Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.
And, lo, the hunter of the east has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain.

Cosas de España

Lenox Napier writes here about the postal service and stamps.

The wonder of Spain’s geoparks.

Cousas de Galicia

Nice to see Galician cities taking first and second places in a survey of the most courteous cities in Spain.

María writes from her small Galician town. Where I’m sure the people are even more friendly than those of Vigo and La Coruña.

The UK

While we Brits can clutch our pearls at what Trump is doing and trying to do, it’s salutary to reflect on the fact that – as Boris Johnson demonstrated – there are fewer constraints on the British Prime Minister than on a US president. This is simply because an un unwritten Constitution based on norms and conventions provides more gaps for an unprincipled head of the Executive to drive a coach and horses through. After which the courts might well be powerless to stop an abuse of power. There are fewer and fewer Gentlemen these days to abide by 18th century Gentlemen’s Agreements.

The EU

Good to know . . . The EU is plotting a strategy for dealing with Donald Trump’s tariffs blitz.

Germany

A novel set in the 1930s which merits serious consideration.

The USA

This is the latest episode of podcast giving a balanced perspective on current developments – The Rest is politics USA. Other platforms are available.

Trump’s cognitive is said to be on full display here and here. I do wonder if it’s as as they perceive it to be. But I guess it can only go in one direction over the next 4 years.

Startling admissions from Trump re Musk and his team.

The Way of the World

Progress???

Transgenderism

Below is a statement from JK Rowling which really says it all. Some of us, of course, have been calling out this madness for years. Which has possibly lost me several readers. That and my comments re Trump.

Net Zero

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) – There’s a lengthy record of failure, says Richard North. Twenty years or so down the line, we are not very much further forward than when we started, apart from the hundreds of millions already wasted on a technology that would put Dean Swift’s Academy of Lagado to shame.

Spanish

• Poner a raya: To hold back, check
• Potingue: Gunk, concoction. War paint. Make-up?
• Asirse: To grasp, take hold of, grasp.

Did you know?

Europe’s longest lave flow tube is in Spain, in the Canaries to be exact.

You Have to Laugh

Trump’s week . . .

Finally . . .

Whenever my father was asked where he was going, he always replied: To see a man about a dog. I wonder if anyone says this these days.

JK Rawling on Transgenderism

This ‘why do you care about a tiny fraction of the population?’ line is, and always was, utterly ridiculous.

Gender ideology has undermined freedom of speech, scientific truth, gay rights, and women’s and girls’ safety, privacy and dignity. It’s also caused irreparable physical damage to vulnerable kids. 

Nobody voted for it, the vast majority of people disagree with it, yet it has been imposed, top down, by politicians, healthcare bodies, academia, sections of the media, celebrities and even the police. Its activists have threatened and enacted violence on those who’ve dared oppose it. People have been defamed and discriminated against for questioning it. Jobs have been lost and lives have been ruined, all for the crime of knowing that sex is real and matters. 

When the smoke clears, it will be only too evident that this was never about a so-called vulnerable minority, notwithstanding the fact that some very vulnerable people have been harmed. The power dynamics underpinning our society have been reinforced, not dismantled. The loudest voices throughout this entire fiasco have been people insulated from consequences by their wealth and/or status. They aren’t likely to find themselves locked in a prison cell with a 6’4″ rapist who’s decided his name’s now Dolores. They don’t need state-funded rape crisis centres, nor do they ever frequent high street changing rooms. They simper from talk show sofas about those nasty far-right bigots who don’t want penises swinging around the girls’ showers, secure in the knowledge that their private pool remains the safe place it always was.

Those who’ve benefited most from gender identity ideology are men, both trans-identified and not. Some have been rewarded for having a cross-dressing kink by access to all spaces previously reserved for women. Others have parlayed their delicious new victim status into an excuse to threaten, assault and harass women. Non-trans-identified leftybros have found a magnificent platform from which to display their own impeccably progressive credentials, by jeering and sneering at the needs of women and girls, all while patting themselves on the back for giving away rights that aren’t theirs.

The actual victims in this mess have been women and children, especially the most vulnerable, gay people who’ve resisted the movement and paid a horrible price, and regular people working in environments where one misplaced pronoun could see you vilified or constructively dismissed. Do not tell me this is about a tiny minority. This movement has impacted society in disastrous ways, and if you had any sense, you’d be quietly deleting every trace of activist mantras, ad hominem attacks, false equivalence and circular arguments from your X feeds, because the day is fast approaching when you’ll want to pretend you always saw through the craziness and never believed it for a second

Don’t you just hate that R in February. Especially if you have to type it at least once every day. I’ve a mind to leave it out . . .

xxx

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

The Usual Links . . .

• You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.
• For those thinking of moving to Spain:– This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.