it's not a major issue, but I want whaling to be completely banned.
The Bad Rash has links to the dozans of minor parties running in the upcoming municipal and regional elections. Some of them are pretty weird.
Rare agreement between South of Watford and Iberian Notes: The Ecclestone-Camps thing in Valencia was totally bogus. Also, Playing Chess with the Dead continues its coverage of the Madrid bombings trial.
Roncesvalles is justifiably indignant. Not for sensitive souls.
Pejman has a whack at Andrew Sullivan and Ron Paul. Outside the Beltway has more.
Pave France reports on the Sarkozy cabinet, with lots of links.
Observing Hermann comments on Sarko's trip to Berlin.
A Fistful of Euros has thoughts on Eurovision and who is really European.
The Rottweiler chews off several of the Demo Cong's body parts.
Barcepundit points out more French hypocrisy, and hopes that Sarkozy will put an end to it.
Biased BBC has more evidence that the network is aware it might be just a little pro-Labour.
The Brussels Journal has a long, thoughtful post on multiculturalism and Communism.
Colin Davies comments on the Spanish economy and customer service in Spain.
Davids Medienkritik got an interview with Brent Scowcroft. Definitely check it out.
Eursoc opines on Gordon Brown and the EU.
Fausta warns of creeping censorship in Europe and America.
Kaleboel thinks the Generalitat's MinCulPop is nuts. Me too.
¡No Pasarán! links to these pro-Cuban-democracy bloggers; their current campaign is in favor of "Cuban independence from Spain."
The Glittering Eye exposes Japanese chicanery in an attempt to start whaling again. There's no need to kill whales. People can eat plenty of other things. I know it's not a major issue, but I want whaling to be completely banned.
The Bad Rash has links to the dozans of minor parties running in the upcoming municipal and regional elections. Some of them are pretty weird.
Rare agreement between South of Watford and Iberian Notes: The Ecclestone-Camps thing in Valencia was totally bogus. Also, Playing Chess with the Dead continues its coverage of the Madrid bombings trial.
Roncesvalles is justifiably indignant. Not for sensitive souls.
Pejman has a whack at Andrew Sullivan and Ron Paul. Outside the Beltway has more.
Pave France reports on the Sarkozy cabinet, with lots of links.
Observing Hermann comments on Sarko's trip to Berlin.
A Fistful of Euros has thoughts on Eurovision and who is really European.
The Rottweiler chews off several of the Demo Cong's body parts.
Barcepundit points out more French hypocrisy, and hopes that Sarkozy will put an end to it.
Biased BBC has more evidence that the network is aware it might be just a little pro-Labour.
The Brussels Journal has a long, thoughtful post on multiculturalism and Communism.
Colin Davies comments on the Spanish economy and customer service in Spain.
Davids Medienkritik got an interview with Brent Scowcroft. Definitely check it out.
Eursoc opines on Gordon Brown and the EU.
Fausta warns of creeping censorship in Europe and America.
Kaleboel thinks the Generalitat's MinCulPop is nuts. Me too.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
From El País:
Generalitat bans performance in which lobster is cooked
The play Accidents, by Rodrigo García, has been suspended at the Teatre Lliure because a lobster is killed on stage. The play, which consists of an actor cooking and eating the said crustacean (Homarus vulgaris), and which was to have gone on twice, yesterday and today, as part of the Radicals Lliure series of new works, has been denied the necessary authorization from the Generalitat because it violates animal protection laws.
The resolution, released yesterday by the sports and performances department of the department of public administration, said that the animal protection laws "expressly forbid killing animals as part of a performance," and that "the animal cannot be killed before the audience," though "exhibiting it once it has been cooked is not prohibited." The Generalitat denied "the application for authorization...because an invertebrate animal is killed in the performance."
In Rodrigo García's play, which will be performed in Reus in June and whose subtitle is "Killing to Eat," the tasty crustacean is cut up, cooked, and eaten to the tune of "What a Wonderful Day," without a doubt an ironic title for the lobster. A microphone in the animal's abdomen allows the public to sense its life going out, while another amplifies the noises made while preparing and cooking it.
Comments: 1) This is art? 2) Wonder how much the guy's subsidy from the Ministry of Culture was for this one? 3) I note that sticking bulls full of holes is still legal 4) Since when do you need the Generalitat's permission to put on a play? 5) Isn't this censorship? So where's Andy Robinson, who's so quick to sniff it out in New York? 6) The article was dreadfully written and I had to change all the sentences around to make them scan in English.
I remember about twenty years ago in the States some French chef came on the Today show to demonstrate grilling a lobster, and he chopped the critter up while it was squirming around, which grossed out Middle America because most of it had never seen a live lobster. It was definitely the media circus of the week. Another time, on Saturday Night Live, they bought this huge lobster that had made the news, and had a call-in vote on whether to eat it or let it live. The callers voted in favor of eating it, but they didn't actually show the lobster's demise. I imagine John Belushi probably ate it raw or something after the show.
Generalitat bans performance in which lobster is cooked
The play Accidents, by Rodrigo García, has been suspended at the Teatre Lliure because a lobster is killed on stage. The play, which consists of an actor cooking and eating the said crustacean (Homarus vulgaris), and which was to have gone on twice, yesterday and today, as part of the Radicals Lliure series of new works, has been denied the necessary authorization from the Generalitat because it violates animal protection laws.
The resolution, released yesterday by the sports and performances department of the department of public administration, said that the animal protection laws "expressly forbid killing animals as part of a performance," and that "the animal cannot be killed before the audience," though "exhibiting it once it has been cooked is not prohibited." The Generalitat denied "the application for authorization...because an invertebrate animal is killed in the performance."
In Rodrigo García's play, which will be performed in Reus in June and whose subtitle is "Killing to Eat," the tasty crustacean is cut up, cooked, and eaten to the tune of "What a Wonderful Day," without a doubt an ironic title for the lobster. A microphone in the animal's abdomen allows the public to sense its life going out, while another amplifies the noises made while preparing and cooking it.
Comments: 1) This is art? 2) Wonder how much the guy's subsidy from the Ministry of Culture was for this one? 3) I note that sticking bulls full of holes is still legal 4) Since when do you need the Generalitat's permission to put on a play? 5) Isn't this censorship? So where's Andy Robinson, who's so quick to sniff it out in New York? 6) The article was dreadfully written and I had to change all the sentences around to make them scan in English.
I remember about twenty years ago in the States some French chef came on the Today show to demonstrate grilling a lobster, and he chopped the critter up while it was squirming around, which grossed out Middle America because most of it had never seen a live lobster. It was definitely the media circus of the week. Another time, on Saturday Night Live, they bought this huge lobster that had made the news, and had a call-in vote on whether to eat it or let it live. The callers voted in favor of eating it, but they didn't actually show the lobster's demise. I imagine John Belushi probably ate it raw or something after the show.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
As you have already heard, Jerry Falwell died. I never could stand Falwell, and I have never liked the religious right at all. I think, however, that the left has generally overplayed his importance--Falwell was merely one of several '70s and '80s religious right leaders, and not the most influential. The influential guy was Paul Weyrich. Falwell and Pat Robertson were somewhere in importance between Weyrich and real clowns like Bakker and Swaggart.
Check out this Timothy Noah compilation of Falwell quotes showing that he was "a bigot, a reactionary, a liar, and a fool." Most of the quotes are pretty ridiculous, especially the God's punishing America with 9-11 bit. However, Falwell does seem to have a point about Islam, and he's right about global warming. Most of the rest is not any worse than most of the stuff your garden-variety leftist goes around spouting off.
And check out the hate spewed over at the Guardian's comments section:
"Good riddance to raving, ultra-rightist rubbish."
"I don't think I believe in hell, but if it exists, then its just gained one more resident. Fry, you evil bastard, fry."
"Such good news and I hope it's the beginning of a trend. The world needs fewer monsters."
"Welcome to hell, Mr Falwell! Hot enough for ya?"
"This news has cheered me up no end! Shame the bigoted hate-monger didn't die twenty years ago..."
"Falwell is dead. Good."
"He was a right wing religious fundamentalist and as such is no better than a suicide bomber."
These people don't seem to remember that Falwell never killed anybody. He didn't promote violence. He was no Fred Phelps. He was just a loudmouthed jerk like Bill O'Reilly, not a mass-murdering dictator like Saddam Hussein, whose well-deserved and entirely just fate was undoubtedly condemned by these Guardianistas rejoicing at Falwell's death.
Check out this Timothy Noah compilation of Falwell quotes showing that he was "a bigot, a reactionary, a liar, and a fool." Most of the quotes are pretty ridiculous, especially the God's punishing America with 9-11 bit. However, Falwell does seem to have a point about Islam, and he's right about global warming. Most of the rest is not any worse than most of the stuff your garden-variety leftist goes around spouting off.
And check out the hate spewed over at the Guardian's comments section:
"Good riddance to raving, ultra-rightist rubbish."
"I don't think I believe in hell, but if it exists, then its just gained one more resident. Fry, you evil bastard, fry."
"Such good news and I hope it's the beginning of a trend. The world needs fewer monsters."
"Welcome to hell, Mr Falwell! Hot enough for ya?"
"This news has cheered me up no end! Shame the bigoted hate-monger didn't die twenty years ago..."
"Falwell is dead. Good."
"He was a right wing religious fundamentalist and as such is no better than a suicide bomber."
These people don't seem to remember that Falwell never killed anybody. He didn't promote violence. He was no Fred Phelps. He was just a loudmouthed jerk like Bill O'Reilly, not a mass-murdering dictator like Saddam Hussein, whose well-deserved and entirely just fate was undoubtedly condemned by these Guardianistas rejoicing at Falwell's death.
Get this. Sixty percent of Spaniards think Spanish Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Spain. That means, of course, that 60% don't consider Spanish Jews to be real Spaniards at all. Disgraceful. 44% of people surveyed in five continental European countries, which included France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland, said Jews had too much international financial influence, and 49% said that American Jews had too much control over American Middle East policy. 39% said that Jews have too much power in business.
And get this. 47% said that Jews "talk too much about the Holocaust." Gee, only about six million of them got killed, so it's time they shut up already, just like those damn Negroes always complaining about being enslaved. Not to mention the Germans bitching about Dresden getting bombed.
News from these parts: The missing British girl in Portugal is the top story. Seems the Portuguese cops have arrested a British expatriate who lives in the neighborhood and took far too much interest in the proceedings of the case. She's probably dead.
Big trial verdict: an anestheologist in Valencia was convicted of infecting 275 patients with hepatitis C. Four of them died. Seems he was a junkie and he shot up with the same needles he was using on his patients. He got two thousand years in jail, but will have to serve a maximum of twenty.
Barça screwed up on Sunday night and gave up a last-minute 1-1 draw to Betis, a game they should have won handily. They are now in second place, tied with Re-Al Qaeda (stole that from Viz) at 66 points. Re-Al has the goal-average advantage, but, hey, there are four games left. Don't give up the ship just yet. Seems like the Barcelona media have already given up, though; oh, ye of little faith. Supposedly Iniesta started to cry in the locker room, which costs him quite a few macho points. Deco got all pissed off and smashed everything in the locker room, which is the response a fan prefers to see. La Vangua says they are definitely selling off a bunch of players at the end of the year, and nobody but the canteranos (Puyol, Valdes, Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, possibly Oleguer) is safe. I would definitely keep`Eto'o, and I would certainly not buy Lampard, Henry, or especially Torres, as gossip has. I like Navas, Villa, Jarque, Xabi Alonso, Albelda, and Alves. I'm not saying that Barça could actually get those guys, though if they sell Deco, Ronaldinho, or both, they'll have a packet of money to spend.
And get this. 47% said that Jews "talk too much about the Holocaust." Gee, only about six million of them got killed, so it's time they shut up already, just like those damn Negroes always complaining about being enslaved. Not to mention the Germans bitching about Dresden getting bombed.
News from these parts: The missing British girl in Portugal is the top story. Seems the Portuguese cops have arrested a British expatriate who lives in the neighborhood and took far too much interest in the proceedings of the case. She's probably dead.
Big trial verdict: an anestheologist in Valencia was convicted of infecting 275 patients with hepatitis C. Four of them died. Seems he was a junkie and he shot up with the same needles he was using on his patients. He got two thousand years in jail, but will have to serve a maximum of twenty.
Barça screwed up on Sunday night and gave up a last-minute 1-1 draw to Betis, a game they should have won handily. They are now in second place, tied with Re-Al Qaeda (stole that from Viz) at 66 points. Re-Al has the goal-average advantage, but, hey, there are four games left. Don't give up the ship just yet. Seems like the Barcelona media have already given up, though; oh, ye of little faith. Supposedly Iniesta started to cry in the locker room, which costs him quite a few macho points. Deco got all pissed off and smashed everything in the locker room, which is the response a fan prefers to see. La Vangua says they are definitely selling off a bunch of players at the end of the year, and nobody but the canteranos (Puyol, Valdes, Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, possibly Oleguer) is safe. I would definitely keep`Eto'o, and I would certainly not buy Lampard, Henry, or especially Torres, as gossip has. I like Navas, Villa, Jarque, Xabi Alonso, Albelda, and Alves. I'm not saying that Barça could actually get those guys, though if they sell Deco, Ronaldinho, or both, they'll have a packet of money to spend.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Breaking news: Nearly 400 illegal immigrants appeared this morning on the coasts of the Canaries, making more than 800 over the weekend. They're simply desperate to get out of West Africa, so desperate they risk their lives, since at least several thousand of them died at sea in 2006. If they make the Canaries, which most do, they're pretty much home free, since Spanish law makes it difficult to deport them. Often they simply fly the illegals to the mainland and turn them loose, and they turn up in a week or so in Barcelona selling fake Gucci purses in front of the Corte Ingles.
News from around here: Banned ETA front party Batasuna has set up a second front party, Basque Nationalist Action (ANV). The courts banned all ANV local tickets containing Batasuna members, but declared the tickets that don't include any to be legal. ETA-Batasuna will therefore be running under another name in the 133 towns whose tickets got the legal seal of approval, and, get this, Batasuna leaders Otegi and Barrena openly endorsed the ANV.
(Notes: The courts had previously shot down another ETA attempt to get on the ballot that was called ASB, which then of course disappeared without a trace. The local ticket is the party's list of candidates for city council; if the party wins, say, three seats, then the top three names on the party's ticket become council members.)
La Vangua's Cuba correspondent reports that Cubans are setting up illegal antennas to get American cable and satellite TV, and that the police go around checking all the electric cables hanging off the fronts and sides of Cuban residential buildings to see if any of them lead to illegal antennas. As you probably know, in Cuba, the only legal TV is government TV. The cops, of course, don't need a warrant to check your cables, and if you get caught you can get three years in jail. The regime called people who want to watch CNN or General Hospital or Seinfeld reruns "individuals who contribute to carrying out the Bush Commission's program to destroy the Cuban Revolution." So much for the freedom and dignity of the Cuban people.
Further election news: The Socialists think they have a real chance to take Navarra away from the PP, mostly because a Basque nationalist coalition called Nafarroa Bai (PNV + EA + Aralar) is going to pick up one-fifth of the seats there. That might knock the PP out of an absolute majority, and allow the Socialists to form a governing coalition. That looks like the only exciting race; the other Socialist targets, Madrid and Valencia, are firmly in PP hands.
La Vangua informs us that Catalonia's own nativist right-wing anti-immigrant party, the Platform for Catalonia, appeals mostly to intolerant young working-class males, and has had most success in four comarca capitals (more or less county seats) where conservative Catalan nationalism is historically strong, Vic, Manlleu, El Vendrell, and Cervera. Meanwhile, in Premià de Mar, a local independent anti-immigrant party has done well. The Platform has had little success in Barcelona and in its industrial suburbs. It's not necessarily the towns that have the highest percentage of immigrants where the Platform wins votes; seems that the Platform does well in towns where one immigrant nationality has moved into one neighborhood and concentrated there.
The article compares the Platform to the French National Front and Haider's FPO in Austria, but what it most reminds me of is the Vlaams Belang in Belgium, another regional party based on linguistic nationalism.
Barcelona example: Those jerks over by the Arco de Triunfo were going to hold a big old pot-banging demonstration to show the local Chinese that they were not wanted, but, in a good move, the Ayuntamiento closed them down for not having the right kind of permit. That's real class, demonstrating against your neighbors in their presence and pounding on metal pans so they can't avoid hearing it. I can't think of any more expressive way to say "You're not welcome here" than actually beating somebody up.
Look, if it's a conflictive group and the crime rate goes up and grandmas are getting mugged on the streets, I more than see your point, though I'd rather concentrate on individual bad eggs than blame the whole group-- we can't call all Ecuadorians gang-bangers just because a few are in the Latin Kings. But the Chinese are not generally known for being muggers or purse-snatchers. The only thing they have a reputation for around here is running sweatshops with debt-slaves, and I'm not sure exactly how true that is. Whatever, it is the kind of lawbreaking that a little competent police work ought to be able to do something about.
(Notes: The courts had previously shot down another ETA attempt to get on the ballot that was called ASB, which then of course disappeared without a trace. The local ticket is the party's list of candidates for city council; if the party wins, say, three seats, then the top three names on the party's ticket become council members.)
La Vangua's Cuba correspondent reports that Cubans are setting up illegal antennas to get American cable and satellite TV, and that the police go around checking all the electric cables hanging off the fronts and sides of Cuban residential buildings to see if any of them lead to illegal antennas. As you probably know, in Cuba, the only legal TV is government TV. The cops, of course, don't need a warrant to check your cables, and if you get caught you can get three years in jail. The regime called people who want to watch CNN or General Hospital or Seinfeld reruns "individuals who contribute to carrying out the Bush Commission's program to destroy the Cuban Revolution." So much for the freedom and dignity of the Cuban people.
Further election news: The Socialists think they have a real chance to take Navarra away from the PP, mostly because a Basque nationalist coalition called Nafarroa Bai (PNV + EA + Aralar) is going to pick up one-fifth of the seats there. That might knock the PP out of an absolute majority, and allow the Socialists to form a governing coalition. That looks like the only exciting race; the other Socialist targets, Madrid and Valencia, are firmly in PP hands.
La Vangua informs us that Catalonia's own nativist right-wing anti-immigrant party, the Platform for Catalonia, appeals mostly to intolerant young working-class males, and has had most success in four comarca capitals (more or less county seats) where conservative Catalan nationalism is historically strong, Vic, Manlleu, El Vendrell, and Cervera. Meanwhile, in Premià de Mar, a local independent anti-immigrant party has done well. The Platform has had little success in Barcelona and in its industrial suburbs. It's not necessarily the towns that have the highest percentage of immigrants where the Platform wins votes; seems that the Platform does well in towns where one immigrant nationality has moved into one neighborhood and concentrated there.
The article compares the Platform to the French National Front and Haider's FPO in Austria, but what it most reminds me of is the Vlaams Belang in Belgium, another regional party based on linguistic nationalism.
Barcelona example: Those jerks over by the Arco de Triunfo were going to hold a big old pot-banging demonstration to show the local Chinese that they were not wanted, but, in a good move, the Ayuntamiento closed them down for not having the right kind of permit. That's real class, demonstrating against your neighbors in their presence and pounding on metal pans so they can't avoid hearing it. I can't think of any more expressive way to say "You're not welcome here" than actually beating somebody up.
Look, if it's a conflictive group and the crime rate goes up and grandmas are getting mugged on the streets, I more than see your point, though I'd rather concentrate on individual bad eggs than blame the whole group-- we can't call all Ecuadorians gang-bangers just because a few are in the Latin Kings. But the Chinese are not generally known for being muggers or purse-snatchers. The only thing they have a reputation for around here is running sweatshops with debt-slaves, and I'm not sure exactly how true that is. Whatever, it is the kind of lawbreaking that a little competent police work ought to be able to do something about.
Says Francesc-Marc Alvaro, La Vanguardia's best columnist:
...When Sarkozy declared he was going to discontinue the 1968 brand name, he was not referring to the positive gains that European and Western society has irreversibly incorporated, such as equality for women, rights for minorities, an ecological consciousness, a more participative vision of democracy, and a new way of experiencing personal relationships both within the family and at work. All this forms part of the great current consensus, and is also accepted by the democratic Right. 1968 cannot be summarized superficially as a mere end to ties and bras. there was a change in mentality that was born among the well-informed elites and, with time, spread and took root.
Sarkozy, therefore, is aiming in another direction when he criticizes May 1968. His target is the dark side of 1968, that anti-authoritarianism that became totalitarianism in favor of Third World dictators; that pacifism that turned into the terrorism of the Gauche Proletarienne, the Italian Red Brigades, and the German Baader-Meinhoffs; that intoxicating nihilism that broke down classroom order; that disenchantment which mutated into the cynicism of so many ideological commissars, beginning with many of Mitterrand's, Gonzalez's, and Schroeder's collaborators: that moral superiority of the professional leftist, even after reality has proven his dogmas false; that adulteration of the terms "democracy," "memory," "anti-Fascism," "liberty," and "progress."
Among us, the two sides of 1968 coexist. The good side, which has modernized us and made us freer, and the bad side, which stimulates reactionary imposturing, nostalgic and decadent, and which scorns reality because reality has destroyed their old-fashioned analysis. Sarkozy has won his match against the dark side of 1968, that disastrous legacy that harms us every day. And he has done so, above all, by recovering the meaning of important words like "work," "effort," "commitment," and "responsibility." Every political battle begins by liberating hijacked words.
...When Sarkozy declared he was going to discontinue the 1968 brand name, he was not referring to the positive gains that European and Western society has irreversibly incorporated, such as equality for women, rights for minorities, an ecological consciousness, a more participative vision of democracy, and a new way of experiencing personal relationships both within the family and at work. All this forms part of the great current consensus, and is also accepted by the democratic Right. 1968 cannot be summarized superficially as a mere end to ties and bras. there was a change in mentality that was born among the well-informed elites and, with time, spread and took root.
Sarkozy, therefore, is aiming in another direction when he criticizes May 1968. His target is the dark side of 1968, that anti-authoritarianism that became totalitarianism in favor of Third World dictators; that pacifism that turned into the terrorism of the Gauche Proletarienne, the Italian Red Brigades, and the German Baader-Meinhoffs; that intoxicating nihilism that broke down classroom order; that disenchantment which mutated into the cynicism of so many ideological commissars, beginning with many of Mitterrand's, Gonzalez's, and Schroeder's collaborators: that moral superiority of the professional leftist, even after reality has proven his dogmas false; that adulteration of the terms "democracy," "memory," "anti-Fascism," "liberty," and "progress."
Among us, the two sides of 1968 coexist. The good side, which has modernized us and made us freer, and the bad side, which stimulates reactionary imposturing, nostalgic and decadent, and which scorns reality because reality has destroyed their old-fashioned analysis. Sarkozy has won his match against the dark side of 1968, that disastrous legacy that harms us every day. And he has done so, above all, by recovering the meaning of important words like "work," "effort," "commitment," and "responsibility." Every political battle begins by liberating hijacked words.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Kansas City had a big old prostitution-slavery roundup last week and ten people were arrested in lovely suburban Johnson County for importing Chinese women to work at "massage parlors" where sex for a price was on the menu. We have these all the time in Barcelona, too, though it's not always China where the women come from; I have it on some authority that most hookers in Barcelona today are Latin Americans. There aren't many Spanish hookers, at least not anymore.
The solution, of course, is to legalize prostitution in brothels in certain designated areas far from family neighborhoods; for example, in Kansas City I'd put them down in the industrial River Bottoms and in Barcelona I'd put them in the Zona Franca. You do that and you can also run medical checks on the prostitutes, besides keeping them off the streets, charging them taxes, keeping the pimps and the Mob out of it, and cutting down tremendously on murders of prostitutes.
By the way, I read somewhere that newspapers like Catholic Catalan conservative La Vanguardia get 5-10% of their income from the prostitution classified ads they run in the quaintly titled "Relax" and "Relaciones" sections. They ought to be a little ashamed of themselves.
A quick look through today's hooker ads shows that there's a lot of supply in the market, with prices as low as €20 for a "completo," whatever that is. Several ads stress that the woman is "white" or "Spanish" or "Catalan." Several explain the perversions they are willing to perform with you, including "French," "Greek," "Thai," and "Burmese." A few stress that they are willing to kiss customers, which prostitutes apparently do not normally do. There are some ads for male prostitutes and others for transvestites, which are unusually popular in Spain for some reason. Personally, transvestites gross me out; they're a bizarre caricature of real women.
Front page banner headline today in La Vangua: Mr. Formula One extended his contract to hold car races at the Montmeló racetrack outside Barcelona until 2016. Meanwhile, Mr. Formula One also said he had been misunderstood and had not tried to blackmail Valencians into voting for the PP over Formula One racing in Valencia. they are having a big hairy Formula One race at Montmeló today and there are something like 120,000 people out there.
FC Barcelona is just about to crash and burn. Real Madrid currently holds a one-point lead with one more game than Barça, who play Betis tonight in the Camp Nou. They had better win, after the Copa del Rey debacle in Getafe. The only title still open to them is the League, and if they don't win it I think there might be a housecleaning. Gossip around here is that Barcelona's practice sessions are too soft and the players, especially Ronaldinho, are out of shape.
One thing I remember Bill James saying was that baseball teams tend to switch back and forth between "players' managers" and disciplinarians. Frank is clearly a players' coach, and it might be time to bring in a tough guy for a couple of years. It also might be time to sell Ronaldinho, who is starting to look like a diva, or Deco, or both. I hate to get on Ronaldinho, he played so well for three years and won two leagues and a Champions, but if they sell him now they'll get a top price which they can invest in three or four younger players. Also, they need to clear a spot for Giovanni dos Santos, who is going to be a first-team player next year and may be a regular in two or three years. Also, if I were Barcelona, I'd sell off all my aging foreign players--Belletti, van Bronckhorst, Sylvinho, Edmilson, Giuly--and Motta, too. Yeah, I know they re-signed a few of these guys, but I wouldn't have.
Andy Robinson claims that people in Los Angeles were "horrorized" at Queen Elizabeth's "rigidity and coldness" when Princess Diana died. Uh, Andy, some Americans do pay some attention to the British royal family, but I don't think most folks in the US were particularly horrorized. Seems to me the overemotional reaction to Diana's death occurred in exactly one country, the UK, and it's cheating to try to hang Britain's moments of embarrassment on the Americans, too.
Al Gore and his acolytes have organized one of those big old PC music festivals about global warming called Live Earth for July 7; it will be held in seven cities simultaneously. Barcelona is not one of the cities, but guess what? They're going to have their own anyway! It's being billed as a "satellite concert," though from what I can tell it has no affiliation with the main organization. Two points. 1) It's not a free concert, you'll have to pay to get in 2) The city government is kicking in taxpayers' money for this political rally and self-promotional pseudo-event. They claim they might get Bruce Springsteen and Arnold Schwarzenegger to show up, along with Zap. Zap I'll believe.
Campaign news: Looks like the PP is going to repeat in Madrid and Valencia, both in the city and regional governments. Nothing else exciting.
Remember the characteristics of working-class Spanish men we were talking about the other day--you know, machismo, chulería, not getting down off your donkey, insisting you are right no matter what the evidence is, and the national motto, "We Laugh at Death"? Here's another illustration. Of course, the best part is when the guy complains that the road signs were confusing. Not only am I in the right, but it's society's fault!
Actually, he sort of has a point: Spanish road signs really are often confusing.
The solution, of course, is to legalize prostitution in brothels in certain designated areas far from family neighborhoods; for example, in Kansas City I'd put them down in the industrial River Bottoms and in Barcelona I'd put them in the Zona Franca. You do that and you can also run medical checks on the prostitutes, besides keeping them off the streets, charging them taxes, keeping the pimps and the Mob out of it, and cutting down tremendously on murders of prostitutes.
By the way, I read somewhere that newspapers like Catholic Catalan conservative La Vanguardia get 5-10% of their income from the prostitution classified ads they run in the quaintly titled "Relax" and "Relaciones" sections. They ought to be a little ashamed of themselves.
A quick look through today's hooker ads shows that there's a lot of supply in the market, with prices as low as €20 for a "completo," whatever that is. Several ads stress that the woman is "white" or "Spanish" or "Catalan." Several explain the perversions they are willing to perform with you, including "French," "Greek," "Thai," and "Burmese." A few stress that they are willing to kiss customers, which prostitutes apparently do not normally do. There are some ads for male prostitutes and others for transvestites, which are unusually popular in Spain for some reason. Personally, transvestites gross me out; they're a bizarre caricature of real women.
Front page banner headline today in La Vangua: Mr. Formula One extended his contract to hold car races at the Montmeló racetrack outside Barcelona until 2016. Meanwhile, Mr. Formula One also said he had been misunderstood and had not tried to blackmail Valencians into voting for the PP over Formula One racing in Valencia. they are having a big hairy Formula One race at Montmeló today and there are something like 120,000 people out there.
FC Barcelona is just about to crash and burn. Real Madrid currently holds a one-point lead with one more game than Barça, who play Betis tonight in the Camp Nou. They had better win, after the Copa del Rey debacle in Getafe. The only title still open to them is the League, and if they don't win it I think there might be a housecleaning. Gossip around here is that Barcelona's practice sessions are too soft and the players, especially Ronaldinho, are out of shape.
One thing I remember Bill James saying was that baseball teams tend to switch back and forth between "players' managers" and disciplinarians. Frank is clearly a players' coach, and it might be time to bring in a tough guy for a couple of years. It also might be time to sell Ronaldinho, who is starting to look like a diva, or Deco, or both. I hate to get on Ronaldinho, he played so well for three years and won two leagues and a Champions, but if they sell him now they'll get a top price which they can invest in three or four younger players. Also, they need to clear a spot for Giovanni dos Santos, who is going to be a first-team player next year and may be a regular in two or three years. Also, if I were Barcelona, I'd sell off all my aging foreign players--Belletti, van Bronckhorst, Sylvinho, Edmilson, Giuly--and Motta, too. Yeah, I know they re-signed a few of these guys, but I wouldn't have.
Andy Robinson claims that people in Los Angeles were "horrorized" at Queen Elizabeth's "rigidity and coldness" when Princess Diana died. Uh, Andy, some Americans do pay some attention to the British royal family, but I don't think most folks in the US were particularly horrorized. Seems to me the overemotional reaction to Diana's death occurred in exactly one country, the UK, and it's cheating to try to hang Britain's moments of embarrassment on the Americans, too.
Al Gore and his acolytes have organized one of those big old PC music festivals about global warming called Live Earth for July 7; it will be held in seven cities simultaneously. Barcelona is not one of the cities, but guess what? They're going to have their own anyway! It's being billed as a "satellite concert," though from what I can tell it has no affiliation with the main organization. Two points. 1) It's not a free concert, you'll have to pay to get in 2) The city government is kicking in taxpayers' money for this political rally and self-promotional pseudo-event. They claim they might get Bruce Springsteen and Arnold Schwarzenegger to show up, along with Zap. Zap I'll believe.
Campaign news: Looks like the PP is going to repeat in Madrid and Valencia, both in the city and regional governments. Nothing else exciting.
Remember the characteristics of working-class Spanish men we were talking about the other day--you know, machismo, chulería, not getting down off your donkey, insisting you are right no matter what the evidence is, and the national motto, "We Laugh at Death"? Here's another illustration. Of course, the best part is when the guy complains that the road signs were confusing. Not only am I in the right, but it's society's fault!
Actually, he sort of has a point: Spanish road signs really are often confusing.
Friday, May 11, 2007
The most recent Spanish electoral campaign kicks off this weekend; this time it's municipal elections, for city council and mayor, and elections in I believe 13 of the autonomous regions, all except Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Andalusia. Election day is May 27.
Remember, in Spain it's not like the US. In the US, on election day, you vote in a variety of different elections on the same ballot. In 2008 you will vote for president, congressional representative, senator (in about 2/3 of the states), governor (in most states), state representative, state senator, atate attorney general, mayor, city council rep, sheriff, and dogcatcher, not to mention different initiatives in the various states. We vote on all these positions, and most people vote for the individual candidate, not necessarily the party. "Splitting your ticket" is very common; that is, you vote for some Democratic candidates and some Republicans, depending on which person (not party) you prefer.
In Spain we only have four kinds of elections: municipal (City Council), regional (the Generalitat in Catalonia), national (the Congress of Deputies and Senate), and European (for the Europarliament). You vote for the party, not the candidate, and seats on the council or in the regional, national, and European parliaments are divided up proportionately. Then the party (or coalition of parties) that wins the most seats puts in its candidate as mayor, regional premier, or Prime Minister.
(Clarification: Of course, many people in Spain choose which party to vote for based on who its leading candidate(s) are. What I mean is your vote doesn't go to, say, Jordi Hereu for mayor of Barcelona; instead, it goes to the Socialist Party, and if they win the election, then their majority on the City Council puts Hereu in as mayor.)
Looks like the big municipal race is going to be Madrid; I don't see Barcelona changing hands, or any of the other major cities. Currently, the PP governs Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Valladolid, and Palma, while the PSOE governs Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza, and La Coruña. The PP will give the PSOE a run in Sevilla, but that's about it for any hopes of change. The PP dominates most smaller provincial capitals, even in Andalusia.
In the regional elections, the PSOE is going to make a run at PP-held Madrid, Balearics, and Valencia (I don't think they have much chance in any of them), and the PP is going to try to take Aragon and Asturias. The other regions ought to stay in the same hands they're in: Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura with the PSOE, and Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarra, Castile-Leon, and Murcia with the PP.
For lots and lots of information, check out this groovy special report from pro-Socialist El País (in Spanish).
Remember, in Spain it's not like the US. In the US, on election day, you vote in a variety of different elections on the same ballot. In 2008 you will vote for president, congressional representative, senator (in about 2/3 of the states), governor (in most states), state representative, state senator, atate attorney general, mayor, city council rep, sheriff, and dogcatcher, not to mention different initiatives in the various states. We vote on all these positions, and most people vote for the individual candidate, not necessarily the party. "Splitting your ticket" is very common; that is, you vote for some Democratic candidates and some Republicans, depending on which person (not party) you prefer.
In Spain we only have four kinds of elections: municipal (City Council), regional (the Generalitat in Catalonia), national (the Congress of Deputies and Senate), and European (for the Europarliament). You vote for the party, not the candidate, and seats on the council or in the regional, national, and European parliaments are divided up proportionately. Then the party (or coalition of parties) that wins the most seats puts in its candidate as mayor, regional premier, or Prime Minister.
(Clarification: Of course, many people in Spain choose which party to vote for based on who its leading candidate(s) are. What I mean is your vote doesn't go to, say, Jordi Hereu for mayor of Barcelona; instead, it goes to the Socialist Party, and if they win the election, then their majority on the City Council puts Hereu in as mayor.)
Looks like the big municipal race is going to be Madrid; I don't see Barcelona changing hands, or any of the other major cities. Currently, the PP governs Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Valladolid, and Palma, while the PSOE governs Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza, and La Coruña. The PP will give the PSOE a run in Sevilla, but that's about it for any hopes of change. The PP dominates most smaller provincial capitals, even in Andalusia.
In the regional elections, the PSOE is going to make a run at PP-held Madrid, Balearics, and Valencia (I don't think they have much chance in any of them), and the PP is going to try to take Aragon and Asturias. The other regions ought to stay in the same hands they're in: Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura with the PSOE, and Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarra, Castile-Leon, and Murcia with the PP.
For lots and lots of information, check out this groovy special report from pro-Socialist El País (in Spanish).
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Here's something I don't much like at all. Seems that a gentleman named Bernie Ecclestone runs this thing called Formula One which puts on car races. I have no interest in car races, which aren't nearly as cool as pro football or even Communist kickball (oops, I mean soccer). However, this appears to be a big deal, and Mr. Ecclestone's car race company holds one every year here in Catalonia at the Montmeló racetrack. Everyone in Catalonia is very proud, because car and motorcycle racing are very big here, as they are in most provincial and backward places. (Send hate mail to the Comments section.)
Now Mr. Ecclestone has promised the Valencia regional government that he will put on a big old car race in Valencia. Not on a real racetrack, but on a course through the streets of the city, which I have read that race drivers really hate. All the Valencia regional government has to do is pay Mr. Ecclestone €35 million.
And get this. Mr. Ecclestone says the offer to take the Valencia regional government's money is only good if the PP candidate, current regional premier Francisco Camps, is reelected. If he loses, then Mr. Ecclestone says he'll have his car race somewhere else.
Gee, I don't know, I'd vote for the PP in sixteen out of the seventeen Spanish regions, but in Valencia I'd be tempted to vote for, say, the Gypsy Nationalists or that wacko cult that calls itself the Humanist Party instead of Mr. Francisco Camps, just in order to inform him and Mr. Ecclestone that they ain't such hot shit after all.
And, by the way, I don't think the Valencia government has any business spending €35 million of the taxpayers' money on a car race. I know it's comparatively a drop in the bucket, but I still don't like it.
Now Mr. Ecclestone has promised the Valencia regional government that he will put on a big old car race in Valencia. Not on a real racetrack, but on a course through the streets of the city, which I have read that race drivers really hate. All the Valencia regional government has to do is pay Mr. Ecclestone €35 million.
And get this. Mr. Ecclestone says the offer to take the Valencia regional government's money is only good if the PP candidate, current regional premier Francisco Camps, is reelected. If he loses, then Mr. Ecclestone says he'll have his car race somewhere else.
Gee, I don't know, I'd vote for the PP in sixteen out of the seventeen Spanish regions, but in Valencia I'd be tempted to vote for, say, the Gypsy Nationalists or that wacko cult that calls itself the Humanist Party instead of Mr. Francisco Camps, just in order to inform him and Mr. Ecclestone that they ain't such hot shit after all.
And, by the way, I don't think the Valencia government has any business spending €35 million of the taxpayers' money on a car race. I know it's comparatively a drop in the bucket, but I still don't like it.
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