Alabama has recently proved itself the dumbest state in the nation, with its extreme anti-immigration bill.
It is now basically against the law to be an undocumented immigrant in that state. Schools have to check your child's legal status, for example.
I think we should build a wall around Alabama and give everyone 30 days to get in or out. If you're in, you can never get out. And vice versa.
Let them stew in their own juices and rot in 'Bama hell.
Let them feel what it's like to be an outcast.
VIVA BULL FIGHTS
Part of Spain--Catalonia, my favorite part--has banned bullfights, and this past Sunday the last bullfight took place in Barcelona, my favorite city in Spain.
I loved the bullfights when I was there. I went every Sunday for about six weeks, in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville.
The first Spanish corrida I saw was in Barcelona, and it was amazing.
Before the first bull came out, the matador walked to the center of the ring and spread his cape on the ground, about 20 yards from the gate, and then he knelt down behind the cape, facing the gate.
The crowd held its breath.
The gate opened, and the bull--a huge black beast looking as big as a freight train--came charging out at full gallop, probably a thousand pounds of charging bull, with wide sharp horns.
The crowd gasped.
The matador faced the bull on his knees and didn't move until the last possible split-second. Then he swept his cape around in a swirl of red, and the bull followed the cape with his horns and swerved on by, missing the matador by about a foot.
The crowd leaped to its feet and cheered. It was ecstatic.
It was the most dramatic thing I had ever seen. The rest of that fight was just as wonderful. So were the other fights.
I feel sorry for people who haven't seen great bullfights and yet condemn it, out of ignorance, it seems to me.
It is the only art form where a man risks his life for the sake of drama and to prove his courage.
The writer Ernest Hemingway said bullfighters were "the only people who live their lives all the way up."
Bullfighting is still popular in the rest of Spain, thank God.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140889324/bullfighting-in-spain-stays-alive-despite-regional-ban
I know that the economics of bullfighting is changing, and sometimes the bulls are not good, and sometimes the men are not brave. Then, I suppose, it can be unpleasant. I hear that it is harder now to find good bullfights in Spain. And I think that spells the beginning of the end.
That's too bad. I hate to see those traditions fade out.
Maybe we can send some of the politicians from Alabama to Spain and see how they would do facing the bulls. I'd like to see how courageous they would be then.
-- Roger
Copyright © 2011, Roger R. Angle
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