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.

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.

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?

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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).

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.

Rioting continued in France for the third consecutive night after Sarkozy's victory; 840 people have been arrested so far, and about 1200 cars torched. Things do seem to be calming down a little, and there was only serious rioting last night in Paris and its suburbs, Toulouse, and Lyon.

Seems to me this is a mixture of race rioting and street guerrilla anarchism--what they call kale borroka in the Basque Country. These racaille better have their fun now, because Sarkozy is going to crack down on this crap after he takes over, which is within about two weeks. You can't run a country with punks taking over the streets as they have been doing in France--or as the gangs do in some underclass areas in the States.

One real silly response I've heard going around the Guardian's comments section is that this rioting in France is bad, but American race rioting is worse. This is a rather off-the-wall comparison, since I have no idea why they're bringing in America. Also, have we had any real race rioting since the early '90s? I remember a couple of people got killed in Brooklyn, and there were the 1992 "Rodney King" riots, in which about fifty people died. I checked Wikipedia, though, and couldn't find any serious rioting in the US since then. This looks like the best we can do.

Another very silly response that TV3 is making a big deal out of is to attack Sarkozy for going off for a quick luxury vacation in Malta. Hell, I'd say he deserves a nice rest. And, no, I don't believe the story that renting a yacht costs €110,000 for three days. I might believe it if you told me that it cost €110,000 for the French secret service to protect him down there, but they have to protect him wherever he goes, of course. This is a complete non-issue.

I'm starting to think José Montilla is a pretty reasonable guy for a Socialist. He hasn't done anything stupid yet, and he shit-canned the regional representative in Madrid for saying that Montilla's predecessor and still party president Maragall was sick in the head. This guy, Martínez Fraile, is a buddy of Montilla's. La Vangua's take is that Montilla is warning his coalition partner, notoriously unreliable Esquerra Republicana, that he's not going to take any crap off them, either.

Interesting World War II stuff that might be true: A Dutch TV documentary says that KLM, with the help of Prince Bernhard, who was a director of the state-owned airline and pro-Nazi, helped Nazi war criminals escape to South America in the late 1940s. Specific accusation: Two of them were Eichmann and Mengele.

Interesting last line of La Vangua's article. "Holland is still debating the collaboration of its authorities with the Nazi regime, and the deportation of a large part of its Jewish and homosexual population to concentration camps."

Now, we know that some 110,000 Dutch Jews died in the Holocaust, but I had never heard that Dutch homosexuals were deported en masse to concentration camps, or that anywhere near 110,000 of them died. Wikipedia cites estimates of between 5,000 and 15,000 gays (from all nations) killed by the Nazis--a tragedy, to be sure, but not precisely the reason the Nazis set up the death camps. My question is why La Vangua's reporter brought in homosexuals, when the debate is quite obviously about Dutch society's treatment of Jews.

La Vanguardia's banner headline today, though, is: "Catalonia largest jihadist center / 30% of imprisoned Islamic terrorists lived in Catalonia / High tension in Salt / Studies of threat of attack on Barcelona." Their sources are a think-tank study and a police officers' organization.

Big news: Every month approximately five Islamist terrorists leave Catalonia for training in Iraq, Chechenia, or Afghanistan.

Their story says, straight out, that extremist Islamist cells in Catalonia are recruiting suicide bombers for Iraq and Afghanistan, that the cops are getting cooperation from the "Muslim communities established in Spain," and that fundamentalist radicals camouflage themselves in areas with a large Islamic population, and then proselytize. Investigators are focusing on the 36% Muslim town of Salt, Girona's ugly twin sister, "the Islamic capital of Catalonia." Supposedly Salt's Muslims have been infiltrated by radicals, and there's an ideological battle going on right now between moderates and jihadists. The cops aren't ruling out an attack in Barcelona, but they haven't found much evidence that one is being planned.

Interesting bit: White flight doesn't only happen in racist America. 1500 Spanish citizens have moved out of Salt since 2004.

Dear Lord, this can't possibly be true. Especially not this part.

Ms Hilton has told paparazzi photographers her sentence was "cruel and unwarranted", and to illustrate her point will appear on the front cover of Harper's Bazaar magazine in June wearing a zebra-print prison outfit while running away from models dressed as policemen.

Interesting piece in La Vanguardia on talented young Spaniards who go to the US for graduate work at universities or hospitals there. (Note: La Vangua has recently made a very big deal about some Chinese study ranking the world's universities. The top ten were eight American schools--Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, and the like--and the two obvious ones from Britain. Spain didn't have a single university in the top 200.)

The two people interviewed by La Vangua said the competitive atmosphere in the US gets the best out of individuals, that you have to work hard and be motivated, that people with talent get scholarships there, that US universities compete for the best students, and that European students don't appreciate their university studies because they're virtually free of charge.

Says economist Jordí Galí, currently with the Pompeu Fabra: "Many citizens of Catalonia and Spain have been in contact with American society. These persons have an important role in compensating for the antiquated anti-Americanism that rejects anything that comes from the US. It would be interesting to do a study on the perception these people have of the United States and to compare it with that of the average Spanish citizen. Only ignorance can explain anti-Americanism. Contact with the US can contribute to understanding the positive things about that society, to learn and import them."

Says doctor and researcher Cristina Nadal, currently at Barcelona's Hospital Clínico: "When you come back you realize how small your world was. You see the people are more homogenous than you thought and that our constant navel-gazing is a bity absurd. The anti-Americanism in this country is ridiculous. You can argue about a lot of things about the US, the Iraq war, Bush, but the country works and is doing well, and we have a lot to learn from it."

Comment: These folks are unusually pro-American for these here parts. Obviously, they enjoyed high status and lived comfortable lives there, and their ideas might be different if they'd been, say, teaching third grade in an inner-city elementary school. Still, it's refreshing for La Vanguardia to actually run a prominent article that's positive about the US, because believe me, it's unusual.

La Vanguardia's best columnist, Francesc-Marc Álvaro, reports on the Catalan reaction to Sarkozy's victory in France:

Sarkozy's victory was not popular in Catalonia, where the same old politically correct thing was to believe just as much in Royal as in Zapatero and his soft words and unfulfilled promises. TV3 blatantly showed us the mindset of this Catalan Wonderland. From our public television station's newsdesk, the big question of Sunday night to the correspondent in Paris was why Mrs. Ségolène did not win, since that is what should have happened. Catalonia always likes to talk more leftist than it really is, a large-scale imposture full of contradictions: for example, the grotesque example of those progressive leaders who send their children to elite private schools.

Here, almost nobody likes Sarkozy, although he is waving the flag of work and effort, positive values that fit in perfectly with Catalan meritocracy. Fear of the new president has struck deep into hipster Barcelona. Catalanists and Spainists agree in their support for the Socialist candidate. A Catalan radio survey last Friday showed an eloquent statistic: 73% of the calls were for Royal and 27% for Sarkozy. However, luckily, another truth has reached us from Perpignan. The Catalans of the north, who vote in France, are sure what they want. Nicolas Sarkozy triumphed in North Catalonia (Roussillon) with more than 55% of the vote. Why don't we listen to their point of view one of these days?

Something I thought was interesting: French citizens living abroad can vote in French elections at polling places set up by local consulates. The French who live in all of Spain went for Royal 51%-49%. Those who live in Madrid went for Sarkozy 54%-46%. Those who live in Barcelona went for Royal 58%-42%. Tells you something about the kind of expats that choose Madrid and those that choose Barcelona.

Looks like Zap's Berlin-Paris-Madrid Axis of Weasels has lost France and Germany. Now it's Zap all by himself with his buddies Chavez and Castro. It doesn't help that Zap actually participated in the Socialist campaigns in both Germany and France, endorsing and campaigning for the losers in both races and, of course, pissing off the winners. La Vangua says in its news pages that Zap has done a very poor job in European foreign policy, failing to take the lead in any meaningful initiatives while farting around with his brainchild Alliance of Civilizations.

Further comment on European nationalisms: Some Catalan nationalists are looking at the results of the Scottish election as a great victory, but they aren't considering the fact that the SNP did not win a majority and will have to pact with a non-nationalist party, likely Labour.

Blogging the French election (just scroll down, there's a long list of posts at nearly all of these blogs): Eursoc, Fausta, Nidra Poller at Pajamas Media, Pave France, The Dissident Frogman (back after a hiatus), Publius Pundit, and especially ¡No Pasarán! Check them all out.

Thought you might be interested in the prevalence of somewhat unusual causes of death around the world, according to Nation Master. I assume each figure is for one year, and they're absolute numbers, not per capita or per million or whatever. I've listed only the leading country for each one.

Accidental suffocation in bed: US 327
Acne: Mexico 3
Anthrax: Romania 2
Bitten by rat: Colombia 1
Cellulitis: US 799
Chlamydia: Germany 3
Contact with agricultural machinery: US 245
Contact with hornets, wasps, or bees: Mexico 88
Contact with marine animal: Australia 3
Contact with powered lawnmower: US 27
Contact with venomous snakes: Thailand 91
Crushed, pushed, or stepped on by a crowd: South Korea 4
Discharge of fireworks: Netherlands 23
Explosions: US 197
Exposure to electric current: Brazil 1214
Fecal incontinence: Egypt 8
Fall from cliff: US 82
Female genital prolapse: US 23
Flatulence and related conditions: Egypt 8
Gangrene: Egypt 216
Hemorrhoids: Thailand 28
Heartburn: Ecuador 186
Indeterminate sex and pseudohermaphroditism: Brazil 4
Inhalation of gastric contents: Japan 1207
Intentional self-poisoning by alcohol: Romania 58
Irritable bowel syndrome: US 26
Malaise and fatigue: US 277
Malignant neoplasm of penis: US 217
Mental and behavioral disorders due to use of cannabinoids: Mexico 4
Phimosis: Mexico 2
Retention of urine: Egypt 21
Sunburn: Poland 3
Victim of lightning: Mexico 223

Notes: Obviously these figures are very incomplete. Shouldn't be surprising that the US so often ranks first, since it's by far the biggest Western country. It's actually not that unusual to go out like Bon Scott and Jimi Hendrix in Japan. Countries that rank high in several categories, like Egypt and Mexico, probably have pretty good health care and record keeping compared to real hellholes like Haiti and Niger, where many deaths probably go unreported. I don't know why China and India don't show up in these lists. How does one die of acne or cellulitis? Next time somebody tells you no one has ever died from smoking pot, you tell them that it's responsible for four deaths a year in Mexico. And how exactly do you die of sunburn in Poland? Maybe the jokes have some basis in truth.

Tornadoes are part of life in Kansas, the heart of Tornado Alley. The National Weather Service's severe storms center is in Kansas City for a reason.In KC they blow a loud, shrill siren if there's a tornado watch on, which is several times a year at least, and I remember tornado drills at school. The thing about tornadoes is that they're usually rather small and do intense but very localized damage. The majority of them just wreck some farmer's crops out in a field or knock down some trees; they don't usually touch down where people live, as population is pretty sparse west of about a Lincoln-Wichita-Oklahoma City-Fort Worth-San Antonio line, and not real dense anywhere west of the Mississippi.

Very few people are actually killed by tornadoes, maybe fifty a year in the US, I'm just guessing, but their sheer power is tremendous. The rumor / joke that trailer parks attract tornadoes like a magnet has some truth to it, since if you're inside a solid structure when the tornado hits you're likely to come out OK, but if you're inside a trailer or something else just thumbtacked to the ground, you're toast. So the tornadoes that make the news are the ones that kill most people, and the ones that kill most people are the ones that hit trailer parks.

This tornado story is pretty scary; that tornado was a monster, just look at the photo. It really did wreck a whole town, and destroyed solid masonry structures like schools and downtown business buildings. They'll be very lucky if there are only four people dead.

One thing is that the weather on the central and southern Plains, what they call the steppe in Russia, can be pretty wild. Lots of thunderstorms, occasional flash floods, blizzards, "blue northers," the "Siberian Express," ice storms, hail. A weather pattern will get started and there's nothing to slow it down but a few barbed-wire fences as it sweeps across the plains. The sky can be very impressive in those parts--it goes on forever, all the way to the horizon, and sometimes it gets agitated.

Here in Barcelona the weather is boring most of the time, which has its positive side, of course.

The big news in Europe is tomorrow's French presidential runoff election; all the surveys show Sarkozy winning with between 53% and 55% of the vote.

Royal knows she is going to lose, and so hit the panic button yesterday with some nasty Angry Left ranting against Sarko. Royal said Sarkozy was "a risk for France," "a danger to the unity of the Republic and for social peace," and "a threat to democracy."

She added, "It is my responsibility to send out an alert about the risk of (Sarkozy's) candidacy in relation with the violence and the brutality that will be touched off in the country. Everyone knows it but nobody says it; it's a sort of taboo." An interviewer asked her, "So it's you or chaos." Royal answered, "I didn't say that, but it's true." She continued, "There will be severe tensions in the country, because he has multiplied his provocations and his verbal violence, especially toward "popular" neighborhoods."

Furthermore, Royal claimed that her poor showing in the surveys is because of a plot among the party in power (the UMP), the polling companies, and the owners of the large media corporations.

This is repulsive behavior in a democratic election. You don't call your opponent undemocratic or claim if he wins the country will fall apart or threaten the voters with an outburst of violence if you lose. And you don't blame your loss on a nefarious plot by some nebulous power brokers, either. I am thoroughly disgusted with Royal, who has demonstrated that she is not a reasonable and moderate leftist but rather someone who trafficks in fear.

José María Aznar, who might have been slightly tipsy, put his foot in his mouth big-time when he told a group of wine producers, in response to the Traffic Authority's current anti-drunk driving TV commercials, that he did not need anyone to tell him how much wine he could drink before driving. How thoroughly irresponsible. 4000 people die on the roads every year in Spain and alcohol is a factor in 30% of these deaths. If Mr. Aznar wants to drink wine, that's fine with me, I drink wine too, but I don't drive. I take the Metro, or a taxi if I'm out late, which I ususlly am not. It's not particularly expensive or inconvenient, either. And if Mr. Aznar wants to promote Spanish wines, that's great too, but he should of course mention moderation in drinking at the same time. Mr. Aznar should admit he was wrong.

Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia knocked out another little Bourbon this week; it's a girl named Sonia. Big news, of course. I actually rather like the Spanish royal family. I am, of course, a small-R republican, but if we've got a democratic constitutional monarchy with a powerless King, that's effectively a republic for all practical purposes. And the Spanish royals are well-behaved and go about their business, which is mostly public relations, without causing any scandals or getting any negative publicity. They're also cheap; the State spends a few million euros a year on them, but probably gets that value back with all the PR and diplomatic work they do.

Big news today: debates. The American press seems to think that the three main Republican presidential candidates, McCain, Romney, and Giuliani, all did rather well in yesterday's debate. TV3 ran a surprisingly neutral report that was actually informative on this afternoon's news. As for the French presidential debate between Sarkozy and Royal, consensus according to La Vanguardia is that Sarkozy won and that he should defeat Royal fairly easily. A Le Figaro survey said that 53% of viewers said that Sarko was "more convincing," to only 31% for Royal.

Other French election reports: Bayrou voters said Sarkozy won by 51% to 25%. The Socialists are claiming that the Le Figaro poll was fixed, which means they know they're going to lose. Le Pen has called on his 3.8 million voters to either abstain or vote for Sarkozy. Though Bayrou has announced he will not vote for Sarkozy, 21 of his party's 29 parliamentary deputies have endorsed Sarko. Royal, in a huff, accused Sarkozy of "the height of political immorality," which played very badly with viewers--especially when her information about the education measure she called immoral turned out to be completely wrong. She also screwed up badly when Sarko said that more than 50% of French electricity is produced at nuclear plants and she corrected him, saying it was 17%. Wrong. It's 78%. Le Parisien said that Sarko won on points, but not by KO.

I dunno. I'm not a gambler, but if I were, I might put a hundred bucks down at one of those Internet sites on Sarkozy to win, whatever the odds are. Sounds like a better bet than, say, the Mavericks over the Warriors, or the Bears over the Colts.

Crisis in Cuba: Three deserters tried to hijack a plane to Florida and killed two Cuban army officers. They will, of course, be executed. Wonder if the European Left will condemn the death penalty when Castro carries it out? I don't think they have yet, since Castro's sent at least several thousand persons to the firing squad in his forty-some years in power. The regime has of course blamed the Americans.

Eusebio Val reports from Washington in La Vangua about some ridiculous lawsuit in DC, and points out that America is much too legalistic and that some suits are "dementedly disproportionate and absurdly Kafkian." He's right, I'm afraid; one of the problems of having a legal system to which people can turn for justice is that some folks are going to abuse their privilege. Still, don't toss out the whole system because a few people are gaming it; instead, block the loopholes. Especially get rid of "punitive damages" in civil court; punishment is the business of a criminal court.

Isabel Pantoja is still all over the news. I don't particularly care. Convict the crooks and jail them, as they deserve, but stop bothering me with up-to-the-minute news reports on whether she was wearing sunglasses or not as she walked out the jail door. By the way, there were a lot of reports a few years ago claiming that la Pantoja was, uh, muff-diving with radio host Encarna Sanchez and singer Maria del Monte. More proof, I suppose, that real lesbians are nothing like the ones that appear in porno flicks. (This ought to pull in a few extra visitors today; "lesbian" and "porno" always bring in the Google hits.)

This week there's been rioting in Madrid's Malasaña (which I think translates to English as "Bad Lasagna") district, as hundreds of drunken youths fought it out with the cops two nights in a row about nothing in particular. Fifty people were injured, among them police officers hit with bottles and stones. One cop had both forearm bones broken. Lock these punks up. Blowing off a little steam is one thing and vandalism and violence are completely different.

Meanwhile, the Catalan regional police killed a schizophrenic who'd gone violent and was carrying a pick and s screwdriver. This guy had twenty arrests for violent behavior, including a stabbing just a few days ago. He freaked out two nights ago and his family called the cops. He ran away and they couldn't find him until 5 AM, when he armed himself and attacked the police in front of his house, swinging the pick, and a cop shot him. The second shot hit the schizo's father in the leg. Police authorities say it's a justifiable homicide, and will take no action against the officer. The court will hold a hearing today, and will almost certainly press no charges.

That sounds like the right thing. The cop thought his life was in danger and he fired. Now let's see La Vanguardia be so fair with the next Brooklyn cop who shoots somebody he thinks is going to pull a gun. (Cop shoots man in Brooklyn. International news. Cop shoots man in Malgrat de Mar. Local news.) By the way, it's quite clear that the schizo should have been locked up for everyone's safety; much clearer, for example, than in the case of the Virginia Tech shooter.

A total of nine people were killed in the Palencia gas explosion and building collapse. Two bodies have not been recovered yet.

My neighbor Chemical Inma Mayol, Communist candidate for mayor of Barcelona and current city councillor, yesterday said, "A los okupas se los desaloja de buen rollo," which translates as something like, "When we close down a squat, we do it in a cool way." Barf.

Antena 3 is going to do a TV series in which viewers vote on "the greatest Spaniard in history." They did this in the UK, where Churchill won, and in France, where De Gaulle won. They also did it in Portugal. Oops. Longtime dictator Antonio Salazar won. Now they're worried that Franco is going to win in Spain; they've been collecting votes by telephone and on the Internet for about three weeks, and Franco is one of the top vote-getters so far. They've worked out a Plan B in case Franco does win; they're also doing a general survey of the Spanish population, and will use those results in case of a Franco landslide.

Now, of course, the call-in vote isn't scientifically valid, since it's what they call a self-selected survey; only those people who feel strongly about the question call in to vote. Many people with strong feelings about such questions are kind of nutty, so I wouldn't be surprised if Franco does win the call-in vote. There are enough wacky Spaniards nostalgic for Franco to tip the vote their way, though of course the majority of Spaniards are not pro-Franco now.

Annoy a Spanish leftist! Vote for Franco here!

(Actually, my honest vote is either Cervantes or Velázquez. I suppose Cervantes's presence at the Battle of Lepanto tips the scale his way. If the question is about the US, my vote is for Lincoln. If we're limited to the 20th century, Eisenhower.)

Big news from here: Isabel Pantoja was arrested and spent the night in jail for her involvement in a money-laundering scheme. She is sort of the Spanish equivalent of a cross between Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Barbra Streisand. Seems that la Pantoja was holding large amounts of undeclared cash. She made €90,000 bail this afternoon after testifying at a hearing.

Her, uh, romantic companion, the former mayor of Marbella Julián Muñoz, was the brains of the operation. Muñoz has been in jail without bail since October, along with several other people. José María González de Caldas, the bullfight promoter and ex-president of FC Sevilla, is out on €50,000 bail. Some 100 people have been implicated in this scandal, which the Spanish press has named "the Malaya case," related to illegal rezoning, unlicensed construction, kickbacks, bribery, abuse of power, and general wide-open corruption involving pretty much everybody who has ever been within five miles of Marbella. Literally billions of euros are involved; these weasels massively outscammed traditional organized crime, who probably don't rake in a quarter of the cash involved here.

This was the lead story in every newspaper and on the TV3 afternoon news.

This mess is, of course, the legacy of crooked gangster Jesús Gil, who ran Marbella like Pendergast ran Kansas City until he happily croaked off a couple of years ago. Now Zap is somehow trying to blame it on the PP, which is ridiculous because the PP had nothing to do with Gil and his ring of chorizos. His argument is that Gil's corruption went on under eight years of the Aznar government. Yeah, and it went on under how many years of Felipe's government? And what exactly can a prime minister do about a corrupt mayor who is of a different party?

By the way, la Pantoja, though she is the personification of poor taste and showbiz sleaze, is not a danger to society, and neither is her ex-boyfriend. I don't know why Muñoz and some of his compinches are locked up without bail while De Juana Chaos is walking the streets.

Remember the guy who wrote the xenophobic letter to La Vanguardia a week ago about the Chinese shops in his neighborhood? He's back.

The first graffiti against Chinese shops has already appeared in my neighborhood, and it won't be the last. We have been complaining for a long time about the problem in the Plaza Tetuán-Arco de Triunfo area of the exaggerated proliferation of Chinese businesses.

Our shops that have been here forever cannot compete with the very high prices that the Chinese businessmen pay. We residents think there is something strange behind this: it is not normal that they can pay astronomical leases and then keep the shops open almost without customers. I have the feeling that this is going to turn into racism and our politicians are not doing anything to stop it.

(signed)
R. Pérez Maldonado
Barcelona

Comments: 1) Mr. Pérez Maldonado is certainly doing everything he can to turn the situation into racism. 2) Chinese businessmen, not being stupid, do not pay higher prices than any other kind of businessman. 3) Mr. Pérez Maldonado's grandparents were most likely not born in Catalonia, based on his surnames, so it's a little rich that he's complaining about other immigrants now. 4) This guy is obviously a major asshole and certainly does not represent everybody in Barcelona.

Remember, I announced the Trilingual Barcelona Blog Reunion for this evening at the Café Flanders on Plaza Rovira i Trias in Gràcia. I got no answers in the Comments section, so I have no idea whether anyone is coming. However, I will be there between about 7 PM and 8:30 or so just to see if anyone shows up. I'll be the guy in the gray sweater with brown shortish hair, a beard, and black-framed glasses sitting behind a bottle of Estrella.

Here's Nation Master's collection of mortality statistics; remember I promised to look up comparative domestic accident death rates, and found a lot more. Looks like here they've got rankings of almost everything.

Just a few examples (all statistics deaths per 1 million people per year, as of 2004):

Alcoholic liver disease: 1. Hungary 498; 6. Germany 127; 17. US 41; 30. Spain 27; 44. UK 14.

Assault with sharp object: 1. Colombia 72; 36. US 6; 44. Spain 4; 52. Germany 2; 56. UK 1.

Assault with handgun: 1. Dominican Republic 16; 8. US 4; Spain, Germany, UK all less than 1.

Car occupant collision with another car: 1. Hungary 39; 6. Spain 27; 15. US 17; 26. Japan 8; 30. Germany 6; 37. UK 1.

Diarrhea and gastroenteritis, presumed infectious: 1. South Africa 178; 27. Japan 8; 30. Spain 6; 37. Germany 2; US and UK less than 1.

Drowning: 1. Latvia 138; 10. Japan 63; 47. Spain 20; 50. US 15; 53. Germany 13; 61. UK 2.

Motorcyclist, collision with car: 1. Bahamas 13; 3. Japan 7; 10. Spain 5; 20. Germany 3; 21. US 3; 39. UK less than 1.

Obesity: 1. Austria 27; 5. US 10; 7. Germany 8; 8. Spain 8; Japan and UK less than 1.

Self-harm: 1. Lithuania 417; 7. Japan 215; 20. Germany 112; 27. US 82; 30. Spain 77; 57. UK 7.

Remarks: Looks like you're more likely to be murdered in the US and more likely to die in a road accident in Spain. You're about as likely to die of infectious diarrhea or gastroenteritis in Spain as you are to be shot with a handgun in the US. And what do people in the UK die of? Looks like we have to take these figures with a shaker or two of salt, too, since different countries obviously use different standards when they classify causes of death.

Conclusion: When you start to take many factors into account, and considering that our figures are not completely reliable, it's difficult to say that Country X is more dangerous than Country Y. Probably the best indicator of how likely you are to die in one place rather than another is life expectancy, and all Western countries are between about 75 and 81 years. That is, if you're Spanish and you go to the States for a year, or to Japan, or to England, your probability of dying during that time is most likely nearly exactly your probability of dying if you'd stayed in Spain during that year.

Definitely go read this (long) piece by Alvaro Vargas Llosa in Foreign Policy on what he calls Latin American idiots--that is, Chavez-style populist / nationalist caudillos.

La Vangua interviews some American diet doctor who says the US diet is the least healthy in the world. I doubt it, since American life expectancy is about 78 years, about the same as the UK and Germany, and slightly higher than Ireland, Denmark, and Portugal, while Russia's is 67. Also, there is no country with anywhere near America's size and diversity that ranks higher. In addition, in this list of percentage of population suffering undernourishment, the US does not appear. Such countries as Brazil, China, Russia, Mexico, and India do.

Now, it is very easy to eat a rotten diet in the US, Hamburger Helper and boxed generic macaroni and cheese and frozen pizza and Hardee's triple bacon cheeseburgers. However, all supermarkets sell a wide variety of fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, and dairy products, not to mention your staples like beans, rice, corn or sunflower oil, and flour, and your reasonably healthy processed foods like Raisin Bran and canned corn and peanut butter and hot dogs.

Speaking of health: If we really want to launch a campaign against lies and deception on the web, this site, the 24th-ranked blog in the TTLB ecosystem, ought to be target number one. Check out the credentials of the person running it:

About Me

Welcome! I am a Certified Aromatherapist, Reiki Master, Dr. of Reflexology, Holistic Health Practitioner and Master Herbalist. I also hold certifications in homeopathy, color/crystal therapy and sound therapy. I hope you find the Holistic Health Information on this site to be of help to you. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions, need assistance or have an herbal or essential oil recipe to share!

How totally bogus.

More wackiness: Some people at the La Caixa offices on the Diagonal have been complaining about something called semicircular lipoatrophy on their thighs, which they claim is caused by "static electricity." Yeah, right. Links to stuff that looks scientific here, here, here, or here. They all say that 1) the causes are unknown, but likely involve pressure or injury to the thighs, and 2) it's benign.

Libertad Digital has a list of building collapses in Spain since 2000. It's pretty long. I'll bet more people are killed by collapsing buildings in Spain than by spree shooters in the US.

A few excerpts:

June 28, 2000: Three killed as building collapses in Esparreguera, Barcelona province, after a propane gas explosion.

March 7, 2001: One dead when building collapses in Madrid, possibly because of construction work on ground floor.

January 17, 2002: Old building in Zaragoza collapses, killing one.

March 16, 2002: Two killed when building collapses in Valencia. Possible cause: aluminosis.

June 3, 2002: Two killed when 1960s building collapses in L'Hospitalet, Barcelona province.

April 4, 2003: One killed when old building collapses in Orense.

August 14, 2003: Gas explosion and building collapse kill four, injure 30 in Sevilla.

November 9, 2004: House collapses, kills man in Cádiz.

February 3, 2005: Two killed as gas explosion causes building collapse in Lleída.

November 10, 2005: Five killed when old building collapses in Piera, Barcelona province.

August 3, 2006: Two die in gas explosion, building collapse in Alicante.

February 21, 2007: House collapses, kills two in Córdoba.

It's May 1, International Communist Day, and so we don't have to go to work. When I came over here twenty years ago, Mayday was still a big deal; they had big old parades and demonstrations and stuff. After the Soviet Union folded, Mayday lost importance, probably due to a loss of Soviet funding (yes, the Spanish Communist Party and the PSUC were both financed by Moscow), and now nobody pays any attention at all.

In fact, we should probably start a movement to get Mayday kicked off the holidays list, and add something like Sant Jordi. The way it works in Spain is that there are 10 national holidays (New Year's; Reyes; Good Friday; Mayday; the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15); Columbus Day (often called "la Virgen del Pilar", October 12); All Souls' Day (November 1); Constitution Day (December 6); the Immaculate Conception (December 8); and Christmas. Note that there are two days dedicated to the Virgin, and three if you count Oct. 12.) Then your region gets to set four days, which in Catalonia are Easter Monday, Saint John's on June 24, the Catalan National Day on September 11, and St. Stephen's on December 26. Your city gets to set one, which in Barcelona is la Virgen de la Mercè, September 23.

Down with Mayday! Make Sant Jordi a holiday!

Meanwhile, a building collapsed in the old city of Palencia this morning, and it looks like a major tragedy. The trigger was a gas explosion. At least six people are dead and several more are missing, with 15 more injured people in the hospital. This happens occasionally in Spain, old, poorly constructed buildings coming down, often set off by a gas explosion, which in turn is often set off by an electrical fire. This one was about 50-60 years old, they said. Spain has a modern building code and inspectors and all that, but there are still a lot of older buildings that don't meet today's safety standards, especially not the electrical wiring. We had to rewire the last place we rented; the electrician told us that the wiring was original, and that the building dated from the '30s. We also have to rewire the house in Vallfogona, which of course was built before electricity, and so has a real primitive wiring job, a total chapuza when it was installed back in the sixties or whenever and actively dangerous now.

Pasqual Maragall is apparently going to bolt the Socialist Party. He's pissed off that the deal that Zapatero cut with Artur Mas of CiU to get the Catalan statute passed by the Spanish parliament included his own defenestration as regional premier. Therefore, he lashed out at the Zap-Mas statute, calling it "not worth the effort." Maragall is trying to float something called the European Democratic Party, which would apparently be something like the American Democrats. He is trying to recruit "centrists" in Italy and France to join in the fun. This will go nowhere.

Feature stories about the US in La Vanguardia: Eusebio Val has a lightweight Sunday piece on the deer problem in the US. He mentions that one thing Spaniards often like about the US: "American life may surprise a European by the intense sensation of nature that one feels even inside large urban areas," mentioning squirrels and rabbits and such critters. Here in Barcelona there are no critters but rats, pigeons, and a few other birds, and there aren't that many of them out in the country, either.

Andy Robinson is all pissed off that rich people in Manhattan can afford expensive organic food but working-class people in Nebraska shop at Wal-Mart. He points out that many people in Nebraska are fat, and that a lot of food sold at Wal-Mart is processed crap. Of course, many people in Catalonia are fat, and a lot of the food sold at my local Caprabo and Dia is processed crap, too. Some of the canned meat products Dia sells wouldn't pass for human consumption in the US, and my cats won't eat them, either. 52.7% of Spanish adults are either overweight or obese, which means that rather than eating the "Mediterranean diet," they eat the frozen-lasagna-and-beer diet.

(To be fair: It's generally easier and cheaper to eat well in Spain than in the US, especially if you do most of your own cooking, and very especially if you actually like the "Mediterranean diet". Note that word "generally," as you can also eat extremely badly in Spain. Important exception: Non-Mediterranean ethnic restaurants are generally better in the US.)

I've noticed that the Antena 3 evening news seems to be rather more populist than TV1 or TV3, and it runs a lot of good film footage even if the story's not too important. Where do they get this footage? US local news. They run stories about four-alarm fires in Chicago and tornadoes in Texas and bank robberies in California and the like, since US local news always has a crew wherever anything happens. (Spanish news generally doesn't. They always show up when the riot is already over.) Antena 3 viewers are shown a portrait of American life that is much more--exciting, shall I say--than it really is.

We haven't had a blog roundup for a week or so, so let's do one.

¡No Pasarán! has a whack at the EU; also look for many smaller posts on the French election. Eursoc, meanwhile, carves up François Bayrou. By the way, Barcelona's own huge egotist, Pasqual Maragall, is trying to float some kind of international Euro-progressive party that would include Bayrou. I'll believe that when I see it.

Angie Schultz neatly disposes of an anti-gun-nut.

The Big Chorizo has a good roundup of links on what he's calling the Spanish real-estate crash, along with some opinions. Ibex Salad has more.

Playing Chess with the Dead is keeping up with the Madrid bombings trial, and has all the details.

Pave France toasts cowardly French policy in Afghanistan. There's a lot more here, so check it out.

Akaky is one of the best satirists in the blogosphere.

The Brussels Journal scalds hypocritical Euro-Greens.

Colin Davies has a three-year compilation of his posts on the EU.

Expat Yank blasts a lousy BBC piece that fails to explain anti-Americanism around the world.

LA-Madrid Files has more on America-bashing reactions to the Virginia Tech murders.

Guirilandia rambles about contemporary Barcelona, and includes a photo of a typical chapuza. He's also got a hilarious post about the dumbest hash dealer in Catalonia.

Notes from Madrid gives some anti-pickpocket safety advice, along with a first-person story.

At least three people were killed in a shooting incident at the Ward Parkway shopping mall in Kansas City yesterday. This one strikes a bit close to home, since Ward Parkway is about a mile and a half from my parents' house near 91st and Lee in Leawood. (The mall is between 85th and 89th streets, Ward Parkway, and State Line Road.) We shop at the Target, buy gas at the gas station, and bank at one of the banks there; I bought my first pair of track spikes at the mall in about 1982, and in high school we used to go to the movies there.

Not that I'm worried. Mass shooting incidents are so rare in the US that you're much more likely to be killed in a car wreck on your way to the mall than at the mall itself. If you're going to be murdered in Kansas City, you are most likely a gang member, a prostitute, or a domestic violence case, not a random victim. Speaking of which, there is a serial killer operating in KC murdering prostitutes along the Independence Avenue strip; the bodies turn up in the Missouri River. Catching this guy, a known threat to humanity, and giving him the injection, ought to be a bigger priority than taking steps to stop random shootings, which are completely unpredictable and very rare. KC has had several serial killers within the last 20 years, including Bob Berdella and John Robinson; much more worrying than crazy Michael Douglas guys with assault rifles. And if we really want to stop the kind of crime that hurts the poor the most, we should bust up the gangs and legalize drugs. Finally, we need to be much stricter about jailing men who abuse women, since they probably commit more acts of violence against the defenseless than anyone else. We can actually prevent murders by sticking these bullies where they belong, behind bars.

However, none of this stuff ever makes the news outside the US. TV3 ran the Ward Parkway shootings as their top world story, and it's one of La Vanguardia's five international stories and--get this--El Periódico's top international story, on their websites right now. I dunno. Some nut shoots three people at a mall in Missouri and it's bigger than Afghanistan and Iraq and Darfur and the Congo and Russia and Somalia and Iran.

The story below about Mr. Martinez, the drunk truck driver, exemplifies several words that are important if one wants to understand the Spanish character, especially in its working-class version.

Machismo: Many Spanish men just naturally assume that there is a masculine code they must live up to. Among other things, men should be able to handle a couple of wimpy copas of brandy before work in the morning.

Cojones: What every macho Spaniard has a big brass pair of. "Porque me sale de los cojones": Just because I feel like it.

Chulería: A chulo just naturally assumes that he can do anything he wants and the hell with everybody else.

Marica: Homosexual, faggot. Men who are not sufficiently macho or chulo are always at risk of being called maricas.

Bajarse del burro: Literally, "to get down off your donkey." Something like "climb down" in English. To admit you were wrong. No macho, chulo Spaniard ever gets down off his burro.

Fantasma: Literally, "ghost." A fantasma is a person who will claim that obviously false things are true in order to back up his machismo.

Chapucería: A chapuza is a half-ass job, done both incompetently and carelessly. Spaniards are not lazy. Many of them are chapuceros, though.

Cachondeo: Ridiculous absurdity. The idea that a lawyer can plead his client not guilty of drunk driving on the grounds he is an alcoholic, for example.

"Vuelve usted mañana": Literally, "Come back tomorrow." You hear this both from bureaucrats and the private sector. Example: Letting a guy rack up six drunk driving arrests before you get around to taking him to court.

Note: One must keep in mind that different countries have different national mottoes, such as "Vive la France," "Deutschland über Alles," or "Rule Britannia." Spain's national motto is "We Laugh at Death."

El Periódico reports that a gentleman named Antonio Martínez, truck driver by profession, was arrested on the morning of April 7 in the town of Mont-roig del Camp after police noticed him weaving. He blew 0.53, more than three times the legal limit of 0.15. Officers testified that he smelled of alcohol, could not walk a straight line, and could not speak clearly.

So far, so good. This happens everywhere all the time.

Mr. Martinez was transporting 14 tanks of propane and 70 tanks of butane on his truck when arrested.

Whoa. This is a bit unusual. I still suppose it could happen just about anywhere but a Germanic country or some place like Singapore.

He told the court that he normally had two drinks with breakfast, two drinks with lunch, and "four or five" beers after work, and that the day of his arrest he had been drinking between 4 and 6 AM before beginning work. Mr. Martínez has been arrested six times and convicted twice for drunk driving; the second conviction occurred April 4, only three days before his arrest in Mont-roig.

It's getting worse. Getting regularly hammered at 4 AM before transporting explosive gas in a truck would be rather unusual even in, say, southeastern Oklahoma.

Mr. Martínez did not actually lose his drivers license until his second conviction. In this case, the prosecutor is asking for a six-month jail sentence, which he will actually have to serve as it will be a third conviction, along with a license suspension of 3 1/2 years and an €6500 fine. Mr. Martínez's lawyer is asking for him to be acquitted on the ground that he is an alcoholic, which under Spanish law is an extenuating circumstance; the lawyer has also asked that Mr. Martínez, should he be convicted, be sent to rehab instead of jail.

Either of the two punishments would be extremely lenient anywhere else in the First World, but I'm still willing to admit that something of the sort just might happen in, say, Italy or Greece.

However, Mr. Martínez rejected the possibility of rehab and said he would prefer to go to jail, thereby surprising his own lawyer, when he told the court, "I am not an alcoholic and therefore I don't think I should submit to a rehab program." He added that he was not drunk, but rather "en condiciones," on the day of his arrest, and as evidence stated that he had already delivered 13 tanks on the morning of April 7. Mr. Martínez further declared that he "had been driving for 15 years and never had an accident," and that "I don't have a problem with alcohol. My hands don't tremble."

Only in Spain.

We should do another Trilingual Barcelona Blog Reunion; José from Barcepundit organized a regular meeting a couple of years ago, and it kept going for a good long time until finally petering out. It didn't help much when the bar we were meeting at closed down.

How about we try it again next Thursday, May 3, between 7 and 10 PM, at the Café Flanders in the Plaza Rovira i Trias in Gràcia? All bloggers and blogreaders who can make it are invited, of course, and bring your friend or wife or mom or whatever too.

I picked the bar because I know the owners, they have a table for eight or ten inside, if the weather's nice we can sit outside, the food is edible though not great, and it's not expensive. They have Stella, Hoegaarden, and Leffe dark on tap. It's also wheelchair-accessible and not too far from bus line 74. Metro Joanic or Fontana.

You think Don Imus could get away with saying "Hoegaarden" on the air? Probably not, at least not if it was the answer to the riddle "Where do nappy-headed women plant tomatoes?"

Not too much going on, just the usual. Terrorist massacres in Iraq. Iran working on nuclear bombs. Starvation continues in Darfur along with civil war in the Congo. Big international news: French runoff election. One poll gives Sarko a 51-49 lead over Royal, which I don't buy, since he's going to sweep Paris and the countryside. The Virginia Tech furor has died down, and I think the global warming furor has peaked, too; people simply don't buy the disastermongering, and ordinary folks' resentment of Hollywood parlor pinkos all jumping aboard this new trend is causing a backlash. The story about Al Gore's energy-wasting house hurt him badly among Spanish public opinion, which now sees him as a typical American hypocrite--they think we're all hypocrites, of course. My response: Isn't everybody, especially Alec Baldwin?

Big news around here: Real estate companies took a serious hit on the stock market yesterday, losing between about 5% and 13% of their value, except for Astroc, which is down 66% in two weeks. Housing construction is a very important part of the Spanish economy, one of the sectors that is providing the most growth, and the big builders are down between 4% and 7%. The decline in real estate and construction shares carried over to the banks, with BBVA and BSCH, Spain's largest corporations, both down 3% on the day.

I seriously doubt there's going to be a crash either in the stock market as a whole or in housing prices, though; the Spanish economy is growing at about 4%, unemployment is dropping, and immigration is raising demand--remember that Spain has gained four million immigrants over the last six years. Interest rates are probably going to stay low, around 4%, says the Bank of Spain. The stats show housing prices are currently climbing by 7.5% a year, and the number of mortgages is growing by 18% a year. So a correction, probably, some people cashing in, sure, but no disaster. Of course, anyone who takes investment advice from me, a guy whose assets consist of a blender and a Cincinnati Reds cap, deserves to lose his money.

Ibex Salad has more; he calls Astroc an "overhyped minor player" and says that if there is a bubble, it's not in housing prices but in the share value of the real estate companies.

These people quite clearly do not understand how absurd they are.

Blogging the French elections: Eursoc, Pave France, ¡No Pasarán!, and Rainy Day. Don't miss Nidra Poller at Pajamas Media.