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/Galiza

The Supreme Court has ruled that kissing a woman’s hand without her consent can constitute sexual assault. The landmark ruling confirms that any non-consensual physical contact with sexual intent falls under sexual assault, even in the absence of violence or intimidation. But was the court influenced by the offering of money and the gesturing to follow him. They added that the behaviour in this case had a clear sexual component, particularly as it was accompanied by a proposition. So, I guess that, if here there just a kiss on the hand and no suggestive words or gesture, one could still get away with it. I certainly have in the past. But, then, South American women differ in their attitudes even from Spanish women.

Lenox Napier writes here on the Spain’s co-official minority languages.

Everything you need to know about Spain’s airport strikes. Spanish ground staff have threatened to continue striking until the end of the year. This is how your travel plans may be affected.

Is this really true? If so, why?

The notario saga continues. . . . At the signing of the escritura today, I was told that Spanish law dictates that I do something formal to ensure my daughter in England gets an inheritance equal to her sister’s. Something that never came up with previous in-life donations to my daughter in Madrid. As of now, I’m not sure what. So, at least one more visit to the notary’s office. Very probably a minimum of two.

The Middle East War

The Idiocy of the deluded Emperor Donald: Trump is oscillating by the hour between Armageddon and insouciance, musing out loud that he may just wash his hands of the war and leave the Strait of Hormuz closed – a revenge of sorts against Asia and Europe for refusing to join his capricious “excursion”.

Now brace for an even bigger oil shock. Red Sea supplies are also at risk now the Houthis have joined the Gulf war. Right now, we are heading for the worst strategic reverse for the US since the Vietnam War and a field day for the Russo-Chinese axis. “We are at a critical juncture in the conflict, one that could lead to far-reaching and potentially devastating outcomes that will affect the life of all of us,” says the former head of the Iran desk at Israel Defense Intelligence. An attack on Kharg Island would be the crowning disaster. It is hard to discern the strategic coherence of a US ground assault on Iran’s main oil terminal. Such action would not open the Strait of Hormuz. It would guarantee that the strait remained closed as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fought an asymmetric war of guerrilla resistance.

The United States of Trump USA

Trump’s 33% approval rating is the lowest in US presidential history.

The sadistic, blood-lusting Secretary of War is an adherent of Christian Reconstructionism, which is an extreme version of Christian Nationalism. It’s described below. It’s comparable to Islam in that both believe society should be structured according to divine law, and both have strands that connect religion with politics. Christian Reconstructionism explicitly argues that Christians should reconstruct society under biblical law, just as Islamic theology includes the idea that revelation guides law and public life. This podcast takes us through Hegseth’s radical theological ideas, explains the deeper roots of Hegseth-Trump-MAGA sadism toward perceived “enemies,” and explains why the Pope’s criticism really matters.

Spanish

• Pinganillo: Earpiece, earphone.
• Tuntún: Aimlessly, thoughtlessly. [eg attacking Iran?].
• Taladro: Dril.

Did you know?

If I ever knew what it was, I must have forgotten, for I had to check on the meaning of The Colombian Exchange. Basically, this refers to the thing that went eastwards and the things that went westwards after Columbus reached ‘The Indies’ in 1492. More fully: This was the large-scale transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, and ideas between the Old World and the Americas, It reshaped global diets, economies, environments, and populations, often with devastating effects in the Americas because Old World diseases caused massive Indigenous mortality. It included crops such as maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and cacao moving from the Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia, while wheat, sugarcane, horses, cattle, pigs, and sheep moved into the Americas. The exchange was not just biological: it also carried labor systems, technologies, and ideas across the Atlantic world. The most destructive part was disease. At the same time, American crops like potatoes and maize helped support population growth in Europe and beyond. Historians treat it as one of the major turning points in world history because it linked continents in a lasting global network and changed agriculture, trade, and empire-building

You Have to Laugh

After his death – and doubtless before it – there was disagreement on how to spell Shakespeare’s name. So, it was decided to see how he himself had spelled it in his Will. Where it was found he’d written it in 3 different ways . . .

Finally . . .

Christian reconstructionism is a conservative Protestant movement, rooted in Calvinism, that argues society should be reorganized under biblical law, especially the Old Testament civil laws. It is closely linked to theonomy, the idea that God’s law should govern civil society. Its advocates have typically supported applying biblical moral and civil norms to law, education, economics, and politics. Critics point to its support for harsh Old Testament penalties and its broader anti-secular political vision, which many other Christians reject. While it has had a relatively small number of direct adherents, it has influenced broader Christian right and Christian nationalist currents in the USA.

A bit more on 2 aspects of life:

• Most Christian Reconstructionists don’t advocate stoning women caught in adultery but some do argue that it deserves the death penalty.
• Christian Reconstructionists generally affirm “an eye for an eye” (lex talionis) as a valid principle of penal justice but they interpret it as a judicial‑limiting rule (“the punishment must fit the crime”), not as a license for personal vengeance.

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 . . .

I can also be read on Facebook.

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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

As it’s the start of the month . . .  Some readers, I hope, will know that the verse I cite at the top of my posts is the opening quatrain of Fitzgerald’s wonderful – but very ‘free’ – translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which you can read about here. Some verses are well known, of course, eg:-

The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

My favourite:-

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
doctor and saint, and heard great argument
about it and about: but evermore
came out by the same door as in I went