This is an old image of the popular racist Luis Aragonés, now manager of the Spanish national team, who was probably responsible for starting the chain that ended with thousands of Spaniards making monkey noises at England's black footballers last month. (Aragonés is under enquiry, but there doesn't seem to be much to enquire about since his racist comments about Thierry Henry, made to José Antonio Reyes, were recorded live on video and are there for all to see.) Today FIFA have handed the Spanish FA a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs (about $87,000), which given the sums of money bandied about in soccer and the extent of the racist problem in football here, is bit like smacking Godzilla behind the knees and telling him to be a good boy from now on. I've been looking on the Internet for the fine piece by the mythical football journalist Johnny Doherty about the racist issue, but can't find it anywhere.

More cross-cultural conflict: John Naughton has a nice post on the removal of a play in Birmingham following violence by Sikhs offended by it. He quotes the brilliant H.L. Mencken, who just about said it all when he said: "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart." There's another little slice of Mencken wit here.
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