Michael Joseph Sobran, Jr. (February 23, 1946 – September 30, 2010) was an American journalist and writer, formerly with National Review and a syndicated columnist, known as Joe Sobran. Pundit Pat Buchanan called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation",^[1] although Sobran was fired from National Review by his one-time mentor William F. Buckley after Buckley called Sobran's writing "contextually antisemitic."^[2]

Career[link]

Sobran graduated from Eastern Michigan University and received a Bachelor of Arts in English. He studied for a graduate degree in English, concentrating on Shakespearean studies, following his graduation. In the late 1960s, Sobran lectured on Shakespeare and English on a fellowship with the university.

In 1972, Sobran began working at National Review magazine. (During the 1970s, he frequently used the byline M. J. Sobran.) He stayed 21 years, 18 as senior editor, before being removed from the publication amidst controversial charges of antisemitism. Aside from his work at National Review, Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio "Spectrum" program series and was a syndicated columnist, first with the Los Angeles Times, and later with the Universal Press Syndicate. In 2007, his newsletter discontinued distribution by mail.^{[citation needed]}

Sobran wrote a column for the Catholic newsweekly The Wanderer entitled Washington Watch from 1986 to 2007. He also had a monthly column that appears in Catholic Family News. He wrote the "Bare Bodkin" column for Chronicles. Additionally, his essays have appeared in The Human Life Review, Celebrate Life!, and The Free Market. Sobran was media fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.^[3]

Sobran was fired from National Review in 1993 for a series of columns Buckley considered "contextually anti-Semitic";^[2] Podhoretz wrote that "Joe Sobran's columns ... [are] anti-Semitic in themselves, and not merely 'contextually.'" Buckley disagreed with Podhoretz's accusation, noting that he "deemed Joe Sobran's six columns contextually anti-Semitic. By this I mean that if he had been talking, let us say, about the lobbying interests of the Arabs or of the Chinese, he would not have raised eyebrows as an anti-Arab or an anti-Chinese."^[4] One such comment was that the New York Times "really ought to change its name to Holocaust Update."^[5] Sobran claimed that founder William F. Buckley told him to "stop antagonizing the Zionist crowd," and Buckley accused him of libel and moral incapacitation.^[6] Sobran also complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ethnocracy."^[7]

Sobran was named the Constitution Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, but withdrew in April 2000 citing scheduling conflicts with his journalistic commitments.^[8]

In 2001 and 2003 Sobran spoke at conferences organized by Holocaust denier David Irving^[9], sharing the podium with Paul Fromm, Charles D. Provan, and Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review. In 2002 he spoke at the Institute for Historical Review's annual conference.^[10] In his speech, which he also reprinted in his newsletter, Sobran said:

I am not, heaven forbid, a “Holocaust denier.” I lack the scholarly competence to be one. ... Why on earth is it 'anti-Jewish' to conclude from the evidence that the standard numbers of Jews murdered are inaccurate, or that the Hitler regime, bad as it was in many ways, was not, in fact, intent on racial extermination? Surely these are controversial conclusions; but if so, let the controversy rage.^[11]

Referring to his appearance at IHR conferences, historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote, "Mr. Sobran may not have been an unequivocal [Holocaust] denier, but he gave support and comfort to the worst of them."^[12] Writing in the National Review, Matthew Scully said, "His appearance before that sorry outfit a few years ago ... remains impossible to explain, at least if you’re trying to absolve him."^[13]

Political philosophy[link]

Through much of his career, Sobran identified as a paleoconservative and supported strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In 2002 Sobran announced his philosophical and political shift to libertarianism (paleolibertarian anarcho-capitalism) citing inspiration by theorists Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe.^[14] He has referred to himself as a "theo-anarchist."^[15] In the 2008 presidential election, Sobran endorsed Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.^[16]

Sobran said Catholic teachings are consistent with his opposition to abortion and the Iraq War. He also argued that the 9/11 attacks were a result of the U.S. government's policies regarding the Middle East. He claimed those policies are formed by the "Jewish-Zionist powers that be in the United States."^[17]

Sobran considered Communism a significantly Jewish phenomenon, writing:

Christians knew that Communism — often called “Jewish Bolshevism” — would bring awful persecution with the ultimate goal of the annihilation of Christianity. While the atheistic Soviet regime made war on Christians, murdering tens of thousands of Orthodox priests, it also showed its true colors by making anti-Semitism a capital crime. Countless Jews around the world remained pro-Communist even after Stalin had purged most Jews from positions of power in the Soviet Union.^[18]

He believed about the Jewish people that "History is replete with the lesson that a country in which the Jews get the upper hand is in danger."^[18]

Books and other publications[link]

Sobran was the author of many books, including one about William Shakespeare, Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time (1997), wherein he espoused the Oxfordian theory that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the plays usually attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon.

At the time of his death, he was working on two books: one concerning Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the United States Constitution, and another about de Vere's poetry.

He is also the author of:

• Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions – Human Life Press – 1983
• Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time – Free Press 1997
• Hustler: The Clinton Legacy – Griffin Communications 2000

Sobran has produced a number of published articles and speeches, including:

• Anything Called a Program is Unconstitutional – Griffin Communications – 2001
• The Church Today: Less Catholic Than the Pope? – National Committee of Catholic Laymen – 1979
• How Tyranny Came to America, Sobran's, n.d.
• Pensees: Notes for the reactionary of tomorrow National Review, December 31, 1985. (extended essay)
• Power and Betrayal – Griffin Communications – 1998

At the 1994 Costs of Wars conference at the Mises Institute, Sobran presented a speech on "Shakespeare on War and Empire".

Personal life[link]

Sobran was twice married and divorced. He had four children, and was survived by ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild.^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Joseph Sobran

• Official website, including archives of his articles and newsletters
• The Writings of Joseph Sobran hosted on David Irving's Focal Point Publications website.
• Jared Taylor Remembers Joe Sobran.
• "Joseph Sobran, 1946-2010" by Robert Higgs.
• Not Your Average Joe by Ann Coulter

Rosa Díez
Member of Basque Parliament
In office 1986–1999
Member of European Parliament
In office 1999–2007
Leader of UPyD
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 September 2007
Member of the Congress of Deputies
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 April 2008
Constituency	Madrid
Personal details
Born	(1952-05-27) 27 May 1952 (age 60) Güeñes, Basque Country,  Spain
Political party	UPyD
Spouse(s)	José Ignacio Fernández de Ochoa
Children	2
Religion	None

Rosa Díez González (born May 27, 1952 in Güeñes, Biscay, Spain) is a Spanish politician. She is a former Member of the European Parliament for the PSOE ("Partido Socialista Obrero Español" or Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), integrated in the Party of European Socialists.

In 2007 she gave up her seat and left the PSOE due to strong disagreement on what she perceived to be the Socialists' drift on individual liberties, ETA, and more. Subsequently she founded a new political party, UPyD ("Unión, Progreso y Democracia" or Union, Progress and Democracy), based on an already existing movement of basque citizens against terrorism of ETA. In 2008 and 2011, she was elected to the Congress of Deputies (Spain) representing Madrid district. In the last Spanish General Elections of 2011, she was re-elected, and her party was the fourth most voted party in Spain.

References[link]

• UPyD Website (in Spanish).
• UPyD Manifesto (in Spanish).

Rosa Díez

Joaquín Sabina
Background information
Birth name	Joaquín Ramón Martínez Sabina
Born	(1949-02-12) 12 February 1949 (age 63)
Origin	Úbeda, Jaén, Spain
Genres	Latin, rock, trova
Occupations	singer-songwriter
Years active	1978–present
Labels	BMG Ariola Spain
Website	JSabina.com

Joaquín Ramón Martínez Sabina (Úbeda, Jaén, Spain, 12 February 1949), known artistically as Joaquín Sabina, is a singer, songwriter, and poet. He has released fourteen studio albums, two live albums, and three compilation albums. He has collaborated and composed songs for Ana Belén, Olga Román and Miguel Ríos amongst others.

He performed both solo and with a group for his live albums, performing with Javier Krahe and Alberto Pérez in La mandrágora, the group Viceversa in a 1986 concert, and with Joan Manuel Serrat in "Dos pájaros de un tiro" (Two birds with one stone).

Sabina suffered a stroke in 2001 and although he physically recovered, he entered a deep depression which resulted in a four-year-long concert hiatus.^[1] He recovered and released his eighteenth album, Alivio de Luto, in November 2005. He released his latest album, Vinagre y rosas, in 2009.

Biography and career[link]

Early years[link]

Joaquín Sabina, is the second son of Adela Sabina del Campo and Jerónimo Martinez Gallego. His father was a policeman. He attended a Carmelite primary school and he started writing his first poems and composing music at the age of 14. He was part of a band called Merry Youngs which imitated singers such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, as well as many others.

He attended a high school run by the Salesians of Don Bosco and during this period he began reading works by Fray Luis de León, Jorge Manrique, José Hierro, Marcel Proust, James Joyce and Herbert Marcuse.

After completing high school, his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a police officer but he refused, saying that he preferred the guitar. In his song La del pirata cojo he says he fantasises about living different lives, but he would not even joke about becoming a police officer.

A refugee in London[link]

He then enrolled in the University of Philosophy and Philology of Granada, reading philology in the faculty. There, he read the poetry of Pablo Neruda and César Vallejo. Sabina lived at first with a woman called Lesley and started to prepare his thesis.

His revolutionary ideology led him to be related to the anti-fascist groups. In 1970, he began collaborating with the magazine "Poesía 70", sharing pages with Carlos Cano and Luis Eduardo Aute, he then left the university, going into exile in London using a fake passport under the name Mariano Zugasti, to avoid persecution from Francisco Franco's government after throwing a Molotov cocktail into a government building. That same year, his father received an order to arrest Sabina due to his anti-Franco ideals.^[2]

In 1975, Sabina started writing songs and singing at local bars. In a local bar called "Mexicano-Taverna" Sabina performed in the presence of George Harrison, who was celebrating his birthday. The ex-Beatle then gave Sabina a five-pound note as tip, which Sabina still preserves to this day. When Franco's dictatorship ended in 1975, Sabina returned to Spain and joined the army but, feeling imprisoned, he got married in order to be able to sleep outside the barracks.

After the return[link]

Sabina's first album, Inventario (Inventory) was released in 1978 by a small label Movieplay. He describes this album "as his own version of death metal", but the album largely went unnoticed. Afterwards, he moved to the powerful CBS (today Sony) and released malas compañías (bad companies). This album gave Sabina his first number-one hit single "Pongamos que hablo de Madrid"^[3] (Let's say I'm talking about Madrid), and the artist attained wide recognition. He released a live album called La mandrágora (The Mandrake), sharing the spotlight with bandmates Javier Krahe and Alberto Pérez. The trio enjoyed much popularity due to their participation in a TV program. La Mandrágora created much controversy due to the racy and political content of the lyrics.

Sabina released his third album Ruleta Rusa (Russian Roulette) in 1983 and two years later, Juez y Parte (Judge and Side). His political views led him to take part in the anti-NATO movement. He later released Joaquín Sabina y Viceversa en directo, his first live album, recorded in the Salamanca theatre in Madrid. In this album, the singer collaborates with other singers such as Javier Krahe, Javier Gurruchaga, and Luis Eduardo Aute.

In 1987 he released Hotel, Dulce Hotel (Hotel, Sweet Hotel), which sold a large number of records in Spain. That success followed with his next album El Hombre del Traje Gris (The Man in the Gray Suit), and followed with a successful tour of South America. This was followed by the released Mentiras Piadosas (White Lies) in 1990, and two years later Física y Química (Chemistry and Physics), which led to another successful tour of the Americas.

His later albums Esta boca es mía (This Mouth is Mine), yo, mi, me, contigo^[4] (i, my, myself, with you) and 19 Días y 500 Noches (19 Days and 500 Nights), won him more recognition and multiple platinum albums.

After recovering from a stroke,^[5] he returned to the stage in 2002 with Dímelo en la Calle (Tell me on the Street or Dare to say that outside). He later released a double album called Diario de un peatón (A Pedestrian's Diary), which included both his previous album and 12 new songs, along with a book illustrated by him.

In 2005 Sabina's released a new record Alivio de luto (Mourning Relief). The album release was accompanied by a DVD that includes interviews, music videos, acoustic versions of the songs, and home-made recordings.

In 2007, he went on tour with Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat, called Dos Pájaros de un Tiro (Two birds with one stone) and they recorded a CD of this tour, which includes the DVD of the concert and a documentary.^[6]

In 2009, he received the prize of the city of Madrid from the mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, who said that he was one of the most important people who had given a good image to the city.^[7] This year, he published his 15th studio album, Vinagre y Rosas (Vinegar and Roses), an album in which he collaborated with his producers Pancho Varona and Antonio García de Diego, and with the band Pereza. The first single of the album is the song Tiramisu de limón (Lemon Tiramisu), sung with Ruben and Leiva, the members of Pereza. For the promotional video, he collaborated with the actress and singer Mónica Molina. Finally the album was published the December 14th, entering directly to the first position of the Spanish album chart.^[8]

Discography[link]

• Inventario (Inventory) (1978)
• Malas compañías (Bad Companies) (1980)
• La mandrágora (The Mandrake) (1981)
• Ruleta rusa (Russian Roullette) (1984)
• Juez y parte (1985) (Judge And Side), with Viceversa.
• Joaquín Sabina y Viceversa en directo (Joaquín Sabina and Viceversa live) (1986)
• Hotel, dulce hotel (Hotel, sweet hotel) (1987)
• El hombre del traje gris (The Man in the Gray Suit) (1988)
• Mentiras piadosas (Pious Lies) (1990)
• Física y Química (Physics and Chemistry) (1992)
• Esta boca es mía (This Mouth is Mine) (1994)
• Yo, mi, me, contigo (I, my, me, with you) (1996)
• Enemigos íntimos (Intimate Enemies) (1998), with Fito Páez.
• 19 días y 500 noches (19 Days and 500 Nights) (1999)
• Nos sobran los motivos (We have more than enough reasons, also a pun on We don't have enough reasons) (2000)
• Dímelo en la calle (Tell me on the street) (2002)
• Diario de un peatón (Diary of a Pedestrian) (2003)
• Alivio de luto (Mourning Relief) (2005)
• Dos pájaros de un tiro (Two Birds With One Stone) (2007), with Joan Manuel Serrat
• Vinagre y rosas (Vinegar and Roses) (2009)
• La Orquesta Del Titanic ("The Titanic's Orchestra") (2012), with Joan Manuel Serrat

Books[link]

• Memorias del exilio (Memories from the exile) (1976)
• De lo contado y sus márgenes (About what has been told and its borders) (1986)
• El hombre del traje gris (Partitures of the 8th album) (1989)
• Perdonen la tristeza (Excuse me for my sadness) (2000) Written by Joaquín Sabina and Javier Mendez Flores.
• Ciento volando de catorce (A hundred of fourteen in the bush) (2001)
• Con buena letra (With a good handwriting) (2002) Compilation of lyrics.
• Esta boca es mía (This mouth is mine) (2005) Compilation of satirical poems published in the weekly magazine Interviú.
• Con buena letra II (With a good handwriting II) (2005) Compilation of lyircs
• Sabina en carne viva, yo también se jugarme la boca (2006) Written by Joaquín Sabina and Javier Mendez Flores.
• Esta boca sigue siendo mía (This mouth is still mine) (2007) Compilation of satirical poems published in the weekly magazine Interviú.
• A vuelta de correo (By return mail) (2007) Compilation of the correspondence between Joaquín Sabina and other personalities.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joaquín Sabina Official Web Site, JSabina.com