Tapas From Spain

A selection of Spanish treats cooked up by Franco Aleman at Barcepundit:

1. Just when you thought John Kerry had cornered the market on vanity and pandering, we get this:

   SPAIN'S SOCIALIST PRIME MINISTER Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is proud to portray himself as a hard-core feminist.

   But wait, it gets better!

   In order to prove that he is a real feminist, what a better way than opening the Palacio de la Moncloa -prime minister's office and residencial complex, that is, the equivalent to the White House or No. 10 Downing Street- for a photo spread of the eight women ministers modeling in Vogue?

   Look how Socialist, and how feminist, they all look posing in front of Moncloa's main entrance, clad in chic designer clothes (not as modest as the San Francisco Chronicle says; they're an average $6,000 each, according to Spanish media reports), and sitting, or standing by, two sofas covered in... fur! Where's PETA when you need them?

   And the Grand Finale:

   The editor said that the ministers accepted to pose "only if pics were not frivolous and didn't make them look like top-models". Take a look, for example, at Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, deputy prime minister, and tell me if this requirement was a token of the minister's arrogance, or if there was indeed any risk that she could be mistaken for Claudia Shiffer:

   Read the complete story (with pictures!) here.


2. Former! President Carter is a patsy, dupe, and simpleton (not necessarily in order of significance). (Mary Anastasia O'Grady on the elections in Venezuela)


3. Mark Steyn illustrates that while Bush played Poker, Kerry played Snap. With commentary and links. Mr. Steyn is quoted elsewhere as follows:

   What sort of idiot would make the centrepiece of his presidential campaign four months of proud service in a war he's best known for opposing?

4. Victor Davis Hanson helps us understand the European mindset:

   For a bewildered American, the key in squaring the anti-American rhetoric with the Valley Girl reality is simply to understand Western Europeans as elite Americans.

5. Mr. Aleman comments here, here, and here on Spain's disagreement with the U.K. concerning Gibraltar. (It would appear that even Socialists of the Internationalist kind cannot avoid nationalism. Does that make them National Socialists? Just free associating)


6. All this and more (including Castro's Bovine Genetics Program) can be found in the August 2004 Archives.


7. Mr. Aleman points us to Juan Hervada (more about him later) on the basqueization of Europe. Barcepundit comments:

   Jihadists have realized what happens when they attack Big Satan; they get real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (so far). And they know what they get when they attack Little Satan, that is, Europe: appeasement all over the place, and yes to anything they want. So, why not going for more?