Remember the truck driver who got busted for driving drunk while hauling a load of propane and claimed he was unimpaired though he'd swigged like half a bottle of brandy? Here's another Only in Spain: At 6 AM this morning near Vandellós, a trucker was hauling a tanker-load of 15,000 litres of sodium hydroxide, which is that highly corrosive alkaline used in oven cleaners. He was drunk. He drove his truck off the road and flipped it. They had to call out ten different fire trucks to handle the mess. Here's a photo of what's left of the truck. The driver suffered minor injuries.

This crap happens entirely too often around here. "Hey, it's six o'clock in the morning. Might be a good idea to get drunk and then haul a tank of sodium hydroxide." I don't think anyone in America does this, not even in Arkansas.

News from west of the Besós: Nationalism rears its ugly head as usual as a cover for a blatant pork-barrel grab. Cataloonies, and not a few non-loony Catalans, believe that the Madrid government is screwing them over because it takes in more tax revenues from Catalonia than it lays out in public spending in Catalonia. This makes them very mad and they get all worked up about it, since they believe that Madrid is doing this out of the purely evil desire to exploit the hard-working Catalans for the benefit of those lazy Andalusians.

Now, this is completely nuts, simply because INDIVIDUALS, not REGIONS, pay taxes. Catalonia is an area of above-average wealth, so the average Catalan pays more in taxes than the average Andalusian, who comes from an area of below-average wealth. However, of course, a Catalan and an Andalusian who make the same amount of money pay the same amount of taxes.

As for the divvying up of the public spending pork, let's not pretend there's any high nationalist motivation behind it. Catalonia wants as much of the pork on its plate as it can get, and that's fair enough. If I were a Catalan politician I'd be demanding lots of government spending in my region too. (In the United States one of the main reasons the people either re-elect or vote out their Congressional representative is whether he is good at bringing in the public spending for their district. This is why every post office in West Virginia is named after Robert Byrd.) What I wouldn't do is wave the bloody shirt of nationalism as a way of justifying my greed for ham, bacon, chitlins, chicharrones, butifarra, lomo, sobrasada, fuet, and pickled trotters.

So Spanish economics minister Pedro Solbes and the Generalitat's counselor for economics Antoni Castells are having a big old wingding meeting on Monday to divide up the jamón for the next seven years. Currently state spending ("investment in infrastructure") in Catalonia is €3.2 billion. Catalonia is supposed to get 18.8% (Catalonia's percentage of Spain's gross national product) of state spending on "infrastructure"; however, they can't agree on the definition of "infrastructure." Last year it was "spending by the ministries of Development (Fomento) and Environment." The Generalitat, however, claims a much broader definition of "infrastructure," adding up to €25 billion a year for all of Spain, and they claim Catalonia ought to get 18.8% of that, nearly €5 billion a year.

On September 11, the Catalan National Day, King Juan Carlos was in Girona at the grand opening of the local university's new science and tech facility; in other words, doing his job. So about 400 radical Cataloonies had a big old illegal demonstration and torched photographs of the King. That's pretty stupid and tasteless, of course, because there are much better ways to oppose the institution of monarchy if you're dumb enough to make a big deal about whether Spain has a figurehead king or not.

So these dopes are now in big trouble for lese-majeste; the National Court's prosecutors are going to file charges against the two guys wearing hoods who actually burned the pictures. TV3 and La Vanguardia have been trying to downplay this story--they didn't mention it until this morning--while Antena 3 and El Mundo have been playing it up big.

More fallout from September 11: The radical Cataloonies who show up in the morning in order to insult nearly everyone who comes with flowers for Rafael Casanova's statue were caught on film shouting "Gora ETA (long live ETA)," "Tots morts (kill them all)," and "Fills de puta (sons of whores)" at their targets, especially the representatives of the PP. Disgusting. I'd file charges against those filmed shouting in favor of ETA (exalting terrorism is illegal) and in favor of killing their political opponents (making threats of violence is illegal too).

Said Manuel Trallero in La Vanguardia yesterday:

They whistle at the prime minister of the Generalitat, calling him a traitor; they whistle at (Miguel) Poveda for singing in Spanish; they call all the politicians "sons of whores"; they warn (PP leader) Alberto Fernandez Diaz to check under his car, in allusion to a possible attack. All this happens in front of (Catalan regional police) the Mossos d'Esquadra, who do not move a finger. Joel Joan tells us, "I am not a friend of ETA and I never said I was." It must have been the reporters, visibly excited, who understood him wrong when he said, "Right here, Xirinacs spoke of his friends (ETA and Herri Batasuna)," adding, "Today I will not speak of his friends, of my friends. I will speak of my enemies." Groups of radicals face off against members of ERC at the Fossar de les Moreres...Catalonia, an example of coexistence.

You must be a real radical Cataloony to feel driven to go out and provoke members of Esquerra, who are wild-eyed Cataloonies themselves, if somewhat less crazy than the far-out extremists.

I can't believe this: The WWE's Smackdown Tour drew 15,000 people, a sellout, to the basketball arena in Badalona. Tickets cost, get this, €25 to €125. That means they took in €750,000 at an average price of €50 a ticket, and I'll bet it was well more than that, what with souvenirs and all. The WWE scammed Catalonia (sorry, 15,000 Catalan individuals) for a million bucks. I really did honestly think that there were some things too cheesy for Barcelona, but I was obviously wrong; I just found out they regularly hold monster-truck rallies at the Palau Sant Jordi. What next? Mud wrestling? Girls Gone Wild?

So next time you hear a European brag about European cultural superiority, just nod and smile knowingly.

News from round these parts: September 11 is a holiday in Catalonia, the National Day, commemorating the fall of Barcelona in 1714 to Bourbon troops. So nobody had to go to work and nearly everyone went to the beach or something. Traditionally, in the morning, all the civic organizations and political parties lay wreaths at the statue of Rafael Casanova, the Catalan leader during the siege. Wacky far-out Cataloonies show up and scream at them for not being radical enough. In the evening the kids come out and play; the Esquerra youth brigade brought out three or four thousand in a demo, and assorted radical groups shouting slogans in favor of the defunct terrorist gang Terra Lliure brought out about the same number. Used to be they'd have some rioting, but there wasn't any this year.

Idiot jerk actor Joel Joan, known for his appearances on local TV since he couldn't get a job on any network that reaches more than seven million people, screwed up again. He made the mistake of publicly praising crazy old Cataloony coot Lluis Xirinachs (who offed himself earlier this year), and Xirinachs's declaration that he was "a friend of ETA," at the Catalanista wingding they have every year at the Fossar de les Moreres, where those killed in the 1714 siege are supposedly buried. The actor has denied it, but he's almost certainly lying; a couple of years back, in an attempt to shoulder the mantle of victimism, he claimed to have been kicked out of a restaurant for speaking Catalan. He'd made up the story, and was forced to retract after the restaurant's owners and clients publicly challenged him on it.

Says Francesc de Carreras in La Vanguardia:

During the days previous to the National Day on September 11, the media reflect, every year, a dissatisfied and victimist Catalonia, desperate and agonized, because of the statements and rebuttals of our politicians. It all usually reaches a delirious climax in the various official ceremonies and the street demonstrations: it always seems as if we were at a key moment in history, facing crucial dangers, heroic challenges, and a glorious and attainable future.

In reality, nobody believes any of this, not even the politicians themselves; it is simply a ritual, mere protocol, boring and dull. For many years, few Catalan flags have been seen hanging on balconies, and those who can go to the beach and enjoy the last sunny days of summer. The last thing they're thinking about, on such a pleasant and relaxing holiday, is discussing the past and future of Catalonia, the dangers and challenges it faces. Though on TV3 and BTV they never stop beating us over the head with the subject, adoctrinating us with a falsified version of history, fortunately there are other channels. Official Catalonia and the real Catalonia are so different.

Other nationalist news: Josu Jon Imaz, the fairly moderate president of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), is stepping down because of the conflict between the party's moderate and more extremist wings. Seems that the extremists, which include Basque regional premier Ibarretxe, want to call a referendum on Basque independence now. The moderates don't want to call one on the grounds that a referendum is one of ETA's objectives, and they aren't willing to support any ETA objectives while ETA is still committing acts of terrorism. Neither of the two groups seems to realize that any referendum they may call will not be legally binding, since referendums on regional independence are specifically banned by the Spanish constitution, but anyway.

Spain's national soccer team has looked ridiculous this past week, with a draw against Iceland and then a 2-0 win over Latvia. Get this: their big game is going to be Denmark. If they can't beat Denmark, they're likely eliminated from the next European Cup. Geez. Iceland, Latvia, and Denmark. Real powerhouses. Spain should have fired racist old coot coach Luis Aragones a long time ago; he's completely out of touch and seems to have lost all control over the team. Hire someone young and intelligent like, say, Emilio Butragueño, or get Rafa Benitez. Aragones has to go.

La Vanguardia actually gives page 10 over to Fidel Castro's claims that the Cuban KGB discovered an alleged far-right plot to, get this, assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1984, and informed the American government. The US government proceeded to lock up those involved on trumped-up unrelated charges. Yeah, right. Fidel also claims that the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was a CIA plot of some kind. In case you were wondering who the "truthers" are listening to, it's Fidel. The old international left, the new ecological left, the radical nationalist left, and the insane Islamist far right all have the same goal, overthrowing American power, and very strange alliances are being formed.

All the little carpet-munchers and ankle-biters went back to school yesterday. Good.

Baseball is currently of some interest in Barcelona since the European championship is being played here. The Netherlands and Italy are the favorites. Of course, a European baseball tournament is like an American cricket tournament.

So José Martí Gómez, local know-it-all, has an article in today's Vanguardia on why some sports have different levels of success in different countries, specifically the United States and Spain. Says Martí Gómez:

I think my long stay in the United States, completed with experiences in previous summers, allows me to understand why baseball has not caught on in Spain.

My guess is:

1. Baseball is rather slow and not too exciting if you don't know what's going on.
2. If you've never played a sport, it's hard to know what's going on. Baseball equipment is expensive and a field requires a lot of space, so few people in Spain are interested in playing it when you can put together a pickup soccer game with a ball and an empty plaza.
3. I could be wrong here, but I think bat-and-ball games are a particularly English-speaking thing. I can't think of any bat-and-ball games popular in Spain but tennis, and that's of Anglo-French origin and popular mostly among the middle class and up.
4. Baseball is a pre-television sport, unlike the NFL and especially the NBA, which have been successful overseas on television. TV doesn't show baseball nearly as well as it does the NBA and NFL, both of which have adapted their rules for TV.

5. A large part of being a sports fan is "rooting for laundry," and no Spanish fans have grown up rooting for (and / or against) a particular baseball team. They've got no stake in any particular game. They don't hate the Yankees or love the Dodgers. Similarly, one reason Americans don't go in big for soccer is that we have no particular team to root for.

But Martí Gómez has his silly stereotype joke all ready:

It's simply because of a question of dietary habits.

A baseball game usually lasts between three and four hours. Let us observe how the crowd behaves. They arrive loaded down with bags of popcorn bought outside the door of the stadium because they're cheaper there. They sit down and attentively observe the beginning of the game. Then they get up and go for some hot dogs with mustard. Seated now, they buy a beer from the kid selling them from a box carried on his head. They applaud a play and get up again to go buy a hamburger with ketchup. While they eat the hamburger they have fun with the lady who tries to win five hundred dollars while catching the three balls thrown to her. They'll go buy an enormous ice cream and call over the kid selling peanuts before buying a bag of potato chips to eat in the car on the way home.

Before leaving the stadium he'll comment on the game with those sitting near him. A three-ring circus applied to baseball, everyone knows how to analyze why they have won or lost, though they've only been seated for half the game. A Spanish spectator undergoing such stress wouldn't survive the whole baseball season.

Snicker, snicker, guffaw, guffaw. Of course he's exaggerating. The thing about baseball is that 1) they play every night, not just once a week, 81 home games a year. That means that baseball tickets are cheap in most places--you can still get into a game in KC for less than ten bucks--, which in turn means that people who are not serious fans can afford to go a couple of times a season just for an evening out. They're the ones buying all the burgers and crap. Also, baseball games attract drunks who pay $8 for a beer. Eleven times. 2) Serious fans don't appreciate the loud family with the fat kid who keep getting up and blocking the view, or the drunks, but tolerate them because the team wouldn't stay in business without their money. 3) A standard 9-inning baseball game should be about, say, 200 pitches. That means if you miss a few pitches you still know what's going on in the game. 4) Cultural difference: Most American fans do not absolutely live and die with their teams the way many Spanish fans do. Barça fans are so, well, fanatical that their eyes are glued on the whole game the whole time without ever relaxing. Americans might become stressed under such conditions, since most of them don't take a baseball game as seriously as a Spanish fan does a soccer game.

If I understand about baseball, I'm still confused about why football, called soccer there, has not caught on. Thousands of boys and girls play. Grass fields. Coaches from different countries. Perfectly equipped players and tournaments for all ages.

"They're kids with no references; they have no (soccer) heroes," an English coach told me. Not even David Beckham. Their families have gotten tired of the only thing that ever interested them about the Beckhams, their private lives. These boys and girls who pay two hundred dollars per season to play soccer don't watch European football, though some TV channels broadcast the important games played in England, Italy, and Spain.

Soccer hasn't really caught on in America as a spectator sport because:

1. It's a pre-TV sport, like baseball, and it hasn't adapted itself the way the NFL and NBA have. It's difficult for sports that aren't good on TV to make it big among fans.
2. Americans don't grow up rooting for a particular soccer team, of course, so the commitment to the Barça you see around here would take decades to develop over there.
3. We already have so many pro sports in America that there may not be room on TV or in viewers' brainspace for any more.
4. Americans won't commit to a spectator sport that isn't played in America at the highest level. It's hard to become a big Kansas City Wizards fan when everybody knows these guys suck and wouldn't even be on the field in England. I'm a perfect example: I'm a soccer fan, and a KC Royals and Chiefs fan, but I don't give a crap about the Wizards. I couldn't name a player on their team or tell you anything else about them. Who wants to root for a bunch of schloops?
5. Note that he's appreciative of America's grass soccer fields. Spanish fields for amateurs are generally hardpan dirt.
6. Operation Beckham failed. He's simply not a soccer superstar any more, and it's obvious he doesn't live up to the hype. He's not an interesting person, and nobody cares about his team. As for Posh Spice, she's too low-rent to ever make it in Hollywood. We're not talking Catherine Zeta-Jones or Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan or Hugh Grant here, we're talking a couple of chavs. Becks should have stayed at ManU.

7. Televised soccer is beginning to catch on among middle-class college kids in America. They grew up playing the game, and understand what's going on, and they are now globalized enough that they want to be into what is cool in England. The fact that you can now watch top-level soccer, the English and Spanish leagues, on American cable TV, shows there is a market for it, though the fact that it's still on fairly obscure channels shows the market isn't all that important yet. When the Premier League gets on an important US sports channel, which I predict will happen before 2015, that'll be the point when we can say that there's enough of a market for soccer that it's worth investing some real money. I still don't think soccer is ever going to catch on among the American working class, though.

Oh, yeah. The English constantly give the Americans crap because we call our baseball championship "the World Series." There's actually a perfectly logical reason. In 1903, the date of the first World Series, America was the only country where baseball of any kind, let alone professional baseball, was played. Therefore, the American champion would perforce be the world champion. That's a little boastful, of course, but that was back before the First World War, when everybody everywhere was boastful and ethnocentric. We've kept the "World Series" name because it's the tradition; in fact, the World Series is 26 years older than the Spanish professional soccer league. US pro baseball goes back to 1869, and the National League goes back to 1876. A few teams that are still playing today, such as the Chicago Cubs, were founding members of the NL.

Another argument I've heard is that the name "World Series" reflects the fact that, say, 95% of the world's best baseball players are in the US major leagues.

Not every American city has a sports team that is an integral part of the city fabric, the way Barcelona would be unimaginable without the Barça. I'd say the teams that are real institutions in baseball are the ones that go back to 1901 or before in the same city. That means that everyone who saw the team's first game is dead now. Generations have grown up listening to the games on radio. Literally millions of different people have watched ballgames in those cities over the years. Those teams would be the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and St. Louis Cardinals. Surviving stadiums in semi-original condition are Fenway in Boston, Wrigley in Chicago, and Yankee Stadium in New York. You could make an argument for the Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, and Los Angeles Dodgers, which all date from the 1950s, as basic parts of their cities' identities. (By the way, the Phillies set a milestone this season: the first major league team to lose 10,000 games. That's got to be a record for all professional teams in the world.)

There are six hockey teams, the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, and Chicago Blackhawks, that go back to the 1920s.

NFL teams that go back to the Thirties are the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, and New York Giants. I'd say the Cleveland Browns and maybe the San Francisco 49ers (1940s) are also integral parts of their cities; perhaps the Dallas Cowboys from the 1960s as well.

There are only two original NBA teams left in their original 1946 cities, the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. I'd say the Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and Los Angeles Lakers, which go back to the '50s or early '60s, are also parts of their cities' identities.

As for college teams, that depends on your state; most people pick the college they went to, or a college from their state. A few states, like California and Texas, have eight or ten Division One teams; most states have two or three. Kansas has two, KU and K-State. Notre Dame, traditionally the working-class urban Catholic (especially Irish) team, is the only university with a national following.

You can tell a lot about a person by his sports team, but maybe even more by the teams he doesn't like. For example, I hate the Yankees in baseball, the Raiders and the Cowboys in the NFL, the Lakers in the NBA, and Notre Dame and Duke in college sports. Not because they have any players I don't like or whatever; I just always root against these teams. I imagine in your country you have teams you'll always root against; in Spain, mine is Real Madrid. I was very anti-Atletico Madrid when Jesús Gil was running it, but now that he's dead I've toned it down to mere dislike. I'm rather of two minds about Athletic Bilbao; on the one hand I like the way they bring up lots of players from their youth squad, but I dislike the way they discriminate against non-Basque players. I have nothing against Espanyol, though many Barça fans despise them.

News: ETA let off a small bomb last night around 12 AM at the Defense ministry building in Logroño. No damage was done. However, the small bomb was supposed to be the trigger for a 80-kilo car bomb, which would have blown the whole thing to hell and gone. ETA also sent a communiqué to their front papers in the Basque Country blaming their recent campaign on, get this, the government, for, get this, "breaking its word," and announcing that the bombings will continue.

On Sunday afternoon they had a nice big riot in San Sebastián; the pretext was a homage march called by ETA front group Gestores Pro Amnistia in honor of ETA prisoners. The Basque government quite legally banned the march, and when the demonstrators showed up anyway, the cops read the riot act. Then the fighting began. Eleven people were injured, including a cop whose neck was badly cut open by a flying broken bottle, and nine were arrested.

Other notes: The Dalai Lama is in town. They asked him what he thought about an independent Catalonia and he said it wasn't any of his business. The slaughter continues with 32 deaths on Spain's highways over the weekend. Car racing scandal: Spain's big hero Fernando Alonso is suspected of industrial espionage, specifically of sharing Ferrari technology with McLaren Mercedes. Alonso is extremely popular here in Spain, but everyone else in the world thinks he's a jerk. The US soccer federation is extremely popular right now in Catalonia because it's asked the Spanish federation to allow the October 14 Catalonia-US friendly match in Barcelona. I'm not often sympathetic to the Catalan nationalists, but it does seem silly not to allow them to play a soccer game. If the teams and players want to play and the people want to see them, why not?

I posted a set of Johnny Cash duets over at Hard Country. Don't miss the one with Louis Armstrong, the one with Eric Clapton, and Ray Charles's version of "Ring of Fire."

News from these here parts: The Portuguese cops are interrogating Madeleine McCann's mother, and she is apparently going to be charged in the girl's disappearance. If this is true, it's going to be explosive news in England, which has gone all O.J. over this case.

Pavarotti died. As usual, it's a shame he's dead, but I never liked him. I can't stand opera, and I don't believe anyone else really likes it, either. Sort of like abstract art, modern dance, and Swedish movies, it's one of those things people pretend they like in order to seem cultured. Comment: I think it's interesting that opera was most popular among the German-speaking bourgeois about 100 years ago, and look what those people wanted to do with the world. It seems like every bad idea from anti-Semitism to Marxism to Freudianism to Esperanto to modern nationalism comes from the German-speaking bourgeois in the second half of the 19th century. Nietzche, anyone?

Two sea disasters: A Spanish fishing boat sank off Cádiz with eight dead, and a cayuco full of African immigrants sank off Grand Canary with at least ten dead. Free trade with Africa now! Stop the desperation that makes these people risk their lives! Give them a chance to make something of their countries! Down with agricultural subsidies in the EU and US!

TV3 is making a big deal out of a BBC survey taken in 22 countries saying that 65% of those questioned think the US should withdraw its troops from Iraq. Fortunately, surveys don't count. Note to Western European hippies, pinkos, and peaceniks: No, the US government doesn't care what you think, no matter how many pots you bang. Interestingly enough, the three countries where those surveyed did not think the Americans should bail out are all Third World countries under pressure from Muslim neighbors and / or minorities: Kenya, India, and the Philippines.

Comment: There's a Western European media backlash going on right now against India; there have been several documentaries and news reports lately about how it's so awful that 200 million Indians have become middle-class while so many others are still poor. Typical. A Third World country picks itself up by its own bootstraps and earns its own place in the world, and the leftists can't stand it because India isn't doing it their way. Uh, people, everyone can't become middle-class instantly. It's going to take quite a few years, but it's going to happen eventually. And they're all going to speak English.

Some Romanian guy in Valencia set himself on fire in order to protest that he didn't have any money or something. He now has burns over 70% of his body. What a dope--actually, he's probably got severe mental problems, because choosing to set oneself on fire demonstrates that one has poor decision-making skills. Anyway, anybody can get free food and a place to stay in Spain, and it's not that hard to get a job.

The sick joke going around--the guy was wearing a Valencia football jersey when he torched himself--was that he was a frustrated fan fed up with the hijinks going on in the Valencia front office and dressing room. Another football-related comment going around Barcelona is that the Barça has signed so many black players that it looks like an NBA team. That's a little tasteless, as if there should be a quota or something. Barcelona now has seven black players on the first squad: Thuram, Abidal, Touré, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry, and Dos Santos. This is wonderful, not because they're black players but because they're good players. Touré is going to be awesome.

Nationalist wackiness: The Catalan "national" soccer team was going to play the United States in Barcelona on October 14. The Spanish football federation refused to authorize the game on the grounds that regional teams traditionally play at Christmas, which is a pretty dumb reason. So the Generalitat is recommending that the Catalan team play the game anyway, which would be a violation of the (dumb) law. Everyone looks like an idiot, the Spainiacs for not letting the kids play their game, and the Cataloonies, for throwing a tantrum about it. And, get this, if they do play the game without authorization, the players are the ones that get in trouble; they could be fined or suspended by the Spanish federation.

And get this one, too: Barcelona defender Oleguer Presas has been indicted for assault and battery on a police officer. Seems that in 2003 there was some kind of squatter protest in Sabadell, and Oleguer, who is into all that stupid shit, got caught throwing rocks at the cops. I guess they were playing intifada or something. He could get three years in jail. If he's guilty, I hope they lock him up, just like they would do to you or me if we were throwing rocks at cops. That would be hilarious, a Barça player in the slammer.

Remember La Vanguardia's comments section and all the crazy leftie anti-American stuff that people kept posting there? Well, a few pro-Americans have shown up, and so have quite a few racists. Here's the discussion about an article saying that the US has warned several European countries that a major Al Qaeda attack may be in the works.

So if you want to know how Spaniards really think, this is a pretty good example; there are arguments coming from several different directions here. Some are sensible and some definitely are not. Note the folks who want to expel Arab immigrants and nuke Teheran--and note the guy who thinks I should be killed because I voted for Bush.

Pepi (Minneapolis): Uf! I hope Spain takes this seriously.

Pilar (San Francisco): At this point you can't believe anything at all.

Robaperas (Terrassa): And we do nothing but watch their latent Fifth Column install itself among us. I'm sick of these limousine leftists!

Luis1 (Barcelona): But wasn't the March 11 attack Aznar's fault because of "the great intervention in the Iraq war"? This is the most farcical government Spain has ever had in its history.

Fodel: Fear and manipulation have always gone hand in hand. As old as the history of humanity. FEAR is a form of politics that benefits a FEW. Belligerence, arrogance, looting, and expoliation, by a few who are very full of GREED. Let's not fool ourselves, the USA has that weapon of mass destruction called FEAR. Let's be free and hope John Waine (sic) doesn't attack us when he goes on stage.

Terror: We should be most frightened of governments and their state terrorism.

Josep (Barcelona): Yes, Luis1, our armed presence in Iraq made us the target of Islamist groups. If not, then why March 11? The problem is that international terror has also globalized.

Asimov (Barcelona): Those silly Yankees, always imagining things. What were September 11, March 11, and July 7 but optical illusions?

Weasle: Fear and manipulation? John Wayne? You watch too much TV. Come on, man.

A. Vila: Thanks to the USA for warning us. But don't worry, in Spain / Europe we live with chronic blindness. Here instead of prevention, we release fundamentalist Islamic fanatics every day. Just in case, USA, don't lose sight of us and watch out for us, because our politicians will continue being indifferent.

Luis1 (Barcelona): Josep, then why didn't this government's "partners": the PSC, ERC, IU, etc., hold demonstrations over the presence of Spanish troops in Afghanistan? They gladly called demonstrations when the PP was in power. Do you know why? Because they're demagogues and frauds.

Marco (Barcelona): Well, then, let's just stay home until the "threat" passes.

Tony (Barcelona): Fear, wherever it comes from, is always what limits our freedom, the fear we carry within us, each being, each individual, and some know very well how to use it and manage it meticulously, so that it reaches us little by little, each one of us, this is a true war against freedom, it is an invisible but effective war, and since man has existed, it has always been precticed, by a few to govern many.

Birrero (Barcelona): In the end those who say that to put an end to this kind of attacks, the only option is to send every living creature with two legs who looks like an Arab back to his country, are going to be right.

Anonymous: Luis1, isn't that because Iraq was a war that wasn't even supported by the UN? If in Afghanistan, instead of doing humanitarian work, we were mixed up in an ILLEGAL war, yes, illegal like the one in Iraq, a genocide with the unique objective of looting petroleum, I think that everyone would demonstrate too.

Alexandre: Once upon a time there was a country called the Kingdom of Spain, governed by a bunch of nostalgics for May 1968 who practice naivete in international relations. Those politicians tell us that fundamentalist terrorism has its origins in the Iraq war, but it turned out that once we left the Euphrates, now what they're demanding is the recovery of Andalusia. THAT'S ENOUGH BLINDNESS! WE'RE PLAYING WITH DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS HERE.

GBA: Another attack like September 11 or March 11 would completely justify the atomic bombing of the countries that support Islamist terrorism. God Bless America (original English).

Hermes: If we hadn't gone to Iraq the excuse would have been that we're in Afghanistan, or that Al-Andalus belongs to them, or that we were an imperialist country. They always look for a reason to attack us, while we continue blaming one another, even justifying the terrorists' reasons for attacking.

Pace: Such a threat is credible, and Bush's political desire is that an attack happens in Europe. The West kicked over the wasps' nest by stealing petroleum from Islamist countries. This mixed with religion produced a dangerous cocktail. What is Europe doing stuck in Afghanistan? Everything is cause and effect.

Josep* (Girona): The Muslims back to their country. They're cultures that are too different to live together. They make their women wear chilabas and walk three steps behind, and we have them leading our country. Screw the Muslims. It's politically incorrect, but it is the solution. Important fact: 85% of arrests are of immigrants, and 80% are recidivists. That can't continue.

MV: In Afghanistan, if the UN wasn't there the Talibans would be killing and beating women for walking the street alone, even wearing burkas to their ankles when it's 40º in trhe shade. Enough justifying terrorism! But of course, since it's super cool to be a defender of those who don't want to integrate...If they want to come to Europe, there are norms and a way of life. Let them adapt, not us to them, and what's worse, they laugh in our face and attack us!

Francesc: Many of them have European passports thanks to our governments. We're paying for our politicians' errors.

Franchu (Las Palmas): If we once expelled the Muslims from our country it was for a reason. I think the solution is this, enough of them moving as they wish in European territory, bring back frontiers and customs controls. This is snowballing out of our hands, and it would justify the use of nuclear weapons against the countries that support terrorism: Iran, Syria, and Sudan.

VivaBush (Barcelona): Hey, GBA, I'm impressed that there are people as sensible as you, me, and the rest of us with the same ideas. I thought that in this country of hippies there was nobody with a brain. Now, more than ever, God Bless America, its soldiers, and its president.

Carmi: That's the way, kill them all, and that way we'll put an end to the problem. That's sick!!!!!

Mau: Thank you Bush, keep going with the Iraq wasps' nest. The bad thing is that all of us pay for your mistakes.

MonsieurTon: If things were as clear as some of you paint them (get out "moros," they want to recover Al Andalus, they hit women...) we would be in a rose-colored situation. Islam has many more reasons to fear and hate us than we have to hate them. 19 crazies could not have done September 11 no matter how much they wanted. The US has imposed reactionary dictators and regimes all over the world, and all its friends have nuclear weapons. Please realize that most of what they sell us as "information" is mere propaganda, impossible to prove, no matter how professional the journalist who propagates it is.

MonsieurTon: Iran knows that if it attacks Israel or the USA in any way, their country will be reduced to ashes. Why do you assume they are so silly and blind? The threat is not a little attack like September 11 or March 11, it is the complete destruction of cities and infrastructures. Isn't it that they are looking for excuses to keep colonizing the world in our interests?

Mau: America began by massacring the indigenous Indians and it hasn't stopped until our times. The bad thing is we pay for the consequences.

Pepe: I'm sure it's all a conspiracy of the USA (I don't know if it's Judeo-Masonic like they all used to be) in order to gain at the expense of others, and not as we do in Spain, where with "talante" and alliances, we lose so that others gain.

Mak: But are you all stupid or what? Stop blaming the governments, what does it matter how we got where we are. The question is that we are here. The problem is: They want to kill us. It doesn't matter if it's a majority or a minority. The question is they want to wipe us out. So enough fooling around and let's take action for once.

Mau: More of the same. I just read in El Pais at least 14 more dead in Baghdad after an American airstrike, according to a policeman the dead are civilians, naturally no comment from the USA.

Pepe: Monsieur Ton, we don't have to make up possible attacks. You are certainly one of those that justifies the unjustifiable, but while living in a Western and Christian country.

Carmi: Look out white man, they want to wipe us out. Maybe we thought there would be no reaction to the genocide and expoliation we have been committing for years? Come on, man, let's not have illusions.

Monsieur Ton: Unjustifiable, what bollocks, Pepe...if you and others "justify" what we do in response to three bombings, what must they be thinking when they see our countries occupying and wiping out their lands? Doesn't it seem easy to you to justify an Iraqi wanting to kill Bush, Blair, and anybody who votes for them?

Rufo: Islam literally means submission to Allah, and the Muslim countries have their own reduced version of human rights. If this is not proof that Islam is incompatible with our world, I don't know what is. Islam neither can nor wants to function with half-measures, and sharia law is not an option, it's a mandate from God. As more countries give in (just ask Turkey), it will be like going back to the Inquisition. The freedom we enjoy today is not guaranteed. We have to defend it and not give in AT ALL!

Monsieur Ton: Keep saying "they're bad and we're good," because if they do the same as we do then total collapse is assured (economic and ecological). Since I can abuse, I do, and when they can of course they will do the same. It is incredible how some of you live among your clouds as if this situation of hegemony were eternal through the grace of God. The harder they fall. You bunch of anesthesized people, stop watching TV.

Citizen Kane (Barcelona): The influence of the stupid war in Iraq on Islamic terror activity is minimal. They've been pulling off attacks for 30 years. The origin? The rage they feel that such a rich and proud culture is licking the floor of poverty and despotic regimes. Since they don't dare to blow up the God that has abandoned them, they are looking for human sacrifices.

MV: Monsieur Ton, let them respect us too. If they come to our house they should adapt. Besides, if they didn't mix religion with politics so much it would be better for them. And above all, more general culture and less studying only religion. It would be like that in Europe for us if we only studied the Bible, without cultural progress.

Rufo: By the way, those who believe indiscriminately killing innocents in trains and offices is a legitimate tactic, let me tell you something. Go live in Saudi Arabia, you don't fit in here.

Mek: If we want peace, we must prepare for war.

MV: They have their women reduced to mere OBJECTS for the use and pleasure of men, WITHOUT any rights at all. Here nobody makes them wear a burka and they can CHOOSE to study, work, go shopping, think, wear a bikini, and if they want to, they can work in porno, since they can CHOOSE. Long live women's rights!

Pepe: I support mutual respect, but me in my house, them in theirs, and God in everybody's. Monsieur Ton, since Western civilization (European and / or Christian) does not convince you, I wonder why you live in a country like the one you describe so well, rather than enjoying an Islamic republic.

Cub: We've reduced our women to mere sexual icons? That's the argument that Islamist fanatics use: Western women are whores. No, sir, Western women are free, and those that belong to the fanatics are slaves.

MV: I've always been worried about the subject of women's rights, and I've always followed the problems they have with the Talibans. Maybe because I have a mother, sisters, and daughters? Come on, less phony anticapitalism. And if you defend your anti-Western ideals so vehemently, try living in an Islamic republic and express yourself freely as you do in Europe. The day it affects you, you'll change your mind!

Betuli (London): We have to separate the wheat from the chaff. Our policies against Islamic extremism must be strong, while we integrate the great majority of peaceful Muslims into Western values. The carrot and the stick. Putting all Muslims in the same sack leads us to a dead end.

Cub: Of course, Betuli. We should remember that the first victims of religious fanatics are the citizens of their countries. But we should also remember that we have already escaped religious fanaticism, we have made great social advances in a fight that has lasted centuries, against our own fanatics. We should not cede a millimeter.

Foreign Policy has an interesting graphic on the Durex sex survey. One thing it shows is that Spaniards are pretty conservative sexually: average loss of virginity age 17, average number of sexual partners six, about 25% have had "unprotected" sex, and less than 5% have sexually transmitted diseases. Comparable figures for the US: average loss of virginity age 16, average number of sexual partners 11, more than 50% have had unprotected sex, and about 10% have sexually transmitted diseases. UK and Canada figures are almost identical to the US.

Interestingly, Scandinavia and Australia really are the most sexually uninhibited places. 21% of Norwegians are infected with STDs, and more than 75% have had unprotected sex. The average Turk claims to have bedded 14 people, by far the most in the world, and all I can figure is a) they're lying, b) they're including prostitutes in their counts, or c) they didn't survey any Turkish women. I just can't imagine Turkish women getting it on with more than about three guys per lifetime, if that much. Maybe I'm just prejudiced, but this goes against everything I've ever heard about Muslim countries. The other Muslim countries surveyed, Malaysia and Indonesia, show predictably conservative sexual behavior.

I put up a post on Pete Seeger and his politics, with a couple of links and a set of Seeger videos, over at Hard Country.

There's a piece at Front Page magazine today that I would call "anti-European"; it makes the same very general and superficial claims about Europe that Euro anti-Americans make about the States. Check out some of these pearls:

Perhaps the best way to distinguish between the American and European systems is to take note of their different perceptions of the future. Americans by and large are optimistic about the future, and believe that their children and grandchildren will have a better future. The Europeans on the other hand have a fatalistic/hedonistic view of the future that might be summed up, as “Live for today because tomorrow we’ll all be dead.”

Come on. That's way too general. I know a lot of Americans who are not at all optimistic, and a lot of Europeans who are neither fatalists or hedonists. I've said before, and so have a lot of other people, that Americans tend to be more interested in opportunity and Europeans tend to be more interested in security, but the key word there is "tend". Americans and Europeans are both Westerners, and we are much more alike than we are different--especially when we compare ourselves to really un-Western places like, say, Cambodia, Afghanistan, or Burundi.

When facing the Soviet threat during the Cold War, the Europeans cavalierly said “Better be Red than Dead.” Today it appears that many Europeans are resigning themselves to be, “Rather Green (Islamic) than Dead.” It is a self-fulfilling wish since the Europeans are not having enough children and grandchildren to insure their future replacement.

Come on. History proves that most Europeans did not believe it would be better to be Red than dead, since the Western alliance hung together from 1945 to the suicide of the Soviet Union in 1991. Look at West Germany: the whole reason that country existed was that they didn't want to be Communists or dominated by Moscow. The Communists got healthy shares of the vote in France and Italy, but nowhere else. The peace and anti-nuclear movement was big in the '70s and '80s, sure, but they never had anything like a majority anywhere, and there were a lot of those people in the United States as well. Those folks now control the Democratic party, one of America's two main political groups.

And, of course, no Europeans want to live under Islamic law. If faced by an actual Iranian or Hezbollah or Libyan military invasion, they would of course fight. They haven't done too well fighting against the Islamist terrorist threat so far, but England and France and Germany have simply been around too long to become anything radically different from what they always have been. Their language, laws, traditions, and culture are not so easily replaced.

Today’s Europe is faced with a double-crisis. The welfare system is going broke, and its moral and legal order is falling apart. At the same time, the Continent is going through a terminal case of demographic decline.

Catastrophism. Pure and simple. None of these things are going to happen anytime soon.

After almost a century of reign by the welfare state, Europeans have grown totally dependent on the state, and lost their ability to take their destiny in their own hands. The nation states of Europe are simultaneously being undermined by the European Union.

Totally exaggerated. Most Europeans are somewhat more in favor of a larger welfare state than most Americans, but the two systems are much more similar than different. The EU nations have given up some of their sovereignty to the Union, but nowhere near all of it; hell, the EU is run by its member states. The biggest argument they're having is how much power each member should have in the decision-making process after the huge expansion.

If the EU were so terrible, why would everyone but Norway and Switzerland want to join it? If I were British I wouldn't want Europeization to go very much farther than it has, but Britain doesn't have to go any farther down the road if it doesn't want to. They are insisting that they will keep their own currency and central bank, and that they will not give up their military forces. And as for Spain, it's a hell of a lot better now than it was before it joined. The EU has spent gazillions of euros subsiding us down here; we were Europe's largest recipient state until the recent expansion.

One thing the EU has done very well (along with NATO) is to prevent those damn Europeans from starting any more of those crazy wars they used to keep having that spilled over into the rest of the world. Germany hasn't invaded anybody for more than sixty years; during the 70-year period between 1870 and 1940 they invaded France three times.

While individual conservative leaders including France’s Nicolas Sarkosy (sic)and Germany’s Angela Markel (sic) are seeking changes in the welfare system to boost employment and economic growth, the European public is still addicted to the existing system. Sarkosy and Merkel seek to reform the welfare state in order to save it, rather than eliminate it altogether.

a) If one wishes to seem informed about a subject, one should look up the spelling of the surnames of the important persons involved, rather than blowing it off and getting them both wrong b) "addicted to" is a bit strong c) What's this "eliminate the welfare state altogether" crap? We've got a welfare state going in the United States, in case you hadn't noticed. We spend more than a trillion dollars a year at the federal level on Social Security, Medicare, and income security. And no one but the hard-hearted wants to stop pensions and health care for the retired and disabled, or to leave the poorest among us to suffer hunger and cold. The question is not whether government money should be spent on social welfare, but rather how and how much. The Europeans tend to think that more money ought to be spent on such things than the Americans do, but nobody serious in either place wants to go back to the bad old days of mass poverty, disease, and ignorance.

While Americans proclaimed, “In God We Trust,” the Europeans have gradually abandoned the belief in the Judeo-Christian God and the moral direction it provided. They largely agreed with German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) who wrote that, “God is Dead.” In Auschwitz, the Europeans did away with the Judeo-Christian God altogether. And since then they have increasingly relied on the state to direct their lives. The state has become the source of order, legitimacy, and authority. And the state has since 1957 evolved into a super-state known as the European Union.

How totally superficial and stereotypical. Millions of Europeans are practicing Christians and Jews, and it is completely unfair to blame Auschwitz on anyone but Nazi Germany. And as for the state as the source of order, legitimacy, and authority, well, yeah. How is that different from the US? Do we get order, legitimacy, and authority from the Elks Club, the PTA, or the high school forensics team?

That's enough of that. Read the whole article; I'm sure you'll come up with a few objections of your own.

I put up a set of pre-1980s Johnny Cash videos over at Hard Country, so go check it out.

Two interesting links from National Review: This 2002 New Criterion article blowing a hole in the persistent myth that Americans who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War were labeled "premature anti-fascists" by the government, and this 1976 P.J. O'Rourke piece from the National Lampoon, which is possibly the most offensive thing ever written.

We just got back from our August vacation; Remei is back at work today and I have something I have to write up. Haven't been near a computer for nearly three weeks; we went out to Vallfogona for a week, then to London for a week, and then back out to the pueblo for another five days.

In the pueblo we did what we always do: go to the pool and go out walking with the dog. When I'm not doing that, I'm usually reading a book and hiding from my mother-in-law. London was a good trip; we saw our friend Elisabeth, and met her boyfriend and roommates, who are all very nice folks and quite interesting. We took a day trip to Winchester and spent a night in Bath, both of which are well worth a visit. On the two days it rained we went to the British Library, where Remei had never been, and the British Museum, where we dig all the stuff on the ground floor, the Egyptians and Assyrians and Greeks. I bought a little reproduction of the famous blue Egyptian ceramic hippo for ten pounds.

Last Sunday we went to the Notting Hill carnival, which was enormous and a little disappointing. I was expecting there to be live reggae bands and lots of floats with dancing girls, but there was no live music--it was all DJs, and most of them were playing hip-hop with heavy bass. There weren't many floats, either, and the ones that were there were all sponsored by beer companies and radio stations. The Jamaican food was good, and the variety of people was colorful to say the least. The crowds were so big that you could barely move in some places, though. Big crowds make me nervous. On the whole I'd compare it to Las Vegas; you really need to go once to see what it's like, it's actually kind of fun for a while, and one visit is probably enough for a lifetime.

My mother-in-law came back from the pueblo with us; she was going to stay another month, but she can't be by herself any more because she falls down a lot. She took a spill while we were gone and scraped up her knees and elbows, and did not tell the lady we had checking on her about it. She's well-behaved back here in our flat in Barcelona; if she gets cranky I give her something to eat and put Count Basie on the CD player.

As usual in August, there doesn't seem to have been much news while we were gone. The big story has been the death of Sevilla footballer Antonio Puerta last week; he keeled over during last weekend's game, walked off the field, and then had a heart attack on the way to the hospital. He died two days later at age 22. Puerta was a promising young player who won a spot on Sevilla's starting eleven last season and was an important part of the team that won five straight cup finals (two UEFAs, one Spanish Cup, one European Supercup, one Spanish Supercup). The media overreacted, of course; I'm sorry Puerta is dead, and I wish it hadn't happened, but they've been milking this one for all the pathos they can get.

A bunch of ETA guys got busted. They kidnapped a family and used their house to put together a huge car bomb, which they were going to let off somewhere that it would kill a lot of people. One of those arrested was the guy who bailed out of a taxi in Castellón a while back, and another one was in on the Barajas airport bombing.

The whole country is back to work today, the first Monday in September. The newspapers have been bringing out their seasonal stories big-time, and for the last week La Vangua has been full of reports on how the end of vacation and the beginning of the working year cause stress, and how some quack psychologist says you can solve it. There were surprisingly few traffic jams yesterday on the main roads back into the big cities; the last day of the August vacation is usually the biggest traffic day of the year. As usual, the death toll on the highways was appalling, with deaths in August up 6% over last year.

Fortunately, it hasn't been a particularly hot or dry summer. There haven't been as many bad forest fires as we usually have in summer, and we really didn't have to use the air conditioner in Barcelona. In Vallfogona, that old stone house is naturally air-conditioned, the town is 2000 feet above sea level, and the "marinada" (moist breeze down the Corb valley from the east) blows every evening, so summer is very tolerable there.

Joe asked in the Comments section whether these posts from La Vanguardia's reader forums are typical of Spanish thinking and, after thinking about it for about five minutes, my considered response is: I think so.

I pointed out catastrophism, belief in conspiracies, and knee-jerk hatred of the United States as the errors in thinking in the posts I reproduced. I think all three of them are pretty common, though not universal, in Spain. Keep in mind that some people may suffer from one or two, but not all three, of these mental pathologies.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some of the Europeans who support the United States do so for the wrong reasons.

There are some people in Spain who actually believe that America is an imperialist warmongering hyperpower, but this is a good thing because Americans are white, sort of European folk keepìng those damned Arabs in line. There are a few who are ultra-libertarians--I'm pretty libertarian myself, but within reasonable limits, I hope--who actually believe that America is the anti-welfare state where those who can't compete are ruthlessly crushed, and this is a good thing because Ayn Rand said so. There are also some who really believe that America is a Christian theocracy, and this is a good thing because divorce and abortion are not permitted there. (I've actually been subjected to this argument from a pro-American Spaniard who really wasn't very smart at all.)

I guess when we come down to it, a variation of the 80-20 rule probably holds true here, as it does in so many cases. (You know, 20% of beer drinkers drink 80% of the beer that is drunk, and so on.) Probably wherever you go in the West today, 80% of what 80% of people think they know is bunk. Most people are pretty ignorant and badly informed (not that this makes them bad people or less worthy); hell, remember that by definition 50% of people have a below-average IQ. I figure this is true everywhere in Western Europe and the US, and I'll bet that in countries where the people are less educated and their access to information is more limited, those percentages are even higher.

Anyway, here come the pro-American posts, after a story on Gaddafi's son's admitting that the Bulgarian nurses were tortured with electric shocks:

"Tired of Hypocrites": Electrical torture is habitual in Arab prisons, just like rape and the amputation of fingers, nails, and even eyes. But nobody cares about this. The entire horde of false "progres" is so obsessed with the US and with Israel that they have no compassion for the Arabs.

If an Arab tortures another one for nine years, it isn't news; if an Israeli or American soldier slaps an admitted terrorist then this is a crime against humanity! It's the same as ever, you don't give a damn about the Arabs themselves, you just use them because your war is against the United States or against Israel, not in favor of the Arabs.

"Aroundworld" (posting from the US): I support 100% of what you say. Have you noticed that nobody is giving his opinion around here?

"Mithridates": I'll give my opinion! And I absolutely agree with the above, that's enough of defending the alleged innocents who are really responsible for the atrocities that are happening, with cold blood they say that a woman has been subjected to electric torture---I'm sick of the 'moros'!!!!!!!

"Maitechu": What did you expect? Many of the gentlemen who write in are Arabs.

"Toni": There are those who take advantage of any little story to attack Bush, the US, and Israel. Those who have expressed their opinions so far are right, differently from those who do so only to work out their phobias (the Americans and the US) and fixations (Bush, the Israeli army).

"Juanelees": The truth is there is no government in any Islamic country that has even 1% credibility. And enforcing sharia law, that's just crazy.

"Gerard": We are making an Alliance of Civilizations with the torturers...we must comprehend them, they're other countries, other cultures, they want justice...at the same time, we are destroying Israel...and it will be the end of Europe.

"Catañol": I unconditionally support "Tired of Hypocrites".

My view: I agree with "Tired of Hypocrites" as well. He is clearly both well-informed and concerned about the Arab people. However, "Mithridates" mixes good arguments (torture is wrong) with racism (he clearly doesn't like 'moros,' which is a racial slur for Arabs in Spain.) "Juanelees" exaggerates; Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are all Muslim countries, and have fairly decent though imperfect governments. Also, "Gerard" is just a bit catastrophic himself. Anyway, flawed as some of their thinking is, there are some folks over here in Spain who are pro-American and willing to speak up.

Those wacky commenters at La Vanguardia's website are at it as usual! Check out these pearls of wisdom:

After a story on the European stock market:

The USA should be quarantined by the world since it is a cancer that must be removed. Today that country is no longer a model for absolutely anytning except for the systematic violation of human rights and basic rights, besides being an endemic disease for the rest of the world.

After a story on the European Central Bank:

...the increase in interest rates and their "effects" on the economy (a price increase for housing, to enrich some and impoverish others). Are there any fools who think this is not an accident? There is a plan drawn up by the big fish and if you like it or not, that's what we're going to get.

We are approaching the edge of the abyss.

Now I get it...because of all this with the PBN (sic; he means BNP, the French bank) funds, are we Europeans going to have to pay for American debtors?

(From a commenter in Miami) Yes, Europe is paying for the fall in the American Subprime (sic), and what is worse, here in the USE a very strong crisis is coming, the collapse of the real estate sector, contagion to other sectors, a lack of consumer confidence, that tsunami will reach Europe in a few minutes, goddamned gringos!!! VIVA EUROPA, IT'S MUCH BETTER THAN THE USA

I really believe things are getting worse. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Until our system of values changes, when human values are what comes first in the world, I do not see the light in this dark tunnel. It is the end of the world.

After a story on Bush calling on Musharraf to allow free elections:

What? The spurious president of the USA calls for free elections? Will he leave his puppet in disgrace? Does he need one whose hands are not dirty?

Let's hope that the manipulator, and all his Western democratic acolytes, will respect the free and fair results. As they did in Algeria and more recently in Palestine.

Should we start with free elections in the USA?

How can that mental midget Bush call on his Pakistani hitman for free elections? Free as in Iraq, where they "elected" the current puppets who are "governing"? And will he call on his figurehead in Saudi Arabia for the same thing?

Free elections in the USA? Only millionares can run. What a fool you must be to speak of Yankee democracy. Go on, silly children, pay your mortgage without complaining.

The plan is simple. Pakistan calls an election, the Islamists win democratically like Hamas in Palestine, and the US will have its excuse to bomb the north of Pakistan without problems.

After a story on the Berlin Wall:

So we don't forget the Berlin Wall, we build walls in Ceuta, Palestine, or the Rio Grande in the US...before so they couldn't leave and now so they can't enter...one wall fell but others are being built.

After a story on Hugo Chavez, from a commenter in Los Angeles:

Hugo Chavez is a leader in all of South America. South America has been enslaved for more than 500 years by the imperialists like Spain, the United States, France, and others. Now they can't do it because the nationalists won't permit that slavery any more.

After a story on the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing:

What is the US waiting for to apologize to Japan for this genocide? The Germans have done it, apologizing to Israel for the crimes of the Nazis. Every time a US president visits Japan he should kneel and pray at the monument to the victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The current president could have done it since he is such a religious believer. And they should apologize for the massacres in Central America and Latin America and the coups d'etat financed and managed by the CIA (the family jewels). For Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan too. For the slavery financed by the Anglo-Saxons and also the other European powers. Have I forgotten anything?

After a story on a US antiterrorist offensive in Baghdad:

In a neighborhood in Baghdad! That's as if it were in a neighborhood of Vienna or Madrid. You can imagine what happens when there is a massive attack on a neighborhood where the majority are innocent civilians, women, children, and old people, and also youths who might be "enemy combatants," a euphemism invented by the USA in order to massacre civilian populations.

Note 1) the belief in conspiracy theories 2) the catastrophism and 3) the rabid anti-Americanism. But guess what? Some non-Yankee haters have finally spoken up! We'll bring you their comments tomorrow.

I put up two new posts on Hard Country, a Junior Brown set and a Hayseed Dixie set. I love Junior Brown. I don't understand why the rock fans and the Stevie Ray Vaughn followers aren't into him. Hayseed Dixie are hilariously funny the first time, and then the joke gets a little old, but check them out anyway.

News from these here parts: Fairly serious political crisis in Navarra. Backstory: In the regional election, the PP, the Socialists, and Basque nationalist coalition Nafarroa Bai split the vote so that no one party could form an absolute majority. After weeks of negotiations, the Navarrese Socialists finally cut a deal with NaBai, but Zap's central Socialist party vetoed it, causing the Navarrese Socialist leadership to resign. As a result, the PP, the largest vote-getter, will govern Navarra from the minority.

In the wake of the blackout, there are still some 150 electrical generators (each of which uses some 200 gallons of diesel fuel a day) scattered around the streets of Barcelona filling in for the gaps in the electrical grid. The generators are noisy, running at 90 decibels, and the people who live near them are royally pissed off. Supposedly they're going to be able to remove most of the generators in September, but Barcelona's electrical system won't be back to normal until February 2008.

The RENFE (Rogamos Empujar Nuestros Ferrocarriles Estropeados, Please Push Our Broken-Down Trains) commuter-train system has been breaking down nearly every day; this morning three different train lines were down because a lightning storm last night hit some transformers. RENFE has claimed that many of the incidents in recent weeks were due to sabotage, though they haven't filed any charges against anyone. Presumably the saboteurs would be from the machinists' union, which as usual is at odds with the company.

The other thing the locals are pissed off about is the motorway system, which is designed to handle normal traffic fairly well but which stacks up beyond belief when the massive flood of vacationers all leave for their holidays at once. The highway south through Tarragona was jammed up last weekend to the point where it took drivers five hours to pass through the bumper-to-bumper atasco.

And the airport, which has had an awful lot of delayed flights and lost luggage complaints recently.

Small bit of good news: A Belgian woman cave explorer got caught 600 meters below ground for three days in a cave in Navarra, but they finally rescued her alive and well.

The Odyssey marine exploration company has sued the Spanish government for harassment; you'll remember they found $500 million worth of gold and silver aboard a sunken ship, and Spain is claiming 1) the money is theirs because it was a Spanish ship (Odyssey says it was a British ship) and 2) the money is theirs because it was found in Spanish waters (Odyssey says it was found off the southwest coast of Britain). Spain boarded and captured an Odyssey-owned boat as it was leaving Gibraltar on July 12. Said minister of culture César Antonio Molina, "We will defend our patrimony, no matter where it is, with every means."

In August, everybody in Spain goes off on vacation. Everybody. Including politicians. So Catalonia's most powerful lovebirds, Communists Imma Mayol and Joan Saura, are in charge of both the Catalan regional and Barcelona city governments this week. Since regional premier José Montilla is on vacation, interior counselor Saura has been left in charge of the Generalitat, and with mayor Jordi Hereu on vacation too, second vice-mayor Mayol is in charge of the Ayuntamiento. Prediction: Something disastrous is going to happen and they're going to screw it up really badly.

La Vanguardia's lead editorial today is on how badly telecoms and computing engineers and technicians are needed around here, so if you're looking for work and know something about that, try Barcelona.

FC Barcelona young forwards Giovani Dos Santos and Bojan Krcic are looking extremely good this preseason. They're both only 17, they'll both be on the first division squad this season, they'll both see some playing time, and if they don't get hurt they may well be starting in a couple of years. I don't think the Barça has given either of them human growth hormone, as they did with Messi.

The comments on La Vanguardia's website are more fun every day. Their new design allows readers to add comments after every article, not only in the opinion section but also in the news section. Most of the people adding comments are completely nuts, and a large percentage are anti-American. I will bet this feature does not last long.

Check these out.

After a story on the Russian bomb that fell in Georgian territory:

A Russia unwilling to be what it really is, governed by a ruthless man (in a short while some heir of his will be just as frightening), is convenient, with pro-Western ex-Soviet republics supported by the Stars and Stripes (remember the warm welcome of Mr. Bush in Tiflis not long ago) that add up to an unresolved dispute in Ukraine, American bases in the East, the War for Energy in Asia...what is the result? Of course, an explosive cocktail. Someone will have to intervene, of course.

After a story on the Taliban threat to take more hostages:

Who doesn't kill? If the Taliban does that, well, the governments that say they're democratic also kill silently, when a country like Spain supports a dictator like Obiang, that is killing a country, when the United States supports a coup d'etat in Chile killing an elected president, that is killing too. All the regimes that are friends of the United States, France, and Spain kill, are corrupt, and are repressive, but since they are friends they say nothing.

After a story on possible US attacks on jihadis within Pakistani territory:

The US did not intervene in Europe out of the goodness of its heart! It was to implant their system and control the Soviets, a problem that has lasted until today but without Communists. The Marschall (sic) Plan worked thanks to the terrible exploitation of the countries of the Third World that also has lasted until today. Transferring what was stolen there allowed Europe to build what we have today!

Bush the butcher, certainly with the approval of his pals Blair and Aznar, has found another excuse to satiate his thirst for blood. When will he be tried for crimes against humanity? Or can he do and undo everything he wants? Why is the UN so tolerant of him?

Bush, Blair, and Aznar have their hands stained with blood!

They can't go around arming Bin Laden to fight against the Russians and then call him a terrorist, arm Iraq and say that its president is evil, or invade a country in the name of freedom without UN approval in order to get its oil.

If they make a mistake and kill a few civilians, the ones that survive and their relatives and friends will become new, completely justified terrorists. They should stay at home, since they have enough problems over there.

After a story on six foreigners' free Tibet demonstration in China:

The farce of the false ONGs financed by the imperialists in order to interfere with the Olympic Games has begun. They will all fail. The Chinese people can't be fooled, and are more united than ever with their Communist Party. The 21st century belongs to China, no matter how much the Yankee and European imperialists and their servile NGOs don't like it.

After an article on the anniversary of Hiroshima:

It is a good thing to remember the brutality that our species is capable of. It is a good thing to remember the immorality of an empire like the USA that, just like 60 years ago, is capable of bombing itself (9-11) in order to continue terrorizing the world (the Middle East) and keep its economic and military hegemony.

After an article on a skirmish on the Korean frontier:

If the USA didn't stick its nose in there, none of this would happen.

Fitst: Get the 30,000 NORTH American soldiers out of there. Second: North Korea renounces nuclear arms. Third: Open the frontier and declare mutual peace between the two countries (they are always at war). Fourth: Begin mutual commerce WITHOUT USA! Definitive goal: The reunification of both countries into the same people.

After a story on a terrorist attack in Iraq that killed 40 people:

The blame belongs to George Walker Bush and his running dogs, Blair and Aznar!!! The big profiteers of all this are Haliburton (sic), Texaco, Exxon, Shell...Every time we stop at a gas station we should think about how much blood is filling up our tanks.

After a story on the US army losing thousands of weapons in Iraq:

Since they're such imbeciles, the Yankee aggressors could give some "weapons of mass destruction" to the Iraqi forces, who pass it on to the patriotic resisters. That way the insurgents can clean up their country of the human scum that have invaded it.

After a story on Al Qaeda announcing it is proud of the March 11 bombings:

Al Qaida is an invention of the puppeteers who govern the world in order to justify to public opinion the great American salvation from international terrorism, and in that way have all the world under their power.

Al Qaeda is an American creation in order to have an excuse to invade countries with oil, which will be the most important source of wealth in the next fifty years.

After a story saying the US Congress had authorized wiretaps without a court order:

The elite of millionaires that controls the world has taken one more step towards controlling the citiznes. With the excuse of terrorism they allow themselves the luxury of tapping your phone legally, and they can even take you to a secret prison without even charging you and torture, all of it within "legality." This elite is installing a new Inquisition.

After a story on a terrorist attack in Baghdad that killed eleven people:

The Americans don't impress me in questions of war. They only did the great brave action of killing off the Indians to take their land, who fought with arrows, kicked the Spanish out of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to take them over themselves, and a few little battles during the two World Wars, not much.

After a story on a US military court's 110-year sentence for a soldier who committed rape and murder in Iraq:

It's a smokescreen. These guys don't give a damn about the girl, her family, and the rest of the Iraqis. They went there to do that, loot, rape, and murder.

It's curious that a country so much in love with the death penalty has decided not to apply it to a guilty convict. Is it related to the fact that the victim wasn't a young white girl from Wyoming?

Why hasn't the genocidal president of the US who ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki been tried? Or the genocidal president of the US who attacked Vietnam and caused so many deaths there?

The USA is certainly the country of freedom, since you can carry a gun to defend yourself against attacks. This is proof that justice and the authorities do not function and cannot guarantee the safety of citizens, so they have the freedom (the obligation) to take justice into their own hands if necessary. The USA has a curious concept of justice.

This is one case that we know about, because there is no doubt that the USA saviors of the world have committed more atrocities of this sort. We're not talking about the wars they start in third countries in their own interests, because then all their leaders should be in The Hague, which they do not want to recognize because it's not in their interest.

Every day we see the lawbreaking and murders these "saviors of the world" commit. Don't they have the death penalty? Then kill him, fuck it, kill him! Aznar and his buddies are embarrassing, saying these are the saviors of democracy. This was repeated 10000000 (sic) times in Vietnam. A demented people.

Do we know anything about the 600,000 Iraqis killed after the invasion? Have charges been pressed against Bush and his accomplices for starting a war with lies, mass murder, stealing oil, torturing civilians, and laughing at international law?

These are all posts from the last two days.

I put up another set of videos over at Hard Country, this time classics from the Seventies. Check it out.