Some historical advice from an Irish perspective for Esperanza Aguirre on the pitfalls of attempting to demonstrate by symbolic means the virile and libertarian spirit of Madrid in the invented and regrettable conflict between it and doldrummed Barcelona.

Peter Mandelson on how fortunate we are that the European Commission is unelected, remote, unaccountable, and a major bureaucracy.

In response to confusion in the markets re Spain’s constitutional arrangements and the size and distribution of its public debt, kaleBirthday has, remarkably, gained the consent of the Catalan, Spanish and EU administrations to conduct a binding poll on the future of the troubled region. Vote now or forever hold your peace.

Hasta luego Edgar León, but what’s the real solution?

With an excerpt from a plea for more state funding by the Bostonian Western Rail-road, in which we are given to understand that snow is not necessarily a bad thing.

A Google Maps/Le Figaro mashup.

A fragment from Italo Calvino’s quasi-17th century folk romance, Il visconte dimezzato/The cloven viscount, uses storks as a portent of battle. Several unconnected 2nd century Greek accounts might appear to do the same, perhaps particularly if one’s a lazy sod and doesn’t read anything but scraps of stuff on Google Books.

The precedents for, and some possible implications of, the Catalanisation of Barcelona’s cinemas. Plus some crowd-pleasing video of the Quebec language police in action. (Allez! Allez! Allez! And the hell with the economy!) All in somewhat fevered response to an article by Martin Dahms in the Tages-Anzeiger.

How would you describe the relationship of the Slav Francisco with his mother?

Scratch a libertarian and you’ll discover a totalitarian, so keep scratching.

Or was the Second Anglo-Afghan War actually fought in the Pyrenees?

On this day in 1466, one Juan Sort, aged 70, was beheaded for the misappropriation of public funds. Millet is said by the auditors to have stolen around 30 million and has fessed to around 10%, but has not been anywhere near a prison, and indeed seems to think that by looking old and grey [...]

Bishop Gibson of Granada understands beatific bureaucracy but not tradition. Featuring a bad Vietnamese flamenco clip.

Nearsightedness is increasing, and there aren’t many other reasonable explanations.

Wait, let me check that.

One of Spanish nationalism’s numerous Achilles heels.

Every 9th Canarian nationalist councillor has a problem, and the left looks to be in worse trouble than the right nationally.

–Hello.
–Hello, is that the Department of Tourism? Yes? Hello, a week ago I sent you an email asking if this Friday you could let me and a group in to see the crypt of blah blah blah, and I was wondering whether this would still be possible.
–Oh yes, I read the email.
–So?
–Yes, that should be [...]

We’re in for a long recession: if the Extremadura PSOE says that pleasure is in your hands (via PD), then presumably they know that Spaniards aren’t going to be able to afford prostitutes for the foreseeable future. There’s been the predictable outcry from Catalan nationalists who believe they are subsidising Extremaduran tosspots and other spendthrift [...]

Half roasted Frenchmen, some o’er Gratings Broil’d/Do mix with Spaniards in the Sea parboil’d;