"Cero para Zapatero"

So I went to a protest Saturday with Alex, Ana and my aunt and uncle (who drove in from Toledo for the occasion). The reason for the manifestation of some 1.5 million (or 406,757 or 375,000, depending on the source) Spaniards in the streets of Madrid was to protest an education bill called the Ley Orgánica de Educación being put forth by the Socialist government. It's a pretty hefty piece of legislation with some 1,700 amendments and if there's something Spaniards seem to hate it's new laws (especially unconstitutional ones).

The demonstration itself was pretty calm. Lots of families and students. Part of the bill is about making religion courses ungraded. So, of course, a bunch of religious types got involved including bishops and priests and such. I went to Catholic schools all my life and never believed any of that shit, but that didn't mean I didn't need to know about it. In Spain, where the vast majority of the population is Catholic and the Catholic church has had, of better or for worse, a huge impact on the history and culture of the nation, everyone should have some working knowledge about the theology. Besides, the best way to cure someone of a religion is to teach them all about it. At least, that's what worked for me.

So the protest was supposed to be nonpartisan but when you have a Socialist government "attacking" religion (even though many other things were included in the bill), mostly conservative types are going to come out. So that made the whole thing kinda lame. I saw a minimum of pot-smoking students with dreadlocks (yes, on white people. I guess it's cool here) waving the republic's flag (Spain is not a republic, and the idea that it should be is a left-wing idea). The few that I did see probably left after a few idiots with bullhorns alienated them by spouting right-wing rhetoric.

Ah well. So here're some more photos:

I just noticed the weird blue bubble on the side of this photo. OMG A GHOST!