NOGGIA

This blog is discontinued

2010-11-16T18:09:00.001+01:00

This is it my friends!!!. After more than 2 years of blogging as noggia I've decided to discontinue this blog. I will not erase it (Google is kind enough to let it live without additional surcharges...he he), but I simply won't update it. I've killed it (what a strange feeling....by the way).

Reasons? All truly personal.

Bye bye my friends, it was a real pleasure!!!

Expect the next in Ferrari

2009-11-16T09:24:00.001+01:00

Yes, something like this is about to come, albeit Fernando Alonso is much more of a sports man than Michael Schumacher. Anyway, brilliant racing times ahead of us!!

Zapatero's daughters once more revealed

2009-11-16T09:23:00.004+01:00

A little bit more as seen on http://esohavuelto.blogspot.com/2009/11/las-hijas-de-zp-cazadas-en-tuenti.html

What frightens me is to think how close they are to the underlying motto of his father....

Zapatero Family (revisited)

2009-10-21T17:40:00.002+02:00

Courtesy of my friend Sagri. The Spanish secret service had to act in order to eliminate crime evidence....

Hot and worrying topics

2009-10-06T18:11:00.004+02:00

The economic crisis?

Rising unemployment reaching world records?

The effects of global warming (by Al Gore Inc)?

Separatist movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country?

Islamic Terrorism?

Racism & immigration?

Individual liberties?

Abortion?

Are these the topics us Spaniards should worry about today?

NO!!!

This is what matters!! And watch out, because it is coming back with more power than ever. It's the Spanish Civil War! Yes, a hot & trendy topic our government wants us to talk about.

I myself think about it day and night, it is consuming my brain.....the rest doesn't matter...

Franco's legacy (entry in Spanish)

2009-10-01T15:19:00.001+02:00

¡Cuánta razón tenía Garzón, nuestro famosísimo juez internacional e interespacial, en pedir el certificado de defunción de Franco! ¡Gracias a Garzón los españoles hemos podido descubrirr que Franco no ha muerto, solo estaba en coma!

Franco despierta del coma...y pregunta:

- Franco (poniéndose al día): Srta. ¿Quién se halla ahora ocupando la Vicepresidencia del Gobierno de la Nación, sustituyendo a mi querido Arias Navarro?

- Enfermera: Teresita Fernández de la Vega.

- Franco (sorprendido): ¿Teresita, la hija de Wenceslao, el falangista camisa vieja alto cargo del Ministerio de Trabajo y fiel ayudante de Girón, el más falangista de mis ministros?

- Enfermera (titubeante): La misma, Excelencia.

- Franco: ¿Y de Ministro de la Gobernación?

- Enfermera: Bueno Excelencia, ahora se llama Ministro de Interior y está Alfredito Pérez Rubalcaba, el hijo de uno de vuestros militares más fieles al Régimen, suboficial de aviación.

- Franco (incrédulo): ¡Qué me dice! ¿No estará usted intentando engañarme para no darme un disgusto verdad?

- Enfermera: ¡Excelencia, por Dios!

- Franco: ¿Y quién está ahora al frente de los medios informativos del Régimen?

- Enfermera: Ehhhh ... de los informativos dell Régimen dice su Excelencia, pues de los informativos del Régimen diría que sigue Juan Luis Cebrián, tal y como su Excelencia lo dejó, el hijo del falangista Vicente Cebrián, su Jefe de Prensa del Movimiento.

- Franco (complacido): ¿Todavía le dura a Cebrianito el cargo que le concedí de Director de los Servicios Informativos? ¡Qué tío, cómo se agarran algunos a los cargos!

- Enfermera: Sí, Excelencia, Cebrianito, el mismo, el que dirigió Pueblo y Arriba.

- Franco: ¿Y de Presidente de las Cortes?

- Enfermera: Bueno Excelencia, ahora se llama Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados; hasta hace poco ha estado Manuel Marín, hijo de Marín el aguerrido falangista de Ciudad Real y Presidente de la Hermandad de Alféreces Provisionales, y ahora le ha sustituído José Bono también hijo de falangista.

- Franco (aliviado): Veo que por fin se ha resuelto la pugna entre el Opus y la Falange y que ganan estos últimos por goleada. ¿Y qué ha sido de Martín Villa, mi Ministro y Jefe Provincial del Movimiento?

- Enfermera: Ahora está en www.labolsa.com/mercado/prs/>PRISA.

- Franco: ¿Qué es eso de <>PRISA? ¿Algo parecido al SEU o a la Prensa del Movimiento?

- Enfermera: No se le escapa una, Excelencia.

- Franco: ¿Y en el Ministerio de Justicia?

- Enfermera: Lo acaba de dejar Marianito Fernández Bermejo, el hijo del alcalde y Jefe Local del Movimiento de Arenas de San Pedro de Avila.

- Franco (perplejo): ¿Y por qué lo ha dejado?

- -Enfermera: Por un afán desmedido por las cacerías Excelencia.

- Franco (encantado) : ¡Ahhh..., veo que no han cambiado las buenas costumbres de antaño! ¿Y sigue habiendo buenos cotos de caza en La Mancha?

- Enfermera: Sí Excelencia, ya se ha cuidado mucho y bien de ello durante años José Bono, el actual Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados, y ahora le ha relevado y se encarga de ello José María Barreda.

- -Franco: ¿Barreda, de los Barreda terratenientes y aristócratas manchegos descendientes del Marqués de Treviño fusilado el pobre por los rojos?

- -Enfermera: Sí Excelencia.

- -Franco (contento): ¡Qué bien, qué bien! Y en la tele, ¿qué? ¿Quién sigue?

- Enfermera: Pues los de siempre: Carmen Sevilla, Massiel, Conchita Velasco, Matías Prat, Víctor Manuel, que sigue cantando a la patria...

- Franco (asintiendo): ¡Hombre, el Víctor ése! ¡Pobre rapaz, siempre tan triste! Ni la del "Zampo y yo" ha conseguido alegrarle; ¡con tanto diente!... Recuerdo el empeño que ponía en ir con mis nietas al corrillo de Serrano, y luego las convidaba a comer paella en Riesgo. ¿Cómo era?... ¿Cómo era la estrofa de aquella canción que me dedicó? Cántela, si es tan amable...

- Enfermera (entonando): "Otros vendrán que el camino más limpio hallarán. Deben seguir por la senda que aquél nos marcó, No han de ocultar, hacia el hombre que trajo esta paz, su admiración; y, por favor, pido, siga esta paz."

- Franco (sonriendo): Sí esa era, esa era; un poquito pesado el pobre, como decían mis nietas, "un coñazo". Pero, en fin, a Carmen le daba mucha pena...

- Franco (pensativo): Y el Presidente del Gobierno de la Nación, ése de ahora, el de las cejas arqueadas, ¿Quién es?

- Enfermera: Es el nieto del capitán Lozano, el que sirvió en Asturias a sus órdenes y aplastó la revuelta de los mineros insurgentes.

- Franco (encantado): ¡Qué me dice, el nieto del capitán Lozano! ¿Y qué tal Presidente es, ya es digno de la memoria de su antepasado?

- Enfermera: Pues... sí ..., precisamente es el más acérrimo defensor de la Memoria Histórica, Excelencia, ... ehh ... digamos que se acuerda mucho y en todo momento de su Excelencia.

- Franco (satisfecho): ¡Qué bien, que bien, parece increíble! ¿Y qué hace ahora?

- Enfermera: Ha vuelto de Estados Unidos. Se autoinvitó a una reunión ocupando una silla de Francia para arreglar la economía mundial, que está por los suelos.

- Franco: ¿Otro Plan Marshall, quizá?

- Enfermera: Más o menos, Excelencia.

- Franco: Por cierto, ¿Siguen estudiando los niños Formación del Espíritu Nacional?

- Enfermera: ¡Oh sí Excelencia, por supuesto, más que nunca! Ahora se llama Educación para la Ciudadanía.

- Franco (despectivamente): ¿Y la Casa Real, cómo está la Casa Real?

- Enfermera: Como su Excelencia la dejó, al frente está el Rey Don Juan Carlos y la Reina Doña Sofía, y de Jefe de la Casa Real está Albertito Aza íntimo amigo del Presidente Zapatero y de Juan Luis Cebrián e hijo de Aza, el militar de Marruecos que fue el primero en unirse a su Excelencia el 18 de Julio.

- Franco (con cólera repentina): ¿Y quién...? ¿Quién coño es ese Zerolo de Tenerife del que les oigo murmurar?

- Enfermera: ¡Ah sí Excelencia! Es el nieto de Miguel Zerolo Fuentes, el brillante fascista Jefe de Sección de Acción Ciudadana, Fiscal Militar y Juez Instructor Militar especialista en delitos de rebelión a la Patria. Y su tío abuelo, Tomás Zerolo Fuentes, médico encargado por Vd. de la organización de los servicios médicos en los frentes de guerra y fundador después de la Clínica Zerolo. Ambos hermanos fueron condecorados con la Medalla de Bronce de la Santa Cruz por ser de los primeros voluntarios que se presentaron el mismo 18 de julio en el Gobierno Militar para "salvar a España".

- Franco: Perfecto, no pensaba que lo había dejado todo atado y tan bien bien atado, les dí cuarenta años de paz y me alegro de que todo siga igual que antes y que sigan guiando a España y a los españoles los de siempre en pro de la convivencia y la paz entre los españoles. ¡Arriba España!

Talking about raising taxes, where is your tax money going in Spain?

2009-09-30T18:08:00.000+02:00

Yes, you are right. This is where it is going. So, scratch your pocket.

"Cosas veredes, querido Sancho"

"True things, dear Sancho"

Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes

Spot the differences between Basques and Catalans with the rest of Spain

2009-09-29T17:55:00.003+02:00

Basques and Catalans are famous for:

They like to drink. Wine is an essential part of their culture.

They love football. Their players cried when Spain won the last Euro Cup. They played great.

They eat well. Good fish & meat are an fundamental part of their diet.

They love to go out. Their nightlife is famous.

They are really passionate about politics.

They have strong ties with Latin America.

Swearing is present in 20% of their sentences. Joder, me cago en la puta are fundamental.

They visit a local bar almost daily for a quick caña with friends.

They like bullfighting, specially older generations.

The are mostly catholic.

Yes, you are right, they are basically 99% equal to the rest of Spaniards. The rest is pure politics and rhetoric bullshit.

A time to remember: 10 Lies about the Basque situation in Spain

2009-09-28T15:34:00.003+02:00

Time to remember. Time for some clarity and outright truth.

Destroying false myths:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Monster Family is back (updated Zapatero family UNCENSORED)

2009-09-25T12:07:00.002+02:00

God, help us

Is this the Monster Family revived?

2009-09-25T09:44:00.002+02:00

No!!!! It's our super president!!! His super wife, Sonsoles and ......

two of the ugliest (even with pixelled faces) creatures from the outter world, dressed up with awful robes.

Can you have less class & style? Que horteras. By the way, they are skipping school, nice example, Mr. nothing.

PS: Again, is there anyone in the socialist party with 2 balls and a bit of mental sanity to kick him out of power?

Super Judge Garzon creating yet another super mess

2009-09-24T12:27:00.002+02:00

For those of you who still reckon Garzon as a sort of super hero, here's a recap of the latest super mistakes he's made with his super X-ray vision:

He sent a police squad to Arralde a village that did not exist (only in the minds of a popular local TV show)
He asked for Franco's death certificate in order to pursue legal action against him. By the way, Spain closed the dictatorship with many laws, he knew and still insisted, just seeking raw popularity. He's being prosecuted for this.
He's forgotten or ignored the situation of preventive jailing for some big-time drug narcos, leading to these having to be liberated (then of course flying back to their home countries).
.......

In his pursue of the Peace Nobel prize he's making one error after another, leaving causes open for years, accusing without evidence or simply assuming roles a judge cannot assume.

By the way, did you know that he's become a millionaire while being a judge? How would you rate that? Wouldn't that deserve a second of thought? In Spain many of us are sick of his poor judgement and his horrible mistakes.

Would have this happened in front of Franco, Pinochet or any other "non-leftist" dictator?

2009-09-21T09:04:00.004+02:00

Filthy stuff

Some people tend to think that dictatorships are different depending on the color of the pseudo-ideas behind the main mottos.

Que puto asco.

Tonto, que no eres más tonto porque no te entrenas

2009-09-10T08:51:00.003+02:00

The Government can...(great vid)

2009-09-08T15:34:00.000+02:00

Fred Perry "Union" Polos

2009-09-07T09:22:00.005+02:00

You just have to love this image....Alfonso Guerra, one of the most corrupt politicians in the late history of Spain, vice-president with Felipe Gonzalez until Mr. X decided he was more of a burden than a vote clincher. A folk who would get on a government plane simply to avoid traffic jams (with a cost close to USD 50,000 per trip) and whose family rose like foam to various different top jobs in the Administration...

There he is, wearing a Fred Perry polo worth 100 Euros, raising his left arm next to Zapatero, aka Mr, Nothing, another leftist whose political inaction and ignorance for years has spurred the effects of the crisis in Spain, a country with the "honor" of heading the EU unemployment rankings....

Isn't this image worth several sociology or psichology thesis...? While I think of a good one I am going to the toilet for a second to vomit. I'll be right back.

Swine Flu, the 21st century paranoia (H1N1)

2009-09-03T09:01:00.002+02:00

This video is a must see. It is in Spanish but probably self-explanatory even for those who don't speak the language of Cervantes. Take 10 minutes off, watch it with attention and then breathe and relax a bit.

ETA activists to shelter in Nicaragua

2009-09-01T06:40:00.001+02:00

According to the Spanish newspaper ABC, ETA seems to be finding a good refuge in the lands of Nicaragua. I am not surprised to be honest, this has been going on foreer. The identification of (typically leftist) dictatorships (there isn't a true free democratic system in the whole continent with the potential future exception of Chile) with the Basque Gudaris (warriors in Basque) comes almost from inception of the terrorist group.

There has also been a traditional link of the story to the oppressing role of Spanish conquistadores. A sort of retaliation after 5 centuries. A bad excuse that obliterates the responsibility of the locals (specially since the Spaniards left hundreds of years ago).

The dramatic wave of populism in the continent, spurred by the Red Gorilla, is opening the field again for the covering up of these blood assassins. The inaction of the Spanish government can only make things worse, I am afraid.

Die die my darling

2009-08-31T17:52:00.001+02:00

Forever a teenager

2009-08-28T12:47:00.005+02:00

Don't want to be seen as too over biased against this being, but doesn't he have to be more neutral? Doesn't he have advisors all around him? This video belongs to a commercial spot promoting Lanzarote. nothing against the island (on the contrary), but if I were working in the promotion of, say, the Costa Brava, I'd hate these things...

Impunity

2009-08-24T15:18:00.001+02:00

(wikipedia)

The amended Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights Through Action to Combat Impunity, submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 8 February 2005, defines impunity as:
"the impossibility, de jure or de facto, of bringing the perpetrators of violations to account – whether in criminal, civil, administrative or disciplinary proceedings – since they are not subject to any inquiry that might lead to their being accused, arrested, tried and, if found guilty, sentenced to appropriate penalties, and to making reparations to their victims."[2]
The First Principle of that same document states that:
"Impunity arises from a failure by States to meet their obligations to investigate violations; to take appropriate measures in respect of the perpetrators, particularly in the area of justice, by ensuring that those suspected of criminal responsibility are prosecuted, tried and duly punished; to provide victims with effective remedies and to ensure that they receive reparation for the injuries suffered; to ensure the inalienable right to know the truth about violations; and to take other necessary steps to prevent a recurrence of violations."

Several members of the Catalan Regional Government, formed namely by the regional branch (PSC) of the ruling Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) has announced today that it intends NOT to respect any ruling coming from the Constitutional Court where it may amend, modifies or change any aspect of the Estatut, a sort of Regional Constitution passed and voted in referendum (35% participation) in Catalonia.

OK, they are not subject to law. I am waiting to receive at home a traffic fine I got while parking in Barcelona. This is what they will get as a response:

An exhibition of class

2009-08-20T09:13:00.004+02:00

Gentlemen, see what's coming next.

A classy return.

El amo is back.

The official Spanish view on the Middle East conflict

2009-01-12T11:38:00.001+01:00

This is what our shameful, teen-aging government thinks of the Middle East conflict:

Principle #1. Israel is guilty and a genocide state.
Hamas is a legitimate terrorist group.
We support the stoning of the Israeli embassy in Madrid.
The Palestinians are all heroes.
The Intifada is a right way of solving the problems.

With such a great open view on the complexities of international politics, we are sending this undeveloped brain to solve the situation:

May the force be with us, we need it badly

The Principles of Hamas

2009-01-09T14:20:00.000+01:00

Facts, my friend, not pure ideology which is what we are reading these days all across Western Europe:

The principles of Hamas are stated in their Covenant or Founding Charter. Here are some highlights. or pearls as we name them in Spanish:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavours."

Another fact:

Hamas is just a "branch"of The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic organization founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna in Egypt after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Al-Banna was a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. wrote supportive letters to Hitler and as a result, Hitler requested Nazi intelligence to contact al-Banna for the purpose of working together. Hitler enlisted him to establish a spy network for Nazi Germany throughout the Arabian Peninsula. The Nazi-Muslim alliance became such that al-Banna promised Hitler that when the Nazis arrived Cairo and Alexandria, the Muslim Brotherhood would ensure that all of the British troops would be killed.

The conflict in the Middle East and the right of defence

2009-01-08T09:20:00.001+01:00

Palestine has a right to defend itself from the terrorist group that is ruling its dark fate and Israel has the right to defend itself if it wants to exist as a country. The easy, albeit less intelligent position, is to declare oneself by the side of the "poor Palestinians", but this is the classical quick-thinking that misses the important details. What would all the Spanish intellectuals say if a terrorist group ruling Morocco started firing daily missiles for weeks that killed civilians in Malaga, Seville, Granada, etc?

Now, answer that one.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-19T09:25:00.001+01:00

I wish you all a happy and joyful holiday and the best possible entry into 2009. I am myself taking a well deserved break of 2 weeks, although I would need 2 years to recuperate a little bit.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

More vomiting facts about the Basque Government

2008-12-16T09:01:00.000+01:00

The official budget of the Basque Autonomous Government has allocated 104.698 Euros for "victims of police repression".

This is what our taxes are for in Spain.

A brave Gudari

2008-12-09T14:34:00.001+01:00

The said-to-be new chief of ETA, a sub-human snake called Aitzol Iriondo Yarza, AKA "Gurbita" was arrested yesterday with two other fellow Basque terrorists. The arrests took place on Monday in Bagnères de Bigorre, in a joint operation between the French Police and the Guardia Civil. According to El Mundo he freaked-out, resisted a little bit and when he was finally detained the police realised he had wet his pants.

Well, for those of you that don't follow the rat news too closely, let me tell you that this is something that happens most of the times...another sign of how brave this "gudaris" (soldiers in Basque) are.

What you don't know about the last ETA killing

2008-12-04T09:34:00.001+01:00

You may have read about the latest coward assassination by ETA. Here's how it is seen by the international media, for example the BBC in this case:

"A businessman has been shot dead outside a restaurant in Azpeitia in the Basque region of northern Spain. Spanish police say they suspect the Basque separatist group Eta is behind the killing.
Local media say Ignacio Uria Mendizabal, 71, worked for a company building a high-speed train link, a project previously targeted by Eta. The shooting comes less than a month after the arrest of the suspected operational head of Eta. Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, also known as "Txeroki", was arrested in southern France on 17 November. The Spanish interior ministry had said it expected there to be retaliation for the arrest.

Officials say Mr Uria Mendizabal was shot several times in the car park of a restaurant in Azpeitia, near San Sebastian. Media reports say he was shot in the head and the chest by several people who then fled the scene in a car. Mr Uria Mendizabal was the head of the construction company, Altuna y Uria, that was working on a rail link in the region. Eta has been blamed for three bomb attacks against companies working on the project already this year, though none caused casualties. The group is opposed to the train link, which will connect the Basque cities of Vitoria, San Sebastian and Bilbao to the capital, Madrid. The shooting happened a day before Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was due to visit the region"

By the way, using euphemisms like "separatist" is like defining Al-Qaeda as "freedom fighters". A ver si la BBC se aprende esto de una puta vez.

If you are not a Spanish resident you may be lacking some interesting facts around the news. Here's some bullet points to complete the story:

Azpeitia is a town ruled by ETA, thanks to the inaction of the Fiscal General (State Prosecutor), Cándido Gómez Pumpido, who didn't apply the anti-ETA laws to the full extent before the last municipal elections in 2007. He said publicly that ANV (ETA) deserved some political room and that we couldn't create "an electoral Guantanamo"
Yes, ETA rules in the city together with EA (Eusko Alkartasuna), a secession of the PNV and one of those parties that some wise journalists define as "democratic".
The City Hall has of course not condemned the assassination.
The friends of the assassinated businessman (who was a nationalist) kept on playing cards in the bar that was 150 meters away from the killing. Nobody condemned the assassination. A Nazi fear was running down the spines of all neighbours.

Now you know a bit more.

Santos de merde

2008-12-02T21:47:00.000+01:00

Santos Mirasierra is a stupid french nazi that deserves to taste the goodies of prison during a good number of years.

Merde de mafia dans le fut.

Can anyone tell me? Madrid, March 11th 2004

2008-12-01T09:22:00.001+01:00

Reflecting on what happened these days in Mumbai, I couldn't help to come back to the Madrid train assassinations of March 11, 2004

Who ordered the killings?
Who financed them?
How come we still don't know which explosive was used on the trains?
Why were the attacked train sets washed (and later destroyed) immediately after the killings?
Why is everybody so interested in hiding the truth?

A view of an ETA victim on the Irish News

2008-11-27T14:37:00.002+01:00

No contribution from my side today. Just pure link posting. Follow the news here.

"A victim of Eta violence has called on Irish people to recognise the pain caused by the Basque separatists, saying that Spanish people are talking about little else than the fact that convicted killer Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos is “roaming freely” through the streets of Belfast. Diana Rusk reports

TEN-YEAR-OLD Pedro Blanco Martin was watching a cartoon on TV when it was interrupted by a government message announcing that his father had just been killed by Basque separatist group Eta.

His 15-year-old sister, Almudeno, heard the blast of the car-bomb detonating from her school and when she rang home to find out more, her little brother told her: “It’s dad.”

The assassination of their army officer father, Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Blanco, in Madrid in January 2000 shattered the paramilitary group’s 14-month ceasefire.

Those suspected of carrying out the attack are in prison awaiting trial but his daughter has made the unusual step of writing a public letter after learning that one of the key members of Eta is living in Belfast and fighting an extradition order from the Spanish government.

In the emotional letter to The Irish News, Ms Blanco Martin, now 24, said the victims of the paramilitary organisation are talking about little else but the fact that Jose Ignacio ‘Inaki’ de Juana Chaos is “roaming freely through the streets of Northern Ireland towns with total impunity”.

She wrote how the 53-year-old has never repented his part in 25 deaths – including machine gunning a car containing three soldiers, murdering a rear-admiral and planting a car bomb that killed 12 military policemen – and toasting deaths with champagne in prison.

Ms Martin said she decided to write the letter because she believes supporters of de Juana Chaos in Ireland are not aware of the extent of his campaign of violence.

“For the victims it’s not easy to see him with his wife in Belfast, walking down the streets like a happy person,” she said.

“It’s also very hard for the victims to see that there are a lot of people in Ireland who support him – people who say you are a great person

because I think they don’t know what he is.

“The victims are very, very angry. They want him home to be here and judged by Spanish law.

“I would say to the Irish people to think about the Spanish victims of this person. Think of the families who have suffered, who are still

suffering because he is free and not here.

“I think his supporters don’t know what they are doing. They only know about independence and think he is fighting for independence.

“He is one of the worst killers in Eta. He is the person with the most victims. He is the most cruel.”

Recalling the day her 44-year-old father was killed close to his flat in the Spanish capital, Ms Martin said there could have been more victims.

“He usually went to work by car with his colonel,” she said.

“When he was waiting for the car to bring him to his work, he was walking along a street and the bomb exploded.

“The target was his boss and him and the driver but the car he used to bring him to work was 10 minutes late so the bomb explosion was early and he was the only victim.”

She heard the explosion from her school and rang home to find out more.

“I live in a neighbourhood with a lot of officers from the army,” Ms Martin said.

“I heard it and I called home because I was afraid someone else had been killed and I never thought about my father.

“My brother was home and he said to me, ‘it’s dad’. He didn’t say anything more.

“My brother watched it on TV. He was at home ill with a stomach ache and he heard the explosion.

“He put on the TV and was watching a cartoon when the programme was interrupted and the minister said the name of the victim was my father.

“I was 15 and I could understand but my brother was a child. He didn’t want to talk about what happened.”

Ms Martin hopes that her letter will help people in Northern Ireland understand the situation better.

“We only want him to come back here and not be in Northern Ireland like a free person doing things like going to the supermarket and having fun because we can not have fun.”

Hamilton to receive 'Bambi' prize

2008-11-26T12:17:00.004+01:00

According the F1-Live, this is the news
Gee, now I hate 2 Bambies....

Nepotism a la espagnole

2008-11-25T09:27:00.001+01:00

Nepotism (Wikipedia dixit) is the showing of favoritism toward relatives and friends, based upon that relationship, rather than on an objective evaluation of ability, meritocracy or suitability. For instance, offering employment to a relative, despite the fact that there are others who are better qualified and willing to perform the job. The word nepotism is from the Latin word 'nepos', meaning "nephew" or "grandchild"

We love this practice in Spain. The governments of Felipe Gonzalez (one of the most corrupt politicians in the history of Western Europe) excelled at this. Aznar was a bit quieter, and derived the exercise to the private sector, and Zapatero seems to be following his steps, putting for example the leverage on the Contracting industry (Sacyr) for his friends interests in the banking (BBVA), power (Endesa, EON and ENEL) and refining (Repsol) sectors.

Our special political system, with a central government and a bureaucratic network mirrored by 17 regional authorities, caters for an immense dose of nepotism. The latest is the series of dark movements to save Zapatero's friends (Sacyr) from going bankrupt by allowing Lukoil (a symbol of the modern Russian Mafia) to buy his stake in Repsol, all of this facilitated by public Russian grants.

God help us here.

Way to go, bring that Davis cup home!

2008-11-24T11:31:00.000+01:00

Spain has won the Davis cup against all odds in an away exhibition against Argentina. Nadal was injured, the surface wasn't clay and yet, we have once more demonstrated what we are capable of doing when we believe, act and think as a team and a country.

Can you imagine how far we could reach if this happened in all other areas of our life as a nation??

Good job guys! Great demonstration of talent in a team perfectly led by the Catalan and proud Spanish Emilio Sánchez-Vicario.

Burning books in Spain

2008-11-21T10:06:00.000+01:00

Don't be surprised if we start seeing these things again in Spain. There are unmistakable signs all around the place. You start censoring journalists, you then close their radio stations, later on you send them fines for not properly speaking Catalan and at the end you start burning their politically-incorrect books.

The next step is to burn the journalists themselves.

Sounds familiar?

The Catalan Audiovisual Council or the New Totalitarianism

2008-11-19T14:27:00.001+01:00

The Catalan Audiovisual Council, or CAC is a great example of the state of things in a part of Spain that sees, day after day, how the most fundamental principles of individual liberty and freedom of speech are destroyed in favour of the ultimate goals of the "Catalan nation"

It defines itself as "the independent authority that regulates audiovisual communication in Catalonia. Its objective is to enforce the regulations applicable to suppliers of audiovisual services, both public and private (...) The CAC's principles of action are defending freedom of speech and information, pluralism, neutrality and honesty of news, as well as free competition in the sector"

This cynic declaration, which sounds like the word "democratic" before East Germany's or North Korea's official names, hides a body that responds to the basic principles of Totalitarianism, a political system where the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the media. If you are against the official truth, you are dead. You are allowed to be an individual as long as you consider yourself part of an ultimate mission...

The whole rotten system is built around a single party or party system (the nationalists of CiU, the PSC and ERC) that controls the administration, thrives personality cults (Pujol...), controls the economy with a great degree of corruption, and which ultimately regulates and restricts free thinking, discussion and criticism. This is the role of the CAC.

A True Gentleman

2008-11-18T09:17:00.001+01:00

"The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe"

John Walter Wayland, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity creed.

All the best to you Pedro. Your deserve it. And whether you get a seat or not, you are an excellent driver and a True Gentleman.

Another one bites the dust. Txeroki arrested.

2008-11-17T14:53:00.001+01:00

And another one, yes another one, another one bites the dust!

Another infrahuman rat to be taken where it deserves to be, in prison. And (fingers crossed) this one seems to be behind the killing of 2 Spanish civil guards in the French territory who were legally acting as if they were French police agents, a fact that might mean that this insect spends the rest of his life behind bars. All my prayers for this to be true, because if he's sent to Spain he'll be free in 12 to 14 years.

Pass on the Veuve Cliqot!!!!!!!!

Nazi Fascism in Catalonia

2008-11-14T15:07:00.001+01:00

For all those who still have some doubts about what The Economist is saying, a couple of simple reminders for the weekend. In Catalonia, (Spain, Europe) kids are forbidden to speak Spanish during lunch breaks. Shops get fines in the 000s of Euros for displaying information only in Spanish.

What do you call this? I take any suggestions.

Read what The Economist says

2008-11-12T09:23:00.008+01:00

Thanks to Españolito de a pie I am bringing today an extremely interesting article by The Economist, a publication who is far from having a biased opinion on Spanish politics.

Here is the link: How much is enough?

Please read it through. It is an independent piece of writing. The Catalan Government has reacted with its typical fascist view of things: "that does not describe the reality, reality is what I say it is". A fact which makes it even more interesting to read. Please spread the word.

Some pearls:

"(...) But Catalan and Basque nationalism are creations of the late 19th century. They stem from industrialisation, which made these the richest regions in the country, taking in migrants from elsewhere in Spain. At the time the Spanish state, unlike its French counterpart, lacked the resources to integrate the country, says Antonio Elorza, a Basque political scientist at Madrid’s Complutense University. Otherwise Catalonia and the Basque country would have been as content within Spain as Languedoc and Brittany are within France (...)"

"(...) But this panoply of decentralisation has not placated the politicians in Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia. That is because they never wanted café para todos: they wanted it just for themselves, as a recognition that they were different. They still want that, no matter that Spain is now an extraordinarily decentralised country in which the Basques, for example, enjoy a greater degree of home rule than any other region in Europe (...)"

I didn't say it. The Brits have. And the world MUST know the truth

Nationalist interpretation of the crisis

2008-11-10T09:06:00.004+01:00

The Spanish economy has gone from a GDP growing 3.8% to a slump near 0% and soon on negative grounds.

The Catalan nazionalist government understands that coping with the crisis means that the President of the Catalan Parliament is entitled to spend EUR 9,200 (USD 11,500) on a series of extras for his fleet of brand-new Audi A8s: a wooden writing desk, a feet-resting gadget, MP3, bluetooth, n'importe quoi....

After some anti-system totalitarian and fascist media made this public, he has admitted feeling "sorry" and asked for the removal of the extra package.

Has he resigned? Of course not. Why would he? He can listen to us servants, and reduce the car's budget by 2%, but why on earth is he going to step out? After all, we are just a bunch of centralising fascists acting against the ultimate will of the Catalan nation.

Now what?

2008-11-07T10:28:00.001+01:00

Dear Mr. Nothing,

Thanks for defending the interests of Spanish corporations and from acting as a barrier against Latin American populist politicians and their measures than bring poverty to the people they rule and to our companies. No wonder you had to bend down and ... in order to be invited to the G20 meeting where others will "revisit the foundations of capitalism".

Yes, these companies like Repsol in Argentina, pay your salary and that of the hundreds of empty cowards you call "advisors" and I call "ass-suckers" (lameculos sounds less incorrect in Spanish). They pay the salary of your number 2, Pepiño Blanco, currently strolling down the streets of Havana to be humiliated by the remains of a filthy communist nomenklatura.

And now what? What are you going to say in this meeting? What sort of bright ideas will you put on the table?

A devoted Spaniard, taxpayer and contributor

The aftermath...

2008-11-05T21:08:00.000+01:00

...of election day. We will see what happens over the course of the next 4 years. There is so much excitement around Obama's figure and what he could represent that the reality check can be too painful...

Praise to McCain for the way he's dealt with defeat. This is another political league...

Good night from Miami.

Will Obama win like Lewis? (on my way to Miami)

2008-11-03T09:44:00.004+01:00

I am on my way to Florida for a few days. Right in the center of the action. It's funny, either as a student or for business purposes I've been at the core of the electoral heat (election day) 4 times now...

Let's cross our fingers. What happens here has an effect everywhere.

It's almost going to be as tight as yesterday's Formula 1 race, the black will win (if at all) in the last curve....!

PS: All the worse to the worse champion ever in Formula 1, Mr. Arrogant crybaby

Stop begging

2008-10-30T08:53:00.004+01:00

Please, stop this bleeding, you are such a shame for our country. Stop being ridiculous, cut it out. Spain is rightly entitled to claim a position among the leading economies of the world. This takes statistics and international politics. You are ruining the figures and your allies have been on the dodgy side of the populist world: Evo Morales, Castro, Chavez and the alikes.

What did you expect, Mr. Nothing?

I am back

2008-10-28T22:28:00.002+01:00

After almost 6 months of inactivity I have decided to blog back, slowly, progressively but surely. I must admit there were good reasons to stay out:

An immense professional challenge (still on but now hands on it);
A political burn-out. So much energy thriving for change to see that 11 million compatriots were deadly mistaken;
Only to then see that the opposition becomes the Ministry of Opposition.....
That the financial crisis hits us in the face and our allies run and bend down before John Maynard!!

But there is no room for negativism (Shakespeare, go ahead and kill me). The same reasons were there and I've had the sanity break I needed. Suffice to say I am Sorry! to my true followers (zero or one...)

I am back!

Kosovo is Serbia

2008-05-24T22:40:00.002+02:00

Just in case anyone had any doubts.

Salvador Sostres has killed a civil guard in Legutiano

2008-05-14T09:18:00.004+02:00

ETA has once again showed its negotiating assets in yet another brutal assassination of a Civil Guard in the Spanish city of Legutiano. The Basque society has once more proved how uncapable it is of cornering the cowards. Shame and blame on them, with some exceptions.

Today I would also like to blame the killing on Salvador Sostes (see my previous post here). His last pearl in a newspaper "Fritzl (the Austrian monster who kidnapped and raped his daughter and children over 20 years) explained to the Spaniards could be a metaphor of what they represent against our nation (Catalonia)"

Thanks a lot Salvador, puto asesino de mierda, I wish you all the best in your filthy miserable life.

Laicist Police. Big Brother in Spain

2008-05-08T09:16:00.000+02:00

We've seen it before in other places. The socialists have a long-standing tradition and reputation for 2 things: raising the deficit and narrowing freedom. The latest idea from the Illuminati Zapatero has been to set up a "Corps" of civil servants who will act as policemen in safeguarding "Laicism" in public life, i.e., the absence of any sort of religiosity. Of course they mean catholic religiosity. The moderate, tolerant and exemplary Islamic religion is pushed to become even more public (hence the public request for vote to the socialists by the Spanish Islamic Federation).

So, here comes Big Brother to make sure we think and act the way we are supposed to. Great idea.

Bunch of empty fascists.

Not trully merited but.....

2008-04-28T22:10:00.005+02:00

Other than short posting from my blackberry while on planes, my current overload of work (assuming new challenges!) has stopped me from being able to mention two honor received from Crispal and Patricia.

The first award has the name of "April 11. For the value of the fight for freedom". I would like to pass it back to Crispal, and dedicate it to the memories of all of those that have the guts to face the nazis of ETA in their daily lives.

Those coming from Patri have slightly more subtle names: Moon Eclipse and Blue Planet. Dedicated to those that spur human feelings and fight for planet conservation. Not sure about the second motto, Patricia, but again, coming from you I take it with great honor.

I dedicate it to Dick Hoyt, a father that has touched my heart like no other.

The Basque society is sick

2008-04-28T21:51:00.003+02:00

The Basque society is sick. The illness is one of those with a difficult remedy. Years and years of lies, manipulation and nazi endoctrination have spreaded the cancer of fear and bowing before the terrorists.

Even the language is twisted to reflect this. The terrorists are called "naughty boys", with a mix of panic and humiliation. Those who dare to think out of the politically correct bundle of lies have to bear assaults that range from public insults to shots in their heads.

The Basque government, a monopoly of the PNV, has proved to be uncapable of dealing with the situation, namely because they share the same long-term dream (or nightmare I would say).

Everthing has been tried with them, and nothing has ever worked. Perhaps it's time for more radical measures. For the sake of those who love life.

Quality or number?

2008-04-27T22:15:00.001+02:00

Our last government has more women than men. A lot of people are cheering this fact. Our defense secretary is a pregnant woman whose main merit consists in having heavily criticised the armies and the concept of Spain as a nation. Joke? No, Zapatero.

Why would you be happy or consider something good to have more women than men? or more white than black, or more people from Madrid than Barcelona? We don't need men or women, black or whites, we need well-prepared citizens who know how to deal with the intricacies of dealing with OUR money.

But in Spain we live in a world of quotas and your merit is on your gender (better woman than man), your origin (more right from Catalonia than from anywhere else) or your religion (better arab than catholic).

I am not muslim, I am not gay, I am not a woman, I am not single, I have 3 kids, I drive a 4X4, I like wine, I like hamburgers (albeit from time to time)....I am dead with no remedy..........man.

ETA continues to rule in Spanish City Halls

2008-04-25T09:01:00.004+02:00

50 days after the last assassination of ETA, the terrorist group continues to rule several Spanish cities, namely in Mondragon, a nest of fascist snakes.

What I shouted at in my post about the PNV continues to be a sad reality.

The Communists of Izquierda Unida, the separatists followers of Hitler's predecessor (Arana) and the coward traitors of the empty-headed Zapaterist Party have all come to the conclusion that it is very difficult to agree on an impeachment of the ETA rulers of the City Hall.

Am I joking? No. This is again the sad political reality of a bunch of cowards and miserable killers of the most fundamental human rights.

Ibarreche compares Spain with China

2008-04-23T15:03:00.001+02:00

In yet another exercise of cynic, gnomic, limited, untalented and fascist thinking, the president of the Basque government has compared China and Spain, because both countries "fear the small and brave nations of Tibet and Euskadi"

You can swallow your words, or rather please pack them and stick them up your ass, stupid Stalin apprentice. How dare you compare the darkness of a serial-killer oppressive mega red dictatorship with a democracy like ours. And, whether you like it or not, stupid sheep, the basques and the rest of the Spaniards are 99.9% equal.

Mediocre thinkers of a mediocre and coward society.

Bloody bastards

Slowly back to business

2008-04-20T21:12:00.001+02:00

Now, I have not abandoned my blog. Other duties are calling me now. 3 kids, a new position in my company while temporarily keeping an eye on the old duties....way too much. But I will progressively come back to writing. In the meantime I am trying to read all my favs as well.

I am too busy to think and too astonished to swallow the pills of my country's politics

Overloaded

2008-04-15T09:16:00.000+02:00

With work...

Shocked with what happens in my country

But, I will write back!

France to re-join the military structure of NATO

2008-04-09T22:35:00.000+02:00

Bravo Sarko

A strong West needs a strong military France and a strong leader like you.

I like your personality & your guts

Con dos cojones

Voir la France faisant comme ça me plait comme si c'etait mon pays

Another critical view on climate change

2008-04-08T09:40:00.000+02:00

I am an active supporter of all those that put the "Climate Change" apocalypse under the shadow of a very big doubt. Navigating the FT.com I found a reasoned opinion about the topic which gave me even more arguments to be against the professional catastrophists that are selling us this new Armageddon (a story that is filling up their pockets). It's a light economical approach to the matter by Lord Nigel Lawson, who was the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer from 1983 to 89. I don't fully share all of his ideas, but it's a piece of opinion worth reading.

The article is called "A foolish overreaction to climate change" and the copyright belongs to the Financial Times:

Over the past five years I have become increasingly concerned at the scaremongering of the climate alarmists, which has led the governments of Europe to commit themselves to a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, regardless of the economic cost of doing so. The subject is such a complex one, involving science, economics and politics in almost equal measure, that to do it justice I have written a book, albeit a short one, thoroughly referenced and sourced. But the bare bones are clear.

First, given the so-called greenhouse effect, the marked and largely man-made increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the earth’s atmosphere has no doubt contributed to the modest 20th century warming of the planet. But what remains a matter of unresolved dispute among climate scientists is how great a contribution it has made, compared with the natural factors affecting the earth’s climate.

The majority view among climate scientists, as set out in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is that “most” of the slight (0.5ºC) warming in the last quarter of the 20th century was “very likely” caused by man-made carbon dioxide emissions. On that basis, and relying on computer models, its “best guess” of the likely rise in mean global temperature over the next 100 years is between 1.8ºC and 4ºC.

These projections were made, incidentally, before the recent acknowledgement that so far this century there has been no further global warming at all – in spite of a continuing rapid rise in carbon emissions.

Be that as it may, the IPCC goes on to estimate what the impact of the projected warming would be. It does so on the explicit basis of two assumptions. The first is that, while the developed world can adapt to warming, the developing world lacks the capacity to do so. The second is that, even in the developed world, adaptive capacity is constrained by the limits of existing technology – that is to say, there will be no further technological development over the next 100 years.

The first, distinctly patronising, assumption is almost certainly false. But even it were true it would mean only that, should the need arise, overseas aid programmes would be tailored to ensure that the developing world did acquire the necessary adaptive capacity. The second is self-evidently absurd, not least in the case of food production, given the ongoing developments in bio-engineering and genetic modification.

It is, however, on this flawed basis that the IPCC reckons that, if the rise in global temperature over the next 100 years is as much as 4ºC, it would be likely to cost anything between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of global gross domestic product, albeit much more than this in the developing world and less in the developed world.

Even if that were so, what would it mean? Suppose the loss to the developing world were as much as 10 per cent of GDP, then – given the IPCC’s economic growth assumptions, on which its emissions assumptions, and hence its warming assumptions, are based– it would imply that, by 2100 or thereabouts, people in the developing world, instead of being some 9.5 times as well off as they are today, would be “only” some 8.5 times as well off – which would still leave them better off than people in the developed world today. This, then, is the scale of the alleged threat to the planet – based, to repeat, on the IPCC’s grossly inflated estimate of the likely damage from further warming, arising from its absurdly gloomy view of mankind’s ability to adapt.

Indeed, given that warming produces benefits as well as costs, it is far from clear that for the people of the world as a whole, the currently projected warming, even if it occurs, would cause any net harm at all. By contrast, slowing down world economic growth, by shifting to much more expensive non-carbon sources of energy, would be massively costly, as Dieter Helm, Britain’s foremost energy economist, has recently spelt out.

That is one good reason why the sought-after global agreement to cut back drastically on carbon dioxide emissions, embracing China, India and the other major developing countries, is not going to happen. But two very real dangers remain.

The first is that the European Union, which already has the bit between its teeth on this issue, will severely damage its own economy by deciding to set an example to the world. And the second is that it will seek to limit that damage, as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and others are already urging, by imposing trade barriers against those countries that are not prepared to accept mandatory cuts in their emissions.

A lurch into protectionism, and the rolling back of globalisation, would do far more damage to the world economy in general and to the developing countries in particular than could conceivably result from the projected resumption of global warming.

It is high time this folly ended.

The political concessions of Zapatero to ETA

2008-04-07T11:52:00.001+02:00

If someone calls you and says, "appoint me as general manager of your company or I'll kill your 3 kids", what would you do? Imagine for a second that this someone is backed in his claims by a vast majority of your neighbours. You would of course not consider his peer support and try by all means to wind him down using all of your resources. Because, if you say "OK, not general manager but I will appoint you Marketing manager and please don't kill my kids" you know what's next, they now you are weak and will try to repeat the behaviour until they own the company. You don't need to be a psychologist ..

The moral of the story is simple: You don't negotiate with criminals.

Well, this was the case until Zapatero crossed the red line. Today in the Spanish press there is even more evidence around his offer to ETA to create a common institution between Navarre and the Basque Country. This has always been a clear-cut demand of the terrorists. Their idea of "Euskalherria" is the 3 Basque provinces in Spain (the Basque Autonomous Community or "Basque Country"), Navarre and the 3 French Provinces. With Zapatero they were tying the first nodes with Navarre. Of course if you ask people in Navarre 90% are against this idea.

You bent down Mr. Nothing

Spain's isolation

2008-04-04T10:13:00.007+02:00

Today's picture speaks for itself. I won't say much more, other than I feel ashamed and terribly sad to see this. He is representing my country. For those who think that the picture may have been taken on purpose and that these things happen in all summits, don't be fooled, he is always alone. His short-minded tactic way of thinking has brought this for us.

Bloody humiliating scene

I do support her

2008-04-03T12:39:00.007+02:00

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria has been nominated as the Parliamentary speaker on behalf of the Popular Party in the Spanish Congress.

The reaction has been overwhelming. "She's too young and unexperienced". In this country we jump too quickly into critics. She's not even spent a secong in her role and everybody is shooting at her.

Let alone all political considerations for a sec. We are such a gerontocratic country. We should learn from other societies (like the US) where a 32 year old can rule a company if he' the most capable to do so.

She's young (she has my age, 35), she's talented. She's got all my support. At least until facts prove otherwise.

Y me cae bien, que cojones.

The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) allows ETA to rule the city hall of Mondragon

2008-04-02T11:18:00.001+02:00

If you have read my series about the myths of the Basque Country you will by now be familiar with the PNV. If you are not let's read the politically-correct (Wikipidea) definition of the PNV

"The party was founded in 1895 by Sabino de Arana y Goiri as a Catholic conservative, party agitating for the restoration of self-government and the defence of the "Basque race". Currently, it describes itself as Basque, democratic, participatory, plural, and humanist. It is a moderate nationalist party which favours greater autonomy, if not independence itself, for the Basque region. PNV opposes political violence"

Now, let's go to the facts and the truth.

2 days before the last general elections in Spain, ETA killed in the city of Mondragon an ex city hall member which happened to be a socialist. Again, our general elections tainted with blood hours from the votes. Again the emotions blurring the electoral result. And again, official persecution of all those who dare to defend this idea. But that's the state of affairs nowadays in this coward corner of the world.

Mondragon has been a nest of terrorists since the early days of ETA. The different political branches of the Nazi terrorists have been ruling the city since democracy allowed them to participate in the elections. Sadly, dramatically sadly, they were allowed to participate in the last municipal elections under the name of ANV and they won in Mondragon. They were ruling in coalition with Izquierda Unida (the Spanish Communist Party), a traditional cooperator with the terrorists (globally, not only in Spain).

Since 2002, the main 2 parties (PP and PSOE) agreed on a law to illegalise those parties that defend violence as a means of action. The government of Zapatero could have applied that law in Mondragon but at the time it was negotiating political concessions with ETA, so they only illegalised half of the ANV lists in the different municipalities.

Well, after the last assassination in Mondragon, the other political parties with representation in the city hall (PNV, Socialist Party, PP and IU) decided to launch an impeachment against the ANV mayor who hadn't condemned the assassination. A lot of us suspected this was moved by emotion and nothing else. Once more reality proves to be on our side. Yesterday, the PNV has announced that it will not support the impeachment because it "won't help in the resolution of the conflict".

I am afraid the PNV is the one that has a real conflict. They don't really want to push the assassins away from their seats. They have too much in common. Sad bunch of cowards, you are worse than Petain cooperating with the Nazis.

Year 2008. In Spain, a terrorist group is allowed to rule in cities.

Cerveceria Alemana

2008-04-01T10:56:00.008+02:00

An off-topic today...

If you ever come to Madrid, or else, if you live here, there is a place you cannot miss. It's a beer & food bar with 100 years of history. Its name is Cervería Alemana (The German beer place), a denomination describing the wide variety of national and imported beers it serves.

It used to be (and still is to some extent) THE place where bullfighters and and the bullfighting aficionados met before and after the bullfights. All the classy and chic atmosphere around the national tradition of course went with it.

Get there, ask for a cold "caña" (small glass of beer) and a nice tapa. Feel the history of Madrid while you treat yourself to the glories designed for the warriors.

The address Plaza de Santa Ana, in the center of Madrid

PS: If you want to know why I brought this, just drop me an email (there' always a story behind of course)

The shame of Public Television in Spain

2008-03-31T10:26:00.003+02:00

Spain is a peculiar country. "Spain is different" read the official tourism publicity in the 80s. And they were partially right. Having travelled extensively all around the globe I can tell you that we are not that different, but, to a certain degree, we hold unique features that make us a bit of a special case sometimes. Let's go with one.

In all countries of the world, even in the US, there is a public television, one that is wholly or partially owned by the government. In Spain we got 13!, 12 belonging to regional governments and federated here and the traditional national network (TVE), which is at the origin of television in Spain.

Our model is an insult to the entrepreneurs. These public entities are financed in a dual way. They lose billions of Euros altogether, but their losses are covered with our taxes. The advocates of "social contracts" and identical bullsh.. defend this on the basis of "general interest" (who are they to know what interests everybody anyway?). But.....these government-owned creatures also compete with commercial TVs on the haunt for publicity.

Now, is this unfair competition or what?

Their audiences are generally poor. But the worse is how they shamefully serve the needs of their masters, i.e. the state and regional politicians. They are just another step in the ladder of official manipulation. No one would understand a government-owned newspaper these days. Why do I have to support this bunch of pathetic slaves with my money? As a great bumper sticker that I already posted here said "I pay my taxes to avoid prison, not because of your great ideas"

Castro authorises Cuban to use their mobile phones

2008-03-28T16:29:00.001+01:00

A shame they have no money to buy them or use them
And for those lucky enough to afford one, big moustache brother will be there listening to any subversive words

They should also be authorised to eat at least twice a day

Breaking the Rules in Spain. Adolf is back.

2008-03-27T14:52:00.001+01:00

The Catalan Counsellor or "Minister of Home Affairs" has just declared today that he supports fining a member of the Catalan Regional Police for writing a report in Spanish.

"Catalan is the official language of the Spanish Administration, so he had to write the report in Catalan"

Article 3 of the Spanish Constitution [Official Language]

(1) Spanish is the official language of the state. All Spaniards have the duty to know it and the right to use it.
(2) The other languages of Spain will also be official in the respective autonomous communities, in accordance with their Statutes.
(3) The richness of the linguistic modalities of Spain is a cultural patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection.

The Nazis are slowly building momentum in Europe, no doubt. Watch out, Hitler was a joke for everyone at the beginning.

PS: This guy is the supreme chief of the Catalan police and at the same time an activist in favour of the extreme-left groups that call for "occupying" properties that are "empty". He of course lives in a 250 sq. meters flat worth over EUR 1.4 million

A Nazi rules FC Barcelona

2008-03-26T14:57:00.003+01:00

A singular representative of the Unified & Single Party of Catalonia, the Nazi Socialist Unified Coalition of the PSC, CiU and ERC, and at the same time president of FC Barcelona, one of the biggest and best known football clubs in the world, has just declared:

I am from a small country between France and Spain

He did so when justifying that a Barcelona team of 8 year-olds! stood in the locker room while the Spanish national anthem was being played at a tournament in Portugal. History repeats itself once more. The Nazi and Communist dictatorships were very good at using children (they are easy to manipulate) when carrying out their vomiting tactics.

So, now you know what you support out there when you want Barcelona to win. A club that declares itself anti-Spanish and that uses these tactics with kids.

Hitler didn't destroy Germany.

Nor will this bunch of fascists do the same with the Basque Country or Catalonia.

We are with you Yoani

2008-03-25T11:32:00.003+01:00

The Internet has, no doubt, changed the world in ways we are not even clear of. The next generations will be better positioned to assess in a structured way all the deep changes this technology has brought to the way we move, we socialize, we transaction and we interact with the world.

But probably the best of all positive (it also has many "negatives") aspects brought by this revolution is the enhancement of freedom and liberty. An individual with a keyboard and a net access can be more powerful than 75 speeches of the best politician in the world.

Dictatorships (and some democratic governments like mine) try to control the flood of free thought with inevitable failure. You can censor here but another leakage will pop up there. It's great. Governments of the worst nature, like China, are defeated every day. People are willing to be free and to access the information they want.

A great example is the blog of Yoani Sanchez, a 32 year-old Cuban philologist who lives in Havana and writes a blog that is getting Castro off his nerves. She's somehow managed to escape the tight communist censorship and writes from Cuba about the Cuban tragedy.

From this little corner of the world, all the best to you Yoani, un abrazo muy fuerte y sigue luchando.

Link to her Blog, Generacion Y

Dear Führer, we Salute you!

2008-03-24T15:45:00.001+01:00

In the day of the Basque Nation, the Basque Homeland.

In the day of the Pure, of those with RH+ blood.

In the day of the chosen ones.

A brisk closer to the moment where all the enemies will be defeated.

We salute you, dear leader, our almighty General of the Basques.

May the Force be with you.

(and the bullets of our cousins be against those who dare to put this under doubt)

Out of here.....!

2008-03-12T18:33:00.003+01:00

Due to the concatenation of several business trips & the celebration of the Easter holidays, I won't be contributing to my blog until at least the 25th of March.

Enjoy the reading.

I'll be enjoying the winds of Europe and the shores of my dear Spain.

I think we all need a small rest to recuperate from the recent dark news...

We will never forget you

2008-03-11T14:48:00.002+01:00

Just a few words on a very sad day to commemorate the 4th anniversary and to pray for those 192 innocents who died in the Madrid bombings on a tragic morning of the 11th of March 2004.

A tragedy that has changed the fate of our country for years to come and for which we still don't know who ordered it. The tribunals have only pointed at the very end of the executing string, pointing to a tiny group of poor immigrants with little or no training which were spies for the Spanish National Police.
Shame on all those hiding the truth on the worst terrorist attack in the history of Europe. May Justice be upon them one day for this.

I hope my children's generation, or my grandchildren's generation is brave enough to seek the truth. The light be with them

The victims deserve no less.

Congratulations Spain

2008-03-10T10:22:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to the winners in the 2008 General Elections in Spain.

For those of you who have little idea of the winning party's programme, a snapshot of what we Spaniards have, inter-alia, chosen:

- A foreign policy against Israel and the US and pro Cuba, Venezuela and Hamas.
- A nation to whom nobody listens to inside the EU because we have publicly defied and called "losers" the leaders of Germany and France.
- A call for further government intervention in our daily lives. A land of prohibition and banning. Human beings are not individuals. They are cattle that needs to be manipulated by the elites.
- State intervention in a market economy closely linked to the government.
- Negotiating with the terrorists is a viable option. ETA knows this very well now. Lying about it is conceivable as long as it serves our needs.
- Dividing the country as a means to stay in power forever is OK. The center-right is just a bunch of fascists. How dare they criticise the party in power. Their 10M+ voters are Franco followers.
- We will NEVER know who ordered the killing of 200 innocents on the March 11 trains.
- The left has to win the war they lost 70 years ago. Digging the graves is a daily priority for the Spaniards.
- Setting 3,000 EUR fines for those who speak Spanish in Catalonia is fair.
- We prefer to sign pacts with extremist parties that bring 3 MPs than to even talk to those fascists that have 153 seats in the Parliament.
- Those who go to church or who believe in god are fascists whose life motto is to oppress us all. God is a Nazi leader. Allah is more OK.

We have democratically chosen this.

We deserve whatever comes.

ETA speaks again

2008-03-07T15:11:00.002+01:00

Thanks Mr. President for letting them be in our city halls.
These bastards have spoken the only language they know.

Did you ever dream it was going to be different?

For the International readers, be aware that ANV (ETA) is governing the city where this ex city counsellor has been killed. And this has happened because Zapatero's government failed to trigger the legal process for the illegalisation of ANV (only half of the lists were banned for the municipal elections)

Pure Fascism in Spain

2008-03-05T11:37:00.001+01:00

Our dearest government has gone one step beyond.

Not only are they promoting a school subject called "Education for the citizens", an indoctrination plan to tell our kids which values are acceptable (those of their version of the left) and which ones are not correct (all the others). Franco couldn't have done it better in substituting the role of parents.

Not only are they persecuting (and setting fines) those who dare to make publicity in Spanish.

Not only are they prohibiting kids to speak in Spanish during their morning and lunch breaks (1984's Big Brother is a fucking kid's game compared to this)

The latest is that in their Catalan version, the Socialist Party is telling you what you should and should not listen to. Which media are politically correct and which ones you shouldn't listen to. The election signs reads "Still undecided? Listen to the COPE every morning (this is the radio station that criticises them more).

Disgusting.

Bunch of radical Nazi fascists.

Why are you so afraid of freedom?

I need to throw up.

20 sports men would have been slaughtered.....

2008-03-04T10:17:00.001+01:00

I was unlucky (or lucky depending on your sports taste / phobia) to fly last Sunday evening from Madrid to Barcelona on a late night packed Spanair 717 sitting in the middle of a bunch (around 20) of young football players from the lower categories of FC Barcelona. Besides the trainers, they were accompanied by Johann Cruyff (and his wife).

I will let alone the fact that I am a die-hard fan and 25 years club member of Real Madrid (just in case you hadn't noticed). It was difficult enough to hear them talk nasty things about my team, and yes I am not the kind of guy that would confront 20 studs ranging from 75 to 100 kilograms of bad intentions...

The shocking event of the night was that....they were speaking in Spanish!!!! O my God, can you believe it? They were confronting the system!!! Unacceptable!!! They were going against the Sacred Principles of the Tinell pact!!!! (I will speak about this in future entries).

Comrade Laporta, the president of FC Barcelona and a potential Commander in chief of the Nazionalist Catalan Regime has made it clear quite a few times: "those who play here must speak in Catalan". Yes, this happens in a little corner of Western Europe in the year 2008.

So, keep this for yourself, save the lives & reputation of those who dare to defy the Single Unified Sacred Principles of the Nazionalist Catalonian Regime.

Por la gloria de mi madre, cobardes.

We deserve better

2008-02-29T17:15:00.001+01:00

We pay our taxes (too many)
We have to accept living with an over-present state
We cannot ask who was behind the worse terrorist attack in the history of Western Europe
We are not supposed to eat hamburgers
We cannot say we like drinking wine
We cannot say we like the US, even if we have lived there while others haven't
We cannot say we don't give a damn about the Civil War or Franco
We cannot put under a shadow of doubt the piles of lies and inventions about pseudo-nations that have never existed
We have to live a Disney Land education where everybody is good and things come at no effort
We cannot say a teacher is the freaking undisputed ruler in a classroom
We cannot defend the legitimate individual rights of single, unique and free human beings
We cannot defend the rights of people who decide to smoke
We have to admit that the Cuban dictatorship has "positive wins to be kept"

If you dare for one second to move a millimetre away from the official truth, you are accused of being as bad as the worse evil on the face of the earth (Hitler, Franco, etc)

WE WERE BORN AS FREE HUMAN BEINGS AND WORK OUR ASS OFF EVERY DAY
WE DESERVE A FUCKING CHANGE

Bon Happy Weekend

Discovering Albert Boadella - Goodbye Catalonia (Adios Cataluña) - Quotes I

2008-02-28T09:30:00.001+01:00

From time to time I manage to steal a few hours from the surmounting daily duties, namely looking after 3 kids at home and some 25 at work (and I am not a Kindergarten teacher....)

Those that know me well are aware that I jump into two tasks at those precious moments. I either watch movies I've downloaded from the Internet (lately addicted to War movies BTW). SGAE come here baby. Or I jump into catching up on pending books. I've piled up to 7 I want to devour in the coming weeks/months.

Taking the opportunity of a lengthy trip this week from Milan to Zurich then back to Milan, Rome and Madrid, I took a book with me which I must admit is captivating my soul. It's called Goodbye Catalonia (Adios Cataluña). It has been written by Albert Boadella, a Catalan comedian that drank from the fountains of the nazionalism and the ideological vacuum of the coward left. He's the founder of a very famous theatre group called Els Joglars. But amongst other things he's a true free spirit and an extremely funny and ironic character.

He's admirable. A true Catalan and thus a proud Spaniard who knows and explains very well our virtues and defects as a nation. He methodologically, systematically and hilariously destroys the myths of the "Tribe", i.e the official Catalanism. He's been there. He knows what he's talking about. His sin was to attack the president of the regional Catalan government, Jordi Pujol (almost 20 years in office, simply democratically sick) when he realised how he was pickpocketing millions from taxpayers on his own benefit, a family tradition as we can see now with his son Oriol. As usual, the nationalists soon associate this criticism with an attack to the whole "nation". This Nazi argument is by the way used by many nationalist in Spain these days. Because of this he has been persecuted by the nationalists throughout his life.

The book is about this "War" but also about the love he feels for his wife Dolors (worth reading, the man is really in love). A passage I've found extremely descriptive is when he lists the differences between the catalans and the rest of the spaniards:

The Catalan language (you have to speak something)
La Sardana, a regional dance invented by the Andalusian Pepe Ventura on the 19th century
Giving flowers as a gift on the day of St. George.
The oldest son (Hereu) or daughter (Pubilla) is the one that inherits.
Celebrating the 26th of January (to make cannelloni with the remains of the Christmas dinner)
The Nona de Pascua, an Easter cake
An obsession for eating mushrooms
The Castellets (vertical pile of people you must have seen)
The Caganer, a figure that is taking a s...t and that we put in our very Spanish representation of Bethelem ("el Belen") during Christmas

As you can see...lots of essential differences.....

(I'll be bringing other great quotes)

You are with or without Frankie.....

2008-02-22T12:44:00.011+01:00

Listen carefully and follow the lyrics....

Strangers on my flight,
turbans they're packin'.
Wonderin' if they might,
plan a hijacking.
They could pull a stunt,
before this flight is through.

Something's on their minds.
I saw them mutter.
What that in their hands?
Looks like box cutters,
I'm gonna kick some ass,
if they make a move.

Strangers on my flight.
Two smelly people,
and they're not talking right;
and in a moment,
I will grab base ball bat;
and that will be that.
Swing like Joe DiMaggio,
and rip them both a new a-hole.

And if they pick a fight,
and try to screw us,
I'll punch out their lights,
just like Joe Louis.
It would feel so right,
for strangers on my flight.

Ratta Tat Tat Tat,
Budda Bing Bang Boom,
Zooma Zooma Zoom.

Send those bastards to the moon....

War criminal Erna Wallisch dies

2008-02-22T11:20:00.002+01:00

Sad news any time a human being dies. But even worse if this human being escapes the hands of human law. Today I learned that Erna Wallisch, another Nazi criminal has cheated justice for war crimes after dying peacefully in a hospital bed.

Wallisch was a guard at the Majdanek death camp in Lublin in Poland from October 1942 to January 1944 where she was feared and hated for her brutality. She was so hated that people used to warn each other when she was near. She would think nothing of beating someone she had not liked, punching and kicking them to the ground. Austrian proceedings against Wallisch in the 1970s were inconclusive owing to lack of proof of her direct involvement in the murder of camp inmates.

Another case of injustice.

The ghost of Felipe Gonzalez is back

2008-02-21T12:28:00.001+01:00

There are a couple of events taking place this week in Spain that have had a flash-back effect on me. First the inauguration of the high-speed rail line between Madrid and Barcelona (known here as the AVE), a complete success for which I am really happy both personally and professionally and a vast effort by all of us Spanish tax-payers. The first AVE was built between Madrid and Seville, a complete nonsense taking into account the economic importance of Madrid and Barcelona. It was a decision by the socialist ruling party based on the fact that Felipe Gonzalez is from Seville and sparked a humongous corruption case where the millions went back and forth between providers like Siemens and Alstom and the socialist party (of course the socialist intermediaries kept some for their own use)

Second a sad event that has once more made me question our judiciary system. The Constitutional Court has ruled the prison sentence imposed by the Supreme Court on "The Albertos" has expired, so they will avoid jail. This is a famous corruption case, whereby 2 rich businessmen (Alberto Cortina and Alberto Alcocer) agreed directly face to face with Felipe Gonzalez to intervene in the market in order to merge 2 large banks and put the former socialist minister of Finance (Miguel Boyer) as CEO of the merged entity. As a pay for their services they were allowed to sell a piece of land in the middle of the business district of Madrid at a price which was way over what they would have normally gotten, hadn't the land been re-classified by the State. The famous inclined "KIO" towers in Madrid were built there and that is why the whole case is also know as the "KIO corruption case". KIO stands for the Kuwait Investment Office

For those that know little about Spanish politics, Felipe Gonzalez was the most corrupt politician this land has ever seen.

Read my lips...

2008-02-20T16:00:00.002+01:00

Navigating the web, I've found a picture that describes very well what I think about those who love to manage my money...

No further comments.

Inspired by this entry on Crispal's blog....

Cheers

A brisk of hope for the Cuban people

2008-02-19T10:35:00.003+01:00

The announcement today on the "Official Agency for the Manipulation of minds, the Hiding of the Truth and the Sponsoring of Selective Annihilation of Anti-revolutionary pro-imperialists (AKA as Granma)" that the murderer Fidel Castro is stepping down and passing on all powers to his brother Raul opens a small window of hope for the poor & oppressed Cubans.

Raul is slightly different and all in all a big coward who will do whatever is at hand to safeguard his fortune. That might mean a small possibility of bringing democracy and freedom to the island. Fingers crossed...a brisk of hope.

Llamazares, your icon is stepping down.....can't wait to hear from you, suppporter of assassins!

Treason, lies, dirty selling of the soul to devil by Zapatero

2008-02-18T10:53:00.002+01:00

The Spanish Newspaper El Mundo has published today another chapter of the ignominious, shameful, dirty, illogical, irrespectful and Nazi attempt of the Spanish Premier to be remembered forever by acceding to negotiate with a band of abnormal, paranoid, Marxist killers known as ETA (nonetheless known to other unprofessional sources like CNN as 'Basque separatists'). Here's a translation of an extract from the first letter of intent signed:

"The Spanish Government will respect the decisions freely adopted by the Basque citizens about its future"
"The Spanish Government recognises that the agreements must be reached by the Basque political parties as well as by the so-called 'socio-economical agents, including the unions'. They must all be the ones that set-up the agreements and negotiation mechanisms with the highest possible consensus"

Shame on him for his attempts to knee down in front of the baby killers. There is nothing to negotiate with the Association of widow Slaughterers, no terms to be arranged with the Club of Northern paedofilians, no clauses to be fine-tuned with the Guild of aryan rapists. There's the law, there's the rights we've given ourselves and there's the obligation to prosecute those who break it. Full stop.

Negotiations and Politics have a framework and a forum. Political ideas can be defended elsewhere. If you have a separatist idea, form a party and move forward trying to defend it. There are plenty of options today (Aralar is one for example).

It's very simple, right?

PS: For those who start boasting insults and references to Aznar (he did many wrong things but never started a political negotiation with ETA), take a look at the picture. This is the bus taken by my wife every day (lucky she was late that morning). ETA blew it up killing 3 persons. It's 65 meters away from the Kindergarten where my 3 kids have gone and 100 meters away from the school where my wife teaches.

Fascism and identity. Nation before the individual

2008-02-15T15:47:00.005+01:00

A quick reflection before the week-end. Think about it. Put it in the European context of today. Yes, go down to that crazy ex-country called Spain

Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic entity. It is opposed to liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people. Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts

Shame on those who are setting the roots for déjà-vu trouble

Bon week-end...

Official Racism in Catalonia

2008-02-14T11:14:00.001+01:00

Again a little dose of plain facts for the world to know.

I am bringing an article by Salvador Sostres (April 7th 2007) on the Barcelona newspaper "Avui" ("Today"), the only one to be fully published in Catalan and a close ally of the nationalists, which have intervened to save it from bankruptcy several times by publishing official publicity while discriminating other papers with a much greater readership.

Pravda they called this somewhere else.....

Salvador Sostres, a joyful ideological descendant of Himmler, Goebbels and our good old little Adolf, has published a piece of crap, which, could have for example perfectly served the needs of the fascists Serbian generals (read Serbian where it says Catalan and there you go) minutes before massacring a Bosnian village.

Here's the plain translation. Please take it seriously and please talk about this if you don't live in Spain.

"Speaking Spanish is something of the poor

In Barcelona it is really vulgar to speak in Spanish, I only do it with my maiden and with some staff members. It is a thing of the poor and of the tasteless, something for the illiterates and for low level people....to speak a language which makes such a horrible noise when pronouncing the "j". Those who don't speak Catalan frequently also lack any knowledge of English or French, nor do they know who is monsieur Paccaud. But speaking Spanish is a symptom of low class also outside Catalonia. Our friend Riera has just passed me on these UN facts for 2002: Per Capita GDP in Norway, 36,600 USD; Denmark, 30,940 USD and Iceland 29,750 USD.

Three very rich countries with international open economies and languages which are smaller than Catalan, but widely spoken without any sort of complex. Against the absurd belief that Catalan closes doors, these facts prove sufficiently if it is useful or not to have a minority language.

In the 'wonderful' Hispanic world poverty is the only fact. The average per capita GDS of the 13 American countries that have Spanish as their sole language, from Argentina, Chile and Mexico to Nicaragua, Honduras and Ecuador, is a miserable 6,209 USD. In Catalonia it reaches USD 26,420 per capita, speaking Catalan and besides the tax subjugation imposed by a Spanish State which is not even decent enough to publish the figures of this fiscal imbalance.

We must choose a model: Norway or the misery caravan. The pro-independence movement in Catalonia is absolutely justified even if only on the grounds of escaping the lack of class, the dust and the sadness of being Spanish"

Going East

2008-02-12T12:20:00.001+01:00

I am on my way to Poland. I get to travel a lot because of my job and it's a part that I like, specially when I have the chance of visiting places like Poland, my destination for the next 3 days.

A country with a dramatic history and an incredible sense of unity, self-respect and esteem for hard work. That's why they are moving ahead while others sink.

If the communists couldn't turn their arm, no one will!

Happy to go East

The justified wrath of Rosa

2008-02-11T18:07:00.000+01:00

I won't vote for her, I don't like social democrats, but one has to admit she's got the balls her ex-colleagues never had.

I hope she gets a good result in the General Elections, I would love to see her arguing with Zapatero in the Parliament. She would destroy him....!

All the best Rosa Diez

Iranian ambassador to Spain defends crimes against humanity

2008-02-08T16:57:00.000+01:00

Iran is a country where, amongst other daily atrocities, homosexuals are slaughtered and where a 22-year old was sentenced to death last week because he was found drunk a fourth time (75% of Western Europe would be in a crematory by now)

Iran is a country whose president has denied the Holocaust and a genocide who has called for the extermination of the Jews.

In Iran people are beaten and hung publicly every day.

(and yet if you ask some European intellectuals they will tell you that the real evil lies within the boundaries of Canada and Mexico)

Seyed Davoud M. Salehi, the Iranian Ambassador in Madrid met with a selected group of journalists yesterday to declare things like:

"Our laws say that a thief must get his hand or feet cut. This is not accepted by the West, but in the field of Human Rights, the traditions, religion and the economic development of a country must be taken into account"

"The West is using the Human Rights issue to attack our countries"

He also justified the recent case of a death penalty sentence against 2 sisters and a man accused of adultery.

Can anyone please tell this abnormal sub-human being to take the first flight and leave my country?

There are universal human rights that are beyond the cultural heritage & traditions of a country. It's the f*cking human rights, for God's sake.

If we go down this route I could also say that it is a tradition in my father's village to kill Iranian ambassadors on Tuesdays, so no one can blame me if I do that.

The Allies fought Nazism. Some new Allies should fight Islamo-fascism.

He is taking illicit drugs

2008-02-07T11:51:00.001+01:00

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister. February 7th, 2008. Interviewed in Punto Radio:

"We don't have a crisis. Let us not exaggerate. The 130,000 people that have registered in the official Unemployment Offices during January are not unemployed. They are people that have registered at the offices, but they are not unemployed. People do this all the time, because they are looking for a job or because they want to work, but they are not unemployed"

Now I have reasons to believe that he is on drugs. No matter how hard you try you cannot be that stupid.

An undeserved award....

2008-02-07T11:03:00.000+01:00

My humble contribution to this universe has received its first Award! It is called Arte y Pico (Art and a bit...) and it comes from Dhavar, an honor which I hope to be able to be up to! Thanks a lot monsieur, we are a late aquaintance down this end of the universe, but I've become a daily reader of your blog.

These are the award rules:

1.- Once received you must choose another 5 blogs that deserve the merit due to their creativity, design, interesting content and its contribution to the blogsphere regardless of the language in which they were written.
2.- Each chosen blog must show a link for others to visit.
3.- Each awardee must show the price and a link to the originator of the award
4.- Both parties must show a link to Arte y pico

These are my 5 picks.

1 - Crispal. My friend, my mentor and an expert in the Arab world. You cannot miss this blog.
2 - Bye Bye Spain. A source of inspiration in my entries about nationalism.
3 - Liberalismo Gallego. A daily look at the world with a Galician accent. Great & inspiring articles about abortion.
4 - Spanish Pundit. A Spanish blogger who also speaks in English. A sister site which you should not miss.
5 - Herut. A view of the world from a Spanish Jew. I am getting addicted to it.

I would have also chosen the blogs of Mary White and Dhavar (but can't reiterate according to the rules....) and there are many others who deserve it, but we got a small limit...!

Kisses & Hugs

Latest amendments to this post: I've also received this from Patri Lorente. Thanks Patri! And today Feb 12rh from Ramon. Thanks Ramon!

El puto amo is BACK

2008-02-06T17:31:00.000+01:00

Nothing like a good meal served by your grandmother (I had not seen her for so long) to cheer up and come back with renewed energy!

So, a short little note to say

Welcome back CAMPEON

Twice world champion in a row, third would have been fetched but "we were racing against Fernando"

Unparalleled skills meme s'il y a des "Retardés" qui doutent encore.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Sit & enjoy

I just can't wait for the beginning of the season!!!!!!!!!!

The Spanish plunge "a la Japanese"

2008-02-05T22:16:00.000+01:00

I see too many resemblances between the real state crush of the 90s in Japan and today's situation in Spain. High, too high stock market prices combined with the beginning of consumer confidence collapse...and house prices down the pile...

I own a house wich loses value every day.

My mortgage keeps on growing, growing inflation equals high interest rates.

As an economist I should be optimist, it's a cycle, another one. Kondratieff knew it before we had super computers running mega simulations.

But there is a difference.....more Z equals no structural reform, rather public spending fuel to the worse.....

Help me out there!!!!

Mary W, can you add some drops of optimism???

Stalin & Hitler couldn't have summarised it better

2008-02-04T14:43:00.000+01:00

"I vow for the definitive extermination of that 'thing' that represents the Spanish Catholic bishops" i.e. if there is anyone who thinks different than me, they should be made disappear.

Stalin? Hitler? Pinochet? Mao? Franco?

No, it is Alberto San Juan, a decent actor but a complete stupid, who thinks that others don't have a right to think, only those that share the same common places.

The Church's guilt? To say that you can talk with terrorists but you cannot negotiate any political concessions with them.

Does that hurt? Yes, the truth hurts, whether it comes from the Catholic church or the association of gay Mormons (if there is such a thing...)

One of the Spanish "Schindlers"

2008-02-01T10:49:00.000+01:00

We live in a time where relativism is so present that even lies are correct as long as they are sufficiently explained. Let us take the case of Zapatero admitting to the whole country that he lied when he said that he was not negotiating with ETA after the Barajas bombings. Nothing has happened, a cruel sign of a mortal virus that is rottening Spain.

But it has not always been like that. There were times when many Spanish politicians, regardless of their ideology, were fair and honored their profession.

For example, during the harsher initial years of the Franco dictatorship, when he was still ideologically alligned with the Nazi Axis, there were a group of Spanish diplomats who helped the Jews escape from horror. Let's take one of the best known cases, Angel Briz.

Angel Sanz Briz arrived in Budapest in 1942, his second official posting, at age 32 and had a relatively quiet life until March 1944 when the German army invaded the country. Shortly after Adolf Eichmann himself moved to Budapest to organize the extermination of the Jews. Of the 750.000 living at the time in Hungary he managed to send 437.402 to the concentration camps, and this according to his own statistics. Sanz Briz solicited and obtained from his Ministry of Foreign Affairs (and according to his own words) wide authority to supply documents to the Sefardi Jews and negotiated with the Hungarian Government which was a puppet of Berlin. He was authorized to exercise his protection over 200 Sefardi which eventually increased to 300, on condition that they were to go to Spain and that the Spanish Government had to pay the travel expenses. The Spanish diplomat could be seen running up and down the streets of the Budapest ghetto hunting for Sefardi and asking "Anybody amongst you has anything to do with Spain"? He later declared how he used this concession "The 200 units that were granted to me were converted into 200 families which were multiplied indefinitely with the simple procedure of not issuing any Spanish documents or passports bearing a reference number over the figure 200!" While the Sefardi Jews got Spanish passports, the other Jews were provided with travel documents or safe-conducts.

Of course it was not enough to provide these people with documents ensuring their survival. With funds from the diplomatic legation or contributions of their own, Sanz Briz rented during the autumn of 1944 four buildings where he lodged them, after marking them with posts reading "Annex to the Spanish Legation" in order to thwart the entry of the swastika militia men.
He left secretly from Budapest to Switzerland in the middle of December 1944, one month before the Red Army occupied the city. The Franco regime did not want any of their diplomats failing into the hands of troops of a Government with whom they had no diplomatic relations. However the Spanish protection of the Jews until the occupation by the Soviets continued thanks to Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian of Jewish origin, businessman and adventurer, to whom Sanz Briz granted a special passport. Taking advantage of the existing situation, Perlasca took over and continued with the custody. How many Jews were saved by Sanz Briz and Perlasca? Some records indicate 4.295 though this figure does not include those who were lodged in the buildings without any documents. The figure can be rounded to 5.200.

Sanz Briz died in 1980 in Rome when he was Ambassador to the Vatican and before the evaluation of his activities in Hungary. His work was silenced by political circumstances, namely the non existence until 1986 of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel and the resistance of the Jews to reward a representative of Franco, allied for years to Hitler.

World Tyrannies. The Fascist Holocaust

2008-01-31T09:12:00.000+01:00

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority": Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

In 1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million. Most European Jews lived in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II. By 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the "Final Solution," the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe. Although Jews, whom the Nazis deemed a priority danger to Germany, were the primary victims of Nazi racism, other victims included some 200,000 Roma (Gypsies). At least 200,000 mentally or physically disabled patients, mainly Germans, living in institutional settings, were murdered in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

As Nazi tyranny spread across Europe, the Germans and their collaborators persecuted and murdered millions of other people. Between two and three million Soviet prisoners of war were murdered or died of starvation, disease, neglect, or maltreatment. The Germans targeted the non-Jewish Polish intelligentsia for killing, and deported millions of Polish and Soviet civilians for forced labor in Germany or in occupied Poland, where these individuals worked and often died under deplorable conditions. From the earliest years of the Nazi regime, German authorities persecuted homosexuals and others whose behavior did not match prescribed social norms. German police officials targeted thousands of political opponents (including Communists, Socialists, and trade unionists) and religious dissidents (such as Jehovah's Witnesses). Many of these individuals died as a result of incarceration and maltreatment.

In the early years of the Nazi regime, the National Socialist government established concentration camps to detain real and imagined political and ideological opponents. Increasingly in the years before the outbreak of war, SS and police officials incarcerated Jews, Roma, and other victims of ethnic and racial hatred in these camps. To concentrate and monitor the Jewish population as well as to facilitate later deportation of the Jews, the Germans and their collaborators created ghettos, transit camps, and forced-labor camps for Jews during the war years. The German authorities also established numerous forced-labor camps, both in the so-called Greater German Reich and in German-occupied territory, for non-Jews whose labor the Germans sought to exploit.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) and, later, militarized battalions of Order Police officials, moved behind German lines to carry out mass-murder operations against Jews, Roma, and Soviet state and Communist Party officials. German SS and police units, supported by units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, murdered more than a million Jewish men, women, and children, and hundreds of thousands of others. Between 1941 and 1944, Nazi German authorities deported millions of Jews from Germany, from occupied territories, and from the countries of many of its Axis allies to ghettos and to killing centers, often called extermination camps, where they were murdered in specially developed gassing facilities.

In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another. The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. For the western Allies, World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8 (V-E Day), while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe. Other Jewish DPs emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last DP camp closed in 1957. The crimes committed during the Holocaust devastated most European Jewish communities and eliminated hundreds of Jewish communities in occupied eastern Europe entirely.

Galician Nationalists vote against condemning the Nazi regime

2008-01-30T17:55:00.001+01:00

The Nationalist / separatist movement has seen a huge push in Spain in the last 4 years, because the socialists were kind enough to form unnatural alliances with them almost anywhere to gain power. This is a sad reality of the Spanish political arena, the 2 big parties seem incapable of joining forces to avoid the rupture of the country.

The Spanish left has always over-respected the rights of the minorities, i.e. they have always been more important than those of the majority. A queer fact which has led to these situations, and something which is very Spanish. The left elsewhere has always favoured a centralised and global approach to national politics.

The Basques, the Catalans, the Mallorcans (where an amalgamation of 7! parties forms a coalition to rule against the Popular Party (PP) with a 1 deputy difference...) and the Galicians all follow the same path, a coalition of the left with the nationalists, which (except in Galicia) happen to be far right and much more conservative than the PP. Another shocking event.....

The Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) is the Galician version of the monster. With the traditional brain limitation and low self-esteem of anybody who is a blind radical, they have voted against condemning the Nazi Holocaust in the Regional Galician parliament, because the act did not include any reference to the "oppressed Palestinians of today".

Can you be more stupid than that?

I am thinking that this may be because Sabino Arana, the spiritual leader of the Basque nationalists, was far more racist than Adolf Hitler....

Ties between "Democratic" Basque Nationalism and ETA

2008-01-28T17:55:00.000+01:00

Coming back with renewed energy.

To better understand the (let us admit it) complicated landscape of politics in the north of Spain, I thought about bringing some clarity around the intrinsic ties between the traditional parties with a democratic background like the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) and ETA. Yes, it is true that there are a lot of people in these parties with a true legitimate dream (a nightmare in my opinion anyway) and democratic manners. Lots of good-hearted people that vote Nationalist and hate ETA. But while that happens, there is also a black underlying truth as well:

ETA was born as a spin-off from the PNV.
Most of the historical leaders of ETA come from the PNV
The separatist/nationalist ideology of ETA was drafted by the PNV
The PNV, when it was good for them, supported and expressly justified the crimes of ETA during many years, as if life had a different value depending who was killed.
ETA survives and regenerates itself thanks to the social and cultural fog created and maintained over more than two decades of PNV government in the Basque region
The 'Ertzaintza' (local police of the Basque region) under the political orders of the PNV has many times abandoned its police function of prosecuting the law-breakers, especially in all matters related to 'kale borroka' (urban terrorism by the youths of ETA)
As it's periodically evidewnced and even admitted, the PNV maintains continuous contacts with ETA, sharing a common long-term strategy.
In a constant electoral calculation, the PNV knows that, should ETA not exist, the nationalist parties would lose a lot of momentum. Arzallus, a historical leader of the PNV and close follower of the Nazi Arana, once declared "They (ETA) shake the tree and we fetch the nuts"
The current ETA and 'kale borroka' activists, and future members of ETA, have all been born under the PNV governments. They are not the result of the Francoist repression, nor the lack of the liberty or any dictatorship. The Basque region, with competencies in economy, taxes, education, law, security..., is one of the most autonoumus/independent regions of the world, followed maybe by Quebec. All of these irrational sub-humans have been born many years after Franco's death; they are the product of the PNV rule, of its 'ikastolas' (public schools financed by the nationalist government where they teach a policy of 'Basque only' and spread the hatred against Spain'), its Euskal Telebista (the regional tv chain, manipulated by the nationalists), its policy of acculturation and ideological intoxication.
Without the so-called democratic Basque nationalists, would ETA have ever existed?

Gratitude

2008-01-27T22:54:00.001+01:00

As we say in Spanish, "despues de la tempestad viene la calma". And what remains is the countless signs of support I've received from all over the world, namely from my country fellows. In the shape of comments and emails, all I can say is THANKS EVERYBODY for your support. It has been a bit hard but knowing that one is not alone certainly makes it all a bit easier.

The Internet is the best invention of all ages and the greatest repository for FREEDOM. No one can't stop us there.

Since I can't reply to all of you one by one, again, from the bottom of my heart.

GRACIAS!!

Nacho

PS: A particular "abrazo" to my good friend Crispal...

The false myths behind the idea of a Basque Nation 10/10

2008-01-24T12:32:00.000+01:00

This post continues from False Myth #9

False Myth #10. Basque Nationalism has distinguished itself for its compromise with the 'freedom of the nations'

Although sometimes Basque nationalism appears as a generous defender of the 'right of self-determination of the nations', and sometimes uses the Kurds or other 'nations' without state to assemble its propagandistically-set designs, this question has not cared the Basque nationalism.

When it is convenient they will declare to be eternal friend of the Irish cause. But when the wind blew somewhere else the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) had no trouble in condemning the Irish rising, nor to congratulate the English King for the victory over the Boers, wishing “that the English sovereignty will be for them, protection and domination, like other equally fortunate" (Was Sabino Arana talking about the fortunate Irish?)

The father of the Basque separatism/nationalism worshiped the British so much that even for the design of the 'ikurriña' (the flag of his dreamed Basque country) he was inspired in the Union Jack.

When it seemed opportune for him to request the help of the USA, Arana did so, without considering that the Americans were only interested in the independence of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico or any other country as long as they could get a benefit out of it, not because it was in support of self-determination. During the first World War, the Basque nationalist party (led by Ramón de la Sota) was an active supporter of England.

Soon after, during the second World War, the PNV lobbied equally in London, New York, Berlin and Rome, so that whoever was the winner it would support their independence dreams.

The Irish friends of the Basque nationalists should have this present.