Space Suite

Four million dollars for a room and they still won't make the tea properly.

Reliability

The great thing about wind turbines is that they have zero emissions unless...

Well, at least they don't... um...

Yeah.

Priorities

Muslims are demanding an apology from Spain for mistreatment of Muslim converts to Christianity in the 17th century. Though what the mistreatment of Christians by Christians has to do with Muslims is beyond me.

Nevertheless, I hope that the Spaniards withhold any apologies until the Muslims apologise and pay substantial reparations with interest for invading the peninsula in the 8th century in the first place; plunging the region into six hundred years of war, tyranny and turmoil while threatening the rest of Christendom with the same fate until turned back at Tours.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

Tramontana R-Editon

Spain: Where car designers are barking mad.

Bentely SenseS

A concept car that combines genetic engineering, biotechnology and artificial intelligence–and those are supposed to be selling points. According to the designer Arturo Peralta,

The driver connects with the vehicle in the same way a rider connects with his horse.

In other words, I can expect it to be stubborn at the jumps, throw me into a thistle patch, then come up and bite me before giving me a sound kick and then running off for parts unknown.

And the suspension is as mushy as hell.

Dr. Zaius, Call Your Service

Lacking a decent dictionary or even common sense, the Spanish parliament made a mockery of the concept of legal rights by granting them to apes.

What could possibly go wrong?

A Matter of Priorities

Twelve Pakistanis in Spain have been arrested on terrorism charges and the BBC looks at the impact... on Pakistanis.

No mention, however, on why Jihadis keep getting rounded up in a country that rolled over and did as it was told after the Madrid bombings. Maybe appeasement doesn't work?

Brown's Blinkers

Fourteen terrorist suspects are arrested in Spain. A Belarus editor is sentenced to prison for publishing the Mohammed cartoons. Meanwhile, New Labour states that there is no war with the Jihadists (if there actually are Jihadists and not a just a load of mixed-up kids), but merely a domestic "criminal" matter that can be dealt with by soft words and a bit of censorship.

After seven years of semi-clarity about the threat we face, Britain is going back to sleep.

Tipped

The Spanish (Socialist) Economy Minister urges Spaniards not to tip too much.

Spanish waiters tell the Economy Minister what he can do with his urgings.

The Museum of Ham

The Holy Grail.

How did I miss this when I was in Spain? Okay, I was only there for nine hours with six of those in the hotel and the other three going back and forth to the airport, so that might have had something to do with it.

Spanish Maths

The Jihadists who carried out the Madrid bombings back in 2004 have been sentenced to 43,000 years in prison each.

Don't chill the champagne, though. Under Spanish law these monsters can't serve more than forty years no matter what the sentence.

They kill us and we hit them with soft pillows.

Update: According to the Los Angeles Times, it gets worse:

One of the accused masterminds of the 2004 Madrid terror bombings was acquitted of all charges today by a Spanish court in the culmination to a politically divisive trial over Europe's worst Islamic militant terror attack.

Rabei Osman, a 35-year-old Egyptian, allegedly bragged during a wiretapped phone conversation that the attacks, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800, were his idea. Twenty-eight people were charged in the attacks.

They have him boasting of his perfidity and they let him walk scot free. Dear God.

Oh, That Invasion!

Al Reuters has a story about a demand request that Spain reverse the Reconquista give descendants of Muslims expelled in the 17^th century preferential immigration status. This is allegedly meant to address an "injustice" (i.e. Losing the war).

Not surprisingly, Al Reuters doesn't mention that pesky little Muslim invasion of Spain in the 8^th century until paragraph eleven-- and then only in passing.

Double Dhimmi Standards

In a mind-blowing expression of bare-faced gall, Spain's Islamic Board demanded the right to conduct Muslim prayers in Cordoba cathedral, which was a mosque before being converted to a cathedral in the 13th century.

Quite rightly, the Catholic church told the Muslim board what it could do with its demands, but it is a clear sign of what we face given the fact that this comes only a few weeks after Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul nearly set off a powder keg over speculation that he would dare do anything so vile as to make the sign of the cross in the vicinity. According to the Turkish paper Vatan,

The risk is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the Pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims.

It looks as though re-appropriation is a one-way street.

Yuletide Dhimmitude

From Reuters (emphasis added):

A school in traditionally Catholic Spain has cancelled Christmas celebrations so as not to offend children who are not Christians, ABC newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Hilarion Gimeno school in Zaragoza said teachers had put forward various reasons for not celebrating Christmas, but ABC said the worry was that Muslim children might be upset.

Where is El Cid when you need him?